The Ariel Helwani Show - Dan Hooker, Joe Pyfer, Tim Welch, Sean Grande in studio, On The Nose, more

Episode Date: May 28, 2025

Ariel Helwani and the Boys in the Back kick off the show by answering your On the Nose questions (14:22).Tim Welch, longtime coach and business partner of superstar Sean O’Malley, joins before their rematch against Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 316. He talks about opening his gym, visits from Israel Adesanya and Demetrius Johnson, Sean’s change in lifestyle, antics during the first bout, reminisces on his career, and much more (58:31).The crew comes back to answer more questions (1:39:51).Joe Pyfer previews his fight against Kelvin Gastelum at UFC 316 and discusses the illness that forced him out of UFC Mexico, his beef with Jeremy Stephens, Sean Brady's next fight, coming back from back surgery, learning from his Jack Hermansson loss, and sets the conditions for GC’s Aviron bike race against Sean (2:13:35).Dan Hooker calls in after his most recent surgery to provide insight into his return timeline and break down his newest viral venture: one-minute scraps, a winner-takes-all $50,000 backyard brawl tournament (2:48:06).Sean Grande, the voice of the Boston Celtics and former Bellator announcer, joins in-studio to talk about how he got involved in combat sports, his legendary call of Peter Queally’s walkout against Patricky Pitbull, the importance of storytelling in MMA, Bellator’s end, Olympic boxing, the future of sports broadcasting, plus many more stories from his celebrated career (3:11:57).Ariel and the Boys end the packed day by addressing your Super Chats (4:17:27).

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Err-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r- And 25 hello again everyone. Hi, sure hope you're doing well. I in case you're wondering, I'm working through it. I'm working through it. I'm working through the kinks, the mental kinks, the physical kinks, the emotional kinks. I'm working through it. Yeah, I'm working through it my friends. I was anticipating coming on here and saying,

oh yeah, the Knicks are back, basketball is back through it my friends. I was anticipating coming on here and saying oh, yeah The Knicks are back basketball is back in New York City and look look I understand I understand that a lot of you do not come to this program to hear my takes on the world of basketball Maybe there are people who do I don't know I understand that the the majority of you probably enjoy seeing me suffer For whatever reason I don't know. I've devoted my life to entertaining you, but I feel like you enjoy seeing me suffer more so than you enjoy seeing me happy.

I get all that. And so to those people I say, enjoy. Enjoy all of this because I am suffering right now. To the people who are trying to rub it in my face that the Knicks are down 3-1, because there was some Pacers slander uttered on this program not that long ago, please stop directing your hate towards me.

Direct it to the boys in the back. They're the ones that did it. I was always very respectful of the Pacers. I always said that I... Do you have that clip of the Simmons show with Mark? I said, knee-smith on Brunson is not of any concern Stats I didn't say the Pacers were bad. I didn't say they were knee Smith. Yeah, we gotta worry about knee Yes, and Brunson has scored 31 points. It didn't even take a shot in the fourth quarter

He could have had 50 for some reason he chose not to take a shot in the fourth quarter. I don't understand the point is We're playing the game, not the series, alright? 3-1, sure the chips are stacked against us, sure there's nothing to suggest that we have any chance of coming back. I ain't one of those subscribing to that theory now. I'm not jumping off the ship now. Why jump off now? If you're going to jump off, jump off.

But let me tell you something. If you switched up, you switched up. Alright? Let me tell you something. Stay over there. We don't up. All right, let me tell you something. Stay over there. We don't need you. All right, we don't want you around here. We're about to execute the greatest comeback in the history of basketball. Down 2-0 at home, down 3-1 conference finals. Sit back and relax.

Is there anything that would suggest that this is happening? No. Was yesterday one of the most frustrating games I've ever watched PT in my life 17 turnovers careless fouls careless execution It has happened. Yeah, it has happened, but it's never it's gonna happen It's never happened that the home team was down to oh and came back to win the series So we already put ourselves in a hole. Oh

like I just say as a Like a guy who only watches the playoffs, I really wanted it to be New York and the wolves are really like Edwards are really like New York team. I don't think I'm even going to watch. I don't think I'm going to watch a single game. It's okay. See you'll get, you'll get neither of those things.

You'll get, you'll get thunder paces and you'll be happy. Oh yeah. Yeah. Just don't watch it then. Oh, the Midwest is going to be lit. Everyone's going to be excited. And I don't subscribe to this thing to this thing like oh the NBA doesn't want this or oh the ratings suck Like pizza Carol doesn't want it though. That's all basketball fan. There's a lot to like the wolves. Excuse me. The Thunder are incredibly exciting They're incredibly talented

They have a young superstar who just so happy to be the MVP from Canada and BD and the Pacers are a very good team Ten deep they're playing Halliburton I will never understand that shot, but God bless him. He played incredible yesterday. To have a triple double with no turnovers is in a game like that, nothing short of amazing. Siakam, I still will never understand

why the Raptors gave him up for nothing, literally nothing, a bag of balls. It doesn't make any sense to me. It's been frustrating. What will be most frustrating, will be most frustrating to me when it's all said and done, if we do not in fact advance, is that there was an opportunity there.

It's not like a super team is waiting in the finals. It's not like it's the 2015 Warriors or the 96 Bulls. It's not even the 99 Spurs. It's a very good team, but it's a beatable team. I know, only the team with the highest point differential in NBA history that has dominated everybody they face, but other than that, there's like nobody there.

Never been there before, young, they're beatable. A turn here, a bad bounce there, an ankle break here, who knows what could happen. Yeah, for sure. Knicks have also never been there before. What are you talking about, Knicks have never been there before what are you talking about nicks and never been there before we've won we've won two championships oh god yeah I forgot Jalen Brunson and his incredible performance 1973 you mean these players

correct you're talking about these players the Thunder have been there before as well okay OG Ananobe NBA champion 2019 did you forget about that Jalen Brunson's made it to the conference finals Carl Anthony Townes made it to the conference finals Tim Tom Th Brunson's made it to the conference finals Carl Anthony towns made it to the conference files Tim Tom Tibbadoe has made it to the NBA finals as an assistant has won an NBA championship as an assistant Okay, don't test my knowledge. All right, I'm not testing your knowledge man. The Knicks have not been there What does that mean as a collective unit? Correct. Yeah, well, so that means I'm about the thunder. Yeah, so that means it's a it's a 50-50 game

We have just as much of a chance as they would have It's not 50-50 anymore cuz once no, it's definitely not 50-50 anymore. It's a big problem 3-1 the winner learn It's a big setbacks major comeback when I went to bed last night I was like upset and and ornery and Anxious all day and I was like, this isn't very fun. I'm kind of tired of feeling this way. I was afraid the next day I'm gonna be like. How are the boys doing?

The boys, it's the worst. The worst is like the game is over, OB fucking topping hits a three pointer and everyone's celebrating. And then they just get up and walk out. They walk out of the room. No one says anything. So they're not hurt, they're not as hurt by it.

Oh, they're super hurt. My son. Oh, I thought you were saying they're like, they're indifferent, they walk out. They walk out of the room. So they're not hurt, they're not as hurt by it. Oh, they're super hurt. My son... Oh, I thought you were saying they're like, they're indifferent. They walk away. They walk away in disappointment. And I don't say anything, and they don't say anything to me, and we're all upset. Not even a good night? Middle son didn't go to school today. Now he climbs because he's sick. I get blamed. Sick of the fucking Knicks.

I get blamed. I love it. I get blamed by my wife because she's calling him to bed in the second quarter. I'm like, how could you ask she's calling him to bed in the second quarter. I'm like, how could you ask this kid to go to bed in the second quarter? I mean, I get it. This game ends at 11. I get it. But these are memories that will last a lifetime. You can't go to bed in the second quarter. So what happens? He goes to bed at 11. God knows how long he actually, you know, takes to fall asleep. And then he wakes up today with a headache and he says he doesn't want to go to school.

But you wouldn't do any of this differently right absolutely not the highs are the highs and they've been great and the lows are the lows And you just got a wouldn't trade this yeah It's like I said adversity is a privilege It's May 29th, and we're playing in game five or playing in game five of the Eastern Conference finals I'm cool with it. I wouldn't trade this for the world. It's just a bitter ending. Yeah, I agree I wish I could do an hour on it right now. I know none of you Talk all the this that anyway, the good news is Sean Grandy the voice of the Boston Celtics who we beat in the second round But I'm not gonna be that guy is gonna join us in studio and we'll have a nice chat

But we'll also have a great chat about his time as a Bellator play-by-play man I thought he did a fantastic job. Pete, do you remember the Peter Quilley walkout? Do you remember that walkout? With zombie playing? Zombie. And he told the story. Hard to do.

Hard to do as a non-Hawkeyes person. He timed it perfectly. The story about the kids who went to buy their mother a Mother's Day card and unfortunately they were killed and the song and all that. To me me it's one of the greatest walkouts in terms of like the way the announcer tells the story of the fight the fighter the walkout song and what it means to the area and then times it just as the vocals hit you know I'm talking about right so he's a pros pro and he'll join

us in studio to talk about all that his time with Bellator his time doing combat sports He didn't know anything about MMA when he got that opportunity and I thought he was a fantastic MMA play-by-play guy, but most fans know him as the voice of the Boston Celtics alongside Cedric Maxwell New York guy grew up just around the block from this studio So I look forward to having him in studio prior to that will be joined by Dan Hooker We talked about Dan Hooker yesterday. We talked about his backyard fighting promotion. What is it?

One Minute Scraps, I do believe it's called, and it's been making some noise, some headlines, some waves, so to speak. So it's always great to talk to the hangman, and he will join us. Prior to that, we'll be joined by Joe Pfefeiffer who returns on June 7th here in New York against Kelvin Gassim. You may recall they were supposed to fight a couple of months ago in Mexico. Pfeiffer got sick, made a video, upset some people while they're running it back in less than two weeks and that card will be headlined

By Sean O'Malley versus Marabdou Elishvili to O'Malley's head coach the Red Hawk himself Tim Welch is gonna join us at 2 o'clock to talk about all that and more And so it's a short week for us here on the program. It is Wednesday not Tuesday believe it or not Tomorrow boys in the back crack on Friday. And so here we are, second show of the week. Had a great program with Ade yesterday on The Zone, but it is Wednesday and we do like to shoot, so time now for everyone's favorite segment of the week.

It is, oh, wow, this is a swerve. Ariel, we've got the big announcement from Tom Aspinall. Oh, what have we got? We've got some heavyweight news. Heavyweight announcement from Tom Aspinall. Oh, what do we got? We've got some heavyweight news. Heavyweight news, Tom Aspinall. Can't wait, can't wait, tell me. He has partnered with Champion.

Ooh! Come on. Congratulations. That's the one we're waiting for. A champion? That's what we were waiting for. This game will test everything. Oh.

Are we allowed to play this audio? Your mind, your patience. Yeah, we're going to find out. Don't get here alone. Yo, that's not bad. My family, my team, my packs. Mr. Aspinal. Every day we show up, quiet, focused, ready.

A heavyweight mind. It's not just fight night. It's every single moment before it. Yo. That's a champion. I love this. Man, that's a bigumpy. I love this. Man, that's a big brand. That is not-

Champion? That's big shit. That's like, that's blue chip. He did say heavyweight. That's a brand. He's released merch and it says like, heavyweight champion. Oh, love it. Like black and red.

And then he's got 00, 02, 02, which is in reference to his average fight time in the UFC, which is the worst ever fight time. Shit. In UFC history, I've already got it on the way. I'm getting it. You've already ordered it. I'm ordering it right now. What do you got, a hoodie?

What'd you get? I mean, the hoodie's fire. We gotta get some of this up here. I'm on the champion website right now. Please, please, please, let's look at the line. Now, does it ship to the States? I want some freebies. That's what we're gonna find out.

No, we don't do freebies, Pizzi. We support the Azimuth Client. Speak for yourself, speak for yourself. This was some freebies, Tom, come on. I don't need no freebies. I support with my hard earned dollar bills over here. I mean, that is big time stuff. Champions based in North Carolina,

of course they gotta ship here, right? Everything's in pounds here. Oh, look at that. Champion UK. The hoodie goes hard. The Wigan Division with the 02. One second here. Hi, Tom.

Ariel Hauwani here live on the program. Congratulations on the big announcement. We're all big fans of Champion. And so we were just wondering if you needed our sizes, our address for the free merch. Your boy, Connor, GC, he is gladly purchasing as we speak. Already sorted, Tom, thanks. Pizzi says he wants the free merch,

so please let us know. Again, congratulations, delighted for you. I bought his toothpicks. Great drive. I bought the toothpicks as well. This isn't available for international shopping. All right, so Pizzi, you now we have to order it and bring it over Next time we see you

Can Moines say welterweight? I'm afraid someone will loaf me if they see me Need the hoodie I'll be I'll be in the gym every day with it PT question does champion Yeah, obviously this is champion Europe champions made a nice little comeback a renaissance of people in the 90s They were they were the shit they used to do the basketball jerseys and whatnot This champion sponsor other European athletes or fighters Yeah, I have seen they've done collaborations with like football players people like that I'm obviously football players their their teams are gonna be have sponsors so they can't wear them like in a game day situations But I've seen like very famous football players wearing a lot of their clobber. So they do

have brand ambassadors. But this is the first time we've seen an MMA fighter kind of in that kind of league. And not surprised at this time, as I said to you guys, he's been making waves in the UK and Europe that you just generally don't see people in. He's like been a face on BBC panel shows. He's been on Michael McIntyre's show. He's doing a lot of stuff that is rarefied air for MMA fighters. So not surprised that these brands want to get him on board. And there was a lot of brands because I've had brands reach out to me to try and get connects with Tom. A lot of big brands have been trying to get Aspym on board. So a bit of a coup for champion if you ask me. it. He has responded He said don't you dare buy anything? I will get it sorted now when I came out with my

Highly anticipated line of merch I tried to give Tom some I gave him a little code this and that and he refused No, he refused You gave him a code. I fucking bought them. What's the story with this everyone got a cold part for me This is apparently I don't I don't believe that because I gave all of you a code and he live bomb He refused to take the code and and he wanted to purchase I feel like I have to do so as well But now if you're telling me no Shipping to the US of a we do have a problem on our hands. That is very exciting though

And for anyone who's upset he did say multiple times. This is not news, right? He did say that so I don't think that you could feel like you were swerved. He could not have made it more obvious. Let's not pretend. He was writing back to TNT Sports and everything. Like, he were like, is this big news? He's like, it is not a fight announcement in the comments.

That's what I meant, fight announcement. He did not pull the wool over anybody's eyes. Let's be clear about that. He would not do that, salt of the earth. All right, let's get to some questions, gents. FTMMA, Ariel, you brushed past this topic a few weeks ago, but is it concerning how little we hear about drug testing in the post-USADA era? It's true, positive tests were on the decline before USADA were replaced,

and no one wants to hear stories of fighters being awoken at home or having location violations, but I might write to be a little skeptical, pessimistic, and suspicious about lack of mishaps amongst the UFC's ever-growing roster. It is combat sport at the end of the day. Cheating could have a lasting impact on people's lives. It is remarkable, right? Like, you don't hear anything. Do you remember in the USADA era, even towards the end, you'd hear about the odd, like, they woke me up in the middle of the night, or they were knocking on my door at 6 a.m.,

or, you know, these guys are like, do you hear anything? Forget positive tests. odd like they woke me up in the middle of the night or they were knocking on my door at 6 a.m. or you know these guys are like do you hear anything forget forget positive tests those are I mean those are non-existent you don't even hear like any interactions any experiences he does bring up a great point and so to answer your question it is concerning is is there a chance that when Lorenzo Fertitta and the Fertitta brothers and Dana White all decided, okay, we're going to package this thing to sell it, let's get a nice little uniform apparel deal, Reebok, let's get a nice little drug testing PED policy deal, USADA, package this all into a nice little thing, sell it off, then we realize, holy crap, this thing has actually kind of become a thorn

in our side, like it's sort of annoying to promote an event and then have someone pulled at the 11th hour because they tested positive. So like maybe we should not do this. No one really, really asked for it. Like they'll say that we annoyed them to the point to where they had to do it, but you know like you could just leave it up to the athletic commissions. I don't know. And then it all kind of crumbled.

Remember the whole Conor McGregor thing in October of what was that, 23, and it reached a boiling point. I have seen nothing to suggest that this new, this new drug-free sport organization is any stricter or strict at all towards the fighters. But also like, is the juice worth the squeeze if you're the UFC, right? The UFC is their own governing body when it comes to this, right? They have the testing that the commissions do

and they are still doing that, that. That is still being done. Now this would be the additional step of, as the promotion, the UFC, we have our own testing policy. What is the benefit to them? The benefit to them is having athletes test positive, and then they can't use them. Unless there is somebody holding their feet to the fire about the long-term health of the athletes

and promoting a clean sport, there's absolutely zero chance that they're can't use them. Like, unless there is somebody holding their feet to the fire about the long-term health of the athletes and promoting a clean sport, there's absolutely zero incentive for them to do this. They can just say, the commission's test, we have our own testing agency, and just everybody seems to be fine with that. The environment, the nature of the environment for testing and clean sport at the time that that was instituted

was so much higher. That was on the heels of baseball and all sport at the time that that was instituted was so much higher. That was on the heels of baseball and all this cleaning up of sports. Nobody seems to be interested in that anymore from a fan perspective. There are no fans, I don't think clamoring for more USADA testing and more of this testing and that testing.

And then even more so in boxing, the individual athletes call for it, right? We saw this with GSP when he was in MMA, but most of the time the individual athletes in boxing are calling for it. If I'm Devin Haney, I want to know that the person I'm competing against is clean. Or if I'm Tyson Fury, whoever, I want to know that the person is clean. In MMA, and specifically in the UFC,

that's happening at a promotional level, because the contractors are not actually independent and can't actually fight for anybody else and aren't party to these deals. in the UFC, that's happening at a promotional level because the contractors are not actually independent and can't actually fight for anybody else and aren't party to these deals and able to negotiate these things. Instead, they're kind of relying on the UFC to do it.

If I'm the UFC, what's my incentive to do it? All it's gonna do is cost me money and then make my athletes potentially sit on the sidelines if they get tested positive. Unless somebody is going to hold them accountable and make sure that they do do testing for some reason or another, whether it be the long-term health or whether it be making sure that the athletes are competing cleanly. Why just put that thing on the sideline and just keep going.

Wasn't the initial incentive like to do like a well, a lot of people believed it was, you know, came I think six months after the Reebok deal that was 2014, late 2014. And then in July, it was, I think it was July, you saw the, you know, came I think six months after the Reebok deal that was 2014, late 2014 and then in July it was, I think it was July, the following July and it was all to do with, Ariel, was it to do with like a TV deal? Like it was this idea that the UFC were trying to present it like the NFL, like MLB, things like that. Do they really need that anymore? Like it's as mainstream as possible. The US president sitting at most of the events.

Sure. And I thought that they were trying to package it into a nice little thing to sell it Mmm, we're mainstream. We have a uniform deal. We have a drug testing deal like there's there's no NASCAR ads On our fighters. It was all part of a I think and and it all timed perfectly. It was 2015 They sold it in 2016. It was all part of a strategy and I think it worked. You remember they brought in, oh, Gary Cook and the branding and all this stuff. Like they did a lot of things. And then once they sold it, they cut a lot of those things.

Now, did the new ownership think, all right, we need to cut spending. We're seeing some of this with WWE as well. They've changed the way they do things and they're 100% entitled to do so once they own the brand. But I think they realized that it was worth, I don't know, it caused more harm than not. And don't take it from me,

I don't hear any fighter talk about it. And maybe I'll start asking some of them about it, because it just never comes up. You don't hear, you used to see the odd tweet, the odd, I don't know, anecdote, nothing. Do you feel like the athletes even want it? You know, like, I think there was a time. My biggest problem with it is that it was never negotiated. Yeah. In other sports, there's collective bargaining. They all negotiate, all right, how many times we're going to get tested, when we're going to get tested. They just sprung this upon them and again the fighters just sat back and said, okay, yeah, sure, 365.

You need to tell us where you are. If you don't tell us where you are, three times you'll get dinged. This is not how independent contractors are treated. I've given this example a thousand times. If I call a plumber to my house, I can't tell him what to wear, and I can't tell him where to be the next day, and I can't ask him to tell me where he's going on the weekend, but fighters have to do that. And if not, they get penalized.

And meanwhile, any UFC employee, this is the greatest irony, a UFC employee, meaning someone that works in the office, on the road, whatever production, doesn't have to do that. But the fighter who is very much labeled as an independent contract, they have to do it. Now I understand why they want them to do it in the sense that, hey, they're the ones punching each other, but it's crazy that they don't collectively bargain this. And of course, someone will listen to this and say, oh, you're being a hater. No, would you want to do that?

Would you sign up for this? If your, if your job told you, you need to tell us where you are 24 seven, 365. And if you don't tell us three times and you don't log onto the app and give us your address and give us your whereabouts and we want to come to your house to drug test you at six in the morning. Would you be happy with that? Come on, I wouldn't, Darrell. Yeah, I'm not agreeing to that. And one thing I will say is that the in terms of conversations around this, I think it really got difficult for this to be policed during the pandemic, just the restrictions on travel.

So then you're in a situation where depending on what region you're in, you feel like you're getting a different rope than other guys. Like I heard a lot of this during the pandemic. Fights are still going on. People in the US, people in the UK were like, well, we still have people coming to us and people around the world can't just purely because of travel restrictions and things like that. Um, I think it got very, very difficult. And then as you said, 2023, it all blew up at McGregor. And that was really the last we've, we've had a big conversation about it. I think. Okay. We continue. Steve Buscemi. Hey Ariel,

do you believe in karma? You said that you changed the trajectory of game three? But what about game one and two of the series as a whole before the series started on your show you were condoning Condoning the Knicks fans throwing trash on and assaulting the Pacers fan was I was I saying that was cool I actually don't think I said that I also don't think that that's a real Pacer fan by the way I think that guy was just trying to stir the pod and all of a sudden He's out there meeting Tyrese Halbert and you could tell he's not even a fan and look at what he's wearing I mean he bought all that shit like two days ago. It's not a real fan He just you know

He got he got his moment and and the the other fans were idiots for throwing trash at him But I didn't condone that and I didn't condone You know harassing Brian Winhorse I've even said myself that I think all those celebrations after the games are crazy. Like, nothing has been won. What are you celebrating? It's madness. Anyway, basically saying all is fair in love and war? No, I didn't say that either. What happened to humble and hungry?

That's what I believe. Where did that energy go? It's right here. Some humility and maybe the series goes differently. You think that my discourse on this program is changing the trajectory of this freak? Come on, stop it with this. Also- All you said was like, play silly games, win silly prizes. You know what I mean?

In terms of the guy in the jersey. And that's accurate. Like if you're gonna walk through New York after a game where- Rick was down for it. I'm down for it. This series is so over and I feel like it falls directly on you and Cat Boat.

Listen to what this guy's saying. It falls on me and Cat. We're taking credit for the win. You took credit for the win. You gotta take credit for the loss. But I didn't do anything. I tried to run it back and it didn't work. So now I can't. I know, but it's these small things. You took the emergency twice. That gave you two losses. What did you do last night that caused the L? I'll tell you what happened.

Uh oh. Our wives didn't go to Beyonce. No, no. His wives didn't go to Beyonce, that's the L. I'll tell you what happened. Uh oh. Our wives didn't go to Beyonce. No, no. Wives didn't go to Beyonce, that's for sure. Was Beyonce at MetLife last night as well? I don't know, but she was in her, my wife was in my house and I wasn't happy. If you had bought the tickets,

if you had bought the tickets, it would have been different. Yeah, it was, the vibes were just off. The vibes were off. It just, nothing felt right. I mean, like McAfee's out there cutting promos. Like, what is that? I mean, like, Chalamet and Stiller paid their harder money

to be there and you're embarrassing them? What is that? What is that? What is that? For sure they paid their harder money. You think they're getting freebies? Yeah, no shit, come on. They didn't get a plane ride over there for free.

They're probably, you know, it's not cheap to go in the PJ. Oh, poor Timmy and Ben Stiller. Oh, my heart breaks. I'm sure the dune check's clearing pretty good. He probably didn't have to worry to PJ. Oh poor Timmy, Ben Stiller. Oh my heart breaks. I'm sure the dune checked Claren pretty good. He probably didn't have to worry about that. Whatever. Antman, loved your breakdown of the handshake with Caleb Plant.

Can we get a segment where you and the crew break down videos at some of the most entertaining banter? Please break down a video of Connor smoking at the BKFC event or him walking the highest bridge. Would love it. All right. The highest bridge video is all time. What is that?

I don't know that one. I don't know that one. You guys don't know that one? Switzerland, Switzerland. Yeah, it's Switzerland and it's like him like walking across the bridge and he's like, oh shit, like he is like way high up there. It's an all time video.

You gotta watch it. It's so good. We gotta break it down. Yes, I do like the breakdowns. And yeah, I mean, Caleb and I broke it down great. You got to watch it. It's so good. We got to break it down. Yes, I do like the breakdowns and Yeah, I mean Caleb Caleb and I broke it down great. It was on my mind I had been waiting almost four years to bring that up to him and I'm happy there. We are yeah, I Like his I like his use of emojis there. It's like boom boom boom boom boom

Perfect Keep that in your phone. Left leg cemetery. Goat Connor, can we get you a lozenge? You always sound like you have thumb tacks and battery acid in your esophagus every time you open your mouth. Shut up, boon. Rippin' Sigs.

Suck it, man. Every time I open my mouth, even right now. I don't know. I have been a little bit under the weather. I got the Iwany Flu. Wait, what? Oh, it's a transfer. Wow. It's a transfer. So anyway the Iwany flu. Wait, what? Oh, it's been transferred. Wow, it's been transferred.

So anyway. Iwany just like slightly throwing in. He's just like, I felt terrible last week. I did throw up. I was on my deathbed. What did you want me to say? That makes sense. I mean, I'm literally like a hundred feet away from you guys.

There's no chance that I would pass any of this onto you. I'm not stuck in there like you guys are. So I'm here. So you agree we're stuck in here? Oh yeah, yeah, you're a hundred percent. And I'm quarantined in there like you guys are. So I'm here. So you agree we're stuck in here? Oh yeah, yeah, you're 100%. And I'm quarantined in this box, millions of yards away. Islam's phlembotomist, Ariel and crew, when you made the switch to Yahoo Sports and launched the Uncrowned platform,

we know how important it was to bring the whole crew along. We are so thankful you did. It would not be the same without all of you. Were any of you. Were any of you opposed to adding so many shows? Was there anyone who preferred to keep it just Mondays and Wednesdays as it was back in the MMA Hour days? Seems like the job would carry a bit more stress now than before and I've wondered what was the feeling from the crew when these decisions were being made. Shout out to the best crew in the game. I don't think, I mean, like things changed, obviously, you know, the boys got their own show,

so that was an added thing. PT was already doing the crack for a year or so, just not in video form, but you were doing it twice a week, but just 30 or so minutes each, right? So it's not a huge difference. Plus you were doing the Ringer show, which was a longer stretch, but you added the appearances here. I was doing the Monday, Wednesday, but then I was also doing the Ringer show, which was a longer stretch, but you added the appearances here.

I was doing the Monday, Wednesday, but then I was also doing the Ringer show, just wasn't on video. So it's still three shows. What's changed, I think, for all of us is the added commutes, right? We were going twice a week. It's killing me.

Yeah. I love that you still have this pitch memorized, because this is how you sold us on all of it. You're like, you know, it's really not that much more... I'm sorry. I love it. No. I mean...

If the question about, did anybody have any objections wasn't laid plainly out... It's just two more days at end and why, like, you know... You get Fridays off. 30 minutes before the show after the US... Oh, Jordan gets Fridays off. I guess I do, it's about vacation. Well, no, Fridays from the commute Friday's off in the commune anyway so yeah it's good Frank do you have any issues I mean oh we're grinding all right on grinder Irish lad hey Ariel and crew it International Fight Week and you and the boys in the back are

all in Vegas. We shall be there. All the fighters are in town and you're getting many invites to go on a big night out with some groups of fighters. Each of you has to pick a group. Ariel, Rick, GC, Pizzi. Frank wasn't invited. Group 1.

Wow. Wild Boys. Connor, John, Mike Perry. Group one. Wild Boys, Connor, John, Mike Perry. Group two, Chill Guys, Volk, Whitaker, Wonder Boy. Group three, Oddballs, Tony Ferg, Diego Sanchez, Yuri Prochaska. Group four, Ladies Night, Tracy Cortez, Paige Van Zandt, Macy Barber. I mean, who's picking group four? Give me Sanchez and Ferrik. I'm picking tree all day long.

Yeah, I actually was eyeing the oddballs. I was eyeing the oddballs. I'm going number one. Let's just get straight to it. Yeah, I feel like you would be perfect with that. Give me Connor and Mike Perry. Let's just do it. Is it possible the chill guys just will,

just kind of like, wanna? Chill. Yeah. I'm down for the Chill Guys, I'll take Chill Guys. Wait, so I get stuck with the ladies? How's that work? That might be the better option. You take the Chill Guys, I got the ladies.

Tracy Gortez is gonna be there? Tracy Gortez. Amen. Paige hates me, Macy maybe hates me. Hates you, she was just on the show yesterday. Yeah, but she didn't like my suggestion that she should fight for a number one contender spot. If we're having pick of the litter, I go oddballs.

Oddballs seems like a good time, but it could also. The best crackman. I wonder how they all sort of connect with each other. Is Yuri connecting with Diego Sanchez? We do some type of obstacle course around one of the casinos with Tony who was the third one it was Mike Perry Connor and who John John oh god come on. It's number one. Are you guys out of your minds probably a number one? Is gonna try and fight you like that's before the story then it's great. It's a story not if you're dead

It's a story then. It's great. It's a story. Well, not if you're dead. It's so dark. Here's Chris. Hey Ariel, how long will John Bones Jones' Aurora be of value? Does he mean aura?

For long-term fans, Bones Jones will be highly regarded as the goat. New fans will not know the level in which he fought. DC, Hua, Machida Jackson Evans Gustafson in 2025. They're all retired except Gustafson who's not fought in three years. I think he's like quasi Jones is holding up the new era does Dana have to pick between UFC legacy in the future I don't know. I think he's just trying to get one more fight out of him to be honest I don't think it's that deep. I think he's just trying to get one more fight out of him and at some point

He's gonna have to you know, pull plug, and I suspect that time is coming relatively soon. Now, does he pull the plug and John come back? Yeah, maybe. But I think they just wanted that one more fight. They felt like it could be a big fight, and they're giving it their all. He gave them a number. They met the number.

He said thanks, but no thanks. That's what happened. And I think he wanted deep down, as we read the tea leaves here, I think he probably wanted them not to come to the table, and then he said, hey guys, not on me, right? I feel like that's the safest bet, but we'll see. Seaman, what is your most eaten fast food?

I'm from Cali, and I have a soft spot for In-N-Out. What about Chipotle? I'm not a big Chipotle guy. I don't really like fast food. Does Domino's Pizza count as fast food? Yeah, absolutely it does. Alright, so I like pizza. I'm not a big Chipotle Taco Bell guy.

In-N-Out, I honestly find In-N-Out to be overrated. I think Shake Shack is better than In-N-Out. What about the French fries? 100% agree. The French fries? I actually find the French fries at In-N-Out to be the worst part of the In-N-Out experience. Oh, I enjoy them.

That's sacrilegious. I enjoy In-N-Out. Have you had Shake Shack fries? Yeah. I feel like they're way more tasty. I actually like Five Guys better than both. Five Guys is number one. Five Guys is number one.

In-N-Out pays their employees appropriately. Oh, come on. It's a whole package. Look at how woke NNL pays their employees appropriately. Like, oh, come on. It's a whole package. Look at all woke on us, Frank. Look under the cup, look under John316. What's your favorite fast food? Oh, let me talk to you about the politics of fast food over here.

They're open on Sunday. Daddy. Frank, no one cares about all that, all right? Hey, daddy. What's their 401K strategy, all right? I'm glad you asked. Actually, there's a few points. I try not to partake. What else is there?

I think the way to close my kick fillet is a beast. Yeah, I used to be a big subway guy in college Yeah, yeah the veggie cookies was a freaking time and a half. That's a bad order, Mike Every time it comes up it just sounds so bad. That is a soulless, soulless order right there. Trust me, it was soulless. It was soulless. I'll just make myself a salad instead. Thank you. Eric Martel, hey Ariel and the boys in the back, was curious about your thoughts on some of the things DC has been saying about John Jones being afraid to fight Tom Aspinal Because he is afraid of being knocked out as always. Thank you for everything You guys do for the fighters fight fans whole combat community cheers from Canada Did he say that or or did he say something to the effect of like he's just being strategic because it's the last one

You don't want to go out on a loss Like I don't think John Jones is afraid of being knocked out. I think he just is being strategic here and Look John Jones said something that I thought was really telling recently. He said he has gone to a point where he can make more money outside of the cage than inside the cage. So if you lose your last one, your stock perhaps goes down maybe. These reality shows in Thailand aren't asking you to sign up for crazy amounts of money. Autographs, signings, all this stuff. I think that's the calculus here, I think. It makes perfect sense. Manage your business, right?

He is thinking of himself as a business and doing that. But the UFC does not have to be party to that. That's the conflict, that's the rub, right? The UFC does not have to be party to that, that's the conflict, that's the rub, right? The UFC does not have to empower him to do so. Take the belt off him. Hey, you wanna go make more money outside the UFC? Godspeed, God bless John Jones, go do that. But we're gonna take this belt and give it to Tom Aspinall

who wants to fight. And that's it. And what about this? There are people who have started a petition to strip John Jones We're now at a hundred and fifteen thousand one hundred thirty five as of maybe an hour or two ago when we took this green grab this is actually We took a first screen grab an hour ago and it was at like one thirteen one fourteen and then an hour later is over

One fifteen. Oh, wow. I signed it. Yeah, so, but here's the thing. John does also bring up a good point. If John told the UFC like two months ago, hey, I'm not interested, it's no longer on him. Agreed. You know what I mean? So like, you remember one time I sat here and I said the UFC is not to blame?

And I said that because they met the number. But now if he tells them, hey, I'm not interested, all right, you could say, well, you're to blame because maybe you told them, hey, if you meet this number, I'm fighting. And then you could say, all right, UFC is now back to blame because he told them two months ago, I'm out, why didn't you give Tom Aspinall a fight?

There's this whole thing now. I heard Dana White say recently, look, we gotta give these guys three fights a year. Remember we talked about this yesterday, two degree? And it's like, all right, I guess they can come out and say, look, we could have given Tom an interim fight, but he told us he didn't want that. So that's considered turning it down.

The whole thing is messy. There is no black and white sort of breakdown of it all. But the point is, I think the world has spoken. Look at that petition. That's a crazy number. Look at what everyone has said. Look at what UFC employees like Daniel Cormier have said saying like, couldn't we just move on? Like no one's benefited from this. If he's truly out, let's move on. But again, one more time, until they truly need to move on, they don't have to move on. They don't need him for July, they don't need him for August, they don't need him for September, they don't need him for

October. Oh, guess what? They need him for November. And that's what's going to dictate all this. We've had some sort of variation of this same exact conversation maybe 30 times in the last three months. Here's taco enthusiasts. Ariel, I really enjoyed yesterday's Ariel and Ade's segment on your top 10 most entertaining boxers. Thank you. I enjoyed it as well. It was our popcorn list. The 10 most must-see, must-watch fighters in boxing and I'd like to do it for MMA as well. I have to say I couldn't agree more with Ade's take. Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano are inextricably linked.

I'll never think of one without the other. See, I get that, but I also don't think that's fair to Katie Taylor in particular. Katie Taylor had a legendary career before she met Amanda Serrano. Serrano ended up being the dance partner that really put the cherry on top of her career, but don't discredit everything she did up until the Olympics, then the Olympics, then turning pro, then as an undefeated and undisputed champion.

You know, the Cameron fights as well. You know what I'm saying, right? PT, like the, the, the, the Katie fight, Katie Serrano fights were incredible. They're legendary. They're amazing. The last chapter in July is going to be incredible, but I would say Katie did more for Amanda's career than Amanda did for Katie's career. Is that fair?

Katie did more for women's boxing than any woman ever, I would say. It would not have been an Olympic sport without Katie Taylor. Katie Taylor went and door-stepped the IOC to make it an Olympic sport, went into that Olympics and won the gold medal. You know what I mean? She has opened the door that so many people have walked through. Katie Taylor was an icon in Ireland before she even competed for an Olympic medal. You know what I mean? This is a groundbreaking athlete. Certainly the Serrano fights put her over internationally, but there was already books written about this woman in Ireland before those fights. There was already books written about her before she even turned pro. This is a woman that knocked on Eddie Heron's

door and said, I want to be the Ronda Rousey of boxing. Ronda Rousey obviously an important part of this as well because she saw that fight with Holly Holman, Ronda Rousey, and she's like, why can't I do that for boxing? So I think she's absolutely instrumental in where the sport has gone. I think Serrano is an important part of this because even though she's won, she's beat Serrano twice, there is that element of people wanting to come back and almost feels for Katie Taylor fans that are just going to keep making this fight until Serrano wins at this stage. But that kind of polarity, that kind of having a fan base that Serrano has,

all saying she was robbed and we need to see this again, that's made a huge star as well. And she she's an absolute icon. I don't think that Serrano and I don't think the fights with Serrano and Have pushed her over the edge and turned her into an icon She already has one but it's made her a bigger deal for sure internationally. I agree in any event He asks here's my question. If you had to pick the three most in a strict, how does he spell this? Inextricable? Yeah, I don't know. Intrinsically linked pairings the history of boxing or MMA, who would they be? I'm not talking about the greatest fights of all time. I mean, the matches were when you think of one

fighter, you automatically think of the other. My top three pairings in boxing are Diego Corrales and Jose Luis Castillo, Mickey Ward, Arturo Gatti, Manny Pacquiao, Marquez. I was just about to say that one. Um, in MMA Rory Robbie, that's an interesting one. Their first fight is not an all time classic. Yeah.

Chuck Tito, Moreno Figge. Yeah. Moreno Figge is up there. Jones DC. Jones DC. The one that came to mind for me immediately, and it may be recency, is Izzy and Alex Pereira. That one is just magic.

Like the whole story, the fact that they were both able to achieve what they were able to achieve at the highest possible level, to me, that's one of the best that MMA has ever had. Chuck Tito obviously. Anderson Chell. Dias McGregor. Dias McGregor, Anderson Chell.

Boxing Ali Frazier has, like there's a few that have to come before some of the ones. Tate Rousey maybe? No. I was gonna say Tate Rousey. I was gonna say Tate Rousey. They certainly helped like in that boom period. Chelllyn Anderson.

I feel like there was a time where it was, the list would have been like Vanderlei and Rampage, but like we're so far removed from it. It feels like now it's not, but that was Chuck was something, but not Rampage. Vanderlei was way more than Rampage Chuck. Van de Lee and Chuck. Remember that man? They've had them in the octagon.

I will fuck you, Chuck. Oh, Tyson Holyfield. They're always going to be there. Yeah, Tyson Holyfield biting the ear and everything. You bank Ben? You bank Ben. Jake and Tommy. Jake and Tommy, great show. Praiser Ali.

Magus Uncle Lai. What's going on over there? You keep repeating the ones we were saying, Pizzi. And I said Anderson Chell. Anderson Chell. Frasier Ali. I mean, if we had that list and every time Moishe it was repeated, we'd be like,

wow, thank you. What the hell. I'm delighted for you, Pizzi. But it is a good question. Kits Corner. GSP came out publicly celebrated being non-active in the UFC for five years, meaning his contract had ended with UFC. June 2026 will mark five years since Connor fought last,

which is wild. Would he be able to walk as well? Depends on the contract, but I have not heard. I'm sure there is some, some contracts have it, some don't. We're still, you know, we're still over a year away from that, but it is one worth 100% checking on. Who knows?

This is from Hut. Oh wow, Hut drops five questions in a row. Ariel, you are experiencing it firsthand, so my question to you is, is Tyrese Halliburton a superstar? I never said he wasn't. He's not. Historic performance last night,

you saw GC join the Pacer Parade, baby. Thank you, love the show, go Pacers. And now he asks one to you, Cleveland Rick, you definitely seem to give up on your teams pretty quickly. See your Cavs this year. I only have one team, and yes, I gave up. So my question for you is, during the 2016 Cavs finals, this is not a bad question, when you were down 1-3,

did you still have hope or had you already thrown in the towel? No, because LeBron put on the shades and did the Undertaker. I knew from then on. No, it's completely different. The team got off on the wrong foot from the start this year. I realized that that was not gonna go our way.

It was not a... I thought you gave up a little quick there. My team is lost in five games to the Pacers. Your team is, oh, you know, I'm like... What do you mean? I'm still holding out hope, why not? It's more fun to hold out hope. They're gonna lose in five games to the Pacers too,

and we're gonna be in the same spot, so what are we doing? But I just, I wanna believe. Honestly, I think they lose in six. All right, there you go There is a classic formula in the NBA like you go down 3-1 You salvage the it just happened with the Celtics in Knicks and then you get you get murdered in the six. Yeah No, it was completely different. But by the way, we had LeBron James the greatest basketball player of all time at that moment Also, it's a little bit different. Draymond gets a... Draymond gets a...

Well, that was game six, but yes. Yeah, I mean, these things helped, right? Yeah. Question for all of you, if you were at a game and your team is down late and it seems like hope is gone, do you leave early to beat traffic or stay to watch conclusion? Never. You always stay. You always stay.

Unless it's like insane. Like if they're down, if it's a basketball game and your team is down 28 with four minutes to go It's like all right. Let's say if I have no rooting interest. I leave or for some any eating traffic Everybody's leaving and you're in the traffic. If you have kids it's different though. I was unfairness like no I know I know fucking game to me. It's like it's it's gotta be it's gotta be over over He does say also Rick definitely leaves early not my be his face though, he won't even know what score it was. This guy has it all wrong, he doesn't know what the hell he's talking about. Ace, hello Ariel, many people say that the NBA doesn't want the finals to be Indy vs. OKC

because of the markets. If that's true and it matters that much, why even allow these cities to have teams, just make it the Chicago Thunder, the LA Pacers? I don't think that's necessarily true. I actually think they like the parody. Now of course, if the Knicks are in the finals, the ratings are tremendous. There's no doubt about that. Just look at the Eastern Conference Finals ratings compared to the West.

But this idea that's like, oh, the NBA's gonna be pissed. No, the NBA's a superstar league. And so, it's not like Cleveland was a big market. Yeah, there was a time where Cleveland was one of the hottest teams in sports. Yeah, so it matters on the superstars. Now, does Indiana have a super-duper star like that? No, but Tyrese is pretty damn popular

and he's getting to that point. And then of course, Shay's getting to that point too. A couple years ago, it was Denver against Miami. Miami didn't necessarily have a superstar per se. They had a star in Jimmy Butler and that was it. Denver had Yocach and Murray who, you know, big international stars, maybe not the top five most popular in the league at the time,

but I don't think they were pissed about that either. I don't know. I think that talk is annoying. Just let the best teams make it and if you enjoy basketball you enjoy basketball. I actually think this final, if it ends up being Pacers OKC, as hard as it's gonna be to stomach, is way more interesting than last year's final. Last year's final, like I was like there's no chance the Mavericks can do anything to the Celtics. There was no intrigue in that final at all. I actually think the Pacers can beat OKC. They can't but also

it's... They have a better chance than the Mavericks against the Celtics last year, that's for damn sure. That I agree with. It's not pro wrestling. You can't script these outcomes. Like there is like every UFC title fight is not the most entertaining fighters that you can imagine paired together. It just isn't that way. That's not how that's not how these sports work. We continue. Jamrock Juddy, question for you, GC and Frank. If you could visit one country that you have never visited before, where would you go and why? I'm not interested in Rick's opinion.

Wow. Jesus Christ. I stand in solidarity with Rick. I can't wait to answer. Don't answer those. Ireland to visit Pizzi. Oh yeah. That's a great one. Beautiful country. You need help in the garden all of you get over Atlantic way countries two spots for me

South Korea New Zealand those are my two my actual is Australia trying to get another great spot I'm gonna answer cuz I'm gonna go to whatever country this guy's from and have this Say it to his face. Frank. Loser. I would go to France. Wow. Why do you seem so disappointed when you say that? Because I had earlier said I was gonna stand in solidarity

and not answer it. Oh, okay. But after I answered, he took the deny. Also, by the way, Frank, I wanted to thank you for this beautiful lapel pin that you got me for the trip to Seattle. It's from the Sub Pop. Yeah.

What is that? It's a record label. It's a record label. I'm gonna wear it right now. How about that? Can you stop fidgeting with it though? Like the Queen Queen is worn out, man. ASMR.

That's nice. We need to start charging again. Matt Chewewe's happy National Hamburger Day to you, Ariel, and crew. Firstly, please name your favorite burger with all the fillings. You know, I gotta be honest, I'm a ketchup and pickles guy.

That's it. Ain't nothing wrong with that. Not a cheese guy. Oh wow. Cheese, wow. Not a cheese guy. Not a crazy, like, Just so we're gooder all over again. I don't need lettuce on it.

Just give me pickles and ketchup. I respect it. Pickles and ketchup, oh jeez. Extra picks, extra catch. Extra ketchup? You look a fighter over here. Now you took it too far. I have ketchup on top and then I dip it in ketchup too.

Oh jeez. Disgusting. Roll up to some adult condiment. Extra pitch, extra catch. The fuck is that? Is that how you order it? Extra picks, extra catch? Yeah, at Harvey's, that how you order it? Extra picks, extra catch? Yeah, at Harvey's, if you know, you know. He gets the pickles as the bunch.

Harvey's in Canada, the best. He's got it to Hardee's down south. What do you guys like? Peter Luger's burgers. Never had them, never had them. Me and Pete's here going when he comes, baby. I'm doing jalapenos for sure maybe like a pepper jack cheese mayo mayo ketchup but not like not extra not OD like mayo a little yeah mayo and

ketchup. Mayo's crazy. Oh mayo and ketchup. Mayo is crazy why is mayo crazy? I don't know. So like every burger. I'm looking for a little aioli sharp cheddar toasted bun come on let's onions have to be on there onions have to be They always leave such a with your extra catch Extra catch by the way pizza we decided we're all going out for our birthdays in July. So it's my birthday It's it's it's Jordan's birthday on the ninth. You and GC are like a day apart too, right? What are you GC? I thought you were 20 something now.

That's 16. And you're 17. It's crazy. And your dad, is your dad coming? My dad's coming too. All cancer babies. Yes. Because I feel like we never go out for each other's birthdays. And we absolutely don't. Well, we brought you at once. We went to catch. We went to catch. We went to catch. Oh, yeah, that was a good time. Wait, you took E.T. out for his? P.T., if you must know, if you must know,

Frank's been, he's been sort of like shaming us all into going out for his birthday tonight. Damn right. We all have to go. All of us have plans. All of us are very busy. No one's in the mood. Our teams are on the brink of disaster.

I'd have flown out, Frank. P.T., the invitation was there. You just ignored me. Frank, I can't be happy. I didn't see it. I didn't see out, Frank. P.T., the invitation was there. You just ignored me. Frank, I can't be happy. I didn't see it. I didn't see the fucking thing. We're doing- Who sent the invite?

Was it Slack? You know I don't check Slack. Well, that's where it was. We're doing movies next week for Frank's birthday. A two-part movie birthday party. If you want to come, P.T. Not even my kids get- A bit of blue, a bit of blue.

Oh, his word, shut. Is it a thriller? Is it blue? Who knows? I love it. It's a ballerina, actually. It's a blue. It's a blue movie. There's a lot of blue, oh his word shot. Is it a thriller, is it blue? Who knows? I love it. It's a ballerina, actually. It's a blue, it's a blue movie. There's a lot of bluebs in it.

And the worst part is like, I was the first one to say, yes, this is a great idea, but yet I have been mocked and shamed. Are you coming or not? Like, oh, you're not coming. My word is like, the greatest asset I have in life is my word. That's it, I never go back on my word.

Anyway, um... You can count me in if it's a bit of porn. See, you skate by... You say this, this whole thing... What the fuck are you talking about, BT? What? I thought it was so funny. Did he just say what?

He wants to know what the movie is. It was... He got real fixated on the eyes wide shut and then turned it into something else. Can't say no to a bit of blue eyes. What is blue? Like x-rated. You know we're doing a show now, right? Pith, HR is going to be reaching out to you on Sonic so if you could please open your mouth

I don't care! What was that Frank? What were you saying? Or was it Rick? I just got them off my chest Well, a blue movie is a common slang term for a pornographic film I'm old! We're old, geez I've never heard of this I've never heard of it either, but I picked up on what he was saying when he said Eyes Wide Shut

Shit, I don't know what that was It's a family movie I being a bit of blue. Oh, I know what I was gonna say. Um, Helwani, you're, you're, you are accurate. Your word is good. We know this to be true. But the way you get around that, your sneaky maneuver is you don't give the word.

You just leave it ambiguous. You just say, you don't say nothing. You just let it, when did you tell Frank you were coming to this dinner? When did you say I'm in? When you walked in today, we were like, you excited for Frank's birthday dinner? And you're like, as it were.

That's it. See, that's it. You don't commit. I got a 4 a.m. flight. That is true, and I'm still gonna be there. Don't commit. Is that it? So I gotta?

Once you commit though, we know your word is good. Where are we going again? Matt says that his favorite topping is maple, bacon and cheese with red onion jam. Quick what ifs for all of you to ponder. What if Khabib never retired? Yeah, that's a good thought. What if Jones never moved up in weight?

I mean, he only fought what, twice since he did. We'd all be very happy. Yeah. I mean, we would have gone the last four months back in our lives. What if Francis never left the UFC? Maybe we would have gone to Jones fight, but then Jones didn't move up in weight.

And he would have never fought Tyson Fury. What if GSP never retired? Now we're talking the first time or the second time? First time it looked like he was on the brink of defeat. Second time, didn't think he was going to stick around on 185. Finally, what if mighty mouse never went to one? You know, he had just lost the belt. I think, I think his one run was, was pretty

fun. His one run was pretty fun. Hey, how about this? Ariel, my good friend, Chisanga Malata here. Oh yeah. If John Jones versus Tom Aspinall slips between our hands, which is looking increasingly likely at will, where does it rank in the list of the biggest fights

the UFC failed to make? Another thought, I can't help but see the parallels between the John and Tom situation and the fight that never happened between Riddick Bow and Lennox Lewis. Bow of course, was Bow of course going so far as to chuck the WBC belt in the bin, like Alundra Blaze once did, I added that. Something Jones would be doing metaphorically by avoiding Tom to swerve Lennox. going so far as to chuck the WBC belt in the bin like Alundra Blaze once did, I added that. Something Jones would be doing metaphorically by avoiding Tom to swerve Lennox. Also, a lot of parallels between Fury and Ajay. I know Fury and Ajay has lasted a lot longer,

but at least right now. In my opinion, the list, if Jones versus Aspinall doesn't happen, goes George St. Pierre versus Anderson. Call me crazy, I never was clamoring for that fight. I was more interested in Anderson versus Jones. I always thought Anderson was too big for GSP. Anderson had fought at 205. Fador versus any heavyweight, Fador versus Randy or Fador versus Brock would have been tremendous.

Rhonda versus Chris Cyborg, that's a great one because that one we were teased about for a while. Jones versus Aspenal, obviously, Jones versus St. Canu, Islam versus Ilya, not quite there yet, but I do understand the sentiment. Much love and big shout out to the true star of the show, the Lord of Blanche and my brother from another mother, Mr. Pizzi Carrol.

That's nice. Any that he missed there? Rory versus GSP? That was a big one for a second. I think he got them all. As far as MMA what ifs or fights that never, you know. He doesn't miss. Yeah. He's good. outside with it ariel how come

you have not mentioned your favorite western new york sports franchise winning the nll championship this weekend the buffalo bandits are the first nll team to three pete allegedly the nll that's the national lacrosse league i do believe is the third most attended indoor sports league in North America behind the NHL and the NBA. Okay, how many others are there after those two? Baseball and football aren't indoor, but fair. After discovering this league and after trying to find a sport with a soft betting market, I wonder why lacrosse as a whole lacks popularity, is buried in the depths of ESPN+, to never see the light of day and is never discussed in sports media.

After all, it is Canada's national sport Following hockey and I think it's its official sport. It is similar to the physicality of hockey fast-paced high-scoring What is your opinion of the sport of lacrosse? I went to a school Syracuse University where lacrosse was huge That was sort of like my first introduction to lacrosse played it a couple times in summer camp It was never a huge fan, but it was gigantic at Syracuse. I am familiar with the Buffalo Bandits. I do know that they have won, and they won three in a row, three Pete.

I know that some members of the Bills franchise worked for them as well. My good friend Kelsey worked for them, and I'm very happy for them because I know the good people of Western New York deserve a winner, deserve a champion. The Sabres haven't produced that, and of course the Bills haven't produced that. So it's great. Why hasn't it crossed over? I just think perhaps there's only so much out there to follow, right? I mean like between the NBA, the NFL, Major League Baseball, NHL, Premier League soccer, international soccer, tennis, golf.

Like, people just don't have the bandwidth, as they say. But it is a fun time, and I actually went to see a few games live and in person at the Carrier Dome back in the day and enjoyed it immensely. They had these two brothers that were on the team, or maybe it was like the youngest of three brothers. I think that's what it was back in 0203, and it was electric in there, like some 20,000 people. Anyway, congratulations to the Buffalo Bandits. I am very, very happy for them.

We're going to get to more questions later in the program. Just one quick auxiliary question from the chat. It says, Ariel, my husband Brad brought you some of our honey from our hives. What did you think? Oh my gosh, is this true? This is true. Yeah, wow. I didn't want it to get lost in the shuffle. I don't know. Where is this Brad's wife is in the chat? Yes I mean absolute legendary honey some of the greatest honey that I've ever tried in my life and of course we did watch the footage a couple weeks ago where

the the Bears were attacking the hive luckily the honey was saved salvaged and I'm we're trying to we're trying to you know encourage Brad and his wife to sell this honey because I've never tasted honey like this I don't know if all honey tastes like this that's that's that's produced from a hive like straight from the source But it's unlike anything I've ever tried Fantastic. I just wanted to dip my whole hand in it like Winnie the

Pooh and eat it. We actually have footage roll the tape of you doing such things. Wow. No. Oh I was excited. Because you actually did that. Anyway thank you for that we'll get to more questions in a bit for now though let us go to our first guest of the day he will be by his man's side next week right here in the tri-state area as he attempts to win back the UFC bantamweight title. He is the Red Hawk. Just opened a brand new gym, the one and only, the pride of both Montana and Arizona. The inimitable Tim Welch. How are you sir? Doing pretty good, Ariel. We're having a good morning. I got the guys sparring downstairs and I got a podcast after this with Mighty Mouse and everything's going good.

I love how you're always kind of like looking off to the side there when you do the show. It's great. Yeah I think I'm not the one who set up this setup. One of my tech buddies did and he set it up this way. I like it and you always look crystal clear. You always have a great setup and it is worth noting that you are having a sparring day today at the gym, the brand new gym, and you decided to step away to do this program which I appreciate very much. Yeah, no problem. Thank you. So how is the new gym going? Because I've seen the footage. We had Suga on. He was talking to us about it. It looks to be fantastic and also how big is this gym? It looks gigantic.

Yeah, it worked out. It worked out good. It's 12,000 square feet and like 9,500 square feet of mat space, including like the 30 foot full size octagon. And then now we have a weight room and then we have my podcast studios above it. So it just worked out perfect. It used to be a grocery store and the guys wanted me to get into it years ago but I just couldn't quite, it didn't make sense but now it makes perfect sense and it already like feels like home.

It's called the Red Hawk Academy, right? Yes. And is this open to the public or is it just for your team, just for the pros? Sometimes we close off memberships. We close off memberships. Right now there's a few available, but you'll have to come in

and see if there's any slots available. Okay. Is this dream come true for you to own something like this? Every day I wake up, I'm like, I can't believe this is my reality. It's absolutely crazy. And now Sean and I, we have that 7.5 acre farm and we have our animals

and then we've got a lot of cool stuff going on. I told him, regardless of what happens in fighting ever again, I'm like, I feel like we've kind of won at this game. Yes. Amazing. Was there a time where you thought you weren't going to win? Where you thought maybe like all this would be for naught?

Always in your 20s coming up, I think every professional fighter goes through it. You're just not quite sure. You're making little checks, $2,000 check, a $3,000 check, hopefully a sponsor comes in. You're never quite sure if it's gonna work out. There's always that hope, but you really never know. So kinda to get to where we're at now, it's pretty special.

And I've seen some big time luminaries come through the gym. Izzy stopping by, DJ stopping by. How do those meetings come about? Here's you and Izzy working. We'll have DJ up here as well. Is this just like, hey, we're in town, we wanna work? Are they guys who came in to offer some wisdom to Sean?

What's happening here? Yeah, they come and do some wisdom and usually wanna shoot some content and do some podcasts. I think our podcast with Israel's drop in probably this week and it is such a good show. There's so many gems dropped in that show. And yeah, they pop by and then luckily I get a whole little bit of pads for him, do some training sessions and I just shoot. I feel so lucky.

Did you have any DJ Suga sparring? Did they go toe to toe? Yeah. I mean, we didn't full out MMA spar, but I had him grapple, I think, 20 minutes in a row. I had him wrestle and do jiu-jitsu, 20 minutes in a row, and then I just kind of move around with the gloves, move around and do some lighter touch sparring with the gloves, so that was pretty cool to see.

How was DJ in his retirement form? Still just jacked, shredded, jacked, explosive. He was, Ied, explosive. He was, I was, I wanted to kind of push the pace on him, make him tired, but he was right there with it. He was ready to push the pace. He's in phenomenal shape still. We spoke to you.

I remember you came on Helwani Vision after the the Suga, Marab fight at the, the sphere. And that was, that feels like a lifetime ago now. And here we are getting ready for the, the rematch. Could you tell us now in retrospect like post-loss, right? We've we've heard about all the things that Sean has done to change his life He seems to be in a great place He's eliminated some things that were maybe affecting his his mental and all that stuff When you looked at him in the locker room when you spoke to him in the aftermath Did you think to yourself this this guy will be back or were you worried that this would?

For a lack of a better word, break him, define him, and he'd never get back to a title fight? I've seen it a lot, like after a fighter loses, it literally just demoralizes them and you see their confidence go away. But with Sean, he's not like that. He's a mentally very strong kid, and I knew for a fact that he's gonna figure out

what's gonna be the best mentality I can have after this. And he's going to, he's going to do that. And it forced him to change a lot of things in his life and it forced him to just kind of level up. And it did kind of humble both of us and it forced us to level up. So his mindset has been so good. Again, he doesn't, his happiness doesn't come from winning or losing this fights. His happiness comes from his relationships with his family and, and his health and his health and stuff. So I knew the type of kid he is. I'm around him enough.

I know what type of kid he is. And it's not like he went out there and got his ass kicked. He didn't walk out of there with black eyes and bruised ribs and a cut face and hurt. He was more healthy after that fight, I think, than any of our other fights. And so it's just the tactical mistakes, got tired, was super bummed out for a little bit, but definitely woke up a different sugar. So it's interesting when you say it humbled us a little bit. In retrospect, do you guys think that you were kind of, I don't know, feeling yourselves too much?

You were looking past Murab, you were on a roll. What do you mean by that? I mean, we've taken these fights when we just weren't super healthy. And getting through that Aljo fight, okay, the camp was awful. Getting through the Cheeto fight, he still had that torn hip. We didn't have the greatest camp.

So again, going into this third fight with someone like Murab being like, ah, well, look what we've won these past two fights with shitty camps. Like this is another one. Let's just go see if we can win. But someone like Mrab, you got to be healthy for him. So you know, sometimes someone has a fight like that.

They'll want one to get their mojo back and then jump into the title fight. He's jumping right in. Were you in favor of this? Yeah, yeah, I was. I mean, a couple of the adjustments, the game plan I had the last fight for him is just, we were going to knock him out. He's so sloppy. He's so reckless. His chin floats up in so many different spots. We were so focused on knocking him out. So we got a different little plan this time and I think it's going to work out better. And now that he got that surgery done, we're feeling a lot better. We're able to grapple a lot more. We're able to wrestle a lot more and,

and be ready for a five round war with this guy and just literally focusing on the things we can control. And again, I've seen people have the best camps in the world and be healthy and have the best camps and they go out and lose the fight. People have shitty camps and then they go out and win the fight. So I'm not so stressed about that. Like sugar's in great shape. He's ready to fight for 25 minutes. is gonna happen is gonna happen on that night. Do you still feel the same about Murab? In what way well you said like he's reckless he leaves his chin he could get knocked out things like that Or do you view him in a different way? Yeah, I mean I definitely view him in a different way

He he from the outside looking in similar to Sean if you if you watch video on him, it's like, God, he's got so many holes. But then when he's in front of you, it's different. His timing on his shots is so good. And he's so explosive and he penetrates so hard and he'll run through you. So, I mean, definitely not underestimating him. No, he's the best bantamweight right now. There's no one like him that has a record like his.

No one ever in history's had a record like his. Can you name anybody who's had a five fight win streak like he has right now? No, I mean, certainly not in the bantamweight division. He is starting to enter that conversation. I think like the hipster thing to say is like, oh, Dominic Cruz and then TJ. And then you get into like the, you know, the,

the Yans, the Aljos, the Sugas of the world. But if you actually look at who he had to beat en route to becoming champion, and then of course, since becoming champion, it's an unbelievable run. He might be one of the most underrated fighters in the UFC still to this day. Yeah, I agree, I agree. And every fighter's fear when you talk to him

is gassing out in there. And that's one thing that dude is so springy. He is a machine. He's an absolute freak show. So I'm excited to see what happens. What impressed you most about his performance against Umar? Probably, I mean, he wasn't afraid to shoot. He wasn't afraid to just engage and swing. He was opening up a lot more on his feet and his punches are pretty underrated. He covers a lot of distance. He throws really hard hooks. He likes to punch and then shoot and he likes to punch and then shoot. And it's a hard,

hard thing to figure out. And just against Umar, who's undefeated, has Habib in the corner, all this build up and Marab just goes out and does the same thing he does. It was really impressive. Have you noticed a tangible difference in Sean on a day-to-day basis getting rid of social media? I think he's not smoking as much, or if at all, compared to what he was doing last year. Does he seem like a different person

as a result of these changes? Yeah, I definitely think so. He quit weed completely. I was trying to, he was really sore two weeks ago. I'm like, hey, I got this thing. It's called Herbs and it'll help you relax a little bit. He's like, nope, not doing it. He just completely quit the weed and completely got off Instagram, got off Snapchat, got off X. So before, every time we're doing something, I mean, his following so big, he makes such good money on social media. Every time we're doing something, I mean, his following so big, he makes such good money on social media. Every time we're doing something, it's like, oh, what kind of content create from this?

What kind of funny reels can we do? He's always thinking about that. Now he's not thinking about that kind of stuff at all. And he's I think he's a lot more at peace. Wow. Has this inspired you to to not use these things? I mean, yeah, I would I'm pretty jealous of what he's got going on right now. I'm not quite as rich as he is. So one day when I get there, I'll be able to just kind of put them away. I remember when you guys had that conversation when the

when the fight was first announced, the the rematch was first announced, and he talked about all these things. Did he tell you he was doing it? Or were you learning when when we were all learning as well? No, I think he quit that a couple weeks even before. Since the new year, since the new year, he completely cold turkey'd it all, which is pretty impressive and he did it. Do you think that he is going to stick with this?

Like never smoke again, never go back on social media? If he has success on June 7th and it's like, hey, it worked, do you think there's a chance that he just stays this way? I think there's definitely, he doesn't wanna be back on social media. The amount, he says the amount of anxiety that he doesn't have anymore,

just because not being on Snapchat, not being on Instagram, not being on X, he's really, really liking it and has more time to hang out with his kids and just focus on things that are healthy for your mind instead of everybody else's input. The smoke and weed thing, I think that, I think he'll do a little herbalization with me

once in a while, because I don't think that hinders us that bad. Do you think that you'll recommend this to other fighters? Because I can't imagine what it's like being a star athlete or a fighter in the year 2025 Where you go on your phone and people are telling you how much you suck or how great you are on a constant basis, right? 20 years ago athletes never had to deal with this celebrities didn't have to deal with this Is this something that you think could help a lot of fighters to just have someone run it?

Don't go on it. Don't let it get into your head. I Think I think it all depends. I mean the amount of money some of these guys are making on their social media is Absurd like it's seven figures a year They're making serious serious money and that's money that can retire your family that can go into different investments So to say just Oh drop it completely. It's hard to say that for everyone for his for his It's a little different. So I don't know if I'd recommend that for everyone can ask a follow-up about something that I believe you said to ESPN? You talked about the sphere and the lighting back when you guys...

So maybe you can expand or clarify. Initially when I saw this I thought like, oh is he saying like the bright lights, like the proverbial bright lights of the sphere got to him? But I think you were talking specifically and literally that the lighting in the sphere may have affected. But I think you were talking specifically and literally that the lighting in the sphere may have affected Sean in the fight, is that accurate?

No, I mean, it just, that whole night, I mean, you always see Sean, when he gets into the octagon, he'll get in the guy's face, he'll walk up to him with his arms open and he just has that aura about him. And he didn't do any of that, he didn't do any of that. And we didn't really get to see the sphere at all until we walked out of the cage. And it just, it felt quite a bit different. And I don't know any of that. He didn't do any of that. And we didn't really get to see the sphere at all until we walked out of the cage. And it just, it felt quite a bit different.

And I don't know if it was the sphere that had to do with it, but just that night, I don't know. It's just something about it. We were meant to lose that fight and now it's just going to make this one that much sweeter. You know, to anyone who says that Sean doesn't deserve this, my response is who else, who else does? Like who is he? Who is he? Who is he leapfrogging? Whose opportunity is he taking away?

I don't think that there is a single person out there. I mean, even Umar didn't necessarily deserve it. He hadn't gone through a murderer's row to get to a title shot. But all right, fine, it made sense and Marab was down. Do you get annoyed when you hear any of that or do you not listen to any of that stuff? I've been getting a lot better at posting and ghosting and if I see a post that's about me or if it's about Sean, I just scroll right past it. I really could care less what the comments are saying. So when I do post, I usually post and ghost it and then any of these feeds and stuff

that come up about us or the fight, I don't even read them anymore. Okay, that is good. When we spoke to him right after this fight was announced he said it was about like 10 weeks before the fight that he got hurt the first time and he was like here I am 10 weeks and I'm good knock on wood. Obviously, you're not gonna tell me if he's dealing with some sort of injury But overall would you say that this is a lot less stressful than you know, your previous camps? Yeah, I wouldn't say less stressful just because the guy we're dealing with, just because Mrab is such a tank. So I wouldn't say less stressful, but again, it's not like I'm not waking up in the middle

of the night like I was before the fight with Aljo, like constantly stressed about that fight. I feel a little bit better for it. But like I said, shitty camp, great camp. It's whatever's gonna happen in that 25 minutes on that night. So I'm not really playing into it too much. Just trying to kind of be in the moment this whole week,

be in the moment all the next fight week, focus on what we can control and then just go see what happens. Do you bring in any guys who mimic Murab and have you found those people? Yeah, we found a kid from Tucson, Chris. Chris Q is his last name. I mean, he's Marab's Zaktite.

He's springy, just like Marab. He throws big overhands and he's been giving us such a phenomenal look. Okay. You know, one thing that I think is interesting is that I felt like you kind of, I don't know, you kind of got under Marab's skin to a degree with the talking,

with the talk before the fight. He continues to bring that up. He's not too happy with it. Are you going to try to replicate any of that on June 7th? I don't, I mean, I don't think so. I mean, it didn't do anything last time. It did definitely do something. Let me ask you, if you were a part of a team, if you are a part of a team, and you know you could say one or two things to cause that other team to make a mistake, would you do it? In the fight or before the fight? No, in the fight. If you knew you could do something to cause the other guy to make a mistake, would you do it? Your team versus theirs. Yeah, no, I get it. I don't think what you did was wrong. I don't think what you did was out of bounds.

And in fact, I think a lot of other coaches would do the same and have done the same. I think it just really bothered him. Yeah, it's definitely not a new trick because I've been in fights before, the other coach is talking to me and it definitely, you hear it, you hear it and it goes through your mind.

So I guess there's a rule, there's a rule John McCarthy's a rule. John McCarthy said is excessive coaching. I still have yet to see this rule. I've still yet to see this rule. This is not coaching. Interesting. Excessive coaching. And then again, you see the videos and I said, Moravi need to be patient. And now, but then now you said, uh, big John said you can't even say the other fighters name. If you say their other name, then that's not. And then what happens? I don't, yeah, I don't know.

I don't know. I'm still not clear on it. I don't think they kick you out. I've never, I've never heard of that, but it's not like it's just over there, like yelling the whole time, being an absolute freak show. Just a couple of things here and there. What about fight week?

Any mind games? Fight week, I don't know if we'll really see him. We're staying on Airbnb. That's not the fighters hotel. I don't, I don't know if we'll, we'll really see him, but, uh, like I said, if we do see him, it's like our main goal. Hey, we're, we're looking to knock you out on Saturday night. So if getting in a little scuffle before that, that could put this fight in jeopardy is, is the most stupid thing I've ever heard of. So. I thought the hatchet was buried when I saw them

hanging out at the PI together. They were in the jacuzzi, you know, that it seemed like everything was good. But then I asked him about that and he said, yeah, all is good. But not if I see his coach. Yeah, I don't know what's the little, I mean, what he's still upset about it, it seems. Yeah. And I don't know. I don't know why. I mean, people call me a carrot top it seems. Yeah, and I don't know why. I mean, people call me a carrot top redhead all the time, and I don't really take it to heart. That's what I am, and I think he got upset

about the nose comment a while ago, and I mean, truth hurts sometimes. Is this a do or die fight for Shawn? And I only ask that because sometimes we've seen fighters lose to a champion twice and then they're stuck in purgatory, right? They're not going to get another crack at that person. And so is that the mentality or is it unfair?

The cliche is every fight is do or die, right? Every fight is the must-win fight, is the biggest fight of your life. But considering it's the same guy back-to-back fights, does it have a different kind of pressure attached to it? Yeah, it does. It does have a pressure attached to it. And Sean feels the pressure. But like I said, thinking about that, thinking about what if I lose, thinking about what if I

win is just pointless. Yeah, focusing on what we can control. We were watching Chuck Liddell versus Randy Couture. They fought three times. Yeah. And was it after Chuck got beat up pretty bad? Did he fight another one or did he fight Randy Couture right after that? I think he fought another one. He fought another one, then came back and knocked out Randy twice. So again, we're not, we're just focusing on what we can control and there's ways we can lose this fight and there's ways we can win this fight. So you know, you know, um, some have suggested jail being one of them others as well that

Hey, if it doesn't work out 145 is always an option. Has that been discussed at all? I mean, it's definitely possible. It's definitely possible. There's still really big fights at Bantamweight and Sean's 511 he walks around at around 160 pounds. So if we, if we took six, seven months to put three, four, five pounds of muscle on him,

he definitely could hang with a lot of the 145ers. Would you like to see him at some point win or lose? Like, like at some point down the line, would you like to see him at 45? Yeah. I mean, I'm down the line, down the line. I think there's a bunch of really big fights for him at 145 and these weight cuts, they really are brutal. Are they? Are they getting tougher?

I wouldn't say they're, I mean, they're tough every single time, but he's the most professional when it comes to cut and weight. He has written down in his journal, everything he ate on every single day, what he will, what he weighed on this morning, what he weighed on this morning. So he has it so dialed in and he's so professional with his weight cuts that they suck every single time, but he's going to make weight every single time. When you watch Marab fights, when you break it down, you're a big tape guy. Like you watch fights a lot before, before a big one like this. Yeah, I like to watch tape.

Which fight would you say was not his best, his most dominant? Other than yours, who do you think fought him the best? I mean, is there anybody that hurt him, I'm trying to think, later in the rounds? That's the thing, there's not a lot of lowlights for him, right? Yeah, no there's not. He's good at getting in good at getting up in a position, just doing enough damage to not get you stood up. And, uh, he's not going to beat your ass. He's going to make you tired. He's going to make you tired. He might knee your thigh a couple of times. He's not going to beat your ass, but he's going to dominate the positions. He's an expert

at winning 25 minutes. Um, but yeah, I mean, the only person I've seen hurt really hurt him is Shug heard him in the fifth round. That's the right person I've seen. I mean, the only person I've seen hurt really hurt him is Shug heard him in the fifth round. That's right. Person I've seen. I mean, Marlon Moraes, they cracked him and stuff. But later on in these championship rounds, I mean, Shug's gave him his best go. I saw you post some really interesting pictures of yourself, like old school pictures. Were you in a school band or something back in the day? No, that was at University of Montana when I was in college. The dorm next to me, the guy was in the school band and I asked if I could get suited up

in his outfit. Look at you. You look fantastic there. Yep. What's happening on the right? The right, I was getting, I was about to fight at the Playboy Mansion and I was just getting a mullet done. I was getting a mullet done and I was frosting the tips on that one.

You fought on one of those Strikeforce cards on the playboy at the Playboy Mansion. It was in a boxing ring. I don't know it wasn't a Strikeforce card. It was in a boxing ring where they had boxing events and then yes yes MMA fights too. Yeah. Any good experiences there? Yeah it was pretty cool. I mean I got fighting the night with some kid and then we got a little extra bonus and then we got a party in the grotto. It was pretty cool. Oh yeah.

I went to a Strike Force fight at the mansion as well and I walked into the grotto and took a selfie of myself. Like this is back in like 07 when, you know, but that was, it was just me taking a selfie. Like there was nothing else going on. I bet that was pretty cool. It was fun. I went into the bathroom.

I was like, Ooh, I wonder what happened here one day. I wonder if these walls could talk, but I didn't really have much experience. Got to squeeze a couple fake tits. No, no, I was just there by myself. I just took a picture of myself. Did you meet Hugh? I saw him sitting there.

I didn't get to meet him. After my fight was done, I wanted to meet him, but then I think he wandered off to bed. Yeah, no, it does, you know, it's tough when you're that age. Also the bowl cut, I saw that too. That was a tremendous look back in the day. And that, that I was getting ready for the Bellator welterweight tournament. What? Really? That's you? Just signed me and they're like, okay, we're bringing everyone to Florida for a photo shoot. So I was like, well, there's a little $10 barbershop sign right there. I'm going to pop in, get myself a cut, took my glasses off. No way.

This old fart, he just started just cutting scissors right across my forehead. My girlfriend, she started laughing and I didn't know what she was laughing for. And then he spun me around in my chair and he said, this is what a young man should look like right here. And it was a bull cut. Just come on. I was pissed. Holy shit. And did you do the photo shoot looking like that? I had to. I mean, I went to Walmart and said,

hey, is there anything you can do? And they just fucked it up even worse. So I went and photo shoot. At that point, you almost have to like shave it all off. No one start fresh. God, but with my five head, big fat red head, I just don't look good bald. Look at the glow up here.

Look at the difference in how you look now. You've got a nice tan, no glasses anymore. You got contacts, you get Lasik. I got the PRK surgery. The Lasik you can't get if you're like, if you do Jiu Jitsu or kickbox or anything, because the Lasik can get your eye hit and then the patch falls off or whatever.

But I got PRK. What's that? PRK, you go under a laser and they keep your eyes open and they scrape off a layer of your eye. And you're awake. What? You're awake seeing it. The laser goes into your eye for about probably

not even 30 seconds. And then they'll do the other eye within probably about three weeks. I was just seeing perfect. Come on. Just once? Just once. It took maybe 10 minutes, maybe 10 minutes and then about three, four weeks of healing and my eyes are perfect now.

They scraped a layer off your eye? While you're awake. Like are you like, is there anesthesia? Is there any sort of like numbing? They usually give you one Valium and I asked for two. So you're pretty numb. Holy shit, that sounds awful. But it worked.

Best thing I ever done in my life. That's why I always wonder why Charles Olivera, he doesn't do it. He wears his specs and he's squinting. I don't know why a lot of these guys don't do the PRK. 4,000 bucks and your vision's fixed. One shot, wow, no one's really promoting that. I haven't heard that.

Yeah. Good for you. I don't know if I could do that, but I don't need to fight, so it's neither here nor there. You couldn't do it because of the fear? Yeah, the scraping off the eyeball seems a little intense. Yeah, I almost pushed out. I almost pushed out driving there.

And then when I got there to the office, I'm like, all the people checking me in, they had glasses. I'm like, how come you guys haven't done it? And they're like, well, we don't really know. And I'm just like, fuck. But they do like 50 people a day. So I was like, all right, let's just do it. Was this post fighting for you?

Yeah, this was after fighting. Okay, and when you were fighting, what were you doing? Wearing contacts, every single fight I've been in, the first punch, the first little flurry I get in, the contact would either pop out or turn sideways Oh, it's just it was an absolute nightmare. Oh my that's why that's what you would have been a champion had you had the PRK prior Yeah, well the the gym looks fantastic. I love I love it. You have the the poker table there, right? Poker tables at a Shugs warehouse on the farm. Oh, that's not the same spot

gosh, no, that's not the same spot. No, that's a Shugs gym at his house with the laborghini's and all that. Yeah. What? And the pink floor, whatever that's called, like the looks like it's paint. It's a really nice look. It's like a four or five thousand square foot warehouse. He's got all his recovery stuff in there. He's got his cars in there. We got a poker table in there. We got some mats and then a weightlifting gym. It's a pretty cool setup. You never have to leave the farm. Nope, because then we got eggs. On just my side of the farm, I got about 18 eggs a day. I think there's about 10 or 12 fruit trees. On his side, he just butchered his cow about

a year ago. He has fruit trees. He has his eggs. So we're almost getting there to where we never have to leave if we don't want. And what are we doing as far as coffee is concerned these days? Coffee, I got the new La Marzocca Micra. And then I got the La Marzocca machine at my house. It was like my dream set up for a long time, very expensive. And it is just so dialed. It's just absolutely the best cup of joe you'll ever have.

What's the morning drink? Like what's the first one? Morning, usually I suck down a big glass of water and then I'll head over and do a coffee. And I use some of this Laird superfood creamer. There's some mushrooms in it. My next door neighbor, he has a honey farm. So I do some of his honey, some of the fresh espresso.

And I have one of my students here that brings me a gallon of raw milk every week. So then I just use the raw milk and just get her going. Golly, what a life, what a life. Delighted for you. Looking forward to this. Can't wait. Last question.

Can you give us any sort of, you don't want to give it away, but you look at your crystal ball, how do you see this flowing? How do you see this going? What are you envisioning right now? Uh, man, I've I've visioned envision a Hard fight where sugar's coming out of there dirty, but I envisioned him Finding one of his shots. We got the old gloves backs and those things are like fucking rocks Those gloves and I envisioned him cracking rab on the lips hurting him

Cracking him again and then TKOing him. Wow. Late, middle, early? Maybe third round, third round. All right. And then we do it again for a third time. Yep. There it is. Tim, it's called the Red Hawk Recap Podcast, Timbo Sugar Show. Where is Izzy gonna be on? Which one?

We did his podcast, so that'll be dropping on his channel probably this week. Okay, and DJ, DJ, you're doing later today. DJ, we're doing on the Red Hawk Recap on my page. Love it, love it. You're doing everything. Congratulations on the new gym. Good luck next week, can't wait for it,

and thank you for taking out some time to join us today, really appreciate it. No problem, thanks, Ariel. You're the man, Tim. There he is, the great Tim Welch, the head coach for one, Sean O'Malley, I did touch the thing here. Did you see that, really appreciate it,

I did that Frank, did you get that? Yeah, let's not do that. I was like, yo, it was like. Why, are you doing that on purpose? I don't know. Please stop. No. I'm begging you. You're gonna give him a heart attack back here. No, I'm sorry I'm sorry just to break the fourth wall you two were saying that they were getting some glitchy audio again

Oh, so they had to refresh their pages. So are you doing this? Oh, it's really great. Hey everyone birthday, too Yeah, man. Wait, whose birthday? Frankie's today is it's right it the last time you'll see them. Wait, what's happening with the audio? Don't tell me again with the damn audio. It's fine now. No, it's fixed. What happened? We don't know.

So what, there's no audio right now? No, it's fine now. No, see, why did Frank have to say it? Why did he have to push the button over and over again? Why'd you have to even say it? Now you throw me off, now you got me worried. Every so often the audio falls out of sync, you refresh the page, everything's fine, nothing changes.

Can I just say something? Yeah, no. That wasn't really a thing back in the day. I know. Oh my God, here we go. No, whoa, whoa, whoa. Someone push the mute button on Frank's mic. How about Big Tim Welch with the La Marzocca?

Those are... Those are like $20,000 machines. Not only that, they're beautiful. Beautiful. When I walk into a coffee shop, they got like a double wide one, it's just like, oh, we're getting some good coffee. Yes.

We're getting some good coffee. It's actually like, and you see the little cursive thing. Oh, it's beautiful. Yeah, you know that that's legit. I love a guy who appreciates a good cup of coffee. Now he's old school, he calls it a cup of Joe. I love that. Which is very American.

Love it. You know? I like to say, can I get a cup of joe. I love that. Which is very American. Love it. I like to say, can I get a capo? No, no, no. No, you know? No, I don't know. I like to say, can I get a capo de tutti capo? And they're like, yes, of course.

What would you like? I say, eh, short. And they're like, short capo? And they're like, yeah, with some almond milk? They say, almond milk? Yeah. Get the fuck out of here. Raw milk almond milk. They say, almond milk? Yeah. Get the fuck out of here. Raw milk is wild.

Cabbage soup is usually one size. Yeah, yeah. I like when people say, my dad, my dad's a huge espresso guy. And he likes it short. He likes it as short as possible. And he'll get the thing. And he'll put a little sugar in it. And he'll go, and then just walk out.

There you go. Put shot of us. You know what I mean? Like he walks, he loves to go to an Italian coffee shop in Montreal called Cafe Italia and he'll walk right up to it and he'll go he'll go out of his way, drive 20 minutes just for this one thing. It's crazy.

I've never understood that. I like to like sip and enjoy. But it's this, like there's nothing in it. I know. So you can't really sip it. You just, you gotta go. No, that's what I'm saying. I enjoy something else. What's your but you don't even drink coffee anymore You're a macha guy. Yeah tea It's not the same. I enjoy tea

Actually tea can be crafted very well. It can be but it's just like but it's not it's disrespected in the States Just a bunch of bullshit. Hi is your bigelow. It's like, okay. What's a Bigelow? A brand of tea. They just hand you a tea bag. Nah, that's crazy. Here's some hot water and some tea. I'm like, anybody could do this. Go ahead and craft it for me.

Make me something nice. I'm getting excited for June 7th. I think those two title fights are gonna be great. Oh, I can't wait. I feel like they're creeping up on us. I feel like there's not a ton of buzz about it right now, but I feel like, I don't know. I think the fact that we're going Apex card, off week,

Apex card into June. We're not crescendoing. Double pay-per-view, UFC Atlanta and UFC Baku. I'm looking forward to June, man. Holy crap, June is gonna be infinitely better than May. No Apex. You can't even compare them. No Apex, double pay-per-view.

Double pay-per-view, debut in a new country, and then State Farm. Kamaru Usman, Joaquin Buckley. Yeah. Someone tried to tell me yesterday that Azerbaijan is not in Europe, but then I looked it up, it's in Europe and Asia, and it's appropriate to say either.

One of those. Where is Baku? Which part? That's interesting. That's actually to say either. One of those. Where is Baku? Which part? That's interesting. That's actually a fantastic question. Which continent is Baku in? Let's see. Asia.

Well, I mean, Azerbaijan is a country that can be considered a part of more than one continent. It is located in Western Asia and Eastern Europe. It is also considered part of the Middle East. It borders Russia on its north, Georgia, northwest, Armenia west, Iran south. Reminds me of Istanbul. Did you know that Istanbul is also in Asia and Europe?

Istanbul or Turkey? Not Constantinople. Istanbul in particular. Istanbul which is in Turkey. Right, so you can. But I'm saying Baku is like. Within the city you can go in between Europe and Asia. Istanbul is not Constantinople.

Is Baku Europe or Asia? Now here it says Asia and Europe. Is Azerbaijan in two continents? It's in two continents. Is Azerbaijan in Europe, yes or no yes so at grok is azerbaijan yeah I love when there's a great I had that does crack me up sometimes when there's like a tweet

and then someone says at grok what is going on here I do enjoy those sometimes I hate them okay it's on every tweet now I like how grok is like well that's part of woke culture. And I'm like, wait, why does it say that? Yeah. They programmed it to talk like that? Only you would bring that up.

I was going to say woke Frank showing up a couple times. Yeah, twice. Are you upset about this? Tell us why. No, I just, you know, when you're right, you're right. All that time in Seattle has really turned you. I mean, here you guys are talking about coffee like you know. Yeah, that's true.

I mean, I know you're a big Seattle guy, but surely you don't think that Seattle actually has good coffee. They really did have amazing coffee. No. I was worried that we were killing time there and Joe was waiting for us, but he's not. I look down.

I look down in a fever pitch. That we were gonna be like, yeah, Joe's. Joe's been here for the past five minutes listening to you guys talk about coffee. And Oscar prize winning in Europe or Asia. He's like, what the hell did I agree to? Joe Pfeiffer's gonna join us in a matter of moments. He too is fighting on that card, UFC 316, as we inch closer.

The next UFC show is this Saturday. We spoke to Macy Barber about her fight against Aaron Blanchfield. She did post something on social media yesterday. She said, oh, my flight is, this was on her IG story. She said, my flight was delayed. Maybe Aaron Blanchfield was right. Maybe I'm not going to show up. And it showed up in my inbox.

And then I hit her with a laughing emoji. And then she hit me back with a, you better repost that. And then I look closer at the IG story, and my tag was invisible. And I was like, oh, you hit me with the phantom tag? And you think I'm gonna repost that? Like, it doesn't work that way.

Why don't I get the public tag? Do you know what I mean? Does anyone know what I mean? Does anyone know what I mean here? No. Who me? No, we know what you mean. Phantom tag. Yeah, phantom tag. Don't hide the tag. Why do people do that? Why do you need a public? What are you afraid of? It looks heinous. With the public tag? The big Ad-Aerial, how want he stamped across it? Do the little tiny, tiny one in the corner. We don't need that shit.

Phantom tag it. I'm on Team Barbara here. I didn't repost it. Wow. Yeah, no. Listen, you're either proud of the friendship or you're not. Apex 107 stacked. What's that?

Apex 107 this weekend. Oh, yeah. No, I was going I was going through 316 316 It's not so bad Vicente Luque against Kevin Holland Mario Bautista against patchy mix bang Kevin Gaston versus Joe Pfeiffer great one Pena Harrison Marab Sean points tap ol Tapology, Murab, doesn't have it. It usually has the odds.

He's a large favorite. Minus 300. Is he? Yeah. What was he the last time going into the fight? Like a slight underdog, like plus 100, plus 105. Murab? Yeah.

Crazy. They usually have the odds here and they don't anymore. You know like when you press the little magnifying glass thing? Minus 310 Merab right now. You're seeing that on the page? Or on a different page? I almost never use topology for odds.

Oh wow. A little bit outdated. Bruno Silva against Joshua Van. Ariane Lipski against Kong Wang. Sergey Spivak against Waldo Cortez Acosta. Think Action Bronson will be in the house for that one? Hell yeah. Ju Sang Yu, unless the Knicks are playing.

On there, Chaos Williams against Uros Medich. Yanala Shmoos coming back. I feel like we haven't seen him in forever. When was his last fight? His last fight? September 24. So that's the card. I think it's a good card. Sometimes people say that the early June cards aren't as great as the International Fight Week cards if there's two pay-per-views. Sometimes in the past they would have it in Europe. They would have the early June card in Europe. It would be a Spike TV tape delayed card.

We're getting two title fights here. You're getting Sean O'Malley versus Marab too, Peña Harrison. Will Amanda Nunes be in attendance? I say yes. Sitting in the front row. Yeah, I'm gonna go yes as well. Gets in the cage after the fight regardless of winner?

In the cage. Yeah. I say no. Okay. But I say she's sitting there, and I say the winner calls her out. Yeah. Amanda Nunes, you absolutely suck.

Speaking of which, did anyone watch the first episode of The Ultimate Fighter? No, and actually I haven't even seen a clip from it. It happened yesterday. I know. No watch party? No. No watch along?

Uh-uh. Recap? No. Should we do it? Couldn't recap it. Nothing to recap. Who the fuck is waiting? Yeah, I was gonna say who the fuck is waiting.

You can do it. You were so excited. Summer reality Show, DC and Chail, The Boys. Those yellow jerseys are nice. You got them with the merch. The yellow jerseys, like the two of them in the jerseys, not the best, right?

Drop the jerseys, why do they still have the jerseys? What are we doing here? What is it, Fly Weights and Welterweights? Your guess is as good as mine, man. I don't know a thing about it. Is it on TV? Is it on like... You keep asking me these questions.

I don't have the foggies. You're the tough guy. You love tough. I don't have the foggies. I love Tough 31. That was it. It was on linear when I watched, but that was also in the McGregor series.

ESPN, 10 p.m. Eastern on a Tuesday in the summer, I feel like you can get linear. Nothing better. Not a thing. In between basketball, right? Yeah, you start the Western Conference game, flip over to tough, watch tough come back. No, no, no, because it's in between, so they're having it, like tonight they have Western Conference, but flip over to Tough, watch Tough come back. No, no, no, because it's in between,

so they're having it, like tonight they have Western Conference, but yesterday they had nothing, so it's perfect. They did have hockey though, I think, no? Did they not, or maybe that was TNT? No, TNT had the NBA. In any event, did you like, did you like Tough? Tell us, tell us in the chat, did you watch,

did you watch the person? Did a single person out there watch Duff? Did anyone on this planet watch it? Like normally you see some tweets or something about it. I didn't see a thing. No memorable moment. Nothing. Not a thing.

No highlight? No highlight. No surprises? Reveals? Not a surprise. Actually I did see one thing from Jedi Goodman that former tough champions are gonna come back to coach. Carlos Barza, Robert Woodard here.

I'm surprised that Chill didn't have Oban Elliott on the staff. Yeah, me too, me too. Do you think they're gonna have any hijinks between them? Do you think they'll have any trash talking and all this stuff? There'll be some hijinks, I can guarantee you that. You think they're gonna fake a beef?

You think they recreate the I can't let you get close moment? I don't think there's any ounce of animosity in their body towards each other. No, I actually think they really enjoy each other a lot. Yeah. They do a show together. In some weird way, I'm the reason for this show happening because I brought DC to the dance,

I brought Chael to the dance, I leave, they're paired, now they have a reality show together. It's crazy. And neither of them asked me to be an assistant coach. It's crazy. Anyway, let's go back to some of the questions here. Let's do it.

This is from Gekko Da. Which is more likely to happen, Conor McGregor being elected President of Ireland or McGregor winning back a UFC title at either Featherweight, Lightweight, or Welterweight. Oh, was I supposed to hit the music as we're going back to the?

["Wonder Nose"] I'm gonna say President of Ireland. What do you guys say? Yes. All right. Where is everyone? What's happening over say? Yes. All right. Where is everyone? What's happening over there? Hey, we're right here, man.

We're efforting. We're efforting. Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch- your excitement on these matchups happening this year? O'Malley Marab, pretty excited. Max Dustin, pretty excited. Very excited. Volk Yair, rumored? Not excited. Oussic Dubois, excited? Pretty excited. Okay so are we to rank these? 1 to 4? I'll go... Poirier Max won by a mile. Has a great story. I'll go. Porier max one by a mile. Has a great story. I'll go O'Malley Murab just because it's a title fight. O'Malley Shugetsu and then Usyk Dubois and then Volk'ya here, easy.

I think that's fair. Although I think I would put O'Malley Murab above. You go one. Well just because it's a title fight but that one's a retirement fight so, it's a good point. So it's just like the fireworks or. No, it's gonna be a great scene.

Jot, hi Ariel, long time listener, first time interacting. Last week you mentioned Culture Coffee for their cookie. I am coming to New York City in September for my 40th birthday with my wife. I've been before, 2 17 and 2 30, have eaten around the city. Ruby Rosa, Katz's, Grimaldi's, John's, Junior's Cheesecake. However, as you're a local, I would love some

of your recommendations for some of the best high-end, low-end pizza slash street food. Perhaps places you wanna look twice, but have amazing food. I'm open to all cuisines and nothing's off limits. Maybe the rest of the crew have some suggestions too. Well, if you're open to all, and you're open to something that doesn't maybe look at first glance like something special,

you gotta go to Sassabuna. Right? I thought he said pizza. Well, he said all cuisines as well. Oh, so there's two boots, pizza. Two boots is all right. It's a bit of a chain. Patsy's, have you ever had Patsy's?

Yep. I think it's underrated, Patsy's. Patsy's is good, two boots is okay. Bowery Meat Company. Bowery Meat Company. Bowery Meat Company, going there tonight, can't wait. Jesus. Sesa Buna is my favorite. What else, what else?

I mean, I gave you the culture coffee. Get the coffee and the cookie. Junior's is a chain as well. Unless you're getting cheesecake, it's... But also, even the cheesecake isn't. It's like... It's okay, everything else is garbage chain as well. Unless you're getting cheesecake. But also even the cheesecake isn't. It's okay, everything else is garbage. Worst breakfast I've ever had in New York. I mean you can't. Where did Junior's?

No, Junior's is not good, it's not good. One of my favorite desserts is the banana pudding at Magnolia, all time. All time, lives up to the hype. Lives up to the hype. One of my favorite ice creams is El Laboratorio de Gelato, downtown, incredible. Right near Katz's, no?

Is it near Katz's? Is it on the, is it lower east, lower east side? Maybe. Katz's is good. I thought it was west side. Katz's is tremendous. Petey's Pies, right by Cat's'. Never had that, what is that?

Great place. Pie shop. Like, you did that on, what's it called? But what are we talking here? What's it called? Pie. No, but are we talking like meat pies or like? No, no, no.

Your dessert. Pie, sweet pies. It's your cat's, they don't serve pecan pie there. As Rampage let us all know, go get your pecan pie from Petey's. No, Rampage told us that they have pecan pie. Oh, they got pecan pie up in this. Sheesh.

It wasn't pecan pie. Oh, it wasn't? They've never had pecan pie though. It was some other like almondy dessert. That kind of looks like pecan pie. But when I went for fight fees back in November, I was like, could I get a slice of pecan pie? They were like, we don't have that.

I was like, have you ever had that? They were like, no. I was like, pecan pie? They were like, we don't have that. I was like, have you ever had that? They were like, no. I was like, pecan. So maybe he thought it was something else, flan? Yeah, no, definitely not flan. Have you had your laboratorio? Uh-uh. It's fantastic.

They have like super, super unique gelato. So like olive oil, avocado, sesame seed. These are good? I want the avocado. Unbelievable. To die for. And they have your are good? I want the avocado. Unbelievable. To die for. And they have your classics. Yeah, there it is.

Oh, it's right across the street from Katz's. I guess so. I mean, it's on the west side. Sleep Italian frozen treat shop. Okay. Yeah, it is the west side of the street. There it is. Yeah, and it's Katz's, not Katz's.

Go straight from Katz's over to the illaboratorial. Yeah, so do your thing, bro. Oh, over to the ill laboratorial. Yeah so do your thing bro. Oh there's multiple ill laboratorial. There are so I feel like maybe the one that that I went to the OG wasn't there but maybe I'm wrong. Mikey Z. Do you and the boys think JDM is being overlooked? To bounce off Rick's take I think Islam versus JDM is more competitive than Islam versus Ilya. What Ilya did at Featherweight was insane, but JDM showed good wrestling defense and could present real problems with his striking. If he beat Islam and finishes him, Jack has potential for star power. Diaz versus McGregor level. Damn, I don't know about that.

But I don't think JDM is being over. Look, he just got here. He just became champion. And I don't think JDM's being overlooked. He just got here. He just became champion. And I think people love him. I think people are hype. I think it's just a weird thing with Islam moving up and we wanted the Ilya fight and Ilya's been around longer.

We were teased and talked about and all this stuff. I don't think he's being overlooked. Side note, JDM gives off Diaz bro vibes. He's got a fan-friendly style, has cheeky one-liners, and isn't trying too hard to be liked. Okay, so I agree with all that, but I don't feel like he's Diaz brother-esque. Diaz brother-esque is a different vibe.

He's got his own vibe, which is great, but I don't think Diaz brother when I think of him. In an age where fantasy through fighters playing a character JDM is a throwback to the old school era of fighters. That's true. Doesn't care. I get that. What about this one? This is from Jack. What's the crack lads? A common topic on the show over the last few months has been people almost, or in Ariel's case, actually crapping their jocks. Irish slang for underwear, so I thought I would chime in with my own story.

When did I crap my jocks? Mid-January, I was at my friend's house for UFC 311. Typically after the UFC ends, I walked 30 minutes back to my house. Typically this is around six to seven a.m. here in Ireland. Anyway, after about 8 to 10 beers and a handful of Guinness, I began my walk back home after UFC. Before I left my friend's gaff, I thought to myself,

I need to, I'm just going to say go to the bathroom. I'll save it for when I get home. Big mistake, dot, dot, dot. I began the cold walk home about negative six degrees. I'm assuming that Celsius. At that time, it was very bright outside and there were people jogging around me while I wandered home through the Dublin streets. About 10 minutes in, I felt it. The incredible unforgiving urge to go to the bathroom. I was too far to turn back and nowhere was open.

So I had to press on home. I start to walk a bit faster. Another big error that made things get moving. As a result, I had to clench my cheeks and do a Forrest Gump S type of water back hold. I pressed on. Get this guy to pollute sir. Now about six minutes away from home the

Feeling got worse. I had to go so I saw a bush out of the corner my eye in this little bar. I wand waddled over clenched tight like pete's fists until a Fucking run club comes around the corner. Oh, they were doing laps of the park I had no other choice but to tough it out to home. Go out on my shield as they say. If I crap myself then so be it. My efforts and perseverance however were the victor. I made it home. My jocks remained cleaned and unscathed. I managed to save it for when I got home. Safe to say I won't be taking that risk again. Shout out. for when I got home safe to say I won't be taking that risk again.

Shout out. Shout out. If you have, if you have a 30 to 40 minute commute in front of you and there's no chance of a bathroom and you're thinking right as you're about to leave, you're like, I should probably go to the bathroom. The love of God, man. Go to the bathroom. Also now I understand what he is talking about. I felt when he meant like crappy drugs, meaning like you're scared.

No, no, no, no. Yeah. Like actually crap your pants. Yeah, I also love how he's like eight to 10 beers and then a few Guinness as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Guinness is not just additional beer on top of it. It's a whole other beast.

Also like the like mental awkwardness of being up still, like all night, and like the people are out being healthy, run close, something like that. And like you're about to like have the beer shits on your walk home is nightmare. I've never experienced that. I mean, I don't know, I'm not a big beer guy.

When he must have gotten home, that must have been the most relieving feeling he's ever felt. Can't even imagine. Oh my God. Wait, why not just like pop into a store or something? He said everywhere's closed. Everywhere's closed. I mean, 6's 6, 7 a.m.

Yeah, I guess so. Dude, in Ireland? Yeah. That is hilarious. There's a cold brew company that has like a bird on it. Do you know this company? No. Cold brew bird.

Shitting your pants stories will never not be funny to me though. There's a company that my brother loves, Cold Brew Company, there's a bird on it. Al Kalom? No, not Al Kalom. It's gonna kill me. He even wears their merch, he's that big of a fan.

Anyway, one day we're at his house, we went to the park, he's like, you gotta try this coffee, you love the coffee, you love the coffee. It's a story that will scar me for the end of my days Like like if you thought the driving story was bad this was actually worse because it's the first time that I ever thought like If those people see me in their backyard, I'm just gonna have to explain it to them. I had to consider that their backyard Yeah, I had to consider and then the worst part was I ran back to his house, which he's right, the running is a problem,

and then I come to realize there's a code on his, like he had one of those codes on his front door. The lock code. And now I don't know what the code is, and I can't reach him. Because you drank the cold brew? It was 100% the cold brew, a scar for life. It was food after dinner?

No, no, no. Can I tell you guys something? Oh, I'm so happy that you brought this up, Frank. Frank, I went to a barbecue on Monday, Memorial Day. Great time. Vibes are great. In fact, I decided to have a little bit of wine as well. You know that wine bottle that has the flowers on it, like summer in a bottle it's called. It's just like, it's a good time. It looks beautiful. It's nice. Flowers on a bottle. I had a hamburger, no bun, meat, turkey burger, chicken breast, like some sort of sweet potato

souffle pie. Loving it. And then everyone's bringing out the dessert and they're like, you know what? Everyone always gives me crap about this, and I feel like this is sort of like an empty calorie fruit. I'm gonna have some watermelon. Right? It's not the same.

It's not as heavy as like, I don't know, pineapple or papaya or something like that. Guess what happened? Disaster. The melons are the last thing. All because of you guys. Indigestion? Oh, awful. happened? Disaster. The melons are the last thing. All because of you guys. Indigestion?

Oh, awful. Felt horrible after. I said to myself, you know what, maybe they're right. Maybe it's in my head. Nope. It's definitely in your head. No. Yeah, it is.

What do you mean? What I felt afterwards was not in my head. You ate it and you're like, oh God, I ate the fruit, now I'm gonna get sick. I housed a massive lunch, topped it off with a bag full of blueberries. Feel fine? Mm.

Felt fine. I mean, I guess we're all different. I don't think it's in your head. I think it's in your gut. Trust it. That too, that too. A's, hey Ariel, thanks for getting me into the NBA and supporting the Knicks because you're so enthusiastic.

Wow. I was wondering if you're thinking that Indiana player Halabaugh is his name, I think, looks a lot like Jude Bellingham from Real Madrid. I can't believe that they're not brothers. All right. By the way, how about Holloway Poirier for a debut? Yeah, it's not a bad one. Yesterday we were debating what were the the toughest debut assignments in MMA history. Although, and so you're talking about Holloway getting Poirier, Poirier wasn't necessarily Poirier

at that point. Over time, yes, so looking back, I guess you could say it, but I think there were others where it was like, wow, Brock is 1-0 and he's fighting Frank Mir. That's crazy, former champion. Chris, Ariel, don't worry about messing up the handshake all legends make mistakes check out the handshake between Biggie and Michael Jackson when Biggie got nervous I don't know that one do you guys know that one

Biggie and Michael Jackson no I'm looking it up right now did they actually ever meet? Is that a bad one? Thomas while you look that up, let me know what you see what you find Hey, mr. Howe want a question for New York Ricky scoffed at the prospect of Halliburton being the second best player in the series Would you mind asking him if 32 12 15 was zero turnovers is good. Just wondering. Thanks It's pretty solid. He's not even the best player on his own team though Wow Would you mind asking him if 32-12-15 was zero turnovers is good? Just wondering, thanks. It's pretty solid. He's not even the best player on his own team though. Wow. Who is? Wow. Yeah, that's a take. I would argue he is the best. Any update on the handshake?

Yeah, I'm looking at it. It's a fantastic one. They go full normal into the The DAP. Oh, so he's saying I don't see any issue here Weird what do we mean got nervous? Yeah, people are like big upping how great it was Hey, mr. Helwani Just got done watching tough episode one and guess what? It's not that bad I know shockerer but 10 different countries being represented. Former UFC fighters, LFA champion. Looks like each week we get a different tough fed showing up. My question for the whole team, if you guys are actually watching this week's fight card from beginning to end, why not just watch the fights from this season? PSI

really wanted the next win. Well you don't need to say that in past tense, we still have a chance. It is a good question. If you are someone who watches an Apex card start to finish, why not watch Tough? You get a little fighting, a little hijinks. I don't know, because it's on at Tuesday at 10 p.m.? It's easier to watch that than Saturday at 4 p.m., no? No. Oh.

All right, well there you have it. Also, I don't think I'm gonna watch Start to Finish this weekend. K-Fame. Yams, hello Ariel on BITB. I have come to the conclusion that the reason why John Jones has not been stripped of the title is because he is currently filming a reality show.

Upon his return, he will commence his training camp, which will align him perfectly with MSG as he typically fights there. I'm uncertain why any member of the MMA media has not reached to this conclusion, considering that if Jones is seeking the biggest bag the UFC can offer, this is most likely the logical outcome. I'd like to solicit your thoughts on my conclusion

and one additional question. Will you be able to secure Sean O'Malley's appearance on the show before next weekend? Well, we had Sean when the fight was first announced, so I don't want to ask him and bother him again. So, likely not, unless he reaches out. And I don't think the reality shows anything to do with the timeline with John.

I think it has something to do with him saying, like, hey, I get paid a lot of money to not fight these days. Very similar to Tyson Fury recently being like, look at me, look where I am, why would I fight? It's not a bad shout. If you made it, you made it. Mac Mucus. Hey there gang, fun question. Who is a fighter you wanted to see go further in the sport purely because they were a fun character? Mine is former Bellator contender Big Tuna. Remember him? LOL. Someone who's really fun? Jacob Volkman? James Tuhunan?

Him too. Tytwee Voss is a good one. Actually Tytwee Voss is a great one. Derek Lewis? I mean he got pretty far. I was pointing over there because I thought his picture was over there. But we got these new toys from McFarlane. Look at this one.

Is he? Look at those. This one I'm keeping in the box. Nice. Oh, you didn't see this, Frank. You were in here, you were very excited about the McFarlane. Yeah, I think I was like, hey, don't open them until I get back.

Well, what did you want me to do? Just keep the boxes? Don't open them until you get back. Nah, come on. Yeah, we have Sugar right here. See him? Yeah, that's awesome. What do you think? I like it.

I didn't realize you were a big McFarland guy. Oh, huge. Huge. Got the spawn pen on my bag and everything. I like the Josh Allen though. That's cool. The Josh Allen one might be the best one. This one right here? Yeah, that's sick. Him on the sidelines.

It's a cold, wintery night in Orchard Park. He's about to beat the Ravens. It's wonderful What were you gonna say who knows no See David Pitt big fan of the show and how you cover him and may just wanted to push back on the common narrative That Felder is the only good commentator. I don't know if I've ever said that. I just said I think he's one of the best. He's solid but I don't see a huge gap between him and guys like DC or Bisping. I've heard more laughs than groans like the time he joked about the octagon cushions making fart sounds. As a fan since 08, I think most of the crew does is fine. The only one who really distracts or detracts from the broadcast, in my opinion Cruz his constant bickering drag things down just my two cents all

these constant bickering I think he's very smart but I also don't think that felt there's the only good one I think they all have their strengths they all their weaknesses I don't think there's any sort of like number one and I don't think there's anyone who is not worthy at all. Like nothing like listening to the TNT broadcast of the Nick's Pacer series. Nothing remotely close to that. And yes, I did listen to the radio broadcast again,

and no, it did not work yesterday. Felix, what's up, Ariel and crew? Love the shows, keep up the great work. Do you think this is part of John's game plan if he does end up fighting Tom? Question one, making Tom wait, not knowing if and when he's gonna fight, making him frustrated, getting in his head by the trolling,

sipping the coconuts, hinting that he's done? No, I don't. Question two, with the news of Patchy Mix joining the UFC and fighting Mario Bautista, since Kayla Harrison, Aaron Pico, Pippel and others soon to come all left are leaving? Should the PFL just accept the role of being like the UFC feeder like Cagewares or LFA instead of trying to be the number two promotion? I don't think they would ever acknowledge that but I did say recently that I think we're more down that path than the co-leader path these days. And that's fine, but the days of them paying top dollar for free agents

appear at least for now to be over. They just signed Kevin Lee and he's in their tournament replacing J.J. Wilson. So all of a sudden he gets a shot. We're gonna get more of this, more youngsters and I'm happy for Kevin the the GFL thing didn't work out. This would be a sign that GFL isn't the thing because he was one of the guys like really banging the the GFL drum. But here he is getting a semi-final shot waltzing right in there going up against Gatsi Rabadanov anyway question three what are the chances that Islam pulls a Khabib and retires with the belt on top if he beats JDM I don't I don't

need to see that happen I see that hello see that happening. Hello Ariel from Tim 107. Long time watcher, first time question asker. Is anybody else a little annoyed with the UFC post fight interviews? Not trying to hate on your man DC, but can we sometimes get another question from him? Like, I don't know, not how good does that feel? I'm pretty sure it always feels good to win a fight. Same scripted questions, usually by DC, Bisping, less so by Rogan. How come John Anik doesn't do them all?

Go back and listen to him interview fighters on UFC Vegas 103, same night that they rolled the retirement package for Dominic, they were working a two-man crew. The level of creativity and enthusiasm is unparalleled. Sure, he promised Manel Cap a title shot in the cage like he was Dana White himself, but at least it sounded great in the moment.

Anyway, shout out to the boys, let's go Knicks. It's very rare for the play-by-play guy to also do the interviews, whether it's in boxing or basketball or football. So doing all of that and running into the cage and doing it, it's just a lot. But yes, a broadcaster will generally do better than a former fighter,

like a, you know, a guy who like, you know, actually focuses a thousand percent on becoming a broadcaster, that's Andy, that's the play-by-play guy. Usually not a former athlete, Sean O'Connell, exception to the rule, but usually it's not a former athlete. Those people more often than not are gonna ask better questions, but I think the questions are fine. What happens sometimes in the questions that irks me a little bit, and again, I think for the most part it's fine. This is not an issue at all in my opinion, is they'll ask a... a 25 minute fight, a 15 minute fight, a war, a knockout, whatever it is.

And you'll ask them a question like, I don't know, biggest fight, I'm here with the winner, Joe Schmo, biggest fight of your life, were you nervous going to the fight? And then the guy completely ignores the question and just says, thank you everyone. This is incredible. I can't believe it Don't ask a question that you would ask on Thursday in the pre fight meeting Speak about the moment some people have told me the how do you feel question is the worst question? I don't necessarily agree It's sometimes like just the simplest question How what does this mean? biggest one of your life I don't necessarily agree. It's sometimes like just the simplest question. What does this mean?

Biggest one of your life, can you put into words how this feels? What's wrong with that? Just give them the open floor. Let them go in any direction they want. They're exhausted, they're beat up, they're over the moon, elated. I think if the question is too specific, more often than not they're not even going to answer the question,

unless it's later in the interview or if it's about like, hey, did you really break your hand? And sometimes they won't even answer that. It's not easy. And I think for the most part the UFC has very, very capable people who do that job. Hey Ariel, with everything going on with John Jones from Chi, is it really fair to say his legacy is intact if he retires right now and doesn't fight Tom? I feel like we're in an age of MMA where a large percentage of fans weren't around during John's prime and didn't really witness the career he had with the legacy he built.

Well, I mean that's not his fault per se, just because there's new fans. It seems as though in time, with how fickle the MMA fan base is, actions, John has committed outside of the cage, criminal, PEDs, ducking of fights, will overshadow great moments he has had in the cage. It's obviously a lot deeper than all that, but I'm just curious on what you guys think. I don't know. I think that people, when it's all said and done, are going to look back on the body of work. But like I said, I think that when you tell the story of John Jones, you have to tell all the ups and downs. And this is a down moment.

If you would have walked away after Stipe, it would have been forgotten about by now. But because it dragged out, because he asked for some big, big number, because by everything I've heard that number was met, and because it ultimately didn't come to fruition and now all this stuff, it, it does leave a sour taste and hopefully this is not how it ends. But if it is how it ends, it's a weird way to end it. But it doesn't take away anything that he did in 10, 11, 12, 13. And, uh, you know, for better or worse, it doesn't erase the good moments.

It doesn't erase the bad moments. It's an entire story. The legacy can't just be, if Mike Tyson's legacy isn't the way his career ended and isn't the fact that he bit someone's ear, this will not be John Jones's legacy. But it's a part of the story and it's an unfortunate ending to arguably the greatest career in MMA history.

Now, not as unfortunate as someone testing positive and getting suspended, let's not be crazy, but it's just... It's anticlimactic. It's disappointing. It's deflating. It's not the way you want to end your career. Steven, Ariel, and by the way, still to come, Dan Hooker and Sean Grandy joining us in studio. Former Bellator voice, play-by-play guy for the Boston Celtics. Joe Pfeiffer joining us as well. Stay tuned for all of that. Ariel, is this whole John Jones saga just the UFC holding on to the news of his retirement

until after they have negotiated a TV deal? No, that is not what's happening. Not at all. Adele, Ariel and the folks, this time I have two questions for the crew in the back. On Air Jordan, when are you taking revenge and bringing honor to Long Island? GC is literally sitting behind you,

smoking on that On Air pack. Are you the unannounced replacement for the duck known as Sean Brady? Nah, he beat me fair and square. I'll beat him in another competition. Maybe we'll do like a chopped cooking competition. I know I'll have him there. That would be cool.

I don't, we can't do something that requires judges. I can't accept the bias. You don't think- We'll be the judges. You'll take my food and you'll be like, this is better than whatever I'd cook. You don't think you'll get a fair shake? I don't think I'll get a fair shake. Yeah.

This is a question for Andy. How come Andy doesn't get a cool nickname? How come? Yeah, I don't know. He refers to as director Andy. That's cute. Anyway, Andy, how did you end up working in the world of MMA? I believe you joined in the last few years of the MMA era, correct me if I'm wrong. But back then you weren't an on-screen or vocal presence, but please do tell us. That's right, so yeah, so I joined when we were part of Vox and I was not a part of only the MMA team, I was part of like helping the whole company,

so I was not just doing this show, I was doing a whole bunch of other shows, and then I came over to Yahoo with these guys. It's been a fun ride. It's been amazing. I think you joined maybe in 02? I came back in 21, sorry not 02, 22. Yeah, yeah, I think you're right.

22 or early 20, no it has to be 22, yeah 22. We went through like a revolving door of very capable directors, but no one that was like, the person, you know what I mean? Actually, in the history of the program, dating back to the very, very, very early days, the TD role has been the one that has seen the most turnover.

Oh yeah? Yeah, like even dating back to like the AOL days, it was a constant, I think most people just felt like the show was too damn long for them. And I hear you are doing it four days a week, sometimes to crack. You love it. Yeah, of course.

Have you ever heard of the UFC before? Had I before? Yeah. I'm trying to think. I don't think so. Or I may have, in kickboxing class actually, yes. Because I used to do that before. Oh wow.

Hanging out with you guys. But I'd never seen it. And now you're an expert. Now I know everything. All of the things. As always, this individual says, much love to everyone and thanks for putting on banger after banger after banger.

Adele from Canada. Well, thank you. Hi Ariel and the crew. Last week marked a momentous occasion for me as I proposed to my girlfriend of five years on a trip to Dubai. As I embark on the next phase of my life, I would love to know from the crew what's the best advice you can give

to have a happy wife, happy life. Bonus question, how do you maintain a good relationship when you have kids? P.S. I'm slightly younger than G.C. so this could come in handy one day. I don't know, happy wife, happy life, don't pick a fight. I don't know, don't sweat the small stuff. Andy, any advice for how to not piss off your wife?

Good communication, that one's important. And try to keep the fun. Try to keep the fun. Yeah, stay dating. Stay dating. Stay dating. That's a big one. I mean, it's a, look, there's no doubt you get one kid in the mix, two kids, three kids.

It's hard. It's hard. Do you date each other or? I don't know, Frank. Wow. Just tell us. Just try to figure it out. Listen, whatever floats your boat.

But there are ups, there are downs, there are challenges, there's things where, like now... Sometimes I think back, there was once a time where the biggest question was like, what do you want to have for dinner? That was the biggest question. Oh, should we go out for dinner tonight? Like when we were living on the Upper East Side way back in the day. You know what I mean? Oh, should we have sushi tonight? Like that was the big debate. Now it's like, okay, can you pick up the kids from here?

Are we gonna have dinner at this hour or before this practice? And you have to drop off over here and then like you get so bogged down and all of that. And so, you know, and then there's bigger questions. There's, oh, what are they doing for, you know, school, summer camp? How are we going to spend this time and are we going to do this, are we going to do that, is this person coming, is that

person coming? Oh, my dear. But you just kind of have to enjoy the ride. Try to be on the same page. One thing that I'm a big believer in is at least to your to your children, like be on the same page, you know what I mean? Not disagree or argue in front of children. Like, you know, to me it's more so than just happy wife, happy life. It's like a happy house. Do you know what I mean?

And, you know, of course there's going to be disagreements that you're going to have to reprimand, you're going to have to be the bad guy, scold. You know, yesterday my son left his homework till like 9.45. He's like, oh, but I wanted to watch the next game. I'm like, well, you have to figure that out. Like, you have to plan for that. Do it, you know, do it at halftime. Do it before the game.

Oh, my friend came over. Well, then don't have your friend come over. Like, you'll have those things, but but overall as far as like the relationship with the Boss so to speak the partner you try to be on the same page and Then I feel like if you if and maybe I'm old school in this regard If you if you don't want to be on the same page or if you're not on the same part page you do that When there's no one else around do you know what I? You do that when like the kids are sleeping or not around. I feel like that's really important.

That's really, really, really good advice. These things are important, in my opinion. There are certain memories that I have as a kid that they stick with you. You know, the good ones and the bad ones. They stick with you. And I don't want to... I try my best not to create any sort of bad memories, but you know, we're not perfect. So you can't necessarily put that pressure on yourself.

But anyway, I wish you the best. Bake beans. Good luck. And keep us posted as you embark on the next phase of your life. I do think in a matter of moments we're going to be joined by the great Joe Pfeiffer, so please stay tuned for that. I think he actually slept in or maybe didn't wake up, I don't know, or took a nap. Should I squeeze one in here or no?

Ariel, any update on the streaming rights deal? Any movement or word if they're leaning towards leaving ESPN? I heard ESPN is still in the mix and someone told me maybe by International Fight Week, but I don't know. I can't say that with great certainty. Cosmo Kramer, good afternoon Ariel. Is PFL Africa really being moved to July 19th the same day as 318 in Pacquiao Barrios? Also that's Dubois Usyk. Is Don even trying anymore? I mean this is not for us, it's for them.

Who knows if he will even air here in the United States. All right, let us go to the great Joe Pfeiffer who is returning to action on June 7th in New Jersey against Kelvin Gassum. We were supposed to get this fight a couple months ago. We're getting it next weekend come heller high water. There he is, Joe. You left me at the altar there for a second. What happened?

Oh man, I know, I know. Can you see me still? You look fantastic. Oh, okay. Somebody just gave me a call so now my screen's like off. Oh, no, no. Oh, no, my screen's back. All right, cool.

Yeah, man, so this was supposed to happen, and it didn't, and it was very unfortunate. Are you talking about your fight with Kelvin or coming on the show at 2.30? I was talking about the fight with Kelvin. Oh, okay. The show, man, I? I was talking about the fight with Kelvin. Oh, okay. The show, man, I just, I literally woke up in a panic. Yeah, it's all good.

Bunch of missed calls. I literally was supposed to take my nap and I was late. All good. By the way, you look fantastic. The hair is really coming in. I know, it's all messy right now, but yeah, man. It's a little bit thin, but it came in nice. Are you happy with it?

Would you recommend this? Oh yeah, man. If you guys are really into your hair like that and you care about your looks, it's definitely, I went to Now Hair Time out in Turkey, Istanbul. And it was, yeah. Look at that.

That's actually a great side by side. I can't be upset with that. I look like I was in prison on the left and I look like I came out a Christian on the right. So. When I see those pictures of the guys on the plane like with their head bleeding and stuff It just looks like a miserable experience. How long does it take to actually get back to 100%? Yeah, so I thought mark like four months after I got it done or five months after I got it done Mark Andre burial my last yeah

Yeah, it's painful man. I remember doing the training and everything. And even four months after, my head was still so raw and tender that if somebody even like bumped me in the forehead, I remember I was in pain, like crazy. But so it's definitely a painful process. I mean, you don't feel it during after they put 35 anesthesia needles in your head. That's the painful part. But but afterwards you don't feel it. And then, yeah, I mean, those first couple of days are kind of rough. You can't even put your, it feels like your head got burned.

Wow. So definitely a rough experience. I didn't prep myself at all. I never looked up the procedure. I never knew anything about it. It's just, my coach got offered it. I got offered it. And we were like, all right, fuck it, let's go.

Here you are living your best life. Looking forward to seeing you back in there. Of course, running this one back from a couple months ago. How are you feeling, by the way? Because that was the big story. No ill effects, right, from everything you experienced over there? No, now I'm okay, man, but honestly,

the first three weeks after, my stomach was still really messed up. And, uh, I mean, man, that I, the worst I've ever been sick in my life, um, between basically shitting water out of your ass to vomiting profusely for a couple of days, um, and then having a fever on top of it. And it just trusting and if I could have fought I would have And I've never not fought I mean I fought Jack hermantan after having pneumonia the whole camp and then I had two staph infections going in there And I still fought you know so like if I can fight I will and that was just

That was just not a situation. I could fight man. I wasn't gonna become a meme of you know Poopy pants Piper as they call me now Oh my gosh, who's calling you that? All the fucking turds on the internet man, it's great Ultimately, was it just like food poisoning? Did you? Like I had no idea. I had no idea we can only assume. Yeah, but maybe that Montezuma's revenge type deal I don't know if that's an actual illness, but essentially I had a fever.

Did you drink the water? No, no. So bro, I got sick the second day I was there and then I was fine. And I threw up, basically shit my brains out and then I was fine and I was there for 15 days. But I slept in a tent, I acclimated, I felt good, my muscles felt good and everything. I didn't feel fatigued, you know, the air

was a little thick but I still felt really good. And then after the weigh-ins, the face-off and everything, me and my manager, we go to the one hotel, like where all the athletes were staying and he was like, dude, I've been here with my family, stop being a baby, you'll be fine. And you know, I trust them and it's not his fault obviously, but you know, we went there and all I had was like a tiny margarita pizza with no cheese. It was like real thin crust. And then I had, I think maybe even a quarter plate of like a tiny plate of lasagna, whatever those two were, man, wrecked me.

Wow. So I don't know if they boil their pasta without filtered water or bottled water. I don't know if that's how I got sick, but you know, come on, man. I ain't that dumb to drink the water. I don't know, maybe brush your teeth in the shower. I don't know.

No, no, I wouldn't even do that because that's what everybody said. Like you can't take any chances at all. So unfortunately it just, it wasn't my time to fight, man. It sucked. Afterwards you said you'll never go back to Mexico. Do you still feel that way?

Yes. This upset a lot of people, as you know. A lot of people felt like, oh, here's this American talking bad about our country. What did you think of the reaction? I mean, look at it this way, man. I don't have to go into specifics, but if the country was so great, we wouldn't have

so many problems. At the end of the day, what I said was misconstrued. I said, if that's what fighting in that country is, then F that place. It's a shithole, and then so on and so forth. I don't understand why we would risk fighting there. The risk is so great, bro. I got sick twice. I didn't get sick once. I got sick twice. And I never said anything about it. And then my whole team got... There's people that still have side effects. I'm pretty sure Mark Montoya is one of the guys. DC went on and said, man, my stomach

was messed up. I hate that place. Nobody gave him shit for it. You know, I just, I'm a little bit more unapologetic, man. It's nothing towards the people. The people were fine. I had nothing, I had nothing to say bad about the people. It's just as far as fighting there, fighting at that elevation, fighting at that altitude, like why would I risk that? You know, and yeah, I'm salty. I don't care how that makes other people feel because I'm the one that lost Kelvin lost

Like we didn't get the fight. I lost 25 grand going out there, you know I'm not I'm not a top-ten guy making crazy money yet and an opportunity got taken away from me Unfortunately, it's nobody's fault but mine right so And and the fact that I traveled outside the country, which I said I wouldn't do. So yeah, I stand on what I say, man. I don't like it as far as fighting there. And yeah, I don't have to retract that statement. I know it didn't make people happy, but yeah,

this is my career and I'm the one that got bent over at the end of the day and didn't get to make any money or fight. I think it was revealed afterwards that Kelvin said he was compensated a little bit for not fighting. Were you compensated? Nope. No.

No. You know, that's the other part, right? How is that not frustrating? I cut more weight than that dude does. I cut weight. I slept in a tent on a floor. You know, I did all the right things in preparation and everybody, you know, was taking shots at me.

And I will say part of, you know, my nasty reaction to it, should I have said it was a shit hole? No. Should I have said, you know, suck my dick? No, I shouldn't have said that. But I said it, it is what it is. It wasn't towards the people. Um, but you know, it's very disheartening, which I had to, again, it's another phase of the sport. I'm in tears, you know, upset that I don't get to fight. And, you know, I go online and everybody's like, well, we hope you die. We hope the cartel kills you. We hope your plane crashes. We hope you... Oh, jeez.

Like people said a lot of foul shit, you know? So, yeah, I mean, come on, man. Like I fight my ass off. I come out there to go for the finish. I don't come out here for decision wins and, you know, to get treated like that, eh, fuck it. One last thing on all this, how was the flight home? I was thinking about that. Was that a disaster? Was that a nightmare? So they got me an IV right away.

I got two IVs and it held me over from vomiting. But I had to go to the bathroom a couple of times and it's just, like I said, man, it was like water coming out of your ass. It was terrible. And like, it's, it's like, when you got to go, you got to go. I couldn't fight like that, bro. He would have slapped me and I would have shit myself. Like, so, uh, yeah, the flight home sucked. Um, yeah, it sucked, man. Everything about that situation just sucked. It was like a nightmare to be honest. It really was. It was very unfortunate

because I had like 15 people that I flew out there. You know, we were eye deep everywhere we go and nothing happened. Now you get to fight as close to home as possible, right? Now you're in Jersey. You've not fought in Jersey since joining the UFC. It's been a while for you. Were you happy that they ran it back with Kelvin or were you looking for something else? No, I was scared that I wasn't going to be able to run it back with Kelvin, or were you looking for something else? No, I was scared that I wasn't gonna be able to run it back with him, man. I think this is a great opportunity for me.

I think this fight is kind of like one of them layups for me to really perform, and it's no discredit to him. I have respect for him, and I haven't heard him say anything to my knowledge of him talking shit or I'd have a different demeanor, but I think he's been respectful. I think I've been respectful of him and I've trained my ass off for him. When I found out he agreed, that was the scare. They were like, he doesn't have to accept it type deal.

I was very relieved when they gave me the date and it was far enough out because like I said, I had complications that first month with my stomach still and it really sucked. So I was, and the fact that it's only an hour and 20 minutes from where I live. Yeah. I can't beat that. That's amazing. I thought maybe they would do a Joe Pfeiffer versus Jeremy Stevens. That man, bro, I thought I listened. He was coming to Philly, called us all retards and all this shit. So I hopped on the mic and you know, I was, he said, Sean Brady said, Sean didn't say shit. And he was just laughing. And I was like, man, let's make it fun. Like I'll go talk some shit. And I made a joke about his hair, obviously, cause I got fucking hair,

but he took it so to heart. And then I said, if you have a problem, you know, we can handle it. And I stood right next to Sean in the back where we were shoulder to shoulder. And I'm looking at him, dude didn't look at me, didn't acknowledge my existence or anything. And then I DMed him. He never answered. And then he comes out with all this like tough guy shit. And I'm like, bro, you're a fraud, dude. Like you're a good fighter. And I even said he might be Eddie just because he's very durable. He hits hard But you know, he got all but hurt so fuck that guy he made a song right? Yeah, he made a shitty ass I mean, let me take that back. I thought it was kind of good and I thought it was kind of funny So I liked it

But yeah He made a whole this fucking track on the day he fought Mason Jones and then proceeded to get his ass looked tough, you know, good fight. I enjoyed watching him fight. He's a good, a good fighter, but yeah, he's kind of dookie when it comes to his record in the UFC. So by the way, you should be making this track. You should be worried about getting your skills better and not losing your fucking fights instead of dissing Joe Piper because he made fun of you and a pretty friendly matter. What did the DM say?

Like what was it to try to bury the hatchet or was it? Nah, I just told him he was a pussy for going out after the fight and like running his mouth telling me I could suck his balls or whatever. And I was like, you can suck my balls, bro. I was like, at the end of the day, when I was there, you had a chance to say something to me. You wouldn't even look at me. So who's the real tough guy? You know, it's not like I was going to fight Jeremy Stevens.

He's a fucking 145er. I crushed that dude. But you know, he could have had a conversation. I would tell him, yeah, I'm just busting your balls, bro. Like just having fun. You know what I mean? Like it wasn't anything that deep. And then he made it deep.

So I was like, yeah, you're a pussy, dude. You talk all that shit. And then when you're face to face, you didn't even want to look at me. I don't care how afraid of a guy I was or if somebody had talked shit. If you run your mouth about me and I felt some type of way, you're gonna know it.

Big, small, doesn't matter who you are. This dude wouldn't even look at me. So, dude's a corn ball. What'd you think of the event? Did you enjoy that event, the BKFC event in Philly? Other than the main event result with Eddie losing, it just seemed like an incredible time. I mean, I enjoyed it, you know, even Eddie's fight. Like, you know, that's the fight game, right? When we lose, whatever. But I thought it was great, man. It was super fun.

You know, it's got it's the promotions on its way up. So I think some things were a little corny. But overall, man, entertainment, you can't beat it. It's super fun. promotion's on its way up, so I think some things were a little corny, but overall, man, the entertainment, you can't beat it. It's super fun, they're fast-paced, like there's a lot of action, there was tons of crazy knockouts, like one dude got spun around like a fucking clock. It was sick, I enjoyed it, I really did, and I hope they keep doing it, man,

but I hope more so that after I handle business with Calvin, I hope the UFC puts on a Philly card for us, man, at Wells Fargo, because it was a fucking great atmosphere. What's the dream scenario for you? You win in Jersey, you fight in Philly, who are you fighting? I don't know, but I would like to see Sean Brady get the main event for Philly and meet Coman.

I think that would be pretty sick. And then obviously have the rest of us on there. We got Nerset on this, you know, he's not, he's at Uzbek, but he's a Philly fighter fighting out of Philly. And you got me, Andre, Jeremiah Wells is coming back off an injury. And then you got Pass Abitini with his, you know,

he's, he's calling the ranks. So I think that would be a hell of a card, but yeah, I have a couple of people mind, and trust me, with a good win, good performance, I'll be calling them dudes out. I just don't, I don't wanna put it out in the air yet before I handle business. I would love to see Shawn Brady versus Ian Gary

headline a Philly card. How do you think that fight goes? I mean, I know you're his boy, so obviously, you're not gonna say he's gonna lose the fight, but just like, how do you see it actually going? I mean, I'm pretty, you know, I'm pretty honest. I think it goes one of two ways, right? It's gonna go one way, right?

Shawn's gonna march him down and Shawn's gonna put him on his back and that's the end of Ian Gary. Ian, Ian, Kukul Gary, whatever the fuck he is. I don't, whatever they're calling him. But bro, if he gets put down, it's over, man. I'm telling you, it's over. He's one of the best top pressure guys. Obviously we've seen how he mauled Leon and Leon's a good kickboxer. And, you know, I think Ian Gary is a better kickboxer

than Leon Edwards. I think he's, you know, he's really good at moving. He's really good at sticking and moving, but it's one of two ways. Sean takes him down, puts him down, finishes him 100%. I just think Ian's a little too skinny. Or he might be able to sting Sean and keep him away and really frustrate Sean, but I just don't see him having the defense for it, man. So, sure, he can catch a lucky shot, but I just don't, I don't see him getting it, man. So that's how I see it. Ian stays on the outside, maybe gets a lucky shot, and is able to pick him apart

and really stop Sean from getting the take down. That makes obviously the fight a whole lot more even. Or Sean is able to touch him up, get him to the fence, and put him down, and that's all she wrote. I promise you the guy to finish the fight will be Shawn now. I would love to see it. Going back to your fight, what does Kelvin have left in your opinion?

He's been in this game for a long time. Does he have another run left in him? Do you subscribe to that or do you think he's on the back nine here? I will subscribe to it because I think it's really, first of all, yes, could he do it? Yeah. Is it possible? Yes. Am I training for that? Yes. I will subscribe to it because I think it's really, first of all, yes. Could he do it? Yeah.

Is it possible? Yes. Am I training for that? Yes. I think Kelvin did his best work at Middle Lake and I think he's taking me seriously because of the threat that I pose. I don't think he's really faced, like he's faced obviously the best of the best, but I think there's a little bit more fear early with me because of how powerful

I am with my striking. And I think he, you know, there's a couple of things he's underrating, but I mean, yeah, is it possible? He's only 33. I don't think he's that old, but does he have it in him? Does he have that dog in him to keep? He's had a lot of miles on the clock and he's had his peak and now he's kind of in the valley or at least heading down towards the valley. I don't really think his performance has been that great.

I don't think they've been the Kelvin of old. So, yeah, man, there's a lot of speculation as far as what I'm reading into is I'm expecting the best Kelvin. You know, I know a lot of people say that, but I really have trained my ass off immensely for this back to back because, you know, back to back, because I don't want to fumble this opportunity, man. So yeah, I don't buy it though. I don't think that he has a title run in him. Even if he got past me, man,

I just don't see him beating any of those top guys. You must be kind of like tired of thinking of this guy, right, back to back camps? Bro, I've literally had fucking double dreams of everything. Like every scenario I've had a double fucking dream. And I'm just tired of picturing his fat ass fucking face in my brain every fucking day. Like, yeah.

So I'm over it. I'm just ready to do the dance. I'm ready to throw down with him, man. I think it's an exciting guy. I think I'm an exciting guy. And obviously I'm the prospect, he's the bet. exciting guy. I think I'm an exciting guy and you know, obviously I'm the prospect He's the bet the last time I was out there to get to show my best self still put on a fight But this one I tend to make it, you know

I want to be the first guy to knock him out man. Just quite frankly. I just I know I can do it. Oh Do we lose you there dude, everybody just keeps fucking calling me. I don't get it. All right, you're a bit nuts. This will be your first fight of 2025. And we last saw you in June, the Marc Andre barrio fight. You did have a grappling match into the year last year, but this is a long stretch, right? With no serious injury or anything.

Obviously you had the pullout, but there was nothing after the barrio fight, was there? Yeah, there was. So I had back surgery. Oh, wow. Yeah, man. My biggest enemy is myself, bro. That's why I say, like,

I went into the Marc Andre barrio fight without doing any wrestling for the most part. Like, I would try to drill takedowns and I would be tripping over my feet. So basically my disc just collapsed on my nerve and it was bone on bone. And you know, thank God the fight went the way it did. Um, you know, not to say I couldn't wrestle in that time, like my adrenaline's there, I'm prepared. I was in shape and all that. But you know, uh, shortly after that two weeks, I could barely extend my left leg. I was walking like a cripple and, um, I had to get like

immediate back surgery to you know Relieve it bro, cuz it was terrible. So yeah, I had to minimally be out for six plus months So it was that like was that the type of injury that you were afraid that you might not come back like a back surgery He's pretty serious. No, no because the UFC did a great job of getting me the best guy He does all the NFL players for their back surgeries and whatnot. So they really took care of me and I really trusted this guy. I've heard so much. I researched him and he did a phenomenal job. I can't remember his name but yeah. So they did the L5S1 and they

basically did a, I don't know if it's a microdyssectomy, but it's like a two, three inch incision and they went in there and they removed some bone. They removed some ligament or whatever they cleaned up out of there to free up the nerve and basically had a hole in my back for a little while. And I had to give that time to heal. And yeah, definitely. It definitely was a process, man. Cause you know, back is something I've always been scared of.

And, uh, you know, it's definitely not something to play games with so yeah I mean that's why I've been out for so long it's almost been a year how's it that it's almost been a year I've only had five fights in the UFC and then I fucking lose money in Mexico and everybody's shit talking me it's like I need to fight you know what I mean you get what I'm saying yes come on bro you okay now the back okay now? Yeah, bro. I feel good, man.

I have no back pain. You know, I still have stiffness and things like that, but my back's better than it's ever been. I've struggled with back pain all my life. And yeah, no, I feel great, man. I would highly recommend this surgery if possible for people. And, you know, it's just a matter if you have good insurance for it.

What about this custom Joe Piper gun that I saw? Who made that? Yeah, you saw that? So I'm gonna put my boy, that's Derek Pitero, SC Arms right here in Spotswood, New Jersey. It's not far from the venue. He's been my longtime sponsor, man. And so if you really look at the detail of this,

I like the Joker, and I think it was obviously cool. But on the actual barrel where the reel is, he has each one of my knockouts and the dates for it. And then he also has on one of the other reels, like each bullet, every time you click it and pull the trigger, it shows each knockout, each date, and then each submission that I had. So, and the dates. It's pretty freaking cool.

He has one more spot, if everything goes well, next weekend, and we got that one last spot for our boy KG, so. But then what happens when the career progresses? You just get a new one? Hell yeah, we get a new one. Do you use that one? We'll get a different one.

Do you use that, or is that one that you don't touch? Nah, probably I gotta touch that one, cause it's, I'll probably shoot it at least once because of the gun itself I've never shot it and it'll be fine He does like the Sarah coding and everything but I mean he has you know And he has every gun you can get so it's actually is I'm actually wearing his sweatshirt. Look at that. It all worked out Yeah, it's cool, man. I'm into guns I don't go shooting nowhere near as much as I like to but I have a bunch of guns and and and he takes care of

Me and yeah, he's a good friend good supporter. He's terrible call of duty though How many he's better how many people are you having like in support of you at the the event a How many people are you having like in support of you at the the event? A lot man a lot I'm gonna try and keep the circle a little smaller this time because things were a little chaotic in mexico we had a bunch of people we had three different airbnb's just because Uh, you know we we couldn't predict what the atmosphere was going to be like out there how big the place was like in the pictures And stuff, but we're gonna have a bunch of people man So it's going to be good and uh and the only way this thing goes bad is

obviously with a loss but even in a loss you know there's something to learn so I think we're gonna have a great night next weekend man but we're gonna have a freaking crowd and I have to do a press conference I don't know if that's the best idea why why because this fucking dude says something to piss me off oh no it's a really good thing for me especially going into a fight like confrontation is a good thing for me and I handle it very well, but you know, you never know what's gonna come out of my mouth, man So so you don't like when you're all like friendly with your opponent you like when there's friction

Yeah, man, fuck him. He's trying to take money from me. Yeah, trying to hurt me He's trying to punch me in my face. Like don't try to, don't try to mask it with like being a nice guy. You know, we don't talk. We ain't friends, you know, we shook hands or whatever, but like, you know, when we stepped on stage, you tried to look me up and down, which was irony. It's like, all right, fat ass, let's see what you got. Motherfucker. Like you think that shit like I don't get intimidated, man. It just makes me like, all right, I'm going to punch a hole harder in your fucking head. So it's just, yeah, I like confrontation, man.

You know, this is fighting, you know what I mean? I don't wanna be your friend. So it makes it easier when I don't have to like you. Yeah. Have you ever actually- If I like you, it's a little harder for me. Has that ever happened where you actually liked your opponent and you're like, damn, I don't really wanna beat this guy

or hurt him? No, nah. I'm a mean motherfucker in there, bro. I don't like anybody I'm fighting. That's just the rule. But if you give me a little extra Sherry on top, let's go. I appreciate the intensity. You're not there to play fight.

You're there to go in there, clock in, clock out. Yeah, man. I mean, listen, I don't. This is another thing with me and Kelvin, right? He's 13 and 9 in the UFC. I'm 4 and 1. And I think he only has three knockouts, maybe four. So like, I don't see him being able to out box me. And I don't think he's gonna out wrestle me for sure. I think that's what they're really banking on, bro. You he bought he brought in like wrestlers and whatnot But I think people really underestimate my grappling game so I think he wants to wrestle early and they're gonna judge and think that I'm gonna get tired because of my Jackfight and all this shit and it's like they don't realize everything I had going into that and if you look at my volume

The first two rounds like that's a lot to deal with and that's a lot of power to deal with So even if I fell off in the third round like as long as I do my job in the first two rounds I'm chilling so I think he's gonna be in a for a pleasant surprise overall at my at my game before it's all said and done do you need that jack fight back no I don't I like Jack see I think that would be a hard fight and I think that was hard for me going into it is cuz I kind of liked Jack but I would that would be a hard fight and I think that was hard for me going into his because I kind of liked Jack But I would love to get it back. Don't get me wrong You know if the stars align and obviously I think they just popped him out of the rankings

Which I kind of think is kind of fucked up, but I get it He's only fought one time and he fought me and then he had surgery and whatnot So like I've talked to him here and there he's wished me luck. You know, he congratulated me after my last fight But now man, I don't got to chase that back. At the end of the day, that was my welcome to the... I went from JV to varsity. So he gave me my ass whooping and I had a lot to learn from it. One of the things was don't go into fights like that. If you don't feel you're 100%, which you're never going to, you know, it's up to you to risk it.

I should have been smarter with my decisions and taking the fight regardless of money. But no, man, I'll get it back. Jack's a good dude and I hope he makes it back up to the top and if it makes sense trajectory-wise, I'm still going up, he's still going up, let's get it, let's do it again. By the way, I know we spoke in the past about your documentary, but I saw it's now on Roku. Yes, it is free on Roku. And yeah, you know, it took a little while. But you know, our team got it done and Alex Davis and whatnot. So they finally got it out there. And it was difficult to deal with for quite some time. But yeah, I mean, we finally got it out there.

So I hope it reaches a lot of kids, man. That's the main goal with it, just to inspire some kids that had some abusive household as well and can really inspire them to stay in sports, man. That's what it's all about. At the end of the day, these are short moments when I'm doing, you know, fighting and all this crap of people getting mad at me or, you know,

being happy for me. I only get to do the sport for so long. So I hope I can give back one day, and I hope the documentary's a big part of that. It's a phenomenal watch. I hope everyone does check it out. It's really, really good, and I'm glad it's on a platform like that

that a lot more people can see it, which is tremendous. And I'm glad you're coming back. I'm glad you're fighting close to home. Hopefully no drama this time. Hopefully no... Are you gonna be there? Am I gonna be there in attendance? Brother, why wouldn't you be? It's right down the road.

Yeah, I know it is right down the road. It is. Uh, maybe. Maybe I'll be. You gotta see me fight live once, man. I know. It will happen. It will happen. Come in studio after the fight, all right? I will. I will. I promise I'll come in studio. I thought you were... I thought I saw something that you were... that you posted that you were, like, done with the show.

This show? Yeah, I don't... I don't know why. I felt like I saw it at one point. What happened? Wait, that you posted that you were like done with the show. This show? Yeah, I don't know why. I felt like I saw it at one point. Wait, so you've not seen this show for like seven months? We've been done. No, I've seen it cause I saw Sean on there.

Yeah. And obviously I've seen you talk to a bunch of people, but I didn't see it for like a year ago. Yeah, we left the previous home, which was the MMA hour. And then we started this new thing, Ariel Hawani show. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's the same crew, it's the same people, it's the same everything. It's just now we own it. It's our footage, it's our IP, it's our library, it's our feeds, it's our YouTube channel.

We're building a backup. So no, you know. So you don't have any HR looking over you with all the... Nah. And they make, listen, they think that we're toast, Sean, but we're still the bread around here. You know what I'm saying? Sean was talking crap? No, he was talking. Well, the thing is, like, he was like, we have, we have, I don't know if you know about this, but we have like a guy in the back, GC, who's trying to like compete against them in a bike race. Do you know about this? Yeah, I heard it. And Sean's fucking forfeit that shit. No, but Sean's kind of been ducking. It's weird. I mean, listen, this dog got into a little argument the other week. He didn't say a word to me, dude. So I feel you.

Yo, he's kind of been ducking. Like we've said, we'll get you a car and we'll drive you from your home in Philly all the way here. First class service, the car will wait for you, drive you back home. And then you'll be able to drive it back to Philly. And then you'll be able to drive it back to Philly. And then you'll be able to drive it back to Philly. And then you'll be able to drive it back to Philly.

And then you'll be able to drive it back to Philly. And then you'll be able to drive it back to Philly. And then you'll be able to drive it back to Philly. And then you'll be able to drive it back to Philly. And then you'll be able to drive it back to Philly. And then you'll be able to drive it back to Philly. And then you'll be able to drive it back to Philly. And then you'll be able to drive it back to Philly.

And then you'll be able to drive it back to Philly. And then you'll be able to drive it back to Philly. And then you'll be able to drive it back to Philly. And then you'll be able to drive it back to Philly. And then you we'll drive you from your home in Philly all the way here first-class service The car will wait for you drive you back home All right ready, so here's really what it is. I'll give you my opinion. Okay, I'm pretty well that motherfucker I don't like to travel and he got a new boy everything. He don't want to leave home Yeah, so if you came to the gym to do it That would be you think we need to bring you think we need to bring the bike to the gym? We got what? So are you talking about a street bike? No, it's like it's called an Avron. It's like a Peloton.

Like an Echo bike? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Man, we got them at the gym. Bring him down here and Sean will do it. You think he'll do it? I think my guy beats him. I think it's actually not close and I think he's afraid that like some Joe Schmoe is going to beat him. That's legit. I think my guy beats him. I think it's actually not close and I think he's afraid that like some Joe Schmoe's gonna beat him. That's legit. I'm not trying to search. I'm just backing my guy. I'm also not trying to glaze Sean because he's got enough people fucking to do his glazing and his shit. But he also broke, and I'm pretty sure of this, he also has the record for the UFC's bike workout.

Yeah, we saw that. Did we see footage of it or did we see the aftermath? What does your guy do? Is he a fucking, what does he do, a triathlon? Listen, I'm not giving up too much, all right? He's my guy. All right, was he drug tested? Why, anything goes around these parts, all right? What is this, drug free sport?

Pop in and out, but you be all good, you know what I'm saying? Where's it at? By the way, do they come to your house? We were talking and out, but you be all good. You know what I'm saying? Where's it at? By the way, do they come to your house? We were talking about this. Someone asked me about this. Does drug-free sport even come to the house? Do they do it like you, Sada, used to do it? Because I feel like the whole thing is... Oh, yeah.

All right. Yeah, man. Unfortunately, there was an... Unfortunately, yes. But yeah, no, they're still the same. They're all super cool. It's always weird when you got a guy staring at your shit while you're trying to get pissed. I mean, other than that, bro, like it's necessary.

And yeah. But yeah. It's as much as it was back in the day, like back in the Usada days, it's as frequent. Brother, for me, it is. I feel like they like my ass. They're like, that boy, that boy a little thick sometimes. I don't know.

I'm pretty skinny right now, dude. So. It's all that throwing up and stuff from Mexico. Yeah. The fucking the bomb. Dude, I don't know if you've ever been either. You know what I mean? Again, I just want to reiterate, like on a real note, I do want to reiterate.

I have nothing towards the people. It was never towards Mexican people. I had nothing against their culture. I understand what I said came out offensive. We have to understand it just from the fighter's perspective. If you're out there and I offended you, I apologize. It's not anything towards your people or your culture. It's just, you know, that was my experience out in Mexico and I politely declined to ever go back. Fair enough. I respect that.

Well, probably ever go back. Fair enough. I respect that. Or that, or that, but hey, listen, it goes both ways. Good luck. Looking forward to it. Thanks for coming on. Appreciate it. And looking forward to the fight. I think it's going to be a great one. So all the best to you.

Thank you, Joe. See you in studio after I win. Deal. It's a deal. Joe Pfeiffer coming in studio after the fight against Kelvin Gaslim. Perhaps you can go up against Joe on the bike. I was backing you there. Yeah, no, I appreciate that man.

Yeah, I had to go against Joe. We got to go to their territory though. We got to go all the way to their gym. You think we should pull up? Absolutely. Fight fees Philly, pardon de. All right, yeah, if we get to go eat with Sean, I'll throw it on the ground. It's gotta be an Averon bike.

Are we gonna like, put the Averon bike on the back of the pickup? Yeah, we'll get a U-Haul for it. You can't just throw it on top, like where the luggage goes? Is that a shot at me? No, I mean. Oh.

Wow. I do like how like, Joe on this this secretive character Yeah, you stuff roided to the max just ready to bite. Does he do triathlons? That's good. Let them think that this is good. I want them to wonder is oh, I did it again Why are you doing? Yeah, you're doing it on purpose. Is he on the stuff? Is he on the gear as they say? Is he on the stuff? Is he on the gear as they say? All among the gear. Yeah bike gear the bike gear

You know what? I did feel that he didn't want to travel and as someone who doesn't like to travel I'm not gonna lie. It feels like the steam has Has left the building. I mean, it's four months ago when I originally made the call out. Yeah How long can I wait? No, you're right. You're right. I Understand how Tom Aspynall feels Some of the greatest fights of all time have taken some time to come to fruition though. Yeah. Joey P.

You've got some kind of intensity to him, huh? Yeah. I wouldn't mind seeing you versus Joe. If Sean can't answer the bell then- I don't know if I wanna go against Joe. I feel like he'd be like, I fucking hate this guy now. He'll knock your ass out.

He's trying to take money out of my pocket. He'd be like, well, I fucking hate this guy now. He'll knock your ass out. He's trying to take money out of my pocket. He's like, no, Joe, this is just a free competition. You're trying to take fucking money out of my pocket. What a guy. Yeah, he's an intense dude. So that is coming up, and I am looking forward to that.

Coming up in less than two weeks time. All right, let's move along. Still to come in a matter of moments, we are gonna be joined by one Dan Hooker, who has been in the news as of late. I'm looking forward to chatting to him. Always look forward to chatting with him. And then Sean Grandy will join us in studio.

Without further ado, let's go all the way to Auckland, New Zealand. It is very early in the morning over there. Dan, kind enough to join us on this Thursday morning in New Zealand. Hello, Dan. How are you? Yeah, I'm good. It's not even that early. I just slipped in. Oh, I was trying to... My man.

No, it's okay. It's all right. We just had Joe Pfeiffer on. He too slept in, except it was 3.30 in the afternoon where he was in Philadelphia. Oh, yeah. Okay. You just made me How was life all good Yeah, yeah good just knock surgery out of the way and Just going through just physio and stuff like that back in the gym, but not so going through just physio and stuff like that back in the gym, but nah, it's all going pretty smoothly.

I saw the picture of the hand post removal of stitches. There it is. What are they saying as far as timeline now? Yeah, I think that's two weeks or just over two weeks now. It'll be like six weeks till I can get it cleared and back to training kind of 100%. So yeah, like another six weeks and I'll probably be looking at

being ready to fight like September, October. Okay, are you missing it? Are you getting those itchy knuckles, all that stuff? I'm always fighting my ass. Yeah. You could knock on my door right now and I'll start swinging at you. So I don't think it's,

I don't feel like those itchy knuckles are ever gonna go anywhere. But maybe the silver lining is, I know you had a new addition, so you get to spend more time at home, get to be there to acclimate to life as a father of two. Yeah, yeah. My daughter was only, what was it, like three weeks, four weeks before the Gachi fight. So yeah, it was, um, when I did have to, when I did break my hand and have to have surgery, I did have a lot of times at home, which was really cool with the newborn. So yeah, pretty big silver lining. What did you think, by the way, of Gachi and, uh, Fiziev that fight, the, the, the,

the Fiziev replacing you fight because, uh because I actually thought Fizia have won the fight But I think I'm the only person on the planet that thought that You didn't watch it? You didn't watch it? Don't watch it. Why is that? Would you just did it bother you or? Oh, not bother me but kind of kind of when When I'm not fit to fight I'm more kind of more just check out from, from like, man, I've got the biggest mouth, but only when I'm not injured. Okay.

When I'm, when I'm physically fit or have a fight, I can talk that wild stuff. But, but I feel like when you're injured, you're just gonna shut up because you can't. Well, I'm not saying for you to talk smack. I was just curious if... So you don't watch anything? Like you'll watch VULK fight, right? What was I supposed to do? Watch the fight and comment on it? Or watch the fight and call him out when I can't fight either of them? Yeah. That's fair. Did you watch Alex's fight?

Bulkanovsky. That one, because that's a friend. That's your buddy. Yeah. You enjoyed that. What's my comment on that one? No, I'm just trying to get a gauge. If you're inactive, are you just not watching anything because you can't be a part of it, only watching your friends? How do you pick and choose? Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, I mainly watch the guys from this corner of the globe. Watch the guys on my team and from New Zealand and Australia really.

Okay. Anyway, let's not beat around the bush. Could we talk about one minute scraps? Cause that's what everyone's talking about right now. That's what we're getting to. That's why I don't know what you're asking about. Okay, I was just trying to, it was a little foreplay. I was trying to build up to it.

One minute scraps. No one cares, that was months ago. All right, fine, fine, fine. One minute scraps, 32 man battle royal, one minute scrap, straight hands, no weight limit, $50,000 winner takes all. When you put this out there, I was like, okay, is this a joke, what's happening?

And then the footage starts rolling in, and this is a real thing that transpired over the last few days. When did these fights actually happen? Like Saturday, New Zealand time. During the day, because I'm not going to do it at night, because I don't want to put up with my brothers. Right.

Is this actually your back garden? That's pretty much everyone in the actually. Yeah, it's my backyard. This is your backyard. In your house, you have neighbors. What are they thinking when all these big boys are showing up to fight? Um, well, yeah, I didn't really tell them. Sure.

They just kind of figured it out. But no, they're picking their name over the fence. One of our neighbors helped me trim my hedge to get the arena ready. Another neighbor on the other side, Brett on Vita Mobile. Got the wife to on Vita Mobile. And he came and he watched and straight after the event, he walked up to me and said that that's one of the most

respectful crowds he's come across and he was, and he thought it was a real cool event. Wow. Where did the idea come from? There are the boys right there, what a crew. Yeah, well, I obviously got contacted a while back by Crazy Rush on Fight Show, made my way out to Thailand where they had put it on in a like a warehouse out in Thailand and they brought me out to host it.

So I had a really, I had nothing to do, I brought a couple fighters with me from New Zealand but I had nothing to do with the organisation or kind of planning that event and then I just saw how it went down. They had the 32 man one minute fights. So I took the idea and then I saw how you could like run it smoother or how I would do it, you know. And because I got the 30 fights done, so I've just been dropping clips, kind of drip feeding, but I'm going to upload the full video to YouTube. And in real life, the 30 fights, the whole tournament went an hour start to finish.

Wow. Yeah, it was an hour start to finish with me going inside and because after the first 16 fights then rematching then I had seven quarterfinal spots but I needed another quarterfinal spot so I had four guys who lost which I threw back in for the last quarterfinal spot and they went out there. So it was like with adjustments, it was an hour start to finish. So once it's edited, the breaks are edited out, it's probably gonna be, yeah, I don't know, 50 minutes, 45 minutes for 30 fights. Where did you find the competitors? Oh, well, I just put a video up.

I just put a video up, I just put a video up on Instagram and people messaged me and then, yeah, just kind of looked through and, you spend enough time, you know, yeah, you know how to, how to kind of filter through everything. Were you the only one matching or do you have a team working with you?

It's just a man with an iPhone and a dream. I love it. And what happens after? I know, I did it. I knew that everyone would think it was crazy. I knew that there would be people that had issues with it so I wanted to match it. I wanted it at my house. I wanted it so I could control it. Yeah but I had some amazing people step up to the plate. Carl Weber, Tony Angela, who refereed it,

did an incredible job, had some incredible judges. So the medic, yeah, we had an incredible group of people step up to the plate and then make it all run so smoothly. Incredible, so you had judges, you had a referee, you had a medic, so you were taking this very seriously. It wasn't just like your typical backyard brawl. Did anyone get hurt? No, I don't know.

You told me, I haven't seen it yet. That's right. Did anyone get hurt? No, like the worst injury he had is one of the blokes. Kind of was exchanging and threw a punch and hurt his arm. That was probably the worst injury that we had. Couple bumps, couple scrapes. Yeah, I think that's the way we went.

We didn't have any major injuries. Obviously a few of the boys went, run through with concussion protocol and stuff like that. But no major injuries. And so after a minute, if there's no knockout, you go to the judges. Yeah. And they just declare a winner?

They just say who they thought they won the minute? Yeah. Yeah, it's fun. It's, and also it's like the rule set is pretty cool. It's like a three second knockdown rule. So one, two, and if you're not on your feet looking at the ref and look like you're ready to go, then it's over.

Two knockdowns, two knockdowns and it's over and a three second knockdown rule, which was cool. Bro, you go back and watch the first clip that I put up, which is Pernuva and then, Tom who's a very experienced fighter, he gets dropped like on his face in the grass and everyone's like, oh wow, yeah, that's over. Bro, give him a eight,

like watch the video and give him a eight count. He's up, like he's a like he's a he's a very experienced fighter he's back on his feet and he would be alert enough if that was boxing if that was boxing that fight would continue ask anyone if they watch that video at the start feel like that fight needed to continue i feel like it's we've proven enough i like the three second knockdown burger i feel like it I feel like that's safer than boxing. Maybe these boys are a lot less banged up than going out there and kneeing and kicking each other

and all that jazz. So you can say whatever you want to say about it. But I'm a guy that's had a lot of fights. Was it this one? Nah, the first fight. He gets up and finishes the fight. Yeah. He's back on his feet. That'll be the first knockout. Okay. Okay. Well, I'll certainly take your word for it. During the fights, where are you? Pretty close. watching. I'm manning the ship mate. Are you commentating? Is there going to be commentary on the videos? No, no, no. I had met the dog who woke me up this morning, who got me out of bed.

Dog was like, oh, we need to, like earlier in the week was like, we need to write their names down. I was like, oh, she's like, I need to list the names. I was like, for what? She's like, oh, for the graphics, for the videos. I was like, graphics on the videos. People on the internet don't care what your name is. That is amazing. It's a real professional. It's a professional thing.

Like simple, simple. It's just simple. It's what people want to see. We obviously wanted to do that. Everybody wins. We obviously, these boys wanted to do this. They wanted to get out there. They wanted some pro punches. They wanted a shot at 50 grams. Everybody wins. The people on the internet want wild new content clips. It's just, that's what pays for it. So you put up these little clips of people falling on the ground and that pays for the $50,000 for the winner. Yeah.

And each contestant got a thousand? Yeah. Okay. Each contestant got a thousand Yeah, okay And then the winner gets fifty yeah eighty two thousand dollars for all the fathers and and I'm sure you know You weren't surprised there were some people locally who weren't happy about this Any anything to the point that it would deter you from doing it again? to the point that it would deter you from doing it again? Uh. Ha ha.

Ha ha. Oh. I mean, I guess it's. They call me. Okay, all right. I was like sitting there and thinking like, you'd have to be, deter me. Now I'm like, now I feel like. Challenge.

Now you're challenging me. you deter me now I'm like now I feel like a challenge. Now you've challenged me. Now I was gonna leave it. Now you're telling me, Ariel, there's people trying to stop me. Now I have to do it. Now I'm honor bound and forced to pursue it. I only bring that up because I remember how strict everything was back during the pandemic. to pursue it.

I only bring that up because I remember how strict everything was back during the pandemic. So I was like, oh gosh, you know, I wonder what type of stuff he's dealing with. And then I see like some articles, some people commenting on it. I'm like, oh man, this isn't like doing something in Florida. It seems like New Zealand is pretty tight when it comes to combat related things. And so that's why I was wondering. There's obviously a few lefties out there just having a salt, but there's always going to be lefties out there having a cry.

But once everyone watches the full 45 minutes and just sees the respect by all the fighters that's showing to each other, you see that it's just a couple of guys put some gloves, like since when did putting gloves on in the backyard, and having a punch up with your mates become illegal? That, since when was that a crime? It's being run by some of the most experienced combat sportspeople in the country. Thousands of fights, medically

trained, you know, when did that become illegal? If that's illegal, then they've got the, I feel like things that they've got better things to do. Like it's something I feel like once they watch the whole thing, they see, Oh, no one gets hurt. It's a really want to run event. Everyone will just be like, Oh, doesn't matter. It It's a really wanna run event. Everyone will just be like, oh Doesn't matter it's not that big of a deal by the way Did you did you happen to stumble upon any superstars who could be like actual legit?

MMA fighters as well like a future Kimbo a future Jorge anyone that really caught your eye Yeah, there was some ah Yeah, there was some, there's obviously Pernuve, he's a pro boxer, I think he's retired 2020, so he's been retired, well he hasn't fought for five years. Most of his fights were like real light, most of his fights were 72 kilos, 75 kilos, I don't know, around 165 pounds. And he came back at 130 kilos, so 280 pounds. And he was sharp, he was slick, and he was knocking everyone out. So he was good. And then real dark horse was this young kid, Tumalako Phillips, who actually lost his first fight,

fought to get back into the tournament and then proceeded to do pretty incredible, incredibly. He really made a name for himself. Panuvera, I knew coming into the tournament, but Tumalako, he really made a name for himself. Wow. I feel like this could be like your thing. Like you are on a path now of being a fight promoter.

I feel like you really enjoyed this. Oh, I don't know about that. Oh, I don't know about that. I kind of just had an idea and did the thing. Man, organizing all that, 32 fighters. No real plan behind that. A tournament. I don't know where to go with that. What did your wife think about having these fights Man, organizing all that? 32 fighters? A tournament?

I don't know where to go with that. What did your wife think about having these fights in the backyard? She wasn't the biggest fan, mate. The neighbors are going to hate us. She was actually in Australia at the moment. She's visiting some family and taking the kids. Oh wow. So I booked the tournament and I was dropping off at the airport at 11 AM. And so I had the tournament start at 1 AM. So I dropped off and then I come home and then everyone started to arrive for the

tournament. Oh my gosh. I had timed it. Perfect. And then I come home and then everyone started to arrive. Oh my gosh. I had timed it. Perfect. But she knew it was happening. She knew it was happening. Okay.

She had. And now she's loving the clips. I can't keep her off Instagram. She still thinks I'm an idiot, but that's nothing new there. That's amazing. I give you a lot of credit. Not easy to put all that together.

No one got seriously hurt. Everyone was talking. By the way, there was no MMA this weekend, any promotion. So all I was seeing were Dan Hooker one minute scrap clips. That's like the whole algorithm was just feeding me that. So you picked a good weekend. Yeah, there's obviously more. And then we got the whole event. I, there's obviously more. And then we've got the whole event.

I think it's really cool. I think it's better like just watching the whole thing start to finish. It's actually a really cool event, how it played out. So when's it coming out? When are you gonna post it? What day is it? What day is it there?

It's a Wednesday afternoon. Wednesday, you have the UFC on Saturday? Yes, Saturday, Sunday morning, your time. What's the Friday? Friday, America time? Friday, America time. Yeah, that's good. Saturday.

Saturday people give us people time to watch it. Yeah. Before the UFC. It's all cut up, it's all edited and everything? Oh, I didn't do that. I didn't do that. Who's doing that? Who's doing that? Is someone doing that? Oscar's got it. Oh, okay. Oh, Oscar Willis.

Oscar Willis has it. He's gonna put it all together. Oh yeah, there's nothing to put together you just edit. Well I mean like I'm sure it happened over a course of time. You edit me going inside putting the matches of names up coming back is outside. Nah but it's all it's good to go it's all edited it's all good to go. We'll drop it Friday. We'll announce it here first. I love it. You figured it out on. We'll announce it here first. I love it. You figured it out on the Errol Hawani show.

I love it. I love it. By the way, did you offer refreshments to the fighters while they were waiting to fight or was it just like, you got to bring your own food and drink? Yeah, I was like here. I was like here before

because I'm just the worst playing person ever. And then one of the fighters said, oh, have you got, have you got ice in? I was like, ice in a minute, I'm pretty loving it. So I sent one of the boys down the road to get ice and water, so we had ice and water. I love it. So to answer your questions, yes, Ariel.

Good man, good man. Well, congratulations on getting this done. I'm not gonna ask you any fighting related questions, UFC related questions. You're at a commission at the moment, but you're looking to return in September, October, unless there is a name on your mind now that you wanna tell us or not yet.

Is it too early? Too early. Too early, all right, fair enough. We'll save that for another time. Too early. Too early. All right, fair enough. We'll save that for another time. Too early. Looking forward to this coming out on Friday and another event later this year perhaps? Or too early maybe. Yeah, yeah. Nah, we'll do another one. Definitely this year we'll knock another one out.

Okay. Well, we look forward to that. Thank you, Dan. Appreciate it. Glad you're feeling better and congrats on the success of the first one-minute session. Nah, we'll do another one, definitely this year. We'll knock another one out. Okay, well we look forward to that. Thank you, Dan. Appreciate it. Glad you're feeling better and congrats on the success of the first One Minute Scraps.

Cheers, Roy, thank you. There he is, the great Dan Hooker, joining us to talk about the 32-man, $50,000 winner-takes-all tournament that transpired over the weekend in Auckland in his backyard, or as they say in some parts of the world, in his back garden. It will be uploaded on Friday. And I saw that event that he was at in Thailand.

That was a crazy event. There were like, I mean, it was kind of the same type of thing, but this was wild. And I love the fact that he was a part of it. Some people in the New Zealand fighting scene were unhappy with it, but look, you know, some of the most famous fighters in combat history got their start under these circumstances. Kimbo Slice, Jorge Masvidal, just to name a few.

You gotta love Dan Hooker. So congrats to him on pulling this off. Congrats on no serious injuries. That's a big deal and we will check it out. And there's a bunch of clips that he has posted as well over the last few days on his social media so check that out as well. In a few minutes time we're going to be joined by Sean Grandy. I'm very much looking forward to this. He has been calling Celtics games on the radio and TV for 24 seasons, 27 seasons total, calling NBA

basketball, has called hockey, football, baseball, combat sports as well, was the voice of Bellator back in 2015, 2016, left that post in 2017, returned in 2021, is also called boxing pbc top rank and also this past summer was the voice of NBC's Olympic boxing coverage. Just a brilliant, brilliant broadcaster. I talked about this recently. I was driving home and the Knicks were playing the Celtics and I was like, oh I want to, you know, I want to listen to the game. And usually I won't listen to the home broadcast of the opposing team. But he is so good and not a homer and so professional when he's calling games alongside Cedric Maxwell. I didn't mind. I didn't mind at all.

It has been great getting to know him, great listening to him, and in fact way back when in 2015 he actually invited me to call a quarter in a preseason game. Nick Celtics at MSG, which was a huge huge deal for me. Without further ado let us say hello to the one and only Sean Grandy, who is here in studio, kind enough to join us in a matter of seconds. Did I screw that up? Did I miss time that? I thought I was told we were good.

Ah, and here he is, the man himself, the great Sean Grandy in studio, kind enough to join us. Are you here? What's going on with Caleb playing? Oh yes, no, we bring it in. We'll make sure you get it right. There it is.

Make sure we get it right. We're like, oh, did I leave you hanging there? No, it was good. I was worried about it after Caleb There it is. Make sure we get it right. We're like, oh, did I leave you hanging there? No, it's good. I was worried about it after Caleb, you know. Detroit Lions. This is a little bit of a pop culture test. Okay. Right now, everyone watching, people are buzzing in because they recognize the jacket.

Sure. You have spent so much of your time and your life immersed in this world, you've let some other things pass by. This is the, you want to take a stab at it? It's unfair. It is unfair. You know why? You sent me a picture, you were wearing that jacket.

Maybe. You were at ESPN. Possible, right? There was a photo of me on the wall. That's right. And I said, why the lion's jacket? And then you told me. And so.

Axle Foley. Axle Foley. Yeah, Axle Foley jacket. Which is crazy. So you're not even a Lions fan. Well, my wife is from Detroit. Got it. She is the Lions fan.

I found this awesome jacket, and eventually it was just sitting there in her closet after I gave it to her. And like, decisions are made by those who show up. So I'm like, this is too good on me, so I'm taking it. But you're not a Lions fan. I mean, listen, when the Lions are on in my house, it's happy wife, happy life. So as you know.

So I will gladly go along with anything that's gonna keep the marital peace. So great to have you. Let me see if I understand something. 10 years ago next week, I took this extraordinary leap of faith into this amazing world that you have documented almost from the beginning. MMA combat sports, yes.

MMA. And for two years, I'm the full-time voice of Bellator, did a lot of Bellator stuff after that. And yet, it takes until today, 10 years later, for me to be on this show only because you need some kind of therapy because your team is down 3-1. Is that true? Were you never on back then?

Never back then. You had my guy Jimmy Smith on. You had all my guys on. Why is that? I don't know. Who had you on your first NBA I literally said that as you were walking in October of 2015 preseason game my preseason game Nick Celtics you me Cedric Cedric had no idea who I was he was probably thinking the back of his mind who the hell is this guy why do we have a Knicks fan in

the booth here in the proverbial little did he know this Empire you were about to you were slowly start I appreciate that but that was a huge I mean a gigantic deal. I remember seeing Breen in the back. I'm like, what am I doing here? I have no business being here But it was like I mean that might be the only NBA game I ever get to call and then I'm okay with it Went then you years later you went to ESPN your with sidelines, but I wasn't in the booth You know what I mean? We didn't you have a discussion earlier about who should be interviewing the

fighters? Yes. Right after the thing? It is hard for- Do you agree with that? I do. It's very difficult. The play-by-play guy can't do that.

Particularly because there's a lot, let's say like a two inside baseball, but there's a lot of traffic. There's a lot of stuff going on. Ad reads, things like that. Particularly if you're, it's either an ad read, or you go into the next montage or for the next fight. What is happening that you have to do next to be able to run up in the cage? Especially you're like are you getting rid of taking your headphones off you're putting on a wild spike It's really difficult and John John did it for he did it for a while in the Fox days

Yes, for some reason they didn't want the the analysts to do it, but I think it's better when the play it's too much I'm stressed looking at him. Yeah, there's a lot because you have to think like he's got to wrap it up He's got to wrap up the scene then he's got to run up there now He's talking to someone three two one then you got to get back and then there's an awkward period where the analyst is doing the sort of like filling then or doing the replay yes Always you know some some can do it You're so good at your job that like you're taking control of this interview before I can contend like you're tight I gotta get my way to ten years. I gotta get all my stuff. I apologize for that

It's like about Kimbo Dada today. We have a lot. Oh my gosh. We have a lot. We have a lot Can you just make me feel a little better or no? There's nothing I can try by saying nothing Okay, teams have what a four or five percent chance down three one to come back I think the Knicks chances of coming back from three one or greater than that you do greater than there's nothing that I saw yesterday That would suggest now. I believe I'm not writing them off. I'm not one of these I'm going to the scene that says the Pacers are much better than the Knicks the all these games have been close That was all gone down performance. It was a bad performance. The turnovers.

No question. The body language. Tell me if this sounds familiar from the previous series. You blow in an unfathomable fashion. Yes. One of the early games in the series at home. Yes. You've dug yourself a hole that it's very difficult to come back from.

I think the Knicks win tomorrow. And I will say this. The Pacers are not coming into Madison Square Garden two years in a row and winning a game seven. That said. I hope not. That said, I think the Knicks win tomorrow, but game six to me, how many road games can you win if you're the Knicks?

Even going into last night, one of the most amazing numbers, the Knicks were six and one on the road, but they had been outscored in those seven games. That's how close, because they got crushed in game five in Boston, but all the other games are super close. Eventually, your luck kind of runs out. Can we win with these guys? Win what?

The whole thing. Can this team win? Can this nucleus win? I don't think, they're not winning this year, because- But let's be honest, the window is just opening, right? This isn't the 99 Knicks who are kind of at the tail end. Ewing can't walk. So our window is just opening with these guys

and there are some who are saying you can't win with these guys. The hope in your eyes right now, is this what you? Oh my God. Is this what you were hoping for? You had to do that to me? Is this what you were, is this what it was about?

Is that 24? This is 24. Golly. I did get some people encouraging me to dangle this in front of you. Oh my dear. Can I see I don't want it She's like Stanley Cup. You don't want to I kiss the trophy was here. So Never wow look at that. Look at that. Look at that. Look at that right there. Wow, it kind of makes me sick

I mean you're a New Yorker by the way holding this thing lest we forget Is your name on here? It is no probably, probably is. I don't know. Look at that in the middle, like, Boston 4141. One of the easiest roads, by the way, in the history of the- Celtics were gonna win last year.

Last year was their year, just like I think, okay, see, it's their year. You think so? I do, I thought that from the beginning. I think Indiana could beat them. This is incredible. I think the people are saying that now. Yeah, there you go.

That's how you know, in case you steal it, and people are wondering about the street. Do you ever wear this out? Wear on, the only time you would ever wear it is if you get invited to do the MMA hour. Look at this. It's just show and tell. Look at this, look at this, look at how many,

Brad, can you get this? Look how many diamonds are in that, look at that. Wow, glistening. Thanks for bringing it. All right, it's all show and tell, right? Or you're like, it's on the panel? Sean, I just want one. Thanks for bringing it. All right, it's all show and tell, right? Or you're like it's on the panel? Sean, I just want one. I just want one.

One Knicks, one Bills. That's it. I will die in peace. And I will never ask for more. I won't ask for, I don't want a dynasty. I don't want three in a row. I don't want two of three. I don't want three of four.

I just want to know what it feels like. We're gonna talk about storytelling, I'm sure, because that was a big part of 10 years ago when I changed my life to jump into MMA. But the storyline to me as it was going on in the previous round was, and Celtic fans to some degree, they were looking at Knicks fans outside Madison Square Garden after winning the third game in the second round

and kind of thumbing their nose a little bit. And all I could think of was, and of all of our conversations, as Montreal as you are, we haven't talked about hockey, so I don't know how much of that is in your background, but I was flashing back to the Soviet team in 1980, that the US, of course, beat in Lake Placid. And you would know hockey fans, hardcore fans, would know some of the names like Trechiak and Fetisov

and Mikhailov, but you wouldn't know, there was an innocuous fourth line center on that team and you don't know his name, but you would know his face because when it was over and all the other Soviet players were in the corner and they had their heads down, there was one guy on the blue line

with a stick under his chin staring at the American kids going absolutely crazy for winning this game. And he had a smile on his face almost as if to say, wow, I forgot what it's like to win, because we win all the time. Where is the joy in it? If the Celtics had gotten by the Knicks, and you didn't have Tatum or Port Zangas,

they were gonna lose to Indiana, the conference finals. Celtics fans, that would mean nothing to them if they lost in the Eastern Conference Finals. So in other words, where you are in Boston now, is turning up your nose at a meal that you are starving for one bite of. One. The Celtics in the 25 years it had been since the Knicks got here, the Celtics have been to the Conference Finals 10 times. Gosh. Ten times. So and the league is better. I know I'm a New Yorker. I get grief for that obviously sometimes in

Boston and I grew up a few blocks from where we're sitting right now. But the league is better when the Knicks are better. The league is better when they're relevant. The league is better when Madison Square Garden is relevant again, as we have seen. And sometimes it is just clearly not your year. And one of the great ironies of this year, of course, is our guy, Tom Thibodeau, getting killed all year for playing guys too much. But the Cavs and the Celtics bubble-wrapped their guys all year. They couldn't have taken more precautions. And you get to May, Cavs are broken down, Celtics are broken down, and the Knicks are still healthy. And that's the way it goes sometimes. So I don't think there's going to be a Knicks championship this year, only because I believe from the

beginning of the year that this was OKC's year. I think Boston and maybe the Clippers because of the matchup were the only teams that had a chance to beat OKC. They just had this historic year the same way the Celtics did last year and sometimes you just you just know sometimes sort of history decides and it just I haven't seen anything that has changed my mind that OKC is gonna win. People jump on Indiana it's great they won a lot of these close games. A bunch of people are asking me the NBA doesn doesn't want this the NBA doesn't want this I don't really subscribe to that

Obviously the ratings are better when the Knicks are in the finals are doing well, but like it's a superstar league, right? Do you think Adam Silver is pissed off? Funny how there hasn't been a lot of discussion about the ratings, right? Right? Oh, yeah You must that all right you had at the start of the year You're going in the middle of NFL season, presidential election. There's a lot of stuff sucking up all the air in the room. The NBA ratings are fine.

The NBA is healthy. Now, granted, I've been doing the Celtics for 20-something years, but when do you think the last time I saw an empty seat in the arena? Oh, God, yeah. It's been years. I mean, granted, it's the Celtics, so we sell out on the road, but the league is fine. The league is unbelievably healthy. We are in a revolutionary time in television

Rights which is gonna MMA is about to enter into that world where the world we knew of cable television and whatever It's all my son is 13 as you know, because when he was 6 I think he got a package from you with a Montreal Expos hat. Yes. Whatever. We're just looking at that yesterday. My son's 13. You think he's going to have any idea what cable television was? No. No. Doesn't really like probably know what it is now. He's only because his dad's been on it. Sure. Sure. He knows a little bit. He knows what. But he doesn't. He asks Siri where the channels are. Yeah. Whatever. He doesn't know. Hey 852 is where this channel is and whatever. He doesn't know, hey, 852 is where this channel is

and whatever. We knew this was going to be on this channel. Bellator is going to be on Spike. The Ultimate Fighter is going to be on Spike after Raw. You knew where to find your stuff. Eventually, we are transitioning now to a streaming world in which almost everything, I think, is going to be on apps at some point.

Point being about the NBA, the NBA is fine where they are now. Nobody's hurting. The Celtics now are going to have to break up their team because their payroll is going to be $500 million next year. The NBA is just fine. Of course, it's better if New York is in it. New York was in the finals, particularly OKC in Indiana. It don't have the same superstar attractions.

To me, it's not the market size of New York, as much as Madison Square Garden, as the attraction to have the NBA Finals. So you're gonna be fine. The NBA is getting close to the NFL, where if Green Bay plays Jacksonville in the Super Bowl, people are watching. I wanna pay you a very specific compliment.

I could pay you many. I just said this right before you walked in. So I'm driving home. I have a long drive. It's game two, Nick Celtics, previous series. I need to listen to the game because I'm gonna miss the first half. And I'm searching for the local,

but I was in Connecticut and 1050, I couldn't get it. That is a long drive. Yeah, it is a long drive. You're still in Connecticut and you're still driving. That's a long drive. And I couldn't get it. That is a long drive. Yeah it is a long drive. You're still in Connecticut and you're still driving. That's a long drive. And I couldn't get the local broadcast. So I go on Sirius and I get to your broadcast, you and Cedric Maxwell. And you know obviously I'm super biased, I'm a Knicks fan, I

want all things Knicks. But I knew that once I was going to your broadcast it wouldn't be in my face, it wouldn't be insufferable. And actually it's one thing to just like, I've listened to you a ton, I obviously know from your combat sports experience, but here's a pivotal game, we just stole game one. I want all things Knicks just fed to me. And I couldn't believe how unbiased you were. I couldn't believe how professional.

And then that game is the game where Bridges blocks the Tate and pass and all that. And even the video of your of your call Like most you know, it's become a thing now and it drives me nuts. I don't like it. I I'm a Knicks fan I don't want to see Stephen a act like that on ESPN and I love Stephen a but I would say to him I have great respect for him. I don't want to see that and I have to say the last two games I've muted the TNT broadcast and I've listened to the ESPN broadcast because I don't think, I remember a time where you're on TV, you're a pro and you may have some allegiances, great,

but you call it down the middle. And you and Cedric, and you in particular, I do have to say, like you did a phenomenal job in those games. Max was getting texts from Bernard King and stuff. So he was getting a little bit, yeah. It's okay, I think, for the former player to do that. That's okay. Those guys, those Kn think, for the former player to do that.

That's okay. Those guys, those Knicks Lakers guys, I can assure you, they're still fighting the Civil War. I get that. I get that. And it's the local broadcast. And I think it's okay. Most people would expect you to be that, but you weren't.

And I got to give you props. It was great. That's just a style choice. And there are people... I used to, when I was younger, I used to people, oh, he's a homer or whatever. If that's you, do you. You have to do your style. To me, it does not treat a viewer, a listener,

doesn't do them any justice if you're not telling the story of the game. The story of game two, I mean, that was the end of game two. The Knicks had just done this incredible thing that they had never, they just won three amazing games in a row on the road. You have to recognize when you're inside history when it's happening and even if you know you want to stomp your feet and

say oh the Celtics went against the Celtics and whatever this is the story this is what's really happening and you have to be true you're you're not treating your audience fairly if you are somehow skewing it towards your specific point of view or more to the point. I think what made that call interesting, what I would talk to kids about who want to do play-by-play, the hardest thing in my field to do is to call something that you couldn't possibly have expected. You prepared for everything, but to have that game happen the way it happened, you're seeing something, particularly with the end of the game, for it to happen that specific way was unusual. When I saw Michael Van Impeach crushing the skull of Cyborg Santos, that you're not expecting to see that. You have to ad-lib in the moment. I only

picked that one out because I remember pulling back on that call because I was like, you know, MVP's in there, he's doing his Pokemon celebration. You remember that in London? And I, in our wrestling terminology, I no sold it because it was one of the few times I was legitimately worried about the guy on the other end. Like this is not a time to, so you have to recognize in real time, not so much how is history gonna look at it,

but be in the moment and stop, don't lean into, oh, your brain should always be working. And that to me was the story of that specific game. It's the story of any fight you're doing, any game you're doing, just tell the story of what's happening. And, you know, Celtics fans have gotten to see a lot of good stuff.

So let's have the chat that we should have had 10 years ago. You're a pro broadcaster, you've done everything. You went to BU, you do Boston College, you do everything from lacrosse to college hockey to NBA to WNBA, everything in between, NFL, college, whatever it is, you've done everything. But then in 2015 you get a call to do this thing called MMA, Bellator MMA, to be specific, and you knew of MMA, but you didn't really follow it because you have a full-time job,

you're calling 82 games a season plus playoffs, like who has the time to watch any of this? Who even calls you to join that squad right over there, you and Jimmy Smith calling Bellator on Spike? Oh, so young, look at that. Who calls you and who has the idea to say, let's pick this guy who's never done this before. How does it all go down well the first call came through my wife's agent

did not represent me at the time because and my current wife the current wife that was miss I miss spoke when I've said I said we are now married at the time we were not it I guess my girlfriend at the time and her agent didn't rep me at that time because that would have been a conflict. Now that agent is someone that we both know extremely well, Nick Khan. And it was Nick who first floated the idea, would I be interested in doing it? And then you just start trying it on, and eventually you start getting calls, and there were, I think what Bellator wanted at that time was to make it sound, this is getting

obnoxious. No, no, listen, it's just like staring at me. I was going to be distracting. this is getting obnoxious. No, no, listen, it's just like staring at me. It's gonna be distracting. So they wanted a sports feel. They wanted a major league sports feel to MMA. And they wanted to have that. They wanted to make it sound like it was a big event, a major event, major league sports.

And I thought about what my options were at the time. And I realized that nobody gets to the end of their life and says, you know, I'm really glad I didn't take that chance. I'm glad I didn't jump off that cliff. And it was... I knew that at the time, Monday Night Football would have been considered the biggest job in my industry. And I knew that at the time Al was doing it and before my friend Mike Tirico got the job. And I knew at that point if somebody came to me and said, hey, listen, we want you to

be Al Michael's successor. I knew that that's the biggest job in the industry and it would be humbling. But I knew that I could do it because I've done football. I've done a lot of stuff. I didn't know if I could do this. And it comes to the point, are you going to get out of your comfort zone? Are you going to try something new? I know I can do hockey and basketball and whatever the rest of my life, but could I do this thing that was not a part of my DNA? Could I jump

into something new where everybody, and if you're still in hour four of this show, if you're still watching, you are the definition of hardcore. And it was an audience that loved their sport so much that I wanted to serve a new audience and learn something new and learn some new tricks and I had two of the best teachers here ever I had Jimmy Smith who just saw and John McCarthy to teach me the sport and to study the history of it and do you have to did you have to audition? They came after me. I think Jimmy and I did a couple of practice sessions.

But what they- And you had never called fighting before? Boxing even? I think at that, I'm trying to, now it's a timeline question. I'm trying to remember when I first did. But I think boxing may have come after. So I probably had not done, I'd probably done pretty much every stick and ball sport there was,

but probably had not, unless I'm forgetting the timeline. I don't think I'd done even boxing yet, which I ended up doing a lot of later at that time. So it was a complete jump off a cliff to an audience. People would say to me, oh, they're waiting for you. They're waiting to come after you. And I looked at it more as if MMA fans were just guardians of their sport, because I was not the first guy to come from major league sports to guys who come in before to collect a paycheck and to, you know, they didn't really, I think, throw themselves into the sport and try to learn why people love

it so much. And it took me virtually no time. My first set of fighter interviews I did, when all of a sudden, listen, I live in a world, as you know, of five-star hotels and charter planes or whatever, and then I'm sitting across from men and women who are doing this as their second job,

who are line cooks during the day, and then they go to the gym at night to train for a chance. And it took me virtually no time not only to fall in love with the sport, but mostly to fall in love with the fighters. And then if I had any impact whatsoever on the way Bellator was televised and maybe the way we look at it, the way I tried to tell the stories was I begged them, please let's do the fighter walks. Please let's do it. And that became,

if I had a thing in Bellator that was it. The Peter Cooley walkout. And you pushed that forward. We talked about it earlier in the day with Pizzi who's from Dublin. It's the greatest walkout of all time in terms of broadcaster telling the story of the fighter, of the song, how it connects to the city, why he chose it. And then the timing is an art. To end your thought as the music, as the lyrics are about to play, as the vocals come on, I urge anyone, Peter Queely, walk out, type in Sean's name and it will come up.

It's magic. 2021, I think it was late 2021. The funny thing about that was the story and we told that story and that's the thing that's gone viral. It's what everybody remembers. The story of that fight, Petriki won the title. Petriki knocked him out pitifully. Never been stopped. Yeah. Yeah. Petriki Pitbull wins the title. He had always played second fiddle to his brother. So you had an amazing story that was culminated at the end of that fight, but all anyone remembers is the walkout. And first of all, when you're talking about the timing,

you're talking about, first of all, we had John Norton producing, we had Rick Bosinski directing. John Norton did a lot of stuff for the UFC before he came over to Bellator. I had Michael C. Williams doing the interview. Listen back, if you're gonna watch it, listen to how Michael C. Williams times everything perfectly.

I had an idea I wanted to do that because people knew of that walkout, but I didn't know why. I didn't know the background of the song and the story. And every walkout I did, I tried to find something about the fighter or something. I used to tell the guys, walk slow. Walk slow when you get out there.

Cause sometimes the tendency is that you want to get engaged. I'm like, this is the only chance I have to tell your story. So walk slow. But that particular one, I listened to the song. I remember that morning changing what I was going to one, I listened to the song. I remember that morning changing what I was gonna do because I listened to the song the way a DJ

would have that time to talk, because I knew, unlike every other walkout, where I used the walkout time to tell the story, I knew I wanted to completely lay out. I wanted the crowd to be the, you gotta let the crowd sing the song. So I knew I had to stop when he walked out. But in listening to the song,

I think literally that morning, I said, wait a minute, there's about 30, 35 seconds there before the first lyrics of the song start. So if we put the camera on him walking out of his dressing room to the back before he walks the stage, we're going to have time to do it. And this takes, I know people gave me credit for it and I did my little part. But this is where having great TV people, which the UFC has had, which by the way, PFL has amazing people running in television, production people of background with huge sporting events. You get the right team. The best part of television and doing play

by play on television, Ariel, is you're part of a team. It goes to a place and puts on a show as a team. And that is as team and effort as you're ever going to come up with with. Rean Oates, John McCarthy had his thing that he said after that to tee up the fight. I said, Michael C. Williams in the ring, in the cage, doing the, you know, hitting that timing perfectly.

And then that was an example of what I wanted MMA to be. Again, if you're at this point of the show, you're going to watch MMA no matter what because you love it. My job was to make it that people who hadn't tried it before might say, hey, this is really cool and try to build an audience that way, which we could do when we were on Spike and getting him a peeking at a million viewers every third Friday. It became a lot harder to do it behind a paywall, but that was a moment of, this is this amazing story. This isn't for NNA fans, this is for everybody. Who would not be interested in watching Peter Queely fight

with that crowd behind him in a world title fight, in that environment? It's a great shot if you're gonna go to take the time to watch it watch Patrick II in the middle of it they cut to him and he's smiling Wow because and he's about to fight for this he's gonna fight Peter Quilley for the title and he was like you can tell he was saying this is awesome like this is really cool what's going on with the crowd behind and. And he can hear your voice. You add so much to it.

I know you're being bashful, but it's so good. It's not about bashful. It's about that I didn't invent the story of when Tito Ortiz walked against Chael, I was able to tell the story of, and you realize how far the sport had come in the 20 years or wherever it had been, 20, 25 years since UFC 1, that when Tito Ortiz was first walking to the cage, you had, you were trading VHS tapes to watch it, probably. You couldn't read anything about it. You weren't going to see it on Sports Center.

And you had a senator and a future candidate for president calling it human cockfighting. And now he's walking the cage where everybody knows who he is this is nationally televised it's live we're in LA in a sold-out form and you know this is gonna be on Sports Center when it's over that's telling the story of the sport so every walkout had its own individual thing but you're telling the story of the sport or the story of the fighter and it's what Like anything from the history of the world, why are these guys fighting? Why do I care that this guy wins or this guy wins

or this guy who was? I said, when I first got there, there was a tendency, not calling anybody out, but they wanted to start with fights going on. Let's start with action. Well, MMA fights don't always have what you would call action. And you and I as wrestling people know know action can be defined as different things. Monday Night Raw doesn't start usually

with a match. It starts with pyros and somebody walking out and I said okay let's start with a walk. Let's start with here's what's coming up tonight. Let's start with here's who this fighter is and why they are, why they're fighting and the most compelling fighters let's say this is fighting. I was you guys talking about somebody was talking about like Nate Diaz. You see have the best win-loss record in the history of the sport? Of course not, but you didn't miss didn't miss fight. Obviously you had this I come in at the time that there's Connor and there's Ronda and you knew not only them but their opponents,

everybody they were fighting. People want to know why I'm watching this. Of course, everybody's gonna watch a fight, but why does it matter? And that was, to me, I'm so grateful for the years that I got to do it, because it allowed me to be creative in telling the stories of the fighters, and hopefully making that a little more entertaining.

Just the fact that you remember that one walkout. That's a cool moment of sports television, which has always been my passion, sports television. We created a moment, sports television. And if that was a little moment where MMA got more national recognition or more people who didn't know much about MMA, saw that and became interested in it. If one, there's one more MMA fan in the world, because we did the Peter Quirley walkout a certain way, then our work is done.

When you got the call to do Bellator, it's 2015, at that point you have called thousands of games, right, from different sports, but you are the voice of the Celtics. Do you suffer from imposter syndrome? Are you super anxious? Is it nerve racking or are you such a pro where you're like, I did my research, I'm good? I think it was halfway. Nervous is the wrong word. I think people were surprised that I wasn't. I think I was so prepared to go into, again, not a hostile environment. People have asked me over the air years, were the fans,

I said, fans are being protective of the sport that they love, so I never had an issue with it. And I'll tell you funny stories, I'm wearing this sort of pseudo leather jacket as sort of a gag, just to test your pop culture knowledge. I'll tell a story now, when I first started, they were so concerned about someone that looks like me coming from the big shot NBA, about fans, about getting over with fans.

They wanted to dress me up in like leather jackets and whatever. And I said, stop. I'm going to do my thing. I'm going to treat the sport and the fighters with respect. I'm going to call these fights. I'm going to try to add drama to it. I'm going to make Jimmy Smith a bigger star than he is

because I think he's awesome. And if and when the fans like me, they'll like me. And the way it's generally worked with me is people say, I don't know about this guy. And then after a while they go, Hey, I kind of get it. This guy's funny. He says something funny once in a while and I get a kick out of him and he's not interfering with my enjoyment, which is the number one complaint. You just sat there across the table without saying my guy, Reggie Miller's name, because you know he's a good friend of mine and deliberately that's who you're talking about because there are people who will advertently sat there across the table without saying my guy, Reggie Miller's name, because you know he's a good friend of mine

deliberately. That's who you're talking about, because there are people who will, inadvertently or inadvertently, interfere with your enjoyment. And remember, when you're a network national guy, as I was with Bellator, by definition, you guys didn't invite me into your home. I wasn't invited.

I'm just there all of a sudden. So you try not to put your feet up on the furniture and just do the job. So I wasn't, I guess because I was fairly established at that point, I wasn't trying to, oh please, like me, please, I would hate it if anybody said something. At that point, you can't care.

My job is to make the fights I'm calling more exciting, to bring more eyeballs to the sport, to tell these stories of these incredible fighters, and again, to have Jimmy explain to an audience that might be a little bit new, okay, what is it, why? Why do this? Why do that? Why does, if he's going to go into side, he gave up side control there, why? Oh, because he's thinking about, because two moves down

the road, he may be thinking about, so I'm doing it to some degree the way you're doing a football game or a basketball game, where you want your analyst to explain what's happening and why. Because a lot of people didn't have that knowledge. And I'll give you, and this is the last long-winded one. It's not, it's true. This is like a podcast type thing.

Yeah, you can go as long as you want. And people who, that's the beauty of it. If you're in my line of work, anyone that uses one word, when they can just as easily use 10. It's not true. This is like a podcast. Yeah You go as long as you and people who ask the beauty of it You're in my line of work anyone that uses one word when they can just as easily use ten. It's perfect It's just not trying hard enough This is when I speak to kids who want to be played by play guys who want to go into the field Every sport has an example of this and here's mine And if you have if you're a longtime MA fan, you'll appreciate the history of this because you study all you can If you're a longtime MA fan, you'll appreciate the history of this because you study all you can. Tim Corrigan, executive producer at ESPN, runs the NBA, you've worked obviously underneath him.

He told me once, the ball is going to come to you. Okay, you don't have to force it. And that's something I wish I took into MMA and wherever. Don't force yourself on it. It's going to come to you. We had a fight. Phil Davis was challenging Liam McGarry for the light heavyweight title. Liam McGarry, great submission, dangerous submission fighter, but Phil Davis was on another level. He was dominating the fight. He won the first four rounds. So as I'm telling the story of this fight, as it's unfolding, okay, Phil Davis is dominating this fight. He's going to win the decision, but he's still going gonna get through a fifth round with a dangerous submission fighter. Now, this is, if you do your homework, if you've studied, eventually things will come around. So, my head is cataloging Challenger up four rounds to none, dominating with wrestling against a dangerous submission fighter.

And sitting next to me is Chael, who was in the exact same spot against Anderson. And so the ball will come to you. And that was the moment I remember thinking, okay, I kind of have a feel now for storytelling with the history of the sport and studying all you can study. And, you know, again, you're gonna be bashful about it, but this show in its incarnation 10 years ago became invaluable for someone who was coming in

from scratch because you have this real estate. Your show isn't on for half, it's not the NBA today, it's on for half an hour. You can be on as long as you want and fans can hear from fighters who aren't on a talk show where in three minutes you gotta go on to the next thing. And it was invaluable to me, all the people that cover the sport.

I thought it was underutilized. You know, I'm coming from a different world and I saw how you covered it and how different people were covering the sport. And I'm like, this is really good stuff. But because it's MMA, and there's a different media background to it and the way it's covered

and the way people's covered and the way People who run promotions let you cover it all of the above was different and it was so new so you say 2015 We're 22 years out right from UFC one at that point It was still evolving. How is media gonna cover it? You're not an ESPN yet Obviously starting to get some of the Fox stuff But I don't think mainstream media figured out how to cover it, which includes, by the way,

if you were the Bellator guy, ESPN just would cover the UFC stuff. And we used to say in our little distant number two world, if ESPN ever covered college football the way they covered MMA and only covered the SEC and didn't cover the big 12 or whatever we were at the time, you would, but that had to evolve also, like how you're going to cover the sport. And when ESPN, when UFC went to ESPN, Bellator went to the zone, that was the end. Well, okay. So there's a lot of, I think you could say a lot of points that were the end.

Going from Spike to Showtime in retrospect wasn't great The CBS Sports Network stint wasn't great as well and this kind of coincides with you departing in 2017 a lot Afterwards was not great and I know this is a little question But if I were to ask you the very simple question of what went wrong what happened to Bellator? How did it go from a million or so viewers on spike some pretty great crowds? building some names building some stars to now in 2025 no longer being around and And the company that absorbed them just sort of like let it fade away into the night What went wrong with this company first?

Let me take a slight departure to say I was today years old when I learned that the predecessor to Bellator Which of course was Strikeforce, did shows at the Playboy Mansion. Oh yeah. So obviously I came in too late because I had to go to Thackerville. Yeah, I know. Ten times. And you went to the Playboy Mansion.

So obviously my timing was not good there. What happened with Bellator is a complicated question. You can answer it many different ways. To me, I'm coming from a television standpoint. When I left the first time, Bellator was growing so fast, I couldn't manage it anymore. I signed on to do 12 shows a year, I think, 12 or 14, and that became 20-something shows.

And I was, as much as I loved the crew, as much as I loved the sport, as much as I loved the fighters, you know what Bellator was doing at the time. A Saturday show in Italy, Friday show in Budapest. And all my friends and everybody else on the crew would go on a junket and they'd take the train through Prague and they'd have,

I was flying back to the States, doing two more Celtic games, and then flying red-eye, getting off the plane in Budapest, and as soon as I got to the hotel exhaust, they'd be like, all right, time to go to rehearsal and we're doing the event tonight. And eventually, my son was five at the time and you know full well, you got to make trade-offs.

And I was way too much time away from my son. I couldn't do it. Shortly thereafter, I think you could trace some of this to Kevin K, not being a part of the decision-making process because Kevin K is a- Former president of Spike. Kevin, right, if you don't know, Kevin K is a integral part of the growth of the sport, you know,

from the Ultimate Fighter to what Bellator became. I use this example as maybe the best one. I wouldn't use Kimbo against Dada as being the best example of putting our best foot forward, but I will tell you, we peaked at three million viewers that night. And even on a, insane, right? And even right now was the night I had Mike Tyson, Mike Tyson with me.

Remind me before we go to tell you the story about having Mike Tyson with me that night because it's an all-timer. So we were doing, Errol, we were peaking at a million on Spike for our regular Friday shows, which could be, no knock on these guys, Kendall Grove against Joey Beltran, we're peaking at a million viewers. The NHL would look at that now and go, oh my God, a million viewers. As I said, when UFC went to ESPN and Bellator went behind the paywall, if that had been reversed, UFC could live behind the paywall and survive.

Bellator could not. And I just said, we peaked at three million, we were peaking at one million. The biggest fight in Bellator history was AJ McKee and Patricio Pitbull that peaked at maybe 100,000 on Showtime. That's game over. You can't build a brand and build the fighters. When people know UFC the way they knew WWE as the brand, as Band-Aid, as being the number one brand in the sport, you can't exist behind a paywall so that was

Monstrous how can you build stars you know how hard it was to build stars if I'm on Monday Night Raw I can have my guy that I want to build on there every week Our guys are fighting maybe three times a year Hard to build stars that way we tried to build personalities and stars But you can't do it when you go behind a paywall. I'm coming from a TV perspective. There's a lot of reasons where the money went and all the decisions. The disowned money, you had to take it to keep the company going. But it was like taking a poison pill. It was eventually going to kill you if you didn't

get off there. And even Showtime was a great partner, but who could have imagined, by the way, Showtime, a integral network in combat sports for decades, suddenly just jumping out of the combat sports game too. So all these things hit at once, and it was gonna come down to, is there gonna be PFL, is there gonna be Bellator, and ended up being PFL. As you're going back and forth from radio to TV,

do you have to rewire your brain? Sure. Is that difficult? The hardest, not the hardest job of having the NBA, but the best, it's my favorite because it was challenging. So for about three years, I was doing both with the Celtics and doing a television game with Brian Scalabrini, who by the way today on his radio show,

when talking about the Knicks bench referred to Ariel Hockporty as Ariel Hawani. For real? Yeah, that happened. That literally happened. Who's that guy? How come they don't play Ariel Hawani? And Frank Esso had to come in.

No, no, Ariel Hawani is the, no. The other guy. Not Hockporty. You know what? I thought Scal hated me. Now I think he kind of likes me secretly. Well, you're everywhere. I want to get an Ariel H jersey. It's the closest I'll ever get to being in it. You know what? I think that's of lets me secretly. Well, you're everywhere. I want to get an Ariel and H jersey.

It's the closest I'll ever get to being in it. You know what? I think that's a great idea. That's great. Cool. Thank you. And it's going to go right up there somewhere. I hadn't thought of that until this very moment.

But listen, a million things went wrong with Bellator. A million things that could have gone differently. But tell me about going from radio to TV. Oh, I'm sorry. I knew I forgot. I mentioned Scow. And Scow, a few months ago, we were here in a few blocks from where we are now.

And Scow went to that 4th Street playground. Oh yeah, oh yes. Like George and Messiah. And I was like, I grew up literally a block from there. And I was like inching towards the back door because I didn't think I was going to get out with my life the way Scow was. You were there?

I went. I went to go, well, we had flown up. I think we played in Miami the night before. We flew up and he was gonna do that in the morning and I go on my run around my old neighborhood, I'm like, I gotta stop and see this. Knowing that Scal was gonna whip the crowd into a frenzy and probably start a bra,

which he very nearly did. Doing a game with Scal on TV one night and doing a game on radio with Cedric Maxwell the next night, those are two very different jobs. Really? How so? I love this stuff, how so? Because television, first of all, Scal and Max approached the game completely different. the next night, those are two very different jobs. Really? How so? I love this stuff. How so?

Because television, first of all, Scow and Max approached the game completely different. Max was gonna react to things differently. Scow follows the league intently. He knows all the salary cap figures for every team and possible. Max isn't following it the same way. They played in different generations,

so they react differently. And then calling a game, some sports are more similar. Hockey is closer. Radio and TV isn't as much of a difference because you still have to identify players. Basketball. The pace is kind of the same, right? A little bit.

Hockey, TV, it's a little. Hockey, yes, hockey. All you're dropping with hockey, now you're getting really wonky 500 level class stuff. I love this. Hockey, you're dropping right and left, right circle, left circle,. Hockey you're dropping right and left, right circle, left circle, that's all you're dropping. You still need to identify the players in hockey. Baseball is

completely different. Radio and television, football a little bit. Basketball there's a rhythm to it but you don't need to identify where the ball is on television. It's obvious you're just you're laying back much more and you're punching the big moments. The analysts, you're- You're speaking so fast in basketball. Like the amount of stuff that is coming out. Hockey's the same, I mean, I used to, I used to listen to M&M.

I mean, I listen to M&M all the time, but I used to listen to M&M before games and do it as, you know- As practice. The excellence of- Just to get warm up. Yeah, where's Bret Hart? There he is. I was often called the excellence of elocution. it as you know. As practice. The excellence. Just to get warm up. Yeah.

Where's Bret Hart? There he is. I was often called the excellence of elocution. That's what they called you. I mean, you get stupid nicknames your whole life. Yeah. So what I've learned in doing a bit of a deep dive on you, if we were to rank the sports that you loved calling, basketball was like a distant fourth.

You become synonymous with basketball. You're a Hall of Fame basketball broadcaster and you weren't even that into it. Every year when I teach, when I go into these classes, one of the, let's say I'm in Boston doing it. I'll say who here wants to be the voice of the Red Sox? And two thirds of the hands go up. Okay, how many jobs are there to call Red Sox games?

So you better be prepared. If your call comes from the Calgary Flames, or the Arizona Diamondbacks, or the Indiana Fever, or whatever sport is next, you have to be ready to do it. That's a play-by-play announcer doesn't select his sports. You telling the story of what's in front of you, that was the challenge of MMA. Can you tell a story with the canvas?

Can you do the homework? And can you study it to where you're going to be able to tell the story of a sport you don't know that well? Obviously, I did Olympic boxing last year. That's right. I'm only laughing because I got the, in the feel-good, Snoop Dogg Olympics, I, of course,

got the one sport that had. You had it all. I had the, yeah, we had gender issues and we had the chromosome issue and we had, yeah, the Monte Calif and that, I laugh because that boxing in the old days would get huge promotion and that was a big story, but NBC, I don't blame them, didn't want any part of that. But you're telling the story that's in front of you. And as Aaron Sorkin, the great TV writer, is often as fond of saying,

your job is to entertain the audience for as long as you have asked for their attention. And that's a two hour event on Spike. And sometimes you're getting five great fights. Sometimes you're getting fights that aren't that great. And I ended up in, if it wasn't Fargo, Boise, Boise, Idaho one night, and we were all excited because we had Carvalho defending the middleweight title

against Melvin Manoff. This is gonna be a banger for the ages. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I remember this. And it ended up being the worst fight, maybe ever. They literally did not throw a punch in the first round. It was colossally bad. And so do you have the trust of the audience when it was over and Carvalho got the decision, which was even more ridiculous. And I think what I said the time was the only thing worse than that fight was that decision. On the

one hand, you're you're analyzing the product and you're saying something negative, but you have to have the trust. But you it's everybody saw the fight. Yeah, I like that to have the trust. But everybody saw the fight. Yeah, I like that. You guys all saw the fight. You sat through that horrendous 25 minutes with us. What is the point if you're not being honest with the audience? And there were all this, you love all this stuff,

because there was all these discussions when I got there about, well, don't say UFC. Nah, silly. No, no, no, no, no, no. First of all, no, because you're not, this isn't Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling. He was with another promotion, and I know that's been the UFC dictum, and I know that when Will Brooks goes there, and Patricio goes there, and they were very successful in another promotion, you can't even know, Beltor doesn't exist anymore. They've gotten a little better. They have gotten better. of course they've gotten better. And maybe because the gap has gone so big

where there's no words. Right, it is huge. Yeah. It is. And they should, but it was almost like, the last thing I ever wanted to do was insult the audience. Yeah. Again, you're telling the story. The story of that fight was, this should have been an amazing fight and it was terrible.

You guys all know it was terrible. You want me to pretend that it wasn't? Why would I do that? Like, we're all here together. But the thing about not saying UFC, no. Because Phil Davis, what were we supposed to pretend? Phil Davis just walked out of, you know, walked out from behind the curtain and like give him a new WWE name. Like, hey, it's Don't Wink the Clown or something. No, it's Phil Davis, who was a contender in the UFC. And here's the, and again, at that time, there was the great debate and I deferred to Jimmy

and I deferred to John McCarthy, who really felt at that time that the elite fighters in Bellator and the elite fighters in the UFC were largely interchangeable. Obviously, once you got past five or six in a division, it was not close, but that was fine. We were a small little group and you wanted to see these fighters, and you

wanted to talk about what would it, if Jose Aldo and Patricio fought in their prime, what would that look like? You want to have that discussion here on Monday. Yeah. Hey, did you see Patricio fight over? That was a great fight. What if?

And you just have that discussion. I think the idea that Bellator was ever going to take over the world was silly. But for all the people that were, oh, Bellator is this and Bellator is that, kind of miss it now, don't you? Yeah, I know. I mean, everybody does because it was just this alternate reality. We could see a lot of the same fighters and they helped. We signed Melvin Gillard. Melvin Gillard barely won

a fight. I'm not sure he even, he maybe won one fight in Bellator, but it was Melvin Gillard. Melvin Gillard barely won a fight. I'm not sure he maybe won one fight in Bellator. But it was Melvin Gillard who had fought huge fights and he fought Cironi in a great fight in Denver. And he had that name value and he came and fought some of our younger fighters and our younger fighters beat. And that's the way this was supposed to work. And that was the storytelling. And we had young fighters that came out of Alima Lam McFarland, comes out of nowhere nowhere and all of a sudden she develops her own brand and her own and is a championship fighter and that was the that was the fun part and I think the sport desperately needs I know UFC doesn't want competition but you don't look at it that way it's the same you how many

times have you sat in that seat and talked about AEW over the last couple years the world is better off the end years? The world is better off. The end of the day world is better off with a strong number two. WWE is better off because of AEW and UFC doesn't have an AEW and they suffer as a result because it doesn't give them a kick in the behind. By the way, a lot of wrestling references, you've called them all, to the best of my knowledge, never pro wrestling, right? Would you like to?

Is that one that you need to cross off before it's all said and done? I will tell you this. It's funny you put that picture up before. If you had said in 2015, when you put that picture up before that one of these guys is going to go back to MMA and the other one is going to be the play-by-play guy from Monday Night Raw, you would have been a million dollars that it would have been the other way around. It's the most amazing phone call I ever got in my life. It's Jimmy Smith calling me to tell me he was going to be the new play-by-play guy of

Raw, which is amazing. I, you gotta be a longtime fan to get this reference, but I always felt as a kid, and you know Jim Ross, icon who we are all thinking about and sending our best to, a great friend of mine, always thought that I could do that and that I'd be, you know, it's a storytelling so to some degree I could do that, and I think that I could have called a Terry Funk, Jack Briscoe match in the 70s. But the day I realized this may be too far gone for me

was the day that Road Warrior Hawk fell off the Titan-tron to his death or whatever. And then Sable's music hit. Two seconds later, and Sable walks out, and Jerry Lawler said, well, can't grieve forever. That's when I said, okay, maybe this is gone. That was it? That was a different time.

I will tell you this. I believe, let's say if you're calling the over the top element, pro wrestling is here, and the NBA, whatever I'm doing, sports are here. I call Bellator here. You know, when you're promoting what's next and this fight is coming up next and this whatever I'm doing, sports are here, I call Bellator here. When you're promoting what's next, and this fight is coming up next, and this fighter is, I think some of that DNA trickled

into it, because I don't think you can deny, I think there are people in MMA who I always felt turned their nose up at pro wrestling, and there was always gonna be a segment of that population, but you cannot deny the connectivity, and in the history of it and the performance and the promotion of it. I think there's always been a connection between the two.

So I don't know if I could, I don't know if I could do it. I think it would be great. I know a lot of people have always said that and it would be a blast to do it. I think it's always been more of my dream to be that Shane McMahon person in the middle of the ring having 20,000 people, you know, chant a bad word at you, you know, when you're in there. Now, once you the middle of the ring, having 20,000 people chant a bad word at you when you're in there.

Now once you start taking bumps from 20, I'm like, no, I can't do that. I think you would give it some gravitas. You would give it, you know. Well, I will say this. So obviously I've shared a job sort of with Morrow over the years. Morrow is an elite pro wrestling announcer. Yes, he's incredible.

He's very, very good at it. And there's a, I think, listen, if you're me, you think you can do anything, right? So of course, how would this be done? And you'd apply your skills to doing it. And obviously, I've got a great history of it. And I know a lot of that. And it's fascinating.

Listen, look at what ESPN, what WWE has done here, with Lee Fitting has come in to run that side of it, who Nick Khan brought from ESPN Joe Tessitore Who was in a lot of ways born to this like he fits it because his style Was a little bit this thing I just did imaginary with my hand where he was always a little peer anyway Doing football or doing whatever and he's done. He's done great at it So I think if there was ever a spot for someone like me, I think Joe's got it

I think that they have ever a spot for someone like me, I think Joe's got it. I think that they have gone that way. But listen, who knows? Another thing I tell the kids in classes, when somebody calls, they called me years ago, 1998, and I got a phone call and they said, can you do soccer? Now what's the answer to that question when somebody calls you and says, can you do soccer? Yes. Yes. I'd never been to a soccer game in my life.

Wow. But yeah, I'll do it. So I did this MLS game, and you just immersed yourself in it. And maybe that secretly prepared me for that call that was going to come in 2015. I don't know. The answer is always yes. Try it.

Jump in. OK, if you fall on your face, you fall on your face. Announcers fall on their faces sometimes. And I was proud that I didn't. I was really proud of the way MMA came out. I was very proud of the shows that we did. And it's great to me that UFC got a little Emmy love. I felt very strongly at the time.

You have to have people pushing for that, sending in stuff like that. I felt that the stuff we were doing from a sports television standpoint was Emmy worthy. And I thought that would have put MMA in a great light, felt that the stuff we were doing from a sports television standpoint was Emmy worthy. And I thought that would have put MMA in a great light to have, hey, listen, Bellator show won an Emmy for whatever. I think that would have helped the view of the sport.

You currently have one of the, I would say, one of the glamour jobs in all of sports. I mean, Celtics, radio play-by-play, Guy the Great, Johnny Most, I remember looking at, like I had an NBA.com CD-ROM about the history, Encyclopedia of the NBA, and I got it in 1997, and I would listen to like old Johnny Most clips, I loved that stuff, Havacheck stole the ball,

all that stuff, right? And so you have that, but it is 2025, and as you said, the world is evolving and it's radio in a TV digital age. Is there a part of you that longs? Do you want the glory of being on TV? Do you want people to know your face like they know Mike Breen's face or are you content with this role? I had a decision a few years ago to make when I was doing both. And my feeling was it's interesting you put it that way. What I think is happening, it's going to be happening in

the NBA. This is my individual belief, but I'm not alone. And I think when you watch back this historic episode of the MMA hour years later, I'm going to be right. I think local television and the NBA, and then to some degree eventually in the NHL, I think local TV is beginning to fade out because I believe eventually, I'm just going to name them all, but Apple, Netflix, Hulu, somebody is gonna come and take all this stuff. Right now, MLB- The RSNs, right?

The RSNs are, now is the decision. So in 2023, after I've been doing this for a while, I've been doing both, it was obvious to me, the one thing I knew after doing it for a few years, it was clear that not unlike my wife, they did not want to share me. It was gonna have to choose one, yeah. Know your audience. I was gonna have to choose one. Yeah, know your audience.

I was gonna have to choose one or the other. And to me, signing with a regional sports network in 2023 sounds a little bit like signing with Betamax. Regional sports networks are struggling. In some of the strong markets, the Lakers have a great local TV deal. The Celtics are in the final years of a strong local TV deal. But some of these teams are paying to get their games on. Some of them are going to, it's this crazy hodgepodge

that I think is going to all end up under somebody else's umbrella because we are, as I said, whether it's MMA, all combat sports, we're headed for a revolutionary time. I'm of, I mean, I'm of the opinion and it's mostly gut feeling and knowing a revolutionary time. I'm of the opinion, and it's mostly gut feeling and knowing a few people. I think the UFC is gonna end up on Netflix. That's what I think is gonna happen here because that is the future. Netflix, do they want the UFC?

Yes, but you know what Netflix wants? They want the NFL because that's where all of this is going. And when I said my son's not gonna know what cable television is, and your kids aren't gonna know what cable television was at the time, aren't going to know what cable television was at the time, it's because this is the direction we are going. So that's a long-winded way to say, I think the word radio is going to,

we don't use it much anymore. It's sort of an old school way. You talked about seeing the call of End of Game 2. By the way, watch it again. Longtime Knicks producer Spencer Julian produced Knicks TV forever. He the way, watch it again. Longtime Knicks producer, Spencer Julien, who's Knicks TV forever. He is sitting a couple of rows. You'll never be able to watch it again without seeing this.

He is behind me in the row behind me. And when the Knicks win the game, he's like, ah, it's awesome. Cause that went, that did its own viral thing. But my point is that there's a camera on me. There's a camera on me with Max all the time. Oh wow. Every minute of every game, eventually there a camera on me with Max all the time. Oh wow. Every minute of every game, eventually there,

you're going to be streaming this stuff. I believe that eventually we're going to a place where you're going to be able to watch the feed that you want of whatever truck you want to see the pictures coming from, which with the camera angles, you're going to choose them. And you're going to choose, you're sitting in your car and you chose to listen to us that night.

I think eventually you're going to choose you're sitting in your car and you chose to listen to us that night. I think eventually you're going to be at home saying, I want to listen to, I want to watch the Pacers television pictures from the field house, but I want to listen to grandi and max all the game. I think this is where we're headed because everything else is headed in that direction and the history of our industry is the people who are successful, like our aforementioned Nick Kahn, who's the smartest guy I've ever met, is because he doesn't worry about what's happening now.

He's on to what is going to be happening, what is next. And so what's next for the way the NBA is done locally? What's next for the way MMA is done? Is it going to be strictly this idea of, as I said before, to me the death knell, Bellator going to the zone and UFC going to ESPN, that was 2018. If you tell me that's happening in 2025 or 2026, now wait a minute. Now we're into a different thing because people

are more accustomed to, as long as you want to make a billion dollars, you and I will never have to work again. Invent the device that's going to get me from Apple TV to YouTube TV to Netflix instantly. Yes, like you change channels. Like changing channels. Once somebody comes up with that. It's so annoying.

You gotta go out, you gotta come back in. Nobody, we can't be bothered to spend 38 seconds that it takes to do that. Now we're spoiled. I just think this is where it's all going. So that's a long-winded way to say no, because I think what we used to call radio is actually could end up being the primary way.

OK. Teams deliver their games. Teams are going to be more. Most announcers are connected now. They work for the team. We don't yet, but I think eventually we will. There's pregame coverage on the local website. Eventually, I think RSNs are going to be about pre and post game coverage, but there's a

million, there's so many things you can do now with the camera on us at all times and how easy it is to get video. Just the quality of the interviews you did today. Think about what those would have looked like five years ago or 10 years ago versus now, we're so accustomed to it. We all live through the pandemic and Zoom calls and everybody's accustomed to seeing it a certain way.

So my question's always been what's next. Play by play in the heart and soul of it will always be the same, but it's always gonna be about storytelling. But I'm not, I don't think of it as, geez, do you wanna do radio or TV? I'm thinking about what's next. What is, you know, when Netflix did the Mike Tyson fight, you know, that was just gonna be, we're gonna stick our toe in here, because eventually this is what we want it to be.

Okay, let's end on a fun, but I think tough one. Greatest play-by-play guy of all time. That's, you gotta go sport by sport. You gotta go sport by sport. But I will, I tend to choose, I tend to say Al Michaels first, but there's many you could choose. I am biased towards, and because of my own proclivities,

I am biased towards those who can do multiple sports. Okay. Because again, that to me is the art. Mike Emmerich is the greatest hockey announcer of all time, but he never did a ton of other stuff. He did some, but he might not have taken that crazy jump off a cliff if he got a call to do Bellator in 2015. So the people that can tell the stories, I say Al first. I think Joe Buck is extraordinary. There are so many great, every sport is different. I'll give you a great example where I'm talking about trying something new. My buddy, Brian Anderson, who people know, great baseball

announcer and obviously does some NBA, and he's staying with Turner as they lose the NBA now, potentially tomorrow after 30 something years of having the NBA he right now is in Paris doing the French Open he's never done tennis before well but they've got the French Open he's one of their guys and so you that to me is the is the skill of it is being able to call to call anything but every sport has their own as their Jim Ross and pro wrestling and marvelous marvelous call he did hockey he did hot NBA and did, you have to be old enough to know this in New York. He used to do the 6 and 11 o'clock news. He did the 6 o'clock news and he'd go over to the garden, call the Ranger and Nick game that night. And he'd go back and do the 11 o'clock. You know, at night. But yeah, Cosell was different. And obviously, you are under the umbrella of what Howard Cosell was, which is bringing journalism and covering sports in a way that they had not been covered before. Cosell fought violently against the... How outrageous does

this sound now? He didn't want athletes in the booth. He didn't think athletes should be in the booth, that it should be journalists. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Crazy. And play-by-play announcers, right. And watch those things from the 70s when Keith Jackson, Keith Jackson, trying to co-speak in the great votes.

Another great one, yeah. Called the 76th end of the ALCS, Chris Chambliss hits a home run. Cosell just jumps all, he just jumps all over it. As he did with Monday Night Football, he took it over. He was a said that was people trying to realize this is entertainment before There's journalism, but there's also entertainment too. So that's a that's a longer format. So every sport has that's fair

That is fair Vince Cully, of course baseball and also did I believe some football as well. He did he did Dwight Clark champion I Have you talk about making the leap. I've never had the courage to do play-by-play because I don't think that I'm built. I think it is such an incredible skill that I've never felt like it was my thing and I'm okay with that. I'm happy to be the interviewer at the sideline. I adore play-by-play guys and the reason why I wanted to do this was because I fell in love with Marv and Bob Costas watching them on the NBA and NBC and then seeing oh gosh, they went to Syracuse I need to go to Syracuse because that's what you do and

The greatest compliment that I can give a play-by-play guy and I would put you at the very top of that list You're like a warm blanket. You know what I mean? Like you're you're so and and you know, it's so fun My kids now have adopted this love the greatest gift that the Knicks have ever given me now is this run because I was their age in the 90s when the Knicks started to make their runs and now I see my kids. So a year ago, my boys didn't even know who Mike Breen was. Now they're like, how come Breen's not calling?

How do they get Clyde on the, they don't understand everything, but they're like, Breen is the best, he does bang. They're imitating him in the driveway. And so like when you hear Breen calling you for a Knicks fan or you hear Sean Grandi calling for a Celtics fan and on and On it goes it is so comforting right through the good and the bad You know your guy is calling it and that's why I feel some sort of way about this series because I feel like they're against Us as irrational as this and I know you are so damn good at your job

And you were so great in MMA and to know that you knew nothing about the sport beforehand essentially and had never done it before, I don't think people appreciate that enough. Like it is so hard to do what you guys do. That's why I always bring up Sean O'Connell too. Like to go from an athlete to the play-by-play is absurd. The play-by-play job is the toughest job in all of TV and you nailed it and you continue to nail it.

So great to have you. Great to have you in studio and I'm sorry it took 10 years. I mean, geez Louise. Should we book the next one for 10 years or something? No you continue to nail it. So great to have you. Great to have you in studio. And I'm sorry it took 10 years. I mean, Jeez Louise. Should we book the next one for 10 years or something? No, let's do it. Let's do it in a month after the parade. We all know,

listen, I'm here to provide therapy for you because of what's going on right now. You were great on Sunday. You were keeping me calm as we're down 20. You were giving me, you were nowhere to be found yesterday. Why don't you put those text messages up on there? Cause I saw that one.

You were nowhere to be found. I saw that one. You saw it to be found. I saw that one. You saw it coming? I saw it coming. And even, I thought the next we were going to get back in the game last night. Again, real quick on the NBA, 20 point leads aren't what 20 point leads when we were kids.

They don't mean as much anymore. And this is the problem with the Pacers, the way they play. It's great. But they're like a team that is great at throwing the ball. When they go up by a couple of touchdowns, they have to continue to throw it, because it's all they know how to do. they're not milk in the clock and they're not They have to play the way they play so teams can jump back in it

So 20 point leads and home court advantage aren't what they were when we were here, which is why But are we winning tomorrow? I I think the next one tomorrow. I I we lose on Saturday I think that's gonna be the really the difficult one. I It's hard. I just don't I don't think there's that much separation between these two you're looking at the patients being up 3-1 Everybody's go. Oh my god, the patients come in the championship. I I just think okay see it's historically good. They have all the answers they can they can play however, everybody plays Yeah, they can play the way the patients play they have the they have the bodies to match the way that they play I think this is their year and I think they're gonna win no matter what.

But everybody outside of Indiana wants to see that seventh game at the very least at Madison Square Garden. The very first time we were down 3-1 to the Pacers was 1995. Patrick Ewing hit a shot in game five to send us to game six. We won game six. Spike Lee with John Stark, snapping them up. And then game seven was the finger roll That's your cueing where we're getting them back think about think about your kids

That's the beauty of what's happening now for people that resent Oh Nick fans are celebrating because you're one third game in the second round. My god life is short. Enjoy every second This has been a pleasure. Thank you so much for coming and really appreciate you. Enjoy the the offseason, right? This is offseason. It is now. Yeah, thanks. Thanks to your team. No the off season, right? This is off season for you? It is now, yeah. Thanks to your team. No problem. Listen, I don't want to bring it up, but you brought the ring.

I did. Enjoy that. Thank you for everything. Hopefully we'll see you back on the combat sports side of things. If not, keep up the great work with the Celtics. Really, really appreciate what you do. He is Sean Grandy. He is one of the very best in the business.

Hope you enjoyed that one-tenth as much as I did. We'll take a quick break. Back with your super chats, and then we'll call it a day. Don't go anywhere. I love those chats. The one with Karen Cross, but also the one that we just had with Sean Grandy. As you guys know, broadcasters, broadcasting, broadcast journalism, play-by-play, radio, TV, are things that are very, very near and dear to my heart.

I listen to shows, podcasts, documentaries about them. I, I, if I have the opportunity to talk to broadcasters, I relish those opportunities. When we were doing the Ariel Hawhani show in the midst of the MMA Hour reboot, and I was doing those kind of on a weekly basis, but with other characters as well. I enjoyed it very much. There has actually been an idea bandied about of like our own version,

to give a shout out to the legend Dan Lebatard, our own version of South Beach Sessions, but I just say like why don't we just do it on the show here? I don't know. In any event, all to say, love that, hope you did as well, and appreciate Sean Grandy for coming in. And go check out that Peter Queely walkout zombie by the Cranberries back in the day pit bull fight.

It is one of one. Frankie, can I ask you a question? What up? Is it possible to turn down this microphone? Yeah, absolutely. That would be great Let us go to the super chats so we can go home There it is The old familiar sound. Oh, yeah, 24 inch dibs writes voice of the Celtics bleed green love Sean. He is the man

He is the absolute man. Oh, yeah, that's the good stuff right there. It's like when you get your uh when your ears unblock is that the word? When you're on a plane. You're not hearing that phasing anymore? Oh it's fantastic. What else? The Gouchroute AFC Wimbledon won the League 2 playoff final this week. Any chance of the boys in the back and Ariel supporting us in our battle in League One next season? Look into the club's backstory. Think you'll enjoy it. Heart, heart emoji. Appreciate that. We'll look into it. Familiar with the club. Not so much with the history, but do love a good history lesson. So... Love Wimbledon. Yeah, shout out. I mean, it's it's it's one of the great

towns in in England and Are you familiar with the history? No. Do they play at the tennis courts? You think so, maybe. We were talking about this without it. Why don't they do fighting at the tennis court? They don't do anything pretty much 11 months out of the year.

Fighting at the All English Club. Could you imagine? Posh. Yeah, I can't imagine they're going to be down with that. Could you imagine Dan Hooker rolls up with his one-minute scraps? Instead of the backyard there on the grass in his courts. What a scene what else? Just that says are we closer to getting aerial on the roommates pod or Brunson and Hart on the show and studio?

Man, that's not up to me. They did give us a shout out. They read my tweet When I talked about my son emulating Jalen Bronson. Matt Hillman, who is the host of the show and works on the production side. He's kind of the brains of the entire program. He was very kind enough to read the tweet. It made my day, it made my son's day. I watched it a million times.

We've become pals on social media DM, and I told them I would walk. If their top 10 guests failed to show up and they needed someone in a pinch, I would walk to wherever they film it, but they get massive names. They get, you know, they get Stiller, they get Breen, they get Clyde, they get Starks, they get Ewing. You know, who the hell am I? So I don't know. On this pod, that would be great. We'd love to have Jalen on, obviously. Jalen and Josh are probably the two,

like the two that make me all tingly inside. And I know Jalen is a big wrestling fan, that's very clear. I believe Josh is a fight fan. And the pitch is, hey, come on on we'll talk about anything but your day job Come be a fan It would be nice after they win the championship in in about Three weeks we'll do it. I

Still believe what else Jake from Windy City Dana doesn't get enough credit for failing to make the fights everyone wanted to see over the years. Credit. The truth is, Joe Silva has always carried him. That's a very hipster pick. Joe Silva was a matchmaker. Dana was the president of the company.

Dana, it's sort of like now, like Hunter and Sean will make like 95% of the fights. Like they're making the cards. But when it comes time for the big ones excuse me I said Hunter and Sean Sean and Mick Hunter is making the big ones now Dana's really not involved in that capacity anymore all good Hunter's like making those mega Aspinal Jones Hunter's in the mix I would be shocked if Dana was ever in the mix in any of these talks. It's really Hunter.

Mick and Sean Shelby, Mick Mayne and Sean Shelby, they're building the cards, the contenders, all that stuff. And so back in the day, it was the same thing. It was Joe for a long time, then it was Joe and Sean, and then it's Dana kind of at the top, closing the big deals. So I don't agree with that assessment. I don't think it's fair. What else? Lawrence says,

Kia ora boys, Ariel, I'm thinking about buying a Volvo myself, but don't know any owners. Would you recommend? I have a Volvo XC90. It's a hybrid. You get 30 miles on the battery. My wife likes the hybrid.

She always gives me crap for driving a car that has no battery, that it's just like regular gas. To me, we take a trip. I don't want to worry about filling the damn thing up for two hours. Obviously, if you've got a fully battery car, full battery, what is the opposite of hybrid? Like a non-hybrid, it's just battery. Oh, an electric vehicle. What is the opposite of hybrid? Like a non-hybrid, it's just battery. What is it? Oh, an electric vehicle.

Electric vehicle, yes. Yeah, obviously. What do you get on your Tesla? You get, what is it, like 300 miles, 200 miles? What is it? A little over 300 a charge, yeah. So like, I always think of our trip to Montreal. Do I want to stop in the middle to do that?

I don't know. So I'd like to have one car that is not electric, it's just old school. The Volvo, people say, is the safest car. I don't know how you come up with that. It hasn't really given us any problems. It's very smooth. It's sleek. It's nice. I like it. I like it. It's old school. It's Swedish. Who hates the Swedes? I have not had a single complaint. In fact, our lease recently was about to come up and we got a new one. Get you.

So. New lease or new Volvo altogether? No, no. You, they do this whole thing where they like, they want you to stick around, right? So they entice you to bring it back early so you get a new one. Right, right, right.

And so we did that. A new lease on life. Dare I say. What else? Slito says, any thoughts on ESPN Plus removing the UFC's fight catalog? I saw a couple of tweets about this. I'd be lying if I said I actually looked it up myself.

I've heard some talk of them revamping the entire ESPN app. I think that that would be, look, the ESPN app pre plus was awful. Then when they introduced it, when they brought in plus, when they introduced plus, it was not bad, but over time, I've had issues I know others have as well.

And then when you see how other apps work, there's a gap. And so I think that they're going to, especially with the streaming and everything, it's just a little clunky. But I don't know. I think that they're going to be back in some capacity with ESPN. Is it going to be the full day? Who knows?

But I think they'll be back in some capacity. Can I give a plug to the Yahoo Sports app? I'm not just saying it. I just want to bring it up. It is really, really good. They've got this daily draw thing that my kids love. Like they fight over who can do it. They really enjoy it. It's a nice daily game. You have four cards. Rick won one time. It's a great time. The little thing at the top is great. Like with the top games. I think it's great. The YOW Sports app was not good around like two or so

years ago, but they have done a phenomenal job of revamping it. It's very easy to use, it's quick, it's smooth, it's sleek. Obviously there's no streaming involved. Like I'm talking, you know, like live games like ESPN is doing. You can watch us on it. But you can watch us on it. The video functionality is great. They have come a long way and they continue to update as well.

All to say, I have no idea about what you're talking about. I would actually guess that this would have more to do with the direct to consumer app than it would have to do with the rights deal. Why would they forego having video content that they could have on the app? I imagine it has a lot more to do with the shuffling of cards and decks when it comes to the direct

to consumer app than it would have to do with like a sign of not negotiating UFC rights at this point. What else? Sloppy MMA, bit of a random one, but when do you think Yuri will make his comeback? October? Ank versus Poetan, Undercard versus Ulberg? Needs some good ol' Hawani insight. You know there was some talk of maybe him fighting in June, he's got the exams, I don't know if it was a very realistic chat. We still need to get the Pereira Ankh. Did we get that announcement?

No, we didn't get that announcement. Yeah, for a second I was like, is it happening in August? No, that's DDP versus Hamzat. I guess October seems like the right one for that one, right? Or maybe they have them headline Noche UFC. So who knows? Yuri on that card would make sense but who does Yuri fight? I think we'll get some clarity to Yuri's plans once round tree and hill fight in Baku in a little less than a month. That to me is the fight to make. The winner of that fight versus Yuri. No, Oberg. You don't like the

suggestion that he's got. Oh I that's a good suggestion, too. That's not a bad suggestion. Actually, the timeline makes more sense, actually. Yeah. It's a great fight. It's either the winner of this fight coming up or Ulberg. We're all in the mix. I love it.

What else? And last but not least, MightyZen wants to shout out Cleveland Rick. Wow. I don't claim that dump of a city. Cleveland Rick? Wow, really? What else and last but not least mighty Zen wants to shout out Cleveland Wow I don't claim that that dump of a clear Rick Wow really another bit the best way to do it is the CLE Capital into the RIC yeah, we've learned Eric Cleveland's quite nice. I went that's not bad I went to Cleveland Bro, you represent their fan base you are one of their celebrity fans, and you just call

You just called their city a double You just called their city a double Also, the handle was updated. I just I just said actually it's actually quite nice you I assume you went for the I've been a couple times Not the best I Want the rock and roll Hall of Fame it was nice. I went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It was nice. I went to the finals game. It was incredible. Have friends there. Shout out Chris. But no, I'm New York till I fucking died repping. It's crazy. Repping? Repping what? What do you mean? Repping what? It has to be the

basketball team? Yes. I'm Gordon and Ray's here. Where are you from? You ain't from here. You ain't from here. I don't care how long you've been cheering for the Knicks from Montreal. I've been here. I'm Gordon and Ray's here, where are you from? You ain't from here. You ain't from here. I don't care how long you've been cheering for the Knicks from Montreal. I've been here. I'm here. You ain't been here. This is my city. I mean, I've essentially been here.

This is my city. I've bled a lot. This ain't your city. This is my city. No one cares. What is it, wine and... GC just doesn't give a shit. What is it, wine and gold?

Wine and gold, yeah. Awful colors. What? Awful colors. Nah, come on. Now you're just hating. That's a beautiful. We could do a whole other show on this. I hate the camera angles at the queue,

or whatever it's called. In their broadcasts, you mean? Or on their screen? You know, like every arena has its own look to it. Yeah. You don't like the way the queue looks. It's low. I never liked Phoenix.

Sorry, Shaheen. It's a very sort of overhead shot. Do you know what I'm talking about? It is a little yeah, it's very far The Cavs also is is that way so I get what you're saying Detroit like Palace of Armageddon He'll always used to be very dark and like kind of chintzy looking I mean, there's nothing better than the garden. Little Caesar's is nice. Little Caesar's is alright Barclays is too like dark everything but MSG right which I guess that's what we do. Yeah Is an arena is is a dump is a leap. Yeah a dump is horrible. It's it's very absolute I thought you're about to say oh my god. Okay, we need to go ceiling is a time the reservation

It's so hard reservation Frank. Yeah, I move it to Barclays better roof MSG better ceiling this is such a bad take or what the bar is sick come on see you go no best is the all-fitting is all vertical Madison Square Garden's roof is the most iconic roof in all of sports I think you're thinking of Madison Square Garden's roof is the most iconic roof in all of sports. I think you're thinking of Madison Square Garden's ceiling. No, no, no. Or the theater? He's talking about the roof.

Above the ceiling. The ceiling is the roof. The ceiling is the roof. The ceiling is the roof. Yes, those panels. The panels. The ceiling is the roof. That's the ceiling.

From the outside, the ceiling. The roof of Barclays is like the grass and everything. It's a crazy roof. I don't even know what you're talking about. Are you talking about the circle on top brother it's so this is the ceiling above yes you can acknowledge is the outside top of the building yeah and the Madison Square Garden roof is one of the most iconic and all the boat that overhead shot the circle it's like what we can acknowledge

kind of iconic it's an ceiling is very icon it's iconic but it's not a great fan experience yeah it's not a great fan experience. Yeah, I agree. It's not a great fan experience. Yeah, it's just not a great arena. It's an okay arena. It's outdated. It's an okay arena. It's just not a great arena. No, no, no, seriously. Come to like a really nice, like updated arena.

I'm serious. State Farm has been redone a million times. I'm not talking about the history. I'm talking about how nice the arena is. I agree, I agree. Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta shits on any stadium in New York. Yeah, but this is a football stadium We're talking about the world's most famous arena. Like Yankee Stadium is historic. It's a dump. I

Don't like Yankee Stadium point is point is you guys have brought enough negativity to us when we're gonna talk on Monday Everything will be okay It will be right before game seven. There it is. Thank you, Mike. appreciate you very much thank you to our guests today it has been a great day thank you Sean Grandy Dan Hooker Joe Pfeiffer and of course Tim Welch thanks to you thanks to them back to our same time places it be somebody here