The Ariel Helwani Show - Dana White vs. Francis Ngannou reignited, John Cena retirement match botched, massive weekend recap, Shakur Stevenson, Tyson Pedro, Kevin Vallejos, Patrick Habirora

Episode Date: December 15, 2025

Ariel Helwani brings in The Boys in the Back and Petesy Carroll to react to the final UFC event of the year, starting with a review of Manel Kape’s big win and whether it was enough to earn a title shot, before moving on to the best moments from the now-over ESPN era, Francis Ngannou’s interview from last week and Dana White readdressing their interaction, and John Cena’s retirement match (12:16).Rising UFC star Kevin Vallejos makes his show debut, discussing his knockout of Giga Chikadze, being awarded a performance bonus for his spinning backfist, intending to donate to Chikadze’s charity, his callout of Cub Swanson, and more (1:36:50).Patrick Habirora joins on the heels of his win at PFL Lyon, talking about his training with Georges St-Pierre, his love of anime, his soccer background, seeking the toughest challenges, his knockouts of former UFC fighters, wanting to fight Kevin Lee next, feeling ready to take over if Usman Nurmagomedov leaves the PFL, and more (2:02:51).Tyson Pedro returns with some big news, announcing his signing with PFL, then discusses his boxing run, his listed nickname being changed to “Kangaroo Paws,” James Te Huna being a mentor of his, being named after Mike Tyson, and more (2:28:00).Shakur Stevenson is back to talk about his upcoming fight against Teofimo Lopez, claiming Lopez is not really from New York, describing his respect for Lopez from their time on the amateur scene, his plans to make Lopez pay for his words, working with Eddie Hearn, how a potential fight with Conor Benn would go, his training with Jake Paul, and more (3:06:55).Ariel briefly responds to Jamahal Hill and answers your Super Chats (3:32:54).

Hey, everyone. Welcome to the show. It's great to be here with you on a lovely Monday afternoon in New York City. We have a lot to get into this Monday afternoon. A lot has happened since we last spoke. Very excited to talk about the last UFC event of 2025. Last UFC on ESPN event. Share our memories of these seven years on ESPN. John Sina's retirement match, did they get it right? Did they get it wrong? We'll get into all of that. A lot of news has happened since I last spoke to you on Wednesday. We shall get into all of that, plus have four great guests on the program once again. I'll tell you about them in a moment. But obviously, I have to start today's show speaking about what happened yesterday, Sunday, in a beautiful, gorgeous, majestic, serene part of the world, a place that I had the great pleasure of visiting several years ago, 15, almost 15 years ago, to be exact. I went to Sydney to cover UFC 127 back in February of 2011. My one and only time there, and you may recall if you've been watching us for a long time,

you may recall that we spend some time on Bondi Beach. And that part of the world has always spoke to me for several reasons because I remember being there. It was the summertime. It was beautiful. The people, you know we love Australians here. You know we love talking to the Aussie fighters. You know we've had a great connection with so many of them over the years.

They don't have to name them all. You know, we love the culture, we love the rituals, we love everything about them. I've always said they remind me of Canadians, very kind-hearted, very warm, mensch-like people. I always talk about, wow, I can't believe you guys want to wake up so early to come on the show. And it's like, yeah, no big deal. I love Australia. I love the people. And so yesterday, when I wake up to the news that there has been a mass shooting in Australia on Bondi Beach,

one of the most beautiful beaches in the world, my heart broke. And then a few seconds later, I find out more information. It wasn't just a random act of terror and violence and disgusting actions by two human beings. No, it was a targeted attack at my people, the Jewish people. A Hanukkah celebration on Bondi Beach in which, as of right now, 16 people were murdered as young as 10, as old as 87, a Holocaust. survivor. And so many in between. Parents, kids, grandparents, unimaginable, around 40 or so still being hospitalized, including one hero who I hope that you have seen by now, a man named Ahmed El Ahmed, who emigrated to Sydney from what I've read, not that long ago from Syria,

who jumped onto one of the shooters. A man holding a gun, I'll never pretend to be a gun connoisseur of sorts, but this thing looked like it was that big and that long. A father and his son who had decided to go to this Hanukkah celebration on the first night of Hanukkah, on the beach, summertime, a beautiful time in Sydney, Australia, a beautiful time in the country, a beautiful time to celebrate in such a unique setting. A father and son decide to go there and just engage in murder, target practice, killing people simply because of they are Jewish. And so I sit here today as a very, very sad human being in a familiar state sitting here, talking on this show, a show that has never really delved into politics, has never

really delved into these types of issues. You've known me for a long time since 2009. We never talked about this stuff. But something changed on October 7th. And something in me changed on October 7th. I felt like I needed to speak up when appropriate. I don't, I don't, I don't bring it in. I've bit my tongue a lot. I've kept my comments, my thoughts to myself when I see things happening. I've spoken up when I thought it was appropriate. And on the Monday after that show, I thought it was appropriate. And then to see the scenes immediately after what happened on October 7th, in places like Sydney on the steps of the opera house, to see how we all of a sudden were okay with allowing, not anti-Zionism or anti-Semitism, no, anti-Judaism. Let's be very

clear what is happening. To see this virus spread, to see this cancer spread across the world, and to see so many people just be okay with it, this is what happens. Now you see what happens. Because before, when I would speak about it, it would be a thing that was just confined to one part of the world, one region. And so it was very easy to dismiss. But what I have felt in the last 24 hours is an awakening, a revelation of sorts from people who are like, wait a second, we didn't ask for this we didn't want this don't bring this hatred to our shores and so i will sit here today feeling depressed feeling sad feeling mad feeling angry i hope you feel the anger in my voice to see people who could have been my family who could have been your family who could have been

my kids your kids people you know friends relatives acquaintances colleagues those people wanted nothing to do with anything that was divisive, hateful. They just wanted to celebrate. And so to see now it spread outside of the region that has been a target for the last two years and to see people on social media, to see people who have reached out to me, I have had more people who are not Jewish,

reach out to me and be like, yo man, this is fucked. This is fucked up. And I expect nothing less from Australian people who are good, kind-hearted people. And so I sit here actually with a bit of hope as well. Hopefully, this is the breaking point. Hopefully you realize that when people go on the streets

in New York City, in places in the Western world, and scream things like Globalize the Intifada, that means the destruction of the Jewish people. I hope you understand now what it means. I hope you get it now. I hope you get what we've been feeling for the last two years. I hope you get what I feel as a father who sends his kids to Jewish school.

I hope you get what I feel when I get those messages. I hope you get what I feel when someone comes up to me in my hometown of Montreal with a camera shouting in my face, calling me a bad person for the sin of waiting in line to buy falafel for my kids. I hope you now understand what we're dealing with. I hope you now get it. Didn't want this, didn't ask for this. It feels like a nightmare that won't end. But hopefully now you understand and hopefully this is the breaking point. Hopefully now people will start speaking up. Hopefully politicians will stop allowing this type of rhetoric, this cancer, this virus from spreading because it is spreading and it's only going to get worse and i hope you will understand

that my people the jewish people will never cower we will never succumb we will never actually break we will never even bend we will let our minors on this second night of hanukkah we will proudly pray and and go to synagogue and send our kids to school and and try to be a part of the community we will do as this paramedic said who was there who was covering his own daughter from being shot at by these two lunatics who I hope rot in hell

we will do what he said he was going to do and we will continue to do that none of this will ever change us take a look at this clip to understand what human spirit and what the Jewish spirit is all about but I tell you one thing I got these candles there and I'm going to go home and I'm going to light them up

because we must light up and keep the show going. We're not afraid. Amen. And oh, by the way, if you think it just happened in Australia, it also happened at Brown University this past weekend where two people were killed. And why were they killed?

Because they were in a Judaic studies class. They were in a review class for their final exams. The professor of Jewish. You think this is a question? coincidence, it's not. So please, please wake up. Please understand what we're dealing with. Please understand how we're feeling. And please let us not allow these things to happen again. My heart breaks for everyone involved. My heart breaks for everyone affected. My heart breaks for the great people of Australia that I've seen line up to donate blood, line up to support,

who have sent me messages, and I can't tell you how much it means to me. My heart breaks for humanity. Enough of this. Once and for all. please recognize what is happening around the world and please recognize when people are out there protesting and doing things that they're not protesting for other parts of the world what about what's happening in Nigeria why aren't you talking about that

why aren't you talking about the issues happening why is it always about one group why is it always about one region open your eyes and understand what is happening here and stop this virus this cancer from spreading we want nothing more than peace we want nothing more than to celebrate and to be left alone.

We will continue to celebrate and we will continue to try to make humanity into a better place. And in closing, the sentiment that I have, and I know I speak for so many, is that we want to live in peace and harmony. We want to live in peace and harmony

with our Christian brothers and sisters, our Muslim brothers and sisters, our every other religion brother and sisters. And I saw this clip of a Muslim man going up to a rabbi and expressing that. And it wore my heart and it gave me hope for the future. And so may the memories of the victims forever be a blessing.

Our hearts go out to those affected the family, the friends. All the people who had to witness that, that carnage, that horror, that terror, all those people that had to witness that. For the sin of just being on the beach, enjoying a beautiful Sunday in Sydney. Stay strong, Sydney, stay strong, Australia, stay strong Jewish people. And let us have more of this type of love and light in our lives. from this point moving forward. Sorry about everything that happened over in Sydney. Appreciate. I appreciate you saying that.

You celebrate Hanukkah? I'm Muslim. The Muslim. Yeah. But I'm going to give you a hug. The fact that you were saying that, you know, in the Jewish community, I got it all the time. But this is the first time I get it from a Muslim. So it means so much to me now.

No, absolutely. We're all in this together. We're in this together. In the same world we are. So let's just add in lights. Peace and love. That's all we got. Inshallah. Alhamdulillah.

Thank you, brother. What's your name? Robin Levy. Robin Levy, Faroo. Yeah. Farooke, my pleasure. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Eriehawai Show. Back in your life on this Monday on this Monday,

Monday, December 15th, 2000. And 25, hello again, everyone. I sure hope you're doing well. Welcome to the program. Happy holidays. Once again, the pound-for-pound king of studio set design. Does it again. Look at this.

Look at the spirit. Don-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-dun-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-dion. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right?

Yeah. It's a great time to be here on the program as we round third as far as 2025 is concerned. We are on our way to Miami, by the way. Do you want to let you know? And we have also revealed the details of our next Helwani Roadshow. Going down Thursday. 8.30 p.m. Hard Rock Cafe in Miami. Just a stones throw away from the Kaseya Center. Site of Jake Paul versus Anthony Joshua on Friday night, live on Netflix, which I'm very excited about. 8.30 p.m. live. No fee required. User name, not required. Password not required. Myself. Rick, G.C., Frank, Andy, others as well, in attendance.

Going to be great. Not only that, Kayla Harrison and Jorge Madhidal are going to be in attendance with all of us hanging out. Yes, there it is. Look at that. 8.30 p.m., December 18th, free for all. Kayla, Jorge, myself, the crew in Miami. at the Hard Rock Cafe, no fee, no tickets. I have tweeted out a couple of times.

I've also put on my Instagram story. I've put up a link. I've put up a link. If you want to get the best seats, go to the link, click on it. It's an open table link. Click on anything past 7.30. They had some earlier times. I don't know why, but 7.30, 7.45, 8, 8.30, all those times.

And you will be able to be there. Save your spot. It is first come, first serve. Can't wait for it. Thank you to Kayla and Jorge for being there. Thank you to everyone who put in all the hard work into making it happen. And if you're wondering why it's free, I will give you a hint. Well, actually, I'm going to tell you later why it's free.

But there's a very specific reason and special reason as to why it's free, and I'm very excited about that. So more on that to come. That's this Thursday. And so this is the schedule for the week around these parts, just so you all know. Tomorrow, well, obviously today there's a Hawanee Show. Tomorrow, Halwani Show, Wednesday, we will premiere our next uncrowned film, it is called What Is Fight Circus?

Yes, myself, Casey, and New York Rick went to the Fight Circus debut in Las Vegas back in October. We have a great film coming out. It's around 45 minutes long. Behind the scenes, we find out what exactly is this crazy thing known as Fight Circus. And it is going to air Wednesday at 1 p.m. Eastern. 1 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday. That is going to be our content offering for the day.

So no Helwani show, no other shows, 1 p.m. Eastern, it is going to air. It's going to premiere. I'll give you a teaser of said film tomorrow during the show. So stay tuned for that. But I'm very excited about it. Technically, our third uncrowned film. And then Thursday, you'll have the crack. And then more to come for the back end of the week. All right? So a lot of exciting things. And then, of course, we'll be back on Monday, December 22nd for our last live show of the year. And then we'll be back on January 5th. for the award show. That's two weeks of content. As far as today's program is concerned, we've got four great guests. Back into the show, Shakur Stevenson's going to join us. He returned to action on January 31st,

going up against Tiofima Lopez, moving up to 140 Madison Square Garden, in the world's most famous arena, Madison Square Garden in. And as far as, like, my sports teams are concerned, in case you're wondering, I told my kids this morning, I hit the treble this weekend.

The rare treble, Knicks punched their ticket to the NBA Cup finals. Oh my God, we were celebrating in the streets. Forrest laid the smackdown on Spurs. Sorry about that on there, Jordan. NBD, NBD. I didn't rub it in. I'm not going to rub it in.

We're just trying to work our way up. We're just trying to work our way up. Stuff. And then the Buffalo Bills would be, I mean, the comeback of the season? Or was it last week's game against Cincinnati? Or maybe it was week one against Baltimore. Anyway, they ain't dead yet.

The Buffalo Bills led by J.A. 17, your MVP and mine, beating the New England Patriots at home, at Foxborough. Wow, the treble. And then, of course, NBA Cup finals tomorrow, MBD, MBD, it's Hanukkah. We're all happy holiday season. Happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas to all. And anyway, Shakur Stevenson, I went on a whole tangent there. That's crazy. Prior to that, Tyson Pedro's going to join us. He's got some news to share. Stay tuned for that. Patrick Habirora is an absolute stud. who was victorious on the PFL card in Lyon. Pt Caryl wrote a great feature on him for uncrown.com.

And we're going to meet him. He is the pride of Belgium. They call him the Belgian bomber. And I'm looking forward to speaking to him for the very first time. He beat Kevin Juset on Saturday. Great show. Lyon, hot crowd once again. Really, really, really, really impressive.

Vadim Nemcov became the new PFL heavyweight champion. And Chris Sarborg became their new inaugural. featherweight champions. So seems like things are happening in the PFL. And prior to that, Kevin, so I thought it was Vallejos, but on the broadcast they were referring to him as V-

V-H-E-O-S-H-E-O-J-O-S. How do you, how would you pronounce, Andy, how would you pronounce V-A-L-L-E-J-O-S? Vajejos, that's how I would say it. Vajahos. So is the double L like a J? Kind of, yeah, a J. Yeah, so.

Vajejos. So I feel like they were taking that and like kind of butchering it a little bit because they were calling him, how are they calling him, Rick? Vachejos. Veshaeos. Is there any way to Vasejos as an Argentinian? Oh, because it's face Argentinian, that might be why they're pronouncing it that way. It's just a pronunciation. Vasejos. Anyway, this guy's unbelievable. 17 and 1 had a great win over Giga-Chiccate. We'll talk to him about that victory. So like I said, a lot to get into, a lot to discuss. And let us discuss, yeah, there's the four. pack right there. I actually wanted to start with some news regarding Ilya to poria, because I do think that

as of this morning, it's probably the biggest news of the day. So obviously by now, you know that he is not fighting on January 24th. You know that he is taking a bit of a break. You know that there's an interim title on the line at UFC 324. You know all that stuff and more. Well, over the weekend, he spoke to ESPN Deportes. I want to play those two clips in a moment, but I want to start with the. the new news first, if you will, because he posted on Instagram this morning an update on his status

and he also discussed what he's been going through. And I think it's worth reading because this is the most he has said about all this. Over the past several weeks, I've made the difficult decision to temporarily step away from defending my title. This was not a decision I took lightly. However, when circumstances arise that threaten your personal integrity, your family, and your reputation, there comes a point when you must address them directly. In recent months, I have been subjected to severe and unacceptable pressure, including threats to disseminate false allegations of domestic abuse unless financial demands were met. These allegations are entirely unfounded. The truth is not a matter of opinion. It is a matter of evidence. All relevant evidence has been carefully preserved

and documented, including audio recordings, written communications, witness statements, and video material. This evidence has been submitted to appropriate judicial authorities in order to pursue legal action for attempted extortion, falsification of evidence, misappropriation of funds and personal property and multiple threats. My initial decision to remain silent was made solely to protect my children who are the most important part of my life. However, I've come to understand that silence under these circumstances does not

not protect the truth. It allows false narratives to take hold. Many individuals have faced similar situations. And time and again, the legal system has ultimately clarified the facts. Today, I'm stepping forward not only for my family and myself, but also to demonstrate that no one should be forced to yield to intimidation, manipulation, or fear. Those who know me can attest that I have never engaged in violence of any kind, and that my life and career have always been guided by discipline, respect, and integrity. I have full confidence in the judicial process and will allow the legal system to determine the facts based on evidence. Out of respect for my children and the ongoing legal proceedings, I will not be making any further public statements. I respectfully ask

that speculation be avoided and that my family's privacy be honored during this sensitive time. The truth does not require volume. It requires facts. Thank you, Ilya, Leah Tuporia. Yeah. So that has heavy duty stuff. Obviously, we knew that he was going through some personal issues and there's rumors online and I didn't want to partake in any of those. I had not heard any of this. I had not heard any of these allegations or rumors, innuendo, any of that. And so you can understand even more so why he would want to step away and not focus on fighting or defending his title because obviously there's a lot going on. It's extremely sad. It's, yeah, I feel. feel for everyone involved, I feel for his family, I feel for his kids. It's an awful situation. And so let's see what happens. Let's see what becomes of it. And let's see when we can see him back in there. As of now, there's no real timeline set in place. He spoke to ESPN de Portes about that, about his decision to walk away. Here's what he had to say. And I'll read the subtitles for you in case you're just listening to the audio.

Finally, Ilya, because what the public wants to know, you announced, not the first quarter, that you'll fight in January. When would you like to fight when you feel it's time to return? Well, Ilya says, as I've communicated, I'm going through some personal problems. I do not have an exact date when everything will be fixed. I hope that as soon as possible, as soon it is solved, I will be ready to go back. In the octagon, I prioritize at this time the welfare of my family, of my children, my own. So as soon as everything is solved, I will be back to the Octagon to give it the show that everyone deserves.

He's then asked if he's going to be there. We are making decisions at this time, whether I'll make the trip on January 24th, but I hope so. I hope so. So that's what he had to say to ESPN Deportes on Saturday. At his own event, Wow FC, I believe that was in Madrid. Interestingly enough, Pizzi alerted me of this, it was actually streaming on Cristiano Ronaldo's YouTube page. So great publicity, he's now teamed up with them and they're trying to do big things over in Spain.

He was also asked, by the way, how the UFC was handling the situation and the kind of support that they were giving to him. Here's what he had to say. I think a lot of people were surprised that you were not fighting in the first quarter at least, but how is it with the UFC? are they understanding because obviously all the fighters can go through problems such as what you are going through how understanding was hunter and and the other people involved the truth is ilia says they have been excellent we have a special connection i have understanding without having to give a lot of explanation understanding from them from the very first moment they have extended their hand i have been offered their support

in any time i needed it so i don't really know i'm very happy I've received from them, for the understanding, and also happy about the steps that they have to take. It has obviously been a conversation we have had, and as a promoter now that I have the experience, I also have the experience of going through this part of the sport, as a promoter and not only as a fighter. I understand in many, many more ways that perhaps, so I am very happy to be honest because of the relationship that I'm starting to have with the UFC and for the understanding that they

have had with me. So there you have it. He is very happy with the sport. He did also say that he wants to finish his MMA story and then go into boxing, but that's a lot of steps away. And I don't think we need to get into that too much. You do wonder, at some point, will they decide to make that interim belt the actual belt if he's not going to come back anytime soon?

I don't think that they're going to be forced to do that for the January. January event, we'll see what kind of timeline he's on how long this is going to play out. But if it's by next summer, perhaps they make that call. And perhaps that's why a guy like Armin doesn't seem too bothered by what's going on. He, you know, these things can play out in many different ways and, you know, you're on the outside and then you're on the inside and everything changes in an instant. So just a very unfortunate situation for someone who, you know, was on this meteoric rise. And we'll hopefully for him, if everything works out in his favor, be able to continue that rise.

But obviously this is a huge obstacle on a personal level that he's going to have to overcome and wish everyone involved the best and hopefully it can be resolved sooner rather than later. And as he said, you know, when there's children involved, it's just a very much. very, very ugly thing and a very tough thing to process. So that's the update from Ilya to Poria. We did have the final UFC event of 2025 and the final UFC on ESPN event. And it was shades of the UFC on FS1 days. It was a rare 10 p.m. fight night main card start that seemed to go on forever and ever and ever. But in the end, the main event, Manel Cap, Brandon Royville, didn't last very long. And in the end, if you're ever at a party, if you're ever at a holiday

party, and it happens to come up in a trivia session of sorts, hey, who won the final UFC on ESPN fight, at least for now? The answer will be that man, Manel Cap, who had a big win, three minutes and 18 seconds in the first round. He knocks out Brandon Royville. There was some talk in the moment, quick stoppages and that. I thought it was a fine stoppage. I thought it was a very, you know, I thought it was a very fair stoppage. And now he's very much in the mix at 125 pounds.

He did a promo afterwards talking about like that he wanted to take Joshua Van's diapers. I think he wanted to like, I wasn't sure if you wanted to like take him alive. Don't forget him alive. Like what do you want to like take him as like a like what? Like you wanted to kidnap them or something? What does that mean? I don't know, but he wants them alive.

That's all I know. He then tweeted, signed the contract, little boy. I've got something that will make you sleep real good. And there's a bottle and a baby. Joshua Van replies, Houston, Texas, Manil Cap, let's run it. Talk is cheap. And so let me ask you guys. Let me bring you in after this weekend's events.

What do we want? Joshua Van or Manel? Pizza, you go first. Joshua Van Nell or Joshua Van versus Tyra or Joshua Van versus Kioji or Joshua Van versus Pantosha? Yeah, look, I like Kioji from the get-go but obviously, you know, this is MMA

and we are high on recency bias and yeah, I don't mind the idea of Cap either right now, you know? It was a big win, he talks a lot of shit, he's a very dynamic character, he's a very exciting style. I think it's a brilliant matchup as well, to be honest. Like it will be an absolutely brilliant fight so I would not mind if they went in that direction with it. Rick?

Manel Kopp versus Joshua Van in Houston, move Strickland and Fluffy to somewhere else. And then winner fights Taira or Horauchi in Japan later this year. Ooh. While Pantosha heals. If Pantosia is ready to come back, then you give him that opportunity, and then whoever he faces the winner of that fights in Japan later this year.

G.C. But Tyra and Horaguchi should be waiting for Japan. Yeah, Hora Gucci already got this fight against him here. Al-Bazi, so I'm going to count him out. I also thought he was third most deserving on the list. I'm going to go with Minnell Cop because it's what have you done for me lately, and he honestly surprised me by knocking him out in the first round. That was incredible. There was, you know, maybe some people want to say early stoppage, but there was no question in my mind that he was putting Brandon Roy Val out with that shot. So I'll go, I'll go cop, and then you do Tatsuro

Tair, and if Horeguchi beats Al-Bazi, you do Tatsuro-Taira versus Horaguchi. Okay, so the thing that I'm curious about is why not... Okay, so I like what you said, Rick, but you could also... You could just do Van versus Cap in Houston and just have those other guys as the Comain. That feels like you might need that for a fight night, though, just because that's such a...

Like, Strickland and Fluffy are both headliners, you know? Like, I don't mind it. I'm fine with it. You make it a five-round combain event, but it does feel like you could use that better served elsewhere. But I'm also okay with that. Okay. I don't think they're going to do that.

Yeah, because it's already announced. It's kind of rough. Historically, they don't do that? I kind of feel like the move is do Tyra versus Van have Cap on the card? Have Cap on the card. He has ties to Japan. He has fought and Risen. Have hopefully Horaguchi on the car.

Now, Horaguchi's fighting on the February 7th card they announced at the apex. So that would suggest that Japan isn't coming anytime soon because it would be absolutely insane to go to Japan without Horoguchi. Are you suggesting they do that? in Houston, Tyra versus Van? No. You're saying sometime in the spring

into the summer. Who could you even have cop fight? Brandon Moreno's already didn't I see he got a fight booked as well. Yeah.

I mean, there's not much for him. Amir al-Bazi's booked. In this situation, Tatsuro Taira would be fighting the champ. He'd just beat Brandon Roy Val. Pantoja's not going to

take a fight against him. We should probably not act like Minel Cop fights that frequently. He could probably sit on the sideline for a little bit. I don't think he'd mind after, if it secures him the next title opportunity after that? Tim Elliott?

Oh. That feels like a stump, that feels like a banana peel. I just don't think he's taking a fight like that. Yeah, just no upside for him. I just wait. If you can talk to Minnell Cop and let him know, hey, you'll be next at some point. I think he'd be fine with that. I don't think it's a big deal.

I think they have two great options, though, in both Tyra and Cop. I think whatever they announce, I would be fine with either. Do we feel like Tyra versus Van is a big fight outside of Japan? No, but it's a perfect fight for Japan. I'm saying, so you're saying you want to do it earlier. I'm saying, no, no, I'm saying just wait, wait for Japan. Oh. Yeah, wait for Japan.

Van does not fight until Tyra in Japan. I think Houston's going to come and go. When do you think that's going to happen, though? Yeah, I don't think Houston happens. When Tyra was on the show, he seemed to know something about their return to Japan. He talked about springtime. If it's that early, then okay I'm good with that. Yeah.

I just feel like how many times are you are right because they announced Brandon Moreno. They announced Brandon Moreno for Mexico. They announced Horaguchi for February 7th. They've seemingly booked up all the top 125ers. I got one.

It's kind of handcuffed it. Tyra or a cop is going to have to sit or they're going to have to fight someone else. Bring back Muhammad Makayev and let's run it back. Cop versus Makayev, the one that we were promised. This time they actually fight. That's the Guarantee. Last time they didn't fight, there will be no fighting in the hotel room, but when they step in the cage, this time they'll actually fight.

That'd be fantastic. It was one of the biggest letdown fights of all time. I have a hard time. That would be like them rebooking Derek Lewis versus Francis. Rampage, Rashad? The face off. Cop versus Mokkaev. Those are my two, like, worst letdowns in a lot of time.

Lewis and Gano was pretty damn. But that didn't have the beef part. That, like, Lewis and Gano was like, okay, these guys are the guys who throw hands. I'm excited for it. Rampage and Rashad was billed as the blood feud of all blood feuds. We had a tough season, and then Rashad's just wrestling with them. And then cop versus, I mean, you know what? I might have cop versus Mikhail as number one.

That was an all-time lecture. Especially because you're, like, beefing in the hotel and all that. They're fighting in the hotel. They had to get separated and security had to come in before they started the fight in the cage. I remember that. It was like Tyson Lewis. Yes. It was incredible.

And then they did nothing in the actual fight. And then we're complaining to each other like they were arguing after the fight. Yeah, yeah. just the 15 minutes in between was the part where it was the actual fight run it back get macaillev back in there i don't know if they are i don't know if they are like foaming at the mouth to give cap that spot because i think that he's viewed as maybe i don't want to say unreliable but like i think there's been some pullouts there's been some issues and i feel like they they loved like you can tell dana was super excited about the idea of van versus tyra by the way

in case you're wondering about alex pantosia i keep seeing footage of him working at out. This guy's working out with his arm in an abrasive sorts. Look at this guy. See him do the kettlebells. Look at this. Most people in his position are probably like chilling. Are we going to get on balance here, Alex? What does that mean? What does that mean? I mean? I mean, he can't work out the left arm and we're just working out the right. Are we going to go on balance? Look at this guy. Look at this freaking guy. That's a man on the mission. That's a man who is like, you know. Did he have surgery?

No, I was told actually, thank you for reminding me. I was told as of last week that he was waiting for the swelling to go down to get an MRI on his elbow to see if there's any ligament damage. As a far as a shoulder, though. Yeah. They did say elbow. I should have responded with like, wait a second. something's a miss. Yeah.

Look, Pantosia is the monkey wrench in all this planning, right? Because we just don't know his timeline. He could come back soon. He could come back later. Whatever it is, he deserves an opportunity the moment he comes back. I can't hear any other conversation about it. If there is a title fight to be made, as soon as Pantosia is available, he needs to have that opportunity. So he could be the potential monkey wrench in this planning.

But, man, I've got no problem with cop versus van in the meantime. zero like monel cup is a fantastic fighter you know uh i did happen to see something that i wanted to ask pizzi about in particular since you're our resident european expert i was watching manel kapp's post fight press conference and he mentioned something that i feel like only you would be able to answer so if you just play the clip real quickly and then get your response that would be fantastic we always see the the the r7 christian raldo celebration after you win so what do you think that would do for you say you get the title of fight you know a big stage and the whole world sees you do that celebration you know from a that's you know

a tribute to a global icon it will be amazing it will be amazing you know uh i burn in angola i represent my country very very well uh always in my blood i come from mother of africa but i grew up in portugal and i play soccer for a long time that's why i celebrate the way i celebrate i never never forgot my route you know where i born and never forgot where i I grow up. So this is something mean to me. Because in Portugal, Christian Ronald is the

famous thing, big thing, and second person there is Manel. And right now in sport, in Angola, I'm the big thing there. So, PTA, I was just wondering, is that the rankings in Portugal? I know you're not Portuguese, but I feel like you're the closest one to that country on the show.

Is it Christiano and then Manel? Is that what he's saying? Yeah, he's saying he's the second most part best. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Second biggest celebrity. No, it's not true. It's absolutely mental. But I'm afraid of him, so I'm willing to say yes.

Because, I mean, I don't want this guy coming at me. He's terrifying. Sure. Okay. So I'm going to, look, agree to disagree in some ways, I think. I'll have to research this some more. And apologies. Who could be number two?

Like, who would he be battling? I mean, every other player on the Portuguese national team, I'd imagine. Okay. okay. I mean, but they're not, they're not that good, right? They're not that famous. They're very good. No, I'm kidding. They're very good. Of course. Of course. Not as good as Ireland, of course. We beat them.

Yeah, you did. Of occasion, well, like, you know, I don't want to rub it in. But no, I think that's absolutely mental from animal. Absolutely mental. Fair play. You've got to be delusional in this game. Sure. He's certainly taking that box there. He looks great in a suit, though. He does. And the post-fight interview, I was like, I'm trying to, I kind of understand what

you're trying to say. The diapers was a little bit off. I was with the diapers. I was with the diapers. I just didn't get the alive part. Okay. Diapers I'm following, I'm tracking, he's a baby, your daddy, got it. The diaper's alive is where he veered this way and I just couldn't keep up. That's okay, though. We're all right.

And Josh Fan is what, 25? No, 24. So he's eight years older than him. That's a lot. Yeah, I guess it's a lot. But it's not like he's like some old man or something. It's kind of weird to say that. Anyway, great win for him.

So every time somebody's like, I'm your daddy. they have to be of daddy age. Like, you have to have been able to birth this person. The diaper is alive thing. I mean, you've said I'm your daddy. Because he's so young. I get it. But are they alive or are they dead? The diapers.

Also, like, you always equate diapers with like, you know. Poop? Yeah. Like, who wants to take anyone's diapers, you know? No cop wants to take those diapers alive. Kevin, what is it? Veshaeos. Veshaeos.

With a great win over Giga Chi Kekatsay. That was really impressive. He got a bonus, by the way, Kevin did, as did Manel Cap. And then I saw, by the way, on Kevin's Twitter, I went on his Twitter and or X, and what did I see? I saw a beautiful tweet from him posted before the fight in which he stated ever so eloquently this. All I know is that I want an Ariahawani interview when I get ranked? Well, guess what? I don't know if he's ranked yet, but he's getting that interview today.

Morgan Chariy got knocked out for the first time in his 32 plus career PT were you shocked to see that crazy and you know it was a big day for the French PFL I thought they were gonna like you kind of write the momentum in there Costa just insane kick I couldn't believe it yeah he's gonna run

Sharier's face after is pretty much mine as well he was on the ground going like what is that happened there like what did you see it like he was it wasn't like your typical knocked-out expression. It was almost like shock that this had just occurred. Crazy to see it, but a bad one for him, definitely. But what a run cost has been on. What a run.

And also, there was something about like that crowd at the PFL event, which we'll get into in a moment, and then seeing Sharia fight at the apex. And you're like, I feel like he should have been on that card. You know what I mean? Because he's such a big... He's adored in France. And now here he is fighting in front of like six people at the apex at, you know, 11.30 p.m. Eastern, which would be like 5 a.m. over there, 530 a.m. over there. Something just seemed a little

bit off about all of that. Soon to be a thousand, don't forget. You know, you're going to be in front of a thousand. Yes, we did see that. Let's tell the people about that. They announced that beginning with the February 7th event, the, I guess the expansion that had been reported to be like 10,000 people and which Dana rightly refuted very shortly after. They're now going to be selling like general tickets to people. Here it is, courtesy of Nolan King of MMA junkie.

UFC fans will be able to purchase standard tickets for Apex events in 2026 to promotion announces that will begin with UFC Vegas

113 on February 7th. That also suggests Apex ain't going nowhere. Apex ain't going nowhere. Get a bigger to go one of those. Yeah? Yeah.

You can go with Chuck. It's like his... Being the man in the hat at the apex, I'm down for that. He only goes to the best car It's asking a lot, Norma 2-month, you know. Batista Lock Dog. Let's go.

Yes, that is the main event for that one. I'm not going to hate on Lock Dog. That's actually, it's actually too good for Chip to go to that. That was the one that they announced, Mario Batista versus Vinicius Olivera, Loak Dog. Lock Dog, Logdog. Does that change the product? He said Locke. Yeah.

I still feel like it's Loak, but he said Locke. So I have to. I've always been Team Locke. He verified it's lock. What was that question, PT? Do you think it will change the viewing experience of the Apex events, like having people there? you know, 1,000 people or whatever it is. Will that make it a more engaging experience?

I think it will be a little bit more lively. I mentioned, NXT did an event there, and it was in front of, I don't know, what exactly it was, six, seven, it was way more people than what we usually see. It was way more people than what we usually see at a UFC event, and it felt much different. It felt way more alive. so yeah i mean think about like the small theater shows that we see sometimes in boxing or previously

in mama like the theater at madison square garden now that's like like three to five thousand but if just packing enough people in there so that when somebody wins it's not their mom and their aunt screaming and their dad applauding loudly is going to make a huge difference like there's actually going to be some energy in it in a small room too yeah it's gonna feel actually better but still we think a thousand show up every time no i wonder how much the tickets are going to cost the standard tickets because i know the VIP plan where you get unlimited food and drink is like a thousand dollars or whatever like like you get a standard ticket for like a grand for the apex but it's like VIP and you get all the you know this is when nobody was coming in like it's like

you know premium buffet all you can drink you're essentially sitting cage side yeah not interested hanging with some fighters if they sell the tickets at a reasonable price or even do like dynamic pricing where it's like this card's probably not going to sell super well, we'll scale it down. I think they'll pack it out nearly every time. There's enough fight fans in Vegas, I'm sure. Kennedy and Zichiku and Marcus Buccecha fought to had drawn a bit of a weird fight, if you will. There were eye pokes. There were low blows. There was all kinds of nonsense. King Green beat Lance Gibson via split decision. Yaroslav Amosov beat Neil Magni via Anaconda Choke in the former Beltaur Walterway Champions UFC debut. Joe Anderson Brito. There's a

Amosov with the takedown of Magni. There's the choke. It's a nice little signing for the UFC now. 29 and 1 is Amasov representing his beloved home country of Ukraine. Shout out to him. I'm sure he dreamed of making his UFC debut at the Apex. Joe Anderson Brito beat Isaac Thompson. Stephen Asplund won a performance bonus for his win over Sean Sharaff. Luana Santos beat Melissa Croden. Gereme Pat, beat Alan Frye, and Jamie Lynn Hort, the pride of the Great White North, picked up a win in the curtain jerker. So that was it. And that was it for the UFC on ESPN era.

Guys, seven years, it has come and gone. That got me thinking about what the greatest moment of the UFC on ESPN era is. And like, you kind of wish that there was a timeline in which, you know, COVID doesn't happen during this period because who knows what could have happened, the events, all that, stuff, and more. And so it feels like the apex and the streaming issues became synonymous with this era, which is unfortunate because I do think it was a net positive for the UFC and ESPN. I think I think the UFC helped ESPN plus tremendously.

And I think ESPN helped put the UFC on the map. I don't subscribe to the notion that the UFC did not benefit greatly from being on ESPN. I think part of the reason why they are so popular is because they were on ESPN, because they were on ESPN during the pandemic, and there was nothing going on for those two months and we've talked about it and the gambling and the ticker and all that stuff

and that was parlayed into this incredible deal with Paramount Plus but if you were to ask me my personal opinion actually you know what I'm curious PTC what do you say what do you say

best moment of the seven years on ESPN January of 2019 to December of 2025 I mean you put me on the spot there but are you of that calculator your brain, you know, you say the card and you're like, oh, this was the, I don't have that. You know what's crazy about saying that? I literally texted this to the

group on Saturday, hey guys, do you want me to actually pull up the text? I'm putting you on the spot. There's the first thing I thought of when he said, you put me on the spot. Frank, this is crazy. It's crazy to be. Look, it was a busy day. Oh, it was WOWFC, uh, PFL, up on life for the apex. You know what I mean? These things are just flashing in our way head. Well, 17 screens

around me with all the fights on. I can't think about the ESPN era when Christiana Ronaldo is streaming Well, C-25. Yeah, I gave you credit for that. All right, Pianna fails on the TV? Yeah. Oh, okay, calm down, Jamal. A lot of shit has come away away here, last.

All right, yeah. For Monday, let's all think of what our favorite moment of the ESPN era was. Someone thumbs-uped it. I don't know who that person was. Was it me? Who was that? No, you can click and see. Oh, how do I click on the thumb?

Just tap it. I'm clicking on it, and then another. Oh, E.J. Yeah, there you go. As it would be. Yeah, okay. Go to Eric there. Did you see this text, Connor?

Yeah, I saw it. Okay, so you're not blindsided by this. No, not at all. This query. Okay, maybe, okay, so we'll go, you know, I wanted to give. Not side by this, what? By this query. Oh, yeah, yeah.

Okay. Connor, what? What's yours? We'll give, we'll get PC a little bit more time. Clearly the two days wasn't enough to think about it. So what is your favorite? Mine's from a fight and a lot of people are going to say this one, but the Holloway Gachie knockout on 300.

That was like, when he knocked him out, I absolutely lost my shit. I feel like collectively as a whole, every UFC fan loss. this shit. Everyone knows who you're talking about. Now people have tried to recreate it. It was an iconic moment. I loved it. That's my answer. Rick? Probably that first pay-per-view return in Jacksonville because it felt so significant to the moment. It felt so significant to that story. You talked about like you would have liked to see what happened if COVID didn't happen. I don't know. I actually think it was probably the best thing for the UFC promotionally because it allowed them to welcome in so many new fans.

I can't tell you how many times I meet somebody and they tell me that they started watching during the pandemic, that it was it being the only thing on television alongside like Korean baseball was the reason that they started watching. And so when they came back and they had that loaded, I think it was 249

I believe was the number in Jacksonville, that to me felt like a real like pivotal moment in company history in that deal with ESPN and kind of like the culture of MMA. Mine actually is is an easy one, like when I thought about the question and then I thought for a moment. And it's not because, like, I have some crazy brain or anything like this, our memory or anything

that P.C. was trying to say. It's because of the one that, you know, impacted me so much. I will never forget Leon Edwards, head kicking Kamar Usman. And then the reaction afterwards and P.T. Chuck and I doing the post show on Spotify Live, RIP, and interacting with people and getting that chance to talk to a lot of the British fans and feeling the emotion. the footage coming out of, like, you know, Leon's corner trying to hype him up and all this stuff. Like, it was just a story that we had been talking about and debating and arguing for so long. And then he finally gets it and looks like he's a minute away from losing. And then he pulls off one of the great finishes in the history of UFC title fights.

That, to me, was the greatest moment of the UFC on ESPN era. There were a lot, no doubt about it, a lot of wins, a lot of big moments. But I don't think anything generated that type of emotion, at least not for me and, you know, all the people that we get to interact with. You remember that night, right, PT? I remember. And look, I'm so glad you asked me about my favorite moment from the ESPN. I'm dying to say this. The London event post-pandemic.

You know, Rick's talking about the pandemic there, brought back some memories. But that London event after the pandemic, we all remember, of course, that when this bad boy hit the pandemic, I believe the first event that was canceled with the UFC was. UFC London and March 2020 and then two years later July Tom Aspinall comes back the whole new cast Paddy the Baddy was there Arnold Allen just a brilliant brilliant fight card and it felt like it felt like it was over you know everyone was there in the O2 the same spot it's always in it was absolutely packed everyone was dying to be part of a live audience again and I think it kind of spearheaded this whole golden era of the UK which unfortunately then moved on to doing events in the middle of the night that depressed all the fans.

But, I mean, that initial one was very good. I don't know about you, but I feel like that's going to be the last time they do that. Please God. Yeah, I mean, you filled me with hope speaking about these new times, this new Paramount there, the lack of need to do it. So fingers crossed. Does anyone feel, like I saw, when I posted that, when I asked people on social media on Saturday night about that, I got so many, like, the day I was able to cancel my subscription,

the day it ended, the day they announced the Paramount Plus. deal. I got so much negativity about it. Does anyone disagree with me in thinking that this was, you know, a positive for the UFC? No, it was massively positive. I don't think there's even a debate or an argument you could make that this wasn't, like, essential to the UFC's growth and position that allowed them to get this deal that they have now. It was integral to that. So like, now that's- Plus wasn't great, but like, it wasn't that bad. Like, I was always able to watch the fights. Like, people are being overly dramatic. about the tech side of it because that's the part that impacts them the most and they're not

necessarily thinking of the promotion and what's best for the business and the company and all those things. But like, I never found ESPN Plus that bad. I never like had that many issues with it. It was mostly fine for me. Yeah. I'm starting to get some more intel on the Paramount Plus plans for the future. Nothing to really report at the moment. But I don't think that the price increase is going to be as big as some people are suspecting, at least not what I'm hearing right now. And they seem, you know, they seem very eager to grow the sport and to cover it the right way. And, you know, obviously there's a brave new world out there, no pay-per-view. So let's see the kind of cards that we're getting and the kind of lineups and how they treat the numbered events as

opposed to the fight nights and all that stuff. But I think, I think initially the UFC is going to feel the impact of no ESPN in their orbit of not being in business with ESPN. We talked about, you know, the social media and the coverage. And when ESPN isn't in business with an entity, they cover it less. So let's see what happens. One of the many stories to pay attention to come 2026. And by the way, January 7th, this is our lineup for the first week post break. The fifth will have our Halwani nose MMA awards. The six will have our boxing awards. The six will have our boxing awards and on the seventh we'll have our 2026 prediction show

and I was actually looking at my 2025 picks and golly, did I nail all of them? Glad to hear. I'm kidding. Earlier in the day though, speaking of ESPN, we did get the PFL on ESPN here in America and they were back in Lyon, they were back in France

and these crowds are just unbelievable. PFL in Europe and in particular in France comes across as the legit number number two promotion in the world. I mean, they Yeah, I've got the flares in there. I don't know if that's legal or not. I don't know if that's safe,

but it's pretty damn cool to see on TV. The crowd is going insane. For a lot of fighters that, you know, we don't talk about that aren't... Like, Habir-Rorer came off as a superstar at that event. Just like we saw it was Cedric Dumbay back in the day, and the crowd is just unbelievable. You know what I actually noticed from this event, Pizzi?

Once the two title fights started, Cyborg versus Collins, Nemcov in the main event against Henim Farah, It felt like the crowd died off. You know what I mean? Like those were the biggest fights on the car. They want to see their own. They are so into the French fighters, the European fighters, the local storylines and feuds and all that stuff.

It's an amazing thing. It really is amazing. It's just, I don't understand why they don't just continue to go back there. And they announced Madrid, and they announced that Castell Van Steenis is going to defend his title in a rematch against Fabian Edwards. In fact, they had the face-off earlier today. And that obviously makes a lot of sense because Van Stenis is very proud of his Spanish roots. There you see, the two gentlemen.

This will make PFL the first global MMA organization to hold an event in Spain. And we see how popular the sport is getting over there. Thanks to Ilya Tuporia and his promotion, Wow FC. But then they have some shows planned for the United States, and I'm curious to see what the difference is going to be. But this is the new PFL because now we have a champion in the heavyweight division, Vadim Nemcov and in the Women's Featherweight Division, Chris Cyborg. Now, Cyborg beating Sarah Collins wasn't a big surprise.

What was a bit of a surprise was her saying that she'd be interested in moving down to 135 to fight Dakota Dichiva at 135. And Dakota, of course, would be moving up from 125. Don't know if that would happen. I mean, Cyborg moving down to 135 seems a little bit not healthy, dangerous at this point in her career. And Dakota is on such a role at 1.25. 25, is there a huge demand and is there a huge reason to take that risk? I don't know.

Her next fight is scheduled for February, but I'm hearing that that might get delayed more on that down the line. But here we go. Cyborg winning, and now she's the champion. She can add another one. UFC champ, Strike Force champ, Invicta champion, Belator champion, and now PFL champion. What a career, a Hall of Fame career. But the big news, I think, was Vadim Knav winning, absolutely dismantling Henin Faheda,

which was the best result for PFL, submitting him, very impressive fashion, with the great Fyodor Emilienenko in his corner. This man is not a big guy. He's not a big heavyweight. That little slap there after the sub was something. But that's a very impressive win, and that should be the man to fight Francis Ngano next. Francis Ngano was on our show last week, and I'll get to that interview in a moment, but he talked about wanting to fight. He's very open to fighting. He says he's ready to go.

He did mention Deonté Wilder and John Jones as two people he wants to fight next. Neither of those guys are in the PFL. Of course, they could try to make the Deonté deal. But that's the fight that makes the most sense. He has one fight left. I ask the PFL about this. They want him to fight. They're going to try to make a deal for some point in 2026.

That's the best fight. And it makes a lot of sense now. He's the heavyweight champion. Now, the issue is, do you want Francis fighting for your heavyweight title on the last fight of his deal? That's the problem because now we're faced with the scenario where he could walk away with your belt and then you're going to have to strip him and it's a whole mess. But as far as like tests in the PFL, they found one for him. There haven't been a lot of great options over the course of the three years that he's been there almost. They have found one.

And that's been the talk and he responded. I've been ready for a long time. See you soon. What do you guys think of that? Francis versus Vadim? Love the fight, but why wasn't this the fight already? me this tells me that they're not going to do it. Vadim versus Francis should have happened on

Saturday. Yes, that's what I'm saying. But now it feels even bigger. Now it feels even more. Now you're closer to Francis walking out the door, so why? Why do it? I'm not terribly confident because of the fact that no one ever fight. Unless he resigns with them, which I don't know if he will. It doesn't seem like

he wants to at this point. Why would you book someone in a title fight with one fight left on his deal? The interview he did with you last week told me everything I need to know. Like, he was ready and available, and they did not give them that fight, there's no reason to give it to them now. Makes no sense from a promotional perspective. Nor does Cyborg versus Dakota Ditcheva, because who knows how many fights Cyborg has left, right? If you put Cyborg in there,

first of all, I'm not confident that Cyborg can make 135. But if she could, right, I wasn't confident that Kayla Harrison could do it, and now she's done it multiple times, so fair play. But we've seen Chris Cyborg that, you know, weight-cutting video has been released. Like, I just don't believe Chris Cyborg is a 135-pound person. I don't think she can get down there. But even if she were to be able to and Dakota Ditchava wanted to challenge yourself and come up, what good does it do you to put Dakota in there, get knocked out by

Cyborg, and then she's on the way out after one or two more fights because Cyborg's been doing this for an eternity at this point. Like, it just doesn't make a lot of promotional sense for either of these fights to take place, unfortunately. While I think they're great fights, like Dakota and Cyborg a little bit

less, that feels like a span of weight classes that doesn't really make sense. Nemcov versus Francis. I would love to see that fight. Real fight. That is a banger that I would love to see. But it just doesn't make sense for them. I wanted to roll the dice on it. Do things the UFC wouldn't do. Fuck it. Just make the fight. I understand the ramifications of Francis wins and he walks away with the belt. But it's also a big opportunity to putting them cough over. And to just the Fadar point as well, I love the idea of this kind of smaller and statured dude going up against these giants. It does remind you of Fadar back in the pride days. Look, it probably won't happen. but I don't know why they shouldn't entertain the idea. That is the kind of shit that's going to make people watch PFL. Same with the Madrid, France going into these markets,

and they've just got so much energy in them. It's really captivating stuff to watch. And I can't wait for this Madrid, Garb. What a week that's going to be for European MMA, by the way, because it will be PFL on Friday and then UFC in London on the Saturday. And if I'm well, FC, by the way, they should book Thursday in Madrid. You're right. They should do all that shit.

It would be absolutely fantastic because I really believe the juice they have in Madrid now is going to be akin to what we're seeing in France. Nobody is going there. I think it's going to be a crazy party for that event. I really want to go to it. Even if Francis did fight and win and left, you would just have a vacant title on your hands. Is there a bigger fight you could make in PFL than Francis versus Demkov right now? Absolutely agree.

It's a great point. Not for Francis. The issue is then what do you have left, right? you have to have to have some kind of champion, you have to have some kind of person that people can look at and go, that's the guy, that's the champion. You need to have the illusion

of you being able to have a guy who can compete with the top level fighters would be France. And now you've got the guy who just beat Francis. That's what Petez he's suggesting. Back him and just hope that he wins. But you're gambling there as a, like,

if Francis... You're also gambling with a belt that has no lineage. Exactly. Who cares? So that's why I say, roll the dice. Roll the fucking dice. How much bigger is... Hold on get from beating, I don't even know.

It's not about him getting bigger. It's about him not getting reduced to zero. If Francis Ngano knocks out Vadim Nemcov and then walks out the door and says, thanks, that's very bad, promotionally. That's very, very bad for you. You have no heavy weights left. You have nothing to. Do they have in it right now? They have Nemcov.

They have Nemcov. All right. Put them against Oleg Popov and how many people watch. Popoff. Popoff. 2026 is a pivotal year for the PFL. final year of their ESPN deal. They need to make a splash, right?

If you get a fight like that on the books, you've made a splash. If Nemcov wins, you've got a guy who just beat Francis Ngano. You need to take some chances. And clearly they're taking a big chance. They're redefining their whole organization. They're rebranding the whole thing.

The reason this is called the PFL, the Professional Fighters League, is because they had the season and the format and the tournament and all. They've completely thrown that all out. Next, I pray to the MMA gods, they throw out the uniforms. Throw those things out.

Be the fun league. Be the fun organization. Be the place where people come to embrace their identities and be unique and be different. And they've got something here. They've got something. I really think if they can go to Europe as many times as possible, go to France as many times as possible, let's see how this Madrid card does and make the biggest fights. That's it. So Belt Be Damn, make the biggest damn fights.

But you have to have fighters to have the biggest damn fights. And if you cripple your guy in Nemcov while Francis is on his way out the door, you're not going to be able to make big fights. The alternative is what? Francis doesn't fight for you and the contract runs out. You let him fight somebody else and then figure it out. Or he re-signed. If Francis resigns, I'd do Nemcov versus Francis tomorrow. I'd do it as soon as he puts pen to paper. Let's do it.

No problem. Also, if you don't have him fight, you only get the one fight out of them. Get the one fight in this whole thing. Yeah, it feels. Can I just say something about the interview last week? because I saw a lot of people saying like, gosh, you know, that couldn't have gone worse for Ariel. Oh, my God. What a nightmare.

Are you? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because in their mind, it was like, oh, we had this script. We had this scripted plan as to what he was going to say. And I wanted him to be there to dunk on this person and that person. That's not how this works, my friends. I'm sorry, I don't talk about these things beforehand. You come on, you say your piece, and now you either sink or swim with those comments.

Like, if he was going to come on and not refute the things that Dana White said about him, if he was going to come on and not really explain why he turned down the Jake Paul fight, he has to live with that. And guess what? When I'm having him on, it's to simply address these things. It's not with the motive, with the intention of trying to spin this or that. So that was on him. And I'll say it bluntly.

Like, I don't think, if I was in his shoes and I did something like that, the stuff that Dana White was accusing him of doing. the Andrew Schultz podcast, and I didn't do those things, I would have come on and said, you're absolutely insane if you believe that. No way, I would have never done that, X, Y, and Z. I wouldn't say like, hey, you know, ask him. He said it already. If, if, you know, if I turned down a fight like the Jake Paul fight and then the guy who beat me took that fight, I wouldn't have dealt with it the way in which he did. Now, he feels, I'm not saying that he did a wrong, that's just me. That's just how I thought. So I was like sitting there and being like, yeah,

If I was in your shoes right now, not saying this is right and you're wrong. But if I was in your shoes, I would not be answering these questions based on what I think I know, based on what I think might have happened between him and Dana, or what I think might have happened between him and Nekisa when that fight was being offered to him. The point is, I just want to make very clear to you guys, as I've said a million times, there is no agenda here, there is no bias. If someone is going to come on and, you know, say great things about the UFC, it's like the stupid AEW fans. Oh, God, he's asking about AEW because he wants this person to dunk on AEW.

No, I'm actually trying to find out what is it about this place that people like. So when I ask Maven that question and he says good things, great. Now we know. And that leads to other good things being said. And that's just the way this works. So please, please, please understand that there is no intention here. There's no buys. You may not believe me.

I could be saying this a million times. But that's the truth. I didn't think that those answers were expressed in the best way. way possible. Now, what was interesting was, what was interesting was, we know about what Dana White said on the Andrew Schultz show. Almost immediately after my interview with Francis, Dana White is sitting down with Oscar Willis of the Mac Life, and it seemed at least to me a little bit that he changed the story. Let's take a look. First, let us listen to what Dana White said about his interaction with Francis Ngano on the Andrew Schultz Flagrin podcast. He had just fought, and he comes up to my

office and uh you know he's in the hallway or whatever hanging i and i said come on what's what's going on and he was pissed off that he didn't get a 50,000 dollar bonus uh in his in his last fight that he didn't get the bonus of the night and i said well francis you didn't get it because this that and he's in my office and he's arguing with me and i'm like yeah this guy got this this guy got that and this is why the conversation's over i'm starting to leave and he grabs me by my shirt fuck and like pushes me back in my office and i said dude get your fucking hands off me those were the words yeah yeah yeah yeah so that's what he said about the interaction now this is what he said and this was like a month or so ago around ufc at msg this is what he said to

oscar about the interaction a month or so later let me be clear on something too when i say the physicality. It's not like Francis and Gagne came in here and threatened us or did anything like that. But as men, everybody who was a man knows there's these situations

that, you know, we're in there and he's telling me that I deserve the 50,000. I want the 50,000. I said, and I get it. This guy fought, whatever, whoever the fight was on the card, we had determined that they were going to get the 50,000. And I'm in there with them for however long we're talking, and I'm like, I'm done.

and I had another meeting. And this guy just used to walk around, wander around UFC headquarters like this was his house. This guy literally spent the whole day here. Breakfast, lunch, fucking dinner, you know. So I started to walk out and he put his hand on my chest. He says, we're not done talking yet.

And I said, oh, we're fucking done talking. You know, it's not like, you know, Francis and Ganyu came in here and was like physically, but that's what went down. So safe to say, no interest in bringing him back. You know? I don't know how I can make it any more fucking clear. Did the story change a little bit?

It feels like the story changed a little bit. I mean, there is some touching involved, but it seems like a little less. And what about the dude, get your fucking hands off of me part? Anyway, not, I guess, all that important. In the end, it sounds like he's not interested in bringing him back. No surprise there. I don't know.

This is a story that, look, if Dana White was Vince McMahon, Circa in 1996, he would bring Francis Ngano back if it was, quote, unquote, good for business. But, and Chuck wrote a great article about this on, on crown.com. It sounds like he has no interest in bringing him back. And so, yeah, I don't think we're going to see him. I don't think we're going to see him back anytime soon. Did anyone catch that, though? And you know what's really interesting about that?

It's really interesting because he continues to say, like, hey, after that, I wanted nothing to do with him. I told my matchmakers, cut this guy. I told my matchmakers, like, this guy's not worth it. He's a bad dude. You're going to find out when someone shows you who they are, you know that whole shtick? Believe them, that whole thing.

Then I would love to know why when he announced that he was finally taking the belt away from Francis at that press conference when he announced that they were going to part ways with Francis after a year of trying to sign him. Why did he say this? Because it's very different from what he is saying some three years later. We've been working on a new agreement with Francis for like two years now. And we had gotten to a point where, you know, he was going to fight John Jones and many who believe, including me, that he's the best of all time, you know, for the heavyweight championship.

And John Jones has been willing and ready and able to fight anybody. He didn't care who it was. Could have been anybody in the heavyweight division. He was ready to go. and Francis, we offered Francis a deal that would have made him the highest paid heavyweight in the history of the company, more than Lesnar, more than anybody, and he turned a deal down. So, you know, I don't know, you know, we get to this point where I've told you guys this before, if you don't want to be here, you don't have to be here.

What is going on? He says in all the interviews now, he says, I want nothing to do with this guy. I wanted to get rid of him like, what is it, 2018? And now he's telling you in January of 2023 that we offered him the biggest contract for any heavyweight. And they've had some pretty big names, i.e. Brock Lesner, Randy Gouture, Kane Velasquez. The list goes on and on. Which is it? Did they offer him the biggest deal effort or did he want to get rid of him seven years ago?

Which is it? I feel like we went through this last week with the arm and stuff the biggest problem though is that Dana White can continue to do this and change the record and make it whatever he wants

and public sentiment will be on his side because Francis and Gano opted not to deny anything right? You gave Francis every opportunity to correct the record right? If this is untrue

say so and Francis opted out of that Francis decided not to do that and that's with regards to the altercation to the altercation yes so Dana White's word is law on this because everybody is only hearing from one side and whatever he says goes, the public sentiment has turned in a major way on Francis and Ghana. I wish he had said something different. I wish he had taken the opportunity to clarify. Say, look, yes, that's exactly what happened and I made a mistake. Or say, no, it didn't happen. Whatever it was, now whatever Dana White says is the record on this. And that's the unfortunate truth. So it doesn't matter if the story changed because there's only one story being heard. And it's his and that will be the one that people take.

That was saying earlier, Ariel, like, you know, people were saying it couldn't have gone worse for you. I thought you were about saying it couldn't have gone any worse for Francis because that's what I was thinking. I was watching it. I was like, this is from that incident with Dana to the Jake Paul stuff, I was like, this is, I couldn't believe how badly it was going from his point of view. I was like, how did you come on this show, knowing full well these questions are going to be asked you? Because, of course, they are. Like, they're part of the conversation in the sport at the moment. These were definitely going to be come up and that's what he had to offer.

I thought it was very poor. To Rick's point, I think it's probably the lowest public sentiment has been behind Francis in a long, long time in the aftermath of this. Yeah, and just further proof that we don't go over this before. He even said at one point, like, oh, I should have known that you were going to ask this, but like I forgot or something like that. Remember that part? It's like I don't send a list of questions beforehand.

I don't send a list of topics beforehand. I asked him, obviously, he's timely, he's in the news. Do you want to come on the show? He said yes, graciously, as he often does. and then here we go. We find out what we're going to talk about. We find out, and there's no questions in front of me either. I know what I want to talk to him about.

I would presume he would know as well, and it's up to him to answer the questions in whichever way he wants. That's what I say to everyone. That's what I said to Connor's team when we had that in-studio interview. Like, he's coming on, you know what there is to be discussed. I'm not going to send you a script.

You know what it is. So either we're coming on to talk about it or not. And, yeah, The reason I said that was just because, like, I think people thought that I was, like, in cahoots with him to try to, like, plan this, to dunk on these people or those people. The one interesting thing to me is, like, ultimately it will always be a he said, she said about what happened in that altercation. But as far as, like, the way the UFC treated the situation, they wanted to sign him. They wanted to offer him a massive deal. They wanted him to fight John Jones.

They offered him this contract. He chose not to sign it. And now you see all this other stuff coming out. Is this stuff coming out? Had he agreed to that deal? probably not. Let's be honest. Probably not. The one bit of bail out I want to give Francis Inganu because I've been thinking about this quite a bit is, and as I said, I think Francis should have been a little more forthcoming and open with his feelings on this and corrected the record

if needed to be. But in his mind, Francis Inganu has probably been done with the UFC since 2022, right? Like that was that fight against Cyril Gan and he probably did not think about the UFC after that. Maybe there were some negotiations, but ultimately, I think we all knew that he was looking for something different that they couldn't provide and he left. It's now years later and we're talking about issues and scenarios that happened four, five years ago. And I think in his mind, he just has moved on from all of this and felt like, man, I really didn't even realize that this was still a topic of conversation, right? Clips of Dana White talking about a year's old issue are coming up. And he in his head probably has just mentally moved on from this to the

point that he didn't think this would be a, would have the response in the backlash that it would because I don't think he really has thought about this. I really don't think he cares about what Dana White's out there saying about him because he knows kind of what the truth of the situation is, whether it is, Dana's events or not. But like, this is ancient stuff for him. This is not new. This is, this did not just happen. And he's been so checked out. He's fought, he's lost a son. He's fought in boxing. He's fought in MMA for other promotions. Like the life of Francis Inganu, he's had an fortunate accident. The life of Francis and Gano has moved through 10 different iterations in the time since this incident that Dana White's describing has occurred. I really just don't

think Francis cares or even wanted to think about it. And so I think that's why when he said that to you, I think it really was a moment where he was like, I wasn't even on this wavelength. Yes, I understand what you're trying to say and I get it. I just think, as I said to him, if someone would accuse me of something like that and I didn't do it, I'd want to be like, yo, I don't disagree. Are you out of your mind? I agree with you. I agree with that type of thing.

And I think he should have. This keeps the door open to that narrative being. It's unfortunate, but I agree. Being perpetually. You know, like, Dana, like, he's a bad dude. He's signed plenty of bad dudes as well. Oh, my. You know, like, just because him saying, like, this guy is a bad guy.

And then we know Francis's story is unbelievable. It is Hollywood movie blockbuster fodder. Like, it is unbelievable the stuff this guy had to go through in his life to reach the level that he did to become heavyweight champion of the world. This idea that, like, he is a bad guy. This is one person's point of view on this, you know? When did being a bad guy become an eliminator to become a UFC fighter or be a prominent UFC fighter? Did I miss the memo on that? Like, isn't being a bad dude almost a prerequisite at this point to being a UFC fighter?

Yeah, I love how this is being used as the reason why we didn't sign this guy. And he knew it early on, too. Yeah, he knew. Early in his career, I knew this was a bad guy. I wanted to cut him. Told everyone. I told everyone. This guy's a bad dude.

Because he asked for a plane. Could you imagine what the other dudes have asked for? Could you imagine the other... He always talks about... He was hate Connor McGregor. Yeah, you guys don't know 10% of what we deal with. And this guy said, allegedly said, have the jet ready for me or some nonsense like that.

And who knows if he was joking. And then said, hey, man, we're not... He demanded a jet. Yeah. In comparison to things that other fighters on the roster have done. I could... Because we're 20 billion, for for sake. I want to ask you guys all to answer this.

Do you give a shit if Francis Ngano was a good or bad dude? does it matter at all to you because I can't tell you how little I care about it I'd like to believe he's a good dude but that's great are you gonna be heartbroken if he's not

is this is this the thing that occupies your mind are you up at night wondering if Francis Inganu's a good dude I could not give a fuck less he I don't care none of these guys are good or bad like there is just no

I just can't care it's like the stuff that I said about Sean Strickland back in the day like when people get so mad about Sean Strickland sitting up there I don't look to the fighters to be my moral compass. And now obviously someone doing bad things

and saying bad things are two different things. But it's just, it's like, okay, you didn't come to terms with the guy and you told us back in 2023 that the reason why you didn't come to terms with the guy is because you offered him a deal and he didn't want to sign it

and he wanted easy fights and all that stuff. That's what we were said. That's what we were told, right? That's what he said at that press coverage. He wanted the easy way out. And then, of course, that looks stupid because he then fought Tyson Fury. and now the narrative is this, whatever.

Can we talk about John Sina? I've been foaming at the mouth talking about John Sina. John Sina had his retirement match on Saturday, on Saturday night's main event, on Peacock here in the United States, at the MCI Center, aka the Verizon Center, aka the Capital One Center, in Washington, D.C. And they sold, like, an insane amount of tickets, and I think the gate was $4 million. It's the most ever for that venue, and it's the most ever for an arena event, and W.W. and TK. are killing it and all this stuff.

stuff. And it's John Sina versus Gunther. And can I just say this about it? Listen, they did an incredible job of hyping it. They did a year-long storyline. There were highs, there were lows. He turned heel. He turned back face. There was the rock involved. Then he wasn't involved. Travis Scott was involved. He wasn't involved. I said I didn't mind the heel turn. I said everything after the heel turn wasn't great. I've also said, by the way, I have immense respect for John Cena as a performer and as a human being. Like, anytime I see a John Cena interviewer clip, he comes off as such a good person, like truly a good person, salt of the earth, mensch. He comes across as just like a great celebrity who you want your kids to be a fan of. And he was the perfect poster child

for the WW in the post rock Stone Cold Era. He was the perfect guy. He never got in trouble. He never embarrassed the company. He never took his ball and went home. He was never involved in any scandal or anything like that. He was the perfect guy to take the ball and run into the sort of like PG era post-attitude era, the ruthless aggression era. Perfect. And he did that job and then some. He never missed the date. He was as reliable as can be. He was the face of the company. You know the story by now. He was never my favorite or even really on my Mount Rushmore or my cup of tea because if I'm being honest, I sort of checked out around 06 or so post Chris Benoit and then once I got really into MMA reporting, between like 06 to almost even like 18, 19, 20 pandemic when my kids

get into it a little bit. There's footage of Rick going to NXT shows and I'm like, ah, screw this stuff. I'm not really watching it. And so that was kind of the meat of his career. And so I didn't have that sort of feeling that a lot of people do towards John Cina's career. I did think it's funny that almost every single media guy on the planet or any single person that came across John Sina throughout his life interacted with him, had to post a picture with them and him on that Saturday. I mean, I can't tell you how many pictures I saw on social media of like, salute John. Why do we do that? Why do we do that as humanity? Why when someone is in the news, do we have to like attach ourselves to that person? We often do it when someone dies, like you'll post

the picture if we're in the media of us like interviewing that person or being around that person and everyone was doing that with John Cena because this was the death. This was the end of his career. And so there was a lot of interest. I think the heel turn and the aftermath of the heel turn was botched. I think that the last time is now tournament felt very empty. There was no connection between him and Gunther. He was not there for the tournament. It didn't really feel like the way. You are given a storyline like this. You are given an arc like. You are given an arc like this, it feels like a creative member, a writer's dream, a producer's dream. And there were so many great options throughout the year to end it on. It didn't feel like this was the perfect way to

end it. It didn't. But anyway, all I heard from people was, oh, Gunther's going to win, and it's a time-honored tradition in our business to have, you know, the guy leaving the territory, the guy leaving the company, the guy leaving the business, do the job on his back, one, two, three, because he's leaving and this guy's staying and now this guy gets the heat and now the next time this guy shows up, he's going to get booed and now he gets to take that heat. The same thing they told us about Brock Lesner

and Undertaker when he broke the streak and time and again. That's what I kept hearing. And that's what all the sort of, you know, the fan boys will be like, no, this is what you have to do. This is what John wanted. This is exactly what he wanted. He wanted to give back to the business. And to that, I say BS.

I say hogwash to that. I say that's nonsense. because that is an ideology from a business that no longer exists. That's 1970s, 1980s wrestling. Oh, the guy leaves the territory. He gets pinned. He's on the way. That's not WWE unreal territory.

That's not the era that we're living in now. We live and consume a completely different product. This is a completely different business. And so to say, like, oh, yeah, that's what they used to do in Memphis wrestling back in the day. That's what they used to do in Smoky Mountain Wrestling back in the day. You have to do the job. who wanted to see John Cena lose time and again in the last few months

got his ass whooped by Brock Lester lost to Dominic Mysterio loses to Gunther and not only does he lose in his retirement match the guy who told us for 20 plus years to never give up not only does he lose he lose via submission

and not only does he lose via submission not only does he go out on his shield we know about that right guys like you get submitted and you don't tap That's going out on your shield. No, he taps. And not only does he tap, he taps in like the most, like,

like, I give up. I literally give up way possible with a smile on his face. Ah, isn't that cute? He smiled. Thanks for the memories. No. I reject this.

This is not what those people wanted. This is not what anyone who is a fan of his wanted. It's almost like this, like, this weird fixation of, of we know what everyone wants. Let's give them the complete opposite. No one in attendance.

None of the people that paid all that money wanted to see John go out like that. They did not want to see him tap out. They did not want to see him give up. The beacon of perseverance, of hope, of standing up for yourself, of never giving up. He taps in his final appearance.

What? That is a mistake. And you know what's so frustrating about it is? We just saw Dustin Porrier lose in his retirement fight. in Louisiana of all places in his home state in New Orleans he lost fair and square it sucked

it was depressing if you're a Porier fan but guess what they can't script that result they couldn't plan for another result they couldn't put him over they couldn't give him the swan song that he wanted they couldn't give him the final send-off that he wanted

because it's unscripted this is scripted you could have given us this it's the only sport that is scripted it's the only like I want the Buffalo Bills to win the Super Bowl I want Josh Allen to win with five seconds left, and if the NFL truly had a script, they would make it happen for the good people of Buffalo.

Guess what? It ain't scripted. And so they may never win. They may continue to break our hearts. This is the one that you can script. Give the people what they want for once. Give the people what they want. Everyone in attendance wanted John to do this and to do this and to do this and to do this

and to do that and to walk off. And you know what you can do? You can have him win. and then you have Gunther beat the shit out of him afterwards and get all the heat and then you have all his old friends come for the save Cody comes and see him punk up and then you have the big moment

and they all put their hands up and everyone goes home happy. What's wrong with that? My kids, yeah, they did this after he tapped. After he tapped. My kids don't watch wrestling anymore. They come up to me like, John Cena lost in his last match.

Why? Why would they do that? I'm like, well, you know, he lost fair and square. You know, Gunther's a man. And by the way, we love Gunther in our household. Love the freaking guy. Gunther went in there and told WWE he wanted to be on this show. And that's the only reason why he was on the show before WrestleMania. Love Gunther.

Walter, it's my son's name. Love him. He's a great guy. I love and support his career and I love everything he's doing and good for him for getting this moment. It worked out great for him. And I hope he's able to capitalize on it. But that's not what we wanted. The match should have never been Sina versus Gunther to begin with.

And the result should have never been Sina losing. And it sure as hell should not. never have been him tapping, at the very least, if you wanted him to lose, let him go out, no tap, went out on his shield. But this, like giving up, the antithesis of what he represents, that, that is not good. I'm sorry, that's not good. I'm sorry if someone gets offended by me saying that. And this is the fun thing about, is, am I actually, like, really, truly mad about this?

No, there's a lot more important things to be mad about right now in the world. But when I saw that on Saturday, I was like, really, all those kids, all those people with the merch, all those people that have supported this story that took them through these ups and downs that really at times didn't make that much sense and they pressed the reset button and we all went like, yay, he's here and let's see it one more time. We love it. And thanks for the memories. This is what you give them. This is how you repay them? No. It was a mistake. And they'll, you know, whomever's idea this was will never admit it, but it was a mistake. And it will be debated from now until the end. And people will talk about.

this guy losing his last match and that guy there was never an angle like this in pro wrestling it was never a year long thing and it's going to culminate here and we're being told that and there was never someone quite like John who had this connection with kids and for the most part never turned on them and never embarrassed the company and never got it like he

was perfect and that's how you ended it and his literal motto is never give up and you make him tap you know what that means that means that he like he succumbed he gave up that's not the time on a tradition the time-honored tradition nonsense does not exist anymore because guess what when people said

things like there's a time-honored tradition there was no such thing as WW Unreal and all the other stuff that we get now which I don't mind I like it I partake in it I know what it is but John deserve better and John is such a good guy and he's such a good soldier and company man that he would have never probably I'm guessing I wasn't there contested this protested this he deserved better he should have won that match and screw the time on our tradition stuff that tradition died a long time ago it's a completely different sport and business those people wanted to see that guy walk off with his head held high victorious and not get his ass kicked again anyone feel otherwise did i miss the did i miss the mark on this one now you obviously know more than me but i watched it

and i was i was left pretty disappointed i was like that's how it ends you wanted to see him win right Yeah, of course I wanted to see him when it's his last show. The crowd's going nuts for him. Anytime he did anything, the crowd went crazy. They booed Gunther the whole way. You know, it looked like Gunther might win, and then it looked like Cina was going to win, and I thought Cina was going to eventually pull it off. But, like, just to, not only lose, but to, like, I didn't even think it was actually over when it was over, and he just does the, like, the, like, kind of like, smirk grin on his face. And then they just did the whole everybody comes out, and then he takes his shoes off.

And I don't know. I actually really like what you just really like what you just He beats Gunther, and then Gunther goes ballistic, beats his ass, everyone comes out to save him. I was expecting someone was going to show up. Yeah. If you had told me going into it, it was just going to be Sina versus Gunther, that's it. He taps out Bon Voyage. I'd have been like, yeah, I'm just not going to watch. What the hell, man?

And then I have a couple friends that I watch WWE, and they were pissed. They were pissed. They were pissed. Everyone's pissed. Yeah, my doorman yesterday? He was like, do you guys watch that bullshit? I was like, wow, all right, man. We're fired up. Pizzi, what do you think?

No phone calls about John Cena's retirement. No phone calls. It also felt like on social media, it was kind of dead, too. Leading up to the event, I saw tweets from, like, Bleach Report. They got like 120,000 likes on it. And then afterward, I didn't see anything on Twitter. Just like, oh, he tapped out. Yeah, you know, I was watching on mute.

And I don't, you know, what I know about WWE is what Ariel says in the show. That's pretty much my only exposure to it. So I'm going into this going, well, he's going to lose because that's the time on our tradition, as Ariel has told us. um you know so that wasn't a shock to me right so i watch i'm lose didn't know about the you know has never tapped out thing obviously no commentary oh yeah that too that too yeah never tapped out yeah thank you for and then i'm watching and i'm seeing all these sad people and i don't know whether like i'm like are they just upset with the match that it went like this like did i just think this was a terrible match that went this way it was unceremonious it was just flat and then the people crying like

was that because he tapped out or was that because it's over and they wanted to celebrate him people actually truly love this guy and he's done everything right they wanted to celebrate him they didn't want to be sad that whole scene was sad uh the bowing all this what was this what was up with the bowing the bowing what is this where were we at uh hamilton uh what is this it's the end of the show man the curtain the curtain we want him to win we want us to suspend disbelief and we want him to have his hand raised and we want him to celebrate. We want to celebrate this guy. His hair's looking great.

How over is Gunther from winning that match? So the next time, look, Gunther's going to come on the mic and he's going to get booed and he's going to say like, I killed your hero. And that's exactly what, like, everyone beforehand said this is what's going to happen. The unpredictable thing to do is to have him win and say, to hell with your time monitor tradition,

to hell with your rules of passing the torch, this guy's going to win. But Gunther's going to come on and he's going to be you know he's going to be the asshole he's going to be the heel and he's going to say and it's going to be fine it's going to be fine but you know what gunther didn't need this gunther's fine just as is and and i don't think this makes him an even bigger heel like i don't want to see gunther get his because of it because we know what this is we know we know that it is we know i know what pro wrestling is and that's why i'm like how could you have sat there when you told us that this is all scripted how do you sit there and say let's have john lewes on the way out 1975 memphis wrestling

I get it. I completely get it. Andre the Giant is leaving the territory. Yeah, have him do the job, one, two, three to put the next guy over who's going to be staying in the territory. This ain't the business anymore. We're going to see John, you know, doing something tomorrow and Gunther's going to be doing something else. That's not what it is. And so I just think when your fan base is rewarding you and supporting you by buying all this stuff, the merch, the tickets, give them what they want. Be in the business of giving people what they want. And don't tell me about, like, oh, there's long-term storyline. Like, who's going to get revenge

for John on Gunther? John's gone. Who's it? Punk's going to get revenge. He's the champion already. Like, what's going to happen? Rhodes is going to get the job of taking down Gunther as a result.

Like, just give us what we want in that moment. It's a Saturday night in December. We're all depressed. We're freezing cold. It's snowing outside. Can you not give us what we want? That's how I felt about it. Frank, what do you think about it?

I didn't watch it. Oh, okay. The picture is funny. Which one? The face? The face? Yeah, it's going to be a great meme moving forward. It's so, it's almost like, it looks like it's, like, planned.

Like, was that really in the match? It's so perfect. I'm pretty sure this is when he's about to tap. Yeah, I know, but it's just so, like, zoomed in. Because the way he was smiling, I thought he had something else planned. I thought they had something else up their sleeve. It almost feels like they, they, like, they overthought it, you know? like, oh, you're going to be in the chokehold,

you're going to be in the RNC, and then you're going to smile, and then you're going to tap. Yeah, so this whole breakdown on Twitter where some guy was just like, it's poetic. The man who never gave up, finally gave up,

when he realized there was nothing left in the tank. That was it. Well, he realizes there's nothing left in the tank perfectly timed with his final match. The whole year, carries the promotion the entire year, and then it's like, I'm out Why did he take his shoes off?

Yeah, I don't know He was doing the wrestling game If anything, take the jorts off and leave him, bro The jorts, wow, he was doing the DC thing Oh my God No, leave the jorts on the mat Exposed himself, leave the jorts He never came out as the doctor

He's exposing himself Nah, I wanted the doctor When he switched up from the Jordans? Who knows? I don't even, what are their shoes? They look like orthopedic shoes Those are orthopedic shoes for sure Those are sketches slip on.

For what it's worth, I thought it was fantastic. Chill. For real? No, I didn't. Of course you did. Of course you did. Big pop from Rick in the living room when that happened. I did it.

I thought it was weird, but I didn't have a strong feeling of, my basic feeling on it was like, wow, that kind of sucked. But I don't think this is for me, so I couldn't weigh in on it. This is clearly not for me. Guess who it's for? Who? 12-year-olds. And guess who wanted to see him when? 12-year-olds.

No, no. I meant this version wasn't for me. Do you think the 12-year-olds also didn't like it? I don't know. Yeah, they hated it. Yeah, they hated it. And it wasn't for anyone. They were on the verge of like a meltdown. They were on the verge of tears, if not actual tears. They just wanted to see their guy win. He hasn't won in like six months at this point. I know. Like just thought, Rick was people higher, it's crying. There was people there. Yes. Yes. Rick was in his living room, uh, saluting as he walks up. The name of the guy. The guy with life, John. Also, they definitely had this all plan to piss off the fans.

because they immediately just went to crowd shot, crowd shot, crowd shot. Oh yeah, they knew exactly what it was. Everyone just like, I mean, we must admit this photo goes pretty hard, though. It's a great photo, yes, of course. But you know what would have been great? Him actually celebrating with his hand,

his arm raised. That would have been great too. Now, it was poetic because you see, the man who never gave up at the end, he gave up because he recognized it was over. Yeah. It was pretty much. Yeah, and by the way,

I forgot that one little point. Never tapped in his life, in his career. never tapped. About how many matches this guy? Never? You know what? For all the time he's been grappling, to not fight the hands, that was a bit of a shocker to me. You know, a little surprising. It actually, it was Isaac Delgarian

ask. I don't think was the fix-in? Was this scripted? Fight the freaking hands, Johnny. Everyone knows that good entertainment, good movies, good cinema, you need to explain to someone and they have to go back and re-watch with a different perspective. That's when you know it's really good. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, because then they go on the post show and they're like,

no, no, no, this is exactly what we're like, why? No, let it be, let it breathe. What we need, shout out to Jedi. Jedi had the greatest take of all. Triple Hs to come on Monday Night Raw tonight and do the 1997 Vince McMahon interview where he says, you know, like, John screwed John.

And he was never good to deal with. And he was actually a pain in the ass and a cancer backstage. And we're very happy to get rid of him. Good riddance, all right? Thank God this is over. And just be a bad guy now. And then he cuts that.

And then there comes out. Run into the ring and he's not retired. One more time. And I'd be the Hifter for a second. Ah, what? What's that right? After the Goldberg, like, retirement. Yeah.

And then I honestly can't remember his name. The gentleman that was here that was like, they just don't know how to write TV anymore. I kind of felt like they were going to botch this going into it. Wow. It's very negative. Yeah. Also, very nice of you to say after they botched.

Yeah. Didn't want to say that one beforehand. Yeah, you know. Frank got heat with Triple H, I guess. Yeah, yeah. Those fine words. Yeah, for real. All right.

We shall take a break as far as the, News and notes are concerned much more to come, but let's get into the guest today. We gave you 90 minutes at the top of the program here, actually 96 of all kinds of stuff. So I hope you enjoyed that. Very excited to talk to our first guest of the day, just 24 years young. He is not ranked right now in the featherweight division, at least as of right now. That could change very, very soon on a six-fight winning streak. He's won 12 fights via knockout, two via sub.

He's a former samurai fighthouse lightweight champion that's in Argentina. former Samurai Fight House featherweight champion and this past Saturday scored an unbelievable knockout against Giga Chickadez who at the time was ranked 15 spinning back fist slash ground and pound

with some elbows great stuff from the man they call El Chino Kevin now I'm going to say Vallejos because that's what I read it as but I want to ask him himself let us say hello to the pride of

Argentina El Chino there he is Como Estas Hello, how First of First of all, a good A pleasure

to be here talking to you, the truth that's a man. Hey, Ariel. No,

thank you so much for inviting me. Honestly, it's a dream to come true to be here

and I'm super happy to be here with you. Well, I appreciate it very much. Thank you

so much and congratulations on all your success. First, can we clear something up.

What is the right way to pronounce your last name? The first thank you the first to the first

question is how is the way correct It's Vallejos Vallejos

Vachejos Okay, is that like an Argentinian way of singing? Because usually when I read the two L's, I would think it's like Vallejos or Vajjos

is that something about Argentina? I've never heard that pronunciation with the double L. This is something specifically of Argentina like, you

with the L, that is something like you say in instead of E, how is that? Yes, We know we have the customary to pronounce

malas Es, the Y, in the year, we have that type of of the

kind of of course to talk but yeah, it's more than in Argentina

how so it is like it's specifically an Argentin accent with the

double L or the Y like instead of saying for yesterday a year you would say

Acher or Vallejos Bachejos M than part of Buenos Aires. It's more than anything, you'll hear that from the capital in Buenos Aires.

Okay. Okay. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. I want to ask you, because I was looking after your win over Giga, I went on your Twitter to learn a little bit more about you, and then I saw a tweet that said that you would like to be on my show. There it is. All I know is that I want an area-Hawani interview when I get ranked. Well, technically, you're not ranked just yet, but here you are on the show. Did you write that tweet or did someone write it for you? he he's he

he's he's to be a he went to he went to Twitter he went to you know that

you know that the only thing I want after that I'm that's ranked in the program in the program

of Rial Fewani technically not you not you don't know you're gonna you're gonna

you're gonna that you did you or was a person yeah no I'm obviously

I used all transler so all the translator evidently I don't know I don't know I don't know I'm going to English, but today with the future, you can do all of Google.

No, yeah, it's me. Specifically, like, I use Translator for, to do all my tweets. Evidently, I don't speak English yet. But now that we're in the future, you know, translator helps a lot to be able to write things in English. Okay, thank you. Much gracias. I appreciate it.

What a win. What an amazing performance from you. What a year for you. Three wins in 2025. You've looked amazing. How would you describe? the year that you've had and also the feelings that you have

after a win over someone like Gigachikaze. The fact that you've been a year spectacular, 3-0, 2 knockouts. What sentiments is what you think you after having a year so-sonied

and also to win a rival as great as giga-chikaze? The truth that is a year full of blessings. Sincerament, I think that God

was completely with me this year. The fact that UFC me treated super well I gave opportunities

very prontas no I didn't I was I'm more experience

but not we say no to nobody and when me about me

about we we we we we was a real

very very very but we we we think that the

we we're we we're much I mean I feel extremely

blessed for the year that I had I'm super happy the

UFC treated me really well throughout the year and giving me really big opportunities. And even though I didn't really want to fight in the rankings, they gave me a big opportunity and I was happy about it. But I really just wanted to get experience this year. But at the same time, any fight that the UFC is going to offer me, I'm going to make sure that I say yes because I don't say no to opponents. You said after the fight that you kind of pulled the spinning back fist out of your ass. Like it just kind of materialized like that. How does that happen? Do you practice this?

Do you watch this somewhere? How does it happen where you just kind of pull it out of nowhere to hit someone like Giga who had never been knocked out before? So the question is, you've said after the play that you've got that a hit of a punio of your cull, practically. You practicast that or how did you that sacaste that? Obviously, one always always has always tried to try a little bit of a finger of a

punch, and other. Sincerably, it's a distinct. No, no, no, it was planned. We said, well, if I do it, before I calent, as a typical, as in the videos, no. I, sincerely,

I see the opportunity, I think I, instinct of a peleadour, and I just connected. So, it's not something like I've never practiced just spinning back to this before. I mean, I know how they do it, but it wasn't really, like, part of the game plan.

It just kind of came out of instinct where I saw the opportunity, I threw it, and what, and, like, But, well, it wasn't like a thing where we were practicing it in the back and we have a recording of it. And no, I just saw it and I threw it and I hit it. It was spectacular. So well done. Did you know that Giga had never been knocked out before?

And was that something that you were hoping to do? Was that a motivation for you to be the first one to do that to him? No, I don't know how you, you know, you know, You know, you know what he never was nokeed? And you wanted to look at the first time if it was that you had you? Yes, yeah, we had understood that never had nokeated in WFC. So, we're going to be the first, and I knew perfectly that I have the power

as to do. So, we're in looking at that. Evidently, also, it was to demonstrate a little more of the tools that we have, but it's terminated before. So, nothing, content to have knocked to have someone who never was knocked. Yeah, I did know, and I did want to be the first one to

knock him out, and I knew that I could have, I know that I have the power to do it, and I'm just happy that I did it. When you guys faced off before the fight, it seemed like maybe someone was saying something to Giga, and it sounded like he told them to shut the

F up. It sounded like he got mad about something that was said. Can you tell me what happened there and did that give you more motivation to knock him out before the fight? So in the clearo there, there was a moment where there was, who was, who was that was grittying, something to

giga, and there's like, he went and he looked at that person, and he said, shut the fuck up. What happened there, and if that gave a motivation to you to want to to give him, how was that? Yeah, it was my manager

that gritted. we're going to Argentina the best strike in Argentina and he, of the nothing, he said he said to fuck, and we're going to why. But no, sincerely, I don't me molesta,

no, no, no, no, I don't know personal or nothing. This, sincerely, we knew that we'd knowkear it, and that's what it was. No, it was for that. Yeah, no, so it was my manager who said it. He said, like, let's go

Argentina. Argentina has the best striking. and he looked and I was pretty surprised that he said something to him, that I bothered him that much. But, no, I don't really care. I mean, I wanted to knock him out because I wanted to knock him out. That didn't really affect me whatsoever. Wait a second. Martine, was that you who said that?

Yeah, yeah, it was me. Good job. Thank you, thank you. Good job. And I didn't mind either. I didn't mind either. It's all good. Okay, fair enough, fair enough.

Respect. You did say, and by the way, there was a great scene Santiago Ponziadio coming up to you afterwards to tell you that you won the bonus. Could I ask you what that moment meant to you and what does Santiago mean? Because when I think of Argentinian MMA, I think of him first. He is sort of like the founding father. So what does he mean to you and what did that moment mean him coming up to you to tell you that you got the bonus?

So, one thing that was when Santiago Poncinibio you went to share to share the news of you

you got the bonus and celebrate the victory with you. When he says when he thinks of

MMA in Argentina, the first person in his mind is to Santiago Poncinibio

being that was practically like the padrino of the MMA of Argentina

for what? What do what means Ponciinibio for Argentina

and for the sport? No, the really was one of the

first and one of those who was rankeded and in his moment because not it's close to play for the title sincerely it's an

joy that today he can't come and I give a lot of a bonus of come and to come and festearned

that we that I'm that I'm that I'm a fact that's a fact that is a realmer in Argentina

and is a person very good and sincerely I think I'm a much appreciate and obviously

Yeah, of course. I mean, Ponzovio was one of the first ever Argentines to be in the UFC, and on top of it, he was one of the only ones who were ranked, and by far the closest person to win the title. So for him to come, celebrate the win with me, share the news that I won the bonus with something that was super special,

and I really appreciate everything he's done for the sport and for our country. You've been fighting since 2018 professionally. How did you get into this sport, to begin with, because, as I said, there haven't been a ton of fighters to come out of Argentina, and now we're starting to see more doing so well, obviously, led by yourself now, and

others, Eileen Perez comes to mind as well. How did you get into it? Who got you into mixed martial arts? So, debut in MMA in the 2018, and a thing that is to be able to know, how was you entraned and

to play in MMA, because not is very common to see many Argentinians to to an event like UFC so how how were

your initials with the sport really completely zero no

I didn't know what was what was the MMA no had any experience

before of any type of sports of contact simply there was a gymnasio

that opened new near my house and I got

I'm I'm not I'm not I'm I don't have any type of story about I don't I'm a

problematic as a classic of I'm who's a person who super so I'm quite

and I know for for gusto yeah so I actually when I first got to the

gym I didn't know what MMA was or UFC I didn't watch anything I just saw that there was a

gym where they were training and I went and I just started to like it and for me I know, and it was pretty much that, but I just wanted to do it for fun and I fell in love with the sport. And I'm not a problematic person at all.

I think the classic story is, oh, I was fighting in the streets and I didn't, and I had to train. And that was never me. I'm a very calm person. I've never had a fight outside of the cage. And I just liked the sport. If you didn't find the sport, what do you think you'd be doing now? If you've not encountered the

what would what would do you would have seen in this moment? I would have continued

working in the construction like it was doing doing all this time

looking work for where whatever and and living in a life

normal I calculate I would I would be doing the same thing that I did

around that time when I started which was work construction work odd

jobs here and there and just have you know the life of a

normal person. Did you play football as a kid? What's the football? When are you go? Yeah, I played, but never in a club, always in the house and with friends, or something like, but never never took, never took the opportunity to play in a club, because it was a so I did play on the street, like with my

friends and stuff, but I was never able to be on a soccer team because it was something that was very expensive, so it was too expensive for me to participate in, but I like to play with my friends on the street. Sure. younger. So to see now everything that's happening to you, you're becoming a, you know, a global star. People are starting to say, this guy is a future title contender, a future champion, perhaps.

You seem to have everything. How are you handling all this success and fame that is starting to come your way after this great year in the UFC? Well, you're saying more than this moment. You're going to generate a much hype. For you, how you're reactioning to all this hype that's creating and the fame that you're seeing at the time of your

preas? The fact I try to get it in the way that's up to the nudes. Sincerely I'm gladysied with all the

people that are supporting, that's summing to my career. The fact that, as I feel a bened to live a

life like the life like I simply I think I'm trying to get all the opportunity that's my time. Sinceramity, all over something,

and I feel that this is a plan of God perfectly. I feel really blessed. I want to make sure that I don't lose my head and I keep my feet, I feel to stay grounded. And I think that it's something that...

What is the last part of you? And then I try to just keep trying to go forward and motivated and look to do the best I can with every opportunity I have and try to get every opportunity that I'm offered. By the way, speaking of feet, I saw in that video with Santiago, it seemed like your foot was in a boot. What happened there and do you know the extent of the injury? When you did that video with Santiago, it's a bit that you have a bottle. What happened? And you know, more or less what you have?

Yes, sincerely, I think in the second round. I think I patted the cord of him, in where if I did a little bit. And, sincerely, it were patas my. I mean, I continued patialing in the way form, even if he had the foot and he was aggrandando the

erida. It's a simple cut, it's not nothing grave, but well, so, well, so in the second round I kicked him and I tried to kick him in the body

and it got caught with his elbow which hurt my foot and I just kept kicking it because I didn't care and it made it just get worse and worse to the point where I have a cut it's not

it's bothers some but it's not something. that's serious it'll be healed pretty quick okay so so now you have fought three times in the UFC and twice on contender series all five of those fights at the apex are you hoping that your next fight will be in an arena with a lot of fans yeah a lot of but I think that it's the hour

to give me the opportunity to play a arena with a lot of people I don't want to interest if I'm interested in the preliminare or where I see, I'm going to the opportunity to play in an arena

and to live that experience. I'm super grateful to the experience that I've had in the Apex. I feel like it's my home but I do really want to fight in the arena I feel like I've earned my opportunity to fight in front of the fans. I don't care if I'm in the first fight the prelims are on the main card

I just want to find in front of the fans. Have you ever been to a UFC event in an arena? At one of a hotel went to an event of an arena? Wow.

Any of the spectator, never, never, for that I want to know. Yeah, no, never. Not even as a fan, so yeah, I want to live that experience

because I want to see what it's like. Incredible. That would be amazing. And much respect, I love that you want to donate to Giga's charity. You said this on the microphone. You even mentioned it on Twitter afterwards as well. Why is this important to you?

You said, one thing that respect to much is that you said that you was to donate to the caratia Shikaze, you said in microphone, also you said in Twitter. Why, for you for you for you for this is important to do this? Yes, we mentioned, I still think, no, no, no, has contested Jiga, to communicate us with him, no? But really it's something very good what he does him. I respect for that.

He has perished a family and has started that organization in the, in the fight of the cancer. The fact that I'd would love to the cause and that,

for the most, obviously not, obviously not to save lives, but for the most to help us and that has a little more. Yeah, so we're still waiting on Giga's response

to, us to be able to donate because we want to get in touch with him to do that. But I think that it's important because I really respect that he has this charity. I know that the charity started because he lost an important family member. And I think that it's a really great cause. So I wanted to donate. And I'm hoping that we can get in touch so we can get that done. I noticed that you said you wanted to fight Cub Swanson. And you say that he's always in the corner of people that you're fighting. But I don't know if, I mean, respectfully, I think he's at the end of the end of his career and so I don't know if that makes sense right now. Can you explain further why this

is a fight that you're seeking you versus Cubs Swanson? You said you want to give you because it was an end up Swanson. For me, I don't see if it's the battle that his career, but I want to know, you can't give us an explanation well, why specifically you want to play? Evidently, is someone who is a person who is

his career, but not quitted that he comes that's going, I was I said various times, and is that I

thought I thought to enter to the ranking much more ahead, in where I had more experience and

could, I could maintain me a more. Sincerament I want to pick

against him because a, a, a, a, a, a,

a, a, a, would be a I would have a much experience to play with someone like he who has a lot of career. It's a legend. I think that, before getting the top 10, I'd like to get him to get to play for the title.

I really like the fight because, of course, he's at the end of his career, but regardless, he has been winning most of his fights recently, and I think that's a good fight. And something that I've said is that I really, like, multiple times is that, I didn't want to get into the ranking so quickly I did it because I was offered to fight and I obviously am going to take the opportunity but I don't want to go into the top 10 so quickly without getting more experience so regardless that I'm probably going to be ranked 15 striding tomorrow I do want to get more experience fighting guys where a guy like Cubs Swanson who has so many fights in the UFC and is such a legend could give me really

great experience for the rest of my career if it is that he still wants to keep fighting And by the way, what's going on with you and Luke Riley? Why do I see so much back and forth between you two? And what's going to between you two? And what's going to between you guys? We're doing, we've got a play in the contender, that I played against Kempty. But, nothing, problem of visa,

and, sincerely, no, we didn't know the opportunity. But I think that Pica and he gave him, thanks to God, the opportunity to play there

in a short aviso, so it's a question of time until that we cross us. Yeah,

no, so this started back when I was going to fight in the Contender Series the second time. I was actually

booked to fight Luke Riley but because the visa issues apparently he had to pull out and I

fought Camtigue instead. So there's always been kind of that between us and he got the opportunity to fight in the UFC on short notice and I think that that's a fight that down the line should happen and just so I know El Chino what does that mean your nickname? And the Chino, what does that mean your nickname? And the

Chino, what's what you know? I don't know. I don't know. I mean, I said from that I ranke to train but I

think that because they don't remember my name and they said

in the Chinese but no there's not I think I

sometimes me they say they they don't I think I

honestly I have no idea why they started calling me in the gym

I think it was because they didn't really remember my name so

they just kind of started calling me El Chino and I think

some people told me it's because of like the eyes I have Okay, well, they need to start knowing your name.

Kevin El Chino, Vachios, Vajos. Did I get that right? Vasejos. Vachejos. Vachejos. Okay, you need the G in there. A name that we're going to be talking about for a very long time. Congratulations on all your success.

Well done on a great first year in the UFC. And thank you for coming on the show. And congrats on the big win this past Saturday. Incredible stuff against a very, very tough opponent. That was a pleasure to have you Many people have to record

your name Kevin the Chinese Vallejos and well that's with all the exitsits

that you are doing nothing thank you I repeat it's a good to be here

talking with you have seen millions of times interviewing to interview

to today the really that is super super emotional

for me the thank you Ariel so much like truly this is

such a dream come true to me because I've watched you thousands of times interview the biggest stars in the sport and for me to be here talking to you right now is something that is super big for me. So thank you so much. I'm super animated about this experience.

Thank you. My pleasure, the first of many. So keep on doing your thing and we look forward to more chats. Thank you so much to you, Kevin, and to Martin as well. Appreciate it. And Felice Navidad. Ah, thank you so much.

Get a man, Ariel. Feliz Naviad. Take care, guys. There they are. Kevin and Martin Va Chejos We're going to get that right Very unique

I like that Different parts of Latin America Different ways of pronouncing it So there you go We learned something new Every day And definitely a name

To remember This is a guy Who is on some kind of role As I said Undefeated in the UFC 17 and 1 as a pro 3 and O in the UFC 2 in O in Contender Series

And two wins via stoppage in the UFC, including that incredible win over Giga Chikaze, and then two wins in the contender series as well. Actually, two fights in Contender Series. The only loss was in Contender Series against John Silva, but then came back and got another opportunity, and now here he is doing his thing. So very, very impressive young man and a name that I think we will all be talking about next year and beyond. Speaking of impressive young men, another 24-year-old. is going to be joining us in a matter of moments.

His name is the Belgian bomber, Patrick Habirora, had a, you see how he said that? Habirora. He had a great, great win on Saturday at the PFL event in Lyon, France. He defeated Kevin Juset on December 13th. Technically, PFL Europe, 4, but to me it was just PFL, Lyon. A great win for him, 4-0 now in PFL, 8-0 in MMA. and this man is an absolute superstar.

I mean, the pop that he got, the reaction that he got, pre-fight, post-fight, mid-fight, unbelievable. When 5-0 in 2024, 3-0 in 2025, January will mark two years since he made his debut. So a neophyte in this game. Also, by the way, won the 2003 IMF World Championships. Like I said, he beat Kevin Juset on Saturday via first-round TKO,

So back-to-back first-round TKO victories over UFC veterans, Kevin Juset and Danny Roberts, who he defeated back in July. That's now back-to-back wins at Welterweight, which technically may not even be his natural way class. And he is someone who, you know, the promotion and the country that he represents, Belgium and the whole region is very excited about. And you may have heard afterwards, he said on the microphone, he wants the winner of Usbander Magamagamatov versus Alfie Davis. So let's see how that fight plays out in February. For now, though, let us meet Patrick, the Belgian bomber for the very first time. The Pride of Belgium, kind enough to join us right here and now on the program. There he is.

Hello, Patrick. How are you? Hi, hi, hi, hi, everyone. Thank you for having me now. And yeah, happy to be here. It's nice to meet you. Felicitation on the big win, on the big night for you. Thank you.

Another big win. You're a bit French? Yes, I'm a bit French. I go to Montreal, I'm not in French, but my French is not so good than you. I go to Montreal. I used to train with George Stimpier a lot of times now, so I went in Montreal every year.

I try to go there and have a camp with Firas and George St. Pierre, so it's really nice. Yes, I've seen footage of you and George. When was that from? Here's you and George. How long ago were you there? I've been there three times. Now I go each year for a camp of a whole month with George St.

First time it was back in Amateur, I was 22 years old, and he kind of took me and like a little student. And then, yeah, he took me under his craft. And he told me, like, I remind him him back in the day when he was out. So it was really like a big privilege to be with him. And now I'm trying to just continue his path. And he was the first one to say that, yeah, I might be a UFC champion one day. So I'm trying to be upset. Well obviously now you're in the PFL doing your thing

Can I ask, how did this whole journey start for you Because Belgium isn't really known as a country That has produced a lot of great fighters Yeah, my journey is a little bit special Because I started with football, though So soccer in Europe And then I was fighting a lot in the streets Back in the day when I was young

So my friend told me like, yeah, we should try MMA So we learn new techniques Talk to different ourselves And then I jumped in MMA and I had my first amateur fight I was 16 I think

and then I found my coach at 17 Tarek Sando from Tim Sando and since that day I never left him and we just produced so many great things

Wow Did you watch MMA before that Did you know what MMA was? No I was just I was just watching films

You know Back in the day You watch Chuck Norris Yeah Claude Vandam He's from Belgium actually So it was a big star

Bruce Lee Jackie Chistan So I was watching films like that and I'm a big fan of anime. So I was watching One Piece and I was always trying to fight and trying new techniques I was watching in the movies. Yes, I'm not a big

anime guide. I don't hate it. I'm just not as well-versed as you are. The guys were telling me about it on my show. Your picture on Instagram, that's a one-piece character of this guy? Yeah, it's Luffy, Luffy from One Piece. You should try because it's a crazy

thing because it's like so motivated And he has, like, that mentality I have the same. I just don't want to give up and I just want to be the best. And what does your name mean on Instagram, Mugiwara? Mugiwara is like the nickname from the crew of the Miguaras from One Piece, from the Luffy's crew. So it's like my nickname and everyone knows me from there. Like, I'm a pirate. I'm just come here to just steal everything.

And I'm a young. I'm coming from the new generation. I'm just 24 years old now and I'm 18. So I'm just trying to take everything. Is that what that picture represents, the hat and what you're doing there? That's the Gerson. That's the Gerson. That's the main pose.

And I've seen some guys trying to do it in the M.A. maybe and USC in Fais and SEPLA. I'm like, I'm McGuera. This is the only one with the straw hat that's me. So I'm just going to prove it. I love it. And have you ever been to Japan? No, I'm planning.

This year I'm going to Japan. And I'm definitely going there and just try. try to, this is a dream come true for me. Do you think that your football background, your football skills helped you as you transitioned to MMA, the footwork, the power, all that stuff? I don't know. I don't know. I think it's God gifted.

I think the power is God gifted, but I think my coach made me who I am today, you know, a lot of hard work, but yeah, the power is something I don't know how you can explain it. I just feel something burning my hands when I try to find some fucking chin. and just to crush them up. I don't know. How did you end up in the PFL? I was 22 years old. It was my second.

I was one and I also in professional. And I see Cedric Dumba was going to fight against Bucky and it was a big event in France. Yeah. And it was like 20,000 people sold out arena. Everyone is speaking about this fight. And I just post it on Twitter. Like, hey, guys, if you want someone, I'm here.

And then everyone on the social media went crazy. They were speaking to the PFL like, you have to sign this guy. This kid is the new kid. And I just told them, like, if you sign me, I'm the new kid in the block. I'm just going to come here and try to take the head off of everyone in front of me. And I'm never saying no to anyone. I'm just trying to win. And then I come here and I shocked the Danardi.

He was really surprised by my level. Then I came back and I'm just doing knockouts to knockouts to knockouts. now. By the way, you know that fight, Dumbay versus Bacchi? That was like yesterday that fight. That wasn't that long ago. Yeah, it's not like long, but I did eight fight. It's crazy. Eight fights in two years, in less than two years. Yeah, less than two years and seven knockouts. Yeah. And six knockouts in a row, five in a row in the first round. Yeah. I mean, you're on fire. And now I watched on Saturday the reception that you got from the people in France. Like, this is Dumbay-like, right? Like, it sounds like when Cedric Dumbay comes out in France. The, the, the reality.

action from the crowd. Are you surprised at how quickly everything has happened for you? I don't know. I think people loves, people loves, like, entertainment. And in the cage, what's better than a knockout? And this is my DNA as a fighter. I'm just trying to reach to knock people out. This is in my DNA. I don't know how to explain that. I was just focusing, boom. This is my DNA, yeah. I am who I am. I'm the Belgian bomber, and my nickname comes from the IMAF, they give me that nickname, and this is a great nickname because it comes from Joe Lewis, you know, the bronze bomber, the Oteweider, so it's crazy guys, and they give me that nickname, so yeah, I have bombs in my hands. That name, that's why everyone is saying

Flashball, you have to say it. Can you say Flashball? What does that mean? Yeah, what does that mean? Flashball, this is my, this is my word. It means like the cops, you know, back in the day when you were doing some trouble, the cops used to shoot with Flashball. This is some bullets, but in plastic bullets. And I'm explaining that when I shoot people with my hands, it's a flashball. It's unbelievable. The speed, the power, and that fight. And you're a natural 155, right?

You're not a welterweight. Yeah, I'm young. I'm the 155. Like, I doesn't wait a lot. I guess them, they were like so big, but I'm like, you don't hit harder than me. And, you know, it's not the size of the dog, is the size of a heart. And so these last two fights, why at welterweight? because it was the biggest challenge we could have.

Okay. We had the biggest challenge we could have because in lightweights, it was like we wanted like someone coming from the UFC, you know, and a UFC vet, and then they give us Danny Roberts like crazy ton of experiences. And yeah, it was really nice. And then Kevin Juset came in the line. And everyone was saying like, okay, everyone is avoiding, you know. Everyone is avoiding each other.

When people are starting to build their career, they try to avoid each other, build a strong career and stuff. I'm like, I'm going to fight anyone. I don't care. I'm just going to go fight. And I feel like I knock him out, and I knock him out. Do you think you are ready for the winner of Usman Nirmagamedo versus Alfie Davis, or would you like a little bit more time?

No, basically what I was trying to say is, for me, the Numa Gomez family is really the greatness in M.A. I was watching them since a kid. And even in my week, I'm watching them videos and their mentality. I grew up a lot, and my mentality comes a lot and align with them because I'm I don't give up and they never give up. They're really strong. So I'm like, I think with my style, if I go in Dubai, watch this fight

and ask the Habib family to go train with them, it would be really nice for my style to evolve. As I train with George Simpier, I've seen how my level evolve and now imagine if I'm training with this team. I have fire in my hands, and now I know Davida wrestling from that against him is going to be crazy. Okay, so how far away do you think you are? because eventually you'd want to become the champion, right? So you'd have to fight Usman, I would imagine.

So how far away do you think you are from then? I don't think Usman is going to stay along in the PFO. Okay. I don't know. He might be gone. So when he's going to be gone, I'm not going to be in too much time, like one year, one and a half, something like that. Are you happy in the PFL? Yeah, really happy.

I think they give me a platform to expose my really talent, and they give me a chance. I was, as young I was, I was 22 years old. They gave me a chance. I was one, and now that's crazy. And now we had four fights, three knockouts, three neckouts in a row. It's really amazing. So you said at the beginning that GSP said that he saw some of himself in you and future UFC champion. Is that still a goal of yours?

Or are you happy being in the PFL for the foreseeable future? Actually, from the moment from now, I'm really happy with the people because as I'm 24 years old, still young in this game and I don't want to rush anything. I don't want to if it sounds cocky because I think a lot of fighters speaking like some stuff like that then they go and then don't like show what they were saying but yeah of course my end goal is to be the greatest to be the best I can be so if it's in the PFL is going to be in the if it's in the UFC it's going to be obviously in UFC yeah and and what about this Kevin Lee call out where did this come from because I think now in France and French

speaking in Europe, I'm becoming well-known, but I want to be worldwide, and Kevin Lee is a big name, and he's in the PFL. He only lost to Rabananov, I think. So, yeah, it would be a great name to take under my hat, yeah. Have you heard if he's interested? I don't know. I don't know. I didn't heard any sounds of him. I asked him two times. First time I didn't call out. Now I'm calling him out, and if he's watching here, Kevin Lee, I want you. 155, 170, you choose the weight, you choose the place, I handle the rest. What about Cedric Dumbay? Are you interested in fighting him?

Cedric Dubei, I don't think, is going to be interesting fighting each other right now because he comes from two years off. And basically, my strategies, I'm going to be coming back in 155, I think. Okay, okay. But do you think that that would be, I feel like that would be a gigantic fight? Do you have a relationship with him? For the French-speaking people, yeah. Yeah.

be a giant and it would be massive i know him like i know him we don't know each other like really close i wouldn't say that he's close to me but we know each other obviously and he didn't even know that he was training training in my place in brussels in belgium back in the day he was in glory and i was a young kid in the gym so he don't remember that but yeah i know him that would be gigantic i mean i think that that would be a huge deal but i don't know if he's going to fight i don't know like what his status is do you do you hear anything i'm not focused on him actually i'm focused on me i got i don't know about his his career but yeah my main goal is i'm trying to fight the guy who's active right now and i know kevin he's here and yeah how what can i say about this i'm just

waiting for his answer uh i saw a video quick video of you with the legend zinadine zidan zizu yeah ziridin zidan is a crazy legend yes how did that happen how did you guys uh link up like that Yeah, Zid and Zidand, basically you were playing a soccer game for a charity foundation for kids, you know, so it was really nice to meeting him. And then he told me like, yeah, I'm not watching a lot of MMA, but I've seen your face. And then he said like, yeah, that name, Flashball, Flashball. And then he said in the video, like, I'm with Flashball. I said that everyone was like, oh, it's crazy. Flashball knows about Flashball.

That's what I'm telling you. Next time you see me, every time you see me fighting, you say, oh, that's Flashball. You all have to remember this. Flashbowl, that means those hands. Yes, I like that. So would you like for that to replace the Belgian bomber as your nickname? I think it might be something in the future. I don't know how big it's going to be, but yeah, it might be something in the future

because if I continue like that, my goal is to have like a big, big, big time of finishing people in the role. Of course. I read a great article, a colleague of ours, Pizzi Carroll. He did an interview with you last week, and you told him that you don't like really hanging out with MMA fighters. You like to hang out with rappers and with footballers. This is the story right here. Why is that? Why do you feel that way about the other fighters?

Because I think they're a little bit boring. They're always saying the same thing and the same sentences. For example, they're going to say, like, yeah, I'm never scared about this guy. I'm going to crush him out. I don't feel anything. but we all feel the same feelings we all stress we all have the hurts beating fast but what make us calm is religion it's god is because we believe in our work and we work we work hard for this fight but stop lying or stop pretending someone you're not like everyone is trying to fit in

the same cases and same boxes i'm not like this you know i love mama i love manga's i love anime i don't mind to say that i'm scared but that doesn't mean that i'm not going to and knock you out. What was the first thing that you said between MMA and anime, Manga's? Yeah, Manga's. Manga's is also another name for anime. Animas is like video and manga

you can read them. Who's bigger in Belgium right now? You are Kevin DeBrona? Oof, no, still Kevin DeBronin. Still Kevin DeBrona. This is the golden generation. Like basically him, Adenazar, Lukaku is the golden generation.

But I think in the new generation, yeah, I have my name under this. How popular is MMA in Belgium now? Popular enough to sell out arenas of 10,000 people. Yeah. I know there was the event in the summertime, right, in Brussels? Yeah, yeah, I headline it and, yeah, beautiful. We sold out this easily, and I think we could do like two times this.

Really? Is there? Not even hard, yeah. Is there an arena that big? A bigger one than that one? We can do a football stadium. You think so? Like, I'm saying to the people, like, they give me Kevin Lee in May, in Belgium, we're doing a football stadium.

Wow. They're going to see. How many people? How many people? I think 20,000. Wow. At the football stadium. I saw a video of you.

It can be a bet with them. It can be a bet with them. If they're watching this live, we can make a bet. We can do a football stadium. What's the bet? What are you willing to put on the line if you don't draw it? We're doing a soldout. We're doing a football stadium.

start out. You're saying sold up. As me as a main event. As the headliner, yeah. And if you don't sell it out, what do you put on the line? What's the bet? Do I put on the line? Yeah, they're asking. You can, you can choose what I, your purse is, they don't have to pay you for the fight. That's the bet. All right, all right. They don't pay me. I used to fight for not money. It's not a problem for me. No, I think you'll sell that out with ease. I did see a video of you in front of like 80,000 people at an event recently. What was that? It was the big. It was the big, festival of hip-hop and rap and what i was saying is i have really a lot of close friends of mine have big rappers and big artists and i was there and i was saying one year ago before even

i had the fight in belgium scheduled i was saying that i'm going to come back in belgium sell out an arena and i'm going to fight for you guys because you've seen me fighting all over the world but never in belgium but i'm going to bring the pfl in belgium for the first time having a national and award organization in Belgium. And we did this one year after. I was with PLCA and it was crazy and everyone was shouting. There was getting crazy

because knowing I'm going to fight for the first time in Belgium in four years. Wow. What a scene that is? Incredible. What's the rap scene like in Belgium? Are there like actual Belgian rappers? Yeah, there is so many big artists.

We have like big, big guys. We have like Amza, we have Damso, we have Stromaye. We have also a girl called Angel. So, yeah, we have, like, big artists, really big. You know what's a fight that I think sells out in Belgium in the soccer stadium and the football stadium, 20? You versus Paul Hughes.

What do you think of that one? Me versus Paul Hughes. I think, like, Paul Hughes have a lot of experiences right now, but I really do think, like, you give me one year, one year and a half. Okay, okay, let's not get crazy. It could be something like, yeah. I think there is, like, great fights to make with me. I'm not a type of guy who are going to say, yeah, I'm going to crush this guy.

I'm going to do this, but once I'm in the cage, That's different. Do you like now, it seems like PFL has a different approach now. No more tournament. It's just trying to put on the biggest fights, have champions. You know, same type of thing as the UFC. Do you like that or did you like the old format with the tournament? Or me, I like it because I think it's better that everyone has to fight everyone.

Yeah. Big fights, big challenges and big, big, big collision. Yes. Just make the biggest and best fights, right? Yeah, yeah. And that's the people, what's the people want. That's what they want. Between you and Kevin, was there, is everything okay, you and Kevin Juset?

Was there any bad blood there? We don't. We don't speak to each other. We're not friends. I think now I wish him a speedy recovery and I hope he's well with his health. And yeah, I think what has to be said has been sending the cage and the message I wanted to tell him, I tell him with my fist and that's it. Do you think that he was looking past you, that he wasn't giving you the respect that you deserve? Yeah, definitely.

Because he was already speaking, he was already speaking about his win even before the fight. And I don't like when you speak like that about the fighter, but I think now he's not going to make the same mistake, and I wish him the best in his career after that. Okay. By the way, I... What was that, sorry? I'm saying that it's not because we're young that you just can...

Sure. You felt disrespected? Yeah, I feel like I didn't have the credit I deserve, you know. And I think, like, when someone doesn't give... you deserve, you have to show him. Yeah. Well, I think you're getting that credit now. And I saw that you were listed on the 30 under 30 on the Belgian Forbes list.

Look at you, man. This is a big deal. Look at you. You're getting all this attention. Look at this guy. Yeah, everything is going crazy right now. I'm not going to lie. Everything's going crazy.

That's why I'm trying to not rush everything also and just not through myself in everything. But yeah, I've been in the Forbes 30 under 30. so I'm in the 30 person the most influence in my country and it's really amazing are you and you have to keep your head like small is it like

is it hard to not like get intoxicated by all the love and success and the hype how do you keep your you know your feet on the ground and remain humble religion the religion

as a devoted Muslim is really important for me to you know you have to believe that you're nothing you know everything comes from God so if you're not thing in front of God, you're not going to believe that you over someone or you're superior to

someone. Just as anyone, just you're doing some times, some stuff going out of the ordinary things. Yes. Well said. Well put. How soon do you want to return? I think now it's going to be Ramadan soon. Yeah. It's going to come. So I'm going to fight after Ramadan. Definitely, maybe April, May. And, yeah, we should do a peaceful Belgium. Okay. See if I bet in this football stadium. I love it. Well, I hope they're listening

and I hope it happens and it's a lot of fun to watch you do your thing in a very short amount of time. So congratulations. Thank you very much. You should come. If you want, I invite you.

You should come see those fights and see the flashball. But can you say it? Flashball. The flashball. Flashball in the crane. Flashbow in the crane. It means I put my fist in your head.

Yes. I love it. Jadolsa. I love to see the the growth of MMA in that part of the world in France and Belgium for the longest time it was sort of ignored and to see the explosion. Like that crowd was unbelievable on Saturday. It was amazing. Yeah, it's crazy. The flares, the fire.

Yeah, the fire is my, it's my, like I would say, it's my support, is my team. They bring fires every time I fight. Every time I knock someone, oh, you can see the fires in the crowd. You can see hats throwing going off. You can see everything going crazy because I know my public is really something else and I try to give them every time I enter in the cage because I have people coming from Italy. Wow. I had people coming from sorts of France from many places to come and watch me fight.

So it was crazy. Well, keep doing your thing. Congratulations on a great year, on a great two years as a pro. And I'm looking forward to seeing what you do next year and beyond. Thank you very much for invitation. It's an honor to be here because I've heard this from a long time. And I didn't believe that I will be there as soon as I am. But, yeah, I'm focused on the next.

And to everyone watching this, trust me, I'm the next thing. I can't wait to see you continue your career. Thank you so much, Patrick. All the best. Felicitation. Thank you, God. Joye, Noelle, or Joyeue, whatever we say. I don't celebrate, but joyous fete.

Yes, I don't celebrate either, but we say joyous fete. And all the best to you in the new. New Year. Thank you. And flashball in the crane. Flashball in the crane. Flashball in the crane. I love it. Thank you. All the best to you. There he is. Patrick Habirora, a big win for him. The Belgian baller. Did I say baller? Bomber. The Belgian bomber. And I think he likes the flashball name. I'm not going to lie. I think he likes that name. I think he likes what it represents. There's a big influx of anime guys coming into the sports. I better get on this train, guys. I better get on this because I feel like I'm going to be left behind here. I'm kind of, you know,

One Piece, I didn't even know what, One Piece. What is One Piece? What does that even mean? You should watch it and find out. That's the name of the show? That's the name of the show. Rank it for me, Frank.

It's really good. Better than Pokemon. Yeah, easily. Easily better than Dragon Ball Z. That's a tough one. And is it all fighting? No. I don't like the fighting.

It's like a fantasy. I see a world where there's a lot of pirates, and it's just good humor. I think you'd enjoy it. Where would I see this? Crunchy Roll. What? Yeah. You can watch it streaming on Crunchy Roll.

That's the name of the platform? Yeah. You're kidding. There is a live action version of it that is on, I can't remember it, Netflix. I don't know. Okay. You should check it out. Crunchy Roll.

Crunchy roll, yeah. Like a sushi roll? Yeah, with the Temporo on there, it's crunchy. Yeah. Yeah. So there's like, I don't know, there's like Hulu, ESPN Plus, Paramount, Plus, P, Plus, Netflix, and then there's Crunchyroll. Right. And Crunchy Rolls been around for a long time.

Wow. Connor and I. Do you see watches on Crunchy Roll too? I don't know if he watches that, but he definitely watches Crunchy Roll. Wow. Yeah, I share Frank's account. Oh, wow. How much is it a month?

Who's to check? All right, all right. Well, I will try my best to check it out. I'll ask my kids if they know about that. Let us move along to our next guest. Very excited to talk to this man. It's been a minute since we spoke to him. He's been in the game for quite some time,

was doing big things over in the great sport of boxing. A lot of exciting things happening in his career. A little bit older than the last two guests that we spoke to, but not an old man by any stretch, 34 years young, representing New South Wales, Australia. Former UFC light heavyweight has had great success, like I said, in the sport of boxing. And is coming off his debut win back in,

February 7th round TKO win in his hometown of Penrith. A lot to talk to Tyson Pedro about and we say hello to him without further ado because he is joining us right here and now. There he is. Hello, Tyson. How are you? Yeah, good, thank you. It's been a minute.

It has been a minute. How's life? Yeah, it's been good. It's being real good. Just doing a couple side quests at the moment, but got a couple of exciting things coming up. That's rude to get straight to my eighth. not the older. No, no, you know why I said that.

You know what I said that. I apologize. I had a feeling as I was saying it that you would not know what I was talking about. But the last two guests were young bucks. They were 24 years old. So I'm just, you know, it was kind of back-to-back same age. And so here we are three. But yes, you are not, I mean, I'm a 43-year-old here.

So for me, I would do anything. I see that. I do see that. I want to talk to you about all the things that are happening. But I do want to ask, since you are joining us from all the way in Australia, I am very sorry. I do want to say that I'm very sorry about what happened at Bondi Beach on Sunday

and I hope that knowing that you are friends with or affiliated with in any way was affected by it. Yeah, no, not me, but absolute travesty at the moment I can't imagine how some of these families are feeling so sending my love to everyone that was affected by them but yeah, it's an absolute tragedy. Yes, awful thing that happened in a very beautiful part of the world

so I share that sentiment as well. Tyson, exciting time. in your life. I don't want to beat around the bush. I do believe that you have some news to share. So let's get to that and then I can ask you about it. Yeah, awesome. So I just signed to PFL Global and I'll be fighting next year. Wow. Okay. Frank, breaking news. There it is. So you've signed to PFL, which I do believe is an MMA organization. And last we saw you was in boxing. So how did this happen? Yeah, just mixing it up. There's so much going on in the boxing world. Didn't really understand the complexities of it. So almost probably retired from fighting.

And then I hooked up with my new team and I got an offer from PFL. They reached out and they, yeah, I was all for it. They said I was fighting some guy that had one fight. Was his Nagranet, Nagano? No, so. Oh, wow. That's a good fight for you. Okay. I'm not fighting. to God do. That would be a good fight, though. Not for me. Okay, all right, fair enough. Yes, I know. Will you be fighting at light heavy weight? Yeah, light heavy.

Okay. So, okay, so a couple things there. You said that you were almost done with fighting. Why were you almost done with fighting? There was just so much going on in the boxing world, and it just didn't sit well with me. Just like I said, a lot of complexities in the boxing world. and yeah, then I decided to go and I opened up a bakery with my best mate, the Bakery Brothers, come down and check us out in Penrith. Yes.

That was pretty cheap from there. I saw this, the bakery. When did you open up the bakery? Last week. Oh my gosh. Okay, so congratulations. Thank you very much. What inspired you to do this?

Meat pie. Yes, oh my gosh. You sell meat pies there. Yeah, but that's our main thing. We do meat pies and we do Danish. pastries. This is incredible. Yeah, here's the video right over here.

I've been to Australia twice, and the meat pies are absolutely to die for. What are your specialties? So my favorite one is there's the lamb one, the pulled lamb shank, and we've got a brisket pie. But you'll have to come check it out, man, they're pretty good. I'm a bit biased, but they are pretty good. Yeah, that sounds fantastic. What inspired you to do this? I just believed in the guy that I partnered up with.

with and you know he's a really good pastry chef and i just like doing random stuff sometimes when i get bored if i'm not fighting i need to do something because otherwise i start going a bit crazy i understand no i understand and so your last fight in boxing was in february right yep your only fight i think yep one fight one and done and so what i was for the w bc international title. Yeah. And it was really fun. You know, I got, I got to learn a lot about myself as an athlete, and boxing was so

different. Like, not only the fight itself, but the training, the lead up to it. And it was probably the fittest I've ever been and the best in the, like, in the best shape I've ever been. And, you know, the only thing I really disliked was how much running there was. Like cardio work. Yeah, running is not my best attribute. So because probably there's a little bit more time.

You don't have to worry about wrestling, grappling, kicks, knees, so you have to focus on the roadwork. But you know, it's interesting. I looked at your tapology page, and there's so many canceled fights. There was one in June of 24, in November of 24, and in February of 24. Then you had another one in February, and then another one that was canceled in July.

Why so many canceled fights? And that's what I mean with the complaint. that is a boxing with contract disputes to there's just so many different reasons why people have pulled out. I actually ended up pulling out on the last one because my coach was having health issues. So it was just, it was ending up and feeling like it wasn't meant to be. And, you know, that's just how life goes. Sometimes you put everything into something so much and it just doesn't work out.

So then like I said, it was too much and I was just like, all right, maybe fighting's done. and then I got this offer for PFL and I was like, all right, well, now we're going back into it. Out of the blue, like you didn't reach out to them. They reached out to you. Well, I think it was my team, my new team. They had reached out to them and spoken beforehand and then I ended up linking up with them after that.

How long ago was that? Maybe a month, max two months ago. Okay. So if we would have spoken like three months ago, you were kind of. of on the verge of calling it a career? Pretty much, yep. Wow. Would you?

And I remember I called Eugene Berman straight away and just said, hey, could I come back to CKB? And he was like, you're always welcome here. He goes, you're a life member. And then so that's one, I think that's one thing that I'm really excited about. I miss the guys over at CKB, and I'm excited to get back over to New Zealand. Okay. So you'll be training with them.

And do you know, do you know when your debut is going to be? for PFL? Sometime early next year. Okay. Do you know against two? I've got a bit of, oh, sorry. No, no, you go ahead. You got a bit of what?

I've got a bit of Jiu-Jitsu to work on. I've been back hard in the Jiu-Jitsu area just because, you know, obviously I've just been boxing, so I've been all up on my feet. But there's a lot of work to do, but I'm super excited. I love a hard goal away from what I've been doing. do you know against two who you'll be debuting against they've given me a couple names not yet

okay and uh will you be they've announced a couple of of shows like one in february in Dubai one in March in Madrid Pittsburgh do you know if you're going to be on any of those not then they haven't been mentioned to me but hopefully early in the year not I don't know I haven't heard which one for sure yet you know they've kind of changed the direction of the promotion it used to be very tournament based and the the league and the season and

playoffs and now it's just let's put on the biggest and best fights have you paid attention to what they've been doing do you like this new direction i heard that i moved the tournaments i'm super excited i like i said i signed to pfl global so uh there is a broader thing that we're working on now but i'm just excited that uh it'll help me well help me to help build australian mama as well i think so so that was one of the things that really drew me to it okay by the way i noticed Speaking of your tapology page, it says that your nickname is Kangaroo Paws. Is that true? I don't remember your nickname ever be Kangaroo Paws.

Someone changed it on Wikipedia and just put Kangaroo Paws on there. And then I thought it was funny a long time ago, so I just left it. Okay. That's definitely my nickname. When they announced you for the boxing match, did they say Tyson, Kangaroo Paz, Pedro? No, my nickname's Ronan for my fights. but I just thought it was funny when someone changed it. It's tremendous.

I think you should go with it. Any chance? Makes some merch? But you know how it is with nicknames? If you try and fight back, it'll stick. Right. That is true. We've been paying attention, by the way, to your boxing career.

I remember you got on the microphone after you called out Jake Paul, all that stuff. I would have liked to. But now him fighting Anthony Joshua. What's your thoughts on that? Yeah, that's happening this Friday. I think it's a wild thing. I never would have expected that. I can see it going poorly.

I could see Anthony Joshua knocking him out. If Anthony's taking this seriously, he has never fought a boxer anywhere near Anthony's level, and I still think Anthony is a very, very good fighter. Olympic gold medalist was just fighting for the belt, not that long ago against Daniel Dubois. This is a massive test. And then the size discrepancy is just absolutely insane.

I mean, he's that much bigger than him. He's the reach, all that stuff. So if Jake isn't careful, I think this could go really, really poorly for him. What do you think? No, I completely agree. I don't see many ways. Yeah, I can't see any ways I'll be lying if I said I don't see how he can get past that. Jake is putting out a sort of narrative that Anthony struggles against smaller fighters,

guys like Andy Ruiz and Alexander Usig, those types of fighters. And I get what he's doing. but the, you know, the skill and the resumes are a little bit different, right? He's a great salesman. Yes, yes, yes. The reason I bring that up, though, is I don't know if you're familiar with this, but like you've kind of become a part of our show over the last year because shortly thereafter, Bam Bam, Taitwi Vasa was on the show, was on the show with me.

And I asked. Oh, and you called me James Tihuna. Ah, yeah. I did see that. I was hoping you didn't notice it. I know he knows me. Yes. I'm sorry.

It's all right. We're both brown. I do get it. We're both brown and Polynesians. So, you know. I don't know why. And so now every time we're talking about someone who we can't remember their name, my guy Frank in the back, he plays this.

James Tehuna? Because it was so funny because I kept saying James Tehuna, James, and he's like, no, is Tyson Pedro. And so now you've kind of become a part of the show because we play that sound all the time now. Oh, that's great. Yes, but I just want to, I wasn't sure if you saw it, but I wanted to apologize for messing that up. No worries. I'm happy to be called James Turner. That's actually his shorts on my wall. Oh my God. That's crazy. It all comes full circle.

It is, it is. Do you have any idea where James Tohuna is, by the way? I saw him yesterday. He came down to the bakery. That is crazy. Wow. He came down to the bakery to talk to me. We're at. actually having a really good chat. I've known James for a very long time. He was the first guy that I started training with in MMA. And he was like on the shorts. It says dream and you'll believe and you'll achieve it. Wow. Yeah, he's been a long time mentor for me in my MMA career. Okay, so it's not so much of a stretch. Like you guys are connected. You know what I mean? It's like, it's all we're connected. We're just different people.

I mean, yes, but it's like sometimes you slip up, you know, you're doing a show, you mess things up. I was quite confident. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What is he up to these days? He's training, I believe he's training rugby league teams helping him with their wrestling, and he does a mentor program. Oh, wow. Okay, good for him.

Good for him. So he lives in Penrith. Yes. Okay. Penrith has a bunch. There's another guy. We're not getting away. No, no, no.

Yeah, we have a lot of, like, ex-UFC fighters and stuff in Penrath. Penriss was big for, like... Really? Like who else? Brad Morris. Yeah. His name's gotten away from me. James Vanekola, he fought on the UFC contender. There's been, yeah, there's been quite a few from Penrith.

Penriss a good fighting area. You see, sometimes names slip your mind. It happens to all of us. Yep, no, I get it. Yeah, you see it. Oh, I'll just... I guess, have you ever called Ty and Mark? No, no, I have not.

Oh, okay, that's one doesn't slip. I think it was something about the T, the Tyson and the Tijuana. Yeah. By the way, I don't know if I ever asked you this. Maybe I have, were you named after Mike Tyson? Yeah, I was. Wow. Yeah, my dad loved Mike Tyson and he said when I came out, I had my hands up and I wasn't crying, so call me Mike Tyson.

And did you then have an affinity for him? So honestly, yeah, he's one person. There's no one really that I've ever wanted to meet in the fighting world, but except Mike Tyson, I would love to meet him one day. Oh, and you still not had the chance? Nah, I haven't bumped into him, unfortunately. So that's why you wanted to kick Jake Paul's ass. Yeah, probably added to it.

Yeah. Your dad was a legend, an Australian MMA legend. Yep. He started King of the Cage in Australia. So that's basically what started my journey into wanting to get into MMA. I remember I was holding the cage door for Tony Vanillo. And then I was just like, that's pretty much what I want to do. So your dad, John Pedro, right? Is King of the Cage still around in Australia? Not in Australia. I couldn't tell you in the States. not in Australia anymore. He sort of moved away from martial arts a long time ago. And so he's in my corner just as like my ride or die. But he hasn't been following the training techniques and updating.

He sort of stopped training a while ago. Okay. It felt to me like at the end of your UFC run that maybe like the love had been, you know, extinguished or something, you know, like it felt to me like maybe there was a burnout. How would you describe how you were feeling in March of 12? at the end of that UFC run? To be honest, the most of it was I was just starting to miss my daughter.

I was spending a lot of time overseas and I wasn't getting to see her as much. And I think that's what really drove me away from it at the end of it. So I think getting this refresh and now spending so much time with her, and now that she's a bit older, I'm ready to have her crack again. Did you miss it at any point? MMA definitely I love grappling so as much as I loved

the boxing and punching in the face I do love grappling did you watch it do you keep up with it or did you need a break from it no yeah honestly I didn't watch much of it at all wow why is that I'm not sure I don't usually watch much fighting in general even when I was

fighting I didn't really watch much okay watch the big fights or people that I was close with, like, training partners, but yeah, I was very terrible at watching tape. There does seem to be an explosion of talent coming out of Australia now, and a lot of guys, young guys doing very well in the UFC. Have you paid attention to any of that as of late? Yeah. I've seen some of them, I've seen some of their fights, and it's crazy how, like, much the fighting has changed, if I'm being honest, like I saw some of them, and these kids are real good, some of these young kids coming up. Yeah.

it's almost been like when I came in I was at the end of a generation of legends and then now it seems like that that's what's happening again this like this new era of fighter and we're starting to see people who are coming in just as MMA fighters like they are being born and bred as MMA fighters as opposed to coming from one discipline and then learning the rest 100% even going back to my grappling gym here in Penrith SWMA that you see some of these young kids that they've only done MMA and they're just so skilled, like just across the board. It's pretty, it's pretty impressive. Did you, did you explore the idea of going back to the UFC? My team reached out to everyone, but PFO was the original ones that reached out. So that's who I've always wanted to go, well, who I wanted to go with from the start. That's why they were the ones that made me come back over to MMA. Wow. And is it because they showed you the, you know, the respect and the interest in you or for anything else? No, not at all. I've always had an amical relationship with the UFC, but there was, there's something that is happening with the signing of PFL as well that I really intrigued me. So like I said, to help out with Australian MMA, hopefully. Okay. So what does that mean? Is there, because I'd seen that they're doing some stuff in Oceania. Is it that? Is it that? Is it starting like a PFL Australia or is that what you're referring to?

Well, hopefully we'll be able to mention it next year. but it's just something that we're working on and I was really intrigued with it but excited about that relationship. Okay, so now you have this, now you're back and you've got the bakery. Being a pro fighter and kind of helping to run a bakery, it's tough, right?

I mean, you know. Yeah, luckily I have a good business associate who's now I've told him that I'm going to have to go away for a couple months during fight camp. Yeah. So he's going to have to carry the log as they say yeah why does your hat say absolutely not i don't know my partner gave it to me and it's just it was just the hat that i wore i thought okay i thought you were trying to tell us

something like you didn't really want to be here you were mad at me for the james tehuna thing no yeah i wasn't sure i wasn't sure um well this is very exciting i i loved it i have to say when when your team told me, when Courtney, your manager told me that you're going to the PFLs, like I thought you were just starting the boxing journey, and it seemed like it was going really well. It seemed like there was a lot of buzz, and the performance was also great. I think it was a seventh round TKO win. But now here we are. So do you think you're done with boxing? Do you think that's it? It's just one and done for you. Well, to be honest, nothing's ever off the table, as you can see. I thought I was done with MMA, but I'm back again. So I'm always willing to do it.

But, yeah, like I said, the new team, I'm so excited to see what comes of this. And, yeah, I never know where my life's going to go. How far away do you think you are from the title picture there at 205 in the PFL? Yeah, yeah, we could be like pretty early, pretty early talk. Title shot off the bat? Let's go, Tyson. Let's go. Come on. You're not coming out of retirement for nothing. Yeah, no, that would be.

that would be crazy if I did that. I could see you doing it. It's not like you've been sitting on the sidelines. You've been boxing. It's not like you were just out there in the bakery. Yeah, no, I agree. But we'll see what happens next year. All right.

Well, I'll put in a word for the, you know, for the Tyson. Thank you. Tyson for title shot. No, no, no. This is my way of making it up to you. This is my olive branch. This is it. You know, that type of thing.

Thank you, brother. Congratulations on the deal. Much love to you. you and everyone back in Australia. I've only the greatest memories and thoughts and prayers for everyone over there. It's a beautiful country with beautiful people and it's an awful time, but you will overcome it. And I'm really excited for you that you're back in MMA and getting this opportunity in PFL. Thank you for coming on and announcing this news. I really appreciate it as well. Thank you very much for having me. It was good to say you again.

All the best and we'll talk to you soon. Good luck. Take care of all that. There he is. Tyson Pedro, kind enough to join us early morning, as I said at the top of the show, over in Australia. Now, the newest member of the PFL roster fighting in the 205 pound division. A lot of people ask us about the origin. He knew about it, so I didn't want to, you know, I didn't want to pour salt in the wound.

But we do have the clip. We do have the clip of when I screwed up. And how about the fact that James DeHuna's shorts are right above his shoulder? And how about the fact that he was at the bakery yesterday with James? Can you see how I can make this mistake? Do you understand now?

Anyway, here's the clip from back in April of when I made the innocent mistake of mistaking Tyson Pedro for James Tehuna. Hey, James looking good in the boxing ring. James Tehuno? Yeah, you saw him. When did he fight?

He fought a few, maybe like one or two months ago. He had a big win, and then he called out Jake Paul. James Tehuno? Yes. I think you're talking about the wrong person. James Tehuna, boxing. When he looks around. Am I tripping right now?

You're tripping. No, it was James Tehoun? Am I crazy? I think you're crazy. James Tehuna is like the first Aussie U.S. Yes, I know who James Tehuna was. Guys, didn't James Tehuna have a boxing match? You had a boxing match?

Yes. Now I'm like losing my... You got me. Maybe I've lost my mind. What are you talking about Tyson Pedro? I'm talking about I told you I was right You did be out of everything

See? That's how I happen Hey I've been on the air for three By the way The best part about this is Is you lighting up the joy While correcting me Unbelievable

It's really There's so much there It doesn't matter what I'm doing I will sit and watch that 90 second clip whenever the initial James looking great in the boxing ring lately

and there's just I will say the clip the clip is all time classic elite it is made better with the version that cuts then

to Connor discussing it later yeah yeah so all of us in the bam bam buds merch

head to toe talking about it the bucket hat the jersey it's one of the most ridiculous things ever and then the one

moment we're like yeah did he have a boxing match you can tell like he feels bad and like because you're like dude no it's james he like kind of starts questioning himself uh it's fucking incredible it's so good i thought i thought i thought tyson was such a good sport about that i love the fact that he knows about it and that he has his shorts right there no no not the fact that he was with him this weekend the biggest pop back here me and rick were dying and he's his mentor he's like yeah james like got me into this oh my god

so good james zona is like he's a borderline mythical figure at this point Like, the fact that, like, he never posts anything, but it's just like, yeah, I was with him this weekend. Yeah. I saw him. I was hanging out. Does he not post anything? Have you looked it up? I don't see anything from him.

Wow. He's too busy training the rugby squads, and you're over here thinking he's boxing. James, oh, man. Let me see. James Tahuna. When's the last time he fought? When's the last time he fought? 2016, holy shit.

It's been almost 10 years. It's been almost 10 years. How old is old, James? 16 and 9, 44, all right? 10 years older than I really botched that intro for Tyson. I mean, he's not quite 24. He's a little bit older than our last guest. You called him somebody else's name.

You call him an old geezer. I mean, he was still here. I still warned James Tujuna's shirt. Oh, yes. I was wondering if he knew about it. Oh, you knew. It's just something about the way he lights it up, and he's like, man, you're talking about Tyson Pedro. There's just something about that.

What's great about it is, as G. As G. G.C. said, he's working through it, right? You're working through it because you're like, wait, am I wrong? Ty is like, no, no, I'm right. Wait a minute. Am I wrong? Wait a minute. It's Tyson Pedro.

Like, he gets to it. He arrives at it. It's fantastic. Also, it's like, you're talking about, like, one of his boys. Yeah. Who hasn't fought in damn near a decade. And it's like, this is news to me. Aren't they, aren't they like, isn't that his brother-in-law?

They're actually relatives, I believe. Bro, I was just with him at Thanksgiving. He did not fucking fight. Did they do the beer thing together or something back in the day? didn't James James didn't No it was also Tyson Pedro The Drink West Who was that?

Yeah Yeah, well drink West Was that Tyson and Bam? Yeah Taitu Ivasa is the brother-in-law So you're talking about his brother-in-law It's not just like his boy Now turns out James Tihuna is actually his boy Which is even crazy here

Drink West Was Taito Ivasa And Tyson-Tayor Yeah They're relatives They're all related They're all us They're all boys

Such a great moment Yeah I was just happy to see him back Shout out to Tyson Pedro It's a good little signing for PFL I was gonna say PFL shout out man Yeah

205 let's do him versus Corey Anderson Oh fuck That feels That feels quick It's a good little laugh It's a nice little laugh You get the tears out

Feel good about What was that Rick? What did you say? Corey feels like A quick jump in No I know Yeah like to the deep end Yeah

I mean it's not like they have The deepest 205 pound division No, but he's been out of MMA for a bit. I think he needs one warm-up. Are there PFL rankings? Do they do rankings? PFL.

No, there was the tournament seasons. Oh, right, right, right, right. Who's to check? Yeah, who is to check, Frankie? Oh, here we are. What is, oh, this is the standings. Impakasanganae, Rob Wilkinson, Dovlett, Josh Silvera, Antonio Carlos, Sadabousi. These are all fights I'd love to see guys in take.

These are great. I mean, you look great in that boxing match. Yeah, I'm down. Guys, in a matter of moment. You know, also, I was sweating so much as I was looking, I was like, fuck, no one's helping me out here. Why isn't anyone telling me about this? I was like, and then, you know.

You do recognize it's hard because you're saying a name that nobody is aware. Oh, yes. If you type in James DeHuna Boxing, like nothing pops up. Right. So I'm like, what's happening? So we're not, we're also like, what the hell's going on? What the fuck are you talking about, dude?

Speaking of boxing, the great Shakur Stevenson, who I always love to speak to, is going to be joining us, or speak with, I should say, is going to be joining us in a matter of moments. Returning to action on the 31st of January, rapidly approaching a month and a half from now, he's coming to town. Yes, there he is, against Tio Fimo Lopez. I mean, what a fight. What a fight for the WBO's super lightweight title. Absolutely love that fight at 140 pounds. Always love talking to Shakur. Of course, this weekend, This Friday, on Netflix, we've got the return of Anthony Joshua against Jake Paul.

They had a face off on Saturday. I don't know if anyone saw this face off. They said it was at an $80 million mansion in Miami. Anyone see this? Jake, AJ, facing off, and Jake on his tippy toes. Jake on his tippy toes wearing that hat like that and the shoes and the pants. Like actually looks like a kid You know what I mean?

Like a kid like trying to mess with his dad And AJ is having none of it What do we think? Is anyone, Frank, are you willing To go out on a limb and say Jake via knockout Are you willing to do it? Fuck it, yeah, I'll say it Yeah

But you see when you say F it, I'll say it You know That's fucking illegal I don't feel like you're saying it From a place of like actual belief Yeah, it's a hard belief Even for me to be honest What's the line right now, G.C., what are we at?

Do you think it's like, I wonder if it's like minus 2,000? I don't think it is. I think it's like 1,200. Really? What if it's skirts inside 1,000? How much you're putting down, Rick? Inside a thousand. It doesn't really matter what the number is.

Minus 900? I'm on that line. Anderson Silva minus 1,000 of Tyron Woodley. Wow. Anthony Joshua minus 1,200, Jake Paul, plus 700. Free money. Take it to the bank. Baumgarder, minus 1,600.

Does it say, does it say, can I tell you something crazy? about, okay, before I go there, does it say method for A.J? Let's see, let's see. Yeah, can we get a knockout prop? I was mistaken. Anderson's of a minus 225 time on Rudley plus 175. That's a big difference. Yeah, big difference. I don't know what I was reading. I can't lie. Like, AJ via K-O-T-O. That is minus 400. Really? Yeah. Because I feel, honestly, I feel like more people think he's going to knock him out than wouldn't be a decision. A thousand percent. I'm surprised. Joshua by decision is plus 450.

So minus 400 knockout. Wow. 50 decision. Wow. Okay, what a swing. Anthony Josh did a win and over one and a half knockdowns plus 100. I don't hate that. What about, what about?

I think it's going to take more than one to put Jake down. What about Jake via decision? Jake via decision is plus 1,600. What's Jake Moneyline? Jake Moneyline is plus 700. oh my gosh the over under is set at two and a half two and a half yeah fuck that is I think that might be the lowest I've ever seen it for a boxing what what's the under under minus 115 each way okay okay okay so coin flip odds on on two and a half this thing lasting seven and a half minutes

you decide what's Jake via knockout just shake via knockout is plus 1,200 less than decision what yeah less than decision yeah less than decision yeah less than decision I get it, though. If Jake is going to win, it's by, like, surviving a hellacious assault and, like, getting a jerk job decision. No, it's by winning five to three if he's going to win. He's going to win a really close decision. Yes, that's what I'm saying. Yeah, so wouldn't the odds be greater for the...

Wouldn't he be a bigger dog knocking him out, or am I misunderstanding this? Yeah, it's plus 1,600 decision, plus 1,200 knockout, so the books think it's more likely that he will knock him out. Oh, I'm saying the opposite. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. It's, that's surprising to me. Jake Paul to be knocked down, minus 500. Just to be knocked down. Yeah.

But then the over under on knockdowns is one and a half. What about AJ knockdown? Like him getting knocked down. Anthony Joshua to be knocked down plus 550. What a time. Jake Paul to be knocked down and win the fight plus 3,000. Plus 3,000. Wow.

You could get, they even have round props now. Anthony Joshua in round 1 plus 280. round two plus 350 now what's the line at because you guys will be in attendance again you never miss a Netflix fight of how many times you guys will be shown on TV

if we get on once again we're the kings of Netflix it's just that simple if we get on again somehow what was it last time like four times five times yeah it was like six or seven the best was the closing shot and you're a winner Katie Taylor

and then you're like 75% of those times I was checking my phone. Did you know? Did someone tell you? All right. So they showed us on the Jumbotron. And I was just like, oh, we fucking got on the Jumbo Tron.

That was so sick. And then I got a bunch of texts. Like, dude, I just saw you on Netflix. And then we put two and two together that the Jumbotron was what was the broadcast. Yeah. That'd be great. Yeah. Great.

What I wanted to say was Alicia Baumgartner is fighting someone named Lela Baudouin in the Comain. And there's a, there's a young man who's been around the Montreal sports scene for a very long time. He was covering GSP. Like, anytime GSP fought or someone from Quebec fought, he would be there. Worked for RDS, which is the Rézo de Sport, which is the French

TSN over there. And his name is Benoit Baudoin. And he sent me a message this weekend saying, you know, Lela's my sister. I'm like, what? Lela's your sister. Like, he's just like your typical news anchor guy. Looks like, you know, just like your regular guy on TV. His sister is a badass fighter fighting Alicia Baumgartner

in the co-main event on Netflix. I was blown away by that. I was blown away that his sister is fighting there. So he told me that he's going to be there watching and supporting her. And that's pretty damn cool. The card has come together nice that we found out last week that Caroline Dubois is going to be on there. Obviously, the Tarrin Woodley versus Anderson Silva fight is getting a lot of love. Sugar Neeks is on there as well against Amanda Valle, which is a great fight.

So I'm looking forward to it, but I am most looking forward to the Halwani Road Show, which is coming to Miami, Thursday, December 18th, with Jorge Mazvedel, Kayla Harrison at the Hard Rock Cafe in Miami. Entry fee, not required. My man. Username, not required. Password not required. There it is. Look at that.

People called this AI slop. Are you crazy? You think we engage in AI slop over here? Absolutely not. That's Oven right there. That's beautifulness from Oven. Kayla Harrison, Jorge Mazzvedo, December 18th, starts at 830. free for all live from the hard rock.

I have tweeted the link. You know what? We should put the link in the, could we put the open table link in the YouTube chat and pin it? Would that be possible? Yeah, man. Thanks, Frankie.

Of course. And that's this Thursday. No live stream. So you've got to be there. All right. Don't let us down. It's going to be a scene. A lot of exciting things happen.

happening. Do we have our next guest or not quite yet? Not quite yet. Efforting. I did see this awful news here moments ago over on uncrown.com. M.M.A veteran Geronimo dos Santos dies by drowning at age 45. That is awful. I remember Geronimo de Santos. It's from Drake Riggs, uncrown.com. M.A. veteran, Geronimo dos Santos has died at age 45. That is awful. I remember Geronimo dos Santos has died at age 45 after drowning in Brazil's Amazon region, per MMA fighting, according to local reports, Dos Santos disappeared while swimming in the Rio Negro, one of the world's largest rivers. Divers from the Amazonas fire department recovered the heavyweight's body Monday morning,

discovering him trap beneath rocks at the bottom of the river. Golly, that is horrific. Dos Santos lost fought in April delivering a brutal first round knockout of former UFC heavyweight Alexiolinich and a BKFC bat. But I recall that. The victory marked a late career highlight for the striking specialist. Dos Santos then inked a BKFC fight against Andrea Olavski in June, but ultimately withdrew from the matchup. Made his MMA debut in 2006 and his home of Brazil kickstarting a 72-fight-MMA career, 456, and 1.

While he never competed in the UFC, Dos Santos did sign with the promotion in 2012. He was slated to compete at UFC 153 in Rio and a heavyweight bout against Gabriel Gonzalez. Zaga, but was removed from the card after testing positive for hepatitis B. That's right. He later parted ways with the promotion in 2014 after being unable to receive medical clearance from North American athletic commissions. Fought the likes of JDS, Josh Barnett, Sergei Hattitonov, Batali Minikov, Alexander Emilienenko. damn from 2011 to 2014 won 13 straight MMA fights well I'm very sorry to hear that

my condolences to his family that is awful awful awful stuff we have been talking about boxing we talked about Francis and Ganu earlier Tom Aspinall on the YouTube channel was chitch chatting with the one and only Tommy Fury and he actually said that he'd be interested in boxing, France Zangano. Oh, my dear, you can hear the head spinning all the way from here to Las Vegas. Here's the clip in case you missed it.

Do you reckon you would ever go into boxing properly? I don't know. You'd never be a world champion. I wouldn't try and be a world champion. You need to dedicate your whole life, don't you? Yeah, but you was good at boxing, though. I was good from an MMA background. Yeah, but I spent my whole life doing MMA now, on it?

For me to be like 33 and then think that I'm going to win a world title in boxing, it's unrealistic. I don't know so much, you know, because your speed is everywhere. You've got to think in boxing. I reckon I could have a couple of like... Warm-ups? No, I reckon I could have a couple of like, not freak show fights, but like big fights, you know what I mean? It's like a big name or something. It's that space though, isn't it?

Like all these fights are, well, couldn't Jake Paul and Joshua. He couldn't beat me with a broken hand. So how are you going to go from me to fight somebody like that? like him. It doesn't make any sense. Who do you think Tom should fight if he was the box? Drake Paul, do you mean? Oh no. Tom.

All mine boxing an M.A fighter. Do you know what I mean? I think that would be. I think that would be good fight now. Yeah, I think that'd be good. I like it. That'd be a big fight that. Mate, I've got fights. You walk him out of yeah? 100%. I mean, yeah. I've got fights in the UFC to do first.

Yeah. I've got them fights to do. There's a lot of money to be earned. Because look at Mayweather McGregor. Them two had it off. So Tom is very clearly saying, Not right now, not right now, not right now. By the way, speaking of the crossover, Dana White and Nick Khan at the USA boxing trials in Lubbock, Texas this weekend, which caused all kinds of commotion.

There they are, Dana White, Nick Khan. We bring the star power, this is USA Boxing. Welcome to the 806, Dana and Nick, and thank you for recognizing the future generation of boxers in the United States of America. How about that? So they are coming. Zufa Boxing is.

coming, people saying January 23rd appears to be the date, and it appears to be at the apex in Las Vegas, the first event. Now, of course, eight days later, massive fight coming to right here in New York City. We don't get these off in these days, but hopefully more to come. This is a perfect fight for the world's most famous arena. And we're not talking about the theater. We're talking about the big arena, the mecca, the world's most famous arena, the actual main venue where the Knicks and Rangers play. It is Tiafima Lopez, Shakur Stevenson, at 140 pounds. I absolutely love this fight, and it's a great pleasure to be joined once again by the one and only Shakur Stevenson, who is kind enough to join us right here and now on this Monday afternoon.

There he is. What's up, Shakur? How are you, my man? What's good, my guy? It's good to talk to you. Thank you for doing this. I appreciate it very much. By the way, can I ask you, people are going nuts over Dana and Nick Khan, the Zufa Boxing Guys at the USA Boxing Trials? What did you make of that? Did you have any thoughts on that? No, I don't have nothing I didn't even know they was there until you just put it up in the show so good for them

hopefully they find some great fighters It's an interesting time in the sport right With the Zoufa guys coming over Yeah, it is, it is, it is It's going to be very interesting I don't know much about it yet So I just keep playing it by here Okay, how did this one get

You know, made, the one between you and Tifima Lopez? Was it Was it a long, drawn-out process? Was it relatively easy to get done? How would you describe the journey to getting this fight done? It was easy. I actually hit T-O-up, and we had a good conversation. And when we had our conversation, honestly, once I got him on the phone,

he said he wanted to fight me. I said, I want to fight him. I told him I were going to beat him. He told me he was going to beat me. So it was easy to make happen. So you got the ball rolling? Yeah, I did. Wow.

And that was just out of, hey, let's just get this done. I want to make it happen. So let me hit the guy up. Honestly, I had been set it up with the higher power people. I kind of ex-dump came. We make the fight happening. But once it got closer to getting it done, I kind of reached out to T-O. And he was cool.

And obviously this is happening at 140. Why were you interested in that? Why the decision to move up from 135? I'm not moving up to 140 pound division just yet. I'm actually a 35-pounder, but I moved up for this fight because I know that Robert, I bring him down. I would have to come up to his weight if I want to fight him. So it only made sense.

Was MSG always the spot that was discussed or perhaps Prudential Center, Newark, or any other locations? They asked me, Las Vegas or New York, and I told them I like New York. So do you like the idea of fighting at MSG as opposed to Prudential Center, which you have done very well at? No, I would rather fight in my hometown because that's where I'm from. And I know everybody's going to be there to support me. I know the faces. I know everything when I walk out.

But honestly, it's cool because it's on New York, you know. It's right there. T.O. It claims you from New York. But it's interesting. What do you mean by that? Oh, did we lose him? Oh, are you there?

He claimed it because he's not really from New York. Okay. Yeah, you froze on us for a second, but now you're back. He's not really from New York. He's from Florida. I actually knew him growing up, and he was always with team Florida. So I don't look at him like a fighter that's from New York. I know the fighters that's from New York.

I came up with them guys. I used to see them all the time in the regionals. When I used to go to Gleas, gym, I used to see a lot of them fighters. I never seen T.O. So when you were growing up and you would cross past with them, what was your relationship like? Were you guys cool? Were you friends?

Was there any type of friction? No, never was no friction. I was a fan of him. I always thought he was a good boxer, speed, power, athleticism, everything that he had. Then he still got now. Hell of a fighter. How do you feel about him now? I think he's a beast

I think he's a beast He's somewhat of a polarizing figure in the sport Like he has said some things That have rubbed people the wrong way Some might even call it racist things As of late Do you feel like he's crossed the line Has he made anything personal

Maybe not to you specifically But you know When you say things like that You might piss off a lot of people Yeah I'm gonna make him pay for a lot of them Things that he said about black people But at the end of the day I know he's not racist

I know him deep down the side He truly is a cool person. He wants to be great. This is the type of fight that I really enjoy. You guys had the press conference last week and the face-to-face and all that stuff. What did you make of his vibe there? The face-off was interesting. And some of the things that he was saying at the press conference was interesting.

What did you make of his vibe overall? I think something mentally wrong with him. I don't think he's like all the way there mentally. I think he's crazy. That's my opinion. Yeah, I think it's legit crazy. I think something really wrong with him. But that's what make him dangerous.

I think them the guys is the most dangerous people, them delusional, crazy people who want to be the best and want their spot at greatness. So I got to respect it, but I think something is definitely off with him. Who were you talking to there off to the side? Was that his dad? Yeah, I'm talking to his dad, yep. And what was he saying to you?

His dad said that he was going to beat me. He said that, um, I'm talking. little and all that kind of stuff. So I came with the show him. And what were you saying back? I was letting him know he can't, you can't fight for him. He's the guy that got a fight. So when I see him, let's see what he do.

Is this more about fighting Tiafimo, a big fight like this, or a four-weight world champion? It's more so a four-weight world champion. My legacy is more so about that. It ain't really just Tio. got the accomplishments of a big accolade fighter he got he was undisputed at 1 35 which they say he wasn't but I know he was um then he moved up in 140 and got the belt at 140 so um it's more so to fight a fighter with this much accolades and become the best who's who's in in your opinion or technically you tell me who's the A side in this fight me like as far as the pay the post

the walkout, all that stuff? Nah, they say, I think he, they claim he to A-Side, I think. I think they put it as Tiafimo, Chicoor, but I'm really the A-side. I know I'm the A-side, to be honest. Who's walking out second? I probably walk out first. I mean, that stuff don't matter, though. Like, just put me in a ring.

Who cares? I'm going to show that I'm the A-side, so. Sometimes we get hung up on these things, right? Yeah, for sure. Didn't Floyd tell you that you should be the A-side? Yeah, he did. He told me that he think that I should be there because I'm the bigger name. Yeah. So it makes sense.

So when you hear senior and junior say things like, you know, that you haven't fought anyone on his level, what is your response to that? It's cool. I mean, that's their opinion. Like, you know, they could say that. But I know he never fought anybody on my level. Like, I'm a million percent sure that Tio has never seen nobody as good as me in his life. he's talking about like once he gets through you then he wants crawford names like that how do you think he would do against someone like terence at this point i think he gets knocked out can't even hang with him yeah he's too little but it's too big for him right as far as skills though do you think he's on par with the likes of of terence i'm not going to say he's on this on a terence crawford level of skills but he's very skillful um he got a lot of things

with him that puts him at a high level. One thing that was interesting to me was it seemed like you were going to move on for Matron, but now Eddie Hearn is involved in this, and this is a Matron event. It seems like I know it's a ring card too, but he's promoting it here in the United States. So what is the state of your relationship with Eddie and Matrum at this point? Eddie's my guy. I'm actually not signed to Matron, but he's my guy. I'm a big fan of Eddie Hearn, and nobody respect him, but I'm glad he's the promoter that's

on his car. I'm glad to share the spotlight with his promotional company. So if he's your guy, how come you're not signed to Match Room? I mean, it's just business. If it makes sense, then I will. You know, if it come down to it and that's what makes sense, then we'll do it. But right now, I don't think it makes sense. Okay, so are you just more of like your own man at this point, your own entity?

Yeah, I am. Okay. Do you negotiate with the ring people, with Turkey? You just do that yourself? No, me and my manager, Jay Prince, yep. Okay. And does that work for you? Do you feel like this could be something that could just work for you for the time being? As of right now, yes. Okay. As far as what this means, like if you beat Tiafimo and you become one 40-pound champion, do you think you'll at least try to defend that title a few times? Would you want to go back down? I know you said it's not so much about Tiafima or anything. It's just about getting that fourth title. What do you think this win will do for you in the trajectory of your career?

I don't know. I don't know what I'm going to do after. I can't really tell you. I don't know. We got to see where, what's on the chessboard? What's on the chessboard? That's a move that will make the best move. So I have no clue.

But as far as after this, I know that I'm going to be one of the best in the sport. Do you feel like this is the fight that finally gives you the respect that you're looking for? Yeah, and especially in the fashion that I'm looking to dominate it in, yeah. At, you know, back in July, we had you in Connor Bennon studio. It still remains till this day, like one of our most popular videos. People love the interaction between you two. And then, of course, you know, he went on to do his thing. And I'm just wondering if you saw that performance and if you were surprised that he looked that great against Chris Eubank, Jr.,

because it seemed at the time that maybe you weren't rating his skills that much. Yeah, I didn't expect him to do that, but good for him. I'm glad he did it. It keeps him as a name that I could fight in the future. So I'm glad he did that, but I think Eubank was drank. He was dead. You think it was more about that than what Connor did? Yeah, I think that wasn't the version of Eubank, especially not just being drank.

He just had a war with Conner Ben before that. So, Kahnabin was a fighter that feel good. after the war, he could go eat, do whatever he want, and you bank can't. So I think that played the part. Is that, is that a fight that you think could realistically happen in 2026? Or are you on different paths at this point? No, I think it could happen. I think that should be maybe next at the TL. God willing to not go do what I got to do. 147, most likely? Yeah, for sure. What do you think? I want a rehydration clause, though. For him? Yeah.

Okay. Just like he had. for Chris. Yep. Realistically, which weight would you feel most comfortable at, do you think at this point with your body? Like, how high do you think you can go where you don't feel like it's slowing you down? The most weight, the weight that I feel the comfortable is 135, but how high, probably 147. That would be the high.

You would never go to 154 or something like that. No. I'm just fighting off of skills. I think that when I move up in a weight class, I'm so little. that my skills is going to just take control. As far as being WBC lightweight champion, do they have any issues with you moving up to 140? Will you have to defend it in your next fight?

What is the situation there? I just fought my men in my last fight, so I don't think that I have to defend it right back to back. But we'll see. I don't know. I know that they said that I could keep my belt, so. There's a bit of a movement right now to get rid of those belts,

the sanctioning bodies and whatnot. How do you feel about that? Are you someone that loves the history that is proud to be a WBC champion? Or do you think it's time for the sport to evolve? I am proud to be a WBC champion because of when I came up, the green belt was like the most, the belt that looked the best far as like for me when I seen Floyd wearing it. But I don't really get into the political part of the business when it come down to that.

I try to stay out of that stuff. so do you think there are some people who think it will always be a part of the sport that it's not going anywhere do you feel the same or can you foresee a time where those belts aren't as important as they are today i don't know i don't know i can't really answer that because um we don't we never know what a sport like forward is so um oh the sport is so like um I'm back. Yeah, you're back. You're back.

Nope. Yeah, yeah. The sport is so like you never know where things is going to go. So it's really hard to say whether there be there or not because you don't know. Could I ask and not trying to get you in trouble here, but what did you think of them taking the belt away from Terrence? I try to stay out of that stuff. Okay. You want nothing to do with it.

I feel you. You want no drama? You're good with the drama sometimes. It's fun. No, no drama. Okay, you're in a good place. Yep, yep, I'm locked in right now. Can I ask you about Oshaki Foster?

Any interest in him? You can ask me about him. What you want to know? No, any interest in him? He said he would like to fight you. Interest in him? I, so when it come down to that, right? Because I can be talking into fighting all of these dudes.

Like, I don't care who it is in front of me, but. When it comes down to that, the way that he went on that internet and, like, lied, I really feel some type of way about it because I don't respect that lot. I feel like he didn't have no integrity when he get on these interviews and he's talking and saying as though, like, he ran me out the gym and he beat me up and sparring. He's not telling the guys on his truth. So it's like, when you hear somebody lie like that, it's like, okay, if he would have just say, yo, I want to, I want to fight you, I want you a spy, I'm cool with that.

Like, I ain't tripping out that. But when you lie and make it seem like I'm not who I, who I've been my whole life on camera, I don't respect that. So I don't know. We'll see it in the future. I don't know. I'll beat all these guys up. But that dude right there, I really kind of want to beat him up outside of really.

Okay. You posted a slip where I think you bet 12K on him to win, right? His last fight? I knew he was going to win. That was a business move. That was like, like, if you know boxing, like no disrespect to Kubei, because Koo-Boy is a good fighter. Yeah, Stephen Ford. But he's a 122 pounder. This dude is a 135 pounder coming down to 130 and streaking himself down. So, Cool Boy is a guy going up. I already knew what type of fight Kubei was in when it came down to it

that's why I bet so much money because I'm like okay the odds was so stupid on there like it was like minus it was like even like they even on both parts and I didn't understand it so I thought it was a great business move

because to the people that don't know boxing it looked good because Kubei got a bigger name in the sport so it's like like, yeah, it looked good. Like, if you don't know boxing, but it's like, okay, no disrespect to cool boy. And I ain't taking nothing away from me, but you put a cool boy in front of me.

Like, he's so little to where it's like I'm not going to respect what's coming back at me. So I'm probably going to really step on the gas a lot more than what I would do if it's like, you know, somebody that has some type of power or threat, then you've got to outthink them and do different things to them. And I think in that fight, he just, his team made a great move with putting him in front of the right guy, especially with the public watching. Who do you think won, Roach or Pipple? Lamont Roach. I thought he won. Okay.

Just like he thought that was a robbery. Like he should have won against Tank 2, right? Yeah, I thought he won both fights. Crazy year for the guy. Back-to-back draws, controversial? I mean, we're watching, though. Everybody knows and everybody seen how good he is on the beach. big stage so it ain't like his stock going to go down um it sucks to get the draw but at the end of the

day he's a hell of a fighter and um he clearly not going to where this dude is fighting from 130 to 135 to 140 in um a couple of fights and he's doing it with ease so you got to respect him at this point do you think we ever see tank again oh i ain't talking about that dude yeah i know i had to ask i'm sorry can i ask you about Jake? Yeah, you got some about them. How did that happen where you got invited to to come to his camp to train for that fight or at least spar or do something? What did you do over there in Puerto Rico for that fight before was the aging fight? Was it just some pictures or did you actually train together? Now, we spark. We spark. My god Jay Leon Love hit me up and

they set it up and I came down there and we did, was it six, seven rounds. We got in the ring and we sparked. What was it like? I think it's crazy because I think Jake is better than people would even understand. A lot of people don't think he's that, like, as good because he started so late. So it's like you don't know how good he really could be if he started earlier, but you could tell like he's taking the craft series. Like he's locking in and doing training camps and got the right team around. him, got the coaches around him.

So he's better than like what you would think. You were impressed? Yeah, I was impressed for sure. Dare I say surprise maybe as well? Yeah, I was surprised because I thought like we think a guy coming from YouTube, like, okay, this guy don't know nothing. But

you could tell he had a good coach in his corner who's telling him the right things. He's listening to the right things. And then he's not bad. Like he's just not a bad fighter. like he his instincts is like to not get beat up or not get hit and um i i was surprised by it for sure does this mean you're betting 12k on him to beat a jay hell no hell no uh

a j is a boxer there's no way a j should let jake win that fight like i don't see how he will let jake win what do you think happens i think i think a j should get the win i don't know how it's going to happen, but I mean, if you got all of that weight on you, he should go out there and beat Jake, but I don't think it would be a knock on Jake game. I think Jake is a, long as he don't get knocked out, long as he stay on his peas and cues and cues in there, I think he should be okay. But if he gets knocked out in like the first round, do you think that's it for the Jake Paul experience? If I had, if I, not even if I had, if I was bad money on it, I will bet that he's not getting knocked out in one round. Okay, okay. You think he

survives based on what you know of him? I don't know. I can't tell you if he survives, but I know he survives the first round. That's what I mean. Like, at least he doesn't come out there and get starched in the first round. Yeah, I don't think so. Okay. Will you be, will you be watching? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. It was cool to see, I mean, it was wild to see him go from training with the likes of you and then all the big boys that he was training with like three weeks later. I don't if you saw his face, like his nose is like pushed to the side. He's got a black guy. He seems to be, you know, giving it a go. Do you think it's a mistake for him to do this? Is he biting off more than he can chew? I mean, yeah, I think he's just jumping out there fighting Joshua, but

I think it's a dangerous move to make. But at the end of the day, scared money don't make no money. So when you're a guy in his situation, people should only respect him for what he's doing. Like, you got to respect the aspect of this guy started boxing late and now he's where he's at and he's really taking a challenge right now. Like he's challenging himself. So I respect it. And Ryan Garcia is 190 pounds? That's what it looked like, yeah, for sure.

You saw he replied to you, right, on the stream there? Yeah, I seen what you said. Yeah. That would be a fun one too. I would love to make that fight happen. I've been said that. Yes. No, you've been, everyone has to be honest with themselves. You've been calling for all these guys, and now I feel like it's finally coming to fruition. Your second fight at MSG, the first one was back in 2017, if I do recall, my memory serves me correct. What do you remember from that experience? Did it feel special to you, the world's most famous arena? I know you're a Jersey guy, Newark guy, but being in that building where Ali fought and so many others, did it feel special for you? Yeah, it did. It felt like an amazing experience. But I remember just being like early on the card. I wasn't really like main event. So now I know that the experience is going to be like a whole different world. So I'm excited.

You're the man. You're the guy. You're the you're the A side. And by the way, just for the record, I do agree with you. You are the A side. I feel like that place is going to be 7525 Shakur, right? Yeah, I think New York going to be out there for me even though he claimed New York Yeah What do you think? Official prediction What are we going with?

I don't got no prediction I know my prediction is me coming out victorious All right, that's all that matters Thank you, Shakur. Appreciate it very much Good luck to you. Always great to have you on

and looking forward to the fight very much January 31st right here in New York City the Mecca World's most famous arena Madison Square Garden You versus Tiofumo. Great fight.

Thank you so much, Chacore. Really appreciate it. Thank you. You're the man. There he is. Chacore Stevenson, kind enough to join us. Appreciate his time. The pride of Brick City, Newark, New Jersey.

Current, WBC champ. And that's at lightweight. And now he's going up to super lightweight to try to win his fourth belt in a different weight class. Featherweight, super featherweight, and now super lightweight. That's January 31st. Same night as Alex Fulkenovsky versus Diego Lopez, them's the breaks, them's the breaks.

We'll have to watch both. Do you all see them, though? Yeah, that's a good one, Frankie. That's a good one. Apropos, dare I say. By the way, we were talking about John Cena. One last thing I wanted to show you all. Google paid tribute to Mr. John Cena with a little thingy.

They had like a little animation. I thought it was fun. I enjoyed it. Yeah, here it is. Type in. What are you writing? John Sina, and then what happens? Yes.

Oh, look at that. That's not bad. I like that. Our own Darshan Desai has written an article for uncrown.com, the number one unbiased combat sports platform on the planet that Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury are going to compete in separate 2026 fights before their long-awaited showdown. He had mentioned in that article that Joshua has,

a February 14th date. I'm starting to get some intel on that date. More on that in a moment. But they announced this. Everyone went crazy. There was a whole hullabaloo. But in the finer details, it's that, oh, they're going to have a warm-up fight, if you will. And I'm not talking about the Jake fight. Like another one. So we're, as of right now, talking about two fights until we get to Tyson versus AJ. Lord have mercy. Why we need that, just give us the fight. I don't understand. So much can go wrong. Someone could get. get injured, someone could lose, something could get knocked out, knocked down. Who knows? But that's what they're saying. No, no date, no venue, no none of it. It's the biggest

fight. It would be gigantic. I know they want it on Netflix. And I'm quite certain that TKO would be involved. And it would be a gigantic fight. It would sell out Wembley in a second. True or false guys, AJ fights Tyson Fury in the year 2026. False. Wow. You know, they said this like six, seven years ago, too. Yeah, false. I'll say true, why not? The planning just seems stupid. Like, there's no reason to do it this way.

If Jake Paul beats A.J. Stop, stop, stop. Does he get Tyson? Stop, stop. Does he get Tyson. That's right. That's crazy. Let's not, let's not do.

I know we're talking, we were talking about John Cena and, like, you know, the scripted fantasy stuff. Let's not talk about a Jake Paul beating AJ world. That doesn't exist. That's not real. Serious question. Would it be one, given, like, his... Yes. No, no, no.

Biggest upset in boxing history. No, sports. Yes. It'd be up there. Right? I don't think the odds properly reflect how much I'm doubt. Do you think it's because people are like, we don't know what to make of this? Yes.

Yeah. And also, you have people like Shakur who have trained with Jake going like, he's better than you think he is, which probably is true, but he's not on the level of AJ. This is silly. It's just silly. What a spectacle it would be. It's not happening. I actually think, forget boxing.

I think it would be one of the biggest upsets in the history of sports. This is an amateur beating a pro. Amateur? He's got like 11 fights now. Yes, he has 11 fights. Anthony Joshua has a lifetime of boxing fights. No, I know. A lifetime.

It does have the amateur fighting against... He's a YouTuber. He's a Disney kid. It's just not... And it's on Gibb, which is backwards for big nose. Yeah, yeah, for sure. It's just not happening. It is not happening.

save for AJ slipping on a literal banana peel it is not happening and even then I still think he could beat Jake Paul but just for the record if he beats him is the Tyson Fury fight up in smoke oh for sure if on Tyson Fury I want Jake Paul

careers up in smoke could you imagine if he goes the distance but wins I think he's not winning Tyson Fury yeah but there's still two fight AJ goes the distance yeah yeah I think that's still make touch

there's still two fights that need to be made. It's crazy. Why do they do this? Why do they announce this? It's the most pointless thing. I don't understand. Everyone goes nuts. Oh my God. And then you look at it. There's no date. There's no venue. There's no time frame. There's no time frame. There's no month. There's no nothing. Like, imagine the UFC being like, yeah, Volk's going to fight Diego Lopez. Two fights from now. Yeah. We're going to book two in the in between. We have no idea when that one is going to take place, but it is going to happen, regardless of the outcome of the other two fights.

Silliness. The stupid part is beyond just like the absurdity of trying to book that far in advance is we're already pissed that this fight hasn't been made. Stop pretending it's going to be made again and again and again and again and then not making it. Don't even talk about it. This is Habib versus Tony. Don't talk about this ever again until they've signed the contracts. I don't want to hear about it. I don't want another tease.

I don't want another, oh, they're going to do Joshua and Tyson Furion in Wembley. Yeah, I've heard that. I've heard that a few times. Thanks. Not happening. I'm not going to believe it until the pens on the paper. I do believe that it's closer than ever in that there's the turkey element. So he has made these big fights that seemed impossible to make over the course of the last two plus years.

But, yeah, it was a little weird. That's great. Don't talk about it. Everyone getting all excited. And I'm like, well, could we at least get by this one? And then AJ's got two fights and Tyson's got, and I'm not saying he's going to lose. But, like, again, injuries happen. And a bunch of stuff can happen.

It's craziness. By the way, I did see footage of Jake hitting the heavy bag. I do have to say, you know, some nice, what do you guys think? The movement? I mean, he's come a long way. They did a side by side of him hitting the heavy bag like, I don't know, it was like, I think it was like four years ago, three years ago, something like that. He looks much better.

Do we have that, him hitting the heavy bag? Yeah, we sure do. In and out. Look at this. Look at that. I mean, that's better. Oh, yeah, he looks like a boxer, man. He looks good.

Does the bag hit back or no? No, of course. Stop it. But I did see his nose is all messed up. He's got the black guy. I don't know. We'll see. We'll see.

We're going to find out in four days. So we can figure this all out very soon. That is on Netflix. I don't know if you guys got the announcement, but I'm going to be on the broadcast. I've heard this. Yeah. Thanks. Is they sign up for yourself?

What are we going to do? I was trying to get it. I was trying to get a collective clap. Oh, yeah. Can't wait. He's one of our own. He's one of our own. It's quite the star-studded lineup.

It's Netflix. They better bring the heat. Fill us in on the rest of the lineup. Is it Netflix? Netflix. We're going to be on it, right? I mean, they'll cut to us in the crowd somewhere, and then we make the broadcast, too.

They've got the MVP Fight Week Showcase, too, taking place at the Live at Fontainebleau. Miami Beach. Big Moe's going to be there. Corey Erdman's going to be there. Christina Poncher, who's going to, she's done a great job for top rank over the years. So great to have her involved. Sibley Skoles is going to be there. Wednesday, December 17th.

Oh, this is interesting. At the Fillmore, Miami Beach, the press conference will take place hosted by renowned combat sports journalist Ariel Hawani guys. Oh, renowned. Renowned. Combat sports, not just MMA. We're moving on up. Doop, doop, doop.

Thursday, December 18th, Big Mo, Halwani again, Sibley, David Hay and Christina Poncher. How about that? The Haymaker in the house. Shout to the Haymaker. And then what about the broadcast, the great Kate Scott, Kate Abdo, formerly known as, Lennox Lewis, Leila Ali, and Andre Ward. That's not bad. The return of Moro Rinalo in the booth. David Hay, Christina Pontcher.

on Wheelock as well. Civly Schools, Area Hawani, ringside reporter, and Cody Big Moe, our guy. Shout to Big Mo. Oh, look at that.

Graphic. Now, one, two, three, four, six, I mean, I'm nine down the line there.

I mean, how do we feel about that? You're like in the center. Yeah, but Kate, I mean, Kate is sort of the... Are you counting as

moro is one? Yeah. Yeah. We're going left to right? Yeah. I feel like closer to the center is where the eye goes. That's what I said.

Now, how about the fact that I'm bottom row? That's even closer to where it says. Yeah, I actually agree. You think I'm in the prime spot? You think I'm in the prime spot? Me over the word air, which is, of course, synonymous with Air Jordan. You feel like that's what they were trying to go for. I don't know about that part specifically, but I do know that in the eye where it's drawn,

you and Leela Ali are actually... I'm not going to lie. I feel like this is just completely randomized. You know what? You've got Lennox on top. You've got Ward down low, Scott down. You think they associated on-air me with putting your name there? Yes.

That might be it. I like how Big Mo is just Big Mo. Yeah. No, his name's too long. We've got to go Big Mo. For a second, I thought it was alphabetical, but definitely not. No. I think it's just randomized.

All right. Well, congrats to all involved. It's an honor. I love being on those cards and appreciate it very much. Truly, it feels like a big deal. They are so professional. so buttoned up. It's unbelievable to see how they've thought of everything. Everything feels so big, so important. I have done it twice now, very excited about it. And we'll be going out there

on Wednesday morning, press conference, then weigh-ins on Thursday, live show 830, Hot Rock Cafe Miami, you know the drill now, Mazvedel Harrison, the whole crew, meeting, greed, all that stuff and more than the fight on Friday. A couple other things to get to before we say goodbye, guys, What about Yiri Prochaska with the gender reveal in a very Yeri-esque way? He had the big samurai. He was ready to go, cutting up the balloons. Here it is. Now what color is that?

Is that pink? That is a black balloon. Oh. No, the stuff that came out of it. That's pink, right? Pink, yeah. Yeah, okay. I mean, he, what are he talking about?

That's pink. He cut the balloon and then stuff came out of it. I missed it the first time. Is he having triplets? I was just, because there's a delay between each. It is, the compression's not doing the colors any favor. Is that really pink? Not legit.

It looks like they're gold. Oh. And the ribbon on his shirt is blue. Well. So is it like a, who's the check? Who is the situation? Yes. Boy or girl?

I don't. I think it's pink. In the midst of, and by the way, congrats to him and his wife, partner. What an exciting time and wish them nothing but the best. In the middle of all that, he was out training with Carlos Prachas. Look at this.

Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Yes. Look at this. Carlos 170-pounder. Yeri, a 205 pounder.

And, you know, seeing that Yeri Prakashka footage, that got me thinking of Jamal Hill guys. Oh, yeah? Yeah, I know it did. We were talking about Jamal Hill. I know you're all dying for the big response. I'm going to disappoint you tremendously. We were talking about Jamal Hill.

When was that? Was it last Monday or last Tuesday? It might have been Monday or Tuesday, because I know it was after the event in Las Vegas when he had that whole. quarrel, lovers quarrel, I don't know what to call it with you on and Jacek, which seems like it has pretty much died at this point. I wasn't aware of much of what was going on. I came to the office. We talked about it. I'm like, all right, educate me on the air. I didn't think that it was

the biggest of deals. And then we did a little segment breaking it all down. The boys were educating me, GC in particular. I thought he did a very fine and fair job. And then, like a day or two later, I see a thumbnail on old Jamal's YouTube channel. And dare I say, this might be the most entertaining thing and funniest, I might add, as well, that Jamal has produced in the last three years. I mean, look at that. That is tremendous work by Jamal and his crew. It's pretty damn good. The four of us in, I mean, look at Pizzi.

Pizzi looks phenomenal. Pizzi looks like Ronald McDonald. It's amazing. It's incredible. incredible. Yeah, this is thumbnail of the year for sure. The clown clan. Yeah, I mean, the respect to us, calling us the clown clan. We need to, we need to like trademark this, sell the merch. Look at this. How did they do that? Is that AI slop or is that really? It's actually hilarious because if you look at it very quickly, it looks very, like, I look at, I look at Rick. He

looks sort of like a nicer insane clown posse member, you know, with the red nose. I'm not going to lie, it also makes this all look a little bit fatter, too. I think it's AI because Peachy's hair. Peachy's hair looks not right and neither does mine. It looks like you got processed a little bit. Also, you're like completely bald now, Ariel, and the glasses are still on, which is fucking amazing. That is weird. Yeah, I think the guys with the hair look funnier than us. I think we look weird with the bald head and the makeup.

Whoever does his thumbnails, Bravo. Fantastic. This is incredible. that. I thought he nailed it. I have to be honest. Just like I couldn't make it through 30 seconds of the initial footage, Joanna and him. I saw this. I clicked on it. I swear to God, God is my witness. Two minutes in, and I was like, I can't do this. I can't. And, you know, it seemed to me like Jamal had come across a new word. That would be the one. I mean, he might have said it, no joke. Frank watched the whole thing. God bless him. I mean, it's one of the nicest things that he's

ever done. He watched the whole thing. How many times, Frank? I thought what journalism is. Yeah, he said that too. He said that one, too. But how many times disingenuous, Frank? How many times? No joke. At least 30. I'm not being hyperbolic. Like, I want to go count because I'm curious, but at the same time, I don't care.

Yeah. The thing is, I don't think of the times that I heard it, and it wasn't 30 because I didn't make it to the end, I don't think he used it correctly once. He didn't use the word correctly once. If you're going to try to impress us with a I don't know, a new vocabulary, a new set of words, at least use the words correctly, my friend, at least use it correctly. It's not as easy as it looks sitting here talking in front of this mic.

And yes, he, like Kamar Usman, was trying to teach me 15-time World MMA journalist of the year winner in a row, also graduate of the most prestigious journalism school in the United States. Jamal Hill was trying to teach me what what was it called Frank disingenuous No I think it was the other word I thought what journalism is Yeah journalism

He was trying to teach me About journalism And I would say the same thing That I would say to Kamar Usman Like to hear from you guys What journalism is What it is supposed to be Is laughable to me

It is so laughable to me It's because it would be the same thing As me trying to tell you like how to throw a jab or how to, you know, score a takedown. I would never dare do that. But yet, for some reason, you feel like you can tell us how to run the show or what journalism is. I have a news flash for you.

Not everything that we do, even though I am a journalist, very proudly, I have the degree. I went to school. I did the whole thing. Not everything that we actually do on this show is journalism. Not every single second of the content we produce can be deemed. journalism. I'm very aware of that. For example, you know, like when we're talking about Frank's mom's ass, that's not journalism. Wait a minute. You see what I'm trying to say? Not everything we do.

All the on the nose questions, the blind ranking, all that stuff is not journalism. So when we're talking about a very uninteresting, irrelevant kind of goofy story, like you getting into a quarrel with Ioanni and Jacek that I could not care less about. So much so that I didn't take the time, as you rightly pointed out in those first two minutes, that I did not take the time to look into, that I did no research whatsoever, because I could not care less about, about you getting into any type of weird quarrel with, you want to go ahead and J-Jack. I have no interest in this story whatsoever. It was 10 minutes that, you know, we probably shouldn't even have devoted a four-hour show to. We do 12 hours a week, just me in this seat alone. Not everything is journalism, and that

certainly wasn't. That was us just kind of talking about a silly, goofy story that you clearly are trying to, I don't know, capitalize on because, yeah, I did look at your YouTube numbers and all of a sudden you're doing multiple videos on this, including going back to the old well of taking shots at me and I can guarantee you there's going to be another 30-minute breakdown of you sitting in your chair doing a breakdown on this and insinuating all kinds of nonsense just to get those numbers up because anytime you do a video about me, your numbers go up. The rest of the time, you're wallowing in the 4.1, 6.2, 3.2 territory. We could see it for ourselves. yes, this is a fun moment.

Let us capitalize on this and do a 30-minute breakdown on four clowns talking about a story that we have willingly said we have no interest in and didn't care enough to do the research on.

So there you go. Enjoy. Have fun. Not offended. Kind of think it's goofy. Kind of think it's funny that a UFC fighter has this kind of like

grudge vendetta obsession with any time I say his name. Anytime I say his name, we get a 30-minute breakdown of him. there, thinking like he's a big man on campus, he's going to say this, he's going to say that, he's going to insinuate this, that, and the other. But we're getting fun, we're getting fun thumbnails. And trust me, trust me on this, Jamal, Camaro. And if you want me to practice journalism, I'm happy to do it. I do it in my sleep. And I continue to do it. And I continue to do it

better than anyone in the game. You want to know what's up with the LFA and Fight Pass? I'll tell you about that as I'm driving from the gym home. I'll drop that. As everyone's getting the story wrong, by the way, LFA didn't get cut from FightPass. They chose not to resign with them because FightPass wanted to own their IP and their library. They're about to announce a deal any day now. Stay tuned for that. It's going to be airing on linear television in 2026.

You're welcome. If you want to know what's up with John Jones getting offered $30 million, which no one had, and then saying yes and then saying no and the fight not happening and him retiring and then having to say sorry to Dana White, I could tell you about that in my sleep as well. I could tell you about Connor McGregor getting injured. We had that before. Like, I could do this all day. You want to know the full card for the first Paramount card?

We do practice journalism. We do practice it quite often. But then when it comes to the silly stuff, we partake in that as well. And then you get in your feelings and get upset and try to hit us with these silly like, oh, clapbacks and think you've got us. You have not got us. None of us watched it. We all laughed about it and thought it was pretty damn silly. I did happen to see

you know it's not silly I did happen to see Armin Sarukin eating more and that to me is good content that is actual box office content

that is great stuff right there I saw him what was he eating he was eating some seafood I think it was like some kind of

piea platter I think that's what it was what it was what is that crab legs is that not crab it just seems like the leg

No? Oh, is that... A lobster for sure. A tail there. Damn, that looks good. That does look good. Where's the shrimp cocktail? Why is the plate so big all the time?

Got a lot of lobster tails on there. And then he was at Starbucks? Is he at Starbucks as well? What's going on here? I haven't seen this one. I need the story behind this one. Wait. You haven't seen this one?

No. Yeah, he's like in the mountains and it's... There's an actual Starbucks? I mean, there's no barista there. Yo, this is crazy. Some of those logos look a little off, but... Does look a little sussy. In the mountains?

In the mountains. Okay, cool. Shout out to our good friend, Rory McDonald. He was competing again. He's back on the mats these days doing his thing. Yeah, there it is. At the 80-C-Nagra. I love it.

Inching closer to that return, got first place. And also shout out to Alex Volcanovsky, the character that he's playing for the new street fighter movie. They revealed all the characters. I'm not familiar with this guy. This is Joe? You guys know Joe? Yeah, who is Joe?

Who is Joe? Do you know who that is? No. One of the extended ones. Yeah, this is like a, not like a main character. This is not a... All right. Well, it looks good anyway.

With the hair? Yeah. No, for sure. No, all the... Ozzie Joe. Mocks looked like he was sad to get rid of the hair. Yeah.

I don't blame him. Any super chats, Frankie? Damn right, we do. Shall we go to them? Oh, yes. Genesis 12.3, I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you, I will curse.

And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Wow. I appreciate that. Thank you. Did you see Dana send Dana a text about that Bill's win?

Oh, no, I did not. But golly, I got to tell you. It was it was very nice. It was very entertaining. The Dave Portnoy Up 210 video and then the retraction

I wish I never made that video is an all-timer. Can I just say like I give him credit you put yourself out there when you do that? Yeah. So there is something

to be said for that. I don't think he deleted either. No, no, respect. That's the key. I may have sent a cheeky text to Bill Simmons as well. How was Bill Hamling it? How did he take it? Well, I don't think he'll mind me saying this. I'm not a big trash talker, so it was just a smiley face. That was it. Nothing more.

No? That might be more annoying. Yeah, yeah, you blew it, bro. He knew exactly what you were doing. What did he say? He sent me back just a screenshot of the current standings. Yeah, no. That's good. Fair play. I did, uh, I did. I did, uh, I did I think I saw the Patriots radio announcer when they scored to go up 21-0.

He was just like, the bill's window is closed. The Patriots run the AFCs once again. I mean, that was basically the summation of the Portnoy vid. Also, like, as a Patriots fan, you've been on the right side of the comebacks. You should know.

Like, just give it a second. Chill, chill, chill, chill, chill. Listen, nothing was going our way. There was nothing that would suggest that we were coming back in the second half, but we have done this several times this year. Josh Allen is Absolutely incredible, man

Super human What a wheat for him Oh my God, yeah I mean, as he said in the post Post game press conference He has known for a while That he was You know, gonna have a child

They announced it on Friday But yes, very exciting Mazel Tov to mom and dad Josh and Haley Very exciting, very nice Some of them yaking So he says that he I've heard him say this

But he does it like several times a game A game They just happen to catch him Feels weird, no By the way That can't be If I yak once it affects me for 10 years. I'm saying. I'm still living off of that

pre-poisoning two and a half years ago. It haunts my dreams. He's like, yep, third quarter yak, here we go. I do everything in my power to avoid having to throw up, right? Like if there's a worry, oh, this thing, it's not going to sit well. Throw up. Food after dinner. Throw up. He's just so used to it. Rice in the refrigerator. Throw up. And he's just like doing it in between looking at the iPad.

Yeah. Hold this for a second, guys. And it's just like green. And they're like, oh, Josh is going through it. By the way, shout out to Ian Eagle. Iron Eagle was calling Nick's magic on Saturday night in Vegas. And then he's doing that game at one o'clock. So he must have left and taken the red eye. And now he's doing it.

And him and JJ Watt have become a great deal. At that level, you're getting the PJ. Yeah, when you are the greatest broadcaster in sports, that's just a thing. You think CBS is sending it for him? I think so. What's interesting also, two different networks, too. So they have to be because the whole crew I was wondering about this

I had a feeling because the whole crew that did the Knicks played in the first game 530 and then and then they brought in Michael Grady to do the play-by-play but the rest of the crew stayed he left so I was like oh he's probably going I didn't think he'd do the 1 o'clock game

I thought they'd give him a little bit more time but yeah CBS probably sent the PJ and I'm happy I love him he's incredible like Herb Street's flying private Herb Street's flying private yeah did you guys watch the cup on on Saturday? No no but I

I saw through you that they are advancing. No, no, stop it. Guys, that game on set... First of all, what you have to understand is these are regular season games. Yeah. So these games count. No, they kind of count.

No, they don't kind of count. NBA regular seasons kind of... No, they actually really count. So the Knicks are a rule. By the way, it's December 15th, and last I checked, your prophecy is not coming to fruition just yet. NICS beat the magic,

who we hate, who injure all our players. A rivalry, right? And then, oh, yeah, dating back to Shaq and Ewing. Oh, for sure. And then Thunder, don't do their part, lose to the Spurs. And so wouldn't you know it for the first time since Nick Spurs' 1999 NBA Finals, it's Nick Spurs part two, this time, NBA Cup finals, Tuesday night in Las Vegas. Wow. The stakes, the drama.

Could you imagine? Cinema. Yes. Will unfold on a Tuesday night in Las Vegas. In December. Don't forget December. A December night in Las Vegas, Tuesday, by the way. so hype. I'm so high. I'm so high. I'm going to feel

you know if something doesn't go right. Like is it going to be levels of like playoffs? Because like you're hyping this up like this is such a this is crucial to your fandom. I feel back. That's not made up. It's a big game in December. I feel listen I get upset.

I get upset. I get upset. This is a regular season game. So if the Knicks were playing the Spurs, I would want them to win. They played the Spurs Christmas Day last year. I wanted them to win. So why not why not get a fucking trophy? Why not get a a t-shirt and a hat and celebrate and I could see the Knicks actually celebrate

and I would love the banner and I'm going to be there in attendance if they win and do the banner ceremony I have to be in the building. That could be the only time of my life that I see them raise a banner and I'll be very happy about it. Tear comes to an eye to see the NBA Cup banner lifted. I was telling my kids like this might be it for us as a unit.

This might be our chance. Jalen is humming out there. Cat is humming. The Tyler Culloch playing amazing. We got to enjoy this. this, boys. This might be it for us. My son had to go to a party Saturday night. I said, we ain't leaving this house

until that final horn. Bills, Blue Jays, Knicks. Yes, all in 26th. This is the beginning. No, I was going to say, this is it for us. What do you mean? This is what you're saying to your kids. Enjoy this. Yeah, yeah. This is our only shot at a chip.

My son was talking, and it was the post game, like, walkoff interview. And he says, I was like, I want to hear this. He's like, bro, this doesn't matter. I'm like, what are we talking about? This matters. Your kids are smart. Yeah, I will say. They're no ball. I was excited about it. Frank? Yeah. Anything else? Yeah.

Okay. Ariel, not doing the prop quiz would be akin to Braun, not participating in a slam dunk contest. Streets need the Hualani ex-Hosea Young super match. Do you have the... That's the one. Do you have the Francis and Ghanu drop? What the fuck is that? Yeah, that one, that one, that one. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Uh, listen, you know, like, you think I roll out of bed, you know, for free these days?

All right? Pay the cost to be the boss. That's what I say to that. And what else, Frankie? What else? Ariel, will you bring back the boxing hour? Not trying to ask for too much. Appreciate everything you guys already do.

Just miss it. Oh, um, I would love to do that. You know, it's not a bad shot. The boxing hour, like the MMA hour. Should we do that in 26, guys? Who's to check? No, no. Who the fuck is we?

Oh, okay. That would be. the better one. Frank, I'll never forgive you for, for, I lay up the journalism one and you hit me with the wrong one. Literally answering a question from on air. So, so you just guess 50-50 and got wrong. Exactly. I'm not going to lie, he was panicking back here. He's like, wait, wait, which one did he say? As he was frantically hitting. He got the wrong. Yeah. So, so guess what? Now when he does the breakdown, Frank's mistake is going to be highlighted. Who's to check though? I'm not going to watch. Who's that even a good sound drive? Didn't watch the last one,

won't watch the next. I know, but it's going to be in there for all of eternity. The clown crew needs to get their moment to shine and Frankie deliver. I-Y-K. I-Y-K. Oh, sorry, clown-clan. Clown. That'll now make the... Make the merch. Make the merch. What else, Frankie? What else? Over under four and a half times

G-C uses the Sina tap pick. Oh, it's going to be over. In 25 alone? For sure. There's just a couple memes that hit the rotation that hit the rotation heavy. That is going to be... The Patrick Star's Super Wide.

wide-eyed one. The guy saluting, crying with the UFC club. I've used, I've used that one maybe like 80 times. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, the scene. What would be the context for the Sina one? Like, if you're in like trouble but still happy, it'll come to you. Yeah, it'll come. Oh, what else, Frankie? What else? Just remember that the most important lesson professional wrestling nice tautos is to just give. Wow. It's, I mean, am I getting roasted for this take? I don't even know. I don't even know what

the people are saying. I think they were agreeing with you. Who is to check? Who is to check? What else, Frankie? What else? PFL Leon was incredible live. Fador and Isaac Hajar in the crowd. Cyborg title. F1 driver. Goat. But the pop when Hipparro won was insane French crowd was nuts.

As soon as they hear the... By the way, is there a rivalry between Belgium and France? I feel like there is. Certainly a sporting rivalry. So it's interesting that they're adopting him as one of their own. But yeah, it was amazing. Did you guys see that when they had the flares in the... arena that can't be legal like that that can't be safe right i mean it's actual fire let them worry

about it federal fucking prison oh my god frankie what else what else frankie thank you for all the great shows this year best of the business oh wow thank you appreciate that very kind oh what else frankie what oh have you ever thought about having ensign in a way oh yeah i think he would be perfect considering he's an ogy and japanese of a man still involved correctly from wrong rick i think we've had him, like, way back in the Dizzle. I'm sure we've had him at some point, like, a while ago. But, yeah, I mean, as I said, I follow the fam on TikTok, so I think Ensign could be pretty cool.

Let's not move on from that one. 5.02 p.m., we just clocked back in the dicks on the show, on the program, man. Back in the Dizzle. What else, Frankie? And lastly, other than the NICs, which other team in the NBA interests do you? Yo, 500, what? yeah what was that oh yeah 500 bones something yeah i'm a big fan of basketball i appreciate all the teams but i'm a one team guy uh some haters online like to say like oh the raptors first of all i've

always said that i'm a nix fan when the raptors won in 2019 yeah of course i was happy for them because i'm canadian and it was a great story and i'd rather than win than the warriors who i'd just won the previous year and had won i think four of the last five something like that so yeah You're telling me you've never watched a game as a neutral fan and said, I want that team to win. You're telling me that's never happened. And I had even more of a reason because I'm from that country. And at the time, the Knicks sucked. So I was like, oh, at least I have some kind of rooting interest.

Because I'll be honest, the Warriors Cavs, like five years in a row. Like, it was fun, but I had no real rooting interest. You know, they were both two great teams that I had no real connection to. So that was nice. But no. Nicks, obviously what the Thunder are doing is great. I feel better about saying, like, oh, I have an appreciation for the Western Conference teams

than the East because I hate all the Eastern Conference teams. You know, Thunder, cool, Wembe, cool. We're going to be in tomorrow, NBD. Obviously, love Steph. I've had love for the Kings back in the day. They're not great at the moment. You know, that type of thing. But I just love the game, you know?

Just love the game. Can't wait to celebrate the NBA Cup. Tomorrow on the program, guys, we're going to be joined by the great Chale P. Sunnan. I feel like a good time to do a little wrap up with my old friend from ESPN, the one and only the bad guy, Chil P. Holly Holm going to join us to talk about her big title fight on January 3rd, and Sam Alvey is going to join us to talk about his loss to Robless Despine

just a little over a week ago and all the craziness that happened at karate combat. We'll also be doing on the nose your questions. I think the post is up, or it might be up any moment now. I got the email. Oh, yeah, there it is. Oh, you like that title. Guess who eats together at the Carnegie Deli. Bowser from Shanana.

And Arthur Fonzorelli. Yes, Jordan. Yes. By the way, what about that Rob Reiner story? Holy crap. That is craziness. My condolences to his family as well. A lot of dark times, my friends.

A lot of dark times. But we are rising above. And I got to go home to let. Actually, the sun has set. Can I do it live on the show right now? Wait, is it an open flame? Yeah, give us just press the button. Where is it?

Right here? Okay. Do you do the prayer? I thought you have to reset it. Put on your Yamaka. It's time to celebrate Hanukkah. The owner of the Seattle Supersonakas celebrates Hanukkah. Sing it with me, Frank.

O.J. Simpson. Not a Jew. But guess who is? Hall of Famer Rod Carew. He conferreded. When you feel like the only kid in town, you can play me out here, Frankie. Without a Christmas tree. Here's a list of people who are Jewish.

Just like you and me. Yeah. Anyway, go check out the song. David Lirot lights the minority. Let's go with me, Frank. So do James Conkirk, Douglas, and a late to dinosaur. It's very cozy in here, I'm not going to lie. Cozy like it's too warm?

No, I like it, like the motif, all that stuff. He really outdid himself. He really did. I do have to give him credit. It's nice. We're open for all, come one and all. We're non-denominational, dare I say, right guys? Who the fuck is weak?

Actually, there was a great, we had our, we had our third uncrowned holiday party this week. Yeah, I'm a little spent. Yeah. We went for, we got in on the dumplings early. We went to the Yahoo holiday party on Wednesday, and then we had the GC holiday party on Friday. And who showed up first? None other than yours truly. It was actually Frank, first in, first out.

The FIFO. Yeah. A mysterious Frank way. Most impressive was three holiday parties On Air Jordan didn't show up to one. Could you believe it? Not one. I mean, what's your excuse on air?

Vacation time. Frank you went three for three. So did Halwani. What are he talking about? That might be the biggest upset of the mall. I was at the first one. I set it up. Me and Rick going three for three is minus 10th up.

Kevin Vallejos. Thank you very much to him. Patrick Habirora. Thank you to him. Tyson Pedro. Shakur Stevenson, back tomorrow, September, I'll say, peace, radio.