The Ariel Helwani Show - Dana White's revealing testimony, Ilia topuria's back, Jon Jones' arthritis, more | The Boys in the Back

Episode Date: February 5, 2026

The Boys in the Back return with a jam-packed show that begins by chatting with BKFC founder David Feldman about Knucklemania 6 (02:28).They also react to a slew of stories, including:Dana White revealing details about the UFC business during an antitrust evidence spoliation hearing (19:40)Ilia Topuria potentially returning (39:53)Video of Jon Jones talking about his arthritis leaking (51:58)Shavkat Rakhmonov being removed from the rankings (58:57)Michael Morales taking aim at Islam Makhachev (1:02:45)Lone'er Kavanagh stepping in on short notice against Brandon Moreno (1:07:16)Gervonta 'Tank' Davis being issued another warrant (1:17:56)Floyd Mayweather suing Showtime (1:18:43)Deontay Wilder storming out of his interview with Simon Jordan (1:21:52)MVP announcing a new deal with Sky Sports and a stacked London card (1:29:12)Next, The Boys preview UFC Vegas 113 (1:31:33) and PFL Road to Dubai (1:50:26), make picks (1:57:41), listen to your voicemails (2:07:00), and answer your Super Chats (2:39:06).

But boys in the back. But boys, boys, boys, boys, boys. What is good? We are back with another edition of The Boys in the Back, this time on a frigid Thursday afternoon here in New York City, February 5th, the worst month of the year. I say it every single year, but it leads to New Horizons in March. I am one-third of the Boys in the Back. Connor Burke's joining alongside me as always. The man, the myth, you know them.

You love them. Mr. New York, Rick. How are we doing, brother? I actually feel like we're coming into the warmer. Like, last week, it was freezing. It was 14 degrees when I left my house this morning. I think we're getting used to it. No, last couple days been warm.

The issue is we're getting used to it. So I'm just like, oh, yeah, I just need, you know, my hoodie and my jacket and, you know, some wool socks and I'll be good. I was like, you know, maybe it is in the 30s today. This morning checked it 14 degrees as I walked out of my house. I didn't even turn on the heat on my thermostats in the house. That's how beautiful. Thank you. Frankie, how are you doing back there, man? He's busy. I was just about to let you know in your ear. He's preoccupied.

Troubleshooting. Troubleshooting. No, he's just getting this ready for our first take on the day. Oh, yes. A little IBS. Fantastic. No, no, no. No, that's a one. Crones, Crohn, Crohn. You're doing a great man. Thanks for asking.

I'm real happy to be here. Thanks. Great. Great. I'm glad you're doing good, Frankie. Thanks for answering. Happy birthday to the Misses. I appreciate that. I'm sure she's listening. I hope she's listening. I saw the cake you made. It looked delicious. We should have had a picture ready.

Frankie actually whipped up a fantastic cake for his beloved for her big 40th. Big 40th. Shout out to her. Shout out to her. Shut out of the end. No, it's just been you that's been saying that. It's just been you that's been saying that. We got a jam-packed show today, you know, obviously, aerial off at the Olympics.

So, you know, unfortunately, fortunately for you guys, you're going to be seeing a lot more of us sitting in these chairs over the next few weeks as he is out in Italy, covering the games at Melano Cortina for CBC. The Winter Olympics a big deal for him. But man, not having those two shows, a lot of news starts to pile up throughout the course of the week. So we got a lot to get into. The world of boxing had a lot of news. The world of MMA had a ton of news throughout the course this week.

And oh, yeah, we also have to talk about Knucklemania 6 this weekend. UFC Apex 113 is also going down. PFL, Road to Dubai. I mean, there's a lot to get into. We're going to be tired of talking after a few hours. But I did mention Knucklemania 6, and before that goes down this weekend in Philadelphia, we wanted to welcome in. BKFC President David Feldman to the show.

David, thanks so much for joining us, man. What's going on, guys, man? Thanks for having me. Yeah, of course. And I just wanted to start this off. Last year, me and Rick, we're in attendance at Knucklemania 5. And to this day, we've been the UFC, we've been to Box, and we've been the regional shows, everything.

The most fun we have ever had at a conference. combat sporting event. I'm not just saying that because you're on the show. We say that regularly, it is the best time we've ever had. You don't really have to sell us. How do you sell the fans on Knucklemania 6? I mean, it's a stat that the card is so stacked from top to bottom. It's the best card we ever put, put down. I think 13 fighted in like candidates. Main event is Andre Arlowski versus Ben Rothwell for the heavyweight championship. Andre beat him twice. Ben's trying to avenge that defeat. It's going to be great. The co-main event. event, Juggernaut, Lorenzo Hunt versus Dave Mundell, number one, number two, pound for pound

BKFC fighters. And then just up and down the whole card, some of the best fights and fighters that we've ever had. It's going to be unbelievable fighting, but it's going to be an unbelievable event. We have a lot of different activations we're doing to not only make this a great fight night, but also make this one of the best fun, really fun event nights that anyone's ever going to have here in Philadelphia. Yeah, and David, it was just recently announced that you guys are going to be streaming

this free on the BKFC app as well as the BKFC YouTube channel and all your other streaming partners and distribution partners as well. What was the thought process that went into making that decision? The thought process was that we talked to all our partners and we said, look, let's get more and more people involved with BKFC and understand what BKFC is and watch BKFC. And let's give it to them. Just give it to them so they can become a fan. And then, you know, obviously, if we do it behind a paywall or subscription, we can charge them in the future. But let's give the biggest event we've ever done to the fans

so we can get more fans. You know, by giving it out, we're actually going to get way more fans that way. And we're going to be able to just really monetize this in different ways. And it's great to have all these numbers that we're going to have as for negotiating these big television and platform deals right now. Yeah, and you in 2024 signed a three-year deal with the zone as the home of BKFC. what was their response when you brought this idea to them to kind of, you know, widen the tent?

And how have things gone with DeZone thus far? DeZone's been great. I mean, to be very fair and honest, and they'll say the same thing. We got lost in the mix a little bit with a lot of stuff they were doing with Saudi Arabia. So, you know, we're scheduled to have a good call and really plan to grow DKFC on DeZone. DeZone was very, very happy with this decision to the point where they actually put it in front of their paywall. So it's not even behind the zone paywall for them at all. It's not like it's actually free with them.

It's free with every single one of our partners. So every single one of our partners is on board to get more and more people to enjoy, to learn, and to know what BKFC is. So, you know, I mean, you know, get a significant site media deal or media fee for this event, you know, rights fee. But what's that really doing in the whole big scheme of things, right? Let's give it to them. Let's get people. You guys were there and I don't want to sell it to you guys. But you just said it was one of the best events that you've ever been to. Now these guys get to watch one of the best events they're ever going to see for free.

And then they'll become fancy BKFC. That's really the strategy behind the whole thing. You mentioned that co-mate event Lorenzo Hunt, David Mondell. We were supposed to see Yowell Romero in that spot. You unfortunately had to pull out due to illness. But now we're seeing video servicing of him signing with IBA, Bear Knuckles, slated to fight in March. I was just wondering where his contract stands. right now. He was actually scheduled for that fight prior to this fight. So he was scheduled for a fight

at the end of March. That was already done. You know, this is people trying to cause trouble online by posting these things that have been there for already two months now. But the end of the day is he has to make up this fight for us. I mean, he will make up this fight for it. He wants to make up this fight for us. He wants this fight. And we have a big fight card that we're going to announce, you know, maybe at Knucklemania, we're trying to cross this one fighter, you know, over the line today. If we get that done, we're going to announce a major, major fight for BKFC, and you'll be a part of that as well. When is that major fight potentially slated for? Like, what event will we be looking at? Because you've announced a lot of your forward schedule. Would it be one

of those events that we already know? No, mid-summer in Florida at a stadium. So a big event. Speaking of big fights, big events, one of the staples of past knucklemania has been Mike Perry. I saw in an interview with Damon Martin of MMA fighting. You mentioned a huge fight five times bigger than any name he's ever fought before. Do you have any further details on that? Are you able to reveal anything? Can you even give us the slightest glimmer of a hint so that we could know who is coming from my car? That's what I'm working on right now.

That's what I'm trying to get over the line. I think I'm going to get it over the line today. And we'll now that just be at Knucklemania. Just so you know, when I say five times bigger, except for Jake Paul, obviously. not too many people are bigger than Jake Paul, but five times bigger than anybody's ever fought for BKFC. And that certainly is that. And I think fans are going to get very, very excited about the announcement. It's something that they're going to want to be a part of. And they're going to watch it. And our goal is, as you know, I always try to push the envelope. I try to do things that other people aren't doing.

And our goal for this event would obviously be to break the combat sports attendance in the state of Florida. And that's what we're going to attempt to do on this event. So the plan for Mike Perry with this massive fight is to do it at a stadium in Florida. Yes. Wow. Incredible. You also mentioned, you know, talking midsummer, we were supposed to do the $25 million baddest man tournament and that was slated for March.

Now we're talking about June. Is the plan still to go forward with that in June? Yeah. We actually just on February 11th, we'll sign our contract with the platform that's going to carry this event. and it's going to be a docuseries slash reality show leading into this event. So we were just really waiting to get that done because without the right streaming partner or television partner, it just didn't make sense.

And we got that done. So we're going to be able to announce that mid next week. One of the interesting things about that tournament when you announced it was how wide the net was cast, right? That there was opportunities for so many different fighters from different disciplines. you're essentially welcoming everybody to come prove that they're the baddest man on the planet. Can you give us any updates in terms of what the roster, what the tournament looks like, any of the talent that you've been recently able to sign up for it? I mean, really, anyone that's not under contract,

and a lot of people that are under contract that reach out to us really throughout the whole entire world. I mean, it's a life-changing amount of money for anybody that gets involved with this thing, no matter what kind of money they're making. There's two or three fighters in the world that this wouldn't get them excited. Everybody else's will get them excited. Don't have any specific names because we're not actually sure exactly we're pittance picking. We're going through a casting process in about the next three weeks. And once we go through that, we're going to know it's not just if you can fight.

It's also, can you sell yourself? Do you want to be a part of this? Are you worthy of being called the world's baddest man, meaning do you have the personality that backs that up as well as the fighting ability? And that's what we're looking for and that's what we're going to narrow down in the next couple weeks. You talked about, you know, growing the sport, growing the fan base. You also recently announced a deal earlier with Yes Network for some shoulder programming and an additional docu series and things like that. Question number one is, is there an opportunity to potentially do live broadcast with Yes at any point in the future? And then question number two is, is that any signaling toward a move to New York and legalization?

And if them as partners can help open that market for you. Yeah, man, certainly is. I mean, look, you know, they're owned by a New York Yankees and that's the plan. You know, when they mentioned certain things to me, that's what really got this deal over the line. It's not a significant deal, but it's as far as monetary goes, but it's a significant deal with everything else around the whole entire realm of it. We will, it'll help us move into New York. Absolutely. The goal is to actually do an event at Yankee Stadium. And I don't know who we would put on that. So I'm not. not like over here, delusional saying we're going to do an event at Yankee Stadium, because obviously it's got to be the right guys, but they are very interested in doing an event at Yankee Stadium. So that's something we would love to do too. Would that air on Yes Network, or is that just too far down the line to be able to say? Yeah, I don't know, man. I don't know. You know, it all has to make sense financially. I mean, you have big plans. One being this weekend, you want to break the attendance record

that you said last year. Obviously, you guys are going to be in the same arena. We were there. Like it didn't seem like there was an empty seat in the house. How do you feel about that record getting broken? Well, so we opened up. We had something that was hindering some of the seats in our production area. We opened them up. We actually already broke the record this morning. So we're actually going to hopefully get the 20,000 tickets.

I don't know if we're going to get there, to be honest with you. I don't know. But thank you so much for that. But we're going to, we already broke it. So, I mean, it's crazy because that's a lot of people, man. Like, when I started this thing, I'm in a casino. I'm at the live casino right now because we're about to do our press conference for Nocklemania or Fight Week press conference. About three blocks from here is where I did the first event with four people in attendance in one fight.

Four people in attendance in one fight. And we're going to go to three blocks away and we're going to do 20,000 people paying to watch this event on Saturday night. It's just an amazing feeling because nobody knows, you know, all the hard work that it went through. I'll tell you what I did do is I saw we had a poster from our first event in June of 2018. And I looked at it yesterday. And I thought that was my son. Like that's how much I age over this. This has been crazy, man.

It's crazy. But, I mean, we're really moving mountains here. We're changing things. We're giving fighters opportunities. We're doing things that no other organization is doing. And above all, everybody can talk and everybody can say what they want. Our viewership is through the moon. and we sell out everywhere we go.

So you talked about that founding. You talked about the first event. That's eight years now from then. Where do you expect to be eight years from now? You talked about the growth and the trajectory that you're on. Where do you expect BKFC as a promotion to be eight years from now? I mean, I'll probably be dead by then at this rate. But really, I expect it honestly.

There's no way in the world that it's not at very least the number two. combat sports promotion in the world. It's too relatable. Too many people get it. Too many people understand it. Too many people love it. Too many people enjoy it for it not to be. It's just growing and growing and growing because everybody said, you know, for guys that never watched

this before, like I watched some of the content comments, I look at all that kind of stuff. And some of them go, this will be banned in a year. This will be, listen, we're eight years into it. It's getting safer. We're regulating it even tougher than we ever did. There's no stop in the growth. There really truly isn't. That's not being

cocky. That's just being as real as can be. There's no, you can't stop the growth of it right now. You just can't. We're going to be doing 12 countries this year. We're going to be doing 28 states this year. We're opening up two more big states. Everything is just working in our direction. We put a lot of hard work into this thing. We take care of the fighters and that's why they go in there and truly fight their ass off each and every time that they go in there. They have to where they, you know, they don't come back. And that's just the way that it is. So I think we have a product here that that is capable of being, you know, the number two. And if I want to be very, very optimistic and, you know, passionate about this thing,

possibly the number one combat sports promotion in the world, we'll see, right? That's not my goal. My goal is to be the solid number two combat sports promotion in the world, and I think we're going to get there. He's become a bit of a face for the promotion. Can fans expect to see Connor McGregor in attendance this weekend? Yeah, yeah. Connor will be here.

He had a little bit of an issue getting to the press conference just because something had happened with his travel, but let me tell you something. I just want to tell you guys this. The best times 10, Connor McGregor you've ever seen right now. Better than he was when he was in his prime.

The most focused just wants to do everything right. I mean, he's training his as ass off each and every day. He's eating right. He's going to church. He's doing everything he's supposed to do. This is not a kind of McGregor that we've seen in the past couple of years.

This is the best Connor McGregor that I've personally ever seen. And I'm talking on TV and everywhere. I've never seen a Connor McGregor like this. More focused than I ever, ever thought he ever could get, but he is. All right. So what's the David Feldman confidence meter on us seeing him fight at the White House this summer? I mean, I don't know. You know, I don't know the negotiations going on as far as financially.

So I don't know. I know that Connor had said publicly, you know, that his contract was a little shaky. because of the pay-per-view point that he had in there. But I'm sure that the UFC wants Connor McGregor to fight. He's going to fight and they're going to make it work. And it makes sense for him to fight the White House, right? I mean, he visited the White House. He's friends with Trump.

He's friends with Trump's wife. It just makes sense for him to be here. So my confidence level is probably around a 99%. All right, David. Thanks so much for joining us, man. This Saturday, February 7th, Exfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia. there it is right there. Knucklemania 6, Rothwell-Alofsky, your main event.

Cannot wait for this one. We really do meet it from the bottom of our hearts. The pacing, the excitement, everything that goes into your product. You're doing fantastic stuff, man. Awesome, guys, man. Thanks for having me. And thanks for always covering this and supporting us, man. I really appreciate it. Thanks, David. Good luck this week, ma'am. All right.

I know he was on the show and, like, we're big-uping and stuff, but I feel like we have always said that since we went last year in Philadelphia, truly. if they come to your city, I highly recommend going. It's affordable tickets. It's an exciting product. It moves fast. And it really is like something you've never seen.

It's intense. I have to admit when BKFC was like first entering the scene, I was a little bit hesitant. I was a little bit skeptical. The, the, the, the, the, the actual, like, scars and damage that was done on the faces was a little jarring for me. But I've come to really just kind of get used to it and accepted. And as far as like promotions that are actually going out there and trying to do something different than what the UFC is doing, I think they're kind of leading the way. I think they're one of those promotions that doesn't really isn't trying to do such a similar product to the UFC that they're just getting swallowed up. Talent gets there.

Somebody like Ben Rathwell is somebody who really didn't have a great ending to his UFC run, goes there, gets rejuvenated. Don't even need to speak about the wonders Mike Perry has been able to do for their promotion and they've been able to do for him. it's an interesting thing. I wonder if they're even already number two. Feldman was talking about like, you know, eight years from now will be solidified as number two, maybe in the most optimistic world number one. That's where I'd probably draw the line myself.

But I wonder if they're already the number two promotion in combat sports. You know, boxing's a little harder to quantify because it's so diversified and split up. But yeah, they've got a great product. I really like David Feldman as a promoter. he shoots it straight, which is something that you kind of rarely get. And yeah, it's a good, it's a good product if you're looking for something different. Yep, Saturday night, February 7th. Oh, you're the champ now. Tune in. I got my mini belt here. The size, the size fits perfectly. I could never get into a BKFC fight. It should be entertaining stuff. It always is, especially their knucklemania cards. I mean, and you also got Ben Rolfo versus Andrei Halovsky. Ben Rotho is at a nice resurgence over him. BKFC. It really has helped rehabilitate some guys that were kind of left on the scrap heat. Like, he's looked great.

The guys that are made for it. Yeah. You have to be a different kind of do. Some are not. You literally have to be built differently. So that'll be exciting stuff. I'm looking forward to watching it. On a nice little, it's kind of a quiet Saturday, but it's a nice slate with the UFC, the PFL. PFL in the morning, UFC in the afternoon, and then BKFC at night, it still should make

for a good combat sports. It's another uncrown Saturday. I was going to say on, oncrown Saturday, 2.0, just, this is for the real hardcore. This is not for the casuals. Let's get over to some news in MMA. Anything interesting happened? Yeah, just a couple things. Okay.

As we were perfect for the show, it was just like, oh, geez, hey, we got to talk about this. Oh, let's make sure we talk about this. Oh, yeah, we also got to talk about this. The laundry list. This is the longest list of topics we've ever had for the boys in the back. Okay, but to pull back the curtain, the morning, yesterday morning when I woke up, I was like, what are we going to talk about? What the fuck are we going to talk about?

Like, we have nothing to talk about. Well, the good news is we have things to talk about. yesterday, Dana White sat in a courtroom of Judge Richard Franklin Bowler and testified in a hearing related to the remaining antitrust class action lawsuits brought on by Kajon Johnson and Misha Sarkinov. Our man out in Italy, Ariel Hawani reacted to that. Let's kick off the conversation with his thoughts. Bonjour no friends. I miss you all very much here in a beautiful Livigno, Italy. I got here yesterday. I did a whole video blog thingy on my social media. You can check that out. Shout to Spencer for helping me out with that.

I would have never understood how to do the VO, as they say in the business, the voiceover and all that. But as you can see, it's quite the locale over here. And exactly right over there is the big air mountain. These blokes go all the way up via an elevator and then jump off this thing. It's actually quite terrifying. But very, very impressive. Anyway, I'm not here to tell you about the Olympics. So there's a lot going on. We could talk about the Finnish women's hockey team all succumbing to the neurovirus and their first match against the Canadian team getting cancelled at the last minute. Or we can talk about Mark McMorris getting injured, but we're not going to talk about all of that. A couple of news and notes regarding combat sports that I just

quickly wanted to weigh in on. The main one being this Dana White testimony, which occurred Wednesday in Las Vegas for the class action lawsuits. You know, we know about the one that has come and gone, but there are still two more that have yet to play out. That's the Cajun Johnson one and the Mishishishish Sarkhanov one, and Dana White and Tracy Long, long time paralegal, long time member of the UFC's legal department on the stand yesterday. And I'm not going to get into the nitty-gritty. I'll leave that to the boys who will do a phenomenal job of getting into all. of that, but I did want to weigh in on him essentially saying that he has had nothing to do with contracts and UFC matchmaking since 2016, since the company was sold to Endeavor and, you know,

the, the Furtitas left. And he essentially also said that Hunter Campbell is the man for that. And my take on that is, I told you so. I've been telling you this for a long time. Hunter Campbell Campbell is the, the straw that stirs this drink. Anytime there's a contract dispute, Anytime there's a big fight that needs to be made. Is Dana aware? Is Dana involved from afar? Sure. Is he on the front lines?

No. That's according to all the managers and fighters that I've spoken to over the past 10 years. It's not Dana reaching out. It's not very few of the managers talk to Dana. You know, we know about the ones who have, you know, close personal relationships with him. But very, very, very few actually talk and negotiate to Dan. He might come in at the very very. end to close a deal. He might be involved in a Connor McGregor fight, but 99% of the fights are not

put together by him. 99.9% of the contracts are not put together by him. And this is not an indictment on him. I've been telling you this for a very long time. He used to refer to Hunter Campbell as like his lawyer. He's much more than that. He is, as I've said before, the most important person in this company because of how hands on he is. And, you know, the way it was described to me when he came on board after Lorenzo left, like he was going to be the yank to danis yang and he was going to be the quote unquote bad cop in that he's going to be the one, you know, on the front lines doing these deals. And so perhaps a revelation to some, not to me. But interesting to hear him say it, of course. I'm not trying to say like, oh, I told you so

and this is a non-thing. He's never really said that. So, you know, the sport and the promotion and the business has evolved so much. By the way, I did hear some people weigh in on the fact They're like, oh, this is why he feels disconnected. I don't buy that. He's still involved in the top line stuff, but there are a ton of other people involved now. It used to be a very small team. There's the whole TKO team. There's the whole endeavor team.

And obviously there's people like Hunter Campbell there. So it's going to be interesting to see how this plays out. You know, the previous class action lawsuit covered up until 2016, 2017. And so there's still a lot more years to come. And I know that there are a lot of fighters banking on that. I have heard from fighters who have gotten their payments and they're happy with it. So this is a gift. This is something that a lot of fighters who are maybe struggling or who are hoping to get a little extra cash now on the back end of their career, post-fighting,

this is something they're very thankful for and very excited about, even though they may not say it. And even though some of them may be a little trepidacious, they are all very, very happy about the payments. So we'll continue to monitor that. All right, that does it for me here. I'm just itching to talk to you all. I miss you all. I wanted to weigh in on those two things.

I think they're very, very interesting. And yeah, goodenaenaenaenaena. Boniorno. Cha, regazzo. Cha, bella. Pronto. I'm working on it.

I'm working on it, guys. Had a tremendous pizza yesterday. I was thinking of you guys every step, every bite. And, yeah, thanks for holding down the fort. Ciao. How about that? I mean, I have to say, the mountains look unbelievable out there. It looks incredible.

You think he was really thinking us, every bite of the pizza? Yes. How do you say, uh, uh, grazie. Grazie, area. I'm going to leave this one to you. Bonjour. A banjo. I love how he's just like,

Ciao. So, uh, goodbye, chow. Pronto. Thank you to Ariel Hwani, who's at the Olympics. Yeah, I appreciate you. And on that, that ski jump behind you, my God, that looks death-defying. Insane. I'm getting kind of high for the Winter Olympics.

I'm getting excited about it. Okay, so yesterday the testimony happens with Dana White. As Ariel said, not something that's really a revelation for fans who closely watch the sport, that he's not involved in the matchmaking, he's not involved in these contract negotiations, he's more of this face. but to hear him say it under oath in a court of law, I think that is significant. No, absolutely, because I think for the fans who are not as attuned to the day to day,

for the fans that are not following every like coming and going, who didn't see the Roku series where Al Jemaine Sterling's actually talking to Hunter Campbell and those kind of things, or even when Dana White's talking about Francis and Ghanu and saying, I don't deal with Francis, Hunter deals with Francis, right? those the people who don't follow that part of it the hard hardcore probably think dana white is the guy making all the decisions the guy who's making all the matches and everything's his and that's kind of the role of the of the face of the promotion that is the role of dana white he you are supposed to assume that he's involved in all of that the interesting thing is there was a time many moons ago where he was making those decisions whether it be by committee or not his hands were all over every part of it and now he has moved in the backseat He is no longer the one controlling these things in a major way. He's, you know, as Ariel said, do you think Dana White's not aware of the biggest moves that are happening in the UFC? Certainly not.

Of course he under, of course he's in the loop on these things and can weigh in when he needs to. But the actual day-to-day negotiations, the actual conversations with the fighters, the actual matches being made, that's out of his hands at this point. And he says it on the record here. And this coming at a time where many fans are starting to point out more a seeming disend, interest from Dana White. You know, obviously he's got Zufa Boxing. We had the power slap for a while and everything like that. And then you look at some of these interviews when he went on the press tour for the launch of Paramount Plus.

And he's sort of just like, yeah, yeah, sure. No, sounds good. Like it feels like he's a little bit disconnected. And now for him to get in a court of law and be like, no, I don't have anything to do with the matchmaking. I don't do any of this. Like I have passed off the buck to Hunter Campbell. Let's go through some of the things that he said. I want to give a shout out to Zach Arnold, fight opinion on Twitter.

He was keeping us consistently updated throughout the proceedings yesterday. You can read his full article at the MMA draw.com, so make sure to check that out. But let's go through some of these tweets that we found to be pretty interesting from Dana White and everything that happened. Before 2016 sale of UFC to endeavor, Dana says he, Lorenzo Fertita, Joe Silva, and Sean Shelby were matchmakers. Dana talking about making group decisions on matchmaking and final approval. Dana said after Hunter came in, he had zero. row role in contract negotiations. Yeah. So interesting to see that the sale was the demarcation point, right? At a certain

point, this company is so valuable and now Dana White moves into a completely different role. But as, you know, I just touched on, there was a time where Dana White prior to the sale was involved in all of this, was the spearheading force behind all these kind of decisions. And now it is something that has completely shifted to the point that he continues to say, Hunter. This is Hunter's gig now. Yeah, it all goes through Hunter. We can continue along with the tweets because it's not just

contract negotiations. Dana White was asked if he stopped communicating with fighters and managers after WME sale in 2017. Dana said if a fighter reaches out to me, why are they looking out for me? What's going on? Dana says he's still promoting fights. They get it down to the one yard line. They

assumingly meaning Hunter Campbell, McManor, Sean Shelby, Shelby, those type. And that if he needs to be involved, maybe he can be, right, to kind of get something all the way done. But again, more evidence to the point that the structure of this has completely shifted. We continue along with these, with these tweets here. Dana White asks, if fighters reach out to him, why do they want to talk to me, he says. He says Maynard, Shelby, and Hunter deal with fighters, and Dana Ford's contact to them. Dana has asked if he asked about adding arbitration clauses to contracts, less than

zero with contracts, assumingly meaning that he has nothing to do with the contracts at all. And he hasn't for a while. These cases, if I'm not mistaken, stem from fighters that fought from 2017 and onward. And from what he's saying, he has had nothing to do with the contract since then. Yeah, and inserting any types of clauses and anything that would be relevant to this upcoming litigation. To the point where fighters are reaching out to him to try and talk to him, like the boss man, you know, every time they're in the post-fight pressers, they're in the post-fight speech. is they're always referencing to Dana. They're always going up to him after the fights.

When actually, like, if you do that, he's just like, no, no, no, no, talk to 100. Talk to Sean, talk to Mick. Yeah, 100%. And that's the interesting thing is, Dana White, part of Dana White's appeal and part of the reason Dana White is, is where he is, is because as he was the president of the UFC, he felt like he was one of the fans, right?

He was in every man, and he was this, now granted, he had some very wealthy and powerful friends, but he was this fan of combat who was like us, just wanted to enjoy some great fights, could talk to talk, could hang with him at a bar, the type of guy you quote-unquote want to have a beer with and that type of shit.

And now we're in a position where the fighters who have grown up on that, who wanted to be into the UFC, and have thought of that, are entering an era where it's like the Dana White that existed back then, the data white brand that was built back then, it does not exist anymore.

He's just a figurehead. But if you actually want to get the business done, If you want to sit down, like there was photos of when Connor McGregor was signing new deals. He'd be at the bar toasting with Dana Lorenzo. And like, that kind of thing, I don't think is the environment that exists anymore. And so these fighters that have grown up on this and wanted to be here for so long and thought about that are basically just having conversations with Hunter Campbell and the matchmakers. Like, that is how that goes. But it's an interesting dynamic that Dana White's like, yeah, just forward that email.

Like, I just pass them along. It's not me. actually he doesn't afford that email because he does say during the testimony he doesn't have email does not have email doesn't know his phone numbers only uses his Instagram okay there's a point there's an interesting little side departure note that part of the the conversation here is that they've been like accused of like obfuscating that was a tough one man I give you credit information right they've been accused of of limiting text messages deleting things there's a phone law

lost by Dana White, and he had a justification for that yesterday, saying, like, at some point in this little time frame, we lost the phone and yada, yada, yada. On Ari Emanuel's relative. There was a relative of Ari Emanuel who was involved. He admitted to having a burner phone when he was going on to China, but when he was in China, there was zero business discussions made on said burner phone, so like it's okay that it was a burner and it's gone. There's some serious kind of things also at play here beyond just like the inner workings

of the UFC, the parlor drama and all that stuff. There are some serious, like, does the government have all the information needed for this case to be properly adjourned? Like, for this case to actually have the correct information and everything at their disposal, that is kind of the heart of what's going on here. And so the UFC, like, structure and who's in power and all that stuff is very interesting. But the real heart of the matter is actually, like, what happens? happened to these text messages. Were there any text messages deleted? Was there a phone

lost? What was on that phone and all these things? So there's a lot of like conversation about that, but it's very important to what will happen because as you can imagine, you lose messages about some sensitive information that you go, oh, whoops, I lost my phone. It does, it does draw suspicion. Well, Zach Arnold and Nate Wilcox in their article on the MMA draw.com mention as much. They They say that the judge really pressed Dana White when it came to the loss of the cell phone, the text messages being deleted, everything like that. That's where they really pressed it. They don't care about the inner workings of the UFC.

That's really just interesting from a fan standpoint. What went on and how this case is determined is the high stakes part of this? I mean, they say right here, the high stakes part of this case is not only does each present the possibility of another nine-figure settlement for the UFC. This is two more cases. The last one being a $375 million payout. And I believe they're Cajon Johnson and Misha Sarkinov. Yeah, yeah, yeah, who fought all the way up until 2022.

In the Lee versus Zufa, that was $375 million. But then they also say it presents the possibility of injunctive relief, which would mean that TKL might be forced to modify their business practices, which could be very significant, and especially with the launching of Zufa boxing just happening right now, which seems to be a carbon copy of UFC in the way that they handle the. their business. Yeah, wide-ranging implications for this. So very important.

The Dana White element of this is most important to the story of if Dana was involved in this, to what extent, right? Because basically what he's painting the picture of is like, I'm not involved in any of this. Like, this is all these other guys. Talk to them. I'm not involved. Okay, that's fine. But then, like, what is their involvement in terms of this?

And do we need to have additional discovery here? Let's continue along with the tweets here from fight opinion, Zach Arnold. Dana White was asked about Hunter Campbell in his original role as UFC head of legal. Dana brought him over to the matchmaking side. Basically, you handle the whole business side of the fight game. I mean, that is a testimony in the court of law being like, I got nothing to do with this man since over the last decade. I mean, that's what Ariel said in his reaction video talking about, you know,

his relationship with managers and them talking about Dana White and everything. It's been to the last 10 years, which holds up. in a court of law. Hunter, it's all you, man. Yeah. Dana's running. It. Hunter's running it. Hunter's running it. Dana's running from it. Dana's running from something. Dana, Dana losing the cell phone, no email. Interesting. We keep rolling along with the tweets here. Just a couple more.

Simon Samano says Dana White tells the court, you will not find one manager on this planet who will tell you I've negotiated a contract and I do not know how long. Yeah, that feels very definitive too, right? It's like, He's even establishing the fact that like, even with the managers, he's not having these conversations. And which confirms what Ariel was saying in the video that he sent in, like, the managers are going to Hunter. They know that it's Hunter. And I wonder if from this, the fans will start to understand this as well. I wonder if from this, like, the fans will have a better understanding of it.

I also wonder how much do they even care? Like, Dana White being the face of it, like, there are many companies that are run where like the CEO is not, getting involved in the back end day to day. It's very unique that he would be. The one thing I'll say is, I think the point you made about, like, the Dana White apathy and lack of, like, connection to the product, I think is very much aligned with this thing. The idea that, like, as he took his eyes off what was going on on the business side, as he moved further away from it, as he handed it over to Hunter Campbell, you no longer have to know who's fighting who. You no longer have to be as involved in the product. And I wonder if Dana can be as effective as you once was,

if that's the case. I think the answer is probably no, as we're seeing in practice. I think it would be impossible to. When he's in those inner workings, you know so much more about the game, therefore you're passionate about it. You get excited about it. There's no way he could replicate that without doing it. The only bit of bail I'll throw is that is not a unique circumstance. In many companies, you know, the fights, I think fight sports are very unique and that's why it doesn't always work this way. But, you know, as an example, David Feldman, just came on earlier today with us. David Feldman knows every single thing that's happening in that company and is involved in it to the degree that Dana was back then. Many companies have

CEOs who are not doing those things. So it's not uncommon. They are now a massive business, multi-billion dollar business. So the idea that Dana White's not involved in like the minutia of it is kind of fine. It's not, it's not that big a thing for me. As long as there's somebody in place, that would be Hunter Campbell, who does do these things. Also, Dana White has grown to a level of celebrity that he is just a face for the UFC. He is his own character at this point. People care about as much about him as they do the biggest stars in the UFC.

He's a top five UFC star. Yeah, yeah. I mean, he's up there with, like, if you talk about like IG followers, he's got as much as like Elliot Topori out there. Yeah. It's absolutely crazy. I think there's one or two more tweets

that we wanted to go over here. He was asked, why would you be communicating with Connor McGregor on Instagram? Dana said it was more of a personal thing, but Connor did reach out to him to fight on the White House car. Dana said some other fighters hit him up on Instagram, yes, but he denies UFC business ever conducted on IG. I would believe him on that.

Yeah, I think so, too. I would imagine Dana would be like, yeah, let's bring it in. Let's talk about something else. Let's go with a different means of communication. Are there any more tweets? Oh, one more. Delangelo, one of the lawyers in the proceedings, asking Dana White about signing in and out of Instagram and access, questions about conducting UFC business and matchmaking via Instagram.

I sent this over to the boys and they'll handle it talking about Shelby Maynard and Hunter I don't do that really anymore Dana said Hunter is in charge so kind of just reiterating what he had already mentioned that several times over

Hunter is running the show with the help of McMannard and Sean Shelby and people are coming to him via Instagram and he's just like yeah this this makes sense I mean makes sense I'm sure a bunch of fighters hit him up

like it feels like that's the best way to get in contact with him so yeah it doesn't come as a surprise at all. Like we've just said, I don't think Roger Goodell is in the scheduling meeting for the NFL. I think he's much more of a overseer of the league, which Dana White has essentially become now in addition to being a figurehead for the company. Yeah, he's still very, in my opinion, he's still very valuable to the UFC despite the fact that, you know, we've kind of all acknowledged that he's not as engaged as he once was in the product. as you said, the Instagram following, the power, the proximity to power that he has with the political realm, people see him and still can identify him. And there are many fight fans who still like the idea of Dana White being involved in this, despite the fact that the business side of it is still Hunter Campbell.

One of their very interesting detail that came out from these testimonies yesterday was Tracy Long, who also testified UFC Vice President and a longtime UFC paralegal. In discussion, about UFC 317, this came out. In the process of trying to establish that Tracy Long had more of a hands-on role with UFC fighter contractual duties than she was admitting under oath, the plaintiffs got mislong to confirm text messages on the record discussing Iliot Toporia and front row management Malki Kawa. It turns out, according to Wednesday's court hearing, that there was a contractual holdup right before Iliot Toporia's fight with Charles Olivera at UFC 317 on June 28, 2025, right up until the fight. As to what the nature of the holdup was, we do not know,

but something interesting happened, and Tracy Long appears to have been in the conversation about it. Wow. We were out in Las Vegas for that card. A good card. A great card. But the crown jewel of it was Iliotip to Pori versus Charles Oliver, and you're telling me there were contract disputes all the way up until fight time.

Yeah, and we've heard versions of this before, right? Connor McGregor is somebody who has the power and the leverage to be able to do this. This does speak to me a few things. First of all, that was courtesy of the MMA draw, that same article that we were referencing earlier. This does speak to me, one, about the idea of how powerful Iliate Teporia actually is within the promotion, right? Like, he is somebody that they value to a degree that, like, look, if you try, I'm sure there have been other fighters who are like, hey, UFC, can you kick me a little extra? Like, I'm about to fight and try to kind of do that tactic.

By the way, this is not like a new tactic. We've seen this in boxing. We've seen this in MMA. It used to happen in pride where right before the fight, they'd be like, nah, you actually got to pay me more. And as a promoter, you're like, what the fuck am I supposed to do? Like at this point, the show has to happen. And so I need this. But it sounds like they were negotiating right up until.

And fortunately, they were able to come to terms, at least agreeable for both sides. and Ilya was able to fight. It is crazy. It is wild to think that there was a world where maybe they don't come to terms and all of a sudden, Ilya doesn't fight. But now it makes me think of Ilya in a different light in terms of, yeah, this is a guy that has the leverage to be able to do stuff like this,

which is fascinating. Yeah, I mean, I can't ever imagine that the UFC, unless it was just an absolutely absurd request or demand for more money, that they would allow one of their biggest paper views of the year to get derailed by contract negotiations? Well, the fact that they even let him come to Vegas, do the prep, get there, makes me think that they were probably close enough that this wasn't going to be a very difficult negotiation because in a realistic world, if they thought they were far apart, yeah, take a hike. You're not headlining this event anymore, right? It's that type of thing.

But again, Iliot-Toporio wields a lot of power, not just inside the cage, but seemingly outside. There are going to be more proceedings today. They may have already been done. You can follow along, fight opinion on Twitter. That's Zach Arnold, the MMA draw.com. They are still currently happening. I'm wondering if we're going to find out any more from that. But very interesting stuff coming out of those proceedings yesterday, Wednesday afternoon.

Not as a big surprise, but it's going to be interesting to see how many MMA fans, even care about this. I mean, you have a guy in Dana White who not only is getting up there talking about the fights weekend and week out at these press conferences and reacting and everything, but then like Dana White Contender Series, like, is he just simply showing up to the apex

on fight night and just watching the fights and being like, all right, you're signed or you're not? There's no like prior knowledge going into the fights? Sorry, I was just, sorry, I tuned out for a second there because I'm reading some real-time updates from Zach Okay, okay. What do you have? What do you have? They're back in court. Okay.

Judge Bullware is asking basically, I need every single text message that's ever been sent from Dana's phones. They're asking, did we image every single phone that it was possible that Dana White had? And we need to have text messages. They're talking to the phone companies and trying to figure this out. So as I said, the minutia of this, the actual tech side of this, the importance of having every single message, seems to be the priority for the court, which is very fascinating. Because to me,

this obviously gives off the impression that they feel like things have been withheld. So, interesting things to come. Eric Ye, Dana White's social media person is currently the one being questioned right now. And Hunter Campbell will be testifying next. So it's going to be very interesting to hear what he has to say. We'll be following along.

Like I said, fight opinion on Twitter. Zach Arnold is giving updates. The MMA Draw.com also doing great coverage for it as well. We roll along with some other news. Speaking of Ilya, it appears that he has reached a settlement with his ex-wife, Georgina, Yuzcategui, and the case has been dismissed. This is via Marca, which appears to be a Spanish outlet. They have signed a settlement on the terms that Toporia originally all.

Ilya will return to training in his private home gym in Madrid, and he is supposedly aiming for a return at the White House. And then we get an Instagram post after this from Ilya, him training with the caption, The champ is back. So that's seemingly confirming this news reported by Marco. Yeah, I was skeptical that we would see Ilya anytime soon, and I was wrong. Now, I mean, it seems very obvious that he would be a headliner for the White House, right? Like, he seems like that, you know, in the way that Connor McGregor, you know, has been talked about, and obviously it would be great for them to have somebody like Connor McGregor headlining the White House card. Connor McGregor's recent comments about, like, my contract being null and void,

does make me think that the UFC has a ready-made option to go with, oh, Ilya Teporia is back. Iliot-Tipori versus Justin Gaci, American in the main event versus Iliot-Tiporia, one of our biggest stars, like no-brainer for the White House. Now, you and Ariel have mentioned this a couple times. Like, is there a fear from the White House that you're putting on, you know, UFC,

I mean, USA fighters and they end up losing, is that a bad look for America? I can't imagine putting Justin Gagee against Celia de Portia is a great plan. If that's something like the same game. I think I think I did see odds, actually, that it's like minus 600 to Poet. Are you going to put that in the main event and have your interim champ get slimed out

on international television? If only for the reason that Ilya is a megastar and this type of opportunity, like seemingly every big thing, like there was a time two, three years ago where every big opportunity, it was Alex Pereira, right? There's a fight falling off, Alex Pereira. Biggest card that we got coming up, Alex Pereira. Ilya seems to be sliding into that slot, right? Ilya is the one headlining international fight week. Ilya might be the one on this White House card. it's kind of a no-brainer for a guy who's this exciting, a knockout artist, this kind of aura, this outside the cage kind of captivity that he has fans in, it really makes all the sense in the world.

And so for that reason, I think it's fine that, like, if Justin Gaci has to be sacrificed for Iliot to be a bigger star by knocking him out at the White House, I think the UFC and the government would be okay with it. I actually don't think that that's like a main concern of theirs. I think there has to play in. But I think there has to be a level of realism from the UFC to the White House to be like, bro, we don't have like any terminators that are American right now. We'll get into that in a second. Kobe Covington is still in the rankings right now. So that could be a choice for them. But like we don't have any guys that are going to go in there and just like terminate someone.

I think if they were really committed to that, then they would be looking to John Jones. Whether they can depend on them or not, that would be the one that you would do. You do John Jones, one of the greatest of all time, American against Alex Pereira, and a very favorable matchup for him. However you feel about it, like he would be a massive favorite against Alex Pereira. I feel like that's the way they would go. I think they would be happy with Iliate Taboria headlining the White House. For sure.

It would make this a massive event. And if you're really just looking for who are the best Americans left, there's two. It's John Jones and Kayla Harrison. Those are the best ones left. All due respect to Justin Gaci, I don't think he has a chance in hell against Ilya. Actually, I guess that was pretty disrespectful. but I don't think he has a chance in hell against Iliate Soporia. Like it's just,

it just is what it is. They're at such different points in their career. The Justin Gagee that fought Patty Pimbleau would get absolutely slept by Iliot Tepard, as with the Patty Pimble that fought Justin Gajee. There's just levels to this game and he's not at that level that Elliott Tuporia is at. So if you're looking around the landscape, it's John Jones in a fight against Alex Pereira. Hell, in a fight even against Tom Aspinol-Sir-Gone, you have to favor Jones at the moment, right? especially considering what Tom is potentially facing if he were to even come back.

And for the White House card, that is. That sounded more ominous than I made it seem. And then Kayla Harrison, who's injured, right, who is going to be in a fight with Amanda Nunes. But even that's a bit of a coin flip. So I just don't think the timing and the scheduling lines up for America to come out on top in any way, anyway. I think they're just looking to stack the card. I think the fact that we are going to be almost two months in, I guess by the time it happens, We'll be over two months into the Paramount deal.

We'll have had three numbered events, 324, 325, 326, and there will have been one undisputed title fight happening so far in the year. I think they are saving up to have several on that White House card. Yeah, I predicted John Jones versus Alex Perr for the White House card. Now I'm very much thinking about it. And it's Gaichi? It's Aporia and Gaichi. Yeah, it's Gaetia.

It's not anyone else. Could you do arm? I mean... I think it's Gaetia. I don't think you do the interim title in January and then not have a fight in in July. Plus, like, he's not like a John Jones who can just be like, I want to fight this guy, so like, I'm

going to fight him. Yeah. He's not at that point. Wait, you're talking about Ilya? Yeah, I don't, you think if he was just like... As I said, the court proceedings made me think very differently about Elliot Soporia, because if you can hold up the UFC on fight night and be like, yeah, pay that check. Otherwise, you ain't getting Elliot Soporia. Oria seemingly getting a lot of wins

in court lately. Eliot Soporia, man, does that guy ever lose? I don't think he's lost anything. Sheesh, I don't know. I don't know. The interest getsies of what, of what happened with the past relationship. Speaking of John Jones, a video has come out from him at DBX-5. Come out as kind. Yeah, yeah. Let's just be honest, this seems like this man, Noah the Boa, who we're giving an accreditation to this video, was wearing meta-glasses. That's what it seems like. And he recorded this conversation with John Jones. Bro, I want to see him go against Carmier and R-A-F.

That's what I want to see. Are you going to do it? Bro. I, I, uh, I have, uh, I have severe arthritis. And most people don't know that. My left hip is covered in arthritis. Damn. I actually already qualified for a hip replacement.

Oh, shit. My last training camp was good eye. I want to bed is so much pain. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. You have a thing on coverage, though?

I have a three-year-old baby boy. I want to use what I got left for my hips. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. Yeah, so John Jones has since responded to that via Michael Babcock of TMZ in what he admits was a private conversation. He says it looks like a private conversation I had at DBX-5 in Houston. Made its way out into the wild.

It happens. Like most fighters, we deal with injuries quietly sometimes, and like in my case, for years. A lot of us walk around limping most days, paying the ultimate price for our health. If you're wondering whether it's true, it is. I'm grateful for all my battle scars, and if I could do it all over again, I absolutely would without hesitation.

It's been what I wake up for in my career every single day. Even after becoming one of the most accomplished fighters in the history of the sport, my critics still give me grief about slowing down over the past few years. That's called living to fight another day, taking the lessons learned, and applying them to business inside the octagon, instead of the octagon, excuse me. It's called evolution. The UFC knows the extent of my arthritis. They also know that if I were to put it all on the line one last time and endure that level of pain,

the reward would have to be something special and something more than a fat payday. For me, that was and still is the White House. Whether that fight happens or not, my career has been one for the ages and nothing short of legendary. I left a big part of myself in that octagon, and I'm grateful for every bit of it, and don't get it twisted. I'll still kick 99% of your asses out there, still putting up big numbers under the squat rack, still training, still out working most of you just maybe after a proper warm up

and a good stretch. God bless. See you at the... Oh wait, no, I'm just kidding. God bless. John Johns. Yeah, so it felt like that conversation probably never should have come out. It felt like it was the classic

like Metaglases, didn't know it was recording. But yeah, he's originally talking about not wanting to wrestle with Daniel Cormier at R.A.F because of the arthritis. but it feels like after that statement, he'll do one last ride for the White House. But what happens if he doesn't get the White House? I don't think he'll do it.

With the way that he talks, he literally says it needs to be something special and something more than a fat payday. So that knocks out UFC 332 at T-Mobile Arena, and that knocks out $30 million to fight against Tom Aspinall. What if it was $30 million to fight against Alex Pereira, though? Is that special? Is one of the best light-heavy?

weights of all time going up against the head the best the best heavy weight of uh sorry the best fighter of all time who happens to be a heavyweight now he's definitely not one of the best heavy weights of all time um is that special is is that enough that's the part that i still like and i get why john jones wouldn't even allude to that right because why take your your foot off the the pedal why remove any pressure on the ufc in terms of putting you on that white house card if he just comes out in his like, I'd love to fight on that White House card. But I'd fight Alex Pereira. Like, I'd fight him.

Like, then it doesn't make it, it doesn't pressure the UFC. So I understand why he'd go that direction. What I'm still interested in is, if he's not on this White House card, would John Jones fight again? One big fight, they could make it special, right? Like, would it be special for John Jones to fight in New Mexico to get the Dustin Porreate treatment? Would that be special?

Like, what special means, and I think John was very intentional here, could, can always be manipulated, right? John could always come back and be like, well, this was special and here's why it's special. So I don't know, but I do, I am starting to now more doubt the idea that it's anything but White House. I'm looking it up right now. It's not a, it's not a bad shout. The New Mexico, we got several, we got several arenas in New Mexico. The pit, shout out, holds 16,000, up to 18,000.

18, is not bad? There it is, 18,000 John Jones in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Yeah. No, I think it's about the White House. I think he really wants the White House. I mean, like, that quote is crazy. I've already qualified for a hip replacement. What about, yeah, I mean, that quote is crazy.

The fact that John is just like, yeah, everybody knows my hips fucked, including the USC, but I will go through the pain if you make it special. What about Alex Pereira or Tom Aspinall or whoever, Allegiant Stadium? Is that not big? Is that not special? Yeah. All the most money you'll ever make in your life. Like, is that not?

I guess the time is ticking though and he's talking about how much pain he has to go through Does he not want to just get the hip replacement? So if it isn't the White House then it's like All right, when is this special event going to happen? It's a good point. It's a good point. If you're waiting for it, the hip's only getting more deteriorated. Yeah. Do we ever see John Jones again? My knee jerk, my knee jerk as soon as you asked that was no in my head. But I'm going to say yes that the UFC does do do something for him. I almost feel like they don't want to get the fans hopes up and they're going to come to him about potentially fighting on the White House.

I think we will see John Jones again. Okay. I don't know if it's the White House, though, but I think we will see John Jones again. We will see. We will monitor the situation as we roll along. Supposedly they've already been in the war room, right? Weren't they supposed to do that last week? Who's in the war room, though?

Dana's talking about I'm going in the war room. Are you in the war room? Is the good point. Dana being like, I just don't want to have to deal with John Jones. You technically not. It's technically Hunter. It's Hunter. Sean Shelby. I actually have to say the more I think about it, was David Goldenberg actually

onto something with his call out at Tough Enough when he was just like, Dona, Dane. He was like, Sean Shelby, Hunter Camel, Mick Maynard. And he was like, Dane, Don, Dino, whatever his name is, Dana White. Let me say for the record definitively, he was not onto something. He might have been onto something. He knew that. On something, maybe. The three guys. Not onto something. The three guys. Still probably. it on Instagram, but I got to follow, don't worry. He follows you? No, no, no, I follow him.

Oh, okay. Nah, that would be, I could retire. Even Goldenberg followed me. Shut out. Dino, Donna. Don? Dana. Dana, why? The worst call out in history.

It was bad. It was bad. It was bad. All right, do we see, speaking of, do we see them again? Do we see Shavkat Rockmanov again? Yes. I fucking hope so. Jesus Christ. Oh, my God. I saw a meme someone put out, and it was like, the bad bunny at the Oscar with his head and his hand. And it was just like three years from now

when I log onto YouTube and the first video served up is, is Shavkat Rakmanov the biggest what-if in MMA history? Shavkat Rokmanov was special. And it's just a fucking highlight reel of everything we've already seen. I can't have that. Well, the UFC might not be so sure. He has officially been removed from the UFC rankings. He's just not there.

He's just not there anymore. You got J.D.M. 1, Ian Gary, 2, Michael Morales, Rallus 3, Belal 4, Carlos Prochase 5, Brady 6, Usman 7, Leon Edwards 8, Joaquin Buckley 9, Gilbert Burns 10. There's a lot of questions to be asked about the wealth of weight rankings. Why is Shafcott Rachmanov missing? Why is Colby Coveington at 13? Why is Gilbert Burns at 10? I mean, there's many questions that you could ask, but the biggest one for me is why did Shopcott Rockmanoff get removed from the rankings when it's only been 14 months since he fought. I understand it's going to be a little bit longer until he fights again.

Colby Covington fought a week after him. That was his last fight. He's still in the rankings at 13. Kamara Usman went 20 months in between his fights for, uh, between his Hamzat fight and his Joaquin Buckley fight. It just feels, it feels weird to me why they would do it. It feels nonsensical unless they either think it's more serious than it is or they're trying to set up a title fight for Islam against a guy that can now be ranked higher? Because how does he come back into it now? Next time he fights, is he just going to be unranked? No, because when he comes back, they will say he's eligible and then people will rank him

wherever they want. Eligibility bullshit. But to your point, it doesn't really make sense, right? Even if they did know he's going to be out for an extended period of time, which we know because his manager confirmed that he had surgery and he is going to be out for an extended period of time. as you said, Usman's out 20 months. Colby hasn't fought since.

Like, we don't know how long Kobe Covington's going to be out. So, like, do we just take him out? The idea that they individually kind of selected him, John Jones went out for surgery when he was in the heavyweight rankings and he was still in the rankings. Or did they remove him? I know Chale was going on and on about it. I forget.

But either way, it does feel a bit arbitrary, like why Shavkat is not allowed to remain in the rankings. It does also feel a little bit, I mean, you know, I got a lot of love for my anti-rankings. thing in the MMA beat. Thank you for anybody who watched the MMA beat that we released on Tuesday. It's on the YouTube channel now.

Who the fuck is we? You know, when I said that rankings were garbage and no promotion should have them and we should get rid of them and they prevent us from having fun, a lot of people on Twitter replied to me that I'm a genius

and that's not uncommon for me, but this was a particularly heavy amount of those tweets. This feels like a rankings conversation for the sake of rankings conversation. If anybody believes that Shavkarakak is not one of the best welter weights in the world. Like, you have to have your head check.

It doesn't really matter what these numbers say. They're irrelevant. They literally are irrelevant. Gilbert Burns, I believe, is on a four-fight losing creek. And he jumped from number 12 to number 10. Yeah, like, who cares? He jumped Gabriel Bonfey. With the removal of Shafkat Rokmanov.

If these are what we get, if this is the result of what we get, why should anybody care? I don't care about these rankings. Shavkat Rakhmanov is one of the best welter weights on the planet. We know it. You know it. It is what it is. But yeah, it's just dumb to me.

I just make a mockery of these rankings just week after week. I think your theory about the idea of, hey, we're going to give somebody else a title shot, so let's at least have them one spot higher. That probably is the answer. Speaking of a potential title shot at 170, Michael Morales was in an interview and had these words to say about the current champion,

Islam Makhashiv. I don't have respect for him, speaking about Islam. He bleeds just like me. all I want is to take the title. I'm not going to idolize someone just because everyone else admires them. He said this via Ablamos MMA.

Strong words there from the Walterway contender Michael Morales and a guy that you say has the best chance to beat Islam. I think he has the best chance to beat Islam and that was another take I had on the beat that everybody came out of the word work to tell me how smart I am.

I knew this already but I'm glad to have it to have it confirmed. The YouTube video said this, the X. But the X was important. The X is what's important, and everybody agreed with my taste. Your mom texted you. Great takes today, honey. I like the comments on the YouTube comment better than the X-1.

I like the X-1. I like the X-ones because, you know, people are coming directly to you. That feels like a personal appeal to just tell me how much I mean to them, and I appreciate that. I think Michael Morales poses the most difficult problem. All due respect to Ian Gary, and I said this, you know, on social media. Ian Gary has done every single thing of him, asked of him of the UFC. If he needs to fight this person, no problem. Hey, help us with this, no problem.

Fight Shavkat Rakmanov, no problem. Like, he's never been somebody who ever took the easy road, nor has he been somebody who skirted the responsibility that you have. He belongs in a title picture. If he got the next title opportunity, I'd have no issue with it. There's no doubt in my mind that he could be competing for. a title. But stylistically, I don't believe that Iem Achado Gary poses a problem for Islam Makachap. I just think his style, he doesn't have finishing capability. And now, you know,

every time he does a promo, he's going to talk about how he's going to finish the fight, and then he's not going to finish the fight. And that's fine. I never believe, like, I don't believe him when he says that. So it's not like I feel like I've gotten a bad bill of goods. I just kind of ignore it. It's fight promotion. But he doesn't have the finishing capability. And he's going to be in there with a guy who's probably a better striker and a better grappler. and I just don't see that there's an opportunity there. At least with Michael Morales, who I think is probably maybe a little too early in the game to be a fully finished product. Certainly he's too early in the game to be a finished product.

But the power and size that he has is a different problem to solve than is, hey, you're good at fighting and I'm just a little better at fighting. Because that's the scenario that Islam Makachev faces with every person he's going to be in there against. Everything you do, he's better at. So what are you supposed to do? there's one guy in that division that Shavkat aside because he's not in the conversation right now who I think does something better than Issa Mokachev

and that is that power that is that size and ability to end fights in the way that he does he destroyed Sean Brady he demolished Sean Brady who was a very very tough welterweight who was previously the number one contender the guy that everybody was saying I want to see this guy

against Assam Mokachev or against Ian Machado Gary he dismantled him to the point of like being almost absurd, like how badly he beat him up. I want to see that guy because I think he poses the biggest threat. Is it possibly too soon? Is it possibly that he's not a finished product? And Islam's going to just be too game, too crafty, take him down and that's it? Certainly.

But I'd rather see that. I'd rather see the opportunity for that to unfold than see Ian in there. I actually agree with you out of the three options, Ian Garry, Michael Morales or Kamaroumah, Usman. I rate Michael Morales as the best chance as well. And I think a lot of people feel that way. We have to get over this idea that MMA is a meritocracy. It is not. Ian Machado Gary has done a little bit more.

By the way, on the beat, they pushed back and we're like, oh, my God, Ian's the obvious contender. It's like, you look at the resumes of Morales and Ian Machado Gary. They're not that different. They're really not that far apart. But I think Ian is the one who has the best case for it in terms of what he's been able to do, the resume, the accomplishments. But I don't think Michael Morales is far behind, and I think he's a more interesting puzzle. for Islam. Yeah, we'll see what they do. Camaro Usma? And the fact that

he's like, I don't respect you, like I'm gonna fucking yeah, definitely not Camaro Usman. Yeah, I think it's down to Michael Ian. Camaro. Like, Camaro is under the table for me. We'll see what Hunter Campbell and team end up doing as the year goes along. Another bit of news here out of the world

of MMA, Asu Al-Mabayev is out of his main event fight with Brandon Moreno at UFC Mexico City. In steps Loner Kavanaugh. the 15th ranked flyweight. He was slated to fight next month. Wait, he's 15th?

Okay, we can get into that. He's fighting the number five guy, former champion, big star, in his home country. He was supposed to fight number 14, Bruno Silva at the apex next month. He is 15th. I'm not entirely sure how he was unranked when he got knocked out by Charles Johnson, and now he finds himself in the rankings. What the fuck? Yeah, I mean, again, the rankings.

It's just more of an indictment on the rankings. Like, wasn't ranked, then got knocked out now ranked. Yeah. I'm just not sure how he has it. Topology has him as number 30 in their flyway rankings. So, yeah, I mean, unbelievable opportunity for Loner Kavanaugh here. Like, if he's able to win this fight, we will immediately forget the Charles Johnson knockout loss, and it will be, holy crap, he went into Mexico, and he beat Brandon Moreno.

He will find himself in the top five of the flyweight. rankings like this is the opportunity of a lifetime for him. Incredible that he got the fight. He wasn't the only one. UFC also reached out to Kioji Horaguchi who slated a fight this weekend at UFC Apex 113. He said, yeah, I'll do that. But I also want to fight my fight this weekend.

Alex Buhun said on Twitter, UFC approached Kioji Horaguchi to fill in for UFC Mexico. He agreed, but he wanted to fight Amir al-Bazi this weekend and then turn around a few weeks later. It's three weeks from this Saturday to fight Brandon Moreno in Mexico. That's a flex by the guy. Gooch right there. That's a fucking, that is a game gooch. He's like, yeah, I'll do it. Let me just mop up this dude first. Yeah, I'm down, dude, but let me just take care of Amir al-Bazi this weekend first.

Yeah, shout out to Kyoji Horsi. Number six ranked Amira Abazi. I'm just going to go through him and then don't worry, book me the flight. And then I'll deal with five and then set me up with four, three weeks later. I'll go person by person all the way to the title. The goch. It's good to have them back, man. The karate kid who officially would be going by again this weekend. Shout out to him. And Kid Yamamoto. Shout up. a hand injury forces by about Loner Kavanaugh

getting the opportunity of a lifetime. Charles Johnson though, he wanted to weigh in who does have that knockout win over Loner Kavanaugh. He says, I can step in. I know it's not ideal. I'm in great shape and I am cleared by doctors post-fight, need clearance. So he's cleared by doctors, but he needs clearance.

My last performance doesn't sum up what I've been in this promotion, the most reliable man at the weight class. If possible, I'll make the weight and write the ship. It does feel like he would have been a better option, no? He's coming off like a pretty bad beat down by... You got some time, though, and he's a guy who, you know, has a little bit of a more name value.

Well, here's the thing. If Loner Kavanaugh wins, then you have the champ and the number five guy, both knocked out by Charles Johnson. Charles Johnson will be like 13th. Yeah, but then you do the MMA math. And if you beat Charles Johnson, now you're the rightful champion. Alex Perez. Yeah, Alex Perez is... Alex Perez is our flyway champion.

And then Alex Perez, who's lost to... Congrats Alex Perez. A bunch of guys. Everyone. Disrespect. But yeah. I don't know. I felt like a guy like Charles Johnson

probably should have gotten that spot. I'm actually going to be totally honest with you. I don't think it matters. It's Brandon Moreno in Mexico. Oh, you're like, this is foregone conclusion? No, no, not a foregone conclusion. They don't need a name. Oh, they don't need a name to fill it.

That's fair. They just need a... They just need a body. Yeah, you have Brandon Rand. It's not like Asu Almabayev was like, oh my God, you can't wait. I don't think there were hordes of people heading to CDMX to see Asu Almabayev. Yeah. Ah, we're here in La Ciudad for Asu.

You're like, oh my God, this is such a great event. I can't believe we're here. You know, Assu's fighting in the main event. And then they're like, yeah, Brandon Marino. You're like, no, no, no, I'm here for. I can hear it now, John Anning. And though we're in Mexico, you'd expect the tree colors, green, white, and red. No, this is a stadium adorned with sky blue and suns.

And it's just, they show the crowd and it's just covered in Kazakhstan flags. They're all here for the number seven-ranked flyweight, Asu Amabayev. It was a good fight, though. It sucks. And I hope he has a speedy recovery. All right, let's go over to the world of boxing. That's the news and notes in M.A. A lot of news in the world of boxing as well.

We start with Shakur Stevenson being stripped of his WBC lightweight title just days after winning the ring and WBO junior welterweight titles. He last defended this title in July. And he had this to say on Twitter, 100K to some crooks who don't deserve it? Nah, Leilani, I'd rather give it to you, baby girl. The WBC didn't even have shit to do with this fight, and it's eating them alive. Take your belt. It don't make me. I just paid these dudes after my last fight.

What the hell I'm giving y'all 100K right now for? Because y'all got beef with buds, so come and me for it? Obviously. It's tough. It is tough, Terrence. We know about Terrence Crawford's four-minute dialogue in the car a few months ago. Yes, you don't know. No, that's a different one.

That's when he's showing off the belts. Yeah, that's all of that towards Maricio Suleiman, who we had in studio this week, who he was angry. I think he had to pay, what was it, like 300K? I think it was 300, yeah, or 350 or something. Yeah, so this payment to retain these belts and these titles, Chaucor Stevenson and Terrence Crawford are not having it. The WBC did make a statement. In light of champion, Chaucor Stevenson, now being the reigning WBO super lightweight world champion and consistent with the WBC rules and regulations, the WBC has declared vacant its lightweight world. title, the WBC will provide further information regarding the process to crown a new lightweight champion in the near future. So they're taking his belt away and both him and Terrence Crawford do not seem to care at all. No. And they could not be doing any more of a favor to Zufa boxing

than this. Like this would be the time, you know, if you were a sanctioning body, to make sure that you maintain the best possible champions you can have. And the idea of, hey, you're not paying your fee so we don't want Shakur Stevenson to be our champion is a catastrophic error in my opinion because these are the champions that people look to. Shikor Stevenson, Terence Crawford, these are the guys that other fighters look to as the best in the sport, the best in their weight classes. And so if Shakur Stevenson and Terence Crawford are coming out and being like, now, fuck these belts. Fuck your belt specifically. Fuck this belt too. I don't need it. it's going to push people toward the Zufa boxing model.

Now, I don't know that Zufa is going to be able to capitalize in everybody that like kind of has an interest in that just based on the sheer volume of boxers that it could potentially impact. But the idea of the sanctioning bodies have created this mess of there's four different belts and nobody knows who's going to get what opportunity.

When am I ever going to have a chance to unify? The mess that boxing has been, and why for so long everybody's been like, there's too many belts, nobody fights anybody, they're now furthering the damage that was done during that time. It seemed like boxing was kind of evening out.

It felt like there was a period where it was like, no, we are getting the fights that we want. People are unifying belts. Oh my God, this is great. Somebody like Chikor Stevenson to be like, I'm throwing your belt in the garbage

because I don't want to have the sanctioning fees is a real problem. And it's damning to the belt to have stars like Chikor Stevenson and Terrence Crosse cross. I don't give a shit about your belt. We had Shushu Karrington on this week in studio, and he's like, man, I got the green belt. That's the one that I wanted.

This means so much to me. Like, you know, he's crying after the fights and everything like that. He's so proud to get it. But then on the other end of that, you have Shakur Stevenson who is just like, I don't give a fuck about the belt. I'm not paying for that. Why would I want that? This is Terrence Crawford's statement on it.

He says, WBC, ain't no way. Y'all still this mad. It's cool, bro. The ring belt was free, which is another just indictment towards the WBFERD. You're having the biggest stars in the game being like, I don't give a fuck about the WBC. I want to be fair to the WBC here in terms of they are not the only ones, right?

All these different bodies, there are different stipulations, there are sanctioning fees, there are all kinds of things because they have to be able to run the business. It's not a specific WBC issue, but the WBC is obviously in the forefront of this vocal releasing statements, taking the belt away from Shakur-Stevenson

and the one that Terrence Crawford was referencing when he was talking about the, the fee that he did not want to pay. So it's not a WBC issue in a vacuum, but they are the ones who are taking the heat in terms of this. But yeah, for me, the sanctioning bodies need to be playing the nicest that they've ever played with the athletes right now because I think Zouva boxing is coming for that.

This system where, hey, we've got a belt and you either have it or you don't, is going to be very appealing to some people. Don't make it easier if you're these sanctioning bodies for somebody to look at it and go, Yeah, why do I want to work my entire life to get that belt only for you to charge me too much money and I want to throw it in the garbage? Like, this is the story that I don't think they want out there. And Shakur Stevenson is too big a star for you to have this happen. And it's one of the biggest benefits of the UFC is the organization of champions.

There's one belt. You get it. You're a champion or you're not. I mean, yeah, no one actually recognizes BMF and interim as real champions. There is one UFC gold, undisputed champion. You either have it or you don't. and all the athletes within the organization and other MMA organizations treat that with a respect. But you see Jean Silva crying over the belt.

All of these people are just coming for that belt. You don't have people being like, you know, there are people that come out and just like, I don't give a damn about a BMF belt. I don't need that. I don't need that belt. You're not going to hear athletes saying that about actual UFC gold. Yeah, and they're not charged a fee to be a holder of the belt. That's a major thing, right?

Terence Crawford is on the heels of the biggest payday of his life. and they're like, yeah, we got to collect our money now, and he's just like, y'all see them, though. I got this belt, this belt, this belt, this belt, they're in my case. I don't need this. Here, you can take it. It's a bad look at a time that I don't think they can afford to have a bad look. Some more news in what seems to be a weekly occurrence on the show here. Giovante Davis has been issued another arrest warrant just one week after he was arrested in Miami on charges of battery, false imprisonment and attempted kidnapping, a Baltimore circuit judge, Althea M. Handy has issued a warrant for his arrest on Monday following accusations that the former champion, Boxer violated his probation. The first report that

story was ESPN. You can read the article here by Darshand Desai on uncrown.com. So yeah, more legal issues for Drivante Davis. Yeah, time to get the life in order. Like, boxing doesn't even matter at this point. More court cases. Floyd Mayweather is suing. Showtime Sports and former Showtime Sports President Stephen Espinoza. Again, Darshan Desai, the man who never stops working over at Uncrown has a full article. But Mayweather is alleging, aiding and abetting breach of fiduciary duty, civil conspiracy to commit fraud, conversion, and unjust enrichment. He is seeking at least $340 million in misappropriated funds and punitive damages. The suit claims that revenue, which should have been distributed to Mayweather, was instead sent to his then-invisor Al Hayman.

Weather says his new management team requested to view Showtime's financial records, but we're told those records were lost and a flood deemed inaccessible. Yeah, like a lost cell phone, you know? You just lose certain things and all of a sudden, they're gone. They're gone. Yeah, I mean, this is, Showtime is no longer a thing. It was this band, I believe, in 2023. And Stephen Espinoza, obviously, is no longer the president there. Yeah. The most interesting part of this to me is the fact that the money, what Mayweather is alleging is the money was stolen, taken from him by Al-Haman, the lawsuit is against Stephen Espinoza. I was going to say, facilitating it.

Al-Haman is not listed as a defendant in this case. And I don't think that's, I mean, that's very obviously not an accident, but my understanding of, first, Al-Hamon's been a very, like, sharp and shadowy business figure in the boxing world for a very long time. I have to imagine that he has some legal protection that would prevent him from being sued for this. I have to imagine that there's contracts or there's something that he could provide

that would prevent Floyd Mayweather from getting that money from him. So Floyd and his team are trying to find a little backdoor into a little loophole to find a way to recover that money by saying that Showtime and Stephen Espenosa abetted in taking the money. It's going to be interesting to see

where this goes. I mean, he did nine pay-per-views with Showtime sports, two of them being Manny Packieow and Connor McGregor, the two most-watch, most-purchased pay-per-views in boxing history, generating over 15 million pay-review guys throughout his nine-fight career

with Showtime. So there was a lot of money to be had for Money Mayweather during his time with Showtime. He was counting up his money, and he was like, yo, I'm $340 million short. Where's that money at? Ow! Ow! Where's that money, man? He definitely did not call Al. I did want to read one statement that I don't know, I just kind of found sort of funny. His attorney Bobby

Samini told TMZ Sports, Mayweather generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for showtime. Mr. Mayweather now takes this fight to the courtroom to recover what he rightfully earned. Remember, he retired at 50 and O undefeated, and he's going to go the distance in the courtroom just as he did in the ring. Thanks, Bobby. Appreciate that, man. Fucking out. Appreciate that. That's the most like, I'm going to talk boxing here. Pay attention to me talking boxing here. I'm a lawyer.

Still calling out that he goes the distance in most of his life. I don't think, yeah, like the terminology, I don't think he meant to like go in the distance. But shout out. We continue along. Deonti Wilder and Derek Chazora have been on a media tour. I'm sure you've seen the face-to-face here on our channel that Ariel did on Monday afternoon, released on Wednesday.

A fantastic, fantastic job. Really showed the levels of production. Shout out to the whole team. It's beautifully. shot a great sit down face-to-face for them. If you haven't watched it, go check it out. But they continued that media tour and sat down with TalkSport, Simon Jordan and Deonté Wilder and him did not seem to agree on what they were talking about. Take a watch. I wanted to move you on to Tyson Fury.

We don't want to talk about him. No, but you're going to. We're not going to talk about him. We're not going to talk about him at all. Understand that. No, fair enough. All right then. So let's move on. It's all about Derek Tesoro. And that's I understand that. You've called him a cheat. And it leads me to... The biggest in boxing. That's like a little bit flaky.

You lost those fights, and those fights were lost. Kind of disappointing to me about you. You can say what you want. I know the truth. I have the facts. Okay. Understand that. I don't have...

I risk my life for you's entertainment to see. Absolutely. So why I ain't never allowed about nothing in this business. Why that's so hard to believe a black man? You know, white man. Understand me? Yeah. Why is it so hard to believe a black man?

Why? Why is it? Why is it? You don't believe me? Why is it? Why is so hard to believe me? Why is it? First and foremost, it's got nothing to do with color.

It does. No, it does. This whole country got some of my... This whole world got something to do with race. You think your life has been like mine? Listen. But I, come on, you got white privilege, brother. Oh, don't start my...

I ain't never had that. I'm a dark man with dark skin. Ain't nothing ever been getting to me. We didn't been through so much... So much... So much... Hey. You wanted to move on, right?

Come on, man. Try to give you a vision. A little inside of what we go through as black people, man. I got it. You don't get it. None of y'all get it. Where do you want me to go? Y'all don't get it.

And that's the problem. You think you get what you don't understand. Okay. Why is it so hard? Let me get the fuck out of here, bro. I'm out of here. I'm out of here talking about my people and all that shit. It's hard to believe a black man and the white man.

The my fucking cheated. Tell him to sue me so I can show the facts fairly. Because when the documentary and everything to start come out, I'm going to show every thing. I'm going to get all the people that go. You think I'm a theory, man. He's in the inside. He got people that the inside.

He got people. Inside of here. I don't, what? I don't, I don't, I don't, what I don't, about that.

I said we didn't want to bring him up in the first month. It ain't got shit to do with him. Fair enough.

The fuck you talking about. Yeah, man, fuck you, man, I'm out too. What happened there wasn't wrong?

He told you don't bring it up, but you can't. The best part of the whole thing is Deonttee Wother storms out and then at the end, Derek Tjura was like,

yeah, fuck you, man, I'm out of here too. Yeah, like, You could tell he didn't really even like want to do that, but he was just like, yeah, all right, it's over.

Yeah, I guess I got to just walk out of here. Some real animosity still from Deonti Wilder toward Tyson Fury, who he believes cheated. And that's not the first time we've heard him banging that drum throughout the course of this media tour. And he keeps calling for Tyson Fury to sue him so he can bring out everything, all the facts and the evidence that he has.

That clip was edited. There's a version where Simon continues to talk about it and what happens is he brings up Tyson Fury Deiante's like we're not talking about him and then he's like all right all right he basically spends like two minutes

to like try and calm him down and then he goes all right Deontay well the reason I brought it up was actually because well you made an excuse about the the ring attire that you wore to the ring was being too heavy

you made an excuse about the loaded gloves you mean he spent two minutes like calming it down just to then re-anger him he's like oh you're flaking that feels low of you to accuse the cheating and everything like that. Which is, then we cut to that scene where it's like, man, I'm fucking out of here.

Like, Simon Jordan is a master troll. I respect the game. Yeah, Deonté Wilder losing his patience, man. I mean, it clearly is deep under his skin all these years later. Well, he feels like it was unearned. He feels like he was wronged by Tyson Fury. Tyson Fury took to Instagram and responded to Deonté Wilder's comments. I'm just sat here thinking about all this stuff that Deonte Wilde has been saying recently

and even me I got sort of dragged into posting stuff, video, me knocking out and whatever I've just deleted that to have my story because rather than retaliating and hate on somebody this man really does have mental health issues it's evident to see and rather than just go back and forward with him and yad-y-a-dada saying he's just deluded and all that. I'm just going to pray for him and I'm going to ask God to help him. He obviously needs the help and yeah, I'm not getting involved in pettiness. The fight for one fair and square. And that's it. I'm going to pray for him and I'm going to ask the father to bring him back back to the light because this man is lost, lost soul and I beg Jesus to turn him to

the kingdom. I do love the Tyson Fury. Like I'm going to pray for and everything like that. One hours ago he had posted videos of him knocking him out and was like, get this tosser out of here. He had an enlightenment where he realized like I need to help him or Jesus

needs to help him instead of instead of continuing to go back and forth with him. What do you make of what he said though about him needing you know help and these things? Do you think that this is the sign of something? like I mean I don't react I can't speak on it like I don't know if this if it really matters this much to Deonté Wilder and we saw them be friendly with each other especially over in Saudi Arabia for some of these fights they've been cordial and friendly so the animosity wasn't there then to have these reactions throughout the week man like to where you are screaming and storming off of interview sets I don't know if you're if you if you need you know to go to a you know mental institution or anything like that but like It feels like he needs to

to combat these demons when it comes to the Tyson Fury fight. Yeah, and to me, I don't think it's a sign of much of anything. You know, he sat here. We were standing next to him. He seems actually in a good place. He seems to, like, kind of, like,

have his life in an order that it might not have been previously. To me, it just feels like Tyson Fury is very much a hot button issue for him. Yeah. I think if we had brought him up Tyson Fury to him when we were sitting there, he would have been like, man, fuck y'all.

A hundred percent. and he feels like he was wronged. And so when somebody is trying to like ask him about it as if it was fair, I think that triggers him. I don't know whether, you know, it's up to you to decide whether you think that's the appropriate reaction or not. But it does seem like it's very specific to this Tyson Fury thing. And he continues to talk about like, hey, I have the proof. So whatever that proof may be, I hope that we one day see what, at least his side of what he's talking about. I suppose I'm just not sure why Tyson Fury has to sue him first before he can release that.

yeah I don't know but he said there's a documentary so maybe in the course of that we will see in that fight Derek Chazore versus Deontai Wilder will be taking place April 4th on a Misfits Pro Boxing card

over in the UK so we look forward to that one speaking of the UK speaking of boxing one last bit of note Jake Paul and MVP are heading across the pond for their first show in the UK

on Sky Sports which is another massive part of this deal. As you can see, Sunday, April 5th, Olympia, London, MVP, bringing a stacked night of world title fights to the UK for the first time. Four women's title fights,

Caroline Dubois versus Terry Harper for the Unified Lightweight World Championship, Ellie Scottney versus Mayrelli Flores, Undisputed Super Bantamweight. Chantelle Cameron, massive name to be three fights down. Michaela Kota Scova, WBO, Junior Middleweight World Championship, and then Irma Garcia

versus Emma. Dolan in the IBF Super Flyweight World Championship. So Jake Paul, injured in the Anthony Joshua fight, don't think the fight business is going to stop for him at all. Yeah, MVP has definitely assembled quite an impressive women's roster and is putting on a massive fight one day after the Chisora and Wildercard in London. So back-to-back kind of big boxing events there. Yeah, big week in a boxing for the UK. I'm going to be really interesting to see, and it's always cool when they do an all women's card, especially with that

big of names and that many title fights taking place on it. So credit to MVP and the Sky Sports deal is nothing to scoff at, man. They've been working with DeZone, Netflix, SkySports, they're gathering their infinity stones when it comes to broadcast deals. Yeah, and Ariel's been long talking

about this. When it comes to American-based promotions, MVP is really like one of the remaining ones that is growing and succeeding, right? Top rank, as we saw on Saturday, has a fantastic stable of fighters, right? You see Keishon Davis, you see Shushu character, you see Shakur Stevenson, even Tiafimo Lopez, and you're like, wow, top rank has developed a ton of talent here, but they are still without a broadcast deal. They're sitting out there in the wind and still waiting for a broadcast home,

whereas MVP is like, okay, now we've got to deal with Sky Sports. We have regular events with Netflix, DeZone, like, man, they're a small promotion, a startup promotion, right? They kind of started alongside when Jake Paul started his boxing career, but they're making headway fast and they have a lot of very powerful relationships. Yeah, it'll be interesting to see where they go from here. Let's get into this weekend. That was the news and notes from both the world of MMA and boxing. Let's get into this weekend.

UFC Apex 113 going down. We already talked about Knucklemania 6. There's also PFL Road to Dubai, which we'll talk about in a minute. But I have to say, for the first Apex show of the year, it's not a bad card. It's not a bad card. Headlined by Mario Bautista versus Lock Dog Venetius Solifera. Is it a good card? It's a good card.

It's a good apex card. Alex Marono on the card versus Daniel Donchenko. Probably going to get knocked out, but we'll see. Nico Price on the card. Bruna Prasil, Fighting Nerd on the card. Saeed Narvogamato versus Javi Boshrat buried on the prelims. Kong Wang? Come on.

Kong Wang on Eduardo Mora? Actually... She's coming for Valentina? If I'm not mistaken... If I'm not mistaken, I just said Sayyid versus Javi Bosharat. I think...

It's the other? No, I think... Yep. Cancelled? Yeah, Javi Bosharat will now fight Gianni Vasquez. Sorry, sorry, sorry. Sorry.

Steve... Tough. Yeah, Sadie, no longer fighting. All right, keep going. Jacob Wilclats? The one who beat Patchy Mex? Yep. Taking on Muingaforov?

This is just the prelims, bro. All right. This is just what you're starting out with. Let's get to the main card. We'll go through that. Let's break it down. Let's break it down. Mario Batista versus Venetius Olivera.

First fight back for Mario since the loss to Umar Nirmaga made of, Lock Dog Forno. So far in the UFC, this is the toughest test, man. An opportunity to spring into the top 10 against the guy who, maybe not the biggest name in the sport, Mario Batista, you know, doesn't have the biggest fan. base, but one of the most skilled fighters at 135. This is a massive step up.

Kyler Phillips is a very good fighter, and that's a fun fight that Lock Dog had. This is a different level. Honestly, Kyler Phillips, Sayy Naramagamatov, Ricky Simone are all good fighters. Those are all good wins for Lock Dogg. This is a real step up. Great wins, but not great fighters, is how I put that, right? Those are very, very good fighters. I think Mario Batista is a great fighter.

I think Mario Batista, and you even see that in the fight against Umar and of like where you see flashes where you see like man on the right night this guy really can be something and against the best of the best he never looks at a place right he never looks like oh i don't belong in there with them this is a great fighter and i think this is an opportunity for locktog to prove that he belongs in this class and god damn it i can't lie i'm a lock dog stand like this is probably my favorite fighter going right now i just fucking love the guy and his combination of just like athleticism and explosiveness, power, all the things that you want from the fighter, combined with just his kind of like laissez-faire nature in the cage, like almost feeling

like he's not in danger at any point, kind of play like playful, showman, the borderline and disrespectful to the fact that he never feels like he's kind of in trouble. I just love everything about him. He talks that good shit on social media. I'm a lock dog stand I'm not ashamed to admit it and I think he's going to win this fight because I think he's

I think he is a championship caliber fighter Love lock dog Talking the shit online is not here nor there The chill stuff You don't care about that? No no no it's good I'm saying Is he great at it? I think it's funny

10 HL in that one Oh really? I'm going 10 HAL on that one I'm not signed with LockDug on that one Yeah I mean The thing with this fight is that Lock Dogg I know he's won his last three fights by decision, but

18 of his 23 wins are by finish. He is a finish-reliing guy. We're also going to see him at the UFC level for the first time, attempt to go 25 minutes with a guy and Mario Batista that we know has the cardio for that. I'm not 100% certain Lock Dog does have the cardio to go to 25 minutes. So I think there's a

world if he can't punish Mario Batista that in those championship rounds, Mario Batista is able to put it on him. Also, three losses for Lock Dogg in his career. He's been knocked out in all of them. I wouldn't be shocked if come round four, come round five. Mara and Bautista is putting it on him and able to get Lock Dog out of there. I think it's a fantastic fight. I don't know who's going to win. If I had a bigger win, I'm still

going to lean Lock Dogg just because I am a fan of his. But it's a tremendous fight that I'm really interested to see how Lock Dog deals with the massive step up and the step up to five championship rounds. Yeah, it's a very valid concern, right? Moving from three rounds to five rounds is a massive thing, especially against the guy like Batista who's been in there and has the cardio that we know is going to last those rounds and he's going to be there, right? If the bell rings to start round four, the assumption is between the two that Mario Batista is going to be the guy who's going to be fresher because he's able to do that. I think Lock Dog is going to be very difficult for Mario Batista to kind of just like pin down. I think it's going to be difficult. I think it's going to be

for Mario to do what he normally does against everybody else to Lock Dogg because of that freakish athleticism and the explosion that he that he has. I mean, there was times where he was just nuking Kyler Phillips. The fact that he was able to like withstand that punishment is more to me a credit to Kyler Phillips than it was the fact that like Lock Dog can't finish the fight. And I do think he's going to have Mario Batista in trouble quite a few times in this fight. Final pick, Lock Dog. I'll go Lock Dogg as well, but not quite as confident. and I think it's, I think it's going to be a fantastic fight. I'm really very much looking forward to it.

A chance for Mario Batisa to get back on track, a chance for Lock Dog to ascend into the higher ranks at 135. Let's go, co-main event, flyweight fight, Amir al-Bazi taking on Kioji, Hori. I have to say, man, I was watching some YouTube looking on Kioji's... Oh, shit. On his social media and everything? What? You went back into the Kiyoji archives.

Well, I mean, I love Kiyoji Hori. I learned about him back in the Bellator days and then watched some of his yes, his older fights obviously like the one loss being in recent times at the UFC level to Demetri Johnson, nothing to shy away from but like there's just something about these guys that get in UFC title contention

from Japan and they just become superstars. He posted that UFC Japan YouTube channel posted his full fight with Tagir Olin Bekhov. They posted it yesterday. They have like 175K subscribers. The video already has like 500,000 views. people are turned on for this guy. Plus I just like, he's just like jovial attitude,

just like how hyped up he is. The UFC offering him to fight against Brandon Miranda, and he's like, yeah, I'll fight him. Only if you let me fight Amir al-Bazi this weekend as well. Like I need to get those two fights. Like, Giojuraguchi might be one of the fighters I'm most excited for to make like a quick run at the title. And the way that he looked against the Girolin Bek-Olin Bekhov,

I think he's going to have a similar performance against Amir al-Bazi. Al-Bosie, last time out against Brandon Moreno, got beat pillow to postman. Like he got beat down and I rate Keoggi Hori on that level. Flashback to April of 2022, Patchy Mix beating Kioji Horaguchi at Bellator 2.79. And now Patchy's the one in Risen. And Kioji's the one on the door of a title shot if he wins here.

Insane. Ridiculous. Yeah, man. Kioji Horeguchi is the real deal. Look, there is a point where we're getting up there in age, right? He's 35 years old. Not an old man by any means, but like MMA Miles are a lot. And he has a lot of fights.

This is his 41st fight, right? He's already got 40 fights in MMA. He's also taken, like, kickboxing fights, I believe, in other things as well. So the man's been around a very long time and has fought and has fought the who's who of the lighter weight classes. There's a point where that kind of, you know, takes its toll. But I still believe he's good. I mean, we saw in the last performance, right? Like, he was clinical in the dissection.

And so, yeah, until proven otherwise, I do think. this is a level above with Kioji Horeguchi. Mirobezi also has only fought twice, I believe, since 22. One being the Kaira-France fight that I scored for Kaira France, and then obviously the brand Morano last time out. So it feels like when Amir takes on this higher level of competition at 125, he struggles. I know he got the nod in the KKF fight, but I did score that for Kaira. It was controversial.

Yeah. I think Horaguchi is at that level, and I think he's going to give Amir. Oh, I think he's beyond that level. is beyond the KKFL? Yeah. Well, Hayden. No love for no blame. No, just respectfully, but like...

Love for no blank. I think he's a level above that. You're talking no love, but we're not talking Cody Garbrand. That's correct. I think he's a level above that as well. Don't blank. Yeah. Let's roll along.

Jelton Almeida versus Rizvan Kunev. Last time Kunev out lost a split decision to Curtis Blades. Jelton Almeida, also losing a split decision, to Alexander. Volkov. It feels like the game plan from Jelton Almeida is probably

Tell me what the game plan is. I'm thinking it feels like it's probably going to be to take Kunev down. Feels like he's going to rely on that wrestling. I don't know about that. I think he's going to stand him back. Do we think?

No, absolutely. It's time for him to win some fans? No, he's going to take him down and he's going to win. This is, look, Jalta, people have fucking parachuted off the Jolten Almeida bandwagon. Like, it is. I saw some people being like, please, Rizvan Kuhniv, save us. Save us, Zavang Kooniv. Knock this fucker out.

Like, people hate Jailton Almeida. He was a darling. I mean, you were early on the, on the Jolten. I'm betting on him this week. I think he's going to take him down and finish him. Yeah. And finish him, I don't. Okay, all right, this is another thing.

This, like, this change of course into, like, he's this decision machine. He has 26, 26 professional mixed martial arts bouts. Three have gone to a decision. In his career, he has 16 first round finishes. Yeah, he, uh... I'm just saying. Honestly, before the Volkov fight, first round finish, first round finish, got finished in the second round, the Derek Lewis decision. Then it was first round finish.

Derek Lewis decision stands out. But we're talking about first round finish, second round finish, first round finish, first round finish, first round finish, first round finish, first round finish, first round finish, first round finish, like the dude can finish fights. It's just... Sometimes. Derek Lewis. Honestly, the sometimes comes from Volkov and Derek Lewis. The sometimes for me is more on the Jolten side of things. Because when he does go to decision, it's so boring?

No, not that it's so boring. it's so obvious if he took a little bit of risk that he could finish. That's my problem. Against Alexander Volkov, Volkov did his best on defense. The problem in that fight was that Jalta didn't take any risks to finish that fight, which ended up costing him. He loses the split decision.

If he took some risks, I'm very confident he actually could have finished Volkov. For sure. I mean, we're talking about like, he finishes people sometime. Almeida, 21 of 22 wins via stoppage. brother all I'm saying is in his last fight yes he had opportunities where if he took a little bit of risk yeah he would have actually been able to finish the fight instead of losing the fight correct I agree if he shows up again and doesn't want to take risks doesn't want to take risks there's a chance he's just laying on him again or he gets nuked he could get nuked that I think is less likely but possible right look strike that's the part that

I'm not concerned about with Jelten Almeida. He's been in there with power punchers. Like, I'm not concerned that, like, Jolton Almeida is, like, no longer a good fighter. Jolton Almeida is a very good fighter. The people who hopped off the bandwagon are hopping off for style, not for, like, capability. But I'm not 100% sure that Jolten Almeida,

when he's in dominant positions, he is always so willing to do that. That's my only fear. I think he's going to win this fight. And I think you're right that there's a chance he finishes. But it seems like we, like, the Derek Lewis performance was another one. exactly like the Volkov one

where he just did not want to seemingly finish the fight. And so that happens every so often and I'm not sure I trust like the idea that like Jelten Amira is always looking for that. Sometimes it's position and position only. That's my only fear is like from a finishing upside.

That's my only concern. I do think he will get it to the ground and I do think he will be in very, very good position. And sometimes when he's raining punches down on people, that can be enough. But sometimes he's pitter, pad, or just re-securing the position and not going after the submissions that he could execute in his sleep. That's my only concern with Jalton.

I think Jolton is still very good. I think Jolton is somebody who could potentially compete for a title if he puts it all together. But I have concerns about that inactivity in the moments where he's dominant. Let's roll along. Final prediction on that one is Jolton. Mita. Miquel Oleg Seych taking on Power Bar, Mark Andre, Bariot. Can I just get a prediction from you?

on what you think the line is here. Mikhail's a favorite. Correct. Minus 170? Mikhail minus 500 power bar plus 375. Yeah, that feels off, for sure. Mikhail has shown himself to be vulnerable and not exactly like, you know, the safe. Like, in the way that I'm criticizing Jelton Amita for sometimes fighting safe, you know that

Oleg Shakechek is not that guy. He is not going to come in there and just kind of. play it safe and it has cost him at times. I'm a little surprised by that just by the power that Andre Barriol carries, right? There is an argument to be made. Andre Barriot is one and four in his last five. He's six and nine in the UFC.

Oleg Shechek is going to pressure him. He's going to throw massive overhand, massive hooked until he knocks him out if he is able to do that. And we have seen Power Bar later in his career, the Joe Piper fight, the Dustin Tulsa fight, get knocked out himself. We should point out, though, The losses in this streak are a split decision against Chris Curtis.

Pfeiffer. Pfefer who has nuclear power, who nuked him. Fair enough. Stoltzvist, that one, not, again, Stoltzvus has some really decent power too, but that one's probably the biggest blemish. And then against Shara, he lost the unanimous decision, but there were moments in there where he was dicey for Shara. There were moments in there where Barrio, and he's very good at this, when he's

rocked, he throws caution to the wind, right? I mean, he always kind of throws caution to the wind. But when he's rocked, he's still in the fight, and he's throwing back, and he's willing to go out on his shield, which is, you know, dangerous, but also a benefit. And so, I don't know, man. Like, I don't know the idea that, like, Oleg Cheechek just steam rolls them with no danger. Like, that line feels off, although I definitely am favoring Oleg Cheechek and we'll pick him. I am with you.

I'm picking Oleg Cheechek, but not with the same confidence. Minus 500 is nutty for a guy who we've seen kind of just, like, sometimes pull, defeat from the jaws of victory. Man, just going through MAB's resume, remember Jordan Wright? Boris, yeah. Legend, man. Talk about an unders guy.

That guy went to a lot of underses. That guy was here for a good time, not a long time. I'm now somehow on his Instagram. Looks like he linked up with Bruce Buffer recently. So shout out to him. I mean, a loss to Fluffy Hernandez. Like, these are fine, you know? Like, his losses are not bad losses by any means.

Let's keep rolling along. Gene Matsumoto taking on Farid Bashrop. One of the two Bosrop brothers fighting on this card, unfortunately. Javi will no longer be fighting against Saeed Matsumoto coming off a win, split decision win, before that a split decision loss to Rob Font. Farid, still rolling along, 14 and 0. We'll be curious to see if he makes it 15 and all on Saturday. Yeah, been impressed. I think this is his fight to lose. Yeah. You? Yeah, I mean, I think he's a rightful favorite for a reason. He's shown that he's dynamic striker, can mix in the ground game. Gene Matsumoto obviously nasty as well, 17 and 1, but it feels like when he took the step up to Rob Font, he faltered. I feel like the same will happen to him against Farid. And is that more Farid is on the level of like a Rob Fon at this point, or is it more that you just...

Until he loses and he keeps eating these guys up. I'm down to see him make that ascension into the rankings of 135. I'm surprised he's not climbing higher. You know, like, I'm surprised that there isn't a more significant fight, but fair enough. I mean, the last time I was Chris Gutierrez. And, like, he's staying fairly active. Well, do you feel like Gene Matsumoto is like a step up from Chris Gutierrez? I feel like he's right there.

I feel like he's like on that same level. That's what I'm saying? I'm thinking, like, what's the next level I'd like to see him go to? Get him in the rankings. Yeah. Get him against someone. Maybe after this one, like, ranked opponent is next. Chris Gutierrez was close. He was ranked for a while.

That's my point. Rankings anymore. This almost feels equal or even a step back. In terms of notoriety, in terms of stature. Also, just Chris Gutierrez is a fucking dog. Like, that's a tough fight for anybody. And so, like, this guy's fought the who's who. And so, I don't know.

I think this will be a good fight for a farid. I think he'll be able to show out. But I'm surprised he's not taking, like, even a little bit more of a step up. Your boy, the Hanyack is back. Shout out. My guy, Dusted. the juice box, Walker, one of the best nicknames.

It's a good nickname. In the UFC, this just feels like a firefight to me. 100%. It feels like someone is likely going to get caught, probably just going to be a kickboxing match until someone does. Yeah, we've seen Dustin's chin.

He can hang in those types of firefights against some of the most dangerous powerful strikers in the world. He is 37 years old, though, right? And there, as I said, like I was talking about Horaguchi being only 35, and I'm already thinking, you know, there's a lot of miles on that.

Dustin's been fighting MMA and kickboxing for a very long time against some extremely tough guys. You know, Julius is 26 years old. Like this is a massive age gap. This is a 10, 11 year age gap. There might be a point where it's just like Dustin can't be in these wars anymore. I want to see it. But for now, I lean toward Dustin,

but I wouldn't be surprised if he finally starts losing firefights. Yeah, I was going to say 37 years old and has 31 professional MMA fights and then who knows how many professional kickboxing fights. beyond that. That's the main card of UFC Apex 113 kicks off at 5 p.m. So interestingly, we go from 4 p.m. starts for the Apex card to now

5 p.m. starts. The pay-per-view gets an hour earlier, the Apex card again. We'll see. We'll see. Who's to check? Solid. Who's to check? Solid main card. We already listed off some of the prelims that I'm looking forward to. But that's not the only fighting going down on Saturday in the morning. We'll get PFL Road to Dubai. That card starts at 9.

A.m. Eastern here in the States. The two that I'm most looking forward to has to be, obviously, the main event and the co-main event. You're getting two titles, the vacant welterweight championship, and then the PFL lightweight championship. We'll start there. Usbander Magamatov taking on Alfie Davis, Alfie Davis, the man, the ax man, the man that originated the tattoo. He had an upset so good when he beat Gadsie Rabadanov back in August to win the tournament championship, plus 705 underdog. and this one, he now finds himself around the same price tag against Usumann. Amadeoff, can he shock the world twice in a row?

No. Yeah, he agree. No. All due respect to the most legendary tattoo we've ever seen, um, Usman's just a different level. Usman is one of the best on the planet, and I don't know if Alfie is on that level.

You know, as you talked about, huge upsets. Like, he has been extremely game in some very, tough spots where it looked like he's up against it, Usman is a level above, in my opinion. And that's respectful to everybody other than Paul Hughes in this division. I don't think they're on that level. I'm with you.

I think as long as Usman or Magamatov remains in the PFL, he will likely remain the king of that division. It's Usman, it's Paul, and then it's everybody else, unfortunately. And again, Alfie had an incredible run to get this opportunity, but I do believe this is too big of a step. I also think Godzian and Usman are on just different levels. Yeah. I think Usman is a step above.

I think he is UFC caliber and UFC title challenger caliber at that. The Comain, Ramazan, Karamagamadov taking on Shameel Musayev for the 170 belt. Both guys undefeated 13 and 0 versus 20 and 0, but despite that, Shamele Musayev finds himself as a pretty big favorite. I think this is just going to be a high level fight. Yeah, agreed. I mean, this was like these are, some of the guys that when you're looking at the tournament that pfl did last year we were outlining like okay the pfl's problem was never that they didn't have talent and i think this idea that now

they're moving away from these tournaments gives an opportunity to showcase these guys better right in a tournament structure sometimes some some guy has a bad night or the preparation for it's not the right like there's a it's a completely different type of system and so sometimes you don't get to highlight talent that i think gets a little bit underserved by some of the tournament stuff, I think this is, this is where you can best showcase them. And there's some other names on this card that like, it's, it's a decent card. Oh, it absolutely. You look all the way down on the prelims and it's Denise Keyholtz, who was like a staple of Bellator, a known quantity. Um, probably got Taylor Lappalus on the prelims. That Luke, that Luke trainer, Rob Wilkinson fight is a bangor, dude.

100%. Lappalus is a guy who everybody thought like should still be in the UFC super talented. When you have this opportunity where Carl Williams, a former UFC guy, when you have this opportunity where you can just be like Jesus Panato, a fucking beast, lazy kings on this card, when you have the opportunity to build a card where you're just like, we're going to put our best talent,

we're going to put them in these opportunities in matchups that we think are good. I do think, like, this feels like a step in the right direction and I think this is going to be a decent night for PFL. Chabib. Habib's on the card. Training out of Abdulmanabr al-Mahmahmahmah's school. A guy named Habib. Yeah, but that's not Habib. Habib.

There's only one, there's only one Habib. Well, no, no, no, this guy is a second Habib. No, but he's not, you can't call it,

you can't say Habib is on the card because that's not. A second Habib has entered the training facility. Yeah, man, it's a solid card. I like that they're starting

it early. Truly is. This is hardcore on Crown Saturday. Uncrown, hardcore Saturday? Hardcore Saturday. Who's to check?

Hardcore doesn't, I don't know if it fits well in there. Die hard? Oh, I like that. Uncrown gets hard. Uncrown gets hard. Uncrowned Saturday.

Fuck you if you're a casual. That'll be the tagline. Shaheen, go ahead and print that up, man. That's the headline. Oh shit, Habib's on this card. Habib training out of Abdulmanabna Mahamanov school. Here he comes. Habibnabab.

Do you think he can become the Habib? That would truly take a Herculean effort. It would be a monumental effort if he was able to actually do that. Let's see how he's doing on socially. He's got to be killing it. Ah. Oh shit. Here it is.

Habib and Habib. Posted on January 16th. How many followers are yet? 37K. All right. Not bad. Get a few PFL wins under your belt. You move over to the UFC.

Habib squared, bro. Shout out. Habib and Habib and Habib. That's something. That's something. Yeah, shout out to PFL, though. This should be a really good card. Two title fights.

I also have to give them credit on the poster. They're already putting in the ranking system. Like if you look at the poster, like Lazy King is number five at 170, Pinedo number three at 145. Who decided that? James Tihuno. Might as well. I think it was John Martin. Shout out to him.

You got the rankings next to their names on the posters. Ah, Habib and Habib. Habib ex Habib! Shout out. Now, when they walk around, like this example, right? They're in this room. What does person in the back say when, who looks when they say Habib? Yeah, they say, yo, Habib.

Who looks? Both they look and it's just like, no, I think he's talking to me, bro. That's what Nabi is. He's talking to me, little bro. Now, I think he just kind of learns to tune it out and he kind of just knows the feel of when it's to him. Like, obviously people say Connor around here a lot because of McGregor and they just say Connor.

I've learned to like, no. You know the context. You're ready. You're talking about McGregor. Or you just give him a nickname like a John Pork. You know, he just has a different name. They're just all John Porks. They're all John Porks?

If you're not Islam and you're not Islam, you're not Habib, you're just all John Porte. What's up, John Port? It's like, did you happen to see 28 years later Part 2? No, no, no, no. They're all jimmies. The bone kingdom or whatever?

Bone Temple. Bone Temple, shut out. Fuck, it's a great moment. It's good, it's good. Fucking amazing. Shut up. Watch the new Knives out the other day. Shout out to Chai Louis Parry, by the way.

He's the alpha zombie in 28 years later. Oh, is it an MMFiter? he more known for who's the check British kickboxer he's the guy

many many moons ago when John Jones was at like a fitness expo he was from the back of like the crowd being like I want to fight you and John John's like yeah yeah that was shy

he's an incredible character he fought in glory he was a glory heavy weight really solid dude and happy for him he's very successful now shout out to him all right that is

the weekend ahead. You got PFL in the morning. You got UFC in the afternoon and you finish it off with Knucklemania 6 in the evening. Truly is another round of uncrown Saturday. This one, you know, for the die-hards. Let's get into the bets and picks for this weekend. Parlay pales got to say, boys. We up? We're up. Let's go. That's a lot of green on there. Look at all that green. Let's go. We nail it last week. Honestly, never really a doubt. No sweat. A little shaking No, no, no, no, no, no. But, like, other than that, it was a no sweater plus 261.

Nail it, back in the green, 16 and 32. So, you know, for every two we lose, we're hitting one. And that's enough to be profitable. That's enough to be profitable, baby. And I think we're going to bounce back. Not bounce back. We're going to keep the train rolling. We sure are.

Baby. I've already gotten Pizzi's pick. He's taking Farid, Bacherot. Frankie, what's the order, man? The order is Frank, Connor, Rick. Take it away, man. I am going to do the over two and a half. for Salsa in Brazil.

Wow, wow, wow. No faith in the fighting nerd Bruna Priscilla getting the finish. Oh, he'll get the finish in the last 30 seconds. It's a woman. It's a woman. I said she.

It's a woman. You didn't hear me? I said she'll get the finish. No, no, no. You guys just heard what you wanted to hear because you are... Schill? As in...

Like, she's a chill. Schill? All right. Next up is Connor. Over to my pick. I said I'm excited about him. Kioji Horgochi. shout out to the gooch

I'm also excited about my pick and it's the one and only lock dog take it as a dog wow wow wow wow wow oh that's going to give us a fat payout he's like a plus 150 oh there it is plus 142 plus 430 on this parlet

wow if we hit this if we hit this this will get us over five units of profit let's do it holy shit not since juliana panya pulled off the the upset have we gotten

that high. Yo, yeah. And yo, the best part about this is that it's all going to come down to you if it does. Let's do it. So like we can get to that. Oh, yeah, that's right. I'm the main event. That's right.

Hell yeah. Yeah, it's. Can we hedge parley pals? No, we cannot hedge parlay pals. Honestly, what's kind of crazy, I'm looking at draft kings here, draft king says, uh, BKFC lines. Ben Rothwell, Andre Arloffsky, minus 220, minus 220, Rothwell. Yeah, that makes sense, actually.

Lorenzo Hunt minus 315 against David Mondell. God, imagine that was fucking YOL. Dude, be such a sick card, but still, it's a quality card. I'm looking forward to it. All right, my bets for this weekend. I got a few. Right now they're just all on the apex. We start with Kafforov Wiklats to not go the distance.

This is a fight to me where Kof could get a knockout. Wicklaz could get a submission. At plus money, I'm willing to pay the price there. I like the odds for this one to not go. I know they were just in a split decision. Wicklaus has like 16 submission in his career. If it stays striking, I don't think Wicklaus is good enough to hang with the four-up.

I could see a finish happening on either side. We roll along. I like violence this weekend. Amita Kuhniv under two and a half. Honestly, I think Omeda takes him down and I think he gets the finish either in round one or round two. And if he doesn't and it stays standing,

I think Kunev is very live for a knockout. I like violence in this fight. I know everyone snooze fest I'm just going to eat my crow If this one goes to a decision If this is a lame and pray fest From Almeda I'll eat the crow

Egg on my face Oh no I'm willing You just guaranteed it No no no I'll eat the crow If this is it I'll eat the crow

I'll eat the crow We keep rolling along Altista Lock Dogg I'm gonna say it doesn't go To a decision Because Lock Dog either finishes him

In the early rounds Maybe 1 2 3 puts it on him Pace puts that pressure puts that power on him finishes it or Batista as the rounds roll along really starts to just drown him in the championship rounds and

gets them out of there. Minus 154. I like the price tag on that. Two parles for me. Kong Wang, Kyoji Horeguchi. Shout out to the Wang. Shout out to the Gooch. They get it done. The Gooch Wang Parlay. Trademarking

that now. Thank you very much. Hammer that one. Next up. Hammer the Gucci in the way. hammer the gooch with the wang parlay them up it's a lock let's go I don't know why I didn't brand that

brand that harder but yeah that's getting bet that's getting bet heavily Mikhail Mab fight does not go to a decision Donchenko Morono fight does not go to a decision I very much think

both of those fights end in knockout on either side pays minus 177 those are the bets those are the picks those are the previews those are the news and notes

and we did it all in a clean two hours. Love it. But we're not done yet because there was a bearing of the lead earlier. No, no. Before we go to that. Oh, okay, okay, okay, okay. I think I know where you're going.

But before you get to that, we have some updates from the proceedings today. Again, courtesy of our friend, Zach Arnold, who is following this very closely, fight opinion on X. He says, Judge Bulware is starting to find Hunter Campbell's. I can't recall routine, this is in quotes, to be. and credulous as chief chief legal officer. Hunter name drops Rich McNight and other attorneys outside counsel in UFC's orbit with legal advice responsibilities. Delangelo asked Hunter as chief legal officer at USC whether or not he was responsible for overseeing compliance by

employees for litigation holds Hunter wants specifics on what responsibilities mean. Judge Bullware immediately steps in. He's not buying anything from Hunter. So it seems like a little bit of a continuation from Hunter Campbell in terms of Dana White yesterday being like look man I don't do anything I passed it off to these guys now they have the guy that Dana White saying I passed this off to and Hunter Campbell's like

I don't know anything we got legal counsel over here so well in his defense they may have chose the wrong day to bring him in because we are now getting more here Hunter Campbell says he's still jet lag from his 22 hour trip from Australia Delangelo asking about Dana's old phones

being imaged at least two or three times maybe 21 or 22 speaking in 2021, 2021, 2022, speculating on time frame. Judge Bolwer steps in again. So Hunter Campbell not giving much. Yeah, I must say, like, based on just this blow by blow, the TikTok of what I've seen from yesterday and today, it obviously seems like the UFC is doing their best to just say, hey, we don't know. Like, you know, we presented everything that we have, and we don't know anything you're asking. for additional information.

I don't know how well that goes to them. It seems like ballware, you know, as Zach Arnold is implying, is kind of like that's wearing thin on him. So let's see where the UFC ends up on the back end of this. But it does not seem like he's taking the like shrug. Yeah, he's not taking too kindly to it. Yeah, exactly. Because while, you know, our main focus when we were talking was sort of like,

who's running the UFC? There's is like, we need to get to the bottom of these legal issues. And the missing. information, are their text messages missing? What happened to these phones? And, yeah, I will say it is a little bit weird for yesterday to have been like, I don't handle this stuff. That's the guy over there.

You want that Hunter Campbell guy. And now Hunter's in the seat and he's like, this guy, that guy? I can't remember shit, man. I actually, where are we right now? Let's see where this ends up. But again, very significant, right? You talked about, we already had the Kung Lee class action lawsuit, settled payments out.

Everybody kind of felt like, man, the UFC might have gotten off a little bit easy here, right? Like they just settled this money and they don't have to worry about this anymore. There's now two still pending pieces of litigation and this one, they are pressing very hard, it's seeming to get to get all the information from these cell phones, from these emails, from these Instagram DMs brought to light. So that's going to be very fascinating. It's going to be interesting to see where it goes. We'll keep a close eye on it.

Uncrown. We'll have all the coverage you need for that. I did mention one last piece of news that we got this week, a little bit buried, and I didn't really see many people talking about it. But it was with Quill and Sal Cild and Ariel Hawani interviewed him. And as he was asking questions, he broke a bit of news that no one really responds to. Here it is right here. We spoke to James Tihuna, who just opened.

a bakery over in, I think in Sydney. I feel like there's something there where people will really get behind it. I think I could. Perth Bakery shall be opened up. Let's go. I think so. That's good. Yes.

Yeah, so James Tihuna actually opened a bakery. Open up a bakery. And Ariel reconnected with James Zahuna. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he let Quillan's Alkild know and Quillan seem to know about a Perth Bakery. We actually have pictures here. Yeah. Oh, there he is.

Yeah, there it is. The Bakery Brothers, James Zahuna. Look at James in the back there. James Tihuna? Shout out. Wait a minute. Is that James Zahuna? Wait.

Wait, no. I think Ariel was talking about Tyson Pedro. No, wasn't it James Tuhuna? No, no, no. I think from the pictures here, I think he was talking about Tyson Pedro, actually. No, but surely he could not have again. Not again. Also, the way he...

The fucking way he teed it up. My favorite thing to recount from that interview with Taitui Vasa is, your boy James looking great in the boxing. And then he's just like, James Tihuna? James Tihuna? And Ariel teased it up to him and he's just like, did you see your boy James? Opened up a bakery.

We just spoke to James Tihuna. He opened up a bakery. Unfortunately, Quill and Salkild was not as versed in the... You know, for Taitoibasa, it's particular, Oh my God. It's his brother-in-law. Could you have fucking imagined if he was like, ah, your boy James just opened a bakery over in Perth? And he's like, Quill and Salkil's just like,

James Tudan? I would have lost my fucking mind. I would have absolutely died if he had it. I wish Quillan had been in the loop enough to call him out on it. That would have been so good. But yeah, again, almost 10 months later, Ariel once again mistakes Tyson Pedro for, James Tihuna, but Quillan didn't know enough to call him on it, so the interview just kept

right on rolling. We have reached the point where we need a piece of James Tihuna content. It's official. I need it like crack. We need the James Tihuna reunion, interview, Ariel, James, in some capacity. Zoom, let's go, let's go out and see him, his bakery and his boxing career. You owe it to him at this one. For sure.

Well, I mean, honestly, like, I actually think the one we owe, like, the one who's being most hard done is Tyson Pedro who's doing all these things. We need a James Jonah interview and then it's just Tyson Pedro on the screen. It's Tyson's Patriot's bakery, right? Yes, that is. So if we went to go to the bakery, like we owe him that, but now it confused. Yeah, it's the bakery. Well, to be fair, when we talk to this and Tyson Pedro was a very good sport about it,

when Ariel had Tyson Pedro on, he said he's still friends with James Tahuna. And he came to the bakery, like, he's inspired by James Tehuna. So I actually think there could be something funny. biggest legend in in Australia? No, but he is one of the like, the, obviously the reason why Ariel keeps mentioning James of Huna is like he was like one of the

OGs. He was one of the guys from that region to come into the UFC that like everybody knew, respected, he was a great fighter and so that memory sticks, that memory persists. I didn't mention it during the watch party, but every Australian card. Yeah. I keep my fingers crossed.

They're going to go to a celeb cam and it's going to be James Dona. And we just go crowd pop out of this world. Yes. Oh, there he is. There is James Dono. And it's Tysohnadeo.

Even the UFC fucks it up. That'd be amazing. But yeah, those big stuff, big breaking news there. Frank, do we have any voicemails? No, we don't. Oh, all right.

Thanks, ma'am. Ahoy, hoi. I just called it. I talked about the whole folk situation, but I'm calling it. I'll leave back because I forgot. I wanted to ask, since you guys are kind of going on them on the cooking revoke and this whole cooking segment, what about on a VITV episode? We do like a 15, 20 minute segment. Rick versus G.C. Something simple, maybe an appetizer or something. You guys, I don't know, bring hot plates or something and kind of cook off and see who wins. I know G. G.C. is trying to step up his cooking game. Rick is a dad. I'm assuming he cooks. something at some point. I'd love to see it. Frank is an all-time

level hater, so he's probably going to hate both dishes, but Frank should definitely be the judge. What do you guys think? Okay, uh, I personally love the idea. I don't want that smoke. I'm not... Let Jordan... Let Jordan take my spot. I like that. Me versus On Air Jordan,

uh, and it's like a beat Bobby Flee style thing and Rick is the judge. You know it'd smoke you. What was that? It was Jordan Did you say, you know, I smoke you into Jordan's mic, Frank?

It's Jordan. Also, can we talk about that guy's mic on the call? It sounded like he was doing, like, he was talking into an Xbox mic, but he, like, had it jammed up. When they stick it right in their mouth. Don't forget the lady. I used to do that back in the day.

Halo, Vito, Vito, Vito, Vito, Vito, Vito, Vito, Vito, Vito. What for the map? You don't like the map? Yeah, yeah. Don't forget the lady who called from the shitter. Like, we, you know, people just call from everywhere. I love that idea. Yeah, made a nice Thai curry coconut soup earlier this week. It was tremendous.

Yeah, been loving cooking. All right, when Jordan gets back from the bathroom, we'll ask him, but I don't want that smoke. I'm not, I am not culinaryly inclined. I am not. Uncrowned cookoff. I'm not a cookoff. I'm not a chef. I'm not a cook.

My takes, I can cook with my takes, but I cannot cook in the. Is there smoke alarms in here? Can we do it in here? Maybe we do it in the Just open the window In the main area Okay, all right, I like this I like this No, we'll do it in the main area

And are we doing it live? Yeah Now let's VOD it So we can put a little Live? I'm down for live No, it takes too long, it takes long I don't want to...

That's when you go to the oven You pull out the already made one You're like, oh, the power production We do something that doesn't need the oven Me's on place Yeah Huh? Come again?

Where you just have everything ready And it's just doon, doon, doon Doong, doong. How long are we thinking here? 20 minutes. He said 15.20 minutes. Chopped style. The producer that called in on the Xbox microphone said 15 minutes.

All right. We'll get Jordan's thoughts on it. I like this idea. I still vote VOD. I'm down. Boys in the back, how's it going? It's L.A. Rick here. Again, I just wanted to express my love for you guys.

one more time, my gratitude as well. Just this community that you guys have built. As I told you before, I've been following Ariel since the beginning. I'm a loyal USC fan since 1993, the Gracie Jitsu Days. And just, you know, watching this whole sport grow to these levels and being with Ariel and seeing the, you know, how this is, this family has gotten bigger with, With you, Eric, New York, Rick, reaching these levels of, you know, becoming who you are now to the show. The importance of who you are to this operation is amazing.

D.C., I love having you as part of this family again. You know, Frank, it's just amazing. And thank you guys for being with us every step of the way in this thing called Life, because some of us, you know, I love hearing those voicemail for people that truly depend on. you guys for those happy days, those happy moments, and I'm one of those people that cannot have a normal day without you guys. So, you know, this week with a, you know, these last few days with the

Michael Kiesa interview, amazing, the stories that we get to hear that we surprise ourselves sometimes with, you know, we think we know about the sport and the people and the athletes, but then we hear stories that are so deep. And then that Deonti Wilder interview, you know, the Chisora, wilder interview, amazing, man. This Deonté, just deep, deep shit. I love it.

Thank you so much. Thank you, Ariel, for doing what you're doing. The crack, Ben Folks, Chuck, you know, Pee-C, like, seriously, like what you guys are doing for us is just incredible. So thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for giving us so many weekly gifts, all these nuggets of laughter, of life, of MMA. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Ariel. for putting all the shit together.

You got fucking rock. Frank, you're the man, baby. You're the man. All right. Love you guys. Bye-bye. I love you too, brother. Appreciate the call, man.

It means a lot. Really does mean a lot. It doesn't take a little amount of effort. This takes a lot of effort to make this ship keep running, so we really appreciate your appreciation, man. It means a lot to us. Thank you, brother. Yo, boys in the back.

What's up, bro? It's jammer. Chip. Jammer. So I was thinking about it And the UFC Just let another fight Flip through their hands

With Patty versus Ilya I know You know I was out Whatever He had to do what he had to do But I just feel like

Now we're never going to get that fight And the heat on that fight It was just fucking awesome I wanted to see it But anyways It made me think I got a blind ranking for you here GC Let's blind rank these five

Wish we could have had them matchups. Okay. I guess there could have been a better way to say that. But anyways, here's the list. Yeah. Starting with number one. There's five of them.

Number one, Jorge versus Leon. Ooh, I'll go. You know, we saw the first round of that fight. We saw the first 10 seconds, you know, the three piece in the soda hurt around the world, but I really just wish we would have seen the conclusion in the cage. I actually think that Leon probably would have worked him, but... Three.

We'll never know. I'll go three. But anyways, what about John versus Francis? That's wonderful. Not John versus Tom, but John versus Francis. I feel like that's a way more exciting matchup. And we never got to see it. People, we've moved on to, you know, talking about how John has ducked Tom,

but people forget that he ducked Francis initially. So, and then Dana spun it to where somehow Francis ducks John, but we all know. Real ones know what happened there. Anyways, next one. Tony versus Abed. Fuck.

Two. I feel like that's obvious, an obvious one. Feels like that might have been 211. And the next one is

Connor versus Jake Paul. You can do it whatever way you want, boxing or MMA. I feel like MMA is a little more interesting,

but yeah, hypothetically. Yeah. I would have loved to have seen that happen, but I think it's like never going to happen now. Yeah.

And the last one, one that I've just, I'm really disappointed that we never got to see. And that's Todd Duffy versus John Valante. Anyways, dude, guys. Love it. I'm fucking whizzy, man. That should have been my one.

But we're half to Slate at 4. Shout out to Todd Buffy. Shout out to John Valenti. That was a solid list, though. Shout out, Timor. I'm very, uh, I'm content with my list. I feel like John and Francis is actually number one for me too. Yeah.

Habib Tony, too. Who do you say for three? Jorge and Jorge Leon. Yeah, yeah, yeah. John Valante, Todd Duffy. and then McGregor, Jake Ball. I'm with it. I'm with it.

All right. Boys, pound for pound best cooks, and we're going to leave the number one cook off. Who's that? And his sidekick. Made more money than anybody else. Inspired millions to switch their job and hopes of making more money.

And that is, of course, Walter White and Jesse Pinkin with the blue stuff. They cooked the best shit. Everybody loved it. And they made the most money, most famous. and I can't believe we missed the mark and let them out. Shout out for two legends.

Shout out to two legends. My favorite show of all time. Shout out the Breaking Bad. Do you think there actually wasn't upticking drug dealers after that? I don't know. They made it look pretty cool. Popularized it.

It made it look pretty cool. What's up, boys in the back? Shout out the show. Shout out Ariel, go on to the Olympics. Shout out. Shout out Sally and his call a couple weeks ago.

I was about 10, 15 minutes ago found out my mom has stage four cancer of some sort. They're not sure where, but there's nothing I can say that hasn't already been said by people in the community before. But like, you guys are my best friends and some of my, the most reoccurring voices in my head every day. but I just wanted to let you guys know how your family keep them close yeah that's a good message man I'm very sorry to hear that man

I know that that's not easy dealing with a diagnosis like that my mom was diagnosed with cancer when I was younger it wasn't stage 4 but still was an incredibly heavy time so I imagine it's even more heavy for you that's incredibly tough to deal with and appreciate you

Colin man if you know whatever we can do if we're just a little help you man um i i hope we can be uh but yeah man try to try to hang in there and and yeah yeah it's just that's just not easy it's not easy no really well said shout out to sully who kind of was vulnerable and all the people who have followed that lead and express some some messages like that it means the world to us but yeah if we can help in any way our our little part that we do uh we're very thankful that you're you're along for this ride with us yeah man

thinking of you praying for you yeah uh and just try to hang in there man that's that's that's that's That's brutal. Boys, Eric from Detroit. Got two things for you. First thing, thank for defending the illustrious Little Seasons Arena last week. Thank you, bro. No idea why Ariel always shifts on Detroit whenever it's brought up. Probably because the pistons are in first place.

Two, with the Winter Olympics starting, if MMA were in the Olympics, which countries would win gold, silver, and bronze? Shout out Boom Boom, Boom, Hawk Jam. Love you guys. Can we hear what you say? Shout out to the Boom Boom Hulk Jam. I need to rock that shirt, man. I think it's been getting dust in my closet lately.

Shout out to Des Moines. Who would win? Also, shout out to the big breadstick, most importantly. Shout out to Little Caesar's Arena. One of the preeminent arenas in all of the United States. Fantastic venue. Olympics? Would?

Russia gold. Well, Dagestan, right? Yeah, but that's going to be, they're going to be representing Russia. Then that's a no brain. No brainer. No brainer. Brazil? Brazil will probably do very well.

Silver? Who else? That's probably the two biggest right now. And then you're going to see like someone else pop up for for maybe Georgia.

Depends where Ilya is representing. That's interesting. But are these guys going to the Olympics is the question. Yeah, we're just playing in a fantasy world where it's like the best fighters go. Because even at the

the mid to low tier, I feel like Dagestanians would like clean up. Yeah. Yeah, so I think it's Russia, Brazil, and then it's going to be like some wild card takes bronze. It'd be really interesting to watch. Can I break the fourth wall here?

Sure. About 10 minutes ago, the screen on my computer just went completely yellow. Oh, boy. And it hasn't gone back to normal yet, and I don't know. Have you power cycle? I'm about to.

I'm about to. This has happened to me. just unlock it and it's fine. Is that not happening for you? Oh, fuck, it worked. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, unlocking it worked. Wow, shout out. Hey, that wasn't the first thing you tried to do. Look, man. We're getting some serious phone calls and my shit just went,

my shit just went completely yellow. I'm just giving you shit because I heard you called me out when I was taking a little break. Yeah, you were like, you said that my cooking sucked. He said he could, none of that's true. We said you were in every way. We said you were in the bathroom and that you couldn't respond. He said you were going to show me like. He even said he could go to the bathroom better than you. You said you won every challenge on the Averon, so you're going to win every challenge in the kitchen?

This is me and all my cooking belts. None of that's true, actually. I respect you as a great opponent in the kitchen. The kitchen isn't a place for disrespect. Oh, okay. So Frank just lied to me. He did, as he typically does. But yeah, here's me and all my cooking titles.

Thank God, my computer went back to normal. God. I haven't back to- to let GSD know that there's a I just need a whole new laptop man It's been shitting the bed lately Someone that had to replace his laptop Recently

Be careful what you wish for it It sucks Like we were halfway through the show And I was like oh crap I forgot this one file That's still on the old one Yeah I'm just gonna hard drive Hold Bad Boy over

Smart I should have done that Yeah you should have thought of that man Yeah Yeah should have thought About not drinking the year of Amante over my laptop That one morning

Holy shit can we break the fourth wall And tell us We already have I thought you guys had already exposed this Oh no Since I get excited when I'm drinking the old Yerba. We were in the control room, you know, just having our, you know, morning discussion.

I'm standing up. I'm telling Frank something I was looking forward to. And he just pours an entire Yerba Mante on his keyboard. We should stay for the record so that if GSD ever came across his videotape, he did not just pick up a can and pour it onto the... Essentially. Like, Yerba Mote makes me faster. I thought the computer would maybe go on to overdrive.

That's essentially what he did. And as someone who... Clipping this to send him. Who one time, me and my boy, it was St. Patrick's Day, beginning of March Madness, noon tip off, and I'm finishing an assignment in class and we're like, let's go March Madness, green beers, cheers them. Thing just busts straight on to my computer. Before I could even look at my computer, shit went black, never turned on again, completely

dead. So when I saw Frank do that, I was just like, you're fucked. I thought he was fucked. And you all just took turns pointing and laughing. shit, I wouldn't grab you paper towels. You had your hands in your pocket and you were just like, well, we'll get them next time. Yeah, you really? You were very passive in that scenario?

Connor was the most concerned. Do you remember when Connor was like, you know, something about Frank, there's calmness under an emergency? That's all that was. I can't undo that. Are you too calm when you poured an entire Yerba Mote on two years? What am I going to do? Pull out a straw and reverse the process? Like, it's done.

Clean it? I don't think you know how this works. Try and dry it off. When I told IT about it, I was like, there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with it, though. They were like, it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. And we need to replace that laptop. Yeah, I put 17 ounces of ice cold Yeramante right between the D and the F. Here's the real incriminating card.

So I'm not sure why it's still working. Nowhere am I messaging to them does it say Yerba Mante? It says water. But when they see these sticky ass keys, they're going to be like, I'm like, what's in the water? They're going to pull it out and they're going to be like, it smells like bluephoria. That's Fourier? A. Yerba Mante? No, no, no, sorry, it's Yerba Madre.

Yeah, what up, BITB. This is an Ethan calling from Northern Alberta. I left some recent questions on the nose about the NICs, but I had to get my first voicemail in on my favorite show this week. Now that the NICs are back on track, I actually have to talk about some MMA stuff on the MMA show, but I'm going to ramble a little bit about myself first. A little bit of background of 25 years old.

Been happily married for three and a half years now, and with the wife for seven years, that's a February 2nd, so that's big. My wife does not fuck with MMA, though, at all. So I'm always watching by myself or with the boys. Anyhow, last night, you know, me and the wife, watching some jeopardy, like married couples do. And guess which ad I'm getting on the TV?

Muckleshoe Casino. And the wife says, hey, that place actually looks pretty nice. Shut up. Washington isn't that far. Shut up. Interesting. So what I'm wondering is, is this a sign? that me and the wife got to make the 15-hour pilgrimage

so that we can come meet the boys in the back and she can see why I love this show so much if show, what do we get? No, I'm just joking. All jokes aside, love you guys, love the show. Shout out to the woke front wrench and the man himself, Ariel Halwani. Most of all, shout out to Franklin Mysterious for putting me on to Poppy last year. What do you think of that new album, King?

Thanks a lot, guys. Love the show. Take it easy. Holy shit. What a call. Fantastic call. Amazing call. so many things to get into from that. First and foremost, you saw 15 hours to muckle shoot casino and you were like, it's not that far? That's insane.

Secondly, yes, you should absolutely come. It will be unbelievable. We will be at muckle chute, all right? I'm just going to say, spoiler, we're going to be at muckleshoot. We're going to be a fucking muckle shoot, all right? This might as well be the official announcement. The boys in the back become the boys in the muck.

We will be at the shoot for UFC, Seattle. it's going to be unbelievable. Going to do a show from there, not like a live show with a fan audience, but we're going to do a show from there. Thirdly, convince her why she loves, why you love M. May get her to love it, it will be a massive letdown for her to meet two schmucks,

a bald guy and a guy with a nice hairline, but, you know, very unimpressive in stature. It really will not, it will not help her case at all. We actually have met people at events, and they're just like, dude, I'm such a huge fan, and their girlfriends will be, like, this is who you watch, like these fucking clowns. They're just standing there smiling like this, like nodding along.

They're like, man, fuck these guys. Who the fuck these guys are? Lastly, on mine, and then we can get to everyone else's. He mentioned the Knicks. There was a lot of panic around this office, around this control room, around this studio about the New York Knickerbockers and their play in the basketball court. It's as if there was only just someone who was sitting there a steady voice the whole time and being like, the Knicks are going to be fine.

The Knicks are going to be fine. the Knicks are going to be fine. Don't worry about it. Soon enough, they'll be in the playoffs as a two-seed. It'll all be good. Sure enough, the New York Knicks have won eight straight and they now find themselves a two-see.

Just want to say, you know. If only there had been a steady voice being like, yeah, I think Frank is here to steady us and be like, you'll win a double overtime against the Joker. Yep, yep, yep. I think it's like a plus 180 point differential through the eight games.

I think they had their largest victory in franchise history. It's just almost like... And I'm glad they didn't trade for Janus, you know? You're glad? Oh, fuck. If only there was just someone there who was like, yeah, don't panic. The Knicks are going to be fine.

This offseason is going to be bad if the Knicks don't get Yonis. Okay, what else did he say? Frankie Poppy? Yeah. I'm glad that you're enjoying that. The new album came out, I want to say, what, two weeks ago. It's not my favorite. I've listened to it a couple of times now.

I'm not really big into Jordan Fish's involvement in her last two albums. I will say from a technical point, like, it has got more dynamic range than the one from last year did. So I'm happy with that. I just doing this phase, go for it. That's the one thing I like about Poppy is like each album kind of has a different era to it, for lack of a better way of describing that. So I'm just looking forward to what the next one will be, but still want to check out the shows and I appreciate the support. Nice. We're going to the muck. Was there anything else in that call? That call is so good.

Got married early. Got married early. Very similar to my brother. My oldest brother got married at 23. But yeah, we'll be at the muck for a few days before you of Seattle, not the whole time, but we'll be at the muck. So we'll provide more details to come. But maybe you make that 15-hour drive and you get to meet me and Connor and your girlfriend, uh, wife, sorry, your wife gets to be like, oh, okay, and not get it at all. Um, we got Hawaiian in the chat, live from Italy. He's, he's shitting on you, Frank.

What's Frank on about? And he says, from him in the chat. God, I miss you so much, Frank. What was that, Frankie? Yeah, shut up. What an asshole. Boys in the back, Salam al-a-a-a-a-com, Matt from Dagestan.

My question this week is for Connor. You are at the top of the mountain right now with memes. I look forward to your fight day numbered card memes every single week. The one you did a few weeks ago, which was Patty Pimlet, strolling to the title shot. Meanwhile, Justin Gae with the battlefield footage of all the explosions and gunshots going around them, it was the perfect

meme. I sent it to all of my friends that I watched fights with. Talk about how long it takes you to do these memes. Is there a team behind them? You're at the top of the mountain, my friend. Take a bow. I'll hang up and listen. I appreciate that. I really do.

You know, I feel like some people forget that, like, you know, they think I've fallen off on the meme game. the 324 memes were we're going nuclear several like 10k 15k likes in there on on Twitter the issue is we're doing so many more shows now so like I'm so locked in on the show from Monday through Thursday that I kind of just dump post them on Saturdays so it's sort of like fries the engagement a little bit what I need to do is be posting them throughout the week so like more people can see them there is no team behind it it is literally just me and this computer

that consistently runs out of space and I have to restart it. The amount of times that I've been like balls deep in a meme and I'm like, out of space, have to restart it is killing me. But yeah, just me. How long does it take me? Not that long. It doesn't take me that long. I mean, I've been doing this for like four years now, so we just, we just fired it up.

But the love's appreciated, man. The love is, it's appreciated. How long do your little artist series posters take you? That takes much longer. That takes much longer. Yeah, going to keep it. keep posting those, going to keep posting those, no matter how bad I am. A lot of support,

a lot of support. Several people are like, hey, you did it, man. It's shit. And I'm just like, I appreciate it, dude. I understand that it's shit. That's not the point of this. But yeah, shout to the memes. I really enjoy making those, and I really enjoy when the gate you want, especially.

I knew that one was good. I was laughing as I was posting it. And then when it delivers, it feels good. So shout out. What's up, boys? Holly from Chicago here. I got to say the Armand interview from this week, maybe one of my favorite interviews of all time. The guy is just so hilarious.

That's it.com. I don't know what to say. It's the randomest thing I've ever heard, but it's so funny. On that topic, if you can only ever use one drop for the rest of the history of this podcast, what's it going to be? What works in every situation? What's the funniest? All of you guys, let me know. what's the one drop you could use

That's it.com might be the answer for me. Random as hell. So funny. All right, peace. Can we get to that's it.com, Frankie? That's it.com. So good. God, it really is fantastic.

We've been asked this a few times. The Who's to Check fits in with just about everything. It's so good. My favorite always is going to be who the fuck is we, but you can only use that so many times. Who the fuck is we?

God, it's so good. The way he says it, what he's talking about. Like, that is mid-interview, and it's just cut so perfectly, and it's been so, like, renowned that several times I can just post the picture of Porreier being, like, like, looking pissed, and people know what I'm talking about. I love that one. For me, it's still James Tehuna because of the bad. That's a bullshit.

James Tehuna is just, James Tehuna is just undefeated. Okay, I also. Keep my fucking name out your mouth. an all-timer. That's an all-timer. Like, I also completely agree with Ariel when he's just like, I love when I see people commenting and it's the drops and everything like that, especially on ones that don't make sense. But like, I commented on Armand's video where he's snowboarding and like just said something about it and like people started replying. No, tell us what you said. Don't just say I said something about it. What'd you say? What'd you say to

Aramins-sur-Ukian? Have we seen the video? We've seen the video where he's, where he's snowboarding, and like he eats the bread, the bread gets delivered. No. You haven't seen it? We saw this on Monday on the Ariel Hohmani show. Can I make a confession? Yeah. I'm not as like locked into the Armin food shit as you guys. I got post notice on, bro.

I'm just not. I got post notice on for Armin. Armand's great. The food, the, the, like. I know that Arias. I don't think we have the video in the system, but he's snowboarding. You know, this is great for the audience here. Yeah, yeah, he snowboarding.

He's snowboarding and he gets handed bread and he gets handed a drink. Yeah, coconut water or something. Yeah, coconut water. it and then he eats shit. It's all time. It's great shit. What'd you say? From Armin.

But look at the bread guy. You can see the bread guy. The audience can see this. Oh, here's the bread guy. Pulls up with the baguette, grabs the baguette, ducks down and then just rolls off. So I comment, why was Bread Boy so smooth with it? And, you know, people were, you know, got a lot of likes, no big deal. But people commented, that's it.com.

Who's to check? That's it. That's it. It's to check. Who's to check? Yeah, I also know that inevitably, if I also know that inevitably, if I'm, you Armand posts anything, Ariel will send it. So I don't need to like follow and be religious with my Armisturiki and food content.

Yeah, we did play it on Monday. Dude, we were running around. Yeah, you guys are busy. You're so busy. Yeah, I know it's nice for you. You know, you can take a vacation in the middle of the show. Unfortunately, I don't have that option. All right?

I was a little bit busy on Monday. Oh, was there a new deck of magic cards that hit the old website? No, that's not what happened. You know, we had a few guests in. Go to chat my man. Got a coordinate them. Really hard this week and I'm really proud of everybody on this team.

Frank actually, you know, he's given a lot of shit, but Frank kind of hero this week. Was he? Yeah, for me, at least. Wait, what did you do that was heroic? I saved a man from drowning. Who? He saw someone.

That's true. Who is to check? That's all the voicemails. No, seriously. What does he done that was heroic? Frank saved some audio that was very necessary. Oh, the job? His job?

You say what? Your job is to produce the show and be aware of the content that's going over it. His job. He said Somalia? Somalia, yeah. Some audio. Oh, some audio. He has a speech impediment.

Leave him alone. Jeez. Aye, aye, aye. It's all good, man. No, everyone's working really hard this week. It's been fun. Who the fuck is we? From what I saw, Ariel's out hitting the ski slopes.

Hibing the ski slopes. Did we break the fourth wall? Is he skin or what are you saying there, Frankie? Those mountains are like his library at home, right? They're fake. They look so good. They can't be real. The best part about the video was the constant traffic.

Car. He's like, what's a good spot to record this right by the highway? You can see in the reflection of his sunglasses. Just the problem is his spatial awareness. Like we've walked through Manhattan. while he's on his phone and almost got hit by car. Like, this is not where he should be cutting videos. Nah, he did great.

Fuck, I love it. I love it. Was that actually the last voicemail? Yes. Any super chats, brother? Don't give me fucking attitude, Frank. And this is the only super chat. It was one of two.

Only super chats. Damn. Let's go. The only super chat, but not. We said we weren't reading this one earlier. Now we are. Let's go. Boys of the Back Month.

My goats and quotes. Shout out Luke. The ITBM. Boys in the back month. And finally, have a good Thursday, Eric. Oh. Wow.

Shout out to me. Hey, Mr. Achilles Jr. Yay. Shout to Killis Jr. Love it. Yeah, I suppose this is boys

in the back month. You know? Whether you're happy or sad, you're going to be getting a lot more of me and Rick. Yeah, I don't give a fuck if you're happy or sad. February. The comments are going to be great on Monday's show.

Where the fuck is Ariel? Who the fuck are these clouds? And is that Jorge Mazurah? Yeah, it is going to be Jorge Mazbado's YouTube channel. Wow. Two hours and 40 minutes flew by. We had a lot to get into. A lot of news and notes covered.

I feel like my head is spinning. I feel like David Feldman just left. Before we sign off, let's do one last little check-in on the proceedings on the trial. Oh, yes. Did we have something? We have some new ones. from Fight Opinion, Zach Arnold shoutout

who's been chronicling this whole thing. I mean, you must follow his his threads on this because he's just doing it tick by tick by tick by tick doing an incredible job. Hunter Campbell said he went to Dana White's house including his movie room and Hunter's own house to try to find Dana's missing phone.

So we're still looking for that missing phone. Judge Bull War says there are several years of missing data so did you find other older Dana phones? Where are the other iPhones for Mr. White in the cabinet? Hunter said the older phones were small and scale. Bullware is trying to pin down on Hunter Campbell that there was more than one missing phone or two

with older UFC data given five to seven years of missing text messages. So they are really trying to like narrow in on some of these old Dana White phones saying that there's multiple missing. It's not just like, hey, he switched his phone this one time. Delangelo asking Hunter about instructing data to preserve his data and taking his phone to vendor. any other steps to ensure Dana preserve phone data? Not that I'm aware of from Hunter Campbell.

What other steps did Dana take to preserve phone data? Hunter Campbell, no, I don't know what he did. So basically, here's a good summary by Zach. Hunter Campbell playing the technophobe card saying he doesn't have an Instagram, relied on Eric Ye and Elliot Howard. Elliot was the longtime videographer for Dana White's phone data preservation, upgraded, new apps downloaded. They were responsible.

Dana or Hunter relied on them to navigate social media. So it looks like more of the kind of like we don't know what's going on here. And it seems like the judges are not convinced. So let's see how this plays out. Yeah. We'll have to continue to monitor the situation. I'm sure it will be a lengthy proceeding to get to a result. Where's the cell phone?

Dana. Find the cell phone. Dan, Dana. Where's the phone, huh? I bet that guy knows where it? is. What's his name again? Michael Goldstein? David Goldenberg.

David Goldenberg. Shout out to him. I'm seeing it in the chat, man. What? Pound for pound. Why no list, guys? No list? Worst show of 2026.

Question mark. That's a great point. Question mark. We had a lot of stuff to get through today. Ariel, reprimand them for doing no list. I did make a list. We were going to do pound for pound Mario games and honor of Mario Batista. Yeah, there was a lot to do today.

the good news is you're going to see us three times next week so we'll have an opportunity to do pound for pound on one of those shows oh wow congrats what did aerial say let me hear oh wow congrats again he said that he was americ citizen right yeah three years ago like a massive deal for it like this oh no congrue i'm going to start doing that to people when they tell me shit that i don't care about i wish that one was a little cleaner and it'd be perfect no it's it's actually better than it isn't clean he literally was sitting there Oh, wow, converse. It's too... Should we say, oh, can you say it again, but with a little bit higher on the register?

Frank, what is this? I don't like, I don't like this. I don't like this. I don't like this. This is not... Fuck no, man. Fuck on her. Try sitting back here with him for two hours and four to three minutes.

Go back to cutting the show. Why is Frank on edge today? Why? What's up with Frank? It's his birthday. Remember at lunch when we were like, Frank, where are you taking her? And he was like, out back to put a bullet in her head. He said that?

He did say this. All right. The sex. What the fuck is happening right now? So now that we've moved off of Frank Herdering his wife, are you taking her to dinner? Is this like a confession?

Is this like a weird, like he's leaving this behind as an artifact of something that's to come? I will just say about pound for pound Mario 64 was my number one. Same. And paper Mario was on there. Somewhere.

Actually, Mario RPG was my number one. Mario 64 was my number two. Mario, Mario. Wait, what? RPG was on there. Mario Sunshine? What did I say? Mario? Yeah, Mario. Super Mario. I've never played Mario Galaxy.

It's a Super Mario World. Yeah, so it feels like, uh, no, I'll play Super Mario World, yeah. Is it Wario? Shout out to Wario, bro. No, that's Wario. But it's Mary. Hey, hey, look in the chat. Tripno Ticks TV. No, the Boa checking in.

No. I took the John Jones video. What did he say? He said, Noah the Boa checking in. Okay, but... Did you take them on meta glasses? How did this come to be? What happened?

We got to stick around for two more minutes to wait for him to say something. He said, I'm Noah the Boa. Let me talk my shit. This actually is him because it's at Trip, no Ticks TV. All right. Super Mario Galaxy goaded.

I think Super Mario Galaxy is my next one. Was it? No RPG? I love RPG, but I want to try Super Mario Galaxy. We got to find out. Galaxy is the best 3D one for sure. Wow, I got to try it because I love fucking space.

Oh, that's not a wish. Kama. space to get a room. Yeah, all right. I love space and I love Mario. Without the sex. About the sex. All right, Trip, Tripno Tick's TV. You got 30 seconds to get it in. Hit us. We're bouncing.

So I have to know what about. Follow them on TikTok at at Tripno Tick's TV. Yeah. This is much like our Jalen Turner caller who was like putting the thing on blast and then being like, yo, why did you guys put me on blast? Let me talk my shit. All right, bro, you got the opportunity. All right, let's go. Type faster.

He actually is a fighter. I did see him on TikTok. He does fight him. Oh, he's a fighter. He does fight himself. So shout out to him. Oh, shut up. Love that.

Mario Paint. Wow. This is confession. Mario Kart. Yeah, Mario Kart. Which one? Bebble Dach? No, just 8?

64. 64. Cart 64 is not the best one. What? nostalgic speaking to you. I was going to say Natalia. That's Natalia Silva speaking to you about Mario Carts.

I mean, you know, I'd like that. But 64 was definitely the best system. Like MarioCart 64? Have you played 8? N64 was the best system and the games within that platform are the best ones.

I really enjoyed DoubleDash. Mario 64, Mario Kart 64, the Smash Brothers on 64. Why are you saying Mario? That's how you say it. Oh, you don't. It's been confirmed several times. It's Mario.

Is this like a New York thing? No. Can you give us like... Thank you. Yeah. Do it. A Mario. He doesn't say, it's a me. A Mario. Also, you called him Mario Batista all day.

Yes, many New Yorkers, particularly those with traditional NYC or Italian-American accent, pronounced Mario as Mario. well they're wrong I don't know what to tell you 007 Goldnye great game Mario DK 64 is one

that people sleep sleep on how do you say Florida Florida yeah we say that different I feel like how do you say

Florida Ocarina of time another great one 64 yeah I know I'm listing great 64 they're the best it's the best one

mask Wave Racer Wave Racer Jesus you get that one for free with your fucking purchase Nah wave Racer was sick

Shout out Conquers Bad Fur Day? That was a crazy one. And 64. All right, here we go, here we go. Noah the boa. Metaglasses. John came up to me in Buckley.

Buck was recording too. Plus I got a light on my meta glasses so he knew I was recording. Yeah, he did peep. He did look. Wait, who's Buckley? Joaquin Buckley? I would assume, yeah. For real?

Yeah. Yeah, that's the story. Joachim Buckley was standing there too. That's who John was actually talking to. Yeah. Oh, shit. Rick. Tetris is the best game of all time.

He's saying I would say that? Yeah. I mean, Tetris is a fucking amazing game. Billy Madison. Yo, I'm seeing mad love for DK64 in the chat. That was one of my favorites. Shout out. I'm telling you.

So. WWF, no mercy. Confirm, 64 is the best system. I mean, they had a pod racing game. Frank, I think you're forgetting having to blow on the tapes to be able to work and hitting the repeatedly. Oh, no, the game. Same cartridges, whatever, Frank. You're in a, you're in a Nintendo S&S era.

By 64, it was kind of sorted out. I was blowing that shit hard. Same. Pause. Shout out. Diddy Kong Did he? What, did he? Did he? Blowing that shit hard and did he? Yeah, wait. Diddy Kong racing was fire.

Banjo Kazooey, Banjo-Tooey? Don't sleep. Major's Mask. Aux Arena at the time gets too much love. Major's Mask is also fire. No, no, no. Agarina at Time was incredible. Major's mask was over. Consider this to pound for pound. N64.

That was pretty much it. Yeah, big recap. I don't know what else to say. You stuck with us for the next few weeks, motherfuckas. But first, crack tomorrow. Crack tomorrow. We're back on Monday. Pizzi will be joining us. Not in studio.

He's too lazy to fly over. And then we're back Tuesday. Uncrowned Doc on Wednesday. Then we're back Thursday. Then the crack again. Then we've got to do it all over again. While Ariel is holding it down at the Olympics. That's it for us.

Great show. I got a piss. We're out of here. See you Monday. Crack first. Tomorrow.