The Ariel Helwani Show - Demetrious Johnson, Eddie Hall, Vladyslav Heraskevych IN STUDIO, Terrence McKinney, Johnny Eblen, news and notes

Episode Date: March 31, 2026

Ariel Helwani is joined right away by new UFC Hall of Famer Demetrious Johnson, who kicks off the show discussing training with Khamzat Chimaev, his YouTube channel, Israel Adesanya's loss, and more (05:24). Eddie Hall joins Ariel to preview his Misfits boxing match against Tommy Fury and discuss how the fight got made, retiring at 40, having new fights already lined up, and more (34:22). Lance Gibson Jr. makes his show debut following a big weekend at UFC Seattle, discussing his rural lifestyle, battling peace at home versus violence at work, beekeeping, sparring Demetrious Johnson, and more (1:02:21). Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych joins us in-studio to discuss being banned from the 2026 Olympics, the helmet that got him banned, and being the first Ukrainian skeleton racer to qualify for the Winter Olympics (1:38:08). Johnny Eblen checks back in following a successful night at PFL Pittsburgh to discuss his win over Brian Battle, a potential rematch against Costello van Steenis, bringing back the Bellator name, and more (2:29:21). Terrence McKinney joins the show to talk about his big knockout win at UFC Seattle, having the shortest average fight time in history, never getting a UFC bonus, what's next for his career, and more (3:09:04). Ariel finishes the show alongside Conner to discuss a potential PFL rebrand and Nate Diaz vs. Conor McGregor 3, then wraps up by answering your Super Chats (3:29:39).

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Earth. Tuesday, March 31st, 2000. And 26, hello again, everyone. I sure hope you're doing well. It is great to be here on a beautiful spring day in New York City. So happy to be here. And I do want to remind you, this is our final show before our little spring break. That doesn't mean we are just disdain.

disappearing on all of you on crowned.com. The lights never shut off over there. So shout it to the whole team, led by the great Shaheen Al Shadi. Tomorrow's special edition of the crack live at 1 p.m. Eastern. Pizzi, Ben, Chuck, the whole crew. Thursday, Friday, barring, breaking news, which, as you know, happens quite often, will be dark. Monday new uncrowned film about Cub Swanson's final dance. It's going to be a doozy, going to be an incredible one.

That's coming out. have fight feasts, hopefully a little Seattle vlog action. So we won't keep you in the dark completely, but as far as this particular program is concerned, final one until the Monday after, 327, April 13th. So it's about four shows total. We loaded the deck yesterday, six guests on the program. We're loading the deck today, another six guests, including one in studio guests. And our first guest is going to be here in a matter of seconds.

So stay tuned for that. Let me tell you who's on today's program and what we'll be talking about on today's program. I do have some very interesting news regarding the proposed PFL rebrand. That is to come later in the show. Stay tuned for that. Back end of the program. Terrence McKinney is going to join us. T-Rex coming off the great win on Saturday.

All this man does is either win in the first round or lose in the first round. It's unbelievable. And he has yet to win a bonus of any kind in the UFC. Unfathomable. As of right now, he has surpassed the great Tom Aspinall for shortest average fight time for any one of his UFC fights combined. It's amazing. I think it's at 2.16, 2 minutes and 16 seconds. Average fight time.

Killer be killed with T.Rex. And he's one of the most exciting fighters in the sport in the organization. You know, sometimes he lives by the sword. Sometimes he dies by the sword. He's always very fun. We'll talk to him about all of that and more. Prior to that, we'll be joined by another main event winner. Yesterday we had three of them from Saturday on the program.

Mos Zetauma, Armin Sarukian, Joe Pfeiffer. We'll get the fourth. There were five major events on Saturday. The other big winner, of course, Sebastian Fondora. On this show, we'll talk to Johnny Eblen, the now former Bellator Middleweight champion who annihilated Brian Battle in battle's PFL debut. He's 100% going to fight Costel Van Steenis next,

barring any craziness or injuries or anything like that. Looking forward to talking to Johnny Eblen, one of the best middleweights in the world about the big win and where he goes from here. Prior to that, we're going to be joined by a very special guest. Vladislav Harrisievich. You may have heard of Vladislav Harriscavich during the 26 Winter Olympic Games that wrapped up last month in Milano Cortina. He was for about two, three days, the biggest story of the games.

A Ukrainian skeleton racer who ultimately was disqualified. He was Ukraine's flag bearer, by the way. He was ultimately disqualified. I never got to compete because he showed up wearing a helmet that depicted 24 Ukrainian athletes who unfortunately were killed during the Russia-Ukraine war. He wanted to honor them. He wanted to pay homage to them. And the IOC said, you can't do that.

And he, you know, he stood his ground. He didn't want to wear a black armband. That's what they proposed. He said he wanted to wear the helmet. They said no and ultimately decued him. He's in New York. I spoke up saying that I thought it was an injustice. I thought that they made a mistake.

I thought it wasn't propaganda. It wasn't any type of war symbolism or anything like that political symbolism. And I thought they got it wrong. He's going to be in studio to talk about it all. He's also a former amateur boxer and also a big fight fan and a lot of fighters, including the Klitschko brothers, Vladimir and Vitali, including Alexander Usik. A lot of fighters from Ukraine stood up on his behalf. And I very much appreciated them doing that and very much appreciated.

everything that he stood for. So I'm really looking forward to talking to him. Prior to that, we're going to be joined by Lance Gibson Jr., who picked up his first UFC win, the son of Lance Gibson Sr. I think just one of three father-son duos to ever compete in the UFC. So pretty cool stuff.

We'll talk to him about the win, and of course the muckle shoot fight series, which spawned the whole trip to Seattle for the boys. And prior to that, oh, we're going to be joined by Eddie Hall, the beast, the big man, who's fighting Tommy Fury in June. This fight was announced. Always great to talk to him.

He is one of a kind. But first, we shall begin with a very special guest. And you know, there I am watching UFC Seattle on Saturday night. It's a great card, card of the year, six finishes in the main card slot and all that stuff. But to me, the highlight was all of a sudden out of norah. I had no idea that this was going to happen. And maybe I should have known. But you know how it is.

No idea. There we see a video package about Dimitri. Johnson, who hasn't been talked about much in the UFC as of late. And there we see DJ with his lovely family, with his wife, his two kids, one was not in attendance. And there we find out that he is going to be inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame later on this year in July. And this warm my heart to no end. This man is one of the greatest fighters of all time on my Mount Rushmore. This is a man who should have been in the UFC Hall of Fame already. But it's okay. It's okay. Better late than never. And it wasn't egregious. It wasn't egregious. But there was some doubt whether

or not it would ever happen. It made me so very happy to see him get those flowers on Saturday. And I can't wait to see him get his proper flowers at the induction ceremony in July. He is kind enough to join us right here and now to talk about it all. There he is. Mighty Mouse himself. Hello, DJ. How are you? I'm doing a good, Ariel. Thanks, having me on again. Look at you from the Santos studio over there. I see you sparring with Hamza yesterday doing a little this, a little that. It's an unbelievable thing, a world tour of sorts. Yeah, we're out here in California. We're at the Jackson Media House.

And last night, you know, Homelight is working extremely hard. And I mean hard, almost where, you know, I don't miss it. A man is a machine. And so after the video just showed, he just got them working out. And then I was teaching.

I was working with his team. Just kind of showing some stuff I like to do and how I work on my movement. And then Hansel was like, come on down. Come on. Let's move around a little bit. he's so fucking strong and big man like sometimes i forget i'm five three but i have a heart

of a fucking giant i'm like i can i can fight him yeah it didn't work out that way are you a part of the team are you a part of the camp or just doing some training videos with him like we've seen you do with tj arman and others i'm not part of the camp i'm just out here doing some videos i got to shoot today with man's health and some stuff for jackson and he's in town and uh i'm gonna work out with him today i'm going to join wrestling practice and uh we'll create some content but I am not worthy to be on that team. Everyone on that team is undefeated. Every single one of them are undefeated.

So for me, I'm just here showing some love, bring some good vibes, good energy, and that's it. I do want to say I am loving these videos. Like the interviews are fun, but you kind of dropping into these different camps and learning these different, you know, styles, tendencies, whatever routine that they go. It's fascinating stuff.

Like, I could see this being a series. And I know you're kind of doing it on your own and you're killing it on YouTube, but like DJ kind of dropping it. in and learning about what these other fighters are made of and how they train and you teaching them and them being all of you and wanting to learn from you is a brilliant, brilliant thing. It's so great to watch. Thanks, man. Yeah, that's a compliment from, you know, the producer, Michael, Wands over, Nick Poppice, you know, the whole team. We're always trying to think outside of the box. And I think

one of the things I didn't do when I was in my prime right career, and even at the end of my career is I never documented any of my training, right? Like my sparring, padwork, drilling. I never did any of that. So I think when people actually get a chance to step into my mind and see what I'm doing, I'm working with the top athletes in the world. And they're just loving their content. And I enjoy it as well. Like, I really enjoy working with a guy like Arm and Strzooquin. The T.A Dilsha thing was, it was amazing. The Hamzat video of the video, the Hamzad training last that was amazing just to see how they train. And sometimes, you know, I don't realize how hard I trained when I was back in my day,

when I was fighting in the UFC and one championship. So the fans love it. I love doing it. The biggest thing is just trying to find a time to shoot that stuff. Yeah. And then happen. I mean, we did something. We did a big piece that's coming out with GSP.

That one was absolutely amazing. You know, GSP, the greatest of all time in the World's Way Division. We did the Cope. We did so much stuff with him. That's coming out. But we have a small team. So it takes a long time for us to edit it. You know, Michael's got to produce it.

Nick's got to do his spin on it. So it just takes a while for us to produce these beautiful pieces. I can't wait for that one because I know you were in Montreal. Can I take like, can I take like 2% credit for that one? Am I the one that connected you with GSP? I feel like, did I do anything to make this out? I kind of feel like I did. No, or am I crazy?

No, I had GSP's number. So you did that give it to you? I feel like I gave it to you back in the day. I think you might have did when I was about to retire. So we'll give you 2% credit. We'll give you 2% credit. But yeah, we did that with GSP. And that was fucking amazing, right?

Like, here's a guy who went out on his own as a champion. He could have continued to fight. He's still in great shape. He lives a healthy lifestyle. Very humble. I mean, I hope, you know, in five years when I'm 45, I'm still healthy, active, and still, you know, promoting healthy lifestyles. I can't wait for that one.

Now, I didn't have you on just to glaze you in your YouTube channel here, as the kids like to say. We have some actual news to talk about. Okay, this was amazing. This was amazing when I saw this. Can you tell me when did this all start? How did it be? You get the phone call, someone reaches out. How long ago?

How long have you known about it? I want to know from the very beginning how this all came about. Yeah, so I knew the UFC was coming into town, and I tried to stay. Not a way, but like, you know, I'm all about like making content and, you know, setting myself up for the best success to be able to capture the best content. So when they were coming to town, Izzy was fighting. And I was okay, well, I want to watch AC fight. But I don't know if there's going to need his last fight.

If he was going to fight again, I was going to get a sweet. But I was like, ah, you know, I don't want to get a sweet. So we're just trying to think about how we're going to make it happen. And then after that, I was like, I'm done. Like it gets so stressful when, you know, it's like you get out the hood. And it was, oh, man, you're doing it. man, can I get a, you know, can I get a ticket? Can I take it?

It becomes stressful. So I was like, you know, I just don't want to go to the event. And then, you know, somebody kept blowing me up. It was like, Zufa, L.C. calling it. And I was like, what the fuck? I was like, do they owe me money? Or do I owe them money? I'm not sure what's going on here.

And then I didn't answer that phone call. Then somebody else called me. I didn't answer that. Then somebody texts me. I believe a gentleman's name is Ozzie. He texts me. And we used to work together back in the day when I worked with UFC. I answered the phone call, talk to them.

And I was like, hey, we love to have you come. And we love to, you know, who do you want to bring? I was, I'll just bring my immediate family, like, you know, Tyron, Tanneth and Maverick and my wife. And then, I'm like, okay, perfect. We'll send you a car and we'll have a great night, essentially. So they kind of, I kind of knew it was going to happen. But I didn't want to tell anybody, right? I didn't tell Michael.

I didn't tell my dad. I didn't tell my father-in-law. I didn't tell nobody because it was something special for me, my wife, right? Like, to go up there and if it was going to happen, it would just be, us in attendance, not everybody else. And that's, that's actually how it happened. Wow. So they never outright told you this was going to happen. They kind of hinted it like, hey, we'd love to have you. You miss last year. You missed last year's event. But we hope to have you in attendance this year. And I was like, oh, okay, whatever. And, you know, we went up there. And it's always nice to break up

the monotony of life. Like, you know, sometimes we go to events. Sometimes we don't. And I was like, hey, you know, the boys haven't been to a UFC event. And I took Tyron. And, um, I took Tyrant. Maverick didn't want to go. Maverick was like, we kind of lied to Maverick. Maverick is kind of like me. If you tell him something, he expects it to happen.

We say, hey, we're going to go out to a nice dinner and we'll go get dressed up. And then he came downstairs. I was doing a sauna and a cold plunge before we were going out to the event. And he goes, so we're going to dinner? I was like, we're not going to dinner. We're going to the U.S. event.

He goes, I ain't going. What? He goes, he goes here gone man one all right

his house so he went to his friend's house you didn't want to tell him like yo man this is going to be special you didn't want to because I noticed there were only two kids

there and I know you have three yeah I mean we wanted to surprise him right but like maverger's like me if I wake up in the morning I tell my wife oh hey baby

this is what I'm going to do today I want to I'm going to do laundry and do dishes I'm going to clean the house and a mop and then after all I'm at I want to play video games

right And let's say I do all those things. And let's just say something happens. Like, let's say we have to go somewhere and I don't get to play games. A long time ago, I'll be fucking pissed off. Like, I'll just be straight like, I'm not happy right now. So Maverick's like me. Like, I told him we're going to go to dinner.

He expects to go to dinner. We didn't go to dinner. He's pissed off. That's just how Maverick is. And I love him for it, right? Like, I love each of my kids for their own personalities. And I respect him for being open about. his feelings, right? I think that's a thing that me and my wife are trying to, you know,

tell our kids, like, you guys need to speak your mind and be open with your feelings. Sometimes they're a little bit too goddamn open, but, you know, we want to make sure they express themselves. Was he mad when he found out? Was he mad when he found out that he missed the moment? No. Okay. All right. Wow. Good for him. He would, I said, I said, hey, the ceremony was going to be July 9th in Vegas. Would you like to come? And I asked him, I said, I'm actually a question. If I would have told you that we were going to the UFC event to go. watch the event, would you have wanted to do it, would you have one of them to go?

And he goes, yes. But I have an expectation that you told me something. I expect it to happen. And that's how I am, right? Like, if somebody says, hey, dude, I'm going to give you X percent of this company and it's a handshake. I expect you to be a man of your word. So essentially, I kind of went back on my word as a man and I've got to make up for it.

Speaking of expectations, did you expect this or were you surprised? I think the, you can feel the atmosphere. And when I got there, you know, there's so many great people. No, and by the way, I don't, I want to take a step back. Just the decision, not you on the night getting the, like, you know, there was a time where I was like, is DJ going to get his flowers? Is DJ going to get the recognition that he deserves? You know, because you're not one of the company men. You say the good and the bad.

You talk about the good and the bad. You don't work for them. So I'm talking about like the actual call, the decision to get. end. Is that something that you expected? No, I didn't. Because I remember last year, they wanted me to go and I said, I ain't fucking going. So I think I was kind of surprised that they called and asked me. You know, I have no expectations, right?

So the fact that they called and asked me to come, you know, it's awesome. But I didn't have expectations, right? I was just, yeah, I didn't have any expectations. Are you surprised you're being inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame? Hmm. There's a part of me saying, there's a part of me that says yes and there's a part of me that says no.

Because I think I've done a lot of major things inside the company, like my title run as a flyweight. I felt I did pretty good at a band-a-weight at the time I did fight there. So I think my accolades and what I've been able to do, no. But I think as far as like,

hey, I don't know how the lowest sell a paper view numbers ever anymore. I saw, I saw they did my man, Panto's wrong. They said that they only had 6,000000 you buy's shame. But I felt like as far as generating money for the company, they probably see like, we don't, we don't need them. So like I said, it's kind of, I'm happy that it's happening. Let's just let's just see that at that. What does it mean to you? Like what does this honor, this distinction? Does this mean anything special to you? Yeah, I think deep down it does just because the USC ain't going to aware, right?

It's it's going to be here for another 20 years, 25, 30, maybe even more. There's some. sport is only getting bigger. I mean, we always have, you know, me and Michael, we talk about this all the time on the podcast and just on the YouTube channel is that. Everybody's saying, oh, the UFC product is horrible. In Key Arena, it was 4.1 million gate. The fucking event was packed from the start to the end. The sport is only getting bigger.

I mean, I'm not going to lie, that car was a bangor. Like the Lexa Grasso versus Macy, banger fight. the Izzy versus Joe Pfeiffer, banger fight. Michael Kiesa, you're going to get a victory over Nico Price. Great fight. The Terrence Bikini, great fight. I mean, the whole card was a good card. And when I sit here, and we look at the UFC product.

We look at all the products of mixed martial arts and all organization. We're looking at how the organization promotes it. And we're looking at the art form of the athletes or what they're able to do, right? And so the fact that I'm in the UFC Hall of Fame, it's going to be around, right? So when people look at like, oh, who's inducting to Hall of Fame? Who was the first ever flyway to be inducted into Hall of Fame, Demetius Johnson? And he was the first ever UFC Flyweight champion. So I think in that scope, it's great.

Yeah, I mean, the answer just would have been simply yes. Like, you should have been in the moment you retired, you should have gone in. It takes a little bit longer, whatever the reason is. So this is great. And like I said, overdue. Can I ask, when was the last time? you attended a UFC event as a spectator. Oh, as a spectator?

Holy shit. I had to guess fight 2017. Which one? I don't know. The last time I fought was in 2018. So typically I say the UAC does a good job of bringing out the athletes to the event to promote them. Essentially, you know, did you want to get you on camera?

Yeah. So I would say something in 2017, but yeah, last time I fought was 2018. So I couldn't give you like that exact card I was at. But I would say probably 2017. So since the trade, since you moved over to one, you had not attended a UFC event. I have not. What was that like for you to be back now with your kids? Like that must have been, that must have been surreal, no?

It was great to see the tyrant. He was really into it. He really, really loved it because he's getting at that age. He's 12 years old. He's playing football. So he really enjoyed it. And my daughter, she, my daughter cracks me up because she goes, why are you so popular? Because if you go on my house, there's no UFC titles.

There's no UFC pictures of me. There's, you can walk on my house and you would not see one lick of mixed martial arts, not one picture of me fighting. Nada, nothing. So my daughter doesn't know why I'm popular. She goes, babe, she was, daddy, why are you so popular? I just tell him, baby, I work for NASA. You see that picture of me on the moon?

That's fucking me. So when we went there, I said, hey, I'm going to show you why I'm so popular. And I pointed to the video and I was holding her. She was, oh, that's why you're popular. Wow. So I think to be able to show her finally that this is what daddy did. Because the boys grew up watching me fight where Tanna didn't really understand why I'm so popular and what I did for a career. She just sees Daddy wake up, come home.

I just got them working out. I'm going downstairs work and create some stuff. So it's kind of cool for her. And for my wife and Tyrant. It was awesome for them being in attendance. Did it make you emotional? especially being there with your wife, who's been there for the entire ride.

Like, to be back, this is where you became Mighty Mouse in everyone's eyes. In the beginning, yeah, I got a little teary eye, you know, and I was like, they kind of, you know, they went away. But yeah, it was great. I mean, it's a big moment. Like, me and wife, it's like, it's not just me getting a ducted out of home.

It's my wife as well, because she's been with me since the very beginning, right? Not that they're going to make the statue of her, but she's been with me for this whole ride. And I can't be successful if she wasn't there taking care of everything at home. you know, making sure my food was good, make sure when I'll go to, when I'll go to training, training, she'll make sure I have all my equipment. When I'll go to an event, like let's say I'm fighting in Las Vegas or let's say I'm fighting in

Florida. And I always bring my own scale to the event. And the reason why I do is because you have to make sure you keep track of your weight the whole week. And so I'll bring my own scale and then there's a UFC scale. I'll make sure my scale would match their official scale. That way, when I'm cutting weight, there's no reason why athletes should be missing fucking weight.

There's just no reason, right? So my wife would make sure I would have the best equipment, everything I needed. So let's say I'm at the UFC event and my scale is off by two pounds for some reason. All I has to do is make a call to my wife and she goes, I'm on it. She would go find three, she'll bring me two scales. She was tried these two scales, make sure these ones match the UFC. see. So if it wasn't for her taking a time to make sure I had everything I needed and make sure everything at home was taken care of, I couldn't be as successful and focused on

what I did to make myself successful. So in my eye, I said to me and her both getting inducted into Hall of Fame. So it's very special to me. Amazing. What an incredible story and one incredible lady. My wife. My wife. The best is you and Izzy talking about it. That was the best. What about is he walking into the cage and then coming out to greet you there right before his fight, having the presence of mine? Ah, man, it fucking, I, I see, usually, usually dial's after his fight. So for me, I am, when I care about the athletes, I don't like to see the fight. Just because there's just, you know, things can happen, they can get injured and, you know, I, I just care too much, right? Like, when I was growing up,

I never was a fan. I was never really into watching boxing basketball, football, just because I didn't have a father around. So it was basically just my mom and me and my brothers. So like now I feel I'm at this age now where I'm a fan board. I was like, oh shit, Izzy about to fight. Come on, Izzy you're going to win. And even though the odds are stacked against Izzy to win,

I'm like, Izzy still going to win. There's no way he can fucking lose. They're like, man, you fucking delusional, dog. So for me to watch him fight, you know, it was great. He was looking good. He looked a little bit hesitant on the feet. just let it go. Did a great job, a take down offense.

And then, you know, the second round, you know, they started exchanging. His nose gets broke. And I was just fucking gutted. I'm not going to lie. I just, for me, he's been a middleweight champion. One of, he's defending the belt multiple times. He has plenty of money. He has, he's so talented.

He can dance. He's a DJ. Anything he does, he's going to be successful. So for me, I feel like. What made me so good in fighting was one, I viewed it as a job. I need a fucking money, right? Like, when you're poor and you're broke, you have a different mindset. When I was cut of weight and I had to cut eight and a half of friends.

And now's like, we got to put you out of time. I was like, I'm not fucking giving not a dime away to the commission or my opponent. I'm going to make fucking weight. Like, there's a different mindset that goes on when you ain't got money. I'm not saying that now that he has money, the mindset's changed, but he's fighting somebody else who's trying to get to his level.

So for me, I'm just like, you've done everything, just walk away from the sport, but I think that's so hard for mixed martial or any professional athlete. And I think for me, so when I see him fight,

I'm like, God, you don't need a fucking fight, right? And he's still young, he's only 36, but yeah, I was got it. Do you think he should retire? I would, if I was him. I would.

I mean, why do you, I mean, there is something for me, it's like, why do you fight? Like, first off, why did I fight for the money? Okay, two, there's a part of the word. Okay, I like the chess aspect of like, okay, he's going to do this. I'm going to do this.

Okay. The lifestyle, right? It's good. But if you have the money, you got to find something else to keep your mind engaged and always learning and thinking. So you can keep on training and travel and learn something new. And then it's Then the help aspect as well

Like you know He's got a broken nose It's like I just for me I like to see him retired There's nothing else for him to do in mixed martial arts I think he's done everything And you're not even considering the kickboxing matches he's had as well Like the man's been on a tear on a blind

I think he deserves to relax And enjoy himself and fight something else It's like Desmond Poree He said now that he's retired He's fighting all these things he can actually say yes to that he couldn't before, right? And I think, is he,

I mean, for me, I got a luxury lights coming out, I got a mugger coming out, but kickoff us on Wednesday. I was on a call for two half hours yesterday on the concept art designs. And then prior to that,

I was on a call with Sakura Phoenix, who was in Japan and studio, that's, you know, putting it together, producing it. It's like, that shit right there,

I'm engaged. Like, I'm focused on that. And then I have the YouTube channel. Then I got the Mighty Journey. It's like, I have so much stuff where people are like,

man, you should come rustle for a real America freestyle. Why? This stuff is way more important than competing. That's why I don't do IBJF anymore. That's why I don't keep because this stuff is really more important to me because it's challenging. It's like how can I create an IP from scratch? How can I do that? That is very, very hard. Very, very hard. And that drives me. My mind's just going to constantly all fucking day. I love it, man. You get me so excited. You motivate me to try to be the best that I can be as well. I'm going to let you go in a moment, but I just wanted to ask you, did you see Dana White there?

I did not. I did see Hunter Cameron. How was that? It was great. I said, dog, I appreciate you, letting me out of my contract. I really do. Because at the day, the U.S. could have said, no. They said, your black ass ain't going nowhere.

You always four more fights, and you're going to fight them fights. But, you know, after everything and all in negotiations that happened, they were able to let, they let me go out of my contract. And when I went to one championship, I made great money. Like, I truly believe if I never went to one championship, I don't think I'll be in a position I am in today. So I have to be grateful. I have to show respect.

I think it's the right thing to do. And I did that. And he says, hey, no problem. And he goes, I hope you had a great time over there. Oh, you made a lot of good money over there. And congratulations to be an inductal Hall of Fame. Like, I think sometimes, like, when you're just straight and honest with another man or woman or whatever it is, whoever you're talking to, I think you're going to get the true colors of them, right? Same thing with Daniel, like, when I told him straight about, I was like, dude, you know, me and TJ just worked out yesterday.

I know it's funny. I said, me, we're working and move in. And TJ was like, if I was to fight you, I would have done this. I was like, if I were to fight you, I would do this. It would be dropping on Jackson behind a brand media house. And I walked to the camera. I was like, just so you fans, no, Dana White robbed you guys of this fight. All you have to do is pay a motherfucker a million dollars and this fight would have happened,

but he didn't want to. And there's nothing wrong with that, right? Like for me, I think in a business aspect, it's like, let's go to the John Jones scenario, right? Let's say John Jones asked for $30 million. Let's say he asked for $100 million. The U.S.E can say, no, we're not paying you $100 million, John. We don't need that fight as bad. There shouldn't be a fucking gripe in a room.

room about it. That's my opinion, right? If he asked for $15 million, and they say, no, we're not going to pay you $15 million. There's no, I just don't think there's something wrong with a company saying, no, we're not going to pay you that. And just like when I said, Dan White paid me a million dollars to fight for you a deal shawl, and he says, I can't bring you what you don't bring in. Perfect. We're at a standstill. Now I have leverage because you want something from me and I'm not willing to budge on it. The fight doesn't need to happen. So that's how My mindset is when it comes to when I hear people talk about like, man, John Jones asked for this. And they didn't know why he said no. I can't believe he said no. He didn't want to fight that bad.

Shout out to John Jones for sticking his guns. I know how everybody's like, oh, was he going to get in the White House card or not? That's just how I mean. So for the whole context of the thing, when I saw Hunter Camel, I kept the straight. I kept the real. I said, hey, thank you so much for letting me out of my contract. And he says, no worries. I'm glad you made a lot of good money at one championship, graduates on Hall of Fame. And that's all that easy to be said. Amazing. Is this a potential bridging of the gap? We'll see you at more events. Perhaps be an analyst do more stuff or is it just Halloween? Nah, no, no, I would never be an analyst. I like having the control.

I mean, as you know, Irr-Hawwani, we've talked about this off-record. When you have your own platform, you can say whatever you want, however you want, and you can, you know, and don't get wrong. There's, like, the event was amazing, but I'd rather be at phone making content on the event. You know, they're like, hey, you can go to International Fight Week. the card, I was like, nope, I'd rather be in my house, get up, use a restroom, be around my family, and create content. And as for the analyst desk, you know, there are certain things I like about, like, have you seen Fourth and One with Cam Newton? Yes, yes. I love that format. I love it, because he keeps it real. He talks about football players. He talks about mixed, not anime guys,

but, you know, Floyd Mayweather. So I told Michael, like, I would love to do something like that for my channel where it's like for example, if I was to talk about John Jones asked for the whole debate, that's what I'll say, I'll have a cigar or I'll have like a blend or whatever. Like John Jones has for $15 million.

And he said no. I don't see your problem with that. Maybe the UFC doesn't think John Jones worth $15 million. Maybe they think they get it for cheaper. Or I always say this. You can always find somebody who will fight for cheaper. UFC, you fight for cheap. What you think about that, Michael?

And Michael would like, ah, man, I don't know, man. I just love that format. So I think when you have your own platform, you can do anything you want. When you go in as an analyst under somebody else's platform, you have to tow the company in line. So I don't think analysis is, I'm cut out for it. I think I have way too much charisma and I have way too much ideas that I think I wouldn't be able to express myself fully.

I agree. If I'm under somebody else's platform. So I think I'll keep it on. Last one very quickly. I'm dying to know Grasso. Sub-K-O. What do you say? I say both.

Shoot, shoot. Shoot. I mean, my son has a python, and we feed it every week. We feed it a mouse. It looked like that. That's honestly how it looked. It looked like a python snatching up a mouse. And Alexa Grasso, she did an amazing job.

She does such a good job of. saying super tight, very, very, very tight in her footwork and her combination. You know, I felt when she fought Valentin of Shef Shanko, she was doing very good against Valatine of Chef Schenko on the feet, but I felt that Chef Schenka was able to take her down and stay in her guard, not try to pass guard, because when she would pass guard, she would bridge and get up. So I think Alexa did a good job. The first K-O-7 U.S. history, I said yesterday, you can make a very strong case that the two greatest finishes in UFC history both happen at flyway. You versus Ray Borg? the arm bar slam, and then, of course, what happened on Saturday.

Not bad for a couple of flywights there, not bad. DJ, you're the freaking man. I know you have a very busy morning over there. Thank you so much for squeezing us in. Really, really appreciate it. And again, Mazel Tov, congratulations. And don't think I didn't catch you dropping the blessed word, Ariel Hawani backstage in that UFC interview.

Don't think I didn't catch that. And don't think I didn't appreciate it because I did very, very much. Thank you. Hey, thank you. You're always the best year to go. Happy birthday Congratulations There he is

Devitius Johnson Oh there you Okay Was he saying goodbye there Frank Do you cut him off He was moving He was moving to someone else He was talking to someone else

Right Is that what was happening Yeah man Do you want me to say goodbye to him Or answer your questions Just say happy birthday to Whomever he was saying Happy birthday to

All right Tremendous stuff How can you not love that guy It's so happy Perhaps we'll be there I was only at one other Hall of Fame induction Well I guess since 2020

And that was D C's I think it might be apropos to be at that one. We shall see, we shall see. We found out late last week that a very interesting boxing match is coming to Manchester. Manchester has become the boxing hub of the UK. Obviously this past weekend, we had Mosetam over there. That was at the co-op live, but at the AO Arena on June 13th, it's going to be the return of Tommy Fury, who we recall a few years ago fighting in Manchester

against one KSI, but this time it's against his biggest opponent ever. It's against the Beast, Eddie Hall, who we saw last year in KSW, now back to boxing for the big man, and he's kind enough to join us to talk about all of this. Very much looking forward to it. There he is, the man himself. Hello, Eddie, how are you?

Hey, buddy, I'm good, man. How are you doing? I'm doing great. Thank you so much, and great to have you back on the program. Congratulations on this fight coming together. Can you tell us how it came together? There's the poster, Beauty v.

The Beast, June 13th, A. A.O. Arena, you versus Tommy Fury. How did this all come together? Honestly, it was Tommy's dad to be, to be, wow. Yeah, so me and Tommy's dad had a few untoward words, and I basically said, look, I'll fucking slap any of you fuckers all over the place. And before I know, I had a contract to fight Tommy. So I guess he's put his youngest son for sacrifice to defend the Fury name as of now,

and it might move up the ranks after that, we'll see. So you have beef with Big John Fury? It seems so, yeah I wasn't intending to I bumped into him at a premiere asking him about Tyson and you know I wanted to get fights with Tyson Fury

and I don't know what's happened there and then later on on social media he just he put it on me and I was like you know what John you're full of shit all you do is talking talk shit all the time I was about you put your money where your mouth is and have a fight

and then before you know I've got a fight with Tommy booted in And honestly, I genuinely thought it was on good terms with Tommy, but it seems if you upset someone's dad, you automatically not on good terms. So there we go. And to be clear, you were inquiring about a fight against Tyson Fury first? Yeah, so I actually won it because I saw Tyson Fury was doing quite a bit of MMA training. And it just put a ring in my ear. It was like, Will Strongest Man versus Tyson Fury and MMA. So boxing, he would smash me all day long, but MMA, everyone has spoke to him. He was like, you know what?

Like, I don't know who would win that. And that's why I think the fight needs to happen at some point. Okay, and so then we get into John. And would you like to fight John eventually? I think fighting John's are not like an old man. But he talks a good talk, doesn't he? You know, he's a fighting man. He'll fight anyone anywhere, anytime.

I probably fear John more than any of the furies, if I'm being honest. You know, he'd up on his history. He's a bit of a nasty fucker like. Have you seen that apparently him and Tyson have a bit of a falling out. Yeah, and I guess that's why, you know, me and John had the falling out. It's because I was, I was pressuring a bit, and he didn't, he didn't want to have any of it.

And yeah, he just snapped. He's obviously a bit sensitive about it. And so what's the, what's the state of the relationship with Tommy? You say that you think that, you know, you guys were kind of cool. Have you met him? Have you hung out with him? What's that like? So I worked with him quite a bit in the later of last year.

And then obviously when this contract landed in front of me, I mess. Tommy, he was like, mate, are you sure you want to do this? And he didn't reply. So it seems it's all legit. Wow. It seems Tommy, Tommy wants the fight. So there we go. And so what are the rules here? Is it eight three minute rounds? Six, two minute rounds. Okay. Six two minutes. I hope.

With my sake. So it's an exhibition bout. Yeah, yeah, it's an exhibition bout. I think it would be a bit unfair to have a professional bout, you know, because of the sheer size difference. Yeah. How much do you think your way? I'm one, 57 kilo now, so I'm just under 350 pounds. If I come in at like 335, that would probably be my lowest, probably 340. And what do you think he'll weigh?

Honestly, if he comes in at 210, I would be surprised. I think 205, 210 max. How big will the gloves be? I haven't got that far. Okay. I'm assuming 12 ounce, we'll see. Yeah, that would be. would be great. I'm assuming no, no, headgear or anything like that.

No, no, no. Do you have any idea how big the ring is going to be? It's usually around 20 foot for the misfits. I say, I don't think they're going to do as any big favors. You know, they don't want to, we don't want a clown match. They want to see a good fight. And so how do you feel about, you know, being in a boxing match? Last time we saw you was in KSW and that was a cool experience. That was great for you, I think. But now you're fighting, you know, a pro boxer who's been in there more on the influencer side of things, but obviously comes from a great fighting family.

Do you feel like this is a big leap for you? What do you think? I feel like it's a step in the right direction. I think that like these David versus Goliath fights, people want to see them like the Jake Paul versus the AJ did so well. And so many people watch that fight.

And it is, it's the old, like David versus Gleif. People want to see a regular guy go up against a giant. And I'm quite happy. to be that giant, you know, and there's a place for me in this world to have a role in that. So, um, it's, look, I'm all for it. I'm all for it. And I think who knows where it'll lead, you know, it'll be a step up in opponents after that all being well. And Tommy's no, Tommy's no pushover, you know, he's 11 and 0. As you say, he's a professional fighter. I've been boxing

since he was, what, five years old. I've been fight training for four, four years now. So, yeah, a bit of a difference. When you say to step in the right direction. Ultimately, where do you want that direction to lead you to? What is your end goal in all of this? So, end goal, I guess, is to obviously have those big entertainment fights. I do actually want to, I want to go out of a bang. So I obviously, I'll do boxing, but I really love the MMA. I'm thoroughly enjoying their MMA. And I quite fancy putting my hands up right at the end and taking a title shot, like a European title, a will title, And just wind drawlers, go in, give it a shot.

Let's go for a big title. And that'll be like my wind draw, lose, and done. You know, just see what I can do in the Wilder MMA and then get out. I'm nearly, well, I'm 38 years of age. And I'm feeling the effects of age. I'm definitely not 19 anymore. In this fairy tale, who's the opponent? Who's the guy that you're fighting in this final, you know, win-luser-draw match?

Honestly, it's a tough one. It's going to be a big name. You know, there's people like Phil DeFries in the KSW, who's like the European title holder. There's obviously people like Francis and Gannu, who are just like the biggest, scariest bastards on the planet. You know, just like a big, big fight like that. That's what I'm looking for.

That would be, I mean, talk about an irresistible force meeting an immovable object. You versus Francis would be some sight. Yeah, no, it would. And again, that would be, you know, I train my bollocks off for it. And I think that would be the last one for me. Win or lose.

I think I just want to go up against the biggest, baddest person I can get up against and see if I can grab a title. Because imagine finishing, imagine winning Will's strongest man and then coming into the fight world and grabbing a European title or a Will title off Francis or something. It would just be insane. How many years do you want to do this for now? Now that you say you're 38 and you're feeling the effects,

how many left do you have in you? I feel like I've got two years left in me I feel like by the time I'm 40 I'm looking toward being done you know so there's probably 18 months left in me and so with that in mind you know we last saw you in April in KSW April of last year

so it's going to be about a year and more than a year by the time this June fight happens why why so long why didn't anything materialize after that winner over Pugianowski I've been trying like it's so hard to find opponents It really is.

There's been so many people putting the hands up, but I don't want to sound horrible, but there are a lot of nobodies. And like I said at the start of this, you know, it's my role in this is to play the giant, play the bad guy. Marius worked because it was Will's Strongest Man

versus Will Strongest Man. You know, it was like, it just worked. Marius, Marius once fought for the European title, not too long ago, you know,

so he was no slout in the fight world. And then I guess, you know, you look at the success of like AJ and Jake Paul fight, And people just want to see the guy go up against a regular guy. And I love the concept too. And me challenging myself, that Dylan Danis is another one.

You know, he claims to be the best in the build in the world at Jiu-Jitsu. Come and prove it then. You know, if he thinks he's invincible and weight doesn't matter, let's have that fight. Yeah, so what happened there? I felt like we were moving in the right direction. I thought that that was a real viable one for the two of you.

Did it ever get close? We were in massive talks and even numbers were being taught. but it just, I don't know, it just never came to fruition. I think Dylan's the biggest problem there. I think, you know, I would fight any day of the week, but I think Dylan wants that stupid,

that stupid money for taking the fight, and fair play to him. You know, he's putting his neck on the line, fighting someone like me. So that was the only hold up with that. Maybe after the Tommy fight, you know, it makes it a bit more doable and feasible. So we'll see.

And with... I've been told, I've been told the Dylan Danish fight will happen this year. Okay. Is that the one I've seen you hint at something at the end of 26? Is that the one you're referring to? At the end of 26. End of 2026, end of this year, that there's another fight lined up.

Oh, right. No, I can't say about that. But I'm already lining other fights up. Yeah. So I want to get this fight done. I want to keep that momentum. So I want every three, four months. Just keep that momentum for 18 months.

And are you okay with jumping around to the different? combat sports or would you like to stick to one? Yeah, no, I don't mind. I don't mind because they all lead to that, you know, that end goal of having that super match against somebody. You know, boxing is very beneficial to the MMA and the MMA is you know, it's hard to pick up again with breaks but it's always there, you know, the strength is always there with the

MMA and that's where I feel like my strengths are in the MMA world. It's my strength. So I'm stupid to say, but my strength in the fight game and the MMA is my strength. Well, I feel like that's tailor made for you because you can use your strength. You can't use it as much in boxing. Certainly you can use it to your benefit, clinching the power and all that. But in MMA, you can truly use your power to your fullest advantage. So I feel like that's the best move for you.

Yeah, no, I completely agree. I think muscles in boxing are almost worthless. Yeah. So, but with MMA, one of them is valuable tools you can have. I've never heard a fight I say I wish I was weaker for that fight, especially in MMA. You know,

the stronger you are. In general, the more you can mowl and more you get advantage on the floor. I know you've trained with the Aspinals. Will you be training with them for this fight? For this fight, no. So I'm just traveling around the country,

you know, boxing clubs and just getting as much sparring as I can with people around the same way it's Tommy. When I go back to the MMA, yeah, I would love to join back into the Aspinall crew. I think they've tightened the ship a bit lately, but I'm hoping they'd accept me back. What do you mean by that?

You think they're not welcoming you these days? They're lovely people. No, I just know Tom is really tightened his ship recently. He's really, I don't know, without offending, upsetting anyone, I just think he's really ramped everything up. He's got so professional lately. I noticed he had a massive group of people he was training with, and he's really reduced that down to, like, the top fighters.

You know, if there's a group of 20 or 30 fighters, he's reduced that to, like, the top 10, you know, which is, which is great, great for him. Well, you have a head trainer. Is there someone that you're really relying on to prepare you for this fight? Yeah, my, my main coach is, well, I've got two coaches, G. Oaks and Jake Oaks. Jake Oaks was the European K-1 kitboxing champion at one point. He just won a world title in Muay Thai out in Thailand. So, I mean, I'm in good hands.

You know, these guys have been, I mean, G Oaks has been in the fight game for 50 years now. He's done everything. Absolutely every art or boxing or MMA or kit boxing and karate has done it all. So he's a man that knows how to hurt people. I saw you recently with Johnny Fisher, the Rumpford Bull. Will you be training more with him? There you guys are. Look at the size difference there.

That's a heavyweight to your right there. It's amazing. Will you be training more with him and the crew there? Hopefully, yeah. Johnny came up, what day were today, Tuesday. yesterday and we did six rounds. Oh, wow. Yeah, heavy rounds.

That motherfucker can hit hard. And that was good, you know, because I've sparred with Tommy four, four years ago, something like that. And he's come on at massively, like completely different fighter from then, but so of high. And it was just great to put that test against,

you know, I consider Johnny to be a top 10 in the world, maybe top 15, but he's definitely right up there. So to go in and hang with a, top 15 in the world, heavyweight in boxing. It was a good feeling. You know, I wasn't embarrassed, you know, when we both went hard at each other. Don't get me wrong, he got the better of me.

Well, that's what sparring is, you know, it's about pushing each other really hard and helping each other out. You know, he'd land some horrible shots and he'd be like, right, just keep that arm up a bit more, you know, keep that guard up a bit better in this position, you know. So, but he was, you know, he was stopping to actually correct me, you know, after, you know, like nearly broke my face, which was nice of him. By the way, you mentioned Tommy there that you last barred four years ago. Did you mean to say Johnny?

I just want to make sure. I did, me. Sorry, yeah. No, no, I just want to make sure you've never trained with Tommy before, right? No, I haven't. No, no. Okay. What do you make of Tommy?

Some people like him. Some people don't. Some, you know, he's a polarizing figure, I guess to a degree, maybe not as much as his dad, but everyone has an opinion on him. What do you think of him? I think Tommy's a lad. You know, I've hung around with Tommy. He's a jack the lad.

You know, you can have those You can have those Spitting soardust conversations, you know, he likes his dark humour He's a good family man Not the brightest spark But he'll admit that You know, he's just a nice lad

And I think that takes you a long way in this world And that's why he's done so well You know, he is just genuinely a nice youth Good looking bloke, huh? Yeah, man, that love island looks So earn some millions So fair play to him Hey man, if I look like

that. I don't think I've been doing boxing. What do you think of the tagline on the poster? Beauty and the Beast. Did you like that? I quite liked it. Yeah. I thought it's very fitting. Very fitting. Yeah. Look at that. And what about the misfits guys? What do you make of them? Well, I've yet to fight.

Sure, but so far in the process. I mean, yeah, they've been good to me. They're no bullshit, you know, dealing with one or two guys. They don't stick any big lawyers and they're not trying to sneak anything in. They've been pretty easy to work with so far. And they're already talking about future fights. And, you know, so it's pretty good. I'm excited. Maybe a good future we misfits. And so perhaps,

after this past year not getting those fights, you feel like you've got some momentum now. You've referenced now a couple times some other fights waiting for you down the line. It seems like you've got a lot in the works as far as the fight game is concerned. Yeah, I feel like it's all come to fruition, you know, that I think like from here forward, barring injuries, touch would. Yeah. Boring injuries, I hope I can keep this momentum going now and have a fight every three or four months.

Hopefully we're misfits, you know, you never know what's around the corner. We did speak to a somewhat terrifying young man named Zim Salmani. He really wants to fight you. You familiar with this guy? He had a bare-knuckle fight a couple of weeks ago. Oh, no. Have you got a picture you can show me? Okay.

We'll pull one up. He's the Albanian psycho, former WWE guy. Okay. You're not familiar with him. No, I'm sorry, no. Okay, so these aren't the type of fights that you're looking for. Well, there's the thing, I'm after the big names. Yeah.

I don't know this guy. I'm sorry. And it doesn't sound like an exciting fight to me. So, I don't know. But yeah, if someone comes to me with a contract, big money, I'll, I'll bash it most people. This is the young man, Zim Salmani, the Albanian psycho. This look familiar, no? Hmm.

I think I might have seen in my. on the WWE at some point. Yeah, he had a bare knuckle fight a couple weeks ago, and it was quite the affair. There he is with Connor McGregor at one of the bare knuckle fights. Would you do bare knuckle? Would you be interested in that? Yeah, no, I, you know this,

they're doing like a, is it, 20 million? Supposedly. 25 million tournaments, right? So a little bit pissed off at that, because I got in touch with someone high up in the bare knuckle FC. I've showed, I want real interest in this. Like, that's, that's good money. You know, if you, if you're walking away with $15 million at that end of that tournament,

that's enough to entice me. So I was trying to put my name forward. And he was like, great, yeah, thanks for showing interest. I'll be back in touch. And then they went and put a fucking 260 pound weight limit on it. Oh. And I was like, how, I was like, how the fuck can you determine who the baddest man on the planet is? If you're putting a 260 pound weight limit on a fight, I was like, fucking bastards.

So, but I was well up for doing the bare knuckle. That was, um, yeah, I put my name for. for that. That would be insane. I mean, your fists alone, those are clubs, those things. I will say this, I have got big, like massive hands, big clothes, yeah. Yeah. We talked about Tom, I know you're friendly with Rico Verhoeven making the transition over to boxing. How do you think that's going to go for him in May? I think Rico's going to surprise a lot of people. I think wind or draw or lose, he's going to shock the world. Everyone's written him off. Yeah. I've had the privilege to spend quite a bit of time with Rico. I've trained with Rico.

I've been to watch him fight, you know, ringside. He has got to be, hand on heart, the most frightening person on the planet. And even, like, top fighters say that, like, Tom Aspinall wouldn't fight Rico in kickboxing. You know, that's how scary a human being is. For Tom Aspinall to say, I wouldn't fuck a Rico. And genuinely, I could see it in his face, like, genuinely meant it. I think Rico is the scariest man on the planet. Wow.

Hands down. Hands down. If there's one man on the planet, you wouldn't want to fight. It's Riko Verhuban. He is a bad motherfucker. Wow, wow, wow, okay, what an endorsement. You think he has a chance. You think he can win this fight?

100%. I honestly think that Rico is going to be a big problem. Big, big problem for you, sick. Rico, you've got to think with the kit boxing, I think, what is it? Three, is it three, three minute rounds or something? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and they are trained. So you've got to think, like, they don't do the 12 round ballics.

Like, they are trained just to give 100% for those three minutes. and you watch the fight ringside, it is forward, forward, forward, offense, offense, offense, offense. They do not take breaks. And I think that's going to be a real shock for Usik because he ain't going to box him. Like Rico's not going to box him.

He's just going to attack him. And boxers aren't used to that. They're used to throwing a few punches, getting out the way, you know, relaxing, taking a breath, blinching. Because Rico's just going to walk in and just keep banging.

I can guarantee it. And whether that's going to be a problem for Usik or he's expecting that, I don't know. But they're in for shock. I think Euse is in for shock. Rico's a dangerous bastard. I can't wait for that.

That's in May. Also, what about young Maximus, Beast Jr., your son, who's blowing up on YouTube? He's got his own channel doing great things. There's the YouTube channel right there. Where do you want him to go? Do you want him to fall on your footsteps, strong man, go into fighting? What's the plan for young Maximus? Who is how old?

13? He's 13. Yeah, he's a big boy. He's six foot tall, just over six foot. He weighed him in about almost a month ago, 1008 kilo, so it's like 235 pounds. Wow. Something like that. Yeah, he's a big kid.

And he can deadlift 180 kilo, so he's super strong. Like, his shoulder pressing 40 kilo dumbbells each hand, very easy. Like, it's just a freak. Like, just an absolute freak. When you think about when I was a 13-year-old kid, he is like another 50% ahead of me from what I was. Wow. So he has got the tools.

He's got the genetics. and he's got the capabilities. It's just if he wants it. You can never force that on a kid. You know, I give him everything. He's got his full-time coach. He goes to the gym four times a week. He eats his steak and eggs every day.

I'm giving him everything, and it's just down to him. He's got to have that want. You can't force that on anybody. Another day, he is a kid. I don't want to force anything on him. I don't want to put any pressure on him. If he comes to me one day and said, right, dad, I want to be the world strongest man.

I'll be like, let's go get it. let's, let's anchor in and I'll be there 100%. Do you get the sense from him right now that he wants that? It's 50-50.

He does talk about it and I've given some good incentives. So yeah, it's, I mean, it's just down to him. I think he might do it, but there's a part of me

that thinks he just wants to blend into society. You know, he's seen the stresses and strains of what I've had to go through in life by becoming a world title holder. and it's taken a strain on all others.

So maybe he doesn't want my life. You know, it can be quite stressful. You want that for him. If he says, dad, up to you, should I do this? What do you say? I would say go for it, you know? Because I think it's a real shame for the male human body to not find out how strong you are.

I think to have that privilege to be able to go out and train full time and eat as, you know, as healthy as part of the body. and have and learn from all the mistakes that I made and get to where he needs to be as quick as possible. That's a real privilege. So I would say go for it, 100%. Is he your oldest? No, it's my second eldest. So I've got an older daughter, yeah.

Okay, she's not doing any strong woman stuff. No, no, no. But he seems like he's well on his way. And it seems like he's got quite the following over there. It seems like people are really invested in his journey. Yeah, it's pretty cool. I think having his own channel, and he puts a video up every few months.

He's just nice and relaxed with it. But it's so relatable because, you know, teenagers want to go to the gym, but they can't. They literally can't go in the gym here until the 16. Wow. So, yeah, it's a bit of like an anomaly for him to have his YouTube channel

and be able to train in the gym and do what he does. So he's a bit of a special one. And it's cool. I think the other kids like love to look in on that, you know. Maybe be a bit like, wow, I'd love to do that, which is great. And I think it will make a lot of kids, you know, turn 16. They're like, right, I'm in the gym because I've seen Max do it, which is awesome to think.

Well, I do wish him the best. Before I let you go, I did want to ask you about Pat O'Dwyer, who you know, who you were close with. And I'm so sorry for your loss. I'll be honest. I wasn't too familiar before you shined a light on his story. This is a world that I'm not as entrenched in compared to the fighting world. Can you tell the audience out there who Pat was and why he was so special to you? Oh, Pao Duayor was a very good friend of mine in the strongman world.

He competed at the world's strongest man. He was Ireland's strongest man, UK strongest man, you know, formidable strongman. But above all, he was just a good human being. You know, there'd be things happening online and on the online world. And power would be the first one to reach out. And that's quite rare. You know, when you always say reach out to a friend when they're in need, Paa was that person.

And I can hand on and say there's probably less than. five people in my life that did that. I was one of him. And he was that person, I know he was that person to so many other people as well. You know, there's, there was thousands. And I mean, there's thousands of people at his funeral and wake. Like thousands came to see him. And it was, it was a real testament to the man.

He was a bigger than life character, a real decent human being. And, yeah, sadly taken from his way too early. I'm really, really sorry for your loss. There's the GoFundMe page. as you can see, a lot of money raised for his family, and that is awful stuff, but I know you spoke so highly of him and he was close to, so wanted to shine a bit of light on him.

We'll end on a somewhat positive note, your prediction for June 13th. How does it end against Tommy Fury? I've got no other option to go in and try and knock Tommy out. You know, I can't, this cannot be a friendly spa. This cannot be, you know, just go in and tickle each other because it'll just look so bad, and I've got, I want a future in this.

I've got to go in and try and hurt Tommy. So I'm afraid Tommy is, in my opinion, I'm going for the knockout. So that's going to be the outcome. I can't wait for this. There you have it. Beauty versus the Beast. You know, we just spoke to Mighty Mouse, Demetrius Johnson, your old friend. I know you've been on his podcast before.

He's one of the newest members of the UFC Hall of Fame. And so we went from a future UFC Hallfamer because it hasn't happened just yet to, I believe, a Stoke-on-Trent Sporting Hall of Famer in Eddie Hall. How about that, right? That's a back-to-backer. That's correct, yeah. Yeah, yeah. No, Demetrius is a cool guy.

Some of his fights are legendary. That, um, but, was it the sidebar he did when he got it in the air? Yeah, against Ray Borg. Wow. Yeah, yeah, that was fucking insane. Yeah. One of a kind. As are you, my friend.

Congratulations on getting this done. Can't wait for it. Looking forward to a June 13th on to Zone misfits boxing. Eddie Hall versus Tommy Fury. Never saw this. one coming, but it's going to be a lot of fun. Thanks for the time. Really appreciate and good luck in training for it. Thanks, guys. Take care. Thank you, Ariel. There he is. The Beast, Eddie Hall, a real specimen. There's going to be a, I don't know, well over a hundred pound size difference

between Eddie Hall and Tommy Fury. That's going to be fun. That's on June 13th. A string of fun events coming up really in the next three or so months. We went through some of it, maybe the next four or so months. It's going to be a fun summer looking forward to that one. That's the day before. card perhaps we go to that one instead guys i know frank would rather do that right yeah it's okay what did you say no i was just saying that you probably would rather go to that fight than the white house card yeah absolutely that would have been a good i'm good how are you that would have been a good time for that i was thinking you're gonna hit me with that one yeah maybe i should have my own buttons here maybe you can switch it to members only and no one can hear it sounds like a plan wow

friends like these uh still to come Terrence McKinney, who had an incredible win on Saturday at UFC Seattle. Sean, I was going to say Sean Shelby, Johnny Eblen. Why was I going to say Sean Shelby? Johnny Eblen had an amazing win over Brian Battle on Saturday as well, PFL Pittsburgh. And Vladislav Harris Kavich, the Ukrainian skeleton racer, who was decued by the IOC at the 2026 Winter Olympic Games a month and a half or so ago in studio to talk about his incredible story.

But first, we shall talk to a man who picked up his very first UFC win this past Saturday. An incredible win. A first round TKO win over Chase Hooper. He has been scratching and clawing his way to the UFC, a Bellator veteran, who finally got an opportunity in December. It didn't go his way, but it certainly did go his way on Saturday. He is the one and only Lance Gibson, Jr., who's kind enough to join us right here now. Hello, Lance. How are you, my man?

Thanks for joining us. I'm doing good. How are you doing it? I'm doing really well. Really great to have you on the program and very happy for you. A great, great win, a great first UFC win for you. How does it feel? I know you've been waiting for this moment.

You've been fighting for this moment. Like I said, scratching and clawing your way to the UFC. It's been a long time coming to finally get that first UFC win. How would you describe how it feels? Oh, man, it's still kind of surreal. Like, it was everything I dreamt of. Like, I would visualize practically every night throughout the whole training camp. the moment and it came out better than than I ever imagined, to be honest.

And it's truly a blessing. So all glory to God, that's, I just, yeah, I'm still at a loss for words, for sure. I'm still, like, landing back on the ground and really rooting myself back down in BC. Yeah. Is it hard to do that? Like, do you feel like it's hard to go back to normal life? For sure. For sure, because, like, I was like, what the heck do I do?

You know, like I'm, I was wanting to go back to my schedule of like the heavy jiu jitzy rounds preparing for chase. Like I was like woke up ready to go today. And, uh, yeah, it's, it's interesting because I need some time off to like decompress and like actually, uh, be here now, you know? So, uh, yeah, it's, it's just been, it's been surreal, to be honest. Uh, I believe you started your amateur career. And correct me if I have the dates wrong, the year's wrong, 2012, pro career, 2017. So that's a long time coming. We're talking 14 years as a fighter there.

And obviously I know you come from a fighting family, your dad, Lance Gibson, senior, great Canadian, who was once in the UFC as well? Was there ever a point where you thought this would never happen, where this just wouldn't come your way? Yeah, you know, like after I got real, after kind of the whole transition of Bellator to PFL and that whole kind of thing where all the fighters got released,

And during that kind of dead zone time was like, it was a deep, dark, cold valley for me, for sure. And navigating through it was not easy, but I have my team. I got Julia Budd, obviously, former four-time world champion for Bellator in my corner. And my dad in my corner, and they were just like, stay true to your dream, man. Like, don't worry, it's a step-by-step process. and I stayed true to myself, and I stayed on the path. And this, I mean, take the opportunities, like Dana said the other day, like this game's about opportunities.

I took my opportunity, didn't come with the W against Green, and then got back in there and got this done. Yeah, and that was a short-noticed fight, and there's your father, Lance, there's Julia Bud, as you mentioned, veterans of the game, so you have a great team behind you. That's from your Bellator days. but that fight against King Green was on short notice. You had to take that one. And of course, you know, no one would expect you to turn it down.

This was your opening into the UFC. But was it hard to come to terms with the fact that, hey, you don't get a full training camp. You don't get to show everyone, the brass, the fans, who you are, what you're all about. And so between December and March, I'm sure that was on your mind, right? You can't lose two in a row in the UFC. You need to show them who you are. That added probably to the pressure. Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, I believe whenever a fighter's going through the trenches, there's ghosts, you could say, in your mind that I want to pull you off track of what your vision actually is. And you've got to really take a hold of what you really want in life and hone in focus on that. I believe my biggest strength is my spirituality, to be honest. and that really helped navigate that because yeah there is a fear for sure that going oh like going to and out potentially or losing two in a row whatever uh but you have to succeed that fear with the might of your like your truth which is what you want which is what you're trying to manifest and i was manifesting ultimate victory and it was was better than I imagined.

So that's a rare one for me. When you say your strength is your spirituality, what do you mean by that? I mean, what's inside me. It's not just, it's not just, I believe in this sport, there's a lot of ego and there's a lot of like, rah, rah, rah, raw, like I'm the toughest guy in the world. I've been a guy that always kind of keeps quiet. And, uh, I allow my inner being to speak. rather than just talk and give you a bunch of stuff that's just fluff.

I'd rather talk about something that's on a deeper level than just surface level. So I try to express myself from that spirit that's inside me. Are you a religious person? Not to specific religious sect, no. I take a lot from different religions because I believe it's all rooted in the same foundation, which is there is a holy creator. And that creator is amazing and wants to see their children do amazing things. And we're capable of that all.

Do you meditate a lot? Yeah, absolutely. What is your routine look like? How long every day, what are you doing? I, you know, I'm very unorthodox, to be honest. I do a weird type of meditate. I do walking meditation, and I kind of like, or I go in the water, and I visualize, I let the voice come to me.

It comes to me more so than anything, and the visions come to me. It's crazy because not to get too deep into it, obviously, but I'll spit the truth, which is like during that dark time, that deep valley that I was talking about when I was released from Bellator and I was trying to get into the UFC. I was coming off a knockout loss and my only loss. And I remember I was just, it was like a freaking lightning strike. And it was me talking to Sean Shelby. And then it was a flash to me in a black and red uniform stepping out to the UFC

Octagon. And it was a flash. It was just like bang, bang, bang. and it was so clear that I could not, I couldn't lie to myself, to be honest. It was like, it was so real and it was so true. But there were so many steps that came before that I didn't anticipate, obviously.

But I had to see the whole process through, and that was my fight with King Green. It wasn't like, it wasn't showing, that vision wasn't showing me that I was going to win. It was just saying, like, if you stay on this, this is a possibility. Do you want that? And you have to have that inner strength to actually persevere and go for what you want.

I love this, by the way. I love these types of chats. So I hope you don't mind me trying to dig a little bit deeper here. But when you say that you meditate while you walk, I don't hear that quite often as well. So are you closing your eyes and walking? Or are you, like, what are you doing? I live in a kind of rural area. It's in Roberts Creek, British Columbia.

This is my house, but there's like forest all around. I just kind of go, I walk my dogs, actually, and I do my prayers. I give thanks for waking up every day. I give glory to the most high. And I do my affirmations. A lot of people don't like after. affirmations, I do my affirmations because in the morning is one of the toughest times for, I think, for every human being out there. Because you ain't done nothing yet. And I think that other voice on the other shoulder or that other voice inside you, that ego voice will say you aren't crap, basically.

And say, what have you done today? Nothing. Like, you're probably not going to do anything. You're probably just going to sit on the couch. you're lazy. It'll tell you so many different things. So you have to override that with the voice of the truth, which is the creator and what you actually want in life. So when I walk, I do that. I walk my dogs. I connect with nature. My dogs are a part of nature. They're a part of me. I'm a part of nature. This is an indigenous way. but you listen to the trees, you listen to the birds, because everything speaks to you if you're willing to tap into that frequency. I'm blessed enough to live in the forest and not necessarily in a city necessarily where there's a lot of disruption to the frequency. But I stay tapped into that frequent. I try to stay tapped into it. I'm not perfect.

Nobody is. But I try to stay tapped into that frequency that is divine. given this mindset and this way of life and and you seem to be someone who is thoughtful and peaceful and respectful of others do you ever struggle with what you do for a living with hurting another person with with the violence that is attached MMA uh I can't say no no I don't I'm not gonna because I can see there being an interesting sort of internal battle there for sure absolutely You know, I was, I believe I was brought on this earth for this reason, but I believe I was brought on this earth to be different. Subtle things like, okay, this lightning bolt on my neck.

I know it's something subtle, but it's a deeper story for me because in one of my visions, the Native American warrior, one of the best warriors in history, crazy horse, came to me. and it's going to sound crazy, but he was me, or I was him. And he had a lightning bolt across his face, and I couldn't do that, obviously. That's a little bit excessive. But there's a Native American, indigenous way of explaining it, but he's what's called a sacred clown and a Thunderdreamer, which means basically you do everything backwards. and I've done everything backwards my entire freaking career.

My entire life, I've done everything backwards. Like I said, I wanted to be a basketball player to get into the, and fight, I mean, play basketball in the key arena or the climate pledge arena now. And my whole family is all basketball players, all football players. I played football. And I'd done MMA since I was two years, two years old. And I never did I imagine MMA was going to be my career. And I guess the thing is, is I do things differently and I operate differently. And that's what makes me me.

And I believe that's what I'm here to express. And that's why I was brought here. And if you're not here for a purpose, you're not here for, like, if you're not here to actually do something with your life, what are you doing? I couldn't agree more. Very well said and very succinct. could I ask about beekeeping. I understand that you're into that as well.

Why are you so into it? What do you enjoy about it? How long have you been doing it for? So I started in 2020, obviously when everybody started weird stuff. You know, everybody started like making sourdough. I tried that too. I did pretty good that I killed my sourdough.

But yeah, I de-keep. I started then. It's freaking really tough because you have to you're a keeper of the bees you don't own bees like at any point in time they can

you can go out and half your hives gone they're in a swarm in a tree like 40 feet up you know and uh it's like a lot of intention that you have to put into it and it's very rewarding like

you know I think there's a you know how a lot of people are like this is going to be something backwards. Take money as currency, right? And there was a point in time where money, physical dollars weren't necessarily currency, and there was trade with like products like coffee or honey or,

and when you take out a frame of honey from a beehive, from your hive, your colony, I can't even express the amount. amount of like it's like a it's like gold like i can't even explain the feeling when you have it in your hand you're like you feel so rich and i believe that's true richness and it's not that it's mine they they give me just their surplus you know uh i only take i don't take all their honey i leave them with most of the honey and then i i i take a little bit because i'm the keeper of the bees. I'm not the owner of the bees. And yeah, it's just, it's, I can't even explain it. I'll have to

show you one day, Ariel, but it's, when you hold it in your hand, it's like one of these frames, you've seen it on the pictures there, but one of those frames is like, it could be 10 to 20 pounds and it doesn't look like it is, but it's so heavy. And depending on the box size, but six to 20 pounds. but the wealth that you feel is otherworldly. It's not, I don't know how to explain it. It's definitely this worldly because it's a part of earth and nature, but it's like it feels like you're holding diamonds. That's the only way I could explain it.

Wow. Do you sell the honey? What do you do with it? You know, I'm definitely not for a profit kind of guy, but when I have surplus and it's a fantastic, year and the bees are going crazy. I sell some for sure. I kind of sell it to like people that I like, you know, because it's not a unlimited resource. Nothing on this planet is unlimited, obviously. As you can see, that's why wars are started. But yeah, I tend to, I feed it to my

dogs. I eat it every day. It gives me a different amount of energy because I believe it's connected to all the flowers and the plants that are in my vicinity within a three mile, three to five mile radius. That's what they forage on. And I believe it actually, it heals me in a different way on a deeper level beyond like just health. You also do gardening, foraging, hunting. So you're very much in tune. All of this is on your property there?

Yeah. Yeah. This is a Julia Bud's family owns five acres and uh Jim Bud, Debbie Milia, her parents, uh, owned five acres. And we've kind of like plopped little, uh, kind of a compound here. And, uh, I do a lot of the, the like, uh, bee keep. Well, Julie helps me as well, but we do it together. But I do a lot of gardening and, uh, beekeeping, forging me and my dad fish, uh,

in the Georgia Strait, just, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, we do it together. out here. So yeah, we salmon fish as well. And one of our motors are busted right now, so we haven't been out for a while, but I got a bonus, I think. Hasn't got here yet, but yeah, finish bonus. Yes. I think I got a finish

bonus. I think I got one, but I think I need to buy a new motor. So, yeah, so I can get back out in the water. I miss fishing and I miss eating my own protein that I, that I'm able to for it, well, catch. I appreciate the love that you have for the bees.

by the way, because I have a deep fear of bees. When I was a kid, my mom told my brother and I, hey, let's go outside and blow some bubbles. I was probably eight or nine years old. We didn't realize that there was a beehive right above us. So we started blowing bubbles, and they all attacked us. And I got stung by about, like, 12 at the same time. It was an absolute nightmare.

And so since then, it's been hard to overcome that because I'll never forget them. It was like that movie, My Girl. I don't know if you ever saw that movie where they swore McCullochie. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They killed them on that day. unfortunately. Yeah, yeah, sorry, not to laugh. No, but they didn't kill me. Thank God. Thank God. But yeah, no, it's amazing to see. I've also seen David Beckham speak so highly of bees in his documentary series. So I love the love that you have for them and the affection that you have and what

they do for you. It's amazing to see someone so in tune with nature and derive this pleasure from it. So well done to you. By the way, I noticed that you had a black eye there. Where did that come from? I'm still trying to figure it out. Me and my manager believe that I may have gotten hit by the ref. I'm not 100% certain. Oh. I thought it was from one of the bees because I didn't see you getting hit much in the fight. No, no, no, it was really weird.

Like, yeah, it was really weird. Like, in that last finishing kind of sequence, I landed the knees. He fell. there was like a slight almost upkick. I'm going in to like about to finish the fight, obviously. There was a slight upkick, but it hits the other side. And then I stand up and I have this this huge lump on my eye. And I'm like, what the heck?

And I'm like going over to Julia and my dad in the corner. I'm like, what's wrong with my eye? Like, what the heck happened? And that ref was like, he was on it. Like, obviously, yeah, he like, he like, I've never been tackled so hard in my life, even in football. It's amazing. It's something when the most damage inflicted on you comes from the referee.

Chase is a great guy, and I know he's somewhat of a favorite over there, you know, hailing from the state of Washington. And you received some of the booze, and you reminded everyone that you've got roots there as well. What was it like kind of being the bad guy in a place that means so much to you, Seattle? Yeah. It didn't bother me at all. You know, I was just like, this is what I love to do. Like, this is what I was born to do.

Like, I was, I mentioned before, like, I was two years old when I first started. I was months old in my car seat when my dad was training at AMC in Kirkland, Washington, where Demetrius is. You know, and what's also interesting is, sorry, not to like fully change the subject. Oh, go ahead. But what's interesting is. is that even my finish is very, it's also a part of a full circle moment kind of because, one, my dad finished with a knee in his fight in the UFC,

at UFC 24 when he fought Jermaine Andre. But AMC's style has always been clinch fighting. You see Demetrius. He's like always talking about nobody uses the clinch, using elbows, using knees. and this has been something I've done since I was a little kid. I was months old when my dad was sparring chemo for the very first time, his very first time ever doing mixed martial arts,

he came in and sparred chemo for like eight rounds or something like that, and he broke his collarbone and chemo was like 100 pounds heavier than him or something like that. But he broke his collarbone and he was like, I think I can do this sport. That was how he actually started. Wow. And he was training with Josh Barnett.

He was training with all the guys that were at AMC, I think Marie Smith and whoever else, and Matt Hume and Haru, his Muay, the Muay coach. And, yeah, he's, so I believe I made my dad really proud in that sense because I utilized the clinch. But, yeah, going back to your question about being from Seattle and everything like that, I got so much respect for Chase. I have seen Chase in the back change room before, if I, a couple of my. regional fights and yeah i got i got a lot of respect for him the guy's super dangerous and that's not to minimize like just because i got a quick finish that's not to minimize how dangerous that fight was and i i think that's what people could kind of do when you get a quick finish it's not just that i just like that easily could have gone the other way like it not easily could have gone

the other way i prepared so well for it but he's so tricky in every Every single fight, he's fought, I mean, he's fought like legends like Jim Miller, Clay Gwita. He's tapped out lots of guys. He's, he's super dangerous. But in that moment, I was just so centered and I was so prepared. Like, I've done so many rounds. Like, my training partner, Lucas Wilhelm, he's probably one of the best grapplers in Canada. And I think he should be on UFC, BJJ.

To be honest, we're working on trying to. get him there but he gave me so many simulated rounds uh preparing for this fight it was like it was like i was grappling chase all day every day like every day that i was i was on the mats and but a better one like his leg locks his his his entanglements everything that he did he's he's incredible and he really gave me the confidence to just be prepared for wherever the fight goes and not just in a jiu jitzu way he helped me like um actually, like he allowed me to actually throw punches and stuff. So it helped really prepare me.

And I mean, he's trained out and TriStar and stuff back in the day. And he lives in Vancouver now. So that really helped prepare me and help me stay centered throughout all the booze. I love the connection to AMC. Were you aware that DJ was in attendance and Maurice Smith? You know, I've seen Maurice a lot. But, you know, Demetrius, I haven't, like, got to fully kick it with Demetrius, obviously. I'd love to train with the guy.

But I've trained with him before back when I was, like, 17. My dad, like, called Matt Hume. He was like, hey, my son's going to be in town. So I got to spar him back when I was 17 years old or 18. I was 18. It was kind of after my amateur fights. And I got to spar with him. He pushed me super hard, obviously.

he's incredible. He was like moving all around me and he was working me to be honest. And I was just like honored to be on the mats with him and feel his style because it allows me to take pieces from it. But that was awesome.

And then later on I had an amateur title fight and he was in attendance. It was actually at Tulalip Casino which is down the way in Seattle. And he was in attendance. and he actually said after the fights, you guys don't even know how special this is. Some of these fighters that are in here

are going to eventually be in the UFC, and you're going to look back on this day, and this is going to be a huge deal. And here we are. You know, I have a picture of him with him back then, and I was like a little, I looked like a baby at the time. But, yeah, he's awesome. He's always awesome.

He used to message me all the time. You know, even before that amateur fight, he gave me probably one of the biggest one of the most important lessons of my life which was fighters tend to put importance on different fights so like this is where i i feel like i can go to the ufc and i know i belong because i'm not trying to prove anything to anybody because i am who i am he said to me before one of my it was a title defense and i was like what do you do like how do you prepare for this like what do you think what's your mindset and he's like it's a fight just like every other fight do you want to win okay well go out there and fight like any

other fight don't put any action that belt's just another thing it's an it's an object it's just another thing but go out and fight your heart out like you always do and i was like holy crap so now i can go into a moment like that where it's one of the biggest moments of my entire career i've had big moments in bellator i've had huge arenas in bellator as well but uh i can could go out there and rock it without help being nervous. To be, I think, unofficially, one of three father-son duos to compete in the UFC, Elijah Smith, Gilbert Smith, Randy Gattour, Ryan Couture, Lance Sr., Lance Jr., what does that mean to you?

Oh, it's awesome. It's what I dreamt of, to be honest. like especially during that time i when that downtime after i was released from bell i was uh like this is time to make history you know it's not a it's time to make history and uh we did on saturday night with me getting that finish where i think they said it was like the only father and son to get a win in the ufc so we made history just just as is with that and And if you, you know, kind of to go back to the spirituality, if you stay tapped into the frequency of life, there's these things called synchronicities where things, everything kind of lines up. And you could say it doesn't really make sense.

I don't know why everything's lining up. Well, because it's supposed to line up. And 26 years, like, like my dad fought March. I'm terrible with dates. I think March 2000 when he fought Jermaine Andre and landed the knockout knee. This is March 28th, 2026. And I finished with the knee. My dad fought in Hawaii at Blaisdale Arena for his pro debut against Peter Matatoui and Super Brawl back in Hawaii.

And like 23 years later, almost to the day, I fought there. And it was just like, what the heck? Like, how does this make any sense? And then when I fought King Green and I was signed to the UFC, it was like 20, 27 years to the, almost to the day of like his fight at UFC 29. It's like, I stop questioning it anymore because I think that's the divine speaking to you. Well, this, and that's, that's me fighting. Sorry, sorry, my bad. No, no, please, please, please. Keep going. That's, that's, that's me fighting in Climate Pledge Arena. Yeah. And being that little kid sitting outside there at

the water fountain in between the space needle that I've still never gone up on, even I don't know why I haven't gone up there, but sitting between that space needle and the arena and imagining I was going to be a basketball player, but dreaming, you know, while everybody else is like playing in the fountain and in the water, I'm that kid that's different and I'm just sitting there. And I'm like looking at this place and I'm like using my imagination. And I think as we get older, as humans get older, life and society kills your imagination and tells you you have to be one way. and I didn't let anybody. I was blessed to have good people around me, a fantastic mother that always bred consciousness into me, a fantastic father that's who my dad is,

a warrior, strong, smart, intelligent, great businessman. But I had such a good balance that I was able to like keep my imagination and not let anybody kill my dreams. And using that imagination is our power, even as adults. It's dreaming, and that's how we make things happen. Man, what a pleasure this has been, truly. I know it took you a while to get to the UFC. I'm sorry it took you a while to get on this program.

I do want to thank your manager, Danny, for pitching you and advocating for you. And it's great to have another Canadian doing well in the UFC. your story is an amazing one. So much respect to you, much love. Congratulations on everything you've accomplished this weekend with the relationship with your father and the journey that you guys have had together in this amazing sport. And now I know a lot of people are really invested in seeing how you do here in the UFC where you have belonged for quite some timeline. So again, congrats and tremendous stuff here on the program. Thanks for opening up your soul and heart to us.

It was great to learn more about you. Thank you. Do you mind if I say one more thing? Go ahead. Go ahead, man. Okay. Okay. So I got a teammate named Julia Budd. She had unfortunate circumstances where she wasn't allowed to fight a couple years ago. And I'm not going to get into the details on that. But she was a former four-tort type Mortal Champion, obviously, which I've always wanted to get her on the show. But I never had been connections because I wasn't even known at the time. she's in a really interesting scenario.

She potentially has a fight lined up, potentially. But if you know anything about the feather white division for women, they say it's dead. I think there are some of the toughest women out there. And she's one of the toughest women out there, and she really wants to fight still. And there's not many opportunities for women's featherweight fighters. And I think there's a few. There's a potential rematch for her coming up. But that would be exciting.

But the only place is like MVP, PFL, pretty much. But there's kind of like a really interesting scenario where there's like there's actually a lot of great talent. if you actually look for them. Like, I could name a lot of names, but I'm sure if you just look at the featherweight fighters that have fought kind of fairly recently within the last two years even, there's a lot of talent out there,

but there's nowhere for them to go. There's nowhere for them to fight. And it just kind of like baffles me because it's like, it's a fantastic, it's a fantastic weight class with a lot of fighters, and they have nowhere to go. And Julia's like, well, one, she's one of my, she, she warms me up before my fights and she's fantastic. I'm mimicking all my opponents.

She's like an expert at it. But she's, she wants to fight still. And there's no opportunities. I've seen MVP has the legends coming back, like the OGs of women's MMA. You know, like Gina Crano started off in, was it strike force? Elite C. And, yeah, Elite X-E. And, like, made, but, like, that made, like, women's M.A.

Kind of, like, important. Like, her fight with Cyborg was, like, huge. And I was, I remember being a kid watching it. And I was like, holy crap, these girls, like, this is, this is on. You know, and then Rousy. Like, but that was 145 pounds at that time. The OGs were 145 pounds. then there came bantam weight and then all the other weight classes and it kind of like they got pushed under the rug and kind of like put on the back burner but that's the OG division and basically what I'm saying is we need to somehow get Julia a fight of some sort you know like we we had a potential with a we wanted a huge fight and MVP with her and another legend but that didn't happen but I mean she's fought both Gina Cranow and runner out

Ron Rousey before Ron Rousey, obviously we didn't get the win, and that was earlier in her career. But she fought Gina Carrano in kickboxing, and that was a fantastic fight. But we're not asking for one of them, but somebody, you know? I feel you, and I... Would be awesome. And I appreciate you...

That's a statement. That's not a question. Sorry. I appreciate you advocating for her. I know her very well. I've been watching here for a very long time. A veteran of the game, one of the pioneers of that particular way class, so I appreciate you taking some time to shine a light on her. And hopefully that does come to fruition. And hopefully there are many more opportunities

for the women featherweights out there. Lance, thank you so much, man. Really, really appreciate it. Congratulations again and all the best. And hopefully we'll get a chance to talk to you very soon again. Thanks, Ariel. Thank you. There he is. Lance Gibson Jr. picking up his very first UFC win in his second UFC fight this past Saturday in a city that means a lot to him. Seattle, Washington, the Climate Pledge Arena. Let me put this little bad boy on. Still to come, another guy who was victorious this past Saturday, Terrence McKinney. Also, Johnny Eblen, who was victorious on Saturday at PFL Pittsburgh. Oh, yeah, I can hear you just fine.

All right. In a matter of seconds, we're going to be joined by our next guest in studio. I've been working on this for quite some time. I was obviously at the Olympic Games. In Livigno, it was the Milano Cortina Games back in February. And there was a stretch there, two to three days, where the biggest story centered around a Ukrainian skeleton racer named Vladislav Harriskiewicz. He was the center of a controversial decision by the IOC to ultimately ban him from competing at the games, to deque him from the games

before he ever got a chance to compete. Three-time Olympian, by the way, because he wanted to wear a helmet that had photos of Ukrainian athletes who died in the Ukraine-Russia war. There's the photo right there. There's the helmet. And that is Vladislav. It was a mass. massive, massive story. I was doing work for CBC. I said that I thought the IOC got it wrong. And that kind of, you know, blew up in a sense. And a lot of very famous Ukrainian athletes like the Klitschko brothers, like Alexander Ussk, spoke up on his behalf. He got to meet President Zelensky. And I'm sure his life changed dramatically. He's in New York. He's kind enough to join us. Let's say hello to Vladislav, who is here right now to talk about it all.

there he is. Hello, my friend. How are you? Great to meet you. Nice to meet you, too. Let's bring it in. Thank you so much for coming in, and please have a seat. It's a great pleasure.

Oh, is this it? Yeah. This is the famous helmet. Wow, wow, wow, wow. I have chills. Wow, wow, wow. Can I see it? Yeah, of first.

Wow, wow, wow. Wow, this gives me chills. This is the world famous helmet that you so proudly represented at the games. Please have a seat. Thank you so much for bringing this. I really do appreciate it. honor. I'm going to leave it right here if that's okay. Is that okay, Andy, right here? Okay, amazing. So great to meet you, my friend. We've been talking about this for a while now, so it's a real

pleasure to have you here. Yeah, nice to meet you too. It's a great pleasure, and it's a really nice room. You had a lot of great things here. Thank you. Thank you. What brings you to New York, by the way? Oh, a lot of things. So first of all, I was invited to change the world event. It was held up in United Nations headquarters, and it was with students, and we had... a couple of amazing legends from Italian sports, football players. And we had a great panel discussion with the students about sports, about values of sports, of course about our situation with a helmet,

and yeah, how sport could be useful in this time of full-scale war in Ukraine. And basically, yeah, a lot of amazing meetings. So yesterday, by the way, we had the chance to meet Ben Stiller. I saw that. Yeah, I saw that. And you were wearing traditional Ukrainian outfit or no? He received some gift from me.

This is it right here, right? Yeah. Wow. It looks really fancy. Yes. Where was this? So we were on a set, so they're now filming new TV series. Okay.

No spoilers. No spoilers. But it was interesting experience like to just witness how he's doing his job and how magic happens. Incredible. And so I can't even imagine what your life has been like because obviously I was at the Olympic Games and I was following your story very closely and everything kind of exploded. Can you even describe what the past two months, maybe even. less than two months right because it was like a little bit like mid-February what has life been like

for you can you put it into words ever since this happened a lot of things happen so first of all after straight after after olympics we came to munich conference security conference a lot of meetings now we had amazing projects with our foundation so i had my charity foundation since 2002 non-profit and we are trying to support our country and now with this attention we had some new opportunities and we try to support educational projects, try to support sports. We already gave one generator, like huge generator. If you follow our story and you remember this day of disqualification, also we asked IEC to support us with generators.

Because now, because of war, we had a lot of blackouts, and it's really hard to keep going with the sport, like some basic needs. So we don't have electricity. You can do trainings. And we gave one already generator. It's this price around 20,000, just one one sport center in Cherkasa. It's one of the amazing cities,

which is, by the way, really looks familiar with how streets are positioned as a New York. Oh, really? Yeah, like a grid. Yeah, like a grid. But, yeah, they received this generator, and now they can keep going with the sport. I posted about it a little bit in my social media.

But, yeah, so events. So now I'm in New York. I was in United Nations headquarters. Incredible. And we're like, yeah, one and a half months after, yeah. And basically a lot of things happened and a lot of great meetings. And yeah, I try also to do some trainings. Of course.

Try to arrange some trainings with our UFC fighter right now. Yes, yes, yes. And we'll get into all of that in a moment. But I actually want to go to the beginning of this particular story so my audience understands. You're a three-time Olympian, right? You were in the 2018 games, 2022, and then obviously 2026. 2020 games is right as the war is about to begin. And I recall that you had held up a sign about,

what was the exact message on the sign about the peace? No war. No war in Ukraine. And for me, back then it was very important sign that it was already some news about that full-scale war coming to Ukraine. And for me, it was important to show that we don't want to have this war. Like we are normal people and we want to enjoy our lives and we don't want to have full-scale war in our country.

And yeah, basically... You didn't get in trouble for that? No. No issues. Was that before you competed or after you competed? In time of competition. Okay. It was in time of competition after my third run, I believe.

And IOC didn't do anything? Yeah. Okay. So now you qualify 2026 games. At what point do you decide that this is the helmet that you want to wear? To be honest, it's not the first time when I try to honor my fellow athlete and fellow friend. and I did it already when I put quote of one of the atlists on my sled

but the idea of this helmet came up to me like three weeks before games and some people from this helmet I knew personally like so there were my teammates and some people were supported me since my beginning of my skeleton career and I just want to honor them and also to get them with me on the Olympics

so that we can compete together because for some of these people, they were also like representatives of Olympic sports. And I believe they also in some point of life they dreamed about Olympic games. And for me, it was just important gesture to honor them. And also, of course, to support their families because it's another story of what families go through this difficult time. And yeah, we had this idea and it was painted in Kiev, also under blackouts, under candle, under candles. Who made the helmet? It was a painter, Irina Proz. amazing woman again like it was

this is her right yep yep so it was blackout it was no light it was no electricity like at all it was very cold and like she just put candles and in two days she painted this wow wow unbelievable so when you're making this and it's coming to fruition is there a thought in the back of your mind that it would lead to issues for you that the iOC would get upset

and try to do something about it to be honest no because I remember amazing stories when people honored their family members at the Olympics. I remember Matia Steiner, like a famous Germany weight lifter. He celebrated his medal with picture of his past await wife. And it's amazing moments and I know that it was it happened before. It happened last Olympics, this Olympics. So yeah, I never could imagine that I will face this qualification because of this helmet. Because to be honest, like if you if you watch precise,

like it's no national symbols here and nothing, it's no call to action so it's just honoring of people and one thing what connects them all on these pictures is it's sport its first thing what comes to mind and of course I could never mention that IEC organization

who is about like possession as a peaceful movement will disqualify me for this helmet and could you tell us about the process obviously this is a world that I'm not as familiar with so like when you are an athlete who qualifies for the Olympic Games Do you have to submit what you will be competing in, what you will wear to the IOC in order for them to sign off on it and say, okay, this is good to go? How does that work?

To be honest, we don't have this procedure last Olympics or before last Olympics. So again, for me, it was third Olympic games, and I never like send them my helmet. I know that model of helmet is allowed to use, so it's no problem with that. Because this model helmet and this particular helmet, I competed with him like whole season. and we just changed a paint on it. Basically, I read the rules, and it's also very weak wording in the rules, and it's nothing about honoring or something like that, so you can do it. So basically, yeah, you never, like, show them, like, and they...

If they want, of course, judges can take it, and they can investigate it, but also they never did it, like, in this precise way. I had official documents that it's allowed to use technically, and that's it. So it's no one that was never never a question about like if it's allowed technically or not. Sure.

Yeah. And so you get to Cortina, that's where the skeleton was taking place. When do you start to catch wind that this might be an issue? When does that come your way? I think it was 9th or 10th February so a few days before Olympic started,

Olympic like competition started. To be honest, I was surprised. because I had my second unofficial training on the track, so I was already doing some runs in this helmet, and it was no attention on it. No one said anything. No, like it was some media guys, like your colleagues,

I going through by them, like they're asking me some questions about what's going on. I held him up this helmet in my hands, nobody asking any question. Wow. So people don't care about it. And I would say it became a big thing when I see it put this attention and say you can't use it and it became a scandal. And then because, of course, because their position was really wavy, like they say, one day one rule, another day another rule, all this spokesman quotes about conflicts and about all of that.

You remember that pretty clearly, like this famous part. But in famous parts, it was not bothering anyone before they made it a scandal. And so who's the one that tells you ultimately, hey, because before they said, you said you were going to show up to the training with it, and you did. And then they say, you cannot compete in this. this. Who's the one that is dictating this to you? Who's telling you this? Yeah, it was commentary. So basically, it was last conversation before my disqualification with Mrs. Coventry, head of International Olympic Committee. The head of the IOC? She's speaking directly to you?

Yeah, she came to the track. She was in Cartina. We had this conversation. It was very weird. So she was, in some point she was shaking. She was emotional, right? I would say so, but again, like I received this disqualification. Nobody even watched a helmet at that. day of the competition. Then she had this like interview when she started crying. Yeah. But again like when we were getting ready for a cast case like this fast court case, then we understand that this decision was already made it up like in two days ago. Yeah so like we had this letter that I would disqualify. It was done not not after our conversation with yours. Wow.

It was done much earlier and so it feels like it was pretty fake tears, which is, of course, like, really sad. Because again, like, when we talk about Olympics, and for me, Olympics is a very special place, and it's a place where we were united, when we talk about Olympic values and about all of this, I would say high, like, great things. It was really, yeah, when we had discussed court, and it was really hard to see that, yeah, basically they suspended me before I even do anything. What was her reasoning that she gave to? What did she say, ultimately, was the reason why, she did not want to allow you to use this?

If we miss and we skip all this details part and law part, it came to interpretation of word expression. So they had expression guidelines. It's Rule 40.2 in IUC. And expression is not allowed on a field of play, an average ceremony, an opening and closing ceremony. So basically they suspend me not because of this expression, but because of intention to do expression.

And they also verify this helmet as an expression, but let's say helmet with a venom of US outlet is not expression for them. Basically, like, it's just personal interpretation of the word expression. If we also can go farther, yeah, so let's say they don't like your smile, so basically it's also expression, so probably they can also disqualify you because they don't like you. And I think that's what happened with our situation. So it's basically it's no strong legal basic for the decision. It's just discriminational decision, in my opinion,

and it's just interpretation of word expression, and it's not normal. Of course, in that case, in that scenario, we should watch and see what other athletes did already. We should see, like, US athlete, Naumov, yeah, figure skater. He is able to show pictures of his parents. It's fine, yeah, so it's not expression. It's okay to honor your family members.

We have another skier from Canada. she is able to show and sign to honor her colleague from skiing. So it's also okay to honor your fellow athlete. But this helmet is not allowed. So, yeah. You think the difference is that they died in a war? It's a good question, but you know, you never can say that they died in a war from this helmet.

So it's not written in a helmet. No, of course. So we should... I think it's absurd. And I said that in my video. And one of the many reasons why I thought, it was absurd is because Russia is banned from the Olympic Games. So the IOC

has already told us how they feel about this war. These are innocent victims who died in the war who wanted nothing to do with the war. And I know there are some who may be served as well, but they had to serve in honor of their country. To me, you were just paying homage to them. You were just trying to bring them to the Olympic Games. I thought it was

such a mistake on their part. And I know that they offered for you to wear the black armband. And ultimately you declined that offer. Why did you decline that? No, because it's, again, like it's double standards. It was not, they're not proposing this band to US outlet. They don't propose this band to Canadian outlet. Why I was proposed. Like, it's, at some point it feels that we are guilty that we are dying and as a country, like that we are being attacked. And it's kind of, I don't understand why we are guilty in that. So we are not attacking everyone. Like,

we are defending our country and these people defending their country. And, you know, like here, like it's many kids or they were died under shillings and basically like what they're guilty of like why we shouldn't show them it's a it's a huge tragedy and i believe everybody agree with that so it's a huge tragedy like that's it and we should honor like and remember them because at some point they were part of sports communities they were part of olympics olympic family some of them we have like boxer galenishov he was medalist from olympic games so why why it's not allowed i was never explained why particularly like it's not allowed what is what is wrong with this helmet so it never was it never gave you that explanation oh they say it's expression but i mean like it's expression

expression is everything like it's it's a pretty weak wording and uh band i think it's you know if if everyone using the bands i understand it but if some outlets able to to do like proper gestures and i see supported why they doesn't want to give me this opportunity and then to make a gesture And again, like, most important thing, this helmet was not bothering everyone on a field of play, on everyone. We don't have any request to remove it from athletes, from teams. So, like, it was totally fine. So it was just, like, step from IAC to do it. And I think it's totally wrong.

The juxtaposition of at the same time that American Skeleton racer wearing the Venom helmet, that going viral, people loving it. And basically the IOC is saying, we're okay with capitalism. We're okay with, you know, a Marvel character or a comic book character being depicted, but we're not okay with innocent victims being depicted. I mean, it's just so backwards. It was amazing to watch it unfold and them making the wrong decision every step of the way. I'm curious at any point, did you have a moment where you were like, this is the Olympics, this is my third time, I want to represent my country, I want to succeed, you've been working so hard, maybe I should stand down. Was anyone trying to tell you, hey, you've proved your point, you've put it out there. you've shined a light on these innocent people.

Maybe now I should just wear something more traditional. Did you ever consider that? To be honest, it was really like feeling that it's my Olympics. And I was really fast on the training days. I think we came all this way like when we started skeleton in Ukraine. So I'm the first outlet who started in the Ukraine. So we went really huge way to be in this position. And I was very fast in this training week.

And basically like our goal was to, to be in a medal, a medal fight. And I think we could be there, like, we could win a medal. But at the same time, we shouldn't be okay with violation of our rights. And I believe I did the right thing, so I should stand and I should defend my rights. I should defend honor of these athletes. And when firstly, like, this helmet was appearing on a TV, like on the news, it was such a great support for the families.

And I think I couldn't forgive myself if I say, okay, I'm not using, I'm betraying this athletes, I will not use it. It's again, like, I will, I will feel, I would feel very guilty like in terms of like these families and in terms of memory of these people. It's not right. Again, like if I had proper explanation why it's rule violation, then it's another story because we're not barbarians. We are like, try to follow the rules.

And we're following all the rules. But if they cannot give us any explanation, then I, you know, should wear it and like it should be okay. We had a lot of like proposals like yeah you should do it like you shouldn't betray like Olympics and I mean like competition itself so you should go you should compete but again for me I think it's this thing and it's much more important than medal and then competition itself. When we talk about sports we always talk about like competition performance but of course it makes a lot of bigger impact much bigger impact out of sports and out of performance. And I think this thing is much more important, and especially in this time

when we have this huge tragedy in Ukraine, and we should honoring these people. We shouldn't forget them. We shouldn't be erased, and it's important. While this was transpiring, did you hear from any of the family members of these victims and how it made them feel that you were trying to honor them? I received just yesterday a message from a mom of boxer who I told you like Maxim Ghalienichiev and she was like asking like when we can meet

just to say thank you for honoring our son because for them it's a huge tragedy I get a message from Ivan Kadananenko's sister and she literally wrote me like it was so touching like and she was telling that when her brother he was missing a long time

and then they found out that he's died so there are parents parents were like literally like you know losing life force like and they were like just don't want to do anything with life and all of that and when they see when they saw like Ivan in a helmet it gave them like some new life force so basically they came back to life again because of that and it's it's comments from families so like it's it's not I'm just you know creating it now like it's it's a real comments and

I think it's a huge, it's a huge impact. And if we throw away, like, all the attention and all of that, what's going on now, if I just had this comments after this, I would say, scandal, I will be satisfied because it makes so huge impact on them, it supports them so much. I think it's a great opportunity to support these families. I couldn't agree more. I think you have done a greater impact than any race could have had on anyone. And so a silly question, I feel like I know the answer, but I'll ask it anyway.

Do you have any regrets? No. Never. I think from the day one, like when we already had like beginning of this scandal, I never regretted. You wouldn't do anything differently? No. I think I was right. And to be honest, our goal, like is we will proceed with court cases.

And our goal to prove that we were right. We were able and we should wear this helmet. at the competition day and to wear this helmet on the next Olympics and win a medal for Ukraine. So in the immediate aftermath you did appeal the decision.

Did you have any hope that common sense would prevail? How was that process? Process like court case itself it was a mockery. Okay. Because again, like I was suspended because of intention

to violate the rules. So it was no real violation committed. Like even if we had some rule violation in this helmet but no violation was committed.

I was also, it was very fun, like, discussion, because I say about intention, I say, okay, I watched some press conferences of Usik and Fury Fight and Fury told them a lot of time in media that he will knock out Usik. It never happened, but he had intention. What we should do now? You referenced that. Yeah. That's amazing. But I mean, like, it was a mockery on the court, but it's important to understand system. Like, I.C is like main donor for Cass. It's basically on court of IAC. And of course, we didn't expect that it will be like something huge. In some, I think, when we had this court case in this day, I was hoping that like common

sense will prevail, but it never happened. But farther, we will go to human rights court and I think it will be more sensible. Yeah, sensible. So you're pursuing that now? Yeah. We're in the process. So like it's, I think we're close to appeal already. Wow.

And who's backing you? Who's taking this case for you? No, we have amazing German lawyer who is already like into the system. I would say he already did a lot of court cases against the U.C. against an international pro-lympic committee. And we are working with him right now. And what's the process there? Like how long would it take typically for something like this to play out for you to get some kind of resolution? It's hard to say like I'm not a lawyer, but hopefully we will be like able to do it until next year. Okay, okay.

I also saw right after, like a day or so later, you left the games, right? And by the way, just curious, in the midst of all of this, did you receive any hate? Did you receive messages from people who were threatening you where you felt uncomfortable? At this point, I think, yes, we're receiving some hate and a lot of Russian account, basically, because again, like this scandal and all this situation brings a lot of attention to Ukraine. And of course, in time of today, like when we have full-scale war, I think it plays against, like Russian propaganda and of course they're pretty mad. I was receiving, I was also, it was fun part.

They also make some TV studios in Russia like these propagandist channels about me and about like how. Wow. Saying what? That I'm not a good athlete and it was a mock like it was all planned or something like that. So like some things like that. Okay. But that's usually what Russian propaganda does like in times of like

when you have some attention to Ukraine. But of course, like it was much more support. And I remember this day when we left from the Olympics and we go to Munich Conference, we just stopping by on a petrol station, random petrol station on the street. And my dad going out to put a petrol in car and somebody recognized him and saying,

oh, it was so unfair towards to your son. Wow. So it makes a huge impact. And I think it was amazing, amazing to see like this support around around this scandal and support from people all around the world and it was from all over the world and it's basically it was huge and it was much it was very important for me and i think for my country too yeah and just a day or a day or so later you you met president zolensky had you ever met him before no what was that like no it was a great great experience

and i'm i'm really glad to spoke with him and we already found some common ground in a sport perspective what we can do because again like sport is it's a huge media media platform and i think you understand it much better than anyone else that we had so many people who is watching us and it's important to keep this out of war propaganda it's important to keep it and we already see like a lot of things how russia using this sport platform to spread propaganda to increase like their war engagement and they have like some insane things in Russia as let's say I don't know if you know about youth army organization so it's basically organization whose works with kids and

they're doing propaganda war through the kids they're making some exhibitions World War II fights or some things like that and it's like young generation 10 years old 12 years old and Russian athletes from gymnastics he's like an agorny if you heard this family name so he's an Olympic champion in gymnastics and he's like a head of this organization his main So sport is really tightly connected to these organizations. Also a lot of sporting organizations in Russia also responsible for abducting Ukrainian kids from east of Ukraine.

So basically, like for us, it's important to also put some sanctions on these people, to not be, like, to withdraw them from the competition and not let them to use this platform to split propaganda. Because again, like, we are paying to be to be, to be, to be, price for that. We are dying every day. Like it's thousands of people dying every day because also because of this propaganda. And I hope as a sport community we should, we can, you know, separate us from this, from this, yeah, death propaganda. What did Zelensky say to you? Did he thank you? Did he say anything that really spoke to you? No, he was very thankful, but I think he was

speaking not from himself, but from the nation. And I think just understand like scale, of support in Ukraine. Like, it was huge. It was everyone. And I think at some point, I couldn't even, like, even now, like, read all the messages. It was too much. And you're a hero to them. For someone, I don't think I'm a hero. Like, it's, I'm not defending my country on the front line and I'm not doing something heroic. I think I'm just doing what, what every Ukrainian should do. And as a foundation now also, main idea is to support my country in this, in this, in this, in this, in time. We have a lot of struggles in sports, we have a lot of struggles in education, and I just try to do my best and to support my country. And I just cannot stand aside. And I'm really happy

that we found some common ground with organizations all around the world, from U.S., from Germany, who is supporting us, and we are able to do this great job. Have you been back home? Have you been back to Ukraine? Yeah, yeah, of course. What is it like for you when you're around? People, I'm sure, recognize you, right? Yeah, but people in Ukraine are very powerful. So everybody is like not not not leave you alone. Yeah, they're not been crazy. Okay. But still yeah, a lot of people recognizing me. So I had some free lunches of course. Okay, okay. But yeah, it's a great time and in Ukraine I it's it's, I don't know, it's very special feeling when you're coming back from the long season and now in Ukraine is of course also

difficult time. A lot of blackouts because of shillings and everything. It was really cold weather when I came back. But despite that it's like best time for me like you're home and you're like feeling this, that you are at home and people are so nice. And Ukraine is so great country. And yeah, it would be really nice also for you, I think, to experience it. I would love to, yes. I know a few Ukrainian people so kind, so thoughtful, so warm, and my heart breaks for your country. And I pray that this ends very soon. How would you describe life in Ukraine now? What is it like? Do you feel like it's coming to an end? Do you feel like there's an end in sight? Is it constant fear? What could you tell us about life over there?

So life is keep going and it's interesting that how people adapt to it. I think it's also like not normal to adapt to the shellings, to the drone attacks, to the blackouts, to the problems with water supply. But despite that, life is going on, like Ukraine keep going with restaurants, with everything. So life is really there and still a lot of progress is like in many ways. Like we're so digitalized country. It's amazing. I'm coming now to New York

and it feels like an old city because I think for five, six years we don't carry any credit cards any documents because everything in phone like you can reach it out like in two seconds right cuisine Ukrainian cuisine like it's just another level

like I don't There's a great Ukrainian restaurant here right next to our office Oh yes yes yes yes Is that the one we went to guys yes yes we're talking we're talking in the wrong year Yes yes yes

And we had the parogies and the borscht. We had a whole party there. Yeah. It was amazing. Incredible food. What? You're surprised? The schnitzel?

Yeah. Schnitzel, I think it's a German one. Okay, they had it there too. Yeah. But they had like, it's also American adaptation of the food. But in Ukraine, like even like Italian cuisine, like Asian cuisine, like it's just better than in Asia. Of course, of course. Because I was all over the world.

I was curious if you would go there what you would think of it. Have you tried it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was there like already two times in this three. Amazing. Like it's really nice food. But yeah, in Ukraine, like it's just like amazing. And restaurants like, you know, interior, like exterior like it's just another level. And of course I think prices are much, much cheaper. Of course. And of course like we had a lot of also like we are modern country. We had a lot of great designers. We had a lot of exhibitions. We are modern like and life, life's going on like despite all of that all what we have now despite war. If you talk about war itself, I think of course it's hard, like a new, like we're now talking, it's more than four years of war. It's even around the time that we had Second World War and scale is huge and we had blackouts, we don't have a plane. Of course, your life is getting harder. It's hard to go out and go in, like you need to special, do special documents. Travel itself took like logistically wise. Like it took so long time

And like to get me to New York, it's two days at least. Wow. And what do you fly out of? Poland? From Poland. Okay. But to get to Poland, I'm living in Kiev, some capital in big city. To get from Kiev to Poland is already like 12, 13 hours.

Wow. And then you need to wait for, and also you need to also understand that queues on a traffic jams on the border, like it's huge. And you can wait like 10 hours, 15 hours just in traffic jam. Wow. Because of course, like you cannot fly like, you know, and it makes all the logistics really bad. But despite that, like still like, yeah, people still keep going and people still remain optimistic. And it's important and it's very inspiring for me.

I'm really inspired by Ukrainian people who is like still being strong even despite four years of war. They still doing some business and countries is living a great, I would say not great life, but they still try to enjoy life despite all of that sadness and tragedy. I think now Ukraine is really also modern in the world perspective, I mean in terms of technology. And I think if you follow a little bit, just a little bit latest news in drone technology, I think Ukraine now is one of the strongest country in the world. And yeah, I think with support also of US and lately it was, I think, Musk who turned off startlings for Russians in the front line.

And Ukraine really succeed because of that in some, in some in some territories. And I believe it's, we're able to finish this war much faster. We had more support. But I mean, Ukrainian people anyway stay very strong and Ukrainian people, I think,

don't ready to give up anything. Tough, resilient people. Yeah, you met already, Amosov, I think. Yes, yes, Yaroslav. Yeah. The Bellator champion who recently came to the UFC. Do you know him? Just we're online.

I hope we can do some common trainings together. Amazing. I also had some little bit background. Yeah, so tell me, because I read you've boxed before? Yeah, when I was a kid, but then I did some samba. Oh, wow. And I had some competitions in wrestling, in freestyle wrestling. Okay.

And yeah. So why didn't you go down that path as opposed to skeleton? It's interesting. Like I watched today's show like program and you had like Dmitrius Johnson. Yes. So basically my pass was like I was in MMA. Yeah. Then I left and my dad because he was.

He's coaching strongman sports. Oh, wow. I was part of strongmen sport. Wow. And I was competing when I was like 14, 13, 13, 15 years old. I was competing already in pretty big competitions. And then, like, I was introduced to skeleton. And then I fell in love in this sport and I switched to skeleton.

Okay. But I mean, I go through this sport. And you still, like, in some YouTube's, like, old one channels, you can found my videos where I was, like, doing tire flip, you know, with all these big tires. Wow. And I was, like, doing super yokes. Were you much bigger?

to be honest like I was 15 so I was much smaller but still I was in terms of weight yeah I was a little bit bigger I was I was huge guy for 15 14 years old but yeah it was also part of my life I go I had like experience in many sports and I really like fell in laughing sport like overall from the from the childhood and the UFC is like in the UFC and Belator like on all this organization one like I really watch it a lot and I really like supporting our athletes and So also I knew through the social media, RegiC Day, like another UFC fighter. But Amosov is really inspiring because he was also part of, he was in military when full-scale war started. And you can find this famous video where he was like doing, keeping his Blatter Champion Belt in a basement. And he was defending his city.

And then he came back to the competition and now he's in UFC. And I think he's really promising despite like that he's not, of course, youngest guy but I think he's really strong and I really truly believe that he could be a champion and yeah I would love to see you to come together I remember you I know you tweeted about it that famous video of him you know bringing the belt and and I remember when everything was happening I saw Vitaly Klitschko Alexander Usik speak on your behalf supporting you to see these very very famous Ukrainian sportsmen give you support that must have felt amazing right yeah it's it's a legend Legends of Sports, and it was really amazing to see support from Klichko,

and it was amazing to see also support from Svotolina, like tennis player. And it's amazing. It's people I really inspired by them, and I really glad that they're also supporting our country now and not standing aside because, of course, they could, like, they're a superstar. They could stand aside and don't do nothing. But they're really thinking about what's going on in Ukraine and try to support our country, and I really admire that. I did see an interesting tweet from you recently.

Anthony Joshua was in Ukraine. He was with Alexander. And you wrote something to the effect of that you hope, and correct me if I'm paraphrasing this incorrectly, that you hope he understands who he's associating with because he was also with Islamachev, who has shown support for Vladimir Putin. Can you tell me your thought process behind that?

Yeah, so basically again, like we're coming back to this conversation about propaganda in sports. And I think it was not Putin, but Kadyrov, like, and Mahjadu. Mahachiev is already in a national list of people who are supporting war because he's associated and he's supporting Kadirov. And I mean like when you have like Joshua in Ukraine is amazing. Like it's really huge for our country.

People are like so happy to see such a great athlete and such a legend of boxing. And we all remember this amazing boxing matches with Klichko, with Usik. And of course for us it's a huge that he's in Ukraine. He's showing solidarity with Ukraine. But at the same time, it would be really nice if he also not associated with people who is also responsible for this war in any behalf. And for me, it's also important to show a little bit more about Ukraine, not just to make a good, let's say, post in Instagram, but really to understand what's going on in Ukraine and truly understand who is responsible for that. And to be honest, to be transparent and to be honest. Please.

It's honestly, like, I really. want that people who is supporting Ukraine, they're transparent and honest. And they understand who's who and who's associating with who. Sometimes I'll be honest, I'm surprised. Kadyrov shows up to UFC events. He's sitting in the front row. He supports some of the big-time fighters in the UFC. Are you surprised that they are so comfortable with being so closely linked with someone who has a background like him?

Yeah, I would say like it's an overall problem. And I saw also like I was super like excited. by John John's fights. And for me, it was like a huge legend in UFC. But now these days, like he's in Russia, like, doing some shit shows and taking part in some, like, freak shows around the UFC. Bear knuckle. Yeah, bare knuckle stuff. To be honest, like, it's a, it's a such a, like, law for him. And he's a legend of this sport, like, of MMA and to be, like, part of this mockery of sports. I also saw an idea also doing some things in Russia. And how they treat them like you know they they treat them as like some poppies like and it's it's it's not feel

right you know it's a legend you should respect them but russians they try just to bring some like you know attention to their shows and it's a wild place like it's not normal and i don't really understand why people allowed them to use themselves like for for that reason so i'm money yeah but i mean money is not everything and at the end of the day like yeah yeah i'm not i'm not i'm not i'm not i'm not excusing it, but I know they get paid a lot, and I would imagine that's what they're looking at. Yeah, but probably Kadiriv also had a lot of money, but I mean, like, it's also said to see that he is able to visit all these shows and be part of international community, despite his ties and despite his actions, because we had so many tragedy in Ukraine and, like, some regions

and because of Kadirif people. And to be honest, like, even people from Chechnya, like, who was forced to live because of regime of Kadyrov, they're not supporting him. So he's not kind of like a respectful man for for native Chechnya people. But still he is part of events. He's still part of all of that. And it's sad to see. Like it's really truly sad to see. And I hope we have some, you know, taking more responsibility for this like, you know, shows and who we inviting and who we're not inviting.

Have you ever met Uzek? Not in person. Okay. Not yet. You've spoken to him? We are social media. He messaged you? Yeah, yeah.

He supported me also. We want to do some training together. but we will see how it goes. Okay. But soon I was invited to Tennis March, to Svitolina. So I want to visit Svitolina Tennis March. She's also an amazing person and also having foundation. And she's really talking a lot about kids who were abducted.

And, yeah, for me, it's like, you know, a role model. And it's not only about performance-wise, but also about impact, what they're giving to the world. You're fearless. you don't mind speaking up and speaking about what you think is right? Are you ever afraid? Are you ever threatened? Are you ever being told, hey, you need to stop? Does that ever come your way? Yeah, it's happened a lot, but I mean, I just came back from Kiev. It's kind of like we have rockets, Russian rockets flying above us. We have drones attacks. Also with our Charity Foundation,

I was in the front lines a lot. And I saw like terrible things. So I'm not really afraid about any threats. Okay. Are you, and by the way, what's the 28 for? Does that have anything to do with the Olympics? No, no. Okay. No, not yet, yes.

So maybe. I thought maybe you were going to try out for the summer games. No, it's just, it was a gift from Ukrainian designer, like, and we have 20, like, we are collecting in Ukraine. We try to do fundraiser. Okay. It's not international one, so it's local one in Ukraine. Just to also have drones, which is could shut down Shahats.

So like it's drones, which should. attack in Ukraine. So basically it saves lives. Oh wow. So for us it's important because we had a lot of shillings lately, like last months and this winter too. So yeah, we're just trying to make how it's called like our sky clear, our sky clear from the Russian drones. Yeah, and awareness too. Will you try to compete in the 2030 games? Yeah. So it's a goal, as I told you before, our goal is to win court case and then came

back with the same helmet and win a medal. Oh my gosh. What a story. Wow, because you're not banned from competing in the Olympics. They just said you can't wear this. Yeah. So if you want to try out, but you think they're going to try to stop you, obviously, but hopefully you win that case, it opens the door and you can return. That's the goal for the next four years.

No, but I also want to coming back to sliding because at the end of the day, like why I'm doing skeleton, not because of money, because I really like this sport. I'm just fell in love with the sport and I like this feeling when you're going down the track like in, I don't know, it's 95 miles per hour. It's a crazy thing. What you guys do? Like, this is terrifying, man. You're going down there head first?

Yep. It's crazy. So it's amazing sport and I really like it. And of course, I want to keep going. We are planning already some amazing events, also charity events in ice tracks. And yeah, I will invite you. So we're also planning one in Lake Placett.

Oh, yes. So far away. Yes, I know, I know. And it would be really nice if you also can join in some point and maybe slight. Oh, my gosh. You can go also there, like you have a scouten for amateurs. And you can go not from the top, but just a few corners.

It's totally safe. Are you holding onto something down there? Yeah, yeah, on a, like sled. There's a handle? Yeah. Okay. And I think two years ago, I heard the story that 90-year-old grandma was doing sled, and it was okay.

I think she did like three or four runs. So it's totally safe from that point. It's not as fast. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But at least you had some understanding what is it about. Oh, yes, I would love it. I would love it. I have so much respect for you guys.

It's amazing what you put into the Olympic athletes. I love the Olympics. And that particular discipline, I think, is one of the more terrifying ones, if I'm being honest. So it's amazing to see what you do. Have you ever had an injury of any kind? Have you ever? Yeah, it's happened.

What's the worst kind of injury you've had? To be honest, like I had just a big bruises, like, on my, hands. It's also was in my Instagram and social media, but I'm okay with that. I'm pretty good athlete. Like I'm pretty good pilots. So it's something I'm not a selfish, but I'm just a good pilot

so I'm not crushing a lot. But if you crash on a sled, so yeah, you can break some bones. You can I think one of the worst injuries is it's a collar bones. You can break it when you hit in kiner walls and like speeds are

really fast. So, like, you can, if you crash, you, you crush hard. But again, like, if you keep, like, all this safety restrictions and you don't do, and you don't panic, then I think you're okay, so you can keep going with Bruce's. But sometimes also legs could be broken, like, in some ways, but, I mean, like, it's still, it's pretty safe sports. If we can put it in awards, much safer than U.S. probably. Yeah, maybe. Here I am saying it's crazy, and we talk about all this crazy stuff every day. How long are you here in America for? A couple more days. We have some great meetings towards about our charity foundation work, about educational projects. Also, I'm going to attend some events. And yeah, we're coming back to Europe. And I will also

take part in the Euro Parliament. Some events. Then I'm going to tennis match of Svotlia and then coming back home finally. Incredible. Well, congratulations to you for representing your country the right way. I think that the entire country is so very proud of you, and I can't imagine how you made the families of these victims feel. It's an amazing thing, and I thought it was one of the most courageous things that I saw at the games. Unfortunately, you didn't get a chance to compete,

but I think you did much more important things. Can I ask you before I let you go, is there a story or two of one of these? And I don't want to put you in the tough spot of picking or choosing, but these faces is heartbreaking to see it, because these aren't just pictures. These are actual human beings, athletes who lost their lives. Yeah, let's start. Like we talk about, today about strongmen sports, so like Pablo Ischenko.

And with him, like in 2022, we were delivering some supplies and we was working with him, cooperating with him to provide support for the people in Irpign. It's another like region in Kiev, which was really hardly damaged by the war. It was occupied for a couple of weeks. We talked about Olympics, it's Mitro Sharper, so yeah, I think. Yeah, right there. He was a figure skater and we were competing with him in US Olympic Games in 2016 in Lidahomers so we were teammates. Glynnechev, I told about him so he's a medalist from US Olympic Games. Yeah, there you go, the boxer, yeah, incredible.

Then we have a lot of kids basically like Maleshov. He was a biathlon athlete. He was just 19 years old when he was killed. Awful. Cycling athlete. And I also, in 26 April, we have annual competition to honor. him and I will also will take part in this competition and we're also planning to give some bicycles to his school where he started to do cycling then Ivan Kononenko

so he was also like I knew him from my five year old so like he all my life he was killed and we're also planning to do some sports playground in Ukraine to honor him wow so yeah a lot of great athletes and we can go through like athletics guy from athletics andres chuk I think I think Timot Steiner, like at some point, also post some information about him. He was doing some trainings in one athletics arena in Kiev. So I knew him pretty well. And Taras Spook, so this guy, he was a coach in Victor's games. If you know this...

Yes, of course. Yeah. So he was coach and he was like one of the first person in Ukraine who started this movement and he was like a huge person in this movement and he was also killed in this war. And yeah, many, many, many great athletes. Well done. many great outlets and well done slava ukrainia here i'm slava yeah uh a great pleasure and honor yeah we have also some present for you

oh wow you're you're dealing with ukrainians so we're kind people i appreciate that and i know that so we have like it's a rosary okay and made wow wow wow thank you you can this is a necklace no it's like a rosary but you can take it and we can wash it it's a handmade work wow wow so just from ukraine Yeah, of course, of course. Wow, this is incredible. Here we go, right here. Thank you.

Who made this? It's one master. Like, he's also an coach in wrestling. It's beautiful. Wow, I love the colors, obviously, the Ukrainian colors. Where would you put something like this? In your home? Yeah, you can put it everywhere.

I'm going to put it on my desk. Okay, good. On one of these guys right here. We'll find a good place for it, but maybe that's a good spot right there. I'll find a better spot. I want to showcase it. But that really means a lot.

Thank you so much. Thank you. A huge, huge honor to meet you. Thank you for what you did. Congratulations. Way to represent your country. And thank you for coming in today. It was great to have you a privilege. Thank you. Thank you. Was a great discussion. Thank you. My pleasure. There is Vladislav, Harris-Kevich. Kind enough to join us. We'll be back. Terence McKinney, Johnny Eblin, still to come. Stay tuned. Don't go anywhere. Back on the program. That was Armin from yesterday. Armand Surukin. That was Vladislav. Incredible stuff. How could you not be? blown away by his resolve, by his resiliency, by his courage, by his confidence, man, talk about standing on business, as they say, talk about doing something that is so incredibly selfless that is not about yourself. This guy makes it to the Olympic Games and he says, no, I want to stand up for my people. Just amazing, amazing stuff. So I was really, really happy when I found out he was coming to New York and that we were

able to have him in studio. shout out to the good people of Ukraine. We're going to find a good home for this. This is an amazing thing that he gave to us right over here. So really, really means a lot. And if you're ever in New York, check out that restaurant. What is it called again? It's called, I just forget the name.

Anyone know the name? Ukrainian. Vasilica, there it is. It's a tremendous restaurant. Lower East Side, or West Side, downtown New York. There you go. Still to come, Terrence McKinney had the big win. UFC Seattle.

News and notes back in, but for now, Let us go to our next guest. He headlined PFL Pittsburgh on Saturday. It was a massive, massive, massive fight for him coming off. The loss to Costello Vendez in July had to get back into the title picture, wanted revenge, wanted the rematch, wanted to leave, no doubt. And he did that. And then some just absolutely steamrolling through the PFL debutante, Brian Battle, coming over from the UFC.

Johnny Eblen is, without a doubt, the number one contender in the PFL middleweight division. And that fight, as I said yesterday, is one of the biggest fights that the PFL can put on this year. The rematch for the middleweight title, Costello looked great against Fabian. Eblen does his part. Hopefully we get that back end of the year. Johnny is kind enough to join us right here now to talk about it all. There he is. Hello, Johnny.

How are you? Good man. How about yourself? I'm doing great. Congratulations on the win. To be honest, I wasn't expecting any sort of marks on your face. I wasn't expecting a black guy or anything. Dude, I think I might have hurt myself.

Wow. Maybe off one of the slams. He kind of like was rolling trying to do a gramby roll. And I think I like hit my head on the mat or something. Okay. So self-inflicted? I think so. I think so.

How many slams total in there? Four or five? I think it was seven. Geez, Louise. Was that you? Here's some of them. I mean, was this you just taking out all the frustrations of the last few months? I think so, man.

I was, I was pretty upset. You know, I was like, I need to get back in there. hadn't fought in a few months. And after I was done, the coaches were like, were you angry? I was like, maybe I was. Maybe I was a little bit angry, you know? I was taking out on Brian. Why were you angry?

You know, I just thought I deserved a rematch right away. And I didn't get that. And, you know, I had to get another fight in, get an impressive win. And I just had a long layoff, man. Like, all I've been doing is training and getting ready for a fight. and you know once you have so much time in between fights you know you just get a little angry you just need to let that anger out and that's why I fight that fight against Costello was in July I know PFL had a bit of a break there at the beginning of the year was there any reason

in particular why it took so long for you to get back in there nothing in particular on my side I think what was happening is they were kind of changing the structure yeah yeah out, take away the tournament. They had some people step down, some other people stepped up. You know, Mike Cogan started taking more of the reins on the promotion and leading it more. I know they have some staff changes. So there's just a lot of changes. And I think that took up a lot of time and they couldn't really book anything in the meantime. So, you know, fighters were just on the back burner. And it is what it is. That's just how business can be. And I understand. I wasn't tripping about it.

I made a lot of money so I can afford to take long breaks, but I'm trying to stay active. I'm only going to fight for so long, and I want to continue to fight, and it sounds like we're going to get something soon. This was your first fight under the new regime, if you will. Do you feel anything different? Did you feel any sort of, you know, obviously the powers that be have changed, so to speak, but did you feel like the company was different? Did you feel like there was a different vibe there? I feel like there was a different vibe, more organized for sure.

They had their shit together. Not to say that they never had their shit together in the past. It just seemed more chaotic. And there was a lot of people involved. And it was new. And I didn't really know too many people from the PFL side. But after knowing them for about a year and after, you know, kind of understanding the structure of both,

both Bellator and PFL. And, you know, they kind of figured it out, you know. And now that they've kind of cut the fat and they've, you know, really got this going the right way, this next time around, it felt like a true mixture of PFL and Belator. And it's being run properly. And I like it, man. I felt at home.

I knew a lot of the people that worked there. There was a couple new faces. but other than that, very comfortable, love what they're doing. I'm really happy with the future of the promotion. I thought it was a mistake to not do the immediate rematch. I think in the end, the fight is bigger now because you both looked amazing, but it's hard to roll the dice there and take that chance. It is.

It is, but they took that chance, man, and this is the biggest fight you can possibly make in the PFL, Costello did his job by defending the belt. I did my job by creating a statement last Saturday. And now we have a storyline. At first, it was just me defending the belt, smashing everybody. And it just, you know, it took me to lose in such a dramatic way. And look where we're at now.

We have one of the biggest fights you can make this year. And I'm excited to be a part of it. And you know what? That's how life is. and I'm excited to, you know, create this story and finish this story and become a champion again. Ultimately, though, were you told specifically why they didn't go in the direction of the immediate rematch? Was it simply because, hey, Fabian won the tournament and we want to honor that? Because I thought the fact that you were winning the vast majority of the fight, it ends in the, you know, the dying seconds.

You were the champion for so long, like it was just on a silver platter. Like we said, it all worked out. It's going to be bigger now. I get it. But I thought you should have. flop. Yeah, it could have flop. It could have flop big time.

And you deserved the right to fight for that belt again. Or I say again, to me it's sort of the extension of the Bellator belt. I know it was the first of its kind. Were you given a specific reason as to why they didn't go in that direction? What you said was the specific reason that Fabian deserved the title shot because that's kind of what they told him because he won the tournament. But like you said, it would have been safer to take the rematch because it served on a silver platter. It made sense. It was the fight to make. But they took the chance. I don't think the new

regime was in yet. So maybe that's a part of the reason why it was still the old regime. And they kind of like forced it. And then they booked it and then whatever things changed. But yeah, it was a risk doing what they did. But thankfully it all worked out. And we're not having a different conversation right now. We're having the right conversation right now. Was there a part of you probably a large part of you that was praying that Costello won because you wanted that revenge, you wanted to be the guy to beat him? Part of me was hoping that would happen. But you know how life is.

Things change. You get thrown curve balls and I was open to any possibility. At the end of the day, I'm worried about getting these belts, man. Right. That's right. I'm worried about getting these belts and whoever's standing in my way, you know, I got to defeat him and get the belt. So if it would have been Fabian, I would have fought him again.

But thankfully, it's going to be Costello and I'm going to get my revenge. And it's going to be the big payback. And so have you been specific? I feel like this is an obvious one, but I'll ask it anyways. Have you been specifically told 100% you are next? This is, you know, no doubt about it. Not specifically told, but very, very high probability. I think they should be booking something soon.

Okay. Can't really say 100%, but from talks, from what I've been hearing, based off the storyline, based off everything, it's the fight that makes sense. It's the biggest fight you can make in the PFL. So when push comes a shove, I think they're going to make that fight. So I haven't talked about this on the show. I was going to talk about it before you came on, but we ran out of time. I'll talk about it more afterwards. but we had John Martin, the new CEO of the company in studio last week.

It was a great conversation. And I asked him if he has considered a rebrand. You know, he's making a lot of changes. There's a new team in place. No more tournament. He wants to get rid of uniforms. The broadcast looks a little bit different. And he did confirm.

And again, I haven't talked about this yet, so I'm sort of springing this upon you, but you'd be the perfect person to ask about this. I have been told from multiple people that they are considering a rebrand. and one of the options on the table is bringing back Bellator, making PFL Bellator again. Have you heard this? And what do you think about this? I've heard some rumors that that was a possibility. Nobody official, though.

But I really like that because Bellator has a history of champions. It was a great promotion. It's a great brand name. People know it. it's been around for years. So I think rebranding it back to Bellator would be great. I don't think there's anything that'll lose there because there's no real history with PFL other than the tournament.

And that's long gone. So I'm not against it. If they keep it the PFL and they continue to do what they're doing, as long as they keep the structure the same, I think that's great. But at the end of the day, it's still. Just a name. I just think Bellator is more of a recognizable name and it has more of it history, so it makes sense. Okay.

As far as your placement in the company and your future with the company, I understand you recently resigned with them, right? Yes. You didn't test the waters, though. You weren't done with your contract, with your fights that you owed them that were left on the deal, correct? Correct. I was running out of, I think I was on my last fight maybe and, or maybe I had two fights left. I can't remember exactly, but the time was running out. Okay.

So they wouldn't have been able to give me the fight within the time of my contract. So technically I could have waited it out, but they kind of came back to me and we were in the talks. And also I spoke with a few people that were close to me that kind of advised me on, you know, my other options and whenever I, you know, kind of went through everything, the contract that was presented to me made a lot of sense. It had a road back to getting my title back and had numbers on what I would make for, you know, the title fight for the rematches or for that, not for the rematches, for the defenses. And it all made sense. And it, it was a good contract. So I would have felt dumb for saying no to the contract.

And also it doesn't help that I have a loss to a guy that holds my belt that I want to get a rematch from. So for me to get everything that I want from this promotion, it made sense to resign. And I'm not going to retire anytime soon. It's only a two-year deal, six fights, whatever comes first. But I plan on fighting much longer than two years. So whatever comes after that, we'll cross that bridge when we get there. But for now, I'm a PFL fighter. I'm going to be a PFL champion.

And I'm going to build this promotion as much as I can to make the biggest fights I can. Okay, I love that nugget that you dropped there. And I wish that all fight contracts were like this. You say it's two years or six fights. Meaning if you only get two fights in for whatever reason during that two year period, you don't get to stick around forever and ever and ever until you fulfill those six fights. those two years come and go, you're a free man again. Is that correct? Yeah, so they either have to give me six fights or in two years it expires. Technically, if they don't give me six fights

within two years, they breach the contract and it kind of changes things within the contract. Like, I don't think they get matching rights or something like that. Okay. I'm not particularly sure. I'm not a lawyer. Yeah, yeah. But that's why I have lawyers that help me out with this stuff. But I know it's either six fights I'm done or two years and it expires. That's huge. What happens? Just curious if you can't fight for whatever reason, injury, personal. Like, does it pause or does it still continue?

Does the clock still tick? I think in injury, there's like a clause that extends it. Okay. And if they offer me a fight and I'm injured and I can't fight, it like extends it for a certain amount of time. And there is a clause in there. It's like if they offer you a fight, you have to fight. It's like they, I think there's a clause in there.

It's like they have to offer me so many fights within a year or something like that or within the contract. And it's like not a good thing if I turn down fights. But I'm not a guy that turns down fights. Like anytime I get offered a fight, dude, I'm like, yes, man. Was there any part of you that wanted to just kind of see what's out there and test the waters? Part of me did, but it was a risk because. leaving a good contract from a good promotion that was taking care of me and like kind of burning that bridge and just trying to go to the UFC with no chips on the table and they have a lot of leverage. Also, I'm leaving off of a loss.

It's just not a good position to be in, especially talking to people that are in that space that understand that space. It just made more sense from a business standpoint to continue the relationship because it's the chips I had. If I had what would have won, it might be a different story. But either I could have stayed with them. I could have, you know, tested free agency because my stock would have been higher. But since I left on a lot or didn't leave, since I lost my last fight, it kind of shook things up. And I didn't really have the, you know, pull that I wanted when I came to that spot. So I had to kind of sit there, sit with myself and come to a decision.

And I spoke to people that were close to me. And that was a decision I made was to stay with the PFL and continue the relationship because it's the one that made sense. Speaking of that last fight, like how long did it take for you to get it out of your system? or perhaps you only got it out of your system after Saturday's win. I don't know if you needed that win to wash it away. What would you say? I would say about a month it was over with. I've lost a lot in my life.

I've competed since I was four years old, man. I wrestled since I was forward, you know, and I played football. I played so many different sports. I'm a very competitive person and losses are a part of it. and all that matters is how you overcome it, how you react to it, and how you come back and become better from it and learn from the loss. So you can even learn from wins. I've learned from wins plenty of times in my life, but it's a part of just being a man and

learning and evolving as a person. Obviously, we know about your wrestling background. There's this RAF promotion that's been doing some big things. Have you been looking at them and maybe in between fights, considering just jumping over and dusting off the old singlet. I would love to. My wife would love me to wear a singlet. She's always asking me to wear it in the house.

Babe, I'm retired from it. Interesting. That's not what I do anymore. She's like, come on, babe. Just put the singlet back on. Do an R.A.F thing. I was like, ah, maybe I should. I actually was trying to do an RIF event.

It was the one in Miami. I was supposed to wrestle Kyle Dake, but they got him a bigger, better matchup, and it made sense. I'm friends with Kyle. But we were trying to get that done. And then I was supposed to maybe wrestle Carter Starachi. I'm cool with him too. I shot him a text, but he was like,

they haven't hit me up anything. They haven't hit me up about that. I was like, interesting. And I kind of try to press it. But it became like a thing where I was pressing too much, if that makes any sense. Or if I kept pressing it, it would have felt like I'm, you know, trying to get too involved. Yeah. So, but it got brought up to me.

by my management at one point and I was like open to it because I'm friends with Bo, Bo does it, friends with, I'm friends with a lot of guys that are, you know, on the RIF scene and I would love to wrestle again. But sometimes it's just if it's not easy enough, if it's not making sense, I'm not going to push too hard. At the end of the day, I'm a fighter. I make a lot of money fighting. I'm not too worried about finding side gigs to make extra money.

Sure. I'll make extra money elsewhere, investments with real estate, with rentals. I like to learn skills on the side that are just like, that make me useful. So my life isn't all combat sports. I got, you know, I got layers as Shrek would say. I'm like an onion. I get it. I get it.

There is a debate brewing over there. You know, Armin competed over the weekend as well. Colby did. And they're debating. Colby's saying he took him down. Armand saying he never wrestled him. This is at ATT. I'm wondering if you ever saw them wrestle.

Do you have any intel on this? I remember wrestling Colby and I wasn't very impressed. I actually submitted him a couple times. I submitted him once with a bulldog chook, but that was grappling. That's not wrestling. Okay, okay. But I remember, I don't remember. Whenever I sparred him, I don't think he ever took me down.

I think I took him down. This was like way back when I was still learning strike. So the striking was still, you know, he might have got the better of me in a couple situations. But I remember putting it on him a few times. And anytime we would wrestle, he was never really that big of a challenge. But I'm also bigger than him. Sure. So, but I would say in a wrestling match between Colby and Armin, I take Armin.

Okay. Have you ever seen them wrestle at the gym? Who? Armin and Colby. No, because that was so long ago. Yeah. Like, I don't remember. I don't really remember much.

And I think Kobe was kind of on the way out when Armand was kind of more and more in the gym. Yeah. I don't remember anything specific of them wrestling. Yeah. I don't know. Speaking of the gym, have you seen Kayla there? Because I know she was at your fight and looking good. She looked in great spirits.

I saw her flexing out there. What's it like after the next surgery? What's it like seeing her at the gym? Dude, it's amazing seeing her at the gym. It's just a whole new energy back in the gym that we've been missing. She's in really, really good spirits. She seems like she's in a great place. I've seen her at the gym, you know, working out.

She's not quite back to full training. I think she's just going by the protocol, you know, taking care of herself, making sure she's in a good mental place before she gets back to full training. But she seems amazing, man. It doesn't even look like she's been in a surgery. it's like she's back and nothing happened, you know. And I can't wait for her to be back full-time training.

And I'm looking forward to her, you know, defending her belt and showing that she's the best female fighting, or she's the best female MMA fighter in the world. Yeah, amazing to see her out there. And she seemed to be in amazing spirits at the fight on Saturday. I know you said that, you know, in the works, all that stuff, they had Costello fight in Madrid. Do you think it's going to be a European fight? Do you think it's going to be overseas? The first one was in South Africa. Do you think it'll be back home in the United States?

What are you feeling as far as the rematch? I'm hoping it's going to be back in the States because when I had the belt, I defended it one time in the States. Ever since then, I fought overseas. he got to defend his belt one time back home and then in South Africa I mean he had to travel but it's in the same time zone as him so it's not really that big of a trip for him so I think it'd be fair you know it wouldn't it it would be normal for him to defend the belt elsewhere and I think it makes sense to have the fights in the U.S. I mean it's an American promotion I think more of the events are going to be in America now,

now that the tournament's gone. But if it's in Europe, it's in Europe. I like Europe, whatever. But I think having it in the U.S. would make sense. And by the way, what about Brian Battle? What do you think his future is in PFL after this performance? I'm not sure what his feature holds. I think he should get a good fight within the next few months.

Um, that's tough, man. I think they need to get, they need to match him up well and give him a good fight and, uh, get him, get him a win, you know. Am I cutting out? Yeah, you were cutting up, but now you're back. Do you think he should move back to 170? Do you feel like he's undersized for 185? I don't think he's undersized. He's pretty tall.

Okay. Like, he's a pretty big guy. He didn't seem like he was super undersized. I just think the matchup with me is just not a good matchup. Like, I'm on, on a different level and I approve that. Maybe give him a guy that is a little bit more on his level, maybe less, I don't know. I wouldn't say I'm a wrestler.

I just went out there and his legs were just there and I took his legs. And then from there on, I was like, he's not getting up. I'm going to submit this guy. But maybe, you know, match him up with another guy that likes to strike. And I think you'll see a better Brian battle. He's not a bad fighter. He seems like a cool dude. He likes to put on a show.

It likes to talk crap, which is great for promoting fights. I just think you need to match him up with a guy that will stand and bang with him. And I think you'll get a butcher show. Johnny, congratulations. Incredible performance. A real exclamation point. A y'all must have forgot moment. People may have forgotten who you are, what you're all about, how you fight.

You reminded them on Saturday. So well done. And I cannot wait for that rematch. That's going to be amazing. Costello look great. You looked amazing. That's going to be big time stuff. So hopefully we get it very soon and hopefully we'll talk about it when it's all booked up. So thank you so much. Congrats. Appreciate you coming on as always. Thanks for having me on, Ariel. Anytime you want me on here, bro, just hit me up. Thank you. I'll jump on. I'll always make time for you.

Really appreciate you having me and I'll catch you soon, man. Thank you so much. There he is. Johnny Eblen, the former Bellator middleweight champion. He was a part of the the the the the the the the the the f fl's launch into this world I think costello actually was the first to actually win a title in the pfl in terms of like when they decided to make individual belts if my memory serves me correct I'm going to talk about this rebrand after our next interview but you know you saw the belts behind him and you know what he did he was 10 and o in beltor three and one in in pfl 17 and one in total wrestled at the university of missouri some of the greats who went there, the likes of Ben Asgren, Michael Chandler, who then transitioned over to mixed martial arts.

So what a career, and that's going to be a big time fight. I am looking forward to that and an obvious one. Impak Sanghane looked great against Dalton Rasta, but that's the obvious fight. Soon we will be joined by Terrence McKinney.

I can squeeze in a couple of news and notes here unless we have them, but I don't think we have them, right? Wonderful. I saw an amazing video actually another fighter who is represented by Brian Butler, who's been in the game for quite some time. Johnny Eblen is. Brian also manages Kai Kamaka, the former UFC fighter who had to go out and fight on the regional scene, if you will.

We actually saw him fight at Tough Enough last June when we were there International Fight Week against Diego Brandau. Well, I saw an amazing video of him informing his young daughter that he is back, in the UFC and that he is fighting this weekend at the apex. Take a look. If I woke you up and throw you something cool, would you be really happy even though you're tired? What would be the coolest thing I could tell you right now? I mean the UFC, Kavana.

Guess my daddy's fighting in the UFC? Take a game. This Saturday, Daddy's in the UFC. They called me last night. How amazing is that? And yes, he is fighting this Saturday. We found out yesterday he's fighting Dakota Hope, former PFL fighter, former Bellator fighter,

former UFC fighter, had a win in the UFC, a draw, two losses, had to work and scratch and claw his way back, recently won on the tough enough scene in January. had a great fight, a split decision lost to Diego Brando in, when was it, in October. No, you know what? I screwed up there. We saw him fight on the Brandau card, but he didn't fight Brando. He fought Brando in October. Brando fought someone else on that card. He won on that card against Citech Mujuev, that was in June, then fought Diego Brando in a five-round fight, and that one he lost split decision. Then he won again. Now he's in the UFC, most importantly,

was amazing stuff. Informing his daughter on his wife's birthday, no less. He says he's going to be fighting on his wife's birthday. That's the card headline by Hanato Moikano versus Chris Duncan. A bit of an ATT civil war there. Chris Duncan, of course, from Scotland, but does train out of ATT and his henato Moikano a mainstay over at the American Top Team gym in Coconut Creek. So I love that. That was tremendous stuff. I also did see earlier today this news regarding MVPW. MVPW is the women's division of most valuable promotions boxing promotion. And they officially announced today that they have secured a multi-year deal with Sky Sports over in the UK and Ireland. There you have it. It seemed inevitable

after this card on April 5th was announced a couple of months ago. That's going to be the first MVPW one card. It's happening in London on Sunday, Easter Sunday, headlined by Terry Harper versus Caroline Dubois, Ellie Scottney on the card as well, Chantelle Cameron. Look at that roster. Look at that roster of women. The greatest collection of women's fighters ever under one umbrella. A women's boxing promotion has never had this many great fighters under one roof. And so the deal calls for two MVPW events in the UK a year. They'll also be airing the American events, select American events as well.

MVPW2 is going to be airing April 17th on ESPN. I'll actually be on that broadcast as well. So this is a big coup and it's massive for Sky Sports as well. Sky Sports out of the boxing game since Boxer. And, you know, Boxer left the airwaves over there and they've since struck a deal with BBC 2 and the eye player. Sky Sports has an incredibly long, rich history of boxing coverage. I would equate it to HBO here in America, and they were out of the game, and that was a big blow to the region.

And so we know that they're already in business with Zoufa boxing. They have another event this weekend, Connor Bent stuff, all that and more. That's on Netflix, April 11th. But now we also know that they're officially in business with MVPW as well. So that is significant and a pretty damn good stretch, I would say, for Jake and Nikisa deal with Sky Sports, deal with ESPN, and then of course the MVP MMA deal that they announced on, I think it was February 16th, but it's happening on May 16th. That is the event headline by Gina Carrano versus Ronda Rousey. Speaking of boxing, a fun little face-off that I saw earlier today involving Dave Allen and Philip Hergevich. Spoke about Philip Hergevich yesterday with Moses Zetauma.

He wants to fight him. Dave Allen, a real man's man. But what about Uncle Frank there in the middle with the double-breasted overcoat? I mean, this, he is without a doubt the best-dressed man in all of combat sports. Look at this look right here. This is tremendous stuff. This fights in a couple months' time. Solid heavyweight scrap?

A domestic dust up? No, no, it's not. Herkovich, not from the UK, but I just like saying that. Speaking of heavyweight boxing, what about the bromance between Alexander Usik and Anthony Joshua? And what about this video? Here's Alexander Usik writing AJ's name on a wall and writing underneath, undisputed 2027. You can. Could you imagine if Alexander Usick some way somehow passes the baton to the guy he beat twice and turns Anthony Joshua in the latter portion of his career into an undisputed champion?

What a story that would be. They need to be following these guys and doing a Netflix or DeZone documentary about their relationship. because there was once a time just a couple of years ago, 2022, Ussick beats A.J. A.J. has an emotional breakdown of sorts, throws the belts out of the ring at the post-fight press conferences, crying.

Everyone's slagging him off, saying that he's mentally broken, that he's mentally weak, all this stuff and more. And now this guy is the one who is bringing him up after an unspeakable tragedy hits his team, two of his best friends die in a car crash

that he's in. involved in as well. Don't know if his career is going to continue. Don't know if he's ever going to fight again. Don't know how he's going to react to this. And it's Ussig that's pulling him up. Come on. And now he's putting this out there.

Undisputed 2027. I love it. I love everything about it. Tremendous. Speaking of fights that were announced earlier today, what about this glory kickboxing? So I will be the first to admit. I am not a glory kickboxing expert by any stretch.

I am not. But I do want to tell you about this fight. I want to educate you. Earlier today, Glory announced Collision 9, June 13th, same date as Eddie Hall versus Tommy Fury in the Netherlands, day before the White House card. The feature fight, excuse me, is Mori Chroma going up against me. Milos Vetti Cannon.

Shavetti Cannon. It's a tough name. C-V-J-E-T-I-C-A-N-I-N-N. Shevini Cannon. It is tough. Thank you, Terence. One second, one second. Let me build up to this.

Mori's going to defend his glory heavyweight title against Milos. Also at Collision 9, a one-night, eight-man Grand Prix to crown the new glory light heavyweight world champion.

And so obviously, Mori defending that heavyweight title, once held for a very long time by the great Rico Verhoeven. He wins the last heavyweight standing tournament, which culminated in February with an eight-man one-night tournament, outlasted over 60 heavyweights in the year-long competition, was supposed to fight Milos in the final of the light heavyweight tournament. Milos broke his tone, the opening fight, still went on to win both his quarter and semifinal matchups before being forced to withdraw. Kroma has a decision win over Milos at Collision 7 in 2024. And last year you may have seen that he became Mori that is a viral sensation after the Rock and Snoop Dog shared some of his chaos.

They call him the Black Ghost. Milos, by the way, is the Glory 2025 fighter of the year fought eight times in 2025. We have some footage of these two gentlemen. They're going to be fighting on June 13th. Sounds like a tasty scrap. Take a look. With 15 seconds left. Him to the world and the last heavyweight.

More technical than that. The counted as such. I shouldn't have said anything out loud. He's like, please don't touch it. Please don't touch it. Broke. Yeah, it's pointed right up. Even if he gets through this, can you do more?

That's the problem. Is you going to try and pop it back in? Oh, it's back in. He popped it back in. Oh! Now there's... And it drops it right before the... Just exploded with the left hook.

This one tomorrow night. Chroma, by the way, just like Sveta Chanon, won his debut with a first round knockout. June 13th. And Croma, by the way, training with the one and only surreal gone, Bon Gamin, ahead of his heavyweight scrap, interim heavyweight scrap with Alex Pere.

We do have some footage of that. surreal, there's chroma, and there they are, going toe to toe. And so Cyril Gan bringing in some people who know about that style, similar build, similar body type, similar height it seems, at least from afar. Interesting intersection here, the world of kickboxing getting into the mix, intertwined with both MMA and of course boxing with Rico Verhoeven, jumping over to fight Alexander Usick on May 23rd. Interesting insight from Eddie Hall regarding that fight. Obviously, he's friends with Rico, so he's going to back his guy, but he's calling his shot.

He's calling his shot in a very big way. He's saying that he's going to do some big things. Earlier today, we did also find out that Andre the Giant versus Hulk Hogan from WrestleMania 3, one of my favorite matches of all time. is going to be going into the WWF or WWE, excuse me, Hall of Fame. We have the poster right here. This is the VHS.

You know what? This is Hogan versus Andre WrestleMania 4, the rematch, which wasn't as good as WrestleMania 3. For some reason, I thought I had the WrestleMania 3, but WrestleMania 4 is actually my favorite WrestleMania of all time because of the Bad News Brown, Brett Hart, Battle Royal in which Bread and Bad News Brown team up, and then Bad News Brown hits him with the ghetto blasts.

and throws him out of the ring and betrays his fellow Canadian. That's actually my favorite WrestleMania. And a lot of people hated that WrestleMania, the one-night tournament. I loved it as a kid. Bad News Brown, it was announced late last week, is going into the Hall of Fame. And so is this match from WrestleMania 3. So I was actually on a podcast recently. There goes Nate Diaz.

Actually, that's Nick Diaz. I was on a podcast recently, and we were talking about what should be. the next match to go into the WWE Hall of Fame because they've done it once before. This is something the UFC has done a bunch. But they've done it once before. It was last year, WrestleMania 13, Brett Hart, Steve Austin.

I said I thought Ricky Steamboat versus Macho Man from WrestleMania 3 was going to be next. I got the event right. I didn't get the match right. WrestleMania 3. Andre Hogan is the last. the one.

Speaking of wrestling, by the way, I saw this tweet here, which I enjoyed very much. First from CM Punk. Actually, it was from Tops. They've got wrestling cards. They've got autograph cards. Here's what CM Punk wrote on his. Dom

Mysterio is an idiot. And then I saw Dom quote tweet that with this, which I thought was a good chance. Dom low-key, great tweeter. he's got a few bangers on there I enjoyed that one

I showed it to the boys earlier no one really liked it yesterday we should I liked it no you didn't but do you think is Sid Vicious getting into the Hall of Fame

Wow this is an incredible class Sid Bad News Brown Hogan Andre Stephanie McMahon there's a whole bunch of them demolition

speaking of which be sure to check out the uncrown wrestling show It drops on its own feed tonight and my feed. Tuesdays are the best. Jason Solomon, the Solomaster, is phenomenal. Love having him a part of the family, and he's done such a great job,

and I know Frank loves working on the show as well. He will surely weigh in on this and all the other comings and goings on the road to WrestleMania. Okay, more news to come for now, though. Let's talk to the man who was victorious this past Saturday at UFC Seattle. It took just 24 seconds for him to dispose. of Kyle Nelson. He now has the shortest average fight time in UFC history, less than the great

Tom Aspinall. It's an unbelievable run. It's just a string of first round finishes on his resume. He is T-Rex, Terrence McKinney, and he's kind enough to join us right here and now. There he is. Hello, Terrence. How are you? What's up, brother? I thought you forgot about us. Never, never, never, never. Were you napping? I was. I was. I was. You got the The nap eyes. You've got like the sort of teary-eyed nap eyes. Yeah, I'm in business now. I'm in business.

I got you. All good. We appreciate you coming on. Congratulations on another amazing win. What is it about you, man? How do you even put this into perspective, these first round finishes? How do you even make sense of all of this? Why does this keep happening? I tell people, I think it has to look unnatural so people can know that it's all God's doing. Yes, I work hard, but by the favor of God and him blessing me with this incredible speed and strength, like, this could have been done without him. And so what people thought was very funny about this particular one was you did say in an interview right before the fight that you were going to be a little bit more calm, cool, and collected.

Were you just working us? Were you lying and just trying to show him something different? No, I was staying calm. It's just like the strikes out of landing were like super effective and sharp. like I landed a jab right away. I landed the one, two, and then I just started probing because I saw like even though I didn't fool it on like connect, like it still made him stumble back. So I know it rocked him a little bit and then I just probe and I knew he was going to throw their overhand

and we caught him with a need to deliver. And I saw him like wince and I just do the head kick as fast I can and calm him off balance and then the rest was history. Is there ever any point, any part of you that says, man, I kind of wanted a little bit more. I didn't want this to go so quickly? Nah, because then it makes me like the highest paid athlete for a second

right now. Okay. Yeah, did you know that? Right now, your average fight time is two minutes and 16 seconds, so you've surpassed Tom Aspinall, who was once at 202, but now 218. There you go.

Did you know that stat? Yeah, I just saw that recently, and I was like, man, that's incredible because, like, most of those guys are, like, big dudes, so for me to be on that list is incredible. And so, okay, now this is the big one I know you've been asked about

and you've addressed it. How is this possible? How have you never gotten a bonus? I don't understand this. This has, like, is this deliberate? How does this make any sense? How could someone with that many first round finishes? First round wins?

Never get a bonus of any kind. I don't know. I don't really focus on it. I know there was some credible affinity by grass selling people. So it just shows like that I've been blessed and privileged not to have been on such awesome cards that, like, I guess it just didn't make sense for me to get it, but I know the time will come and

I'll be excited. Are you bothered by this? Nah, because as long as I got the full check when I do, I'm happy, and it gives me in a good position to take care of my kids and my wife, so. Okay. And you did say that the UFC took care of you, right? Yes, sir. Okay, so you feel good about it, because I know Dana was asked about it as well, and he's like,

yeah, yeah, you know, it was tough and we take care of him and all that stuff. You feel like you're being looked after. Yeah. They up my contract again, so I already signed a new contract, and then they upped it right after the fight. So I'm feeling truly blessed, so I'm excited to get out there and go get this new money to next fight. And I guess this is the first time that you fought where they're giving out finish bonuses,

so technically you did kind of get a bonus. Yeah, exactly. And who know, they might seem me more. So we'll just wait and see. When you got that win, I'm sure there's a part of you in the back of your mind. Like, all right, I'm in a good spot. And then you probably saw like a string of incredible finishes. And you're like, oh, damn, right?

Yeah, yeah. Six finishes on the main part. I was like, oh, dang, man. It was looking pretty good till then. Incredible. The Grasso one, where were you for that one? I think I was doing interviews, but it was super sick. the UFC let me go out there and watch KS's last fight.

So, like, that was just, like, that was just beautiful, man. And like I said, I couldn't be more thank for God just to, because usually make people go home. So for me to be able to watch my high school coach do his last fight. And yeah, it was incredible. Yeah, it was incredible all in all. I saw this post here, and we know about your connection for you to be on the same card as him and the card in which he retires and all the emotion in the state of

of Washington, when you figure that out, when you realize that you would be linked to his retirement fight, what did that mean to you? Can you describe? I can't describe, but I did tear up a little bit and like I said, it's just like, I'm just truly grateful for where I'm at, you know, because things could have easily been different and yeah, and I get to perform and like in front of thousands of people, like, just feeling the crowd of energy, like, like, like, like, You couldn't ask for a picture perfect night, man. You know what I mean? Yeah, and we've talked about that.

We're not going to talk about it all over again. But I did hear you say that no more drinking, right? Yeah. When did you stop that? Like, literally like four months ago, like maybe nine, four months, but it's been the best decision never made. What was the turning point? What led to it?

Just praying and just trying to be a better person through and through, you know? Was there an act? actual turning point or was it just something you were thinking about and then decided one day I'm done? No, it was just by the grace of God, I just kept praying and eventually like I just started going, watching church and just trying to pray with my kids and just like wanting to be a better role model all and all. And eventually I was just like I'm done. There's just there's no point. There's nothing good that comes from it. Were you doing it during fight camps? Were you drinking during fight camps? Yeah. Wow. A lot?

Yeah, probably like every day, usually. And what was it? Beer, liquor, what were you doing? Party, like, I'll probably get, like, a drink or anything at dinner, literally. Okay. And now that you've won, you want to celebrate, are you craving it? No, I went home. I made sure I got home instead of state in my city because if you put yourself in situations, obviously, the temptation is going to come. So I just had to avoid that. Okay. So you went back home. Where's home for you these days? Is it still Texas? Florida.

Florida. I live like 50 minutes from Orlando. Okay, okay. And it's treating you well? Yes, sir. Okay. And so it's amazing because I've heard you talk about religion and finding God. We also heard a lot of that from Joe Piper this weekend as well.

And so how would you say your relationship with religion is now? Like, how does that make you a better fighter? How does that make you a better person? It's always been there just, but just not being lukewarm, I'll say. Just being no fire for God. It's important. Like God said, there's this no in between, you know what I mean? Yeah.

And my coach always says something, he said, God can't bless the mess. God can't bless the best, meaning someone who maybe doesn't have their life in order? Yeah, or out there expecting, doing the wrong thing and good things that happen. Sure. And, okay, yeah, the video turned there for a second. Do you feel like it's hard? You know, your celebrity, you're fighting in the UFC. Do you feel like it's a constant internal battle for you?

It's always going to be an internal battle because like the Bible said, you've got to pick up your cross daily. So, of course, there's a re temptation. It's just like, what are you going to do? You're going to stay there or just keep going to the situation. You know you're going to be tempted. Like, how are you going to say you're moving smart when you go in a place where you know, like, bad thing is going to be happening that's going to make you want to go back to your ways?

Right. So do you feel like for the first time in your life, you're on that right path finally? Yeah, especially to be the guy, just four and won his last five fights, and to do it in that fashion, like literally like one more and then maybe a ranked opponent

and just seeing that I was so close again and Chris and he's in the main event, and I was like, dude, like you're 31, like it's now or never, you know? Yeah, what about that fight? You were on that two-fight winning streak and that was a crazy fight, golly, that was one of the,

I mean, again, another fight that probably could have won an award for fight of the night. I know it was relatively short, but it was a firefight. In your opinion, what went wrong with it? Just being prideful because, like, I want to knock them out so bad and just thinking about selfish ambitions while I'm out there. I was like, oh, shoot, I'm not to knock them out. We've got to be rich, baby.

Instead of being like, I get to get my family a house, like, if I keep pushing, you know. Do you regret that? I regret knowledge to my coach and thinking I can knock him out. Because obviously, the game plan was supposed to take him down if he hurt him at all and look to smote and eventually look for a submission instead of staying in a firefight because that's the only time he catches people when he's hurt. You're in those firefights. You're in those moments.

Can you even hear your coaches? Can you hear them trying to tell you to chill out? No, I can't hear nothing. The crowd be going crazy, man. Yeah. Maybe for you it's better to be at the apex, so you can hear them. Yeah, that's probably the only time I've been able to hit a coach. It'd be nice to have like Bluetooth in the ear.

Oh, my gosh. That would be tough. But you seem like the kind of guy who would rather fight in front of the fans, right? Yeah, yeah, I love it. Gives you energy, gives you, you know, like just like motivation. Exactly, yeah. It's just incredible. Okay, so I've also heard you say you want to get a couple back.

Are you on the revenge tour now? Are you looking to get new opponents in front of you? When you talk about getting some back, what are you thinking? Why not to do Dover rematch? Okay. That'd be cool. All right. That's definitely one I want back.

Really, all of them I want bag, honestly. But I feel like there's still so many other options at the same time. So, but yeah, at least getting one or a couple of those back would be nice. but like I said, there's plenty of options, and we'll see what the U.S. he does. How quickly do you want to return? Whenever. International fight would be cool. I think, well, a couple guys just already booked, so I had to switch a couple guys around that I wanted, so.

And if it was up to you, if you had a preference, who would it be against? I wanted Alex Hernandez to get that back for Chase Super and Watson. Yeah. He got booked. What about Lance Gibson, who just beat? I would love that fight also. Me and my coach talking about that. He said, yeah, ask for that Lance Gibson.

Yeah, that was, I mean, I know Chase is your guy, but that was impressive. That's impressive. And, you know, that's the only thing that I heard they want one more fight for the White House, and that's all I was missing is a black-on-black crime and it's really America, baby. I mean, that would be sure-fire action, though. I mean, I can't imagine that goes to distance. Do you remember the last time you went the distance? I only went to the third round one time in my career.

You've never actually gone the distance? No, sir. That's insane, man. This is a career that dates back 2017. You're currently 18 and 8, and you've gone to the third round once. Oh, there it is. You remember who was against? Yeah, Brandon Todd.

He was 5'1, a black belt, and we're able to get the submission in the third round. Nebar? Yes, sir. Ghaly. Last time you made it to the second round, you remember that one? I think it was Nazim. Yeah.

But your last one, two, three, four, five, six, seven fights, all first round fights. You're a beast, man. Thank you, then. I appreciate it. But you enjoy it more when you're winning in the first round. 100%. But you're instant.

I mean, I'm sure the UFC loves you, the brass loves you. what's not to like, right? Yeah, I do exactly what they want. They want violence and I like to deliver. When did you cut your hair? The same time I cut my sons. Usually when I get his hair cut,

and I just want to fresh start as well. Okay. How long did you have the hair for? Maybe a year and like three months. Okay, you like it better this way? No. No? I'm not going to all the other.

again. Oh, so you're going to grow it out? Yeah, 100%. Okay, okay. I think both are... I look like a big, swole ninja turtle out there, man. What are you talking about? What are you talking about?

I look like one of the reptilian people they'd be talking about them, Ananakis, bro. I got to get my hair back at you. How long would that take to get it to where you want it to be? Easily a year to get the link I just had it. Okay. I know you feel some sort of way about it because you keep going like this. I know, man. I'm like, dang, girl. You feel naked? I got a noggin on my head, bro. Do you like it out there in Orlando? Yeah, 100%. The weather's way better. I thought I missed

the northwest, but, oh, no, it's too cold. I'm good. Yeah. It's always sunny, right? Mm-hmm. At least decent. At least like 70. Right. Yeah. All right, man. Well, everything's going well for you? 100%. We're just waiting for the approval for this house, and I'm excited to give my kids the backyard to play in, man.

This dream come true. Oh, man, that's huge. Will this be your first house? Yes, sir. That you buy, that you own. Incredible. In Orlando. Yes, sir.

Wow. How close are you? We're just waiting for the approval, but we got the books ready, so. Amazing. How many kids you have now? Two. Incredible.

What are their ages? My daughter's won. The craziest thing, like, every time I have my kid, you already know the last one. It was like, perhaps my fight. And then I had my daughter right before I fought the mirror last year in January. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. That last time when you, well, the one that you had when you were on the show from the hospital, that was crazy.

Yeah. No, this one's crazy too because we gave birth and had to hop on a flight literally the next week on Tuesday. Man, you don't tell the UFC, can you just kind of leave me alone when... Did you see this interview where Dana White was telling the guy that his son was going to be born on one of Chuck Liddell's fight nights? And so they scheduled the C-section beforehand so that it wouldn't coincide?

What a guy. Would your girl be down with that? Oh, heck, no. We had some big kids, like my daughter was 8 pounds, 11 ounces. And my son was like 9 pounds, 2 ounces. So she was definitely ready to get them suckers out. Yeah, no, I feel you. But it's amazing, man, because you've really grown up in front of us here,

and it's great to see everything seemingly coming together for you here. House, family, kids, the wins. It's a beautiful thing to see. So I'm wishing you nothing about the best. Keep it up and continued success. And more great finishes, more great highlights, and perhaps a few bonuses. thrown your way as well.

Yes, sir. In Jesus' name, it's going to happen. Amen. And happy Easter to you and your family. Hey, thanks for the likewise. Appreciate it. Thank you, Terrence. All the best to you. Cheers. There he is. Terrence McKinney, T-Rex, kind enough to join us on this Tuesday afternoon after a big win over Kyle Nelson, just 24 seconds. These are his fights as of late. 24 seconds, 23, 55 seconds, 201, 37 seconds, 127 seconds, 127, 107 of the second.

round. So the 125 is the first of this stretch of first round finishes. It's unbelievable. It's one of the great records, if you will, in the UFC. 18 and 8, nine career wins via K-O, 9 via sub, 100% finish ratio. Yeah, I screwed that up. Never, never gone the distance. The one third round fight I thought was a decision. But the guy is, he's an absolute beast. He's an absolute beast. All right, what a day. What an eclectic mix of personalities, right? From DJ, obviously.

So great. What energy, what spirit. To Eddie Hall to Lance Gibson. What a revelation. You know, I couldn't get it. G.C. was busy doing the Rick stuff back there. I couldn't get in a muckle shoe question. Yeah, I'm a little pissed about that.

I can't look. It just felt like we weren't going down that path with Lance, you know? I got the LGGA ticket right over my shoulder. You had it right there. Golly. I don't know how he feels. about betting old Lance yeah he's a pretty

he's a very cerebral man yeah spiritual thoughtful cerebral I don't know if he'd like it either but I mean we had we had to honor him in some way getting this bad boy framed over so you're not going to cash it it nope nope this will just be our sixty eight dollar Lance Gibson bill here love it how is it back there everything okay I haven't

give me a fucking break no we actually lost the stream two and a half hours ago we were just too nervous to tell you oh wow okay yeah yeah yeah Break break started early, baby. Dan already left. Dan, oh, hi, hi. So who's back there?

Who do we have? Andy or Frank? Hello, hello, Andy. How are you? Andy, Armin's back here. Okay. Hello, Armin. How are you?

I was a little thrown off because I do see Frank in the chat, and so I'm wondering who's sort of, you know, grabbing the audio steering wheel, if you will. Look, man, we're all just doing different things back here. There's a lot going on. Do you miss Rick? Do you think Rick is secretly hoping more things mess up so that he could come back, like sort of like do the old strut and be like, you see?

He's not that kind of guy. You see? I want proof that Rick didn't send you a sneaky little text and was like, hey man, make sure you start the members only chat today. Don't forget to do that. This was all a ploy by New York Rick to make himself look good. The funny thing about the members only debacle of 2026, this would have happened whether or not he was here or not. This has nothing to do with him.

There's a one right there Do you see the one Underneath the chat? There's a one In the room with us right now Let me see Let me see, hold on There's a one right there

Also Oh yeah yeah yeah Engage with your audience The one Yeah that one I'm not clicking that you bro Yeah What is this

Free member milestone shit Maybe I shouldn't touch anything Yeah I don't Do you think if Rick were here You would have asked First like hey What does this do? No it was mid

I don't know It's a perfect moment It's a perfect Rick It's a perfect moment. Everything just worked out for him. I wanted to bring this up because you're the perfect person to ask about this because you love this sort of, you love marketing, you love nostalgia, you love design, you're out on the streets of Seattle wearing the Sonics gear and people are coming up to you. You said that

they were coming up to you like you were a war hero coming home, right, like with such love and admiration and revelation and they're like, oh my God, this is amazing. Like that logo, that team means something. I'm the same way with the expo. right? The expos left, that logo, that team, that history. I'm nostalgic for it. I miss it. I adore it. And so I can't tell you that John Martin told us they are considering, heavily considering a rebrand. And one of the options on the table right now that they are strongly considering is bringing back Bellator. And when I say this, it isn't bringing back Bellator as a secondary brand. It's bringing back Belator as the official brand. Whoops.

Getting rid of the PFL and rebranding the PFL to Belator, which, of course, they own. They bought it. They own the IP. And so everything would become Belator. Belator champions. PFL champions would become Belator champion. Everything. The PFL will be no more and it would go with Belator.

I asked Johnny Ebblin about this. Curious what you think about it. Do you think that this would be a smart move or an ill-advised move? I don't. I just don't know if it makes it. that much of a difference in terms of the viewership that they're going to Garner. I just can't imagine, like, I know Bellator had some great fight cards in its day, but I'm just not sure that it was such a big brand that people are dying for it to be back. Everyone that is going to watch

a PFL card or a Bellator card or whatever it is knows that it'll just be PFL with a new coat of pain on it. I just can't imagine that there's this much of a desire to have Bellator back that will make any difference for their viewership numbers. I mean, like, we talk about the Sonics. They want the Sonics back because they want a basketball team in the city of Seattle. This is just, hey, the PFL is now called Bellator. I agree with you, and I will go even a step further and say, I think it would be an actual mistake. I think it would be a mistake for multiple reasons. I don't feel like MMA fans have the same

affection and connection with Bellator as they do say with pride strike force. Would those be the only two? I can say with certainty that they do not have that connection. Yeah. I'm trying to think of like, all right, obviously the

UFC is the UFC. There is an affection towards pride. Pride never die, right? People love pride. It was unbelievable. Strike force, I feel like there was an affection towards that. Those two brands are owned by the UFC. So those brands aren't coming back. Bellator does not have that same type of connection with the MMA audience, with the MMA fan base. I would actually go as far as to say that most hardcore MMA fans would be hard pressed to tell you who the final Belator champions were.

You know what I mean? Like I can tell you right now who the final Strike Force champions were. I'll add another one, WC. WC people, I knew I forgot one. Pride, WC strike force people are nostalgic about. People talk about the blue cage of WC. People talk about the pride, you know, the entrances and the ring and the showmanship. People talk about the Strike Force fun fights.

I would probably go with Pride, WC, and Strike Force in that order about what they sort of feel very strongly about, which brands they feel strongly about. They don't feel strongly about the Belator brand. That's kind of why Bellator failed in the end. That's kind of why Belator fizzled out. And here's the problem. PFL, in my opinion, while they've had their issues and they've tried to find their identity, now I feel like they're finally on the right path. I could tell you who the first Belator Middleweight champion is,

excuse me, PFL middleweight champion is, Costello Van Steen is, I could tell you about Vadim Nemcov, I could tell you about Usbandur-Manga-Madav, it's all very clean. They are starting a lineage. They're starting a history now. And so this to me will feel like,

this will feel like panic mode. This will feel like, hey, we don't trust the brand that we have. So let's go back to something that is somewhat tried and true that had TV deals here and there, but ultimately did not succeed. That's why Showtime wanted to offload it. I know that there were other things going on with Showtime at the time. Let's go back to that in order to secure this big TV deal that we're trying to get because our ESPN deal is coming to an end, and the ESPN deal appears to not be in a position right now to be renewed.

It doesn't appear, based on what I'm hearing and feeling, that they're going in that direction. PFL is fresh. You're able to start fresh now. No one's walking around saying like, ah, man, give me that old Beltor merch. I can't wait to wear that Beltor hat and Beltor. That's how they feel about the Sonics. They're trying to tap into that feeling that people have,

like when they brought back the Florida Marlins uniform over the weekend, I don't know if you saw people saying like, wow, this is so great. The old F with the Marlin, the teal jerseys. It looks different than the Miami Marlins. This happens all the time in sports where they bring back old logos, old uniforms, old brands. People love this sort of thing.

People never had that connection with Bellator. And so it would feel like a panic move to me, and I feel like it would be a massive step back. They're on route to crowning champions in all of these weight classes. First-time champions, inaugural champions. Why would you go back to a promotion that had tournaments and then this guy had held the belt and there's no real clean lineage? I think that this would be a blunder.

I think it would be a big mistake and I would not be in favor of it for whatever it's worth. No one's asking my opinion and I'm hoping for the best. Like I want them to succeed. A world in which there is the UFC, PFL and maybe an MVP

in North America doing their thing is better for all of us. And I really think that the PFL is on the right track right now. Like I thought that show on Saturday, I know you guys were at the Seattle event, I thought it was a great show. I thought the Madrid show was a fun show. I'm really looking forward to that Belgium card

in May with Patrick Habi Rora. Like they have some. something. I think this middleweight title fight is going to be great. The rematch is going to be great. I think they've got pieces. Nemkov is out there. Cyborg is still around. Obviously, Dakota is a huge, huge deal. Usbander, Magamatov. They want to keep them around. Like, they've got pieces. Stick with that. Don't go backwards. I think this would be a mistake. And I think it would be a massive, massive blunder that would be hard to undo. That's already a brand that has come and gone, somewhat tarnished, somewhat not.

What's the best fight in Bellator history? They asked Don Davis about it. He couldn't even name one or PFL history. Whatever it is. Best fight is probably a fight that happened back in 2011. It was Eddie Alvarez versus Michael Chandler. Like there's not a lot of great Bellator moments. Bellator fights.

A.J. McKee beating Patricia Pippell. Great. We could probably talk about them on one hand and truth be told, like I live and breathe this stuff. It didn't break through. It didn't make us feel. The way in which pride, WC, strike force, and obviously the UFC made us feel. I hated the fact that they were on every week. I hated the fact that they were on like 13 straight weeks.

Hated the tournament. Hated all these things. And they got away from that. But at the end, they were just, you know, they were being relegated to no promotion, no real future, no real direction. It just wasn't working. And then there was the champion series. And now, man, what are we doing? Also, to your point, PFL bought the brand.

And then they did the PFLO tour for a while, and then they decided to merge it into PFL. If you were going to just go back to Bellator, why would you have not done it then and just dropped the PFL to begin with? Yeah, probably because that was a different regime. Oh, yeah, I guess the double D regime was in. I mean, my best memories of Bellator is like you hear that opening and Michael C. Williams and everything, and you know you're about to lose your parlay on a minus 900. Yeah. But seriously, you're online, right? Yeah.

Like, do you feel like there are people longing for the Belator brand? Ah, the good old days of Belator? No, that's what I'm saying. I think it's, I just don't think it makes any difference for them if they turn it into Bellator. I think the same number of people are going to view whether it's Belator or PFL. Beltor had a little thing going over in Europe. PFL has that same thing going right now.

You know what I mean? Like, I feel like the PFL brand, PFL Europe, Dakota emerging from there. They had some great shows, Fabian Edwards. I feel like they go to France. France, they go to London, they go to Ireland, they go to Belgium. That public knows who PFL is. Now you've got to work on trying to educate the American public on what PFL is, but guess what? The American public wasn't gravitating towards the Bellator brand.

Now, I know that there are going to be people in the office over there who are going to take this personally, who are going to be upset that I'm saying this. I'm just telling you my two cents. Go ahead. Do it. God bless, we'll talk about it. We'll cover it. It's not going to change the way we view it. But if I was in charge over there, if I was John Martin, the CEO of this company,

I was one of the new investors, and I'm considering taking a step back and going to a brand that was absorbed and essentially just kind of phased out, I would be asking questions like, why? Why are we doing this? Let's try to make this brand cool. Let's try to make this brand fresh. Let's try to start a history here. We've already done that. We've gotten rid of the tournaments. Costel's a champ. Usman's a champ. Vadim's a champ. Dakota should be a champ. I had a bit of a blunder with the welterweight division where the guy retired when he won the belt, but, you know, neither here nor there. Cyborg's a champ. Like, you're, you're, You're moving in the direction of crowning champions. It feels like there's a new PFL history emerging. Now you're going to go back and change all those belts into Bellator belts? Like, think about that. It's crazy. Crazy. It would take months, if not over a year, to get everything synchronized again on it being Bellator.

Yeah. I was surprised when I heard that. I did ask, John, because I had heard about it. When I asked him about the rebrand, I asked him fresh start. and he said yes. And so that gave me hope that, because to me, Beltor isn't a fresh start. That's a recycled start, if you will. And so perhaps that gave me hope.

But what I'm hearing is it's being considered. Now, I want to say, not final, not 100%, it's one of the options. And perhaps in the end they decide to do nothing. But what I would do, if I was in charge, maybe freshen up that logo, freshen up the look. Please get rid of the uniforms. The entrances are nice. I love walking out with the belt. They posted some cool stuff on social where they were following Johnny Eblen.

Country Road, take me home to the place. That was great. The crowd was into it. They are on their way. Hopefully get a good TV deal. I think it would be a blunder. My two cents. Frank, agree or disagree?

You know, I'm going to remain neutral and look at all the facts. Wow. That's weird. He's nervous to disagree with you. He won't spell it back. Okay. I told you, Frank, no Rick, no Pizzi. like you kind of have to weigh in.

We need your insights and they're so good. There's such thing as Switzerland. All right. How about Frankie's haircut, eh? Started the show in the office this week. Gosh, I walked out. I wish, you know, these are, there are some moments where I kind of like say to the people,

I wish you could see Frank the way in which we see him, came in with an unbelievable, what is that, a fohawk, a mohawk, what is that? What would you call that? Whatever you want it to be. But then I got a whole, like, oh, I've always had this haircut. What are you talking about?

I usually wear a hat. I'm sorry. It's a lot thinner back there. than he usually is. It's high and tight. It's high and tight for sure. I love it. I think in Frank's defense,

you know, I was with him for a majority of the morning yesterday. People weren't necessarily coming up to him and being like, Frank, your hair looks great, man.

They were more just like, haircut, you got one. No, no, not me. Frank, what was my reaction? What's going on here? Jesus.

Oh my God, this is a minute. I did not say that. I did not say that. Oh, it was pretty damn close to that. Oh, man. to be honest.

Yesterday we showed you Mosar Evloev doing that rope thing, John Silva weighing in and a bit of a zinger here, climbing his way into a decision. The question is, decision win or decision loss? I think he'd take the decision when.

And what about this link up, G.C. What about this one? Ilya, the reigning defending UFC lightweight champion and the pride of Ecuador. Michael Morales. What about this link up right here? Yeah.

That is some kind of link up. Can Ilya really go to 170? It talks about wanting to. I know. Look at that, dude. Michael Morales is huge compared to this guy. Gigantic. One day I would love to see Morales

versus Islam or Morales versus Ian Gary. I still think it should be Ian Gary. But with his judo background, I think it would be fascinating. I do want to mention that Nate Diaz, Nathan Diaz, as those who are truly in the know column, was on the Theo Vaughn podcast.

What's it called? It's called this past weekend. And a couple of interesting nuggets. Check it out. I believe it's on YouTube. A couple of interesting nuggets. And actually, we continue, not that we needed it, to be proven right. He does back up everything we said about talking to the UFC and the UFC being interested in the Connor McGregor trilogy before he ultimately signed with MVP.

he hears a snippet of that conversation. They want me to come back and fight. Oliver. I believe they want me to come back and fight Connor McGregor, not Olivera. You know, I'm like, well, I'm gonna fight from my belt that I created, that I deserve since I started a whole division to bring value

up to all these fucking fighters. You started the BMF though. I started the whole shit, that's me. That's my belt, you're wearing on my hip, so yeah. You just got tatted with a BMF belt. That's me. you're holding, okay? And they're like, okay, we want you to come back

and then maybe later we'll do the, I'm like, okay, well, you know who's doing a good job? The same, almost close to the same amount offer for Mike Perry, who's the fucking most violent motherfucker around right now. Doing things, taking over businesses, running shit, doing his own promotion. And I'm like, that sounds a lot more,

a lot more, I'm a lot more enthusiastic to get up and run and get ready to train for this motherfucker who's gonna knock me out or i'm gonna knock his out and we're gonna take what's who's the bigger dog or the bigger best motherfuckers there are you know i'm saying and then in the meantime i'm not fighting for mdp i'm fighting for netflix and i'm fighting from real fight incorporated which i'll probably be doing next with netflix anyway real fight entertainment on a thing and show you how to throw a real uh m m m m I've been in the UFC for 20 years now, so I'm like, yo, I'm going to do that from real fighting with, you know, I'm not working for a fucking MVP like all these other motherfuckers are. I'm a UFC fighter.

I'm working for me for real fighting, and I'm hunting Jake Paul's motherfucking ass. Can I just tell you it's great to have Nate back. It's great to have Nate back, not only back period, but back in MMA. And so there he has it. There he says it. He says, if I understood it all correctly, he wants to fight Jake Paul, got it, talk to the UFC. They wanted him to fight Connor. He wanted his BMF title back.

And I don't blame him. Obviously, the Connor fight is the way bigger fight. Nate versus Charles would be a very good fight. But Nate versus Connor is one of the biggest fights that could be made in combat sports, let alone MMA. But ultimately he explains right there, Mike Perry's doing violent things, incredible things.

He respects his business decisions and acumen, and he went in that direction. Now he wants it to be known. He's not fighting for MVP, he's fighting for Netflix, and that's totally okay. This is on Netflix. And Netflix is a major reason

why this card is happening because they have the deepest pockets in all of entertainment. So everything makes sense. Plus, which he doesn't mention there, I haven't seen the whole thing. I did see a few clips. It's a one-fight deal.

So he's a free man to do whatever he wants. He could go back to the UFC negotiating table. He can do a real fight-in card. He can do whatever he wants. That's why this made so much sense. Mike Perry versus him. Let me ask you, G.C. Mike Perry, Nate, Nate Charles O'Overa.

What's you signing up for right now? Mike Perry, Nate. More exciting fight. Now. Don't need to see him versus Charles. What about Connor Nate, Nate Perry? Connor Nate, for sure. Because of the history.

because of, I mean, Connor. We also, we have no idea where Connor's at in his career. I think it's a good matchup in terms of where they're at. Yeah, Nate versus Charles. Charles is a guy who's still in the top five at lightweight right now. He just dominated Max Holloway. I don't need to see him versus Nick. Yeah, and that was at 155.

Nate's fighting at 170, so maybe would never happen. Although I do think that Charles would move up and the BMF shouldn't hold him back. There's a world where Nate beats Mike Perry on May 16th. Connor wins. if and when that that gets done on July 11th, and they could fight next year. Or there's a world, Connor has another fight in the UFC,

and then he's a free man, and then they can fight on Netflix in a year and a half or so. So I think he made the right call, but it's interesting to hear his thought process over there. There is another clip that I wanted to share of him talking about, so he talked about at the very end of that clip

about wanting to hunt Jake Paul. Obviously, they fought in August of 2023. We were there in a boxing match. Here's what he has to say about fighting Jake Paul in MMA. It's hard to fight a guy who's trying not to fight you. And a lot of my losses on my record or any fights I've lost have been motherfuckers who are trying not to fight me. You know, a loophole around the whole fighting. Even like Paul, I feel like I beat ball.

A lot of people felt that way. But it was his like big show. So it's like, okay. But I know from experience, I ain't winning no decisions, even if I do. So watch that fight over and do. you don't read the punch count in your own count without somebody else's. I won't that fight too. Do you think Jake Paul will ever fight M.

M.A. Or do you think that's all just a kind of... And what you think I'm doing here? I'm on the hunt. I'm going to take his ass clean out. I got to fight Perry, get through the fight who's a really big task at hand, and then we get the Paul fight. And that'll be M.

Yeah, we'll see. Time will tell, though. And I ain't going to... But he said a lot that he's going to have fight MMA. Jake has said that. Yeah, I know. He says that. That's what he says.

That's what he says. Let's see. I think he will, though. Do you think Jake could win an M.A. Fight? Not against him. No. Yeah, shout out to Chris Avila, who was there too, apparently.

I will check that out in full, but some very interesting comments there, and it sounds like Nate's coming after Jake, which is going to make it very interesting in the buildup to this. They're doing a press conference, by the way, in New York on April 15th because they have this MVPW show on April 17th, but all the big names. Rhonda, Gina, Francis, Nate, Mike, and others are going to be in New York. So perhaps we could get one or two of them in studio as well. Let's see, let's see. But you've got Francis on this card who clearly wants to beat up Jake, and you've got Nate on this card who wants to beat up Jake. And that's fine.

And that makes sense. And there are seeds to be planted. I just hope Jake doesn't engage in the type of talk that we heard from him last week where he's like, this guy's a bum, that guy's a bum. I'm going to knock this guy out. don't do that leading up to the fights. You could do that type of stuff after, but your job right now is to promote this.

Your job is to make it big. And I know Nate doesn't need that and Francis doesn't need that. But that's his job. That's Nikis' job. That's his job. Make people care about these fighters, make them believe that they're the best of the best.

And as we talked about last week, I do think the general approach to building up a fight and saying this guy's a bum makes no sense in the end. You want to build this guy up so that when you beat them, it feels even bigger and more significant. But that's, I know that's ego and trash talk and all that stuff. In the lead up to May 16th, it would be a mistake to diminish these guys. These are some of the biggest names in the history of MMA.

It's all very interesting. It's all very interesting. Do you think he beat Jake in that fight? In MMA? No, no, no, no, in the boxing match. He said he won that one back in 2023. Oh, yeah. I think most people thought that, including Theo Vaughn.

That Nate beat Jake in that boxing match? Yeah, I feel like that's... You think that. The Nate versus Jake? Boxing that? Yeah, the one in Dallas. You think Nate beat Jake in that one? I feel like that's generally the sentiment, no?

In the boxing? I thought it was like eight rounds to two. Jake dropped him in one of the rounds. Yeah, okay, so you drop him. This is mean you win the fight. You know how boxing is scored? Jake. Jake Paul beat Nate.

Jake? Jake? Jake? Yeah. That was one of the worst score cards. I've ever seen. You thought Nate beat him, though. Yes.

How many more times you could ask me? I was just making sure. I was just making sure. Wait, you think otherwise? I remember in real time being like Jake, Jake is winning the fight. Are you kidding? The fight was scored like 90. I think you're mixing it up with like the Perry fight or something.

Frank, back me up on this. I was there and it did not look like Nate won at all. Am I true? That's crap. I don't know what you're doing back there. What do you mean? what I'm doing back here. The judge scored it like 98-91.

Yeah, that doesn't always mean it's right. We've seen some awful scorecards as of late. I even remember Nate's attitude being like, yeah, I'm not into this. I'm going to have to go back and watch this. Yeah, let's do a re-watch. Gaslighting us right now? Are you gas-lighting us on gas-lighting us right now? Bro?

That is the best way to use that. By the way, shout out to our own Drake Riggs, who asked Dana White about the MVP-Cour. card at the press conference on Saturday at Climate Pledge. He asked him what he thought of the entire card. Here's what Dana White had to say. Speaking of other fights made, I got to get your thoughts on the entire MVP MMA card. Have you seen that in what you think?

The entire what? MVP MMA card, the Rousy Corona. Oh, oh. No, no, I haven't seen the full card. I know that Diaz is on it and Ronda's on it and Francis is on it. Beyond that, I think it's like 13 fights. What's Michael? What's the question? Have I seen it? Yeah, just to put your thoughts on them.

They actually put in some prospects, and it's not just, you know, older fighters and stuff like that. You want me to break down the MVP? I'm just curious. Yeah, no, you're not. All right. What do you mean? You don't think he can break down Saladin Parnas against Kenneth Cross? What about Junior Dos Santos against Robles Despine? Aline Pereira?

No? Do you think he knows what the card is? It does surprise me a lot of times he's asked questions about like what this guy said or that guy said. He says he doesn't know and I actually kind of believe him. Is that possible? From top to bottom? He definitely does not know the car. No, but do you think he's aware of like the bigger names on it?

Yeah. I feel like I heard him admit as much. He was like, I know about Rhonda and Gina and Francis and Nate. But other than that, I think that's probably where it ends. Yeah. But you know when he's asked in interviews about this, that, and the other and he's like, yeah, I don't, you know, I don't know anything. I haven't heard that, I haven't seen that. Do you think he, you know, when he talks about, like, his algorithm, not being MMA related and whatnot, it is his business.

But I kind of do sort of, like, believe it? Yeah. It feels like he's so uninterested in MMA these days that your phone and your social media activity would reflect that. Yeah. What's that, Frank? Counterpoint. I think you need the mic to be on, too. You can't hear me?

Well, at first it sounded. Are you drawing still? I know, right. Okay, back to my point. Haven't we noticed that Dana will like retweet people seemingly from random accounts that say like... No, it goes in comments on the Instagrams. Yeah, I wouldn't know. I wouldn't know.

He does comment on some weird accounts, right? Right. So like to the point of like what's on in my algorithm, it's like, well, then how are you seeing this content that know what else is? Sure. That's true. Maybe someone sends it to him. Hey, is this true? I yield back my time.

Yeah, all right. Fair enough. Do we have any super chats, Frankie? We have primo chats today. Starting off as Jake from Wendy City. My man, hope you have a swell spring break. Thank you. Personal question before you got married.

What were you looking for in a girl? Wow. I'm not great with the ladies. Jake, don't worry about it. Those once a time where I was eating Blue Diamond almonds and Chef Boy Ardee in my Syracuse dorm room. Take some time for all of us to blossom into our own. to find the right one. There is no rush. It could happen when you're 16, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50. Don't compare yourself to others. Put out positivity in the world that will attract positivity as well.

You'll find good people. You'll find people who make you feel good, who make you feel comfortable, who support you, who back you. I've always said that I felt very lucky, especially early on in my career when I was out there. traveling to all these events, grinding, worried, will I make it, will I not make it, head down. If I had to worry about other stuff, namely dating and all that, I don't know if I would have made it. Because I'm a worrier, I'm a glass half empty guy, I'm an anxious person. The fact that I had the support of my then-girlfriend, fiancé wife, the fact that I never had to think twice about, will she be mad if I'm traveling or working hard or working late or doing this and doing that and watching all these fights and all. it opened up so much of my thoughts and attention to just be focused on this.

And so that's what I was attracted to, among other things, of course. When I left Syracuse, I was somewhat of like a broken man. I didn't know where I was in life. It was a very, very hard three years for me. and reconnecting with a friend who was a girlfriend, who I knew was like a warm blanket and something that I really needed. And I had to work through some things.

And so we spent a lot of weekends together working through that stuff intentionally and unintentionally, just by feeling that. And then, of course, watching the movie Garden State, which I highly recommend. And that's really what sealed it. So anyway, you know, everyone has their own things that they're looking for. Spirituality, affection, obviously looks, things like that.

You have to have a connection there as well. And so you will find that. I've known that about it. You seem like a very thoughtful person, a very down-to-earth person, a good person. I would like to think just based on your super chats. So I wouldn't sweat it. get everything get as much as you can get in order in your life and that other stuff will you know will fall into place what else frankie what else the super bowl says ariel did you watch the who killed

the expoes i did i did it's not why was that funny i like the name oh i thought superb owl or super bowl oh yes yes yes uh i watched it it was on netflix it was solid um you know it was very in the weeds and it was interesting and they made up they made some great point I wish it was made for Netflix Canada and obviously the the audience is very much a Francophone, Quebec audience. I wish there was a little bit more English only so that it could be seen by more people. I think that some people might not want to watch a doc that has that much, you know, subtitles or dubbing.

My feelings towards the expos have changed a lot in recent years. I used to feel like MLB screwed them and, you know, Jeffrey Loria screwed them and David Sampson screwed them and make no mistake about it. They all kind of deserve a little bit of blame, but ultimately I think Montreal screwed the expos. Ultimately, I think the Montreal business community screwed the expos. Ultimately, there was a group of businessmen, very influential and powerful and successful businessmen, wealthy businessmen, who all owned a little piece of the team and they all just wanted to say that they owned a piece of the expos

and they wanted the shine that comes with that but they didn't want to do just a little bit more to save the expos. They could have saved them. They had multiple opportunities. There was a two-year stretch where no one owned the team. Baseball had to own the team

and operate the team and someone could have swooped in or got a group of people to say, hey, we're going to save the team and they didn't do that. And you know what they did? when the, you know, the toothpaste was out of the tube, when it was a done deal fed a complete, that they were done and leaving, then they raised the stink.

And it felt performative. It felt like they were just doing it to safe face within the Montreal community. And I resent that now. In the moment I thought, oh, here they are. Here they are coming to save the day. In actuality, and you learn this in the dock, it was just to kind of save face within the community to say, hey, we tried. No, you didn't try.

And you could have done way more. And I don't know what the hell is going on in Montreal. I mean, don't get me started on the state of the city, but they're pouring billions of dollars into refurbishing the Big O, the Olympic Stadium. No one plays there anymore. Tear that thing down. It's awful. It's part of the reason why the expos didn't draw big crowds.

There's the odd concert rave, boat show, soccer match. No one cares. it's in a remote part of town. It's not nice. I love it because it's our stadium, but like it was a dump. Players didn't like playing there. It was an albatross. It was an eyesore.

And they're refurbishing it? They're renovating it? Why? Makes no sense. Sometimes I scratch my head seeing the stuff that I see over there in Montreal and in Canada. And this is one of them. So my stance has changed. Anyway, it's great doc.

It's great sports doc. great business of sports doc, but I think it's probably a very regional doc, if you will. What else, Frankie? What else? Jose Argueta, 684, says, MMA media are all whims. Wow. We need an aerial at the media scrums challenging Dana on comments such as, shut up and watch the fights. It's time to fire Dana.

Give me a fucking break. No one's doing that. And there was once a time where I was there, and we got into a few, you know, verbal scraps, if you will, but... It's a great point. Yeah, no, it's true. He knows. I don't know if they're whims. And, you know, when they go to these events

in different locations, not all of those people are actual MMA media. They're just kind of casual. They want to ask questions. They want to talk about the community and whatnot. And so it's very easy for us sitting here to say, you should have done this, just that, you should have followed up with this.

Trust me, I know, it's very easy. But yeah, there are times where you're like, man, there was a, There was a clear-cut follow-up that could be asked in this moment, and it wasn't. It is frustrating. But ultimately, I also recognize that even if you did follow up and did push back, you would just get yelled at and who gives an F. What else, Frankie?

What else? The confrontationalist says, DJ's marriage and his parenting style, what make this dude so special, goat? DJ's wife is a very special lady. We had her on the show last year, Destiny. And she was great in that interview at the Venetian. that was a lot of fun and yeah

I mean you can tell he's a very rich man he's very much at peace happy excited he's doing it all right and I love he does all this stuff the YouTube channel is great he's just done it the right way

he really has life post fighting he's content he has nothing else to prove nothing else to to strive for and he wants to conquer these other things

and I understand when he talks about I want to do this I want to do that I'm in this meeting I'm in that meeting incredible what's this oh Rick's here

Hi Rick Yeah Bosnia and Italy are tied 1-1 This is the This is the final These are the final slots Bosnia Italy

Tied 1-1 in the 105th minute Chequia Defeating Denmark You think Uri's happy about that They're going with Chekia huh He's happy about them winning

He's not happy about It being Chechew Turkey Turkey Bounces Kosovo That would have been a great story and Sweden beat Poland

So there's two slots left Cheki is up with minutes left and it looks like we're going to potential pens Although Italy has a red card Could you imagine if Bosnia bounces Italy

Wild And the winner of that game is going to play Canada in their first game Rick's posting pictures of his What is this spam that he's eating over there Must be nice It looks good bro Yeah

Yeah it looks sick Locomoco. Oh. A little jelly, got to be honest. Oh, nice. 7-11. Why? I never heard him talk about that.

He's doing that? Well, I'm getting annoyed if you touch on the mic. Oh, wow. Congrats. Oh, wow, congrats. Oh, wow, congrats. Plastic wrap looks a little tight. Yeah.

Doesn't look too fresh to me. Can I keep the heat in? And what else, Frankie? Sammy did a three-fer. Mark Wahlberg is a guest on the show. Wow. Vladdy, respect. Yes.

Lattee. Lastest of Brendan Loft name? I haven't heard much from Brandon. Shout to Sammy. Vladdy, respect. Mark Wahlberg. on the program would be tremendous. Working on Jason Statham at the moment.

Denmark just scored. Oh, fuck. To tie it up? Yes. Wow. Holy shit. I just saw an update in front of me. Denmark with the score, with the goal, excuse me.

2-2. Wow. You think Uri's happy now? Literally just now. 111th minute. It updated right in front of me. That's incredible. And what else, Frankie?

What else? No. And what else, Frankie? What else? Moving through the dark, Dana is right about Sheik Turkey. Shake. Oh, sorry. It's used to address people in the government who normally are tied to the ruling family source, grew up in the goal.

So you think he's the only one? Do you think he's the only one that calls him the right way? I've literally never heard anyone else call him that other than Dana. Maybe he's aware of something we aren't aware of. And what else, Frankie? Chaitreik. Chitabot-1840 says, have you seen the documentary on Seymour Hersh? I haven't.

Seymar Hirsch, I know who that is. How do I know who that is? Hello, I'm good. How are you? American journalist. AI, what? We should make an AI instead of Dana doing the Jake? Jake?

Jake? He's saying, shake? Jake? Yeah, it's not bad. Let's workshop that one. That's a no if I've ever heard one. What else, Frankie? What else?

Make it a drop. I need to get the Dean Don Don Dino. That's a great one. I know why. That's like, go what. Yes, Frankie. Sledo finishes this off with, hey, Aero, what am I going to do without a week, with a week of no show? Well, we've been here before, and as they say, absence makes the heart grow fonder.

We do have the crack on tomorrow, live, 1 p.m., Pizzie, Ben, Chuck. They'll set the table. We'll be back next Monday with an uncrowned film. It's called End of an Era. Cup Swanson's final fight. Casey has been shadowing Cup Swanson as he prepares for UFC 297 and there's a big announcement

in there so stay tuned for that. We'll have a fight feast and potentially a Seattle vlog. Is that the hope? Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, next week? That's the hope. Blog's going to be nice. When are you off to Ireland?

Saturday. Wow. So Easter Sunday in Ireland? Yes, sir. Do you celebrate? Yeah, of course. So what are you doing? What's on the docket? Maybe an old school church, getting nice Easter lunch.

You and Pizzi? Pizzi's picking me up from the airport. Oh my God. Driving me out to go away. And what's that? City across the island. Amazing. Yeah, yeah. I'm going to be in the old cruiser, the old Carol cruiser for about two hours.

Are you doing a vlog out there? No, no, no, no, no, no cameras. This is just a vacay. Beka. Yeah. We can go back. for the vlog. Chocolets, bunny rabbits,

eggs. Are we doing that? Yeah, a visit from the Easter bunny. Frank, do you celebrate Easter? No. Andy? I did as a kid. But it was mostly just like egg hunting, to be honest.

Non-religious things. Dano? Yes, I do. Okay. Well, happy Easter to you. Dan said he's dying eggs this weekend. Sick. I love that.

You say on Easter, you say he has risen, right? Sure, I sure do. Yeah, love it. And then you respond, he has risen indeed. Ah, do you really say that? Yeah. Incredible. And that means that, what does it mean?

It means Jesus has been resurrected? Yeah, back from the dead. Hell yeah. Terrence, Joe, a lot of religion talk on the show this week. Yeah. Lions keeps in spiritual. Spiritual. Love it.

Love everything about it. Well, if you do celebrate Easter, I do want to wish you and your family the best. A happy Easter to you and yours. Always a great time. Master's coming up, right? Baseball and full swing, NBA playoffs, NHL playoffs. 80 degrees out right now. Is that true?

Sure. Holy smoke. It's getting good again. Getting darker later these days. And of course, if you're celebrating Passover, happy Passover. Tomorrow's the first Seder. Thursday the second. No bread for a full week.

Matza. You guys ever try Mutza? Oh, yeah. It's great, right? It's very tasty. A little dry. A little dry.

A little dry. That's why you got to put it in the soup. That's all right. You put it in this, oh, matzab ball is tremendous. Don't get me start on a movie. But you get a little harroset. It's sort of like a date spread.

Tremendous. Was the start of the word or is that you spreading it on the matz? Haroset. Another great thing. Huge, when I was in school, we'd have the week off, eight days off or so. Mutsa peat.

pizza. That would always be very fun. You could go one of two ways. Mutza, tomato sauce, cheese in the oven, or if you want to get crazy, mutza, tomato sauce, salami. Can't have the salami with the cheese, milk, and meat, not very kosher, but salami is great. Warm, tremendous. So there's a lot of things you do. You could also get mutza rolls. And these days, there's pretty much everything in mutza form. So if you're celebrating, God bless. And hopefully you're able to be with your family and friends and be with your loved ones. And if you're not celebrating, well, God bless you as well. And hopefully you'll watch the crack tomorrow.

It's been a great couple of shows. 12 guests in the last two days old school. There was once a time, guys, we had 12 guests on one show. Just want to let you know. Uphill both ways. Yeah, yeah. Snowing in July. Yep, yeah, yeah, yeah.

No AC. No AC, it's crazy, crazy. But it's time to say goodbye. So we shall say goodbye. Yes. Oh, my gosh. My return will be on April 13th. So the Monday after 297, there will be a watch party.

There will be a post show. I will be back on the 13th to. What's $297? Well, I keep saying $297, eh? Why don't I keep doing that? I don't know, man. Is it $327? Everyone's afraid to correct you.

$3.27. I didn't hear the $2.97. $297 was... John Jones? Nah, no, no, no. That was $2.95. Sean Strickland... $197.

Gully. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. $2.95 was Uri-Alex. That's crazy. I know all those other ones from... Also, what we're asking?

Why do I keep saying this? Unstop. unstoppable object versus irresistible force Yeah Is the irresistible force? What?

Yeah, you know people always give me crap for that And it just shows that you have no ball knowledge Yes, irresistible force meets the immovable object I don't know what that is Yeah, people give me crap for that

And all you're doing is exposing that you have no bald knowledge WrestleMania 3 Gorilla Monsoon As Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant Met in the middle of the ring He said the irresistible force meets the immovable object.

And I said that when Francis Ngano fought AJ and got a ton of crap, and I'm like, oh, you're just exposing, you don't know ball. I do not know ball. I do not know WrestleMania 3. Yeah, it just got into the Hall of Fame. I'm not sure if you saw that. So look it up, educate yourself. I was dying back here.

It's a great line. It's one of the greatest lines of the history of pro wrestling. Anyway, thanks to our guests. Thanks to all of you. Back to Marseidavite.