The Ariel Helwani Show - Do we believe Dana on Jones vs. Aspinall? Conor vs. Logan? Usyk vs. Fury 2, Paul Hughes US tour | The Craic

Episode Date: December 20, 2024

Chuck Mindenhall joins Petesy Carroll on the latest episode of The Craic to sink his teeth into forecasting whether Jon Jones and Tom Aspinall will happen in 2025 (03:54). The lads also discuss the build-up to Usyk vs. Fury 2 (19:14), the sentiment (or lack there of) for Logan Paul vs. Conor McGregor (35:49), Paul Hughes in the US (51:26) and another big sell-out show in Paris (59:40).

the crack is back ladies and gentlemen welcome back to all of the crackheads it's beginning to look a lot like christmas as they say and just a few days away now i did all my shopping today it was like it was like my vietnam out there i got that thousand yards stare now it's all done though it's all boxed off i can start drinking the face off myself after this one thank god but before all that we have a big show to bring you there's a lot of news going around there's a lot of build-up to this massive usic v fury 2 fight in saudi arabia we had a big update from ariel hawani yesterday regarding this logan paul and conor mcgregor thing and we'll weigh in on that we had paul hughes and his extended us tour after

being on the mma hour of course we won't mention the blanch lander i don't want to get him to trouble in north dublin we don't want any of that. We have a few bits about KSW. We have loads to talk about. And of course, to join me today to do all of that wonderful talking, it is the Mayor of the Nutmeg State, Mr. Chuck Mendenhall. Welcome back, sir. How are you? I'm well. I appreciate your strength, you know, waiting to drink your face off, as you say, until now. I mean, as soon as it hits December 1st, man, I'm drinking my face off. That's when it starts. I have to restrict myself because, you know, back in our ringer days, we only had a couple of days of work to do. So I'd be writing myself off from December 1st as well and right into January.

But now, you know, I feel a bit of responsibility. Ariel's put his faith in me. On Air Jordan is constantly cracking the whip there, texting me. Petey, don't do it, man. Hashtag sobriety. Hashtag sobriety. You're better when you're sober, man. So I've laid off.

But how is your Christmas, guy? Are you all ready to go, Chuck? Are you still going to stores to buy presents? Because I feel like everybody else I seem to talk to is doing the online thing, whereas I'm very much on the ground. I kind of split it up, but we have like family kind of strewn across the country, you know? So it's like I've got a lot of my family in Colorado. I live on the East Coast. We have family in Missouri and just kind of everywhere.

Like I've got family in Arizona. So there's a fair amount of buying and sending off boxes. There's a fair amount of just sending directly from Etsy or whatever you find your gifts at. But it's a process that takes a couple of weeks as we get into December. And I can safely say that we've rounded that curve now. And I think we're in the home stretch and we're pretty much done. So I'm with you, man. It feels like a load is off and I can relax now. You I think we're in the home stretch and we're pretty much done. So I'm with you, man. It feels like a load is off and I can relax now.

You know what I mean? So it's been okay. It's actually snowing right here in Connecticut right now. Beautiful. So it feels like Christmas. So I'm in the spirit here. Fantastic.

Yeah, I even saw, speaking of Paul Hughes earlier, I saw him kind of making videos in Boston earlier. It's like a Christmas card with the snow coming down. He's obviously doing his media tour over there. It looks fantastic. Speaking of that, I know you're going to get in that a little bit, but did you hear his rant about splitting the G? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I did. I thought it was funny for a man who's 3% body fat considering himself a real Guinness drinker.

Like, come on, mate. You know what I mean? So you're saying we should take your authority. We should take your authority over his, on that specific topic. No, no. There's definitely, there's definitely that element to it. But I mean, like, like it's, it's a lot of fun. Every time we've done it, we've had a fantastic time.

I mean, that time we shut down Jack Dempsey's in New York for the Ringer show. And we had everybody splitting the G. I think you're the only one that actually split it though. Like you're the only one. I was like, though. You're the only one that had a win. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you were. That is the one sport you're very good at.

It's so true. Speaking of sport, we've already talked about a bit of fighting here with all the crackheads frothing at the mouth for some intense conversation here, Chuck. I wanted to start with, and those who've saw the post we put out notifying you about the show, I wanted to start with

Aspinall v. Jones because I want to look back at this show at the end of next year just in case it doesn't happen, just to get our feelings on what's going on here. Dana White is saying 100%, Chuck.

He is saying this is an absolute you know cert that this thing is going to happen um i think tom aspinall is very forthright in his desire to make it happen we've heard nothing about potential obstacles that come from his side but of course he is the guy chasing the man who is john jones and he is making very similar sounds to uh that he did when the Ngannou fight was being batted around stuff about money and that's completely understandable I don't think any of us are against that idea but there's this whole thing of will the UFC come correct with

regard to Jones and the poor C1s and with all that said how are you feeling about the likelihood of Aspinall v. Jones happening in 2025? I want to believe, you know, saying one of those things. I mean, it's obviously set up in a timely way, right? It's set up in a timely way. You have an interim champion, you have a regular champion. It makes sense that they want to put that fight together and not hold up a division for a full year. Does that happen?

I don't know, because we have seen Jon Jones for a long long time you know we've seen john jones kind of negotiate this is the one area where dan is telling the truth 100 you know is that john jones does like to um negotiate in the public you know a lot of his stuff is strategic a lot of the things he's kind of angling for and he's actually speaking through the media to the UFC um you've seen this his whole career so I want to see it happen but I also feel like he's a very difficult like he's in a he's in a position where he wants to be treated as the best there is and I with Dana White on his world 2024 tour basically reiterating to every reporter at every event that John Jones was the consensus goat and the pound-for-pound king.

I guess at this point you do have to come correct. I would say that the whole broadcast, the whole network, the dealings that are coming up with ESPN, all the things that are about to happen, is going to be a big, big, big moment again for the UFC. And you think that they would want to kind of showcase. I know that they don't have to do it. It's not like 2016. It's not the same thing as

some of the other situations where they had Ronda Rousey and all that. But I do think that they want to show the capacity, again, of just how big of fights they can put on. And Jon Jones is certainly like that Jones you know, that Jones-Aspenal fight to me is, I can't think of a

bigger one right now than than when you get into 2025 than that one so i feel like they kind of will do everything in their power to make that happen you think it's a pride situation as well with diana at this point right like you know you mentioned like fights that have slipped through their fingers like i feel like he's like i I'm going to show these dummies in the media that I can make this happen again. And I hope he does. It's a weird feeling because I'm sure it irritates people in the UFC

when they hear us debating whether it can happen. But I think that's lighting a fire under him. Every time one of us is like, I'm not sold on this. I don't think it's going to happen. He's like, I'm going to show you. That's a good position that we can be in here as a fan base waiting for this massive fight. I mean, I always say that when he says it's 100% pizza, it's usually, you know, you're looking at 65%.

It's like, there's a good chance that this will happen. This is the guy who said that they bought an actual island. They were going to have fights on them, but there was going to be an octagon on the beach. you know this is the guy who said that they bought an actual island um they're gonna have fights on them but there was gonna be a an octagon on the beach you know and that women would never fight in the ufc or ben askren doesn't want to fight in the ufc there's you could go down the list of times where there's been a declaration from dana white where it's not really the truth um he's a promoter like and i love when people are like well he's he's lying or he's not telling the truth or he's just stretching the truth well of course what good promoter would tell the truth you know um

so i feel like he's he's kind of telling it like it is um but i do believe him and i think that you're onto something man because we've seen that too the stubborn side of dana when people are like you can't do something well look at the whole pandemic right like the whole pandemic him opening and you know getting the apex rolling, getting events rolling and Jacksonville and elsewhere when everything is shut down. That's a very polarizing topic, but he did do it. And I think when you're telling you he can't do something, that's when he gets hell bent to do it. So if that's actually a motivating factor, keep it up media, keep it up fans, keep telling them that he can't do this because i'd really love to see that fight i've been doing my part anyway i can tell you that much as is everyone um on the ariel hawani show to be fair i think gc is the only one like this is definitely happening i'm booking my tickets it's gonna be great to book his chick because i caught a little bit where he's like hey should i be booking my tickets to india i know we're gonna touch on that in a little bit this cat wants to go wherever wherever the big fights are. Catch GC on the ground in 2025.

It's something we need to see as a fan base as well. The interesting thing about the Aspil and Jones thing is like, we're starting at this point, right? Like this is the last month of 2024. And I feel like we're talking about it all the time.

Like everyone I'm talking to, like guys, like I'm seeing people, as I said, I'm, I'm down at the shopping mall or whatever, buying all the Christmas stuff and I'm bumping into people. And the first thing they asked me, like, it used to always be about McGregor, right? And I was like, is that something that's going to happen? Do you think it's going to happen? Um, we are here in December and I think it was New York Rick on a show we did on Wednesday

and he was speaking about how this will continue to build up, right? Like the longer it takes to announce this for you, it's going to keep ratcheting up. And if we make it until like March when this London event is going down and all of the mainstream media show up to cover those events, which they do, like all the tabloids. And Tom, of course, is big retail now in the mainstream media. He's been on with Piers Morgan. He's done countless BBC shows. He's becoming a known commodity in mainstream UK media. If they show up in March and it's a big fight for Leon,

so you'd expect him to be there, that's going to be 90% of the headlines that they're taking from that. Will Dana guarantee this is going to be 90% of the headlines that they're taking from that. Like, will Dana guarantee this is going to happen? When, what, what month do you think you'll start worrying in if we haven't heard yet? Like when are you going to be like, oh, this is, this is red alert situation now. Probably around then. Right. Because I think he fought in November and it takes a while, you know, like sometimes

we do these rankings these pound for pound rankings and you write up like these people who are perennially in the top five like where is this person like a zhang wiley you know or something you're like why isn't this person being booked into a fight i don't think it really raises a red especially in a big negotiation where there is a legit question is john jones going to continue beyond this fight like I think that he's planted this flag he had planted the seed essentially that he may be walking away he kind of planted that even before Miochic so there's a lot to negotiate through this um and I I would think they're probably dealing in some unprecedented territory you know to get him uh to get that deal done so

if we get to March and we still just feel like we're not closer or we're not hearing positive signs or it doesn't seem like it's going to happen or whatever it is um i would start to i'd start to be worried you know i just i feel like you would especially with john he just you know in the week in the wee hours of the night man and he gets on his phone and his twitter i feel like he'll tell you the truth at some point about what's kind of happening. So if we don't catch anything, any good vibe by then, I would be a little worried. But it probably will happen, right? Like you tell me, too.

It seems like it would be kind of set up for International Fight Week or something like that, a big showcase right in the middle of the year. It feels like that might be the right time for the event if it's whenever it's, uh, whenever it's kind of declared, right? Yeah. Well, the sooner the better. And like you asked me, what do I think? That's the perfect way to, to kind of seal off this conversation.

Um, I'm, I can't get there. Like I want the, I want this more than anything in the world, but me and you should know better than anyone, Chuck. How many years in a row do we pick Ngannou and Jones as the fight we want to see in 2020, 2021, 2022, whatever it was? We started talking about it in 2007. No, we did.

We talked about this for a long time. And we know that when you make these wishes, you know you make these, here's the fight we have to see. It just don't happen man and john jones unfortunately isn't at the center of a lot of these isn't he like i feel like this has happened in the past this isn't the first time so where are we going i'm saying like i'm reluctant to go yes or no like i'm very much on standby mode but i guess i don't know which which puts more pressure

on on dana if we say yes it's going to happen. Dana has said it will happen. He must deliver. No, you can't say that. You say there's no way that this is happening. There's no way. There's no way they can get this done. But having said that, you know, in parentheses over here, I do think it gets done. You know what I mean?

I think he finds a way to get it done. I would be a little surprised, man. I mean, they've been in the business of john jones for a long time and i would have to say that we've seen the contentions dealing with each other like they both sniped at each other throughout this career as you kind of expect but where the thing has ended up is that dana white and you know who knows maybe you can turn coat on him again and like it changes but dana white has been his biggest advocate for a while now I think they want to do the to do right by him now is their version of right by him his version you know and I think that is the closer they get to that obviously the the closer we get to the fight I think that

you know that a lot of the discourse on this is like that he just doesn't want to fight Tom Aspinall like and you know you could infer you know what everybody's been doing with the ducks and all that, that basically he doesn't want to fight him because he's scared of him. And I feel like we go through these conversations and you're like, it may not be the most desirable fight because I'm sure that he understands the vulnerability of what he's doing and if he has any plan of walking away um soon because he's what 37 he's very potentially could be 38 by the time they fight you know you could see why he'd be like well i'd rather have a layup i'd rather have a you know slam dunk than have to uh to go up against a guy like tom aspinall and all of that is in play man and i just i think that in the negotiations it's that's where it gets complicated it's all the. It's all the gray matter within this. And once they get on the same page,

I don't think he's ultimately afraid of anything. In the end, I don't think he's ultimately afraid of Tom Aspinall, but I'm sure he understands that this is the riskiest fight of his career. Absolutely. I know I'm about to move on now, but I feel like I need to ask now. Right now, right now right now right if say the announcement hypothetically the ounce comes through as we're doing this show and it's international fight week as you say everything who are you picking to win that fight man you know it's i was when we do our rankings so you think about this all the time right because i think we both have tom aspinall above john jones do we not like so so in a weird way you're like well i'd be a hypocrite to

be if i was like oh jones is john jones beat his ass you know or you know but i do think that um i think it could be very interesting i think john jones just watching him when he finally comes around when he comes back into orbit you know and he finally makes the walk and he gets in there you realize just that's how hard he is to deal with if he can take the thing then to the deeper water because we haven't seen aspinall put into situations where he has to figure it out in the second round on the third round you know if he can do that you could see a scenario where john jones asserts his kind of superiority and and backs up everything that's been said about him and just kind of confounds him, keeps him at, you know, whatever it is, if he's using the, if he's using,

because he uses his range so well, if he's able to create that and kind of dictate what's happening in there, this could be a long night. But now having said all that, I think that Tom Aspinall is a good student in the game. You've talked to him a ton of times, very level-headed in his approach, very hungry because I think he feels slept on,

chip on his shoulder, the whole bit. I think that he goes in there to prove a point, and I think he gets it done. I think that Tom Aspinall, it would be the baton pass, right? From one goat to another, and this would be a new era. And that's the way I kind of see it going down.

Tom Aspinall has shown, he's just shown himself to be ready for the escalation of big events for bigger competition he treats them all the same so i don't see any reason why he wouldn't do the same thing to john jones yeah i'm with you on this and i know i've said it many times but it's it's even like you see a different side to aspinall when he talks about jones like there's this there's this great clip of him he does does a great show with Adam Catterill here. Well, in the UK,

it's on TNT Sports. It's basically him breaking down fights and he's almost gleeful watching these videos of Jones go to work, you know, and talking about

the way he's using his lead hand. It's not a jab, it's distraction. And it's like, it's like a mad scientist in a lecture hall, like who is doing some wild equation on the board when he says, he says, see, this is all just a distraction. And it's like a mad scientist in a lecture hall who is doing some wild equation on the board

when he says, he says, see, this is all just a distraction. It's actually to set up this and this and this. And people don't realize. And you're like, I just, I got it. If that fight is announced, I would look, and I've been invited, so I will do this. I want to go over to Wigan and just be in that room,

like soak it up with his dad and him and everything that they've got going on there. Like it's, it just feels very, I don't know. It just feels like a different thing. Like, and they're not, they're not doing anything all that different, but it's just a different vibe that the Asmals have brought to the UK scene here. I feel like, like with Leon, we didn't quite have it with Till. We didn't quite have it with Paddy. They don't quite have it. I feel like everyone is in unison singing off the same hymn sheet

when it comes to Aspinall. Like this is a good guy. He's a great fighter and we want to see this thing happen. So I'm going with Aspinall as well. Yeah. And I will say that maybe you've noticed this too. Dana has been so reluctant. I don't know why to kind of embrace Aspinall as like,

just not so much as a new champion or new commodity but literally just a guy who blows the hook it up in the uk i mean like he's a he could be the best right that we've seen ever from the uk and might already be but it's like one of those type of situations like man he represents so much to the ufc and in recent conversations um it seems like dane is coming around like when he was talking about this fight he's pointing it out in a way that's like this is the biggest fight of 2025 this is a big this is a big momentous thing for the company 100 gonna get it done all that that's a change right and tone from like maybe just shrugging off this guy and not expediting him

into a title like into the actual um unifying title fight i feel like we're seeing we're finally seeing what i think is the due respect for a guy like aspinall not just in the uk but through the company and that's a big deal too well from one uk heavyweight to another um there's a big fight going down in riyadh this weekend it is usikvi fury 2 the first fight was magic i loved it um i know i've said this already on on the show this week but to to look around like i went to watch this in in a bar in blanchestown with my dad and my brother and it felt like a really magical moment because it's on saudi time so it's on like perfect time for uk and irish audience like the main event starting about 10 p.m and it's like one of the rare rare events you guys catch the prime time yeah and

and it's like i looked around we got a great seat all reserved for us before we got there it was right in front of this big screen but you could look around the room and there's hundreds of people there and it's a saturday night when everybody is trying to have fun whatever way they want to have fun but every eye is locked on this screen as this undisputed fight goes down and it really felt really really massive and i can remember when the the rematch was announced i wasn't all that big on it you know like i was like yeah but like of course i'm gonna watch it of course it's I'm excited to some degree, but because I had just seen a play out, I think I was kind of like, ah, I don't know about this, but now after consuming everything

all week and maybe I'm an absolute mark, um, I'm buzzing now, man. How do you feel? No, I'm the same as you, man. I mean, a bit, I, part of it, I think too, is like when you cover, like now we're kind of doing more spectrum stuff, like we're doing boxing're doing boxing and we're talking a lot more boxing. I think when you kind of do this and you delve into, you know, the first fight more and all that stuff and you're kind of contemplating the evolutions, the small evolutions that have gone on. And just kind of realistically, you have to see the two principles and you have to see how they sell it. And I think that Fury this week has just been a true kind of enigma in terms of like showing up with the beard. What felt like he was in isolation, you know, like he almost comes out across like he's been in isolation, just kind of like feeding his inner like madman or something like three months.

Hasn't talked to his wife things like that that always adds so much intrigue to me man because i think that sometimes you lose track of what are these guys willing to do to retain themselves as champions or will i go to uh fend off you know talks of their demise things like that and i think that he's gone fairly extreme through this to say that he wants it you know is an understatement like to say that he wants to go in there i feel like just dealing with his first loss you there's so many questions just based on that and to get the guy again you know and the chance again right to go in there and kind of correct the thing take it back it's only been done a few times in history where the guy you know basically uh you know kind of goes into the situation and beats the you know beats the guy

who took the belts and all that the second time like goes back and gets it so i feel like uh there's all kinds of compelling storylines but i think that the demeanor of fury is what sells it for me like i didn't know i'd be this excited about it until we got to fight week i'm kind of with you man because i heard you saying the same thing where you're like now i'm all excited to watch this fight i'm in that same boat yeah i'm digesting all these takes and initially when like fight we began i had so many people kind of going too sick again like look look what what he did in the first fight and then i'm kind of remembering the build-up to the first fight and i'm like wasn't this guy like being mentioned the same echelon of like joe lewis and you know like like yeah

absolute legends of the of the sport like he was he was in real rarefied air and i'm like i look i'd be naive to say that one fight doesn't change anything but it wasn't like he was face down ass up in the middle of the ring there was that there was that ninth round and as we saw in the Wilder fight, he has this unbelievable ability and resilience to just come back and force himself back into a fight. I thought Usyk won the fight. I'm not here saying I thought Fury was robbed or anything like that. But after seeing this isolation thing,

and look, there's part of me that thinks I'm so naive, right? Like he grew a beard and he's like, I haven't talked to my wife. And everyone's like, yeah, okay. And I he did it he did it like this is this is 100 true and he you know we're suckers also for like the 50s like there was all these versions back in the day there's no sex before a fight you know and things like this they used to live by these dogmas and stuff like from back in the day that you were like if you read a lot of the chroniclers of boxing this was always such a big deal this discipline you had to find within yourself

before a big fight so and me there's like this almost a romantic side to what he's doing so let me believe you know i don't maybe it's all a bunch of hooey but it's it's fun to it's fun to believe like yeah well i do but like i do believe i'm sorry right i'm sorry i'm coming out now and i'm saying i believe he had isolated himself he hasn't seen his missus in three months he's grown a beard he didn't he wasn't even aware that it was 11 minutes he was standing in in front of usic for it was just him transfixed like for bloody murder it's all he's taught about now the man standing in front of him he can't get enough look at this on air jordan putting up on the screen here this is a bit of conversation less of that please let's do the full 11 minutes i want to see it in

its entirety here silence in the studio we're gonna watch i wrote something today about like sequels about heavyweight sequel or i wrote it yesterday should be run today and uh i said that you know biographies are being written in between that 11 minutes stare down like full biographies were written in that time that felt so it felt like an eternity they were staring at each other i love it though man yeah they're just two unique guys as well and uh i don't know the personalities are great this is why it's it's fun right the extension of the first fight how do they respond that's what's good about it you know like and i think that that's what builds um i was mentioning that piece a one you know a crossroad like if you have a one a single fight there's a it's a crossroads right you met destinies aren't defined really

usually in a single fight it's just kind of if the guys go about their careers whatever but where they're at this juncture of their career and then extending it now you have something else now you have we're tied to each other right especially fury wins and you create like a rubber match trilogy situation where they're intricately tied in history you know then they become tied to each other and i i love when you get that aspect in the fight game in general like that's what rivalry means you know and it's like that there's potential now of something blossoming out of this that's well beyond whatever we got out of that first fight so if you like that kind of thing you know where history is kind of made um i feel like it's right there so all of the stuff we're talking about the 11 minute stare down uh you know fury and all that

it feeds right into this right like if we're in chapter two like this is this is this is a brilliant setup for this we we had our roundtable uh conversation up and uncrowned and a lot of it was talking about like results what way things will go uh depending on results right like if tyson loses if he wins at the aj fights there he's in an enviable position in terms of yeah regardless of what happens you feel there's a massive fight in either direction but i can't help but think that in this era which has been really great for boxing how good would it be for boxing if toys and fury wins this and then they're headed towards this trilogy for like it knocks every other fight off the table as far as i'm concerned it's going to be like the one if fury get makes this one all, the whole boxing world

and the sports world, I feel, will be transfixed on Toys and Views. And the reason why I'm asking you this, Chuck, is because when we spoke about it earlier in the week, and I understand that fight weeks pick up momentum when it gets close to the fight, right? The closer you are to it, the bigger the buzz is going to be.

But when particularly GC was talking about it, he was like, it doesn't feel like the Wilder fights. when um particularly gc was talking about he was like it's you know it doesn't feel like the wilder voice like when they had an american in there it felt like it was more um more broadcast across like big channels in the us and things like that um i'm just wondering first of all what in like has that has that changed in the last few days in terms of coverage for this fight and how big could a trilogy fight between these two guys be i think it would be very big it's a great point though like you know so for the wilder fight especially like so the wilder series really because the very for the first fight it's just ridiculous like you get one of the great in fact i think that that

kind of plays into why we look at fury a little differently even in the rematch because we saw him resurrect himself like The Undertaker. I saw our own Elliot Worsall would basically make that reference, but he was like that. At the count of five, all of a sudden, he's looking at the referee, and then he just bolts up in that 12th round. It's just ridiculous theater.

And I think that that played into that whole series. And I also do believe played into that whole series. And I also do believe, you know, that at that time, you know, Wilder was kind of like a savage, like, puncher and stuff like that. There was a dynamic to that fight that just felt dangerous. Like, the whole thing felt dangerous. It felt like a throwback to those 90s, that 90s era when, you know, you had so many power punchers going right at each other in 70s like other eras it really had that feel this one is a little different because you know you could look back to the klitschko era right like it just didn't translate in north america but i will say that this feels completely different i think part of it is they're they're both big personalities

that is transcendent of just you know the region they come from or the countries. I think that they really translate both guys, honestly, over here in America really well. And I would say that this kind of thing might not have existed, say it happened 10 years ago. It might not have existed. But with social media being what it is and just being able to plug in and watch so much more instantaneously and kind of get the vibe and like and so many people talking about it it translates a lot differently for me and i have certainly heard um more chatter about it from people that don't really watch fight game and that's always kind of a gauge that it's kind of seeping into the casual purview you know what i

mean so i i i feel like it's got all of it man and i think what you mentioned the trilogy if it happens if fury is able to do something dramatic here it's going to be huge i think man before i ask for your pick um you just brought up the second wilder fight there and the difference we saw in tyson in a rematch in that fight yeah granted that the first fight played out differently i think it's fair to say that the fight was a draw but tyson was the sentimental winner after that kind of uh that him getting up and whatnot and fighting like a lunatic then up until the final bell is there anything to be said for the way he performed in that rematch and the way he could possibly perform against usic given that he's been in there for a long time if he has been in isolation you'd reckon he'd have an ipad with him so he could watch that fight a few times yeah

to get through the cold nights um is there any am i looking too much into that or do you think there's something to it no i think that that it's compelling because even the john mcdermott if you go way back you know to his earlier career do i don't know if you went back and watched these fights, but the John McDermott, McDermott kind of gave him hell in the first meeting, but in the second meeting, I felt like Fury solves it. He just kind of knows what to do. He's more in control of what he's doing. He zeroes in on the right things, the weaknesses of everything that he can exploit. And I think the Chisora thing too, same thing. We've seen him kind of show up more dynamically when he sees his opponent again.

I think that you've got to 100% look at that, man. The dude, he's a wild man. He's been a controversial person in his career. He's had so many strange chapters to his career. But I think the one consistent thing is that he is a student of the game.'re talking about aspinall and i think that he maybe more than we understand zeros in and kind of knows uh better how to approach it i'm kind of trusting that man i think that he brings it he brings a different fight in this one and uh we saw the first fight was close enough you know what i mean it was close enough where you're like you you change some things you never

know what are what are the how do these guys um you know how do they adapt to what they've already seen and uh i could see a situation where fury shows up i know a lot of people aren't picking him but i could see a situation where he shows up and does this again you mentioned pics um my head is saying music but my heart is saying Fury. Sound like Eddie Hearn over there. Yeah, exactly. I think he said exactly the same thing. Yeah. He had some sentiment similar.

Um, there's a lot of stuff going on with this fight right now. They're currently, I think, engaged in a debate about the judges right now. I think there's a, Frank Warren is suggesting they should flip a coin to decide whether some judge can be in the fight. We saw the 11 minute face off.

I don't know. The best thing about sports and combat sports is that idea that you are just, you know, you're attaching yourself to a narrative and you're just like, right, let's see this play out. Right. And the trilogy in mind, we've talked about it all here. I think, I just want Tyson. I just want Tyson so there's a third fight. So that's my pick. Tyson, who are you going with?

I like how you got to that, Ben. Analytical. I just want him. I just want that big fight. I mean, we do this all the time. If you have a rooting interest, it's always that you could get the most drama out of a situation. That would be the most dramatic thing you know i just have i have trouble picking against

yusuke in this fight man because he's just he's so good you know he's so good that left hand the way he was crashing that home in that in that first fight he just knows when to throw it man he knows when to put the pressure on he carries he carries the right kind of power to make you respect it you know like to that you have to kind of retreat in these situations and i think that it's hard for me to imagine that being shut down like i just i feel like he's just maybe unsung for how good he really is um and i think this is kind of one of his big moments to say like hey i am definitively the guy you know i'm the guy and i think this is kind of one of his big moments to say like, Hey, I am definitively the guy, you know, I'm the guy. And I think that he takes that seriously. Um, I'm just picking a man.

I, I, I think that he's been, you know, basically just dominant in his career undefeated. And I think that he's just, uh, he's ready for it. You know what I mean? I think that he'll be ready for it. Absolutely. Absolutely. And that is going down tomorrow night in the zone. Make sure you check it out before we move on to talk about the spectacular circus that

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an extra 50 off that is avironactive.com slash uncrowned to end boring workouts there you have it shook we need we need to get our own avaron challenge going we saw gc and new york rick do it we need to the whole thing i could use it i can use it yeah same here man we could do a 10 second challenge maybe i'm not doing that full minute there is no way i mean seconds good yeah 10 seconds just output over 10 seconds i mean new y New York Rick is still out of breath. I mean, it's nearly a week later and he's still. We went to him 10 minutes later and he was on a ventilator. It was crazy.

But look, I'm not stepping to GC. I'm terrified of the man. Are you joking me? He is a freak. That guy is a genuine athlete. I think he was a draft pick for someone and something went horribly wrong and he somehow ended up on the Ariel Wani show. He's also on steroids, just ant evans i believe yeah yeah

yeah i mean all of that is true but like he's also he's kind of spring-loaded you know i feel like he could uh jump through the the rafters you know in a gym i'm pretty sure he's a good basketball player never actually seen it but he just strikes me that way light on his feet he is yeah he's got that to haul he's got the lean thing going on. Basically the opposite of my body composition. That is what GC is. Right. So I guess we should talk about this because regardless of how we feel about it, and I don't feel strongly about it, I can tell you that much. Logan Paul v. Conor McGregor seems like it's a real thing. And obviously Ariel reporting on this and he went very thorough into it, talking about this Albani family who have most of like the Met Gala's red carpet at a recent wedding. They spent hundreds of millions on by the

sounds of it. They have a lot of money to throw around. 600 million. Is that what the number for a wedding? It was something that sounded like that. I think so. Yeah. Crazy.

Like, how do you even spend, I won't get into that. The thing about that is for me i haven't heard one person ask me about this you know in all the years of the covering connor right back to cage whereas he had a fight and i was my phone would just be and obviously he's coming off the the civil court case there and that that's not done him any favours here in Ireland, of course. But to have absolutely no one reach out and be like, wow, Logan Paul, eh? Not that I'm excited, but I figured someone would be.

I guess I'm very immersed in the fight community here, but have you heard anyone kind of exclaim with excitement about the idea of Logan Paul fighting Conor McGregor in India? Not really. about the idea of logan paul fighting conor mcgregor in india not really um you we always hear that like hey they're moving the goalposts as a saying like this is like that jump in the shark thing is like they keep moving the shark it's like the shark keeps getting jumped yeah somewhere like i keep thinking every time i think that something has happened that i'm like okay we've got our fill of this kind of thing we fall into another one that's even bigger and like more extravagant and more excessive and that's kind of what this feels like i haven't heard um i haven't

really heard people talking about it man and i i think that it's on the heels of the tyson jake paul fight um in quotes or whatever you want to call it like so people do uh it might just not it might just be like a bad look in a in a weird way because who want if you look at logan paul's boxing matches he had a few obviously each one of them felt greasier and greasier like they've just not felt like you're like why did i waste my the dennis dylan danis fight why did i waste my time you know um he fought ksi you know he fought floyd mayweather it's just these things are just so it's not even pageant i don't even know what you would consider it it's just such exhibition stuff that i'm like it doesn't speak to me at all you could you could

plug logan paul into any situation in boxing i don't really care it doesn't matter the conor mcgregor thing i'm like i can understand from connor's perspective why this would speak because obviously like you can you can go in there and take on a guy like logan paul that's certainly beatable you know even with size difference and stuff like he's certainly beatable and you're gonna make a that kind of money like it's just play world money like if you're really dealing with uh this family that has 100 billion dollars or whatever it is like this is just it's just play world money like if you're really dealing with uh this family that has 100 billion dollars or whatever it is like this is just it's it's other 120 billion 120 billion i mean at some point it's just like you know it's just kind of boggles your mind because you can't even contemplate

that kind of number um but it's almost like have you ever seen there's an old richard pryor movie called the toy it's like i haven't seen it no it's like it's just it's like i think jackie gleason but it's from the early 80s but like it's this kid you know this guy owns this this uh toy shop jackie gleason owns this toy shop he tells his kid you can have any toy you want you know blah blah blah and he says i want the janitor the guy the janitor which is richard pryor um i want the black man i want him to be my toy you know and so he buys he has to basically buy him for a week and richard prior becomes the toy it's almost what this feels like it's almost like somebody snaps their fingers and like uh you know they're gonna present it on a uh you know silver tray this weird fight that nobody's pining

for but it's almost like you know the, the rich kid at the, the rich kid basically saying like, Hey, I see Saudi Arabia over there kind of doing this thing. Well, we want something, we want a fun one. Let's do this. That's what it feels like to me. Yeah. That, that is, that is exactly what it feels like.

In this case, it's like, get me the Irish guy with the checkered criminal record. I want him. Exactly. Well, it's, you see see when when this stuff happened until ariel kind of hit us with the hit us with the lowdown on the show all the like anyone that was commenting on this to me was basically saying oh this isn't real he's using this to shift the narrative to something else you know like to to get headlines out about something else, basically to take the place of the, the,

the civil, the civil case that he lost. Um, but even when I was going through it and like, it's substantial, all the stuff he had, like it's, it's something that is definitely in the works.

They are efforting to make this happen as mysterious Frank would say. Um, but like you look back on all Jake Paul's opponents, did any of them successfully return to the fight game after they fought him? Like we haven't seen Mike Perry even since they fought. I don't think, um, like none of these guys, I know Tyron is saying like he, like he's going to fight this GFL if it gets off the ground. And we talked a lot about that last week um like this has got to be the end of us being every time mcgregor says he's coming back people jumping up and down and saying oh this is it he's gonna win 18 belts i mean this this guy is gonna like if you're you're joining the circus to a certain degree once you start having these

fights is that unfair of me to say no absolutely not man and i mean i i feel like connor's kind of been angling for this kind of thing anyway because let's put it this way man he went to the in that what seven and a half years ago whatever it is now um he fights flayed maywe, makes a lot of money, changes everything. Since then, he's had four MMA fights. Four. A grand total of 30.75 minutes. One sitcom worth of action in MMA. One sitcom. I mean, when you think of it like that, you're like,

he has not really been an MMA fighter at all through this process. I mean, he's kind of been in there, but very rarely. And I think that this is the kind of event where it will speak to him. Speak to his finances, all the kind of station where he is. I'm not sure he'd want to come back. Why would you? These guys, they all... At this point,

anybody who's fighting Conor McGregor, maybe it's starting to diminish to an extent, but for the longest time, they just want to get paid and make their name they want to be the guy to beat conor mcgregor they wanted to have that big event it's the dynamic shifts i'm not saying that he doesn't have that anymore but is he viable is he viable enough to plug in there in a big like against a big time fighter the usu would find a way to do that but it doesn't have the same importance to me you know i i think the fan base in general and then

you add the complexity of the perception on him right now and it does feel like this is sticking to him way more than we could have predicted actually um even as we were dissecting this whole uh you know being liable for uh the sexual assault and all that stuff it's affected in such a way that you're like you're not you know you know, I think that there's a, there's definitely a black mark over him at this point. And I don't know how that translates. This could be the way for him to kind of ease back in, um, change, you know, do something that's just like so ridiculous and over the top that it just, uh, you know, it takes attention off of things before he makes his UFC return. You see any of this but is he going to come back in any viable form I mean it's safe at this point to say like maybe not you know I think he

does ultimately but at seven and a half years from that I just feel like we went on one huge detour and we never got back on track it's like that's kind of been his career we're just on an endless detour with him, never to the greatness that we wanted to. We really were invested in seeing what he could do in MMA among historical greats, what he could do, two-time champ or two-division champion, all that stuff. It's so long gone now, man, and I'm not sure it's coming back. You know what I mean?

I'm not sure any of that can be retrieved at this point. Yeah, I'd agree with you. Look, as you know doing the show uh together for many years now it was never like it was never for me the issue was never him booking a fight it was him getting through a camp yeah you know and that that has proved to be the issue every time now um i do think that he would be an enormous figure to add to that world, that influencer world. Like I could imagine a queue of guys like Jake Paul would want to fight him, KSI, all these guys, like a fight with Conor McGregor. Like, let's be honest, the reason why they're pursuing this is because of Conor McGregor v Floyd Mayweather.

That was the catalyst for all of this, as far as i'm concerned and honestly like if you look back at the first of these events it was nearly like a parody of uh mcgregor v mayweather you know with the press conferences like all so much importance put on that element of it rather than the fight itself which was exactly what happened with with mayweather i can remember we were scoring the press conferences and stuff like that remember well he won toronto what's gonna happen in london you know it's just yeah it was crazy i know man that was that was the beginning and the end it really was and it really ropes in like this type of fan because now your demographic the aiming that you're aiming at right is not necessarily fight fans that sure the fight fans pay attention, but their sort of reason or hard baked in logic and stuff gets jettisoned immediately.

And now you're dealing in just social media merchants and stuff like that who just kind of rule the voice of the fight itself. And it's just, to me, that's where it gets like greasy. When I was mentioning that, I'd say, it's become something else, man. It's not even spectacle anymore because the whole thing is built on prospect and the hype of it happening.

But when have we had one of these where you come out of it feeling good? It's literally shots of Jägermeister lined up on the bar. You're like, you're doing, oh, it seems good in the moment. It's not that good. It's actually kind of gross. Oh, I feel sick. And then you wake up contemplating your life you know does everyone hate me does everyone hate me now did i make an ass of myself it's one

of those things yeah yeah um yeah that idea of it kind of being a way to remodel the public perception of him i i don't know i don't think the world we exist in is the world that exists in so i don't even know if if if i'm gonna be around people who consume all of this if this does happen if they consume all the build-up to a logan paul v conor mcgregor fight like you know what i like that guy you know you know what i mean like i just i don't um even fights i've watched like uh the like i was very fascinated by jake paul and and mike tyson and i watched a lot of build-up to that and i thought they did a good job for what it was of the build-up like got people involved right like the netflix show all that stuff had the world watching when this thing went down or attempting to watch we should say yes um do you know do you know we attempted we were not able to

the full thing i remember that very well we had to tell new york i know i still feel bad about that first time i think that's ever really happened where you're like i don't think i should be on your post fight show because i wasn't able to really watch much of that you know yeah sorry i went in i went off on a tangent as i do there but like do you think it could really help him kind of like change the perception of him in the world right now a fight with logan paul of all people well not in a meaningful way i just think that in our in our world our society it's always just like how do i distract um yeah enough where you just kind of like become a conversation piece outside of the the conversation piece right like

if everybody's huddled around right now and saying like oh my god that guy what a horrible human being switches to dude what he's fighting logan paul you know even if it's befuddled like you're you're still changing that conversation and i think that that's kind of the whole you know that has to be factored in here you make a shit ton of money you know in this type of situation in a very strange setting too because we've never really dealt with india right like this is like a whole different this is like a whole different kettle of fish here and i'm, but now you're going to go over there, um, in that situation and put up like a different kind of, you know, spectacle, smoke screen, whatever you want to call it. But it changes, it changes the conversation around you. I think that that succeeds on multiple levels.

Right. Just by, by itself. Yeah. Yeah. What would happen if, what would happen if you went in, we think it's going to be an exhibition as far as Ariel said, and that means there would be no winner. But what would happen if he went in and he looked terrible against Logan Paul? Like where, like he's hanging on again. Like, I don't think this is going to happen.

I'm just, I'm just hypothesizing. Like if he went in there and he's out of gas five rounds in, and then he's, you know, it's basically, it's, it's Mike Tyson v. Jake Paul again. What, what, what happens then i honestly don't know man like that's of all of the like even with um you know when uh nate diaz fought right with jake paul it was like a it was a little bit like the the pathetic element that seeped into that fight i don't know how to explain this but like it just kind of started to come in there at some point. It wasn't like that he faded, but there was something about it.

But if you get something that's that visible collectively that we're all experiencing, and this is always the thing about the fight game, it is a collective experience because everybody's seeing it at the same time. It makes for a hysterical kind of reaction. And I think that would be a horrible look, man. If he just looks that compromised, I can't imagine i think that would be a horrible look man if he if he just looks that

compromised i can't imagine what the shine would be for a return to the ufc you know yeah i i think it would really that that kind of visibility especially if they're trying to like basically do what the tyson uh jake paul thing was to draw as many eyes as possible i mean it could it could backfire in a biggest way If he showed up in poor form or just looked compromised or disinterested, whatever it is, I don't think, I mean, it's just, it would be too many things going against him.

And I could be wrong, man. Like, maybe I'm crazy, but I think that that would truly, truly diminish the want, the lingering want to see him in the UFC, man. I just, at some point the ufc is still a league of the way it's set up the way it's constructed it's all heading somewhere right like you're you're the best in the world you're trying to be a champion on this i'm not sure where he'd fit in even at that point yeah no it's a great point um i've talked to you and the lads on ariel's show at length about the the perception of mma kind

of being affected by how big mcgregor is you know he is most irish people's main reference when it comes to mma you say mma conor mcgregor that's not just in ireland that's that's a lot of people around the world yeah but in ireland it kind of hits closer to home because he is the most famous person from Ireland and you know when you tell people you're Irish and you're not in Ireland they'll probably say Conor McGregor or Guinness one or the other or maybe you too um something like that so I think crystals oh you see you always come in with the good crystal yeah absolutely which is our saving grace at the moment. But it's a tough time for MMA here. Like, there's a great scene. There's so many great people in Irish MMA.

You know, but it's tough now. Like, the sport, it's not a recognized sport here. I can't imagine a situation right now where the government would be like, oh, let's put a lot of taxpayers' money into this sport so we can see a flourish. You know, like I think that would be a terrible thing if it was announced for the vast majority of people. Not for me. I know it would go towards good things. Hopefully.

But someone I feel who has the power to change this image and we've kind of waiting for this person to come along and i had this guy circled for a long time um in terms of how relatable he could be and putting a new face on what mma is and that's paul hughes and uh despite him slandering my beautiful hometown of blanchard sound by calling a posh a lot of people be very offended by that around here um he's got a reputation to protect you know i mean people from castle lock pretend they're from blanchard simply to sound hard you know what i mean like it's i get it man but uh he's just been playing a blinder mate like i'm smiling from ear to ear watching this media tour that he did he was brilliant on ariel uh gave me plenty of shit as well that was fantastic um he was judging points and then we see him in a bar in boston pulling points and it's just the effortless way he's talking to the people at

the bar and he's like i was actually a barman for eight years like i really hope this goes well he pulls an absolute blinder of a point by the way in this in this footage he's explaining the process um he shows up at the celtics game with uh christas porzingis a massive mma fan we've seen on ariel's show in the past um the guinness mustache look at that it's so good he's down the toilet puking up after that get himself ready for january 25th but uh i don't know is this me just uh wearing a very pair like a big pair of green tinted glasses or does this feel like a, like a, a very positive thing for them to do?

Because I honestly, when I was looking at all this stuff over the last couple of days, I was like, this is the best promotion of the, of seeing them do it a fighter. Well, sometimes you got to go back to wholesome. It's almost like the biggest problem, like when you've talked about this over the last few years, this escalation of, um, Connors, you know, whatever it is, this kind of acrimony, if you want to call it that, between the Irish people and Conor McGregor.

Sometimes all you're looking for at some point is something wholesome again within the sport. And it's, you know, it has to be tied to something sort of magnetic like Conor. But I feel like that this kid just effortlessly genuinely has that he has that thing some people call it like an it factor but that what goes into an it factor it it comes down to situations like hey he's gonna fight uh mckee right like this would probably be his uh his come up and so he's not gonna be able to get through this hurdle and he does handles himself great um wants all the smoke you you know what I mean, like, he wants to prove to everybody that he is the guy, like, he's fearless, he's funny, he's just kind of, like, very light

hearted, you know, with all of his deliveries and stuff, very down to earth, I think you put all of that together, man, and it makes, like, a very good story, there's so many people who kind of hate doing media, you you can tell even if they're there there's a reluctance in the air um or there's like some kind of um you know native disdain for media personalities you know i mean like there's something like that he doesn't have any of that man there's like this kind of just welcoming sense that he has to the fight game coupled with where he's at going into a big fight in january that kind of plays off in a weird way like the namaga made of uh versus uh you know northern irish this type of like it's kind of like

the sequel right of the of the big rivalry uh that went on a few years ago with connor and habib so i think that he's just right time right moment capturing the moment understands the spotlight knows what to do with it and it's it is fun it's been fun for us here in america too man it's it's been this this media tour has been a lot of fun for me to watch the thing i love about paul as well is and uh there's so much more to him you know this is very surface area stuff he's nailing it don't get me wrong but there's so much more to what he is like this this is a guy who was told he would never fight again when he was like one and oh one of the most spectacular debuts we've ever seen in irish mma and then he's told mate your hands are in bits like you're gonna have to stop fighting he was making no money at that

time and he sought out specialists all over the country people who dealt specifically with boxing he's from the north of ireland which is obviously a hub for boxing anyway belfast etc and he's from derry he lives in belfast he trains in belfast but um the effort he went to to keep this dream alive when he was like he was intelligent enough to just go to college he was young enough to just go with his friends go and get a degree like he went back to college while he was fighting and got got his um got his education sorted anyway but he could have done all these things but he was so um blinkered in like this is what i'm going to do and did it he's also from dairy which is one of the one of the places that was hit hardest by the troubles uh that whole episode there that's another thing you can get into completely he's in a in an

area there which are holding on to their uh irish roots while all of this stuff is going on like he was a brilliant gaelic football player it's there's so many layers to this guy um that's a great point like the backstory too right he's got all that backstory so i think that that all feeds right in there too like no matter which direction you kind of take as you dissect this guy right now and where he stands it's kind of fascinating doesn't matter which way you want to look at it you know and i think that when you can kind of be like who hates him like who who's his hate like are there haters out there for poe he's i don't think so not not not yet right every other irish fighter probably damn why didn't i do that maybe ian gary that's my guy one guy

who's like that son of a bitch that should have been me. I just had the poor point of Guinness. Jesus. Why didn't someone tell me this? I just have to wear a Guinness mustache. That's all it took. Yeah. Yeah. It's, um, look, he, he's going into this big fight again and I love him in this role because he seems to love it. Cause you got to remember his whole career. He's been a favorite.

Like fighting UFC fighters, like Jordan Vucenic beating him, uh, uh, Morgan Sherry, where he fought Vucenic twice. The first one he lost by split decision. A lot of people thought he won. They rematched. He beat Jordan Vucenic. Then Morgan Sharier, this wild scene in the legendary York Hall in London, where half the crowd up on the aisles are just tricolors draped down,

like Irish tricolors. And then the other side is just all French flags. And it's like a riot inside. They for five rounds he wins the fight um so he's been favorite all pretty much the whole way through his career and then he arrives here he has the first fight against bobby king he's the favorite for that goes in against mckee's a massive underdog he goes in against usman or maga madoff in january 2050 he's a massive underdog but he seems just so suited to that role as in like wait wait wait till you see because he did it against mckee that's the best part about it i think ariel when you had him in studio had mentioned kind of usman uh being one of the few

guys on the bell tour slash pfl roster that you that people can genuinely agree on could compete and is maybe superior to most ufc fighters in the same weight class, right? You could see him taking in that information. And I love when you can see that. And he's just like, yeah, you know that he's like, I belong in that conversation. You know, that's me. That's not, that's just not Usman. And I think that that's why he looks like, I think that that's what he kind of um yeah you know that's the kind of thing that feeds into what he where he's at i think that

that's what motivates him and that's fun man i like when dudes are invincible but there's a reasonable thing going on with him where he does embrace the role of an underdog you know like he just he's suited for the things you're talking about and maybe even romantic over the idea of going in there and winning and kind of showing people firsthand that he should be the guy first and foremost mentioned among UFC roster or anybody in the world that is weight class I love that that's the kind of stuff that translates for me every single day of the week you know yeah it's fantastic and I've got a little thing for off the radar here for you, Chuck. It's a KSW fight, but it pertains to a subject area that you're very interested in. We've talking about France and this, this massive hub it's become.

We know that PFL have sold out there with Cedric Dume on the card. They even sold out with Leon with the Lazy King on that PFL Europe finale. I know you guys don't get that over here which is ridiculous but um they've obviously sold out with the ufc too ksw now have arrived in paris and they have the great saladin pernass for my money for many many years i think he first came on radar in 2018 uh saladin pernass fed away champion of ksw then lightweight champion of ksw ventured up to welterweight did not quite get it done there that's his uh that's one of the losses on his record but defending i believe his lightweight title

at the top of this card in paris and 16 000 seats sold and that's what i want to talk to you about like this has been a hub of hubs right like every every time there's a french event me and you are talking about the atmosphere there how it's like become legendary this is one of the the dates you circle on the calendar when you know any promotion of note is going there you need to watch it just to just to see the crowd i know i've been there myself for cedric it was absolutely outrageous my question to you now that ksw has joined the list of big promotions who sold out big venues in paris Will that be still like the main hotbed of booming MMA fan bases in 2025? I think so, man,

because we have seen it and it feels like you've barely scratched the surface because some of these people are, they're, they're, they're big names now, like to us or in America, especially like because of that. All of a sudden, you're like, dude, this is like hero worship going on over in France.

So I think so, man, because for the longest time, MMA was illegal over there. I can remember talking to Cyril Diabate and guys like that way back in the day, man. And they were like, this was the moment they were waiting for. I think that they kind of predicted it. What was that guy's name? Xavier, my God, this was like the moment they were waiting for. I think that they kind of predicted it, you know. What was that guy's name? Xavier, my God, the X-Man. Anyway, there was a couple of guys who came over to the Hendo camp when he was preparing for Anderson Silva, kickboxing long-rangey guys from France.

I remember having this whole conversation with these guys, and I think they kind of predicted it, you know, that they knew that there was this hotbed, if MMA could find its way there, that would show itself. And here we are, all these years later. This is like a decade later, more than a decade later, and we're finally seeing that. So I think it continues. That venue that's happening for this KSW is a pretty big venue.

It's a type of thing that is like a double capacity of our of a normal um you know american arena for basketball or something like 20 i think it can hold up like upwards of 35 000 people which is kind of crazy um i'm not i think they use it in the summer olympics too like uh that just happened out there ariel probably knows yeah he probably went there that's why i was wondering i know it was like polo. They, I know that they were doing certain events there, but, uh, it's to say that, like, I mean,

just to be able to, for KSW, like, Hey, let's have it here. Not at the ACOR or whatever, which seats that, whatever it seats,

but like, let's have it at this big ass like arena. Like that kind of speaks to itself, doesn't it? And, uh, we'll see what it ultimately looks like. But for a guy who I would guess, I would venture a guess, most people in America don't know anything about.

Yeah. That's huge. I mean, that speaks for itself. France is behind their guys, man. Yeah, it's crazy. Like, you could list them off. Like, Imovov in a big situation next year. Cyril Ghan, obviously, coming off a controversial.

They got to get Manon Firo. Like, they got to get her, like, really rolling. Yeah. Oh, my God god there's just so many and then obviously lazy king cedric dune bay then you have uh saladine who if you haven't seen this guy fight you gotta watch him fight like when he was 18 i used to think like this guy's gonna be like the next anderson zelda like he he was so good and so young you know like he still had a kid's body and he's beating up these massive polish dudes like beating the shit out of them it was just it was so insane to watch yeah he's still a very young man and when i was at that cedric dune bay for you earlier this year he was at the event and the whole talk of french moa was saladine's going to pfl and they're gonna fight

dune bay and parnass are gonna fight in the main event in paris and it's gonna sell like you know 40 000 tickets or whatever it is so um a fascinating story to follow for you diehard fans that'll give you something to pursue um xavier folk it was xavier folk pokum remember that guy he fought in the ufc had a cup of coffee in the i don't remember him at all yeah that's funny because i i thought so i only bring it up because you're the European guy I know you make me look like a fucking rookie I don't mean to embarrass you in front of these thousands But that was the guy

I remember Cyril Diabate Oh yeah kickboxer See buy me some respect Cyril Diabate what a fighter We are done we have hit all of our Topics for today, Chuck Mendenhall. And it has been a pleasure mixing up with you,

with, uh, Ben Foggs, with the great, uh, Shaheen Alshadi, all of, uh, the great crew we have here on Air Jordan over here, giving us all these wonderful images. Like, look at this border here. Would not be possible without on Air Jordan. He's not on vacation. I saw some questions at the start there. Not on vacation.

He's got his flaws, man. He's a just man, but he is good. He doesn't want vacation. I saw some questions at the start there. Not on vacation. He's got his flaws, man. He's a Jets fan, but he is good. He doesn't want us mentioning the war. He doesn't want us mentioning the war, dude. He doesn't want to mention.

And I was telling the lads, unfortunately, before this season started, Jordan rang me. It was like a FaceTime. And he's like, oh, I'm pumped for this season, man. This is going to be huge.

I don't know if I'm after doing something stupid. And I was like, what are you talking about? Full back piece, Aaron Rodgers. Full back piece. This is going to be huge. I don't know if I'm after doing something stupid and I was like, what are you talking about? Full back piece, Aaron Rodgers. Full back piece. Wow. Like the whole thing.

It says like, no, I won't even get into what it says on it because that's way too controversial. Don't want to lose any sponsors. But listen, you can get that covered up, Jordan. Don't worry about it, man.

He's thumbs up. He's giving me thumbs up here and saying thank you as I recommend these things. Also, big thank you to Oscar Loseff, the man who keeps us sounding so well. If you're listening on the pod side of things oscar locef is the man thank you to all the team at the ariel hawani show for everything they've given us you

fabulous fabulous people mysterious frank used to be here while we're recording just doesn't show up anymore is that i'm gonna have a word with him so i'm gonna have a word like is there's no disciplinary action gonna happen here i mean absolutely ridiculous but um for me from all of us all of the wonderful people i just mentioned have a wonderful christmas we will have lots of content there's gonna be stuff tomorrow as well with the usic and fury fight the lads will hold you down throughout that we're gonna have content all the way through the christmas so don't worry about it you know what i mean i can't wait to just get away from the family stick on the old youtube catch up with my boys not long as i'm like yeah i would have said that too ariel i would have said that too but anyway have a great weekend

have a great christmas we will see you soon lots of love Thank you.