The Ariel Helwani Show - Doctor breaks down gruesome injuries, Marlon Vera, Diego Lopes, Alexandre Pantoja, P4P rankings debate

Episode Date: October 29, 2024

Brian Sutterer MD, YouTube physician extraordinaire, breaks down Robert Whittaker's grisly jaw injury, Myktybek Orolbai gnarly eye, plus much more from the wreckage of UFC 308 in a fascinating medical deep dive (05:36).Marlon "Chito" Vera discusses wrestling training with Arman Tsarukyan, changes he's making after back-to-back losses, why he wasn't impressed by the Las Vegas Sphere, comparisons between Ilia Topuria and Alex Pereira, his 1987 Buick Grand National, his plans after fighting, and more (01:02:43).Diego Lopes discusses his experience as UFC 308's back-up fighter, Ilia Topuria knocking out Max Holloway, mistakes Holloway made against the champ, why a fight against Alexander Volkanovski in Sydney in early 2025 makes the most sense, how he'd fare against Topuria, his win over Brian Ortega at the Las Vegas Sphere, and more (01:02:43).Alexandre Pantoja discusses his UFC 310 defense of the UFC flyweight title against Kai Asakura, how Kyoji Horiguchi is helping to prepare him, the state of the flyweight division, his growth in the fight game, wanting to train with Demetrious Johnson, keeping perspective, and more (01:28:55).Ariel Helwani and The Boys In The Back get into a heated debate over Uncrowned's debut MMA pound-for-pound rankings (02:11:37).

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R. I sure hope you're doing well. It is great to be here on a not so lovely Tuesday afternoon in New York City. You know how I know this? You know how I know this, Frank? Do you have any idea how I know this? The window! Ah, look at it. It's a little great. Look, you can even see that. Look at that. Look at the difference. See that? See the cloud right there? We don't care! Ah, there he is. Dotting. Dotting. We don't care. Ew? We don't care. Ah, there he is. Dotting.

Dotting. We don't care. Ew. We don't care. Ew. That was incredible. There was another great line from that interview yesterday, right? Everyone stop chatting shit.

Much love to Darren Till. Much love to everyone who watched yesterday's show. Appreciate all the comments and feedback, especially as it pertains to the deep dive um with regards to the latest between francis and ganu and and dana white uh thanks for all the nice messages for my daughter's birthday we had a lovely time with the uh the oreo cake uh yeah it was a little minty yeah it was a little toothpastey uh but we forged on we fought through it and in fact one of the gifts she got uh i i would you all to know, is a Tamagotchi. Does anyone know what a Tamagotchi is? Absolutely. In the 90s, Tamagotchis were all the rage, right?

Absolutely. And so she has been introduced to one. She loves it. She got a little watch thingy here. And it's like a living, breathing thing. And so as I'm driving from school to the studio all of a sudden the thing is asking for food it starts to cry and it's saying clare's i want to eat and i'm like i don't set her name out yeah because you put in your name i don't know

how to feed this thing so now i'm afraid in my car that it's it's it's starving to death i'm afraid that i'm going to be blamed for this. I need to understand something. Is this a modern, like, do they have new Tamagotchis? Tamagotchis are back. Okay. Yeah, there's a million. I was worried if it was vintage.

No, no, no. I didn't realize that. Okay. Can it die? I think so. All right, so we can come back. That thing is dying in your car right now. Oh, yo, the thing was crying.

It was like, Clairsey. Oh, no. It's going to be. It says out loud Clairsey. Yes. Oh, no, no, no. in your car right now oh yo the thing was crying it was like oh yeah it's gonna be it's gonna be it says out loud clairs yes oh no no no it's a it's a little like text bubble oh claire's gonna be pissed yeah i was like yo on day one this is too much pressure i i i i actually googled when i got here like what happens i think it will be okay but i just didn't want to just get like covered in poop there will be lots of poops on the screen right um and then you just clear it away and feed them and it was fine the day that my family went to go see titanic i couldn't find my nanopet and they're like come on we gotta go

we gotta go when we came back covered in what's a nanopet it was the uh like americanized tomagotchi here's the question if it dies does it come back like a video game you're gonna have to ask the doctor later on okay yeah that's a good point you know what frank that's a great point we can ask the doc in a couple of minutes uh so i'm a little stressed as you can all imagine uh i don't want the blood of the tamagotchi on my hands uh hopefully in about uh four or five hours i'll find out that all is well very excited about today's show we've got some legends on the program back into the show uh we will be talking to the reigning defending ufc flyweight champion, the man who returns to action on December 7th against Kaya Sakura in a somewhat historic

flyweight title fight. It's very rare that a debutant makes his UFC debut and fights for the belt in said debut. It's happening on December 7th, and it's happening against Alexandre Pantoja. He'll join us at 2.30. At 2 o'clock, we'll be joined by the man who weighed in for the title fight this past Saturday, Diego Lopez.

He weighed in on Friday. He was there sitting right next to Alexander Volkanovsky. And that was quite the scene when they went from Volk to Diego. Diego posting on social media afterwards, the eyes never lie. And so we'll see what he has to say about all of that. He'll join us at two.

And one of our favorites, Chido Vera, who of course gave us that great moment way back in the early days of The Return. You remember that one? Remember that one, Frank? I do. You have to wait a second. Oh.

What the fuck is going on, bro? Yes, Chido Vera, the man. Fashion aficionado, man of many different looks facial hair haircuts beards all that stuff he is the freaking man and he will join us at 10 30 but uh excuse me 10 30 pacific 1 30 eastern uh one of my favorite follows on social media these days is our first guest uh he may not be a household name if you're an MMA fan, but this past weekend, he did a phenomenal breakdown of what happened to Robert Whitaker's jaw, which of course led to him tapping and he's going to have surgery and all that stuff. But really, there's like a love-hate relationship

that I have with our first guest because I typically frantically refresh his page, his Twitter page, his YouTube page. When something bad happens to one of my players, for example, when Julius Randall fell on his shoulder and never played a game again for the New York Knicks, I was constantly updating his feed because I wanted to know what the deal is. He does a phenomenal job. He has, I believe, over 800,000 subscribers on YouTube. And I think he does it better than anyone right now in the social media YouTube space. He's an actual real doctor who focuses on sports-related injuries and happens to be a big combat sports fan. And so he knows a lot about this stuff. And I think he's a phenomenal follow and very insightful. I sometimes parrot the things that I

hear in his videos and pretend like I actually know what I'm talking about. So after the litany of injuries that we saw at UFC 308 this past weekend in Abu Dhabi, I wanted to have Brian Suter on, MD, to join us and help make sense of it all. And wouldn't you know it, we happened to fit in right in the middle of his lunch break. So let's not take up any more of his time.

Let us say hello to the doc who is kind enough to join us right now. There he is from the famous location. This is it. It's a real thing. Hello, Brian. How are you? Yeah. Hey, I'm doing great.

Thank you so much. That super kind introduction. You know, I've loved watching your show over the years. So this is an absolute treat to be able to be here and be able to just hopefully share some education with you all directly. Yeah. And you do a phenomenal job. Honestly, you really do. Your whole setup is great. In fact, we were talking with the boys before the show. I'm just curious. And I've kind of hinted at this on Twitter. Can you just tell me about your process? Because you go on your channel like an hour after an injury happens, like Shohei Otani

injures his shoulder. An hour later, you've got the video, you're wearing the tie, you've got the shirt, you've got the whole setup, your hair is fantastic. What is your process? Are you just on the couch scrolling Twitter and you see something, you say, okay, let me fire it up. Is this your home? What can you tell us? Can we peek behind the curtain just a little bit? Yeah, so I'm at home right now and I keep everything set up with my studio so that I'm ready to go. And it's a bit of a love-hate thing because part of why my channel grew so quick was because I was so fast getting these videos out there. But I mean, I'm, I'm a diehard sports fan at heart. And so I'm watching all these big events. I'm on the couch watching red zone on Sundays. I'm following all the big UFC fights. And so I'm watching all these

events and kind of following anyways. I will say, if you ask my wife, there are plenty of times though. Uh, I think for the show, Hey video, I was actually in bed and shouldn't have been on my phone, but was scrolling Twitter, saw the injury happened and thought, Hey, let's get up. Let's go make a video and let's get this out there. And I love it because people, I think really love to learn. And the intersection of teaching and sports is just a great combination to be able to teach folks some interesting stuff that you might not otherwise get while watching sports on the couch. Okay. So much respect to you for that grind and for that dedication. And so part of the reason why I wanted to have you on this particular episode was because we just saw a few gruesome

injuries on Saturday. And the most notable one, of course, Robert Whitaker. And I thought your breakdown was phenomenal. Because if I'm being honest, when I saw the photo that Daniel Cormier posted after the fight, I wasn't really quite sure what I was looking at, when I saw the photo that Daniel Cormier posted after the fight, I wasn't really quite sure what I was looking at. Like I saw three teeth there, but I was like, where are they just loose? What's happening there? So of course, by now, and we're showing the photo right here, it's kind of hard to tell. But then when you watch your breakdown of it all, it's even worse. And so we know what happened. The neck crank, he taps very quickly, and we find out that there's a whole mess going on inside. Could you tell us exactly what happened

based on what you saw? Yeah, for sure. And actually, we'll see if this works going through here. Oh, my God. I've got the anatomy models. We're ready to go. Wow, this is incredible.

You're hired, by the way. Can you come work for Uncrowned? Is that a possibility? Thank you. So, you know, if you look at what we're showing here on the anatomy model here, so that lower jaw bones, the mandible, and it's interesting because Whitaker was very clear to say his jaw was fine, which I think is a little bit of a misconception. You know, we think of the typical jaw fractures,

right? Like there's a big crack through the bone here on the outside or something, but you've got to remember the teeth are anchored into the bone. The teeth are anchored down into the jawbone. And so what we were seeing in that picture that was just absolutely terrible. I mean, if I'm covering an event, an athlete opens up their mouth and I see that I'm going to get a little bit queasy. Basically this lower portion of the bone where those teeth are anchored into the bone broke. And so that's why you see those three teeth all still attached together, but they're pushed back into his bone broke. And so that's why you see those three teeth all still attached together, but they're pushed back into his mouth. So, so technically it's not a true jaw fracture, like we would typically think about in combat sports, but you still have a break in that lower portion of the jaw, which is why the teeth all stay together as it moves backwards. And so

thankfully, if the rest of the jaw is okay, what they likely ended up doing was just pushing that base of the teeth back forward, probably put some wires or like big, you know, braces across the bottom of the teeth to get it all to heal back in a good position. But, uh, yeah, that's, that's one of those, you know, it's funny seeing docs covering UFC and they got their, their fancy suits and their fancy watches. That's one of those I'd be a little bit hesitant to just reach into his mouth and be fishing around with his teeth for sure. Oh my gosh. Okay. So initially to like, you know, a not very smart person like myself, I just think everything broke, but the way you describe it is, is almost even worse. And what's interesting is a video has emerged in the last 24 hours of, of, of Robert talking about an old jaw injury that he suffered as a kid. And I don't know if you've seen this video, but I want to play it for you here very quickly and ask you if it's possible that that old injury kind of creeped back up and that's why this

happened to him, if that makes sense. Here's Robert talking before the Hamzat fight about something that he had to deal with as a kid. Yeah, fun story. So when I was 19, I broke my jaw and shattered all my teeth and they had to put a metal plate there. So the skin kind of, if you had a plate anywhere, the bulges. So I kind of had like a bulge on my jaw here and it looked funny. So I grew the goatee out to hide it. Never shaved it off. Does that injury have anything to do with what happened on Saturday?

Yeah, it definitely could. You know, looking back at this, right, the plate he's probably talking about with where his goatee is, there was probably some plate going across this lower front portion of his jaw. But when a fracture heals, ideally that bone heals back nice and strong to where it looks like it acts like original bone. But sometimes you get just almost like scar tissue, like fiber scar tissue that forms across that joint. And instead of it healing nice and strong, like bone, it can be a weak spot depending on how it heals. So hopefully, you know, presumably he still has that plate in there. And I can't imagine anything would have broken or been damaged with that plate. Uh, so this is probably nearby

and somewhat adjacent, but he definitely could have had some weaker tissue in that part of the bone that predisposed him to, to getting it broke broke even more like we saw whenever Hamzat cranked on his chin like that. The level of strength that a man must possess to do that to another human being, that's absurd strength, right? Unbelievable. Yeah. Just unbelievable strength. I mean, and just the immediate pain, right? I mean, that's going to be so painful combined with just you're halfway

through that fight. Like he is, you're exhausted. And now suddenly this guy is cranking and pushing so hard that it breaks your, your lower teeth is just unbelievable toughness too. The, the process, the surgery to correct that, how long is something like that? You know, I'm not sure exactly offhand how long it's going to be, but I'd imagine if they don't have to go in and do anything with that original plate that was in there, probably nothing major. They might not even have to do an incision or open them up. Sometimes you can just put the tooth, that kind of bone component back in place. And then instead of putting an internal plate, so internal fixation, you can do an external fixation, or you just put like metal, like a brace essentially across the

front of the teeth to help anchor it into the other teeth. Like when you see a basketball or football player buddy tape their fingers, where you take advantage of the normal strength of the finger next to it to brace and support a dislocated finger. You can do a similar thing with these teeth injuries where you take advantage of the teeth in the back of the mouth that are still intact and still nice and secured and kind of use those as a support while the ones that got pushed backwards are allowed to heal. So nothing that should be, you know, like career threatening or keep them out for a significant amount of time based on how long these guys take

anyways between fights, I would not expect it to necessarily have a huge delay in him coming back. Wow. Really? So it's not like a year or anything like that? No, I would not think so. Wow. You know, I said yesterday, if I did something that forced my teeth to do that, I would probably say, I don't want anything to do with it ever again. I'm not doing that. Yeah. I could never, right.

I'd get punched in the nose once. Yeah. I'd get punched in the nose once in a, in an octagon like that. And I'd have to call it quits. I, it, it blows my mind every week. Just, you know, I, I cover a lot of sports in my job. I'm working and covering a lot of sports in the sidelines and just the insane level of toughness and grit that these fighters have is just, it's unbelievable to see on a week to week basis. Yeah. And he's posting a picture afterwards

saying like, I'm all good. I'll be back soon. Don't worry about me with a two thumbs up. It's unbelievable. Will he have to get his jaw wired shut? Probably not since there wasn't any other damage to like the rest of the jaw itself you know as long as they can get it anchored back into the rest of those teeth i doubt he'll have to have his jaw wired shut but you never know once you actually get in there and do the scans and how much other damage you might see that we can't just see from the outside when you're watching these fights as a fan can you tell like um how fell dos anjos when when something happens to him and he goes down can you tell right away this may be a crazy question because obviously you're not looking inside, but like,

can you tell right away? Oh, that's that. Yeah. Sometimes you can. And with RDA, I don't think we've heard, uh, maybe you're aware if we've heard any official report on what exactly his knee injury was. I, the, the thing watching his that I'd be worried about, honestly, is an ACL tear. And I think there's a combination of, you know, we've seen Jameson Williams, Alabama wide receiver a number of years ago, Von Miller, right?

Your Buffalo Bills, whenever Von Miller had his ACL tear. There's times when something like an ACL tear occurs, Tom Aspinall, a great example in UFC, where you can see the motion. So our bodies are designed to withstand certain forces and injuries happen when your joint gets put in a position that injures that tissue. And so if you can pay enough attention to the patterns of the positions that injure the tissue, you can learn about which types of positions are going to cause which injuries. And so that's how I've been able to kind of, you know, predict some of this stuff. And with something like an ACL and fighters,

we usually see it when they're backpedaling, they put their leg out behind them to kind of plant and then push off. It's what happened with Tom Aspinall when he was kind of stumbling backwards, put his leg behind him to plant, push off. With an ACL, what you can sometimes actually see is the tibia, the shin bone will shift forward whenever the ACL has been torn. And then whenever the weight comes off the leg, you'll see the shin pop backwards. And so if you pay attention and go back and watch Tom Aspinall's injury, you'll see a moment where that flat front part of his shin pushes forward. That's telling you the ACL is torn. And then when his weight comes off pop, you see it pop back into place. And so seeing something like that is a very clear sign that the ACL has been torn. We didn't clearly see that with RDA and his fight, but the position, the mechanism, these non-contact injuries, I remember vividly when Dominique Wilkins tore his ACL,

everyone was essentially mourning his career being over. I remember the ACL injury being the death knell. Why in 2024 can a Tom Aspinall suffer an injury like that and come back a year later even better? Yeah, I think it's multifactorial. I think it all starts, number one, with athletes going into surgeries, I think are just more preconditioned, they do better job at the pre rehabilitation to get into an optimal position before surgery, everybody's so much more in tune with nutrition with just general health that it puts them in a better position to have good healing going forward. The surgeries themselves are much less invasive. You know, back in the 80s with Dominique, they were making big, long incisions, opening you up completely. And now we've got arthroscopic surgery where you can go in with just a little camera and fix everything inside the knee without this big, long incision. That reduced incision is going to improve that initial healing

time. You know, we've developed new techniques to repair ACLs or sorry, reconstruct ACLs. Historically, it was a lot of cadaver graphs where you would go into the cadaver lab and you take a piece of tendon from a cadaver and use that to reconstruct the tendon or the ligament in the case of an ACL. But now we're, we have new techniques. We've got new graphs. We're doing a lot of patellar tendon graphs that are used for reconstruction. So improvement in surgical techniques. And then on the backend, our physical therapy colleagues are doing a much more fantastic job of just the rehab afterwards. We understand more why the injury occurred in the first place, how to rehab and train the muscles

to have better control to hopefully not have it happen again. And so I think it's just the whole field in general. We've got better surgical techniques, better rehab, and we just understand these more after having done them for so many years. On the prelims of UFC 308, there was a fight involving a gentleman named Miktabik Oralbai and his face was absolutely gruesome. In fact, the whole fight was gruesome. One of those fights where it was so bloody, you weren't sure whose blood was on who. It was just like a bloodbath. And afterwards you saw his face and his eye was so freaking swollen. I thought for sure, and we're looking at some of the photos right now, you see his eye there. I thought for sure that's a broken orbital. And afterwards Dana White says,

no, it was just, it was just swollen. How is that possible? What happens to the face that makes it look like that and not broken? Yeah. When it looks like that and it's not broken, it's, it's basically just, it's blood. It's what we call hematoma that's accumulated underneath the skin. So if you remember, uh, Joanna Young J check when she had her fight against Yongwei Lee, right? Big, huge, massive hematoma swelling on the front of the forehead. That's blood. Basically the, the little capillaries, the thin blood vessels underneath the skin tear and rupture whenever you have that force, that punch, and then blood just accumulates in that space so whether it's the front of the forehead whether it's around the eye the reason it has

that kind of bluish red hue to it is because that's all blood underneath the skin that's accumulating and causing all that swelling and it really is just you know bad luck or good luck in his case that you don't have an orbital fracture underneath of it because the same the is going to cause both. It's just a matter of exactly hitting in the right certain spot with the right amount of force to cause a break or not cause a break. Zhang Weili, Mark Hominick, and way back in the day, Hasim Rahman was the first time I ever saw a hematoma on someone's head in a fight. And I always wondered, and in the case, this is Rahman, that's just an absolute iconic photo if we want to call it that. I always wondered, and in the case, this is Rachman. I mean, that's just like an absolute iconic photo, if we want to call it that. I always wondered if you punch it hard enough, could it explode? Is that possible? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if you punch it hard enough that you tear

the skin, you know, you'd have to cut through the surface of the skin. Then absolutely you, it could, you know, theoretically explode, right? It's probably not going to burst because there's not a lot of pressure behind it, but it could absolutely, you know, tear in the sense that all that blood could leak out. But, you know, it's funny because the, I'm going to shock everybody here when I pull up this anatomy model again, because we're going to look at the skull and, you know, whenever someone's getting punched, our, our orbit is designed, the eye is designed to specifically protect the eyeball. The eyeball is the important real estate back there. And so it's designed to be the eyeballs recessed, you know, behind the round part of the brain or the, the skull so that if a punch does come in, your skull is taking the brunt of the blow and not the

eyeball. And so in a sense, it's good that the skull is there, right? As much as we don't want to have these skull fractures, because without that shape of the orbital bones going all the way around the eyeball, a punch is going to come in and just clearly hit the front of the eye. And so this is all designed to where you've got all these points of impact to take the blow so that fighters don't end up, you know, with completely damaged and lost vision. When I'm asking these questions, by the way, are you thinking like, boy, that was a stupid question?

Like the thing can't explode. It's not like a pimple or something. No, not at all. They're great questions. I think, you know, it's, it's, it's fun to just have different questions from people because everybody has different curiosities. It's one of the fun part of my channels is that everybody's curious about this different stuff. And it's always neat to hear different questions because it also gives me ideas of things to talk about in future videos that, you know, I might not think of people wondering as they're watching this fight, but then, oh, it's a good question. I can factor that into a future video.

We were talking about Jaws a couple of weeks ago in Saudi Arabia. There was a gruesome knockout where Fabio Wardley knocked out Frazier Clark. And initially in the first round, I saw the, I mean, there it is. It's just one of the most gruesome, vicious knockouts I've ever seen. Side of his head, that's Clark ever seen. Side of his head, that's Clark right there, side of his head was indented. And I was like, what the hell is that? Is that just the way his body is constructed? Is that the way his head is constructed? But then you saw his mouth and it looked like it was the bottom half, the jaw was completely displaced. When you see that, what is going on? Yeah, I think a couple of things in that case, we're just going to keep this up, right? I love it. I mean, lesson for all, all day. So that area where you were seeing that

impression, that indentation on the skin is right about up here. And there's a couple of things there. Number one, that's your temporal mandibular joint. So if you've heard of people talk about their TMJ or having pain at their TMJ, if you move your jaw up and down, you'll feel those bones move. And that's the joint. There's cartilage in there, just like your knee or your hip. And so that little joint sitting right up here where that mandible goes up into the skull can dislocate. And so one possibility is that that joint actually dislocated.

The other possibility is a fracture. So if you have a fracture, that bone can be depressed in this area where you can get that little depression in the skin. Um, and so really what they do to treat it depends on whether or not number one was the jaw dislocated. If so, they're going to try and reduce, get the jaw back in place. Number one. And then I imagine some type of CT scan to look and see is anything broken in this whole area. Does he have a fracture higher up there that needs any sort of plate fixation or treatment otherwise? So yeah, wide variety of things. Um, you're Russell Westbrook back in the day, right? When he broke his face and he had this like dent in the side of his head. Um, so same kind of thing where

just the bone gets broke, the bone depresses in, and then the skin gets kind of pulled in with it. Again, perhaps a silly question, which injuries worse that one or what would occur suffered? Ooh, if the jaw is just dislocated, I don't think that's as bad. I think, I think the one that Whitaker suffered is, is worse in my opinion, as long as there's not a big major, you know, displaced fracture in the other case. Um, cause in the other case, if that's truly fractured, that needs plates, I mean, you're opening up the skin, you're going in there and putting a plate across the bone. If it's a severe enough fracture as Whitaker is, it seems like they're able to just keep everything external

and not have to actually go in and cut them back open again. I understand. Like we didn't go over any of this. So I understand I'm putting you on the spot here, but since we're talking about the face, uh, I'm reminded of a staff infection that Benoit St. Denis had on his forehead, uh, several months ago prior to his fight against Dustin Poirier, that looks like a horrible pimple gone wrong, right? But it was a staff affection like 10 days before his fight. And we see this often in fights. Like someone says afterwards, I had staff or we see something on someone's knee. How big of a deal is that? A, to the fighter, like how detrimental could that be? He got knocked out. And so some wondered if that had anything to do with it. But also like

how reckless is that to fight? He did not, his was cleared up, but some people thought maybe Magomed Ankhalaev had it on, on Saturday. That's just a thing that was thrown out. But we have heard from fighters afterwards saying like, yeah, I had it, but I wanted to fight. I needed the money. I needed the opportunity. How reckless is that as well? Yeah, it's not reckless until it is, is the best way to describe it. You know what I mean, a lot of athletes, a lot of fighters have skin infections that either go unnoticed or unmanaged and everybody turns out and does okay. Because in general, our bodies are good at fighting and handling infections. The concern with, you know, we hear a lot about these staph infections is because there's

specific strain or type of staph bacteria called MRSA. And MRSA is just more resistant to the standard antibiotics and has more potential to spread. So in the best case scenario, you get a little abscess, you get an infection, you get staph somewhere in your body, but it stays local right there in the skin, adequate course of antibiotics, it's going to clear up no big deal. The risk is if that infection spreads from just a little abscess in the skin to your bloodstream. And so then if you get that infection in your bloodstream, then you, you know, can become septic. We hear about become much more sick and ultimately can become fatal. So, you know, it's one of those unfortunate realities of every sport where there's going to be things that,

that don't get appropriately addressed or missed. And I understand, I mean, a lot of these guys are going into the fights compromised in different ways. So yeah, just as a point, you know, if you have an active staff infection, you don't want to spread that because you could spread it to your opponent. Your opponent might get that infection in their bloodstream. The majority of time people are going to be okay because our bodies are pretty good at fighting the infection. So it's always unfortunate to see. I wish the fan base was not so quick to react of every little pimple and bump looking like

staff because it's not some of these guys like just have acne or something like that. Um, so yeah, it's something that you just kind of have to hope and assume that the docs that are approving these fighters are doing the checks and making sure people have been on antibiotics appropriately. And at the end of the day, hope for the best. I think one of the most famous injuries of the year in MMA, uh, Conor McGregor's pinky toe. When you saw the photo after the fact, once he withdrew, were you surprised that he withdrew? No, just because of the time point he is in his career, right? I mean, I think he's at a stage where his next fight is extremely important if there is a next fight. And so I can absolutely understand him not wanting to go into a fight somewhat compromised.

I mean, yeah, it's a pinky toe, but still you're putting all that weight on the outside of that toe and it's going to hurt. And if your foot hurts to where you can't adequately defend yourself, you can't perform at a high level. Nobody cares about your fractured pinky toe if you end up losing that fight. And so I, I a hundred percent understand. I think it was justified. If it was a different situation though, where let's say a fighter had one chance only,

then it would be safe. You know, there, there's a difference between things that are safe to try and fight through and things that are going to cause pain and potentially hinder you. And I think it's important to have that distinction, a fractured pinky toe. Sure. It's not going to kill you. It's okay. You can try and fight if you can tolerate and manage the pain and kind of understand the risk that it might get worse or might not heal as well afterwards. But also I think you're very justified in that situation to say, no, I can't function. I can't kick. I can't do what I need to do. And I don't want to compromise the rest of my career if I have a bad performance when nobody's going to care about my fractured pinky toe afterwards. That is a very sensible take. I appreciate that. I will let you go in

a moment. Again, thank you so much for this. I did want to ask one last question regarding 308. There was a gentleman named Chris Barnett, who's a fan favorite, who tore his Achilles. And, you know, I remember speaking of the old days, like I remember when my favorite athlete, Patrick Ewing, tore his Achilles. And again, we thought he was done. Kobe Bryant, of course, another famous one as well. Here we have Jamal Hill, you know, tearing his Achilles in July, coming back in April. And just a few months ago, we hear that Chris did as well. Now, I know there's partial tears and there's different levels, but then you see what happened to him with the burst that he had in the intro and then the kick, and you see that he was in a tremendous amount of pain. What do you think happened there? Is it fair to say that maybe he came back too soon? I don't think so. I don't think it's necessarily for sure. You're right what you said about there's difference between a full tear partial tear etc if i go to any nba team in the country and i put an ultrasound or i get an mri on their achilles i'm going to see a lot of little partial tears i'm going to see abnormal changes in a lot of them but that doesn't mean that it's

damaged or injured to the point that they can't play or it's not safe and so when we hear something like well i had a torn achilles number one if it was a fully ruptured Achilles, we would have heard about surgery. He would have had a much longer recovery like Jamal Hill. Um, and so there was probably just a little strain of the Achilles. I didn't see anything in the initial jump that, that really caught my attention. And he seemed to actually do pretty decent functionally in the early part of the fight. I agree with what he said about it was when he threw that, that spinning heel kick, I think it was. And if you look at his left leg, as he throws that, he kind of hyperextends his knee. He just, I mean, he's a big dude. He's swinging all that weight around. And there is a moment where his knee hyperextends and very easily

could have been when a hamstring muscle could be strained. And that I believe is what we heard from him about a hamstring injury. It fits with the hyperextension whenever he was throwing that kick back around. And that seemed to be the moment when things were triggered. So it's possible. Yeah. The Achilles was aggravating him. He maybe tweaked it in that jump, but I don't think that jump necessarily injured him to the point that, uh, it set the stage for the rest of the fight. I've been refreshing all day to see if there was a josh hart video um that got posted but luckily nothing so maybe that's good news that he's no what happened to josh hart oh okay good please leave josh hart alone we don't want to uh no he left the game uh you won't maybe now we'll get a

video and it'll be all my fault um he he left apparently something happened with his shin his shin hit his knee it was a weird fall and you know know, Josh Hart is, is, uh, you know, a pretty tough dude for him to leave is a little worrisome and his status is up in the air right now, but, uh, we'll leave it at that. I don't want to have a standing, uh, appointment with you because I know you're a very busy guy, but, but I have to say, I would love to have you back on, especially when these notable injuries happen and they tend to happen quite a bit in these, uh, in these big MMA events. This was illuminating. It was fascinating. Loved it.

And thank you so much. And congratulations to you on the explosion of your YouTube page and everything you're doing. You're one of my favorite follows and very, very insightful stuff. Sometimes it's bad news that you're delivering, but that's the job, right? Yeah, it's true. I think there's always something you can learn from an unfortunate situation. And I appreciate that. Big fan of yours as well. And I'd be more than happy to come back and keep teaching you and keep teaching your audience as much as we can in the future.

Thank you, doctor. Really appreciate it. All the best. Take care. All right, there he is. Dr. Brian Suter, MD. First time we've ever had an MD on the program, guys. don't you feel a hell of a lot smarter now yeah i mean i certainly do okay 3d model was incredible uh he has now surpassed hinata moicano as the most prepared guest as far as like technological no one's gonna be able to pass that yeah that was amazing i i truly do love his channel because, okay, you see an entry, you don't know what you're looking at, and then he breaks out this thing. And I didn't know that he was going to break that thing out, but I saw him do it for the Whitaker video, and there he is.

How does he even do that? Actually, from a production standpoint, how does he do that? Does anyone know? It has to just be some sort of software that he has. And you could tell the way he's aligned it to where he's looking at the computer that he's using is spot on, so it to where he's looking at the computer that he's using is spot on. So it looks like he's looking at the 3D model. Yeah, that's incredible stuff.

I see why he has so many subscribers. Again, as we were talking about, so quick. And that's part of the process. You've got to be quick. You've got to be on the ball. Very, very, very impressive stuff. So hopefully we don't have to hear too much from him because that means nothing bad is happening, but would love to have him on the show again because he is, I mean, he is just

a wealth of knowledge and loves fight sports. So he clearly does his research and knows what he's talking about. Okay. Very excited to talk to our next guest. One of our favorites, right? One of our favorites gave us one of the most memorable moments in the history of our program back in the day remember this scene what the fuck is going on bro yeah that scene we're talking to the man himself the one and only marlon chito vera there he is what does he look like today okay he looks pretty pretty pretty normal it's not too crazy you've got a

little goatee i mean it's never the same. It's never... We could go... I want to make a montage of all your appearances on the show. You have never looked the same twice in a row. It's unbelievable. I actually... Your chef decides just for you.

There you go. Do you remember that moment? Do you remember that moment? Oh, yeah. What the fuck is going on? You were getting... Yeah. People were talking... Talking my shit, you know. So I was like, what is going on? You were getting... Yeah. People were talking

my shit. What's going on? It's too much drama. Fuck that, dude. Marlon, are you in your backyard right now? No, I'm in Glendale. I just finished wrestling right now. Glendale where? California or Arizona?

California. Yeah. Arman Surukian put me in contact with these very high-level wrestlers. I've been coming here every morning and then every afternoon. I keep my training with Coach Parillo. I would say back home, so an hour away. But, bro, this wrestling is no joke, dude. This fucking is madness, but it's worth it has this has this

happened since your last fight is this something that you felt you needed um well you know i just feel like you always gotta like get up your comfort zone you know like you know some of my main training partners we know each other so much that at some point the trend has become like easy in a way because everybody knows everybody. When it comes to grappling and evolution, I was just looking who's the best grappler right now in the UFC and it's probably Sorokin is in that top three, top five. So I just hit him up and say who I can train with. And he point me in the direction with these guys and I'm here every day.

Wow. So you have no relationship with Armin. You just hit him up out of the blue and asked for some advice? Pretty much. I'm like, yo, bro, who's the best wrestler I can find in LA? And he'd say, he'd have my boy Maxine. And we train all the time. So simple as that.

I mean, you've been doing this for a long time. Do you feel like a rookie again? Do you feel like you're starting and learning basic stuff that you didn't know before? I'll be honest, man. Normally, the guy that helped me with wrestling is a really high-level guy and he brings me D1 kids or high school kids at a high level.

And, dude, I haven't get this racked, though, ever. And I go to the best grappling academy, which is AOJ, and I survived it. I actually do pretty well, but these fucking guys are built different. They're strong, and they're they're they're like very athletic very flexible like it's not just like a strength and a speed it's a little bit of everything and i like that you know it's almost like you know you start it's a new beginning so it's fresh make me feel enthusiastic drive an hour every day but do whatever it takes to win a fight I'm that guy I'm that hungry and there's there's nothing leaving my soul I'm just trying to like

just a strange everything I'm like I want to make it again I want to get to the round table again and and and eat the big meal but this time I want to eat the dessert too so I'm making the little changes to see if that paid off at the end of the day i'm doing everything i can and that's what is that what it counts i'm making the days counts if that makes sense i love it yeah don't count the days make the days count one of my favorite lines uh your last fight was in august we were on hiatus um and so i haven't had a chance to speak to you about it all. Now here we are, two and a half months removed. How do you feel about what happened in Abu Dhabi?

I mean, I like to live with no regrets and kind of like not being bitching about excuses or what could be better, what could not. If I have to like say something, I would say I should just wait to stick to the regional plan. There was come back in November MSG. I will have enough time to recovery. I will have enough time to take time off, give time to my family. And that's a problem when you're in shape all the time they call me like mid uh they call me end of june which pretty much gives me four weeks of training camp and i just got excited i said fuck yeah i'm ready but then i didn't realize i was a little burned you know fight to fight to fight but when you're in shape you think you're fine but sometimes it's really hard

to check mentally where you are when you're feeling good and i was feeling good so i don't have excuses so i went in there and then when i was in there i was kind of like oh here we go okay i gotta do this shit okay let's go let's fucking get in a fistfight i got the balls to do it but it wouldn't be healthier if I just take the time off just you know and when I say time off this means party drinking getting fat means train but without nothing a scale so you can be more creative you can have more time to think about what you want to do and I usually straight straight back to camp and I just felt a little off. And not to mention that axe kick in the ground definitely moved my ideas a little bit.

I mean, with that point deduction, I probably wouldn't have found it. We're talking a different conversation right now. Right. And just curious about the return. Was there anyone trying to convince you not to come back in August and to wait? Did you ask advice? I mean, I'm not the type of guy,

it doesn't matter how big the fight is or how big I get. I always call my coach. I always call my team before I accept anything. And I say, like, hey, guys, we've got to present this offer at Abu Dhabi. And then we all agreed, like, oh, maybe

too quick. But then that's the problem when you're feeling good. Like, I was aspiring already. I was feeling good. My body was healthy. No injuries. It's almost like I just we let the moment and the feeling, good emotion,

just get ahead of us. You know what? Fuck it. Let's just wait. Let's do this in New York as we speak, heading to the hospital in Miami. Literally, like we say, we're fighting New York. So I could take two months off i started training in august and then go full blast for november and looking back i'm like okay never again i will do that

mistake again because they actually called me two weeks ago for a short notice and i had like four weeks to like prepare pretty much make weight weight. And I was like, you know what? I do it January or February. Oh, wow. Can I ask what that was? It was Sonia Dunn in Vegas, in the Apex. And I love it. I got five rounds to get him tired and kick his ass. But then I said like, okay, don't get excited again

because it's so easy to get excited when you're running 30 miles every other week. It's like, I know I can, if you put on gloves right now, I can fight five rounds right now. But at this level, at this point of my career, you need to just get everything. Oh, it's looking so good there for a moment we'll get right back it's really getting dark outside geez yeah you're right in there yeah no i'm good it looks like it's about to be uh a storm you're supposed to stay away from windows during storms geez i'm gonna have to end the show early sometimes i feel like i affect the connection because I was just thinking to myself, oh, the connection got much better.

Yeah, we need you to just, pure thoughts. And then I was like, oh, fuck. Please don't. Please don't. I'm just praying to the Zoom gods, the internet gods. But we will reconnect with Marlon. What the fuck is going on, bro? I actually thought. Got him.

Got him. I actually thought that was. Oh, man. I thought that was. I'm so happy with myself right now. I think I'm done. Frank, you nailed it. I always love his perspective when it comes to these things.

Keeps it real. Admits, hey, maybe I came back too soon. Remember, that fight against Sean O'Malley was in March, and then he came back in August, early August, August 3rd, same night as the Terrence Crawford-Is Israel Madrimov fight, if you recall. Feels like a decade ago now. We were in Paris. We were doing MMA hour shows from my hotel room. Remember that, guys? Remember those days? Those are the days. I actually think that the Monday after that fight was my last MMA hour ever. Don't even remember that no that's too long ago that is true um

and and i know he loves i know he loves new york city and i remember speaking to him after the uh sugar sean o'malley fight and he had mentioned that he was going to you know lean towards a new york city return him and him and action bronson are are like you know they lean towards a New York City return. Him and Action Bronson are like, you know, they're inseparable. And Action is the king of New York, essentially. If he's listening right now, hello, Action, how are you? And so that made all this into the world. Perhaps even Action walks him out. Action did go to one of his fights in San Diego. I don't think he was in Abu Dhabi, definitely was in Miami, didn't walk him out there. So maybe that, that would be a little much. But when I saw that he was fighting Figge, especially who's on a roll, looking good at 135. And five months later, I was like, oh, wow, this is, this is a little bit

different. This is a little bit different. And Figge now has his next assignment He is fighting Thanksgiving weekend In Macau Against Pyoryan Which is a tremendous fight Who's the favorite in that fight? I'm going to guess Fig? I can tell you right now

I'm going to find it first Are you? Let's see I actually can't find it first. Are you? Let's see. I actually can't find it at all. Wow. Figueredo Brandon Moreno came out. Yeah, Figueredo. I don't even see odds for it.

What the hell? What the fuck is going on, bro? What the hell? Yeah, there's no odds. Who you got this weekend for your fight? My fight? Yeah, Big Edmund Zah's a hobby ah we'll get to that god i'm looking at the book right now ufc vegas 100 this is it can't wait where's marlon by the way have we not found him no we found him he just logged on okay cool cool um Is Zahabi the favorite? Slightly, yeah.

Wow, Bo Nickel's a minus 1,000 against Paul Craig? Paul Craig? 1,000? Yeah, I mean, it's Bo Nickel. I know, but still, Paul Craig's been around the block. Yeah, I was expecting a minus 750, a minus 850, a minus 1,000? I mean, what was he? Oh, there he is. Hey, Marlon.

Minus 1,000, that's fucking disrespectful that's crazy right i mean he's pretty dominant yeah he is pretty dominant um i give it to him uh can i so the axe kick it really it really messed you up i i you know when when he when he hit me in my mind like two things crossed my head just do the soccer player be like oh my god yeah but i also for a second i thought he hit me in the chest and it slides to the face and i was like okay i'm not gonna be a bitch about it and i got mad i flip at him and instead of like i should just probably took my time and be like, okay, give me one second, but it definitely moved my ideas.

When I saw the replay, I was like, holy shit, my head bounced in the canvas and I was like, that can't be good. No.

So, did you feel like you never quite recovered? Because that happened in the first. I just thought at the end of the first one, I was kind of like

so mad that made me feel emotional but also that could be because my head was fucking twisted like when you get hit in the head bad things happen right so that was like when I watched the fight I was like whoa after that kick

I kind of like I was foggy the whole time like I mean if it were to be a clean punch I mean I give it to him but that did it brazilian yeah was he better than you thought he would be tougher no no he's a he's a former champion i was expecting nothing but but that i mean he's tiny but that doesn't mean he's not a good fighter and he fights he's like old jerk like he he make you like he don't make you believe, he seems to be fighting really scared backwards with the

head in the air, but he just moves so much. It's hard to catch those rabbits. It's all experience. It's all experience and the learning process. Just taking everything out of it soak it and just keep evolving I mean I'm in the gym every day

I'm not I'm not sacrificing this much for no reason he was champ at 125 now that you fought him

you think he could be champ at 135 I mean he could because he got the pedigree he's already

been there but he's tiny, dude. Like, guys like Sanhagen and O'Malley can be a problem. And even Merab can be a problem because he wasn't even able to get me down and control me. And punch for punch, some of those guys got even more weight than me. But I wish him the best.

I'm not going to, you know, I'm not a typical hater just talking shit because he loves to fight. No, no. He could do it. He could do it.

Were you surprised Merab beat Sugar? Not really, man. Fight makes it styles. You know, Merab has a style that he don't stop taking you down

and putting pressure. I will, I will say definitely this. I think it's a better matchup. Like, I will have a better matchup against him than Sean. And maybe I got a little more

of a stroke with a tall, lanky guy. I mean, the MMA match never makes sense. And so, so Sean still thinks that he won the fight.

Do you see any scenario? I'm assuming you saw the fight right do you see any scenario i was there yeah okay so i mean yeah i mean the first time he played he played i won the fight with the commission and blah blah i mean it was fun but the second time is like come on dude and get a job or or Grow up for me like he's like one time was cool. Okay the first time with me sure Yeah, it was a flu gun God put me, you know, some strength in the fat toe Now it's like okay, we're already here the same shit. Okay, cool. Amazing, you know, it's like a comment you gotta come with new jokes, you know, you just become a fucking nerd but Where I'm going to find my up my up wonder fight clear. So but for him, did you like the sphere experience? Um, I don't get impressed by a big fucking TV. It was it was it was okay

I mean, it was amazing what the UFC did. Like the movie in the background about Mexico, that was beautiful. But I'm not like, oh my God, that's a huge TV. It's not like I'm going to pay a ticket to go see a concert there anytime soon. Okay, fair enough. By the way, Marab Umar, do it's it's too soon for umar do you think it's uh not not not unfair but like do you think he has done enough to to warrant this title shot um i mean he's definitely got the push of the name right and he's been winning but before corison hang he

fought a bunch of newcomers so if he will be a different guy it will probably stay in the top 30 pool for over a year like Like for example, like how many good guys are like trying to get to the top 15 and taking so much time but because he's a Part of Khabib's team and they share the same last name. They got a different push. I mean Like I always say good for them. That's a fortunate place to be. But, I mean, beating Corey was impressive. But being able to jump from nothing to Corey is kind of like,

if you were to do that to me at the beginning, you know, you're so excited and so confident that that might shoot you forward faster but i really went through the whole grind of fighting newcomers fighting the older guys fighting the tough fights and that's what like you know like porter said like nothing given everything earned so when i see a guy that kind of get fast track because they i don't know they're from a bigger country or something like that. I'm just like, it's hard for me to appreciate that.

By the way, just curious, who do you think wins? I mean, that's a great fight. I mean, wrestling-wise, I would assume that Umar has better wrestling in terms of technique for technique, but fucking Mer rabbit can

shoot non-stop he is there up seems like he could get hurt if someone really fighting intelligent leg if someone's not afraid of getting taken down and Omar is probably not the best striker in the world either like he throws a lot of kicks and jumps but I don't see a clean, clean strike on him. So, both of those guys can be hurt if you are willing to be taken down and not be like, you're so worried about the takedown.

What do you think of Ilya? Fuck, man. That guy, he's like a version of Alex Pereira. They just seem to be perfect, man. It's amazing to watch them just fucking sleep, people like that. It motivates me to get better.

I want to fucking go back to sleeping people like that. It's amazing. It's really fucking amazing. He's like a perfect fighter. What gives you a greater sensation? A beautiful knockout or a beautiful submission? Like, what do you get,

like, when you see that, what makes you feel a certain way? There's not even a comparison. When you fucking a slap someone out, you're fucking big at heart, man. It's fucking amazing. Fucking a slap someone out

is fucking the coolest feeling in the world dude i'm not i'm not driving two hours every day just to like i'm trying to be very good at grappling but not almost not to use it but i want to just fucking rack those people with one punch but it's just it's just part of the process you know if i get very good at at all these like i, I'm pretty good at grappling. It's inches. At this level, it's inches. All this hard work will pay off, but sleeping people is fucking sweet.

When you're going to these practices in Glendale, are you riding in that sick old-school car that you got? I saw you got some. I'm not a car guy, but that shit is legit. Fire. What kind of car is that? It's an 87 Grand National.

Look at that thing. It's fucking sweet. I mean, look at your hair. Your hair looks fantastic. You look completely different in this photo than here. How long ago are these photos taken? That's like probably like two weeks before the Figueiredo fight.

Look at you. I'm not going to cut my hair until the end of the year since coming back. Okay, all right. That's 87, what did you say, Grand National?

Buick Grand National. That's like, that's like, you know, that's like top of the cream taste of auto motor.

And how do you find that? Um, I, I love the car my whole life. And, uh, beginning of last year, I was just one of my friends that he's very well known in the car world in,

you know, in terms of like parts, mechanics, everything. Uh, I get to met him through Mr. Cart cartoon and he's the one that helped me finding cars fixing my cars or stuff like that so he helped me find the grand national and the impala 96 that i've uh another friend of mine helped me found it and i just love old cars, man. Old cars make me so happy to drive. Like today, I drove my 96 Impala and it's so sweet, man.

How many do you have? I got the Impala, the Grand National, my F-150 92, which that's my heart. That's the car that my dad drove when I was a kid. And my Raptor R. That's just to go over the sun and see something happen. When you drive the car that your dad drove, what does that do? How does that make you feel?

I use memories, man. Sometimes I look back and I'm like, holy shit, we're a family of five. Sometimes we were on a road trip for six hours. My dad, my mom, i'm sitting on her lap my brother and my sister on a one-cup car and i remember them on complaining like oh it's not comfy we're just laughing and having a good time so sometimes you know you gotta remember those things to to stay grounded and stay you know on the present don't let the bullshit and the clout kind of, like, take the focus away.

And, you know, sometimes you're just watching that car and driving it. I'm, like, making me remember where it came from, what it took me to come here, and what will keep pushing me to go where I want to be. Do you have a dream car? Like, do you own your dream car, or you still are searching for it?

I don't have a dream car uh if i if this makes sense i don't like exotic cars like no like i could get one but i don't like them like it's not my thing and like i mean i would i will probably keep collecting old cars like a few more older ones like i want a fox body mustang like a 8991 i want an el camino 69 what else you want i want a bunch of old cars man and eventually maybe maybe maybe like the most exotic i'm gonna get is a porsche but that's more like a fun drive than exotic you know it's my dream car this one right here this is the one i want bro the boswagon yeah one of my friends one of parillo's best friends has one in his uh warehouse yeah dude that thing is fresh thing he's brand new he has and a gt3rs porsche like i'm like did you get

the sickest and the slowest and the sickest and the fastest and that's all he has man that's the one that's the one one day i'm not a big car guy but there's something about like this car that to me is happiness i just feel like the idea of like driving my kids around in this car and just being like oh yeah we're gonna go on a road trip just feels like a good time, right? You should get the same color. Yes, I love this color with the white top and the yellow. It's freaking sick. Yeah, that's sick.

My friend is like a light blue with a white top. It's pretty fucking amazing. And before I let you go, you mentioned something to me last week. I don't know if it's public. Do you have a show now? Are you doing a podcast too? I have my own podcast, yes. And what's it called?

Just Cheetah Bear Podcast. Nice and simple. You want to find me, you will find me. Okay. I'm going to find you. And are you doing stuff in fashion too? I worked for the fashion show a few weeks ago for my friend brand willie chavarria that was pretty cool like in front of me walking the walk was uh yg and like four people more up

was joy barra so i felt like i was next to like pretty important people yes look at you so you got your next thing lined up when you're done fighting in 10, 15 years, you could be a model. You and Luke Reimel. I already took his job. I think he's a little too old now. He's going to kill me for that, but I'm sorry, Luke.

I love you. But in a perfect world? Yeah, yeah. Tell me. No, I was going to say in a perfect world yeah yeah tell me no i was gonna say in a in a perfect world obviously that day is not coming in a very long time but is that that's i feel like that's something you'd like to be in like the world of fashion clothes things like that i yeah i love a streetwear man i love a streetwear i like i like clothes i'm not a a not a big designer top to bottom. Sometimes money can buy you clothes, but style, no one can give you that. And I feel like that's the most important thing for me.

Sometimes it's not even trying hard. It's just some people just have it, man. That's it for me. I like good clothes, good shoes. And luckily, I'm able to be friends with a lot of good people in the industry of both and get to get a little bit taste of it. And I love that. And, you know, once I'm done, you know, I think about my own coffee shop, having, you know, my own shit like that.

Like, I want to live a good life man that's all i want to do but that's not gonna be until i'm 37 so i'm 31 and i got five six years to fucking grind put my head down and just try my hardest to claim that goal but that's the main goal at the moment. By the way, why 37? Not 38, 39, 40? Why that number? I kind of put that so I can not rush it, but do things better. Because sometimes, think about it, fighters at 40 doesn't do too well in the little weight class.

If you're a big guy, I would go to 40. But 135 is not a young, is not an old people weight cut. You know what I'm saying? Like, it's going to be hard to cut weight. Like, some guys went, if we go name for name, like the guys that went a little older, they started getting hurt. I mean, Faber, Aldo. I mean, there's a bunch of guys that they've, I mean favor although I mean there's there's a bunch of guys

that they've I mean I'll be actually he's a young guy he's not a 40 year old man as some of you I forget but because his trajectory but favor was a little older when he get killed by yeah right mm-hmm so he's just 135 is not a work less to fight past 38, 37, I believe. And as of today, thank God my body is pretty good. I check my brain a few times a year and I'm healthy. I just think 37 will be enough, but we'll see. Last thing, if it was up to you, when would you like to return and against who? In, I think January in LA can be great for me

so I can have my own crowd, but I guess I have my own crowd everywhere I go these days. But LA can be good or Mexico City if they give you the main event. And I mean, the guy ahead of me is Henry Cejudo. I'm number six, number five if I'm not wrong. So Henry Cejudo, Mexico City can be great or even LA can be great.

Wow, that would be insane. That would be incredible. You versus Henry? Yeah. Now you're doing all this wrestling? You're going to out-wrestle him, the gold medalist? No, I won't punch him in the face to be honest but but we'll see we'll see i think that's a great fight i honestly the fight that i was

really really wanting was jan but then god bless figueredo he took it from me so you know good luck out there for both of those men. But I think I haven't fought Cejudo. Cejudo would be a great fight. If not, there's three rematches I could take, which is Corey, Sean, or Aldo. But I would say the guy that I haven't fought and a former champion might be my best option at the moment just because he's just a new name.

Okay. Let's see how it plays out. I love that idea. Always great to catch up with you, Chito. Thank you so much for the time. You're the man. You look fantastic.

Great head on your shoulders. Great perspective. We appreciate you very much. Thank you, brother. Appreciate you too. I'll be in New York next week. Okay.

Hit me up. Meet you in action. I'm on Saturday. Meet you in action sorry me me you in action we'll have some matzo ball soup yeah let's do that all right let's do it you're the man thank you chito much love there he is chito vera the freaking man uh great stuff there and i would love that fight against uh henry cejudo who wouldn't now like I said, Saturday, featherweight title fight. We were all wondering how it would play out. In the end, Ilya Tuporia wins. He wins in decisive, dominant, somewhat shocking fashion. He knocks out Max Holloway. First man to do so. Front row, Alex Volkanovsky, Diego Lopez. Diego Lopez weighed in. Backup fighter. He's on a roll. Last time we

saw him, Sphere, Brian Ortega. He is the freaking man right now. He is beloved. He is on a roll last time we saw him sphere brian ortega he is the freaking man right now he is beloved he is on a streak and everyone thinks that he is next or if not at the very worst one fight away he's kind enough to join us right now with his translator edgar gonzalez hola diego thank you for the time obrigado i'm doing well i gave you a Spanish there and Portuguese just because I know you you do both uh thank you okay thank you for are you back home are you back in you in the United States are you in Mexico are you in Abu Dhabi where are you right now uh now I'm staying in Puebla I stay I go my home I'm stay here for a little bit of rest, but keep working on. Okay, and by the way, we have a translator here, Edgar, but you don't need a translator anymore. Your English is great!

No, I need a translator. I have a little bit worse, but I need a translator. Where have you learned this English? Are you taking lessons? No. You're just practicing? Yeah, I only practice for my mother, my team, everybody. And all the events for UFC, I stay post-practice.

Amazing. Well done. Muy bien. Okay, so you were in Abu Dhabi and you weighed in as the backup fighter. Could I ask, how was that process to prepare, not knowing that you were going to fight, but if it worked out for you, you would be fighting for the belt. So the grind of going to the gym and preparing, what was that like knowing that you weren't actually scheduled to fight,

you were just getting ready to be the backup fighter? Diego, how was the whole process of training to get weight, knowing entrenar para hacer peso sabiendo que no vas a pelear? Pero posiblemente puedes pelear. Pues fue un proceso interesante. Yo estuve entrenando como si realmente fuera a pelear. Yo pedí hacer el backup, pues iba a llegar ahí, iba a hacer el peso, así como fue. Llegué, hice el peso y estaba listo para lo que pasara. Yo estaba listo porque lo que pasó en mi pelea en el UFC 303, I came, I weighed myself, and I was ready for what happened. I was ready because what happened in my fight in UFC 303,

I think when the fight with Brastega was canceled, I was ready for the event, we could be ready for anything. I came, I did my job, I train hard every day. The last time, we did all the right stuff and the fight fell through. This time, we were ready for anything that was unexpected that could happen. What was your gut saying to you? What were you feeling? Did you think that someone would withdraw or did you feel like it was probably a long shot? but we are with the mentality that what happens we will be ready. four times this year, but really, if you go back to November, that's five times for you in the span

of almost, you know, a little less than a year. It's unbelievable. How was your body dealing with that? Not a lot of people are making 145 that many times or 135 lower weight classes. How did your body feel in this particular weight cut? ¿Cómo te sientes tu cuerpo en este año? Hiciste peso en un año calendario cuatro veces, pero Albregon, with me. He guides me through everything. He's helped me with all five weight cuts. You know, he keeps me ready. And if he says we can take it and we're ready, then I trust him. What was your reaction?

We saw you on camera, but it's hard to know what you're thinking. When you saw Ilya knock out Max Holloway, he had never been knocked out before. It was a great fight leading up to that point. Could you tell us what you were thinking thinking and were you expecting that as a possibility reaction was I think that was a good knockout. It was really impressive, but it was even more shocking to see Matt on the floor. It never happened. He was really shocked by that. What did you think was going to happen going into the fight I always told my brother that if I could keep my distance, I would have a chance to knock him out. Okay, so sorry. So you're saying that Max made some mistakes and he

could have knocked out Ilya, or am I misunderstanding that? I'm having a hard time hearing Edgar. There's a bit of an echo, that's why. So I don't know if you're on the speakerphone or something like that, but I just want to make sure that I am understanding what Diego is saying. So, uh, do you mind just, uh, retranslating that for me? Sure. He said that Max did a good job keeping the distance in the, in the beginning of the fight.

He thought that the fight would go on a lot longer, but he told his brother, if he's, if Ilya somehow got the opportunity to get, you know, close the distance, he could definitely knock him out. Okay. And just curious, going into the fight, like on fight week, what were you thinking? Who did you think was actually going to win and how? Starting the fight week, what did you think he was going to win? No, I told everyone that I thought he was going to win, but I never ruled out the possibility of your fight being knocked out.

Because that's what he did in his last fights. Max, is he your favorite in the fight because he's a legend or why no because for the simple fact of having fought with all kinds of fighters within the division no not only me like many fighters we had thought that max was going to win the fight no but we never gave this to your cure as a discard we didn't know that he the job too, and that's how it was. seen situations where someone is the backup fighter they weigh in and as a result of that they get a title shot not often or I should say sometimes we've also seen situations where that hasn't happened when you agreed to be the backup fighter were you told you are going to be next Muchas veces el que hace pesaje como el backup le toca la pelea de título próximamente, a veces no pasa, pero a ti te prometieron que te iban a dar la pelea de título después de hacer el backup? No, a nosotros no nos dijeron nada concreto, no nos pusieron nada en la mesa, simplemente nos dieron la oportunidad de hacer el backup y por bueno ahorita es lo que vamos a buscar, vamos a buscar la oportunidad de pelear por el título. to simply give us the opportunity to be the backup. And for now, that's what we're looking for.

We're looking for the opportunity to fight for the title. We were never promised a title shot going into this. We just agreed to be the backup. But we will for sure try to find our way to that title shot. And you were sitting, it seemed, right next to Alex Volkanovski. Did you speak to him at all? I was sitting next to Alex Volkanovski in Did you speak to him at all? I saw him during the week and they talked all week

just like co-workers, not in the mosque at all. Okay. Yeah, no. And you are two of the more respectful people, so I wouldn't expect anything else than that. It seems like he is going to be next because he went in the cage afterwards and Ilya said he'll do it. He's happy to give him the shot.

And Dana said the same. How do you feel about that? Do you feel okay with that decision? It seems like he's going to fight Alex for the title soon because he entered the cage and Ilya told him he wanted to fight him. Even Dana said she wanted to fight him. How do you feel about all of that? Well, let's see what happens.

Tupouria said he wanted to take a break. He said he wanted to va a pasar. Tupura dijo que quería tomar un tiempo de descanso. Dijo que quería descansar un poco. También el UFC todavía no tiene ninguna fecha concreta para regresar a España. Yo creo que por el momento y por el tiempo que lleva a tomar descanso, yo creo que nada más justo que hacer la pelea contra Volkan Nović em Sidney por título interino. Eu creio que o Volkan já mencionou isso, já mencionou que ele quer fazer essa pele caso não possa fazer contra o Púria tão pronto. Então eu creio que é o que podemos fazer. O Volkan já é sugerido fazer essa pele. Eu também quero, então eu creio que podemos ir a Sidney, peleamos por título interino I want to go to the UFC too, so I think we can go to Sydney. We fight for the title on the field would make the most sense for him to just fight Volk in Sydney for the interim title.

Volk has already suggested this. I've already agreed to it. Let's just do it. Oh, wow. Okay, so you're saying the February event in Sydney, your suggestion is to fight Alex Volkanovsky and the winner fights Ilya for the interim title. This is what you would like. Do you think that there's any chance of this happening? Are you actively or your management, Jason House,

your manager, talking to the UFC about this? Do you think that there's a possibility that Jason House is talking about this? Well, I think there's a possibility, because, as I said, the UFC still doesn't have a concrete date to go to Spain, and I already said that they just want to fight

if it's in Spain, right? And well, leaving all that, I think that Volkanov is a fighter who doesn't like to wait. He wants to fight in Sydney. I can travel to Sydney. We can fight in Sydney. And after that, I can go to Spain. You said it all just makes sense. You know, Ilya wants to take some time off.

Ilya wants to fight in Spain for his title defense. Volk doesn't want to wait. Volk wants to fight. I want to fight. I don't mind flying to Sydney to fight him. How do you feel fighting against the legend Alex Volkanovski at this point in his career? How do you see it playing out, you versus him? jugando, tú contra él. so that new faces can understand the title. I think it's a very interesting fight. I trust my team's work.

I trust my work. And I know we can win. You know, Volker's a legend. You know, he's done it for a long time. But it's time to see fresh faces in the division, give it a little refresh. I trust my work. I trust my people.

And I'm confident. How do you think he would feel about this idea? Do you feel like he would be into it? Do you think he'd be open to this? Iliya said that there's no real date on Spain yet. to see what will happen next for the title. and you obviously have seen him before as well. Your thoughts on how you would match up against him, and could you give us, because you are such a great coach as well, you've obviously helped so many great fighters in Mexico City, the great Alexa Grasso at the top of the list, Irene Aldana as well.

What kind of game plan can you tell us you would employ against Ilya right now? If he comes forward, it's very dangerous. I like to go forward, so it would be like a clash. If he comes forward, it will hit the wall. It's just like that. If we are ready to go forward with him, it will be a good exchange fight. We know that I have heavy hands, he has heavy hands. We know that at any moment that he's very forward and likes to create pressure. I also like to create pressure and we both have very heavy hands. It'd be a really good fight and any one of us could drop at any moment because of this.

By the way, the last time we saw you in action, you were fighting at the Sphere on the same card as Alexa. Would you prefer not to fight on the same card as your teammates and the fighters that you help train and corner as well? Would that make life easier for you? de Alexa. En un evento perfecto, ¿preferirías solamente ser tú el único peleador de tu equipo o prefieres tener otros compañeros peleando para hacer esquina y touch todavía? Pues bueno, hemos platicado ya eso dentro del equipo

y pues nosotros vamos a buscar que no seamos más de dos peleadores en la misma cartelera pues para que podamos hacer un buen trabajo todos. Sé que hicimos un buen trabajo pero bueno, acabamos algunas cosas saliendo del control y in the same box so we can all do a good job. I know we did a good job, but we got out of control. If it was up to me, I would prefer to fight in their box to help them in their fights. you know we don't mind there being more than one fighter so we can corner each other but ideally i'd like to just you know be the only fighter so we can all focus on the one the one goal

did you enjoy the experience at the sphere to be able to do both trips, both as a fighter and as a coach. It was a very good experience. It was a very good experience and we enjoyed it a lot. You loved being a coach and a fighter at that spirit. It was a great experience. It was just all-around great. Your fight against Brian was very impressive. I'm wondering if I'm onto something here. That initial flurry that you rocked him with,

it looked like you actually knocked him out and then as he was falling you hit him with the secondary punch which kind of like woke him up do you think if you didn't land that second punch it would have been like i don't remember what it was a 30 second knockout or something like that is that possible Dice que al comienzo de la pelea con Brian le hiciste dos golpes. El primero lo maquilló y el segundo parece que lo despertó. ¿Tú piensas que si no le hubieras dado el segundo golpe hubiera sido un knockout de 30 segundos de Brian? Bueno, todo parece que sí. Ya hemos visto este video varias veces y parece que realmente lo apagu it off with the first goal and woke it up with the second.

But I think that who could answer the question would be because he's the one that felt all that that is true uh were you happy with your performance were you happy with what you did out there against them I was able to fight 3 rounds with a fighter of a high level in the UFC, with the number 3 in the world at the moment. I was able to show what I am capable of. I was able to show once again that I have power in my hands. And I was able to show now that I can fight 3 rounds and take the fight calmly. Until then I won all the rounds on the card and even in the RUIZ I got 30-26 for me. He said that my performance at 306 just showed that I can fight anybody. You know, I have a great skill set. I'm ready whenever.

By the way, speaking of people that you fought in the past, Danny gave a fight on Saturday against Lerone Murphy. What did you think of that fight? And could I ask who you thought won the fight? También Danny peleó en Abu Dhabi. ¿Tú qué pensaste de su pelea? and could I ask who you thought won the fight? foi bem claro, pude fazer o primeiro round para um e segundo para outro e o terceiro round foi bastante competitivo. Penso que levou uma pequena vantagem esse Little Murphy porque no terceiro round pude fazer dano, o que daí teve um pouco mais de controle,

mas eu acho que isso fez um pouco mais de dano para o Little Murphy. Foi uma luta muito próxima, especialmente na terce third round. You know, obviously one won the first round, the second won the second. But the third, Ige controlled more, but Murphy did a lot more damage. And I think that's why they gave it to him. As you know, the UFC is going to Mexico City in February. If the idea of fighting Volk in Sydney also in February doesn't pan out, do you think that they will ask you to fight on that card against another contender?

And if so, what will be your response? contricante en perro ciudad méxico tú qué pensarías de eso pues la verdad ahorita nosotros estamos enfocados estamos buscando la pelea por este convoca un nuevo sino pues en febrero en australia este yo creo que la pelea que tiene sentido para nosotros de la pelea que nos va a asegurar este cerca de título no esté ya suerte no llega con la propuesta para otro contricante porque aunque se está con el manager platicar por ver cosas de los mejores pasos que podemos tomar UFC is calling us with a proposal for another opponent because they have to sit with him and talk to the options are here. Yeah, there aren't a ton of great ones. Is there anyone else that comes to mind that is of interest to you? And I'm not trying to steer you away from Alex, but I'm just curious if it does kind of pan out this way. Is there anyone else of interest? E tem algum nome com interesse que queres beliar? e a falar com o Mane, e depois ver qual é o seguinte passo. Ou seja, você vai depender de muitas coisas, não?

Se o UFC disse que nos sentamos a esperar por uma pele por o título, nos sentamos a esperar uma pele por o título ou não, mas se nos dão a Volkanovski, então aceitamos a Volkanovski também, que é a pele que queremos. If UFC says you have to wait around for a title shot, then we'll wait. If they say we fight for the interim with Volganovsky, then we fight for Volganovsky. But again, that's a conversation to have with management and see what our options really are there. Okay. And final thing for you, Diego, as the year is wrapping up, you have been competing since 2012. So 12 years as a pro.

Here you are. You finished the year 3-0 in the UFC. And really, you you know three wins when was it uh april june september that's in the span of five months which is incredible plus you weigh in backup fighter for a title fight would it be fair to say that this is the the best year of your mma career so far Eres profesional en esta carrera desde 2012, este año en UFC tienes una carrera increíble, dirías tú que este año sería el mejor año de tu carrera profesional? Definitivamente, pude hacer tres peleas en tres grandes eventos, pude ganar mis tres peleas

contra tres peleadores rankeados, yo no estaba rankeado este año hacia el número 3 del mundo y hacia un considerado backup de una pelea por título, yo creo que definitivamente ha sido three ranked fighters, right? He's not ranked this year to be number three in the world and to be considered a backup of a title fight. I think it's definitely been a better year as a sportsman. You know, I fought every, you know, I fought three times this year. You know, I fought every,

I won every one of my fights. You know, I beat all the ranked fighters. I'm now number three in the world. I win another backup. Yes, I would say this is the best year for my career. Amazing. Well, parabens. Felicidades. Felicidades. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay. Amazing year for you, my friend. Well done. And can't wait to see what you do in 2025. So congratulations on all the great success. and thank you very much. Muchas gracias for coming on the show today. It's always great to talk to you. Thank you so much. Thank you for the space to talk a little bit. Yeah. See you soon. Okay. There he is. Diego Lopez, one of the top

contenders at 145 pounds. Thank you very much to Edgar as well. And yeah, he is right there. Who would have thought when this young man took a super short notice opportunity against Moffsar Evoev just a little over a year ago, a year and a half or so ago, lost that fight, hasn't lost since. Gavin Tucker, Pat Sabatini, Sadiq Youssef, Dan Ige, Brian Ortega, those two fights in 2023, Tucker and Sabatini were like, all right, this guy's something. This guy is something. But then he comes back this year on 300, on 303, and on the Sphere card. Look at those cards. Look at those cards that the UFC put him on. 300, 303, the

McGregor card, and the Sphere card. They are behind this guy. How could you not be? He always delivers. He's a lot of fun.'s got the the brazilian fan base behind him the mexican fan base behind him and he's right there the idea to fight alex volkanovsky in february i was thinking about it like man we didn't ask alex about this scenario because i didn't really see it being a scenario but knowing alex and knowing how he gets the itchy knuckles and it will be a year since he's been out by the time this fight happens, you know, I don't think it's the craziest thing. Now that same month is Mexico City. So I do wonder if that doesn't pan out, if they're going to say, all right, we want you on this one. I mean, he would be the perfect guy,

among many others, to fight on that card. So just an impressive dude. And it really does feel like 2025 could be his year. When he beat Brian Ortega in September, I said, you know, we did the post show at the hotel in Vegas. I said Volk would be great. Now, you know, Teporia fight played out and Volk goes in there and I'm totally okay with Volk, but that's a fight I would love to see. Him versus Volk, him versus Teporia

are two fantastic fights. And I feel like there's a chance we see at least one of them in 2025. That would be great for him. And he seems to be right there. Also another guy who's pretty young, 29. He's been doing this for a while, 12 years, but he's just 29 years old. So shout out to Diego Lopez. All right, let's go to our next guest. He is the reigning defending UFC flyweight champion. We found out very recently that he will be returning to action on December 7th

in Las Vegas, two title fights on the final pay-per-view of the year for the UFC. The main event is Shafkat Rahmanov challenging the welterweight champion Bilal Muhammad. The co-main event is UFC debutant Kai Asakura coming over from Japan to fight in his

very first UFC fight for gold, for 125-pound gold against the champion of the flyweight division, the one and only Alexandre Pantoja. He is kind enough to join us right now. Hello, my friend. Obrigado. Thanks for coming on. Thank you.

Awesome to talk to you. Last week, for the fight, my campaign is on fire. I'm super happy with that fight. Kyle Sakura is an amazing name. Let's go. Okay, so let us talk about it. By the way, did you cut your hair?

Is your hair shorter than usual? Did something change? Yeah. I just don't want to take care about my hair all the time. So I'm just shaving. Let's go. It's easy, yes.

Yeah. When you were offered Kaya Sakura for your first title defense, no, your next title defense not your first, excuse me what was your reaction, what was your immediate reaction when the UFC called you or your team and said we want you to fight Kaya Sakura that's an amazing name

I'm super happy with that I want to be famous in Japan that's perfect for me. Uh, I have a huge respect for, uh, Japanese culture. You know, uh, I'm starting my discipline in Jiu Jitsu and, uh, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is, uh, have this philosophy from Japan, you know, like I respect everybody. You need, uh, like a salute, the match when you go in or when you go out you

need like uh say sorry for your master i need to go to the bathroom something like that you know a lot of respect for all the culture and uh everybody doing that for life you know we have a kyoji riguchi in my gym and uh he's so good you know my best partner training partner you know and uh that's making me like I feel like uh this is gonna be a very good challenger you know one Japanese like Karasakura very strong uh very fast and that's nice because I tell you that before that's a crossover you know that's why uh that's why uh or every ufc fan want to watch you know if your ufc is so good like that you know you bring some champion for another company and fight with the champion you know with with me in this case you know and the kaya sakura is a very good athlete.

He has so many fights. He fights a lot of guys. Kyoji Uruguchi, Manel K, Juan, Archuleta. Archuleta, yeah. Yeah. And I'm super excited for that fight. This is something different because if you take the top five in UFC, it's a different game, you know. In UFC right now, in the top five, I think I have more grapplers, you know, like Royval, Moreno, Albazi.

And now you bring someone like with amazing striking skills, you know know a very good knee elbows uh you know some kicks it's totally different with uh like with what i what i'm looking for my division you know it's it's making me uh very excited for that fight too you. Someone I can fight and improve my striking to, not just grapple, but someone I think I have a better grappler. I can use that in the fight, too. I can mix it up. And it sounds like you knew of him, but just to make sure, were you familiar with who he was?

Have you seen him before? Before you were offered Kai Sakura, is this someone that you're familiar with, that you've watched before? I really don't know. I don't. I just know because he fights with Kyoji Riguchi. He's my training partner and one of the

best. He knocked out Kyoji and that makes me feel like I'm giving some respect for him. Then I watched the fight, Kai Sakura and Kyoji, and I don't see too much, you know. I see more like a lucky punch in Kyoji.

And then in the second fight, Kyoji killed that guy, make it look like an easy fight, you know. Kyoji's so good. He's a high-level fighter. And then it makes me feel like I need to take care of that guy, too.akura is a tough challenger, tough opponent for me. But I really don't see a lot about rising Japanese fighters. I know he's very good promotion. This guy, he's something he's like he did that before in the Saitama arena I know that's like a temple for every fighter if you fight in Saitama Saitama arena

you can fight in all the world you know that there's no problem but of course maybe he feels something different when he go to the octagon in UFC you know I can I want to prove that for him. There were some people who were surprised that someone making their UFC debut was getting a title shot, and there were some fighters in your weight class who were a little bit upset. Kaikar France saying they got the wrong Kai.

He should be the next one. Do you understand where these people are coming from? 100%. I agree with Kai. He's a wonderful fighter. He last fought in Air Jag. It's a beautiful fight.

Kai Carapace has this weapon, this strong hand, strong overhook. I know if some punch can beat Erchegui,

it's a kind of offense with that one. But, you know, he come for two loss after that fight. He lose to Moreno and Alvarez. And of course, he's sad about that. But this fight makes sense. You know, I think he can cry a little bit about that.

You know, but he needs to fight again. Rival comes for two fights, two good victories. He beat Moreno. He beat Taira, one of the best contenders right now. Very good fighter. That's something i want to say what a beautiful moment to fly with division have right now you know we did a lot of main event we did a lot of good fights you know uh i'm very happy with that division uh all flyweights put the show on. Mateus Nicolaou, I forget the name, Asu, the guy from Kazakhstan. Amazing fight, too. We have a lot of good names.

Kai Asakura is one of the good names now, too. After he fought with me, of course, I want the victory. I want to keep the belt, one more belt for me. And Kaya Sakura can fight a lot of guys too, you know, there's a very good name for all divisions, you know, I think everybody wants to fight with that guy too, different guy, Japanese, different game, and especially because he come from the uh another division another uh promotion you know that's good like that's a fresh blood for us you know everybody will take out some

some peace you know yeah i'm happy because i'm gonna make his debut you know this happened with me before with the manuel cape when manuel came from ufc i'm the rank number five and i'm set the fight you know with some guy with the ufc bringing for another promotion it's not a problem for me i'm super happy i'm here in that position right now like a champ because i'm fighting to everybody you know i never say no for one fight uh that's why i'm fighting with everybody. I never say no for one fight. That's why I fight for UFC. I want to challenge myself all the time. I want to fight with the best fighters in the world.

I'm so happy for that. UFC is doing this amazing show, the best show for MMA fights in the world. And I'm a big star. I will fight in December with my name in the banner. Everybody go to the arena, watch the fight. Everybody's super excited for the challenger. The Japanese come for UFC. Maybe he can be the champ.

I'm very happy for the fight. What's happening, my coach, Pahopin, said for me, you need to relax. You need more amounts to recover your body you make three fights in kind of months that's too much you like you need to relax and now i understand that's a very good like a very good playing you know because now i'm i'm feeling super fresh i'm super happy i'm too super ready for fight December, you know, I make an amazing camp Because I say that because I don't feel I make it like a One my 100% fighting when I go to Brazil region, you know, like I'm I'm fighting very well, but I think I'm

Seven seventy percent, you know, and now I can put all my game together and finish the fight. That's what I want. I want to finish the fight, whatever, submission, knee choke, knockout. I go to finish the fight. By the way, you're right. Flyweight is fascinating right now. That fight, Brandon Royval against Tetsuro Taira just a couple weeks ago was amazing. Were you surprised that Royival beat Taira?

Taira was undefeated. You, of course, have fought Roival in the past. You beat him. I'm wondering if you were surprised by the result and how the fight went. You know, I tell to my wife, no, I think the Japanese can beat Taira. And she say, no, maybe Roival can beat that guy.

And she's always right. My wife is always right. And that's happened. Reval beat the guy. I'm not surprised with that fight. You know, Reval is very talented. And he did an amazing job, you know. And I think in that case, you can see some points that Taira don't have a good game.

Like a strike, you know. I see a lot of holes in his game, and everybody in the division can see that. A lot of holes. He's an amazing grappler, everybody knows that, but he needs to work more on his striking. That's what's happening. When you take some good fights and high-level fights, you can see that there's breaking points. That's amazing for me. That's happening with Che Guevara right now with Caicara France. He goes too fast for the title, but now he has some challenges. I want everybody to fight with everyone. It's not too easy to fight for the belt.

But, of course, Royval, have he changed? Maybe he'll fight again with Kaikara France or Albazie. Because we have now Moreno and Albazie. But that's fine. Yeah, what about that fight? That's this weekend in Edmonton. What a fight that is. Brandon Moreno against Amir Alb. What a fight, man. Yeah. What about that fight? That's this weekend in Edmonton. What a fight that is. Brandon Moreno against Amir Albazio, the main event.

You know, obviously, about Moreno, too. What do you think of that one? That's the time to see Albazio, you know, see some holes in his game. You know, I don't know. It's a tough fight, you know, because Alvarez is super strong, but Moreno has good grappler, too, you know, and his boxing is much better. Ours is better boxing than Moreno, you know. And I think this time, his last fight in February, I think his time, his breaking is good for him, you know, relaxed.

This happened for me, him, you know, relax this happened for me too you know, not just for the fighter, not just for me or for Moreno but for family too you know, this break I have I have time with my kids with my wife, in the house nobody think about fight, fight, fight all the time and this happened to Moreno

I think that's a very good decision take a break and now back with everything, you know, it's gonna be fight fight fight all the time and this happened to moreno i think that's a very good decision take a break and now back to everything you know it's gonna be very interesting fight i don't know all guys have good good grappler maybe this can this game can beat moreno you know uh very strong very intensity but let's see how how the former champion is going to be yeah uh it's been about eight months since we last saw brandon moreno so uh let's see how the the layoff helps him if it's a benefit or not um for you just you know life now as champion uh are you are you feeling a difference do you feel a difference in in the way your life is the way people treat you the

opportunities that are coming your way especially especially after you won in Rio? Is it settling in, you know, how good it is to be a UFC champion? Yeah, you know me, man. I'm the same guy. You know, people can treat me different, but I'm the same one. I'm the same guy, you know. I know who is real and who is faking who who gonna stay with me when i lose and who with me just now you know because i'm the champ you know but uh i know what the people

i have on my side is very important for me uh of course more interviews more and of course better house better card is very good too but i'm super happy when I have a small house too, you know, and not a fancy car. But what's more important for me, it's me, my family. When I lock my door, stay with my family and everything, you know. Of course, money, money helping me to get more time with my family, you know, because I can pay some people to do my my my job like i clean the house something like that you know that's what about that uh get more money i can pay my time you know i can pay my time back but uh of course when you when i get the position the

champ i lose a lot of time with my family too you know it's a very risk a lot of responsibility you know and uh someone need to pay for that you know i'm not playing when i go to the fight i want to put everything together you know uh because right now what i think is like i'm trained too much i'm super tired and when i have free time i want to rest you know but my kids have uh playing soccer all the time and they have games on the weekends and i love something i love in my life is go watching my kids you know and if you play soccer with uh something that's opportunity for me you know seeing my my child grow up you know and i lost a lot of moments like that right now because I'm training too much.

That's about the response. That's why my life changed. I need to focus on the game. I have a belt to conquer one more time. I have a big show to everyone. I make something very special for that moment,

for December 7th. By the way, how old are your kids right now? My old one has 13, and teenagers, crazy. I bet, yes. Yeah, and my younger one has 10. In the house, he's like

a hurricane. In the outside, he's like a child, like a super shiny thing. That's crazy. Inside, he's like a child like a super tiny that's crazy inside he's like don't stop anytime and i'm super happy i'm super happy with that life you know uh very opportunity for me for my family uh but like i told you you know uh two years ago i'm in a small apartment because that's like uh when i come to us for bringing my family i buy a small apartment because that's like a when i come to us for bringing my family i buy a small apartment and uh in this apartment i have one of the best moments in my life with my family you know and nothing changed you know i won't keep that you know i won't keep that in my mind that's

the best thing family you know that's me i have a son who's 12 and 10 as well and they both play soccer and there's nothing that i enjoy more than watching them play on the weekend uh going to the games and seeing them be 10 times the athlete that i ever was it's so much fun do they have interest in in being a fighter too or is it just football for them? A different life in the world. My life is so tough. I say all the time for my kids,

hey, if you want to be a fighter, if you want to be a fighter, I'm enjoying it. It's going to be super easy. Maybe you make it two, three fights and go to UFC,

make money, you'll start right now. But I don't know if my kids agree with that. Let's see. He's super young right now but i don't know if my kids agree with that you know let's see he's super young right now uh whatever he wants to do it didi i'm with him you know i i just want to see my kids go to the college and something like that is going to be very special for me i try to do that meanwhile i that that's the like a big point in my life you know uh like uh take care of my kids you know see him grow up

um try to be a good great father that that's my plan you know i won the belt because there's a consequence about my life you know about my choice uh about what i want you know it's something of course every every fighter chooses that belt. This happened for me because I make a good choice. I take care of all the people I love and love me. That's

happening. Now I'm a champion of the world. It sounds like you would prefer them not to go down the fight game route, right? It sounds like you would prefer that they didn't even think about fighting. You had to do this maybe when you were younger, but you want to give them a better life than being a fighter.

For my kids? Yeah, yeah. No, no, yeah. He has this opportunity, but my kids are like... I have a very hostile life. That's why when I go to the octagon, I have something different about my opponents. Of course, amazing athletes, amazing people there.

Everybody has a history. I have my history. I tell them that, I think about that. My life is like a big bang. When the big bang happens, because a lot of things, small things happened for that moment, you know, and that's what's happened in my life, you know, a lot of small moments happened for this big bang, you know, happened, you know, about my father,

I talked to you before about that, you know, and why I say that, Because when my father leave, my mom, I have now a stepfather. And this guy bring me to the jiu-jitsu. And because this guy bring me to Arraial do Cabo, it's my town. When I found my master, my first master, and then I found my love, my wife, you know, everything have a connection. You know, my father go, this guy's coming. I go to Arraial do Cabo and everything change connection you know my father go these guys coming I go to a hell to Kabul and everything change you know and and and you've talked to us about your father in the past like you just mentioned I'm just wondering has

anything changed at all with the relationship do you do you ever hear from him do you ever get a message from him yeah i i said we we sent a couple matches message for for i sent some message for him he sent a message for me but like i don't want to rush or like uh put something like uh let's see you know the real life that's a real life not like show you know but yeah i think when I have more time, maybe when I retire the belt, like stop a little bit, I can go and talk to my father when everything is done or not. You know, let's see.

Let's see the real life happen. Okay. And obviously wish you guys the best with that. Without a doubt. And I appreciate when you speak about it whenever you do by the way Newhouse congratulations did this happen since

the fight at 301 yeah the kids need space the kids need space my dog needs space my wife likes to cooking I gave him a big kitchen and I enjoy all that you know but that's it, you know, uh, great opportunities coming, champion the world.

Like I said, to fancy car, but the more important thing for my life is like a be humble, uh, I'm not special. Nobody's special. We were like, everybody's the same. I think he's like, uh, in this case, like, uh, case like uh you you like uh like how i'm gonna say that in english but uh it's always connection you know something like uh right now i talk to you you give me a good energy i give to you energy good back you know we talk about the kids and that is something we wanna when the cameras go off, you can think about.

You share. The word is about sharing with everybody, you know, like something like that. I give to you something special, you give me something special. And when the world starts rolling, we're going to figure out why that. I love your perspective on things and I love how humble you remain, even though you've been champion now for a year and a half,

3-0 in UFC title fights. You seem like the exact same guy that we first met. So kudos to you. And I'm sure there are a lot of people coming to you with different things, but it sounds like you stay very grounded. Are there ever moments where you find

that you're starting to get big eyes or your head's getting big? And is there someone, maybe your wife, maybe your coaches that are telling you, no, no, no, you can't fall for this trap? That's good. That's something good. I don't know how I'm going to say that in English,

but that's a good history. I don't know if it's that true, but like a Tame Pirates, Caesar. Yeah. The big guy, like everybody, like say he's a god he's a god you like a trait you like a god but one guy in the show they say for him all the time you're just a man you're just a man you're just a man but you remember you're just a man you know everybody's the same you know like uh the the different teams of your choice you know your future is about your choice

you know i i i have my choice you know uh some sacrifice in the the in the in the way but that's it that's me that's who i am and i'm not gonna change or you know like a lot of people say a lot about that. People want to see me like I teach my brush on Instagram, but it's not me. I'm the real guy. I want to be real for life. Respect. Last thing for you, do you ever think about

Demetrius Johnson? I know he's far away. I want to fight Demetrius Johnson all the time. You do? I wasn't even talking about i was talking about his records if i can if i can train with him it's gonna be very special for me you know something like that you know because i trained with kioji gucci yeah for me one of the best fighters in the world i trained with adriano morai i trained with a his serudo and uh i miss i miss demetrius you know that's something that this guy

somebody would like help every fight for flyweight you know we see the Matthew for I've seen the Matthew

for all my life you know and but of course I respect him I respect his time but if I maybe

I can train with him he's gonna be very special I respect him a lot I don't try to like I never gonna try to compare compare myself because he's a big star. Of course, he fight in UFC long time ago, different opponents and blah, blah, blah. Right now it's much, I think it's very difficult right now, but still champion, you know, like you have bar challenges, internet bring everybody together if you see

someone go in China you bring this guy if you see someone good in Japan you bring that guy everything goes super fast but of course again the match is the gold I respect him I love him and just respect

yeah he just retired so unfortunately I don't think he's going to fight again, but that would be incredible. What I was referring to was, do you think about his records and does that motivate you? Would you like to, you know, obviously, I'm sure you want to get to a point where you're breaking his records, but do you think about his records, his title defenses?

Is that something that's on your mind or you're still a little ways away? No, no. I just think about the next fight, you know. Okay. The record, all that is about you, Ariel. You're not this. It's not. My work is fighting.

Fair enough. I go to the gym every day, very hostile. That's it, you know. December 7th, that day of my show, that date. Yes. Everybody want to watch? Let's go. How do you win on december 7th

with a lot of power with a lot of hustle you know with a lot of work hard work i make a lot of hard work in the gym right now uh i just inspired this morning six rounds very tough you know i was wondering i saw your face a little marked up is that from sparring yeah it's not too much. You know, I take care a lot. I don't want to receive a lot of punch. You know, I move more my head. That's good.

Yeah, the hatred specific talking about that. I try to least this guy. But yeah, I train a lot, Ariel. You know, I want to win. When you go to fight with 50-50, I'm not like crazy. I'm going to say, hey, I'm going to finish the guy. I'm going to beat him. That's fine, you 50 50 i'm not like crazy i'm gonna say hey i'm gonna finish the guy i'm gonna beat him that's fine you know i'm not stupid i know sometimes i need to sell more and you'd say hey i'm gonna eat japanese food because i'm the cannibal uh this sounds very good too you

know but i i i that's about it like uh art of the war. I'm not stupid. I know what I did. I want to do it. I'm not going to give a chance to my opponent. He's something which I'm going to put some fire for him. I'm not going to give him that. The art of the war, that's it, man.

I'm the warrior. And I love to fight. And December 7, Team Mobile Arena, my Coliseum. It's my arena, bro. man i'm the war i'm the warrior and uh i love to fight and uh december 7 team mobile arena my coliseum is my arena bro i love it well it's always fun watching you fight um all your performances in the ufc have been spectacular the last uh few the title fights have been incredible and this is a very fun one a lot of interest because he's making his debut and it's very rare to see someone make their debut in a ufc title fight so let's see if he backs that up he's very popular in Japan so I'm sure there's going to be a huge amount of attention on this fight and we are all very much looking forward to it thank you

so much Alessandro I really appreciate it my friend and good luck to you in training and of course good luck on December 7th enjoy your games with your kids thank you let's go see you see you next same to you same to you my friend There he is The reigning defending UFC flyweight champion Two title defenses So still a bit of a ways to go

Before we get to Demetrius Johnson Territory 3-0 in title fights of course Coming off that win over Steve Erseg Back in May in Rio. And I understand where Kai Francis is coming from. Again, very, very rare that a debutant gets a UFC title fight. But Asakura is on a little bit of a run and quite popular.

I believe he has a very popular YouTube page. Last I checked, right? Doesn't he have like... He has something i saw something where he has like a few well the video that he made announcing that he was coming out like 500 000 views yeah is it is it on a youtube page yeah obviously all in uh in japanese yeah he's very popular Kai Channel 1.36 million subscribers For real oh here it is yeah wow Look at that He has one video from 5 years ago that has 24 million views

Yes what the Yeah he's definitely pretty popular MMA fighter confronts cigarette butts Litterers in Kabuki Cho Yeah by the way Solid production value here yeah 11 days ago 289 the announcement video 42 194 384 534 413 280 i mean he's a big deal so a shot in the arm now you could make the case maybe you get him a few fights build them up even bigger and then he fights for the belt but um you know no right answer at the time where they made this

fight now uh certainly uh roival in the mix after the win over tyra and perhaps they thought tyra was going to win and then the winner of this weekend's fight albazi moreno which is a great fight on a great card by the way a card that's really flying under the radar Would definitely be in the mix as well And I know that Albazi has been Champing at the bit To get this opportunity I really like this card guys No one's really talking about it

Can I be honest? I usually on Sunday Look at the schedule and say okay what's next I was like oh shit the Edmonton card's next Feels like a Canadian bias Yeah the top four fighters on the card are not Canadian. It is not quite the love letter to Canada that the Noche UFC card was.

Hello, Pete C, how are you? Hi, how are you? Didn't the Asakura brothers, didn't they star in some, like, The Outsider or something? Like, it's kind of like a YouTube thing, which kind of bolstered their popularity significantly like before while they were in deep and everything like that i can remember

reading a story by someone about this does that ring any bells possible i thought you'd be all over this this feels like a crack segment taylor made it could the fight could well be i tried to dig very quickly as you were rooting around your brain there. But yeah, I'm terrified as I sit here now because I know what's going to happen next. And I deserve all the criticism that's going to come my way. What's going to happen next is me complimenting your beard. Your beard has never looked better. I mean, it is fantastic. It is really coming in now.

You've been holding this back from all of us. I want to get rid of it now though Because people are used to it I'll be like Cheeto Constantly change Go for Tash next It's quite thick Mine doesn't even do this

Francis I disagree I disagree In fact I would lean more would, I would, I would lean more towards Darren Till than Francis on this one. Well, Oh, Frank,

that's awful. Yeah, that's tough. That's tough. We don't care. What about this weekend? You're talking about this weekend. What about the return of Jack Shaw?

Listen, and that's a nice plug. I believe you'll be talking about that on the crack on Friday, yes? We're rooting things around, yeah. Okay, sure, sure. You know, that's not... Pee-dow? That's not...

Sorry? Is he the pee-dow? The pee-tee dog of the week? Oh. I don't know. That sounds a lot like something else, and I was very worried there for a second. No, no.

But, um second What? What's going on? I don't know Oh, a pedo Yeah, yeah, yeah Yes, yes, yes No, it's Yeah, what is it?

I see that one is right Moreno, Albazi, tremendous Rose and Aaron Blanchfield Very important fight at 125 Where have you gone, Mano Fioro? I feel like she's just kind of been forgotten about She should probably be next at 125 pounds. Derek Lewis

is on the card. Did anyone remember this? Derek Lewis fighting Janta Denise? Yeah. Undefeated. Yeah. Great fight. Derek Lewis looking to take us out. And then we get into the Canadians. I mean, we got to go four fights down before we get to the Canadians.

But then we get into them Hot and heavy Marc-André Barriot The pride of Quebec Mike Malotte is on this card Going up against Trevin Giles He's actually going to be on the program tomorrow Looking forward to talking to him

Remember he suffered that loss In his last fight Against Neil Magny And he was on quite the run. Everyone thought he might be the next big thing. He was the face of Canadian MMA. That was back in January. So he's taken almost a year off.

So I'm looking forward to talking to him and seeing how he looks in the fight. Eman Zahabi on the card as well. Jasmine. No, what's going on? I moved things around. I mean, Frank, what is going on? What things right i mean frank what is going on what's happening is everything okay what the fuck is going on yeah yeah those are working sort of but it's just been that's fucking bullshit yeah no the the first the first darren tell one would be perfect for

this scenario i think you forgot everyone stopped shit. That would be the perfect one. Anyway, we continue. There's a whole bunch of Canadians. Jamie Lynn Horth, Jasmine, like I said. So I think it's a great card. I like this card a lot. Under the radar. A rare fight night on the road.

It's a solid card, man. No one's really giving me much here all right you're wasn't about it man you're you're a lot more hopped up than the rest of maybe it's the canadian thing it's okay i think it's a little bit of canadian bias have you ever noticed that your canadian flag's a little bit larger than the american flag no that's actually wrong uh i changed the flags because one was i don't remember it always being this bigger i think it's slowly been getting bigger with time no i i think something happened to make it small again i think something happened actually in the move so i bought another one i actually bought two uh my daughter claims to have seen the second

one i still haven't found it um but i moved the other one back there you can see it right over there it's right over there you can see right next to it's eclipsing everything else but then i had to i had to replace this one to make it the same. And I think I nailed it, except it's a different texture, which annoys me. This one is a lot more flag-like. Yeah, like look at the pole. This one's cheap. This one's smooth.

Get what you pay for, man. Made in Canada, it says. The one on the left? Yeah, probably. Oh, my God. I hope so. Golly, could you imagine a flag not being made in its home country? You guys vote yet?

Absolutely. Have you voted yet? No, I told you I'm not voting. That's fucking bullshit. You guys have decided to become a citizen. Yeah, I know. All that work. I vouched for you. I was your biggest power as a citizen. Is that my biggest power? I mean, I would say paying taxes

is probably even bigger than that. Is that a power? That's a duty. That's a citizen. Is that my biggest power? I mean, I would say paying taxes is probably even bigger than that. Is that a power? That's a duty. That's a power. Sure, I guess. Responsibility. I mean, can I trade?

I'll tell you what, if I can bypass taxes for a year and vote, would that be a fair trade? You can give up your vote so that you can bypass that?

You pay your taxes so you can vote. Oh, yeah. Man. I did have a great time at MSG on Sunday I thought that was a great time I'm just joking What the fuck is that By the way don't put me full screen

When I make a joke like that I need the reaction I can't just be here alone We need the clip Oh my god This is going off the rails a little bit here Yeah you know it's Tuesday we like to have fun We like to have fun on Tuesdays We do have some breaking news

Yeah Shades of UFC 197 Remember when Jon Jones was Getting ready to fight Ovin St. Preux Not as dramatic Not as much distraction But we did find out today, and this is courtesy of our

friends at MMA Fighting, that Jon Jones has reached a pre-adjudication agreement to dismiss the charges in his case involving a drug testing agent who filed assault charges against the UFC heavyweight champion back in March. On Tuesday, Judge Astra Elliott approved an agreement between the arresting officer and Jones that as long as he avoids any trouble for the next 90 days and undergoes four hours of anger management that the two pending misdemeanor charges against him will be dismissed. Jones appeared at the hearing via Zoom alongside his attorney, Christopher Dodd. The judge approved the agreement with Jones' attorney agreeing to appear after 90 days to confirm his

clearance from all charges quote as long as Mr. Jones is compliant for the next 90 days then I can dismiss this case so he's got to do uh anger management it might be that's not the same thing that Armin Sarukian agreed to do right no that was a anti-bullying PSA Yes I'm still looking forward To that one coming out Is he still doing it? I thought it was something about when he was going to fight He was going to fight by October He said he's still going to do it Wow

According to his manager Danny Rubenstein Here's a tweet from Jon Jones I would like to extend my thanks to the justice system For reaching a prompt resolution in this matter Which affirms my innocence and enables me to maintain my focus on the upcoming fight. I'm eagerly anticipating the opportunity to defend my heavyweight title on November 16th at the world's most famous arena, Madison Square Garden. I added that part at the end But it just it felt right You know it's weird if you type in X John Jones or Twitter John Jones

It takes you back to when I don't know like when When Twitter turned into X It's like a time capsule you guys ever do this You ever like quickly search Someone's Twitter page and then you type in like Twitter like if I type in right now Twitter When have we had time to do that I do it all the time quickly when I'm someone's Twitter page and then you type in like Twitter like if I type in right now Twitter

when have we had time to do that I do it all the time quickly when I'm when I'm searching for something Twitter area hawani I click on it the top tweet is unfortunately the the example well it's the tweet announcing that rumble Johnson had died but from November of 2022 it's bizarre that is bizarre and that's uh no that's not happening for me what is that how much engagement did you have on that one i've had it where like i go to people's accounts and it's like their most liked tweets in order oh you know what oh is that what this is because the next one is 2023 is that what this is and how how much engagement are you getting on them? On the top one The Rumble Johnson one is

86k likes The next one is Francis 62k The next one is Nate 59k I mean these are just kind of like Another day in the life The next one is MVG 57k Oh is that what it is?

It's in that order Oh my god I thought it was a time capsule no how do you see this do you have to log out of your account no i don't know i'm not logged in oh it says i might like dana white let's see what's going on here it's just if you're not logged in oh are you on your burner account let's see let's No, I don't have burner. Oh, his number one tweet, 214K. It's the Mike Tyson one on the plane. Oh, this is actually kind of interesting. It's the top tweets.

I'm trying to see mine. Wow. By the way, did you guys see that now you can see, if someone blocks you, you can still see their tweets? Yes. Oh, great. It's amazing. You can't interact, but you can still see them now.

You are not prohibited from the information. I i can finally for the first time since 2014 see daniel it's amazing all the exclamation points there are a lot of them you can get polka fridays too what a gift um amazing i i typed in x peter carroll And what threw me off was that this tweet only has seven likes. So I didn't know it was a top thing, but I guess that's your highest. That's my regular. That's my regular. Yeah.

That's pretty much what we get. There's only so many pictures of your dog you can put up. Sure. Sure. Shout out. What about you, Connor? Connor probably has a banger.

I got one with 52K wow must be nice 52k 33k i mean you'll see 300 a week i was on fire 30k 29k like you said another day in the office yeah that was it i mean you were slipping on when ariel was calling for him but but you're on fire right now. What's the point of me doing them if he just calls them? Yeah, that's true. You're right. I actually am in agreeance with Frank here, off the cuff. Okay, sometimes I just –

You can't just read your mind. You got your Yahoo button. You stick with that. Oh, no. No. Oh, actually, it's not that loud. No, it's pretty far away. You know, it's funny you say that

because when I saw that clip yesterday, when Spencer cut it for me, I was like, oh my gosh, we don't care. It was just, it was tailor-made for this. It was on fire yesterday. Yeah. Speaking of on fire, how about our good friends over at uncrowned.com

and the work that they're doing? I mean, the whole team there, led by the great Shaheen Alshadiadi who of course was on the program yesterday but everyone from um drake to darshan to keith to pen shamrock with a fantastic recap of raw last night i hope you all check that out as well obviously chuck and ben and pt doing phenomenal work dusting off the old pen or pencil. Cam and everyone else. I hope I'm not forgetting anyone.

I probably am. Everyone doing phenomenal work. But there I am yesterday scrolling through my favorite new website, your new home of all things combat sports, uncrowned.com. And I see, what do I see? I see our brand new pound for pound rankings. Now you'll recall a couple of weeks ago, we unveiled our pound for pound for pound rankings. Now you'll recall a couple of weeks ago, we unveiled our pound for pound pro wrestling rankings and everyone was all at Twitter.

The blogosphere was going insane. Everyone was very mad. They didn't quite understand the concept. And so I was curious to see what the reaction reception would be to our pound for pound rankings. Much to my surprise, it was actually quite positive the only one who really hated them was me i mean these were these were these were questionable at best now i'm not going to be the guy to sit here and say like oh no no no if you don't agree with my rankings you can't

have the the the rankings showcased on our website. But I did want to sort of like parse through them and find out what the thought process was, if possible. Yeah, I'm interested to see what you found so disagreeable. Actually, I am very curious. Lunacy. Lunacy is the word.

Lunacy is the word. No math to victory for Hamza. I could see the sweat just coming down PT's head. Squeaky bunches. I actually change my joke every time I do these I have it written out and before I send it I go ah you know what fuck it and I change it all around and I send it and I don't know why I do that

it's like uh I was talking to Rick about this briefly you can make an argument any way you want with these things it's absolute fairy tale shit but go ahead no PT what you don't understand is pound for pound has a very specific definition and you can't you can't veer away everybody has a different definition of it though

right no no i don't think you're allowed to speak chicken now i'm frank yeah that's true by the way that's a great point anyone who doesn't partake cannot speak on this so frank you need to sit this one out. Next segment. Yeah. In case you guys are wondering, it's Shaheen Alshadi who's a part of it. The great Connor Burks, which this excites me greatly,

if I'm being honest. I actually love it. Pizzi Carol is involved. Ben Folks involved as well. New York Rick, Eric Jackman, Chuck Mendenhall, Drake Riggs. And I do believe that is it. For Rick and GC,

first time taking part in something like this, yes? I think I've probably voted at some point around the ESPN era, but I don't know. I think this is my first time doing a pound-for-pound rankings. Did you enjoy the process? Yeah. Already, by the way,

it's infinitely more prestigious than the UFC rankings, just by virtue of the fact that we all have pulses and watch MMA. I'm going to start asking AI anyway. I'm going to start asking ChatGPT to do it for me. I'll give you 2018 rankings, though. I've tried it already. That's right.

You did it on the air. Male rankings. We ended up with this. So, again, everyone weighs in, and then by virtue of some sort of point system, this is how it all pans out. This is the aggregate. The aggregate, yes. Islam Makhachev, one. Alex Pereira, two. Ilya Teporia, three. Murad Dualishvili, four. John Jones, five. Tom Aspinall, six. Francis Ngannou, seven. Bilal Muhammad, eight. Drikas Duplessis, nine, 10, Hamzat Shemaev. So my thing is, I think it is so easy right now to pick the number one pound-for-pound fighter in the world. And I think it's Alex Pereira, just because of the fact that he has been a champion at two different weight classes.

Ultimately, my definition of pound-for-pound is if everyone was the same, everyone was the same weight, who'd be the best fighter? But if someone actually shows you that they can have success Two different weight classes And a lot of people think he can have success in a third weight class How could it be Any kind of discussion That's why people are favoring you know Jones right now They're like oh look at him he went up to heavyweight

Of course he has to be pumped around Despite the fact that he's been so inactive One fight in almost five years That's the favor Excuse me that's the argument inactive One fight in almost five years That's the favor, excuse me That's the argument in favor of Jon Jones Alex is actually doing it And not that long ago he was 185 Now he's 205

Let me just take a quick gander I'm assuming at least one of you You know, I know it's an aggregate Picked Alex Pereira, number one Just looking quickly here, Connor, okay, Islam Alex, three Which PT, Alex, one, thank you prayer number one just looking quickly here connor okay islam alex three uh which uh pt alex one thank you wow and uh eric jackman alex three is someone how is this counterpoint yeah let me let

me go ahead please please so you've kind of got pound for pound right at least in the in the origination of it it is not like can you go in weight? It is if everybody was the same size, the skill sets translated across the size, where would they be? So going up in weight by definition isn't proof of pound for pound status. It could be evidence to support it. But if you believe that,

if I believe that Islam Makhachev could go up three divisions and capture belts and Alex Pereira can only go up two, then by definition, Islam is actually ahead of him. I'm not I'm just saying that as like a thought example. That's not actually what I believe. But no, it doesn't really have bearing on it going up and capturing a title. It proves that you can do it. But if I believe Islam could do it, too, then it's the equivalent.

Pizza, your thoughts, because you and I agree. I'm so angry with Rick. I can't believe you have him. Connor Burks, you're a disgrace. Ah! Also, look, I have Pereira because the way he's going about his

business, you know, unlike your guy, you know know he's actually fighting guys in his weight class rick and jimsy yeah um so yeah no i just i just think he is shit hot at the moment um and that's why i put him top of the pile um the every if everything's equal i thought was uh was an interesting comment and i can't wait till we break down our discussion on the heavyweight situation based on that. What do you mean? What do you mean?

Go ahead. Go ahead. Well, you know, I'm looking around these rankings, and I'm seeing a lot of people with Jon Jones ahead of Tom Asimov, but, I mean, everything is equal there. They are all in the same weight class. The greatest and most well-rounded fighter of all time, Jon Jones? That one?

Yeah, yeah. I've heard he fights every four years or so. Looking forward to his next one. Just a few weeks away. Everything is equal. Everything is equal when it comes to the heavyweight. So essentially you're saying you'd pick John Jones over Tom Aspinall, which is fair.

But that's what that reads to me. It is important to note that the boys in the back, in particular, Rick and GC, are single-handedly keeping Francis below Jones and Aspinall. Yeah. Yeah. One second. Let me, a lot of, a lot of it is about what you've accomplished as well.

And at this point, what John Jones in his career, last time we saw him fight, what I think he's probably about to do against Steve Miochic. Uh, I think he deserves to be in the top five. Well, you can't go based on what you think he's going about to do against Stipe Miocic, I think he deserves to be in the top five. Well, you can't go based on what you think he's going to do because that, you know... You can, though. You can't rank based on results to come. That's what pound for pound is. No, it's not based on results.

You can't say, you think he's going to beat Stipe, that's why I'm preemptively putting him up there. If you say, oh, I think John beats Alex in this fictitious world. Yeah, but this is a fight that's coming up in two weeks. That can't be part of the argument. Yeah, it actually can be anything. These are fictitious rankings.

Yeah, that is true. That is fair. When you boil it down, it's what makes it comfortable. John Jones is one of the greatest fighters of all time, and he's still competing at an elite level. He deserves to be ranked in the top five rankings. Oh, 100%. But we all agree now on number one.

No, he's not number one. I don't think he should be number one, but I think the top three are easy to break down, and I think that's Ilya, Alex, and Islam, in whatever order you want to put it in. Yeah, I think we all have that. But I will say, like, I do agree with what GC is saying because I'm speculating when i'm put i put

aspinall above jones and francis because i think if they fought tomorrow tom tom would be both of them but like i i i know where you're kind of more looking at body or work the fact that this guy was a light heavyweight champion but are we not talking about right now who was the best pound for pound based on if they fought right now and everything was equal that means tom aspinall would win in my in my system because i think he would be both john jones and francis and garner see then it gets tough because like i i think if hamza shemayev were to go up to 205 because of his skill set and the way it plays against alex perera i think he would beat alex perera but i ranked him obviously Under because of the things that Alex Pereira has been able To accomplish. Okay, so this

Is good. Yeah, no, I understand. This is who you voted For and how. Islam 1, Ilya 2 Alex 3, Jones 4 Murab 5, Aspinal 6 Hamzat 7, DDP 8 Pantoja 9, Bilal Muhammad 10. I did notice And I was going to actually bring this up, but I didn't want to

You know, create a mutiny Conspicuous by his absence in the top 10 the overall top 10 is the flyweight champion alexander pantosha uh but you gave him you gave him that yeah i felt like he deserved to be in there like like we just talked to him and several title defenses adding up could get another great one here uh in december um i i feel like a defending champion should be in the top 10 uh new york rick as well had him in his top 10 uh one man who did not was uh ireland's own pz carol please explain gotta break a few eggs to make an omelette lads you know what i mean this is rankin's baby it's cutthroat and i'm disgusted with rick and gc again i want to highlight oh so annoyed you guys right. What can we do

to make it better, PC? It's going to take a long time for me to get over this one. PC's final rankings were number one, Alex, number two, Islam, number three, Ilya. Have to say love that. Love Aspen all at four. Francis five over Jones six. No problem with that.

Murab, DDP, Bilal and Hamzat. I have to say other than the exclusion of pantoja i think he's 11th is he 11th he's 11th he actually now now you're going to get into it he was 11th okay uh you put it you know you could make the case that you know because he's champion this and that over hamza hamza, Hamzat inactive, but you gave Hamzat the nod. I'm assuming prior to this weekend, you didn't have Hamzat as number 10 or in the top 10.

No. Yeah. No, I didn't. He got in there, fair play to him, just tiptoed over the line of that devastating jaw-crushing performance over Robert Whittaker. Oh my gosh. What about that doctor that we had on, huh? He was brilliant, but the graphics and all blew my mind.

Yeah, he's fantastic. Does he want to start hosting the crack? We can talk to him about it. By the way, speaking of New York Rick, Islam 1, Ilya 2, Alex 3, Hamzat 4, John Jones 5, DDP 6, Marab 7,

Bilal 8 Aspinall 9 Pantoja 10 Aspinall What a perfect list Aspinall's so perfect Neither Connor or Rick Have Francis Ngannou

In the top 10 No I've got two heavyweights Ahead of him Man Aspinall's so far Down there too Yeah No I mean

Again My thought process On this Was a combination Of resume and the moving of divisions. There's just some guys that I think, you know, have skill sets that are comparable there. If you tell me I'm moving Tom up, I'm OK there and some other guys down. But it's kind of just how it shook out but can yeah go go make a comment about the realization that i had while i was making these comments making this ranking and that's probably the

best thing that came over for me was you did the thing about dana and francis you did that great breakdown on monday ariel about you know the saga that's going on between them and the one thing one thing that i was thinking when I was watching all this stuff over the weekend was it's amazing how much Dana White cares about this. As much as he kind of says, oh, I sleep well at night. I'm sure he does. The guy's loaded. He's doing great things with the UFC.

But I was surprised how much it obviously annoys him when he has that sheet ready at the power slap press conference right to reel off how power slap is better than pfl but as i'm making them rankings and i'm like jesus my heavyweights are way too high up here for most people i'd imagine but i was like this might be the golden era of heavyweight mma and we're not going to get to see any of these guys fight each other that's that's uh that's a crying shame and if if there's anything that the ufc we should be annoyed with the ufc about here is the fact that they could have made francis v jones and they didn't and they could make jones be aspiral and they and they haven't and that is that is an indictment on them in terms of heavyweight mma because i think if these guys were all fighting each other,

this would be the greatest era of all time. Wow. I think... That was less passionate as Darren, but it was just as, come on, Zayn, you fucking prick. You know, give it a bit. I think we will see some of them fight.

Not Francis versus UFC champion, unfortunately, but I do think we will see John versus Tom, maybe. Yeah, I mean, even speaking to the Aspinall camp very recently, they're all very confident all of a sudden that that's going to happen. So fingers crossed we do get that. Heavyweight's hard. Heavyweight's hard. They're the hardest ones to rank in this pound for pound thing.

Can I say this? And you just said it, and I've been guilty of this as well. I was talking to some people very close to Stipe and maybe I was just drinking the Kool-Aid. Man, I do feel like there's been a lot of slander thrown his way. And I've said it myself, like Tom should be fighting. He's the real real heavyweight champ Stipe Miocic can easily screw all this up he can easily screw like this is not a bum this isn't a gimmick fight he's been out for a while he's taking this very seriously um I don't know everything I I heard about everything I heard about who he's working with who he's sparring with it would be such an mma type of story right where we've been talking this whole year about francis and john and then john and aspinall and aspinall's there and he takes data if if steepay waltz is in there and screws it all up and then it would be

the most steepay move ever to screw it all up and retire right remember this is the guy who when dana white tried to put the belt around his waist in waist in Boston, he took the belt and gave it to his head coach and said, I'm going to have someone who respects me and who I respect put it around my waist. What a move, what a parting shot it would be. And let's be very clear, Stipe's getting the opportunity. They've been very respectful, very complimentary. They're paying him well, all these things and more. But what a freaking parting shot by the most decorated heavyweight champion of all time if he wins this fight and then just says peace i'm out of here like i i i do think we need to start talking about that being a possibility ultimately you know am i going out on a limb like i did with hamza and rob no i've retired from that

at least for now at least for this week but i don But I don't think it's as crazy a thought. Like, I don't even know what the odds are at the moment. I'm assuming Jon Jones is the favorite. Yeah, minus 700. Wow. Stipe plus 500. Man, this is Stipe Miocic. He's not a bum.

He's not a bum, Nikolas. Yeah, but this is also Jon Jones. You can do the, it's Stipe, but on the other side of it, this is Jon Jones. This is Jon Jones who has fought once since 2020. Oh, what's Stipe done? Yeah, when was the last time Stipe fought? 20, 20, 22. How'd that go?

I'm just saying. It's not like one guy's been fighting and one guy hasn't. Like, you're talking about Jon Jones. By the way, his last three fights were very, very close. He's still getting involved in things. I'm not saying, here's what I am saying. I don't think he just steamrolls through him like he like he steamrolls a real gun is that is that is that a fair take yeah i can i can agree with

that and i think there is a possibility that stipe is able to pull off like i guess what the mma community is thinking is the unthinkable uh i mean he's 42 years old but it is heavyweight i mean if you're going to do it at any division this would be the one to do it he is obviously one of if not the greatest heavyweights of all time so like yeah you are right it would be the most mma thing of all time for stipe miocic to derail everything and then just walk off into the sunset and leave all this chaos in his dust what would be so incredible about that is francis walked away with one belt then the second belt that they crafted uh stipe is walking away with that one at some point and then we've got the

Tom Aspinall belt kind of just sitting there as the third in the actual order. It will be more splintered. It will be the only time in recent UFC history that the boxing heavyweight titles are actually more unified than the UFC slash MMA heavyweight

titles. This is the prime example of it being against everything that was Dana White's mission statement early on with the UFC. This is the most clear example of that, what's happening at heavyweight. I do agree with you that I think people are almost looking at Steve Bamiotich like the Mike Tyson to John Jones' Jake Paul. You know, like, well, this guy, you know, where's his health at? Because he had that limp when he was last seen at a UFC event.

But honestly, it would, based on how the narrative is being formed, it would go down as, like, despite Stipe's stellar career and being one of the greatest heavyweights of all time, I think it would go down as one of the biggest upsets ever because everyone has their head so far in what happens after

this as opposed to what actually happens in Madison Square Guard. When you say upset, I don't know if I can say Stipe winning at heavyweight is an upset in any era. I think maybe what you mean is people will be upset. No, it should be an upset. I think it would be an upset.

John Stipe, minus 700 getting beat, that's an upset. I don't think. You understand how odds work, right? I don't think. That is an upset. I don't think. You're going to sound like an odds worker. I don't think. That is an upset. I don't think those are fair odds. I think that's very disrespectful. I'm sympathetic to what. Jesus, what was this chat?

When did this chat happen? You've changed it. You can 6X your money on Stipe Miocic right now. Who are you talking to? It was Mara. What happened? Fucking hell. I'm sympathetic to the idea that Stipe deserves respect.

I think that's accurate, but man, last win was August 15, 2020. His last fight was also 2021. It was March 21, 2021. I can hear everything. I need to see something before I'm willing to believe that. By the way, in that time frame, John Jones

has one win. And it was over Cyril Gunn. August 2020, who was that win against? Tell us. Tell us who that win was against. Yeah, yeah,, by the way, August 2020, who was that win against? Tell us. Tell us who that win was against. Yeah, yeah, yeah. One of the greatest ever.

In 2020? Ever. Yeah, but... All right, well, let's lock it in. H-down number two. We're already back. The new era of the H-down.

Let me tell you something right now. Plus 500. Ibe Miocic will win decisively. No path to victory for John Jones. No path to victory.

No, no, no, no, no. No path to victory for John Jones. I get where you're coming from. Because, again, like, Jon Jones had one fight at heavyweight, and it seemed like a matchup that was kind of, like, beneficial to him. It was a favorable style matchup. And we saw him for 60 seconds.

And we saw him for no time at all. And so we don't know much about Jon Jones at heavyweight. But I will take the stuff I don't know about Jon Jones over the stuff I don't know for what Stipe Miocic has been doing for the last X years. I also, I love the chaos theory of Stipe Miocic winning this fight because it does feel like no one's giving him

a chance. You're kind of selling me on just blindly packing Stipe. By the way, I'm glad. Yeah, you guys keep making all these plans, but Stipe's got something else up his sleeve. It's a coin flip fight. It's a 50-50 fight if you ask me wow i really do believe that i really it was this chat must have i really do say listen i did my due diligence i i i said listen i need to know what's going on here and i and all the things i heard were were very interesting and i just thought

this guy's not here to take part like he's not here to just be a part of the the heavyweight sweepstakes and be like oh yeah here John you can fight me let's be honest they thought that this was a winnable matchup and and you know what really you know what really like got me going on this going through that footage of the 2020 UFC 2020 and just seeing prime Stipe and seeing how freaking mad he was going into that fight it was a different the guy who fought Francis was a little bit different and obviously older it was a few years later and it was pandemic and it was apex I think we see motivated Stipe I think we see superhero Stipe I think we see fireman uh first responder Stipe who wants to go out as

as the most decorated heavyweight champion of all time I mean the disrespect is palpable I'm all for that narrative I think it's a good one I think we will also see motivated John Jones Who's been hearing about Tom Aspinall for quite a bit And probably wants to remind people Who the eff he is as the goat of MMA

It's for sure Can we find out all this information? It looks like he's got an OnlyFans Stipe! What's he showing off information? It looks like he's got an OnlyFans. Can I go on his OnlyFans and find out? Stipe! What's he showing off there? What's he doing there? It looks like some training stuff. Stipe Miocic. 42-year-old Stipe Miocic dropping link in bios.

Moron OnlyFans. I might have to sign up. Yeah, I don't know what's going on on the OnlyFans, but God bless him for that. I will just say you're 100% right. I agree with you, Rick. This is not supposed to come off as any type of slander, but God bless him for that. I will just say you're 100% right. I agree with you, Rick. This is not supposed to come off as any type of slander, but I'm...

No, no. I'm just saying, I mean, one guy was probably, you know, in the bunker today hitting tires with sledgehammers. The other guy was on a Zoom call about 90 days. I'm just saying. Isn't that when we get Jon Jones at his best? I mean, the OSP fight wasn't his best yeah well i mean the ghost yeah i guess you're right maybe

actually him at his worst um are you and diane on the same him sheet all of a sudden here ariel that's what it feels like to me well it's funny in fact the best fight you can make a heavyweight right now by the way it's funny you say that It's funny you say that And to celebrate this moment What do we have? What I'm about to do right now Because this is such a big moment I've just gifted

I think 20 people in the chat Membership, so congratulations To all of you, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year Happy Hanukkah, no you're 100% right Pete So you know why? Because Dana and I Are on the same page much more than you would think, because he actually said this recently about the pound-for-pound rankings. Dana, one more question about John Jones. In your pound-for-pound list, he's number one. But on the paper, it's Islam Mahatchif number one What should Islam do or achieve to overcome John Jones in your pound for pound list? Yeah, I understand

What should you do? Just keep doing what he's doing You just keep doing what you're doing He just he hasn't done it as long as John Jones has and he hasn't done it as consistently as Alex Pereira has. I mean, really, when you talk about... Now, if you guys argued with me and said, we think you're wrong, we think Alex Pereira's number one

and Jones is number two, I could probably live with that. And I know it sounds like I'm shitting on him, but I don't. I love Islam. He's a great kid. He's a hard worker. He fights and fights everybody.

I'm just being honest. Dana and I agree. I think we've lost the plot here. It's a wild conversation. I think pound for pound is silly. Let me just say that. I'm voting on this. I think pound for pound is silly as a concept. But I have to be convinced that there's an answer other than Islam Makhachev.

I can't be convinced that there is somebody. Dustin, Volk, Volk, Charles. Who's got four wins better than that recently? Oh, Dana's definition of pound for pound is completely out of whack. But I'm saying our definition, right? You guys are saying it's Alex. Dustin, Volk, Volk, Charles. Can you top that?

If somebody can make a case for somebody doing better than that, I'm all ears. Nah, you know, people poke holes. Volk was a 45-year-old. Does he do the bow and arrow thing, though? So why are we giving to Porio all this love for beating Volk, then? I mean, same weight class, four months as opposed to a week. Oh, so it's Islam's fault that Volk came up to challenge him for his belt. It's not Islam's fault.

I have Islam, too. I just have Alex to me him for his belt. It's not Islam's fault. I have Islam too. I just have Alex to me. He's won. He's won. No, Alex to me jumps over because he's won belts in two different weight classes. You also talk about poking holes, like the not really fighting someone that goes to grapple him is a hole for Alex Pereira. No,

listen, the only time that can be brought up is Khalil over Magomed. Other than that, he has fought the top guy. It just so happens the top guy is a good matchup for him. I don't think they have protected him in that regard in any way, shape, or form. Do you think so? I agree with that. I don't think they've protected him, but we still haven't seen a fight

where someone truly tries to depend on the grappling against him. Sure, and hopefully we see it next. The only time that they have clearly given him a style that is a little bit more favorable is just a couple weeks ago. I don't think they've, you know, done that. As a thought experiment, is there a 170-pound fighter on this planet right now that you would pick over Islam Makhachev?

Yes. Who? Remember the name. Yeah, I wouldn't. No, I'm actually happy that you guys... Probably Sh Makhachev. Yes. Who? Remember the name. Yeah, I wouldn't. No, I'm actually happy that you guys. Probably Shavka Raghmanov. That we made it clear that you guys. I still wouldn't.

Made those picks. Because he was about to do a podcast in front of his loyal 100 viewers. And blame me for how low he was on the rankings. I had nothing to do with it. I had nothing to do with it. Okay. We're able to all net out. I come in peace.

I forget. I just noticed all of you had him very low. I had him. Wait, really? No, pretty low. No, you had him very low. We had him in the top 10. I'm in peace. I just noticed all of you had him very low. I had him. Wait, really? No, you had him very low. We had him in the top 10. I'm just saying. Listen, with Bilal?

With Bilal? You think that's good enough? You think that's good enough? Bilal had him at eight. How dare you have him below Jon Jones? How dare you have him below Jon Jones? Okay, but truly. I haven't seen the evidence that has anybody above Islam i if you i don't i haven't seen the evidence

that has anybody above islam in my like that's fine i just haven't seen it listen it's tomato tomato let's take a look at the uh the women's rankings shall we uh valentina shevchenko number one overall zhang weili number two chris cyborg number three kayla harrison number four alexa grasso number five juliana pena friend of the program, number six. Mano Firo, number seven. Larissa Pacheco, number eight. Tatiana Suarez, number nine. And Seika Izawa, number 10.

Now, let me just take a quick look here. I just want to see how the boys in the back voted for Juliana. Juliana, four for GC over the likes of Kayla Harrison and Alexa. Yeah, I ride with my people. Let's see, Rick, how he got Tom Aspinall, obviously not one of your people anymore, GC. Juliana six for Rick Pacheco

and Harrison under the contender. Contender over champ? Explain yourself, Rick. The lights are getting brightened let's just uh let me get the time code here so it's hot it's hot under these lights wow it was cold in the studio before now it's getting hot um i don't know what i was thinking when i said that i i you actually disagree now i have to retract that wow this is a rare moment Of Rick saying He was wrong I might have to just say

My bad on that one Wow Wow Yeah so Come back to me Come back to me At another point I gotta

I gotta think this through I gotta Well you're top 10 Just for the record Valentina Cyborg Zhang Weili Kayla Harrison

Larissa Pacheco Juliana Pena Of course Pena Pacheco Just fought 1-1 1-1 lost the note in nbd titana suarez mano firo alexa grasso virna janji roba i think you're yeah i think it's all out of whack if i'm being honest now again you're now going like it's the wins and the losses like what

is your criteria i'm not i'm not quite sure what have you done for me what have you done for me it's what have you done for me plus fictitious if everyone was the same weight plus strength of schedule equals pound for pound that's the formula so larissa is is lower than who like you you were you seem to take issue with larissa on mine being larissa is a tricky one because she does have the winner for kayla who you rate highly number four yeah she's coming off a loss But against an all time great So how much can you Docker for that

Against my number two Pound for pound Okay but then you're We have Alexa Grosso Down low Despite coming off a loss To the number one Pound for pound

Who she also has a win over She got dominated though I mean these rankings are Suspect We have to keep up With all of our rankings Yeah I'm not siding with you, Ariel, though,

because you can't be casting these stones when you chickened out on making the rankings. Oh, chickened out is an interesting... You were invited to make the rankings? So busy. I was so jealous when I saw the email. Frankie was also invited? Frank has no excuse.

Everyone, stop shotting shit. Here's the thing. I was so jealous. Everyone apart from Ariel and Frank please send in your rankings well executive you know I discussed so many meetings and so many decisions and so many things

Rick's got a lot of meetings I couldn't squeeze it in I tried to ask Chuck I really did try to in earnest but you know maybe what was y'all's process for making these rankings? It took me all of like 90 seconds. Ah,

you can't, I mean, people, oh, that's. I'm still not sure what pound for pound means. I will say. Neither do any of us.

Based on this conversation, none of us actually have one concrete, um, fucking understanding. Because there is none. That's like, big, big sports debate came up with the pound for pound ranking.

So you could just endlessly debate it. It's just like MJ versus LeBron. You can never get to a conclusive end. The ubiquitous big sport. I love that. Big sport, come on. The same people that created First Take created the pound for pound ranking.

Yeah, I call these barbershop debates. I love the idea of people at a barbershop, at a bar, at a cafe, just being like, nah, you're crazy. You're crazy. I love that shit. people at a barbershop, at a bar, at a cafe just being like, nah, you're crazy! You're crazy! I love that shit. That's what makes me a fan. It's a debate that literally you cannot come to

a concrete answer on. Although if Alex Pereira fights Jon Jones, which could happen, I mean... But again, that's not a... That can answer them too, where they fall. Yeah, that's... Doesn't answer if we feel like it. In my opinion, there's only been one time In UFC history Where we got number one versus number two

Pound for pound fighting each other And that was DC versus Jon Jones Islam and Volk I think They claim to say that At the time I don't know You said it Yeah you had Volk one And Islam two

I had Volk after the fight won Who would have been the one jesus christ in there no you know what i take back it's been uh uh what bothered me about that fight was that they said this was the first time and i feel like they were ignoring yes yeah because i think those guys were definitely one and two at that time yeah yeah you're right you're right and and but before that yeah but it wasn't the first time. No, no, no. In women's MMA, has it happened? Amanda and Cyborg could be an argument. Yeah, that's a good point.

Amanda, I mean, she blew right by her. I mean, if Zhang Weili fights Valentina. I have Cyborg ahead, but I could see an argument for those two. Let's take a quick gander. I think that would definitely be the UFC pound-for-pound rankings, 1 and 2, though. I think most won't have Cyborg ahead of Zhang or Valentina. I did, but I think there's a very reasonable case for those to be 1 and 2. You know, for someone who says he didn't spend a lot of time on these, and despite your slander, GC, I thought yours were quite good.

Zhang Weili won. No ball, man. Valentina, 2. Cyborg, 3. Peña, 4. Harrison, 5. Grasso, 6. Manos, 7. Pacheco, 8. Tatiana, 9. Valentina 2, Cyborg 3 Peña 4, Harrison 5 Grasso 6, Minos 7 Pacheco 8, Tatiana 9

Blanchfield 10 I don't hate that Where's my love for Verna though? That's what I'm wondering I know you do love Verna Where's everybody else with the Verna hive? I'm all in on that Okay well speaking of which Your rankings

Actually we read yours already right? Let's make special note that Oh Verna Speaking of which, your rankings, actually, we read yours already, right? Yeah, we did read yours. Let's make special note that, oh, Verna. Well, let's see if PC showed love to Verna. Let's see, Zhang Weili won. Absolutely not. Valentina, two. So I was trying to build up to it, PC.

Cyborg, three. Harrison, four. Grasso, five. Peña, six. Pennington, seven. Still in there, I think. Wow. You're the only one. Very close fight with Peña.

We all seem to be forgetting, yeah? Yeah. I remember one of our panel had quite a big comment about it initially. Easiest fight to score of the year. Pacheco 9, Suarez 10. You have Pennington over Suarez, huh? That's right.

There is no method to any of this. Can I say something? I feel like for whatever reason because the gap in women's MMA is literally 15 to 35, right? For all intents and purposes, there's the odd 45 there, but it's really...

Yeah. It feels a lot more... Like the women's MMA rankings feel almost a lot more concrete. Do you know what I mean? Like in men's MMA, we're going from 265 to 125. Yes, a lot of these fights can happen and have happened.

Exactly. In certain scenarios, right? And you could see a scenario like Tatiana. I could see Tatiana fighting at 25, at 15, even at 35. Same with Valentina. Same with the likes of Cyborg at 45. I was going to say Cyborg seems to be a little bit on the outside of that. And so although Pacheco and Cyborg, right?

But so does like somebody like Azawa who made the list outside. So, you know. Could you imagine a woman coming along who is able to go between the three weight classes and somehow become champ of all three? That would be sick. Is Valenskina not kind of that one? I feel like. Well, she tried. I mean, she had 135. I'm talking about actually getting the belt at all three that would be sick is valentina not kind of that one i feel like well she tried i mean it was she had 135 she had actually getting the belt at all at the exact same time i mean oh wow yeah

now we're talking triple champ that's how you create a super duper uber star but valentina had some fights with amanda like i i yeah i think it could have been possible for her and still could honestly like i don't know valid Valid 35 doesn't feel impossible for me. Well, just like this show with our rankings, working through the kinks. I think this was very healthy. I think this was very valuable. I thought they were great rankings.

Yeah. The most respected pound-for-pound rankings. I agree. I agree. In the end, you have to respect. Everyone who took part in it, no comment for anyone who wasn't involved. Yeah. Shame on you.

Shame on you, Frank. Shame on you. Frank Shame on you Did want to bring this up A bit of breaking news that happened this morning Our friends at World Wrestling Entertainment Announced that they have launched A new indie wrestling development program It's called WWE ID

Which stands for Independent Development To identify, support, and develop Independent wrestling schools And wrestling talent Booker T's Reality of Wrestling Cody Rhodes' Nightmare Factory And Seth Rollins' Black and Brave Academy Among the first schools to receive

Official WWE ID designation This was the announcement They announced today the launch of a First-of-its-kind developmental program Designed to provide up-and-coming independent wrestlers A pathway to a potential career in WWE. The program will be called WWE ID, short for WWE Independent Development.

Here's the quote. WWE ID is the latest in our efforts to identify and support the journey of up-and-coming wrestlers, in turn raising the profile of and strengthening the independent wrestling ecosystem. This from Paul Levesque Chief content officer Under the program

WWE will provide prominent independent wrestling Schools such as or excuse me With the WWE official ID designation With the goal of providing New trainees and existing talent At these select institutions with enhanced Developmental opportunities these are the

Schools Booker T's reality of wrestling in Houston Cody Rhodes's nightmare factory in Atlanta Seth Rollins's black and brave academy In Davenport Iowa elite pro wrestling Training center in Concord New Hampshire and Knox Pro academy in Los Angeles are the first WWE independent wrestling schools to

Earn the official designation I think This is pretty damn cool I think this is cool Obviously a lot of these guys are affiliated with WWE the owners of said Gyms but it creates a pipeline And look In an era where WWE is trying to get People from the jump

Because of NXT And beat out the other Competition Get them in as quickly as possible and, and have this pipeline with the schools. It would be akin to Strikeforce back in the day, having the pipeline to AKA because crazy Bob cook was a coach there and a matchmaker, uh, at Strikeforce. And so you get Kane early, you get Luke Rockhold, you get Daniel Cormier, you get Mike Swick for a moment if he did.

You certainly get the likes of Josh Thompson. You know what I'm saying. And so this is interesting. I'm a layman, so you have to help me come along here. Because my understanding, and correct any of this, because I'm going by like being a layman on a lot of this stuff. Sure. I understood that they had these independent promotions,

but I also thought that like WWE was kind of like aligned with them, right? layman on a lot of this stuff sure i understood that they had these independent promotions but i also thought that like wwe was kind of like aligned with them right like my like when brock lesnar was one in like minnesota or something like ovw a known one right and then ohio valley wrestling so what is happening that is different so this is these aren't promotions these are schools okay so these aren't promotions this isn't them saying like florida championship wrestling you're now a developmental league. Now we're going a step further and we're getting to the schools. We're getting to you before.

Yeah, the school, meaning the gym, where Seth is developing up-and-coming talent, where Cody's gym is world-renowned at this point. Booker T's as well. Are they providing them funds too? Are they helping them? Yeah, I mean, this is just through the wire here so i haven't dug deep but that would be super interesting as well right yeah well they're actually really nurturing the talent the same way like dana white talks about putting a pi everywhere you're actually like investing in the in the infrastructure um and then how about this wwe will also identify top independent wrestling prospects with an official WWE ID prospect designation and support their developmental journey by providing financial opportunity and assisting with training, mentorship, and development, including access to world-class facilities, best-in-class ring training, athletic trainers, and more wbid will give fans the opportunity to follow the paths of these standout prospects on the independent wrestling scene through curated behind the scenes content as

well as highlights and matches showcase across wd social platforms so they can pick a person and say oh this guy who's fighting on the indies in or wrestling on the indies in houston is someone that we have pinpointed we're giving him this badge and you can then follow his journey before he even gets to NXT. Yeah. So now it's starting there, then to NXT, then to the main roster. Yeah. That's fascinating. And you're getting these people before they have the ability to then go to an AEW.

I also like, oh, that's true. And I also like how it could be like a kind of like a storyline thing. Because like, what if they're the, you know, the golden child down at their promotion or wherever they're wrestling, and then everybody can kind of team up on them or they play it the other way. I don't know. Like that dude who shot his shot and Dana gave him the opportunity.

And now you see him popping up everywhere. He's sitting in the front row. This is going to be his gimmick. I don't know if they just lucked into it, but now they've got something with this guy where everyone is going to want to watch his next fight. If it's- He got to deliver though.

Yeah, he's got to deliver for sure. But, and obviously this is in pro wrestling, so you can't script it, but everyone's going to be interested in whenever that young man fights. Sergey Pavlovich versus Jairzino Rosenstreich has been added to the return to Saudi Arabia. That is on February 1st.

We add season card. I don't think it is the main event, but it is a heavyweight fight, which probably doesn't go the full 15. And what about yesterday? Can I just ask you guys, you know, Rick, especially you as a proud New Yorker, I would say yesterday was a pretty dark day in what has been a great time for New York sports, a pretty dark day in New Yorker. I would say yesterday was a pretty dark day in what has been a great time for New York sports, a pretty dark day in New York sports.

And I'm not even talking about your Cavs. Somehow, Mr. New York Rick is a Cavs fan over a Knicks fan. Nevertheless, I'm not even talking about the Giants losing once again

in an embarrassing fashion on Monday Night Football. I'm not even really talking about the Yankees losing and going down 3-0 to the Dodgers in the World Series. I'm not even really talking about the Yankees losing and going down 3-0 to the Dodgers in the World Series. I'm talking about... Jordan just fainted, by the way. I'm sorry, Jordan. I didn't mean to bring it up.

I'm just talking about responding to Ice Cube and his performance with that Fat Joe performance. He's already dead! It was pretty bad. I wish we could play it. Oh, let's not play it. It was pretty bad. I mean could play it Oh Fred You know let's not play it It was pretty bad

I mean The production The fact that the music Was playing And he was talking over And yelling Like the Ice Cube thing Was Emmy worthy

The way it was shot The sun The palm trees From the outfield To home plate It's Dodgers baseball It was a good day And then they come back

With Fat Joe He swears in the first Three seconds The first song Ends abruptly He's just yelling Random shit out it was a good day and then they come back with fat joe he swears in the first three seconds the first song ends abruptly he's just yelling random shit out while the music is playing that was awful no i mean that was a bad moment in new york sports history i thought that was a 10-8 round if they won i feel like everybody would have been like iconic everybody would have been like that was the moment new york came together Unfortunately, they didn't get it done. I'm not going to be too harsh.

Maybe somebody else is harsher than me. I thought it was pretty bad. I thought it was bad, but I wasn't like, this is the low point for New York. But the losing all in this couple days span is not great for New York sports. It's tough. I mean, Jordan would speak better to this than me. Yeah, diehard Yankee fan. Although, here's the problem. He's,

he's not the traditional Yankees, Giants, um, Rangers. He's, he's Islanders. Who the fuck is we? He's Islanders,

Yankees, uh, and Jets. It's a very odd combination, but we, we had a whole, we hashed it out this morning. I figured out the whole kind of way that he got there.

Uh, having a tough sports week. I will say still proudly rocking his Yankees cap, and I respect that. It ain't over till it's over, as the great Yogi Berra once said. He's playing the music on the Titanic. That's okay. Something happened today that was kind of funny, though. So we were sitting down having lunch,

and this woman that we've never talked to before comes up and just starts talking shit about him wearing the Yankees hat. Wow. Not a, oh, by the way, I'm such and such, you know, glad to have this interaction. She just walks off. Just straight up talking shit.

There was a chance that she could have been a Yankees fan as well. I believe the line was, Yankees, not good, huh? She said, what was that Giancarlo play last night? That was embarrassing. Damn, just straight up. No hello, how are you? Hey, where'd you get that hat? No, she said it as she was walking by,

and then by the time she was finishing, she was already around the corner. I think there's a chance she was a Yankees fan, and she was kind of like, man, we're both miserable together. I didn't read it as that at all. I didn't read it that way either, but I think he's right that it is possible. Then you stay in your commissary,

and you're like, oh, yeah, but I'm still a diehard. She just walked away. Yeah. She might have had to go to a meeting or something. The top of the park. Oh, you're late to this meeting. Yeah, I had to talk shit. What do we think she was?

Do we think she was a Dodgers fan? Yeah, I think so. You saw that strut she had? It was definitely a Dodgers fan. She was feeling good about herself. I don't know if she was a Dodgers fan. I'm going to find out. If she's a Mets fan, then you could just be like, bro, you got bounced last round.

It was so quick, I couldn't even pick her out of a lineup. I'm not going to lie. Wow. Yeah, I don't know if she was a Dodgers fan. If she's a Mets fan, then you could just be like, bro, you got bounced last round. It was so quick, I couldn't even pick her out of a lineup. I'm not going to lie. Wow. Yeah, I don't love that. Oh, wait, she's standing at the... Don't love that. Hopefully they rebound. They won't. No, they won't. No, they're getting swept. No, they won't. Oh, it's tonight, huh? As soon as he threw that microphone down, I texted

one of my friends who's a diehard Yankees fan. I was like, Yanks are getting swept, bro. You know what? The good thing about a situation like this is baseball, and it happens very quickly, right? Boom, boom. You don't have to wait for three days for the next game. You're done, and the nightmare can be over.

Interesting nugget from our pal Nolan King of MMA Junkie. The new unified rules of mixed martial arts will, in fact fact be in effect this saturday at ufc edmonton uh that uh is according to the edmonton combative sports commission and their executive director forrest gavins that means 12-6 elbows are legal and there's a new grounded opponent definition we've talked about this courtesy of Andy Foster and the work that he has done to rectify these archaic rules. And so I think it's important to remember this as you're watching the fights

because it feels like these things tend to pop up quite often and good on Edmonton for being a little bit ahead of the curve. I like it. Is it ahead of the curve or ahead of the curb? Curb. Yeah. Curb. Curb. Is it? Fuck. Is it ahead of the Curve or ahead of the Curve? Curve. Curve. Is it? What is it?

What was that? I was always saying Curve. Curve. Last thing before we go, Pete C, 60 seconds on the clock. Please, do your best to bring some honor to your sad sack

football club, Manchester United. I mean, please. I mean, there's not a lot of honour left. I don't really feel like I should be the man putting this spot. I mean, you're the honorary United supporter. A lot of United slander.

I mean, yeah, I mean, it's deserved at the moment. Like we're back to FC. Like I actually enjoy, there's part of me that like they lose and I'm like, ah, there we go. The fire's just getting bigger now. Yeah, new manager, same old bullshit, I imagine. But it feels like what the Knicks were

before you had that good season last year. I think we talked about this before. We are just waiting for our Jalen Brunson to come along and save the fucking day. But we don't know who it is. We don't know where he is. We don't even know if he plays with the team. If only you had a winger

with explosive speed, with a joie de vivre, with a smile that could light up a room, hailing from Sweden, who can just actually make things happen. A maestro, if you will. If only you had someone like that. We had. We threw him away. Yeah. When you signed him, what did I say? We shouldn't have sold him. He's very good. We threw him away. Yeah. When you signed him,

what did I say? We shouldn't have sold him. He's very good. Turns out he is very good. Of course, we're talking about Anthony Lange. You're a hopes lawyer with Chris Wood

who will be sold in January. Mark my words. Everyone's getting very mad. Anytime we talk about football around these parts, they get very mad. And so that is our cue. Tomorrow is Wednesday.

We like to shoot on Wednesdays. And so up right now on the Substack page, So that is our cue. Tomorrow is Wednesday. We like to shoot on Wednesdays. And so up right now on the Substack page, arielhawani.substack.com is where you can submit your questions for tomorrow's On The Nose. We'll also take questions from our super chatters. So stay tuned for that. Do want to let you know that arielhawani.com,

the new and improved arielhawani.com. Yes, it is no longer a Chinese adult site. It is now actually the official home of all things merch. There it is. AriaHawani.com, the official site for all things merch. Don't think I didn't catch that typo there.

You wrote F. I'm all over it. Everyone stop chatting shit. The Portuguese one. The official. He's ahead of the curve. everyone stop chatting shit well the the the the the portuguese one the uh he's ahead of the curve uh it's for the portuguese fans out there thank god no typos on our uh on our merch you can get nice i i i have my i should be using the thermoses that we have um big rick is yeah oh there it is the boys in the back there they are still hasn't arrived in ireland probably the next two years international shipping takes a while what happened 7999

i dropped the seat down what'd you say this is like why do you look so short because i dropped that's what happened yesterday we're like why is your mic sounding like crap oh you're here how do you just clock out early you just you were like all right that's our cue we're out of here buy the merch i thought i thought we were done for the day i dropped the seat bags down yes pt what about the um you know i mean there was a few things i was looking at on that chinese adult shop can you redirect me where they're gone that that was not just a chinese adult shop it was like uh it it attacked your senses when you went to it it was one of the wild things i've ever seen kind of a little bit i kind of find out pizzi ran it he was the one

at the whole time these decorations are pretty nice when you come into all this money. They're all fleshlights. Oh, Jesus. Fleshlight, fleshlight. Tomorrow on the program, Mike Malott, who's competing this weekend, big fight for

him. Cade Rutolo, who is returning to action next weekend in his second pro MMA bout. He, of course,

is the jiu-jitsu phenom fighting for one championship and old friend Michael Venom Page, speaking of jiu-jitsu, he competes one championship and uh old friend michael venom page speaking of jujitsu he competes this weekend as well in polaris against the legend carlos condit the natural born killer uh for uh for polaris and in somewhat of a surprise to a lot of people because

he isn't known for his grappling he will be joining us as well in addition to on the nose and all the other fun things that we can discuss on the program i have to get to my tamagotchi uh lord knows how that poor thing is feeling yeah he's already dead yeah hopefully not hopefully i mean that's how those things work just restart it and try to get it back to where it was and we're not we don't believe in that you don't get to restart in life you don't get to restart the tamagotchi when it's dead it's dead couldn't agree more uh claire's just about to you know he's about to learn happy birthday yes oh my god uh thank you very much to all of you you can hit my music frank yeah i tell you the sedmonton card, not bad.

It's not bad. Sometimes you know what I was just thinking. No, let's not get crazy. I was just looking at uncrowned.com and all the great things we have up on the page right now. By the way, if you haven't subbed to the YouTube channel yet, we're trying to get to 250 by...

When was it? Christmas? Boxing Day, actually. Thanks, Stephen's Day, it's actually called. Yeah. So, hit the sub. Give us a thumbs up in the chat. Let us know where you're coming from. I like the roll call. People checking in from all over.

Pulling up, as they say. Tapping in, as the cool kids say. Hit the little bell thing. Th follow on spotify and apple but what about uncrowned.com i mean all the stuff that we have up here i have it as my home page so when i open my browser it's the first thing i see how do you do that i would love to do that you do it in the settings you set home page to uncrowned.com are you being serious right now i just do it for him i i will put a title bar up i am you know we like to joke about me getting older and and the number one

question i've gotten about doing shows like this is like when you go to the bathroom and i've never had an issue with it we're now two shows in a row where at approximately like 102 p.m i have had to go to the bathroom since then. You're getting older, man. Is this a problem? Every day from this point forward. I need to stop drinking so much water before the show. We'll work on that. We'll replace your chair with a toilet.

Okay, fair enough. Perfect. Thank you to everyone who joined us today. Thanks to all of you. Back on Wednesday, same time, same place. Peace around here. He's already dead.