The Ariel Helwani Show - Dominick Cruz, Rose Namajunas, Ateba Gautier, iVB Founder Ed Pereira, Ariel responds to Max Holloway, more

Episode Date: January 20, 2026

Ariel Helwani kicks off the show by acknowledging Indiana University’s college football national championship (05:26).Ateba Gautier is our first guest, joining ahead of his UFC 324 fight to discuss being considered a top prospect, remaining relentlessly motivated, his game plan for Andrey Pulyaev, believing teammate Lerone Murphy should have gotten a title shot, and more (12:16).Rose Namajunas returns to preview her UFC 324 meeting with Natalia Silva, talking about being one of the most tenured current UFC veterans, what motivates her now, how her style matches up with Silva’s taekwondo, potentially fighting friend and UFC flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko, and more (34:00).Dominick Cruz is back to discuss the launch of his podcast, including the former rivals he’s had as guests, whether he has the itch to fight again, fighter pay in the post-pay-per-view era, his viral social media comment about Alexandre Pantoja’s injury, potentially competing again, Conor McGregor’s potential return, and more (1:04:55).iVB founder Ed Pereira details the company’s background, then talks about working on The Ring’s Times Square boxing event, the public event they’re trying to do in San Francisco, finding a promoter for the event, shooting down rumors of Oleksandr Usyk and Deontay Wilder being booked for the main event, and more (1:51:08).Ariel wraps up the show with some news and notes, including Katie Taylor talking retirement, footage of Gable Steveson training with Jon Jones, Max Holloway’s response to Ariel’s interview with Jorge Masvidal, and more (2:34:25).Finally, your Super Chats (3:27:52).

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the air... On this Tuesday, January 22,000. And 26, hello again, everyone. I sure hope you're doing well. And dare I say, I am looking very well on this Tuesday, this frigid Tuesday afternoon. I am feeling great. It is so cold outside, my friends.

It's like 10 degrees outside. That's Fahrenheit, not Celsius. So I had to bundle up a little bit and wouldn't you know it? My good friends over at Venom sent me this little championship kit, pants, shirt, hoodie and all. And I have to admit, I feel pretty damn good right now. Like I feel like a champion. I feel like it.

Is this what it feels like? By the way, this is as real as it gets. Crypto.com. little patch on it and don't worry, just like the fighters I'm making nothing off of this. No crypto-sponsored, no value. This is all for the love of the game.

What makes it even better though? You got the hood right here. I mean, I'm looking freaking shit. I'm feeling very championship today, you know what I mean? Just like in cool runnings when he's like, I'm feeling very Olympic today.

I'm feeling very championship today. But the Piesta resistance, my friends, is if you can, can we get a shot? Can we get a shot? Oh, oh. Oh, oh yeah, now you're itself, Frankie. Look at that. You see that?

Frank, do you see that? That looks so good. You see it? You see it? You see it? You see it? Oh, there's it. Okay, whoa, wait.

Do you see it? Do you see it? Down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down. You see it? Oh, yeah. It says my name. Vertical. It's the way we do it.

What do you think? What do you think? What do you think? Has it fit, huh? doing how's a fit uh huh huh is this how are you doing is is is this what patty and justin are fighting for on saturday hmm did i get the the black and gold before some of the great fighters in ufc history i mean i got i walked up to connor connor blew his mind when he saw me wearing it the level of envy was just oozing out of his eyes yeah you rocked up like something casual yeah you got

two words into your sentence i was like what is this what is this what is this it's not bad i'm not And you know what's great about it? They always have trouble with this, right? This one's perfect. This one's perfect right here. So thank you very much for our good friends over at Venom. Would you like to sponsor the show, maybe? Can we talk about that?

It's actually not that cold in here. It is quite toasty, but I wanted to rock that and tell you how much I appreciate it. Back in the day, I got a Reebok one, too. So it's a nice little collection that I'm, you know. Sometimes you've got to let it out. It's great to be here, my friends, on a Tuesday. I hope you are doing well, we have a fantastic. show a four pack of guests.

Back into the program. Ed Pereira, the CEO of I Visit Boxing, IVB, is going to be joining us. And they announced some grandiose plants. We spoke about this yesterday. They're putting on an event in July, July 11th, to be exact, in San Francisco, where they are expecting and telling the world that 140,000 people are going to attend. That would make it the most or the greatest attendance for a lot. live boxing event ever, no matter the country, no matter the city, no matter the state, no matter

the continent. Currently, the record is held by a fight that transpired back in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It was on August 16th, 1941, and they had over 135,000 people in attendance. They are going to do their best to break that record. And this is a grandiose plan. I want to learn more about it because there's a lot that they're talking about. And some of it makes sense and some of it doesn't. And I'd like to get to the bottom of it. So Ed Pereira, this figure who you may have seen pop up in a couple of interviews is going to be joining us back into the show.

Prior to that, Dominic Cruz, one of the best analysts in the game, will join his former WEC and UFC Bantamway champion. He'll be a part of the Paramount Plus broadcast on the desk with Michael Bisping, with Chris Wyden, and with the inimitable Kate Scott hosting. So looking forward to talking to him. We're talking about 324. Again, this is what I was saying. A little more time to breathe in between events, a little more time to talk about said events. Rose Nami Yunus, who has the big fight against Italia Silva, on the main card, will join us at about 130. She's sort of the elder stateswoman on this card, believe it or not.

It still feels like she's a debutante. It's gone by so fast. And in about five minutes time, one of my sure-fire picks for breakout fighter of 2026, the Pride of Cameroon, now a product of Manchester top team. Atiba Gote is going to join us. He meets Andre Puleev on the card this Saturday. So a lot of 324 talk, some interesting boxing talk as well, and obviously news and notes.

I did want to give a shout out to all the fans of the Indiana Hoosiers, the University of Indiana won the college football playoff last night, defeating the University of Miami. I know a lot of Indiana great. grads, actually, very happy for them. My nephew, Jared, is actually going to Indiana in two years, so he's very excited about that. What a game. I didn't watch a second of it. Saw some highlights, of course, saw the fourth down, Mendoza, it's all great. I'm happy for them. They did an amazing thing. I did see Jake Paul actually speaking to the president of the United States. Donald Trump,

there was some footage of him speaking to Trump, I think, talking about the jaw. I mean, he's holding it, So it seems as though he was talking about it, not quite sure what they're talking about. But it seems like he's saying like it's a little bit here, it's a little bit there. Trump tweeted about the Jake Paul Anthony Joshua fight on the night that it happened. And he's been a supporter of his. So a nice little spot there for the problem child. But I know that GC is our resident college football expert. And you said something to me before.

You said that this is bigger than Lester City. Right? Oh, yeah. It's close. It's close. There they are. I miss you. I miss you guys.

I miss you guys so much. But this is incredible. What is this? What is this right here? This is a cheese pole from where? This is the Czech restaurant. And then, of course, this is an incredible. I love the way Rick sits there with such confidence.

Like, I am not bothered. I am not phased. With the most hooked up haircut of all time. The waves, right? He was talking about it being like a surfer or something. Yeah, ocean waves. Shout out of the. Yeah, when are we going to fix this?

When is this going to be fixed? because I love this, and I thought yesterday was great, and I think this is even better, but I miss seeing you guys. Oh, there they are. Oh, wow. Wow, they didn't even know they were on these guys.

This is what you do back there. Rick's playing is fucking magic. This dude, what are you doing? Ah, look at this guy. Look at this guy. There they are. Welcome back, boys. What's up?

Welcome back. What's up? What's happening? Thank you for that, Andy. Thank you for fixing things. Is that a Corey Sanhagen hoodie? It is. Shout out.

Wow. My chair's stuck in recline mode now. I'm a little bit lower. Well, I missed you guys. Were you guys here yesterday? Nah, we phoned it. So I actually was, I was picking up a package for my dormant this morning. He was just like, I thought you were out of town, man.

I had the show on. And it was just your picture. I was like, no, no, we were there, man. Wait, does the dormant tune in now for everything, not just the boxing part? I think we've grown a fan. Wow. Shout out. Lester City, Indiana.

it's on the same Oh no no no Before the show you said bigger You said bigger In my opinion it is We are talking about The most losing program In NCAA history

Worse than like Tulane Worse than Vanderbilt Worse than Kansas Worse than all of these other teams Most losses in FBS history And this guy turns the program around In two years into a national championship

I have a picture right here This is the home opener At Indiana Wow For Kurt Signetti's first game in Indiana at beginning of last year. Last year. Beginning of last year, man.

This team had not won a bowl game. I'm not talking about a New Year 6. I'm not talking about having a great season. They had not won a bowl game in 33 years. Like, it's hard to comprehend. So going into this year, they were plus 10,000 to win it all. After going 11 and 2 and making the college football playoff, at the beginning of last year, they were plus 100,000 to win the national championship.

going into this year there were plus 60,000 to win the Natty and Fernando Mendoza to win the Heisman. It's hard to comprehend that they were able to do this. What was Lester City going into that season? So I've seen everyone always says 5,000 to 1 and it's the famous picture of the girl with the written in slip and it's a $2 bet or a two pound bet, but mostly what I see from people is plus 100,000. That's like I've seen multiple actual printed slip saying that, not like some filled-in thing. Okay. So plus 100,000. That's what Indiana was before last season. Now, they had an unbelievable season last year, and they were still plus 10,000 going into this year. Could this happen in a pre-NIL era? Probably not. Yeah. So is this an

indictment on the NIL, or is this actually like, hey, it works because other people have a chance now? Well, it's great for Indiana, and some teams may be able to replicate it, but now, like, you have Mark Cuban, who's an Indiana alumni coming in, and now he's donating massive amounts of money to the program. But yeah, it's incredible. And they did it with like eight four stars and zero five stars on the team, which is just crazy. What a run, that fourth down run. Oh, my God, Heisman moment.

That's going to be the pinnacle of the movie that's going to be made about it. Right. And he is movie worthy, his relationship with his mom. The way he speaks, the way he does interviews, he refers to Tim Tebow's, Mr. Tebow with Scott Van Pelt. I saw it all in the aftermath. Thank God for social media. I'm jealous. I see all the happy videos.

I'm jealous of all of you. I have no problem saying it. I'm a bitter old man. You can have faith for the bills, though. Because like, no, ask any Indiana football fan five years ago. We're not even talking about national championships. We're talking about making like the peach bowl. Right.

Is like an impossible dream for this team. And now they just went 16 and no. That's fair. Maybe we can hire Signetti. his quote being like how are you going to get players to come and play for you when you're at such a shitty program and he was just like simple i win google me yeah like people tried to clown on him for that and now national champions 16 and no first team ever to go 16 and no unbelievable uh so shout out to them shout out to all the hoosier fans the students the alumni congratulations and yes in case you are wondering i did see max holloway's tweet i will be happy to respond to said tweet. I'm not looking to get into a war of words with the blessed one, but I do feel like there are a few things they need to be cleared up and talked about. I want to have a proper amount of time to do so. So we'll do that after the interviews. Have no

fear. Have no fear. We are here and ready to talk about it. But we have to get to our first guest of the day. He is going to be a big part of this Saturday's UFC 324 event. Very much looking forward to him. And as I said at the top of the show and as I said in our prediction show, he is on my short list for 2026 breakout fighters. I feel like he is on a rocket ship, and I feel like this time next year, we'll be talking about him as one of the top dogs at 185 pounds.

That journey continues on Saturday against Andrei Puli, he is Atiba Gautier, and he is kind enough to join us right here and now live from Las Vegas. There he is. Salio Atiba. Salio, Othia, how much, how much, how much, how much,

for coming on. I appreciate it. And I hope you had a great, holiday season, but obviously very much focused on this fight. By the way, did you hear that? I said we had a prediction show, and I said that I think this time next year, you're going to be one of the top contenders at 185. Do you agree with me or do you disagree with me? I agree with you. I had a feeling you would agree with me. By the way, what is this ring that you're wearing?

Sorry? The ring. Yeah, what is that? I grab my gift. Wow. What does it represent? I just was one of a ring. Just gave it to me. Okay. Is it like a gem? Is it a stone? What is it? It's like a stone. It's like a stone. Okay. Does it have a meaning, the stone, that particular stone? To be honest, like there is a meaning but I didn't ask. Okay. You just like it?

Yeah, I just like it. Okay. I have a gift for my grandma, so. Of course. I know you were back home, right? You were back in Cameroon over the holidays, right? Yeah. I saw some things. This is interesting. So where are you here? Is this? Where is this? That's my village. That's where my mother grew up. That's one of my, okay, that's like my grandpa has a lot of wife, you know. It was a polygam person.

So, yeah, that's also one of his wife. Wow. Okay. Yeah, my grandpa has a lot of wife. How many wives? Seven. Seven. A real man.

Okay, well done. Grandpa. Is he still with us? No, no, no. Okay. And one of those wives is your grandmother. Yes. You consider all of them your grandmother.

How does that work? They're all of your grandmother. Wow. That's how I grew up. Like, I'm a grandmother. So where you grew up is, is polygamy the norm? Like, are most people living that way? It's not like the norm.

It's like if you want many wives, you can have many wives. Okay. If you don't want, it's okay. Do you subscribe to this? Do you believe in that, too? As you be honest, like, you know, for me, it's like, I haven't chose yet, but, you know, for me, I don't take it bad. Sure, sure.

No. Yeah. Each is on. How many wives do you currently have? I don't have any wives. Zero, okay. Zero, yeah. How many do you want?

I mean, do I want. I don't know yet. I don't know yet. The time will tell me. Okay, okay. Time will come, no way. No, I'm not worried. I'm not worried.

I saw you with a massive snake over there. Ah, yeah. What is up with that? What kind of snake is that? And why would you, why would you mess around with this thing? This thing could bite you, no? No. You know, like snake, animals, like, you have to understand, like, human, you are smart.

Animal, they are not smart enough. You know, they use, like, 100% power for one hit, you know. But there's nothing. It's just snake, nothing dangerous. Nothing dangerous. Yeah, I think, like, people just, they don't understand them. They're not dangerous at all. Are there big snakes like that all around where you live?

Not all around, but if you want to see some, I can bring with somewhere. see some. Okay. And then you're eating crickets over there. Yeah. Just like that. What is going on here? You're just eating what? Live off the ground? Yeah. This is normal. This is normal? Yes. Now can I, can I bring up one thing, Atiba, out of respect? Yeah. There's the moment right there. You put it in your mouth, but I don't actually see you eating the cricket. Yeah, I cut the video, but I eat, I do it. Why'd you cut it? Well, I want to see you eat it. I want to see it. I want to see it. I want to see it. I, I'll I make another video and then I will show you. Okay, okay, because I was wondering why you cut it.

Maybe you just put it like that, but then you throw it away. No, no, no. I used to eat. I used to eat. Always. Yeah. What is it? It's normal.

In my country, but in my culture it's normal. What does it taste like? I taste like, I'll say like, oh, let's say like fish with a bit like soft bones. Okay. Like very soft. And you don't kill it first, you just eat it right away. It depends. Sometimes you can cook and you can eat right away.

It depends on your mood as well. And there's protein in it. Yeah. It's nice. It's nice. If you do a workout, you just grab it. Yeah, easy. Do you eat other insects too?

Yeah, yeah. Like what? We have like some warm in Cammer. We eat as well. Okay. On what. I did too many. type of cricket as well we can eat.

Okay. In Manchester, do you do that also? No, there's not in Manchester. It's too cold in Manchester. But even in the, even in the summer? No, no, no, no. I haven't seen the type we eat in Cameroon, so I want to try the new. You don't want to mess around with that. You don't know. Yeah, yeah. When was the last time prior to this trip that you were back home in Cameroon? Last time, last time was like, or like three week before this time. Okay, so you go often.

Yeah, I'll go often to come around. But now that you're starting to become like really known in MMA and in the UFC, are you getting a lot more attention when you come back home? Oh, yeah, obviously. Yes, a lot, a lot, lots. How do you feel about that? Oh, you know, like, I was taking normal, like, okay, you know, I deserve it anyway. So that's what I'm working for.

Okay. So I deserve it. You know, it doesn't take me over. I'm like, okay, I deserve it. so I have to be here. So if not me, who else? Sure. Yeah.

You don't get bothered by the attention or anything like that. No, no, no. And I don't know, like, I'm simple guys. So I know how to talk with people in my country. You know how to talk with each other, yeah. Okay. But you had an incredible 2025. Like, when you think back on your 2025,

does it feel like a dream for you? I don't think back. I don't even look back. You don't even look back. You're on to 26. Yeah, I just keep going forward. I read that. that you said that the highlight of your 2025

was adopting two kittens, Maya and Lily? Yes. That's the highlight. That's the highlight, yeah. Why is that so important to you? Because I really love animals. I really love animals. And now in Yoka, I've got two cats.

So for me, it's like very big things. I'm so happy. I'm proud of myself. Your coach, Carl Prince, gave you the kittens. Yes, it's what Carl Prince's wife gave me the kittens. Okay, what was the significance of the gift? Like they said, okay, we want to give it. Was it your birthday or something, or was it just like that?

Oh, no, because I used to say I really like cats. So I didn't even know. She keeps it on her mind, like, I like cats, you know. But when she's bringing that over, I was like, ah, so she remember. Like, yeah, I was so happy when she said, like, she has some kittens to give to me. Wow. And how old are they now? Now they are seven months now.

Okay. And who's taking care of them when you're away? Now, I'm and my team at these taking care of them. Okay. And is this the first time in England that you have animals? That's the first time I had in England. And why did you call them Maya and Lily? I was just like two names just called like, you know,

why it was random. But I like this name. And one of those, they look like Maya and Lily. They just look like it. All right. They just look like. Do you like dogs as well? I'm not like, I like dogs, but I like very big dogs.

Okay. You know, I like, so I prefer, like, I can't have big dogs yet. So I prefer, but I really like cats. All right. Any type of cats, yeah. I also read there was a great feature on you in the BBC on the website. And you said that you struggle with self-doubt and you wake up. in the middle of the night thinking that I need to train,

like there's this sort of anxiety attached to it. Can you tell me about that? Because you don't come across to someone who doubts himself. Yeah, you know, like, for me, it's like, when I see people getting pressure for, some people are getting pressure for somebody else, I'm like, you know, nobody can put me more pressure than I put to myself because I want to be the best, you know.

I know I can be the best. I know it will be the best. But for me, sometimes when I'm sleeping, I'm like, when I'm sleeping, maybe my opponent is training, you know, like,

no, I have to do something. You know, every time I have to do something. I don't take myself like, I'm good. I'm like, no, I'm not good.

I don't even think I'm good. I'm like, no, it's never enough for me. So sometimes, it's just like hunting me all, all the time. Like, you are not good enough.

You are not good enough. So for me, like, pressure on to myself, then nobody else will be able to put more pressure to me, like nobody else. Have you always been like that, even when you were younger, putting that kind of pressure on yourself? Yeah, I always been like that, 100% always in the school, at the subject I like, I put more pressure on me. Everything, if I like something, I always put more pressure on me than anybody else. But when I don't like something, I don't have to try.

Okay. You just don't do it. But now that you're doing this full-fledged, you're putting a lot of pressure on yourself to succeed. When you watch the top guys in the division right now at 185, do you start to analyze and compare yourself to them? Do you view their fights through that lens? Like, oh, how would I fare against them at this point?

Ah, yeah, you know, like, that's why my, the way I think is different because how I think it's like I have to be better than myself every single days you know what I mean like I have to be better than myself every single oh what's going on no I see you

oh okay I got a call sorry you see me yeah yeah now I can see you okay I don't talk for my mom I say like now for me I have to be better than myself that's me like if I'm better than myself

every single days I'll be better than any or, you know, I will be better than anybody else. So I just look at myself, always try to beat myself, always. How far away do you think you are from those top guys? How far away? Not far. I think like you're in the same page.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You think this time next year you're in the mix? Yeah, I think this time next year will be on this, on that level. How's the weight cut going for you? because you're a big guy for 185. Yeah, no, the record, like, you know, as every fighter, even if I wasn't big, the record is never like, you know, it's never like, you know, easy, but, you know, I try,

but I enjoy the process, you know, I just enjoy the process. Do you think your days at 185 are numbered? Do you think soon eventually you'll move up to 205? I don't think I will move up to 105, like, right now. I see half time because I still know how to manage and with the team and everybody we still know how to manage and I know my body knows how to lose away like quicker. Okay, okay. So you're not worried about that at the moment. Yeah, not at the moment. But eventually.

Yeah, obviously, yeah. Yeah. Obviously, I won't last long in 185. I know. I won't stay there too long. When you found out that they were putting you on this card, to me, this is a very important card for the UFC because it's the first one of the year. the first one on Paramount Plus, I feel like they put a lot of the fighters that they trust and like and want to push

because there'll be a lot of people watching. Did you view this booking the same way? Like, oh, wow, they're behind me. They're putting me on this very special card. No. No. Why not? But it was just like, you know,

I didn't even, you know, like, I would say like, I didn't even take it the way you take it. No. At all. Just like, it at all. For me, it was just like, one one more fight

I was so happy okay let's go fight again I was just for me I was just focusing the fight just focusing the fight not on the card not on the first no no no no no no no for me it was the fight was the most important

I get that but now that I say it to you do you view it like are you happy about this do you feel like it's a vote of confidence from the UFC I don't ever try I don't even try to keep it on my mind. No, I don't ever try. How come?

You say it's good, yeah. Because, you know, the setup of the fight is the same. It's always the same. You, your opponent, the referee, into the cage, your coach, just behind you, his coach behind him. That's it.

That's it. That's it. Every fight, the same set of. Mm-hmm. So I don't take it like, I have to normalize everything. Like it's the same setup. Maybe it's like a different, it's like just different platform, but the same setup. I have one, or I have one goal, go, fight against my opponent, finish him, the same I always

did. That's it. You know, I don't think, I don't try to think about, oh, there's a child, there's no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Yeah, yeah. Same set up. You don't care if it's apex in front of no one or a time. Team Mobile Arena, big cart, whatever it is.

Fight is a fight. The opponent, you know, it depends on the card, but the opponent will never come to play with you. So I don't, no matter what card, it's okay. The opponent, I'm not here to play with the opponent, so I'm here to finish him. Did you know about Andre Puglia, your opponent when you were offered him? Had you heard of him?

No, no, I didn't, I don't know if you're about him. I went, when they offered, I was like, okay. You know, like, you can't avoid someone. For me, like, there's no point or nowhere to avoid anybody. Because if you don't fight him today, you'll fight him tomorrow anyway. Sure. You know, yeah, so if I say I'm a fighter, people care too much about winning or losing. I care about fighting.

I want to fight. I'm a fighter. Obviously, I know I'm going to finish him. Obviously, I know I will finish him. But I just I want to fight. I want to fight. I'm a fighter. I don't think about winning or losing.

No, just go fight. Do what you know how to do the best. I will do it. That's it. That's what I think. It's interesting to hear you say, obviously I know I'm going to finish him. Like, no problem.

Why are you so confident this time? Because, like, because I'm going to finish him. How? How? How are going to survive? Like, how? How, like, tell me how? I don't see this, no scenario where is the winner

or where I won't finish him. I will finish him. Would you be disappointed if you didn't finish him, meaning you won but won't be a decision? Is it important to you to always stop your opponent? It's important for me to always stop my opponent. You know, very important for me to always stop my opponent. But if it comes to the decision,

no problem. Was a battle, was a war. No problem. But on my mind, like, bro, you're fighting to finish. him, you're fighting. You know, for me it's a war, so make sure you win the war. Okay. Have you watched his footage now?

Yeah, I do. And what do you think of him? I think he's a South Pole. Okay. You like that? I, you know, I was like training with South Pole and all about the same. The same. So we have a game plan with the team.

No problem. No problem. I'm looking forward to that. By the way, what about your opponent, Lorone Murphy? Sorry, not your opponent, your teammate, Lorone Murphy. He should have had a title shot, right?

Yeah. How's he been in the gym? He is doing good. I've seen him yesterday in the, in PI. Okay. He's doing good, yeah. You haven't speak much yet, but I think today I'll see him again.

I will speak about that. No problem. Yeah, it's an interesting business, right? Sometimes you win nine in a row, you don't get title shot. Sometimes you win four in a row you get title shot. Yeah, that's how the business works. How many fights in a row before you get a title shot, you think? How many wins?

To be honest, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. You know, when the time you come, you know, you don't have to ask. They will offer you. I think when you, I mean like, if I do the good job, they will buy me the title short, you know. I won't ask, they say, oh, that's your time, you know. And then when it will be, be my job.

time, I wish to people and that's my time, you know. Someone has time now, okay, I respect that. But when it'll be my time, it'll be my time. At sea by times. Yeah. When you're on a card like this with some big names, right? Some legends. You're at the P.I. You see people.

Do you get excited about all of this, or does none of this mean anything? I'm not like, it doesn't, it doesn't mean anything, but I'm more focused to myself, you know? Yeah. Not to anybody that's so serious. You know, they are legend. It's good already.

They are good already. But who am I? You know, who am I? I need to shine. I need to be on that level. You know, if they're already on this level, that's when I have to be better than them to get, you know, to get the firm.

So I need to be more than them. So I can't be focused on them. Everyone knows already who they are, but nobody knows who I am. I mean like when I said no, but you understand what I mean. Yeah, of course. We know who you are. We know who you are.

But I know what you mean, like the general public. Yes. So that's what I want, you know. I don't want to be just on that level, on them level is good. Respect to the devil level, but I always see myself like, I have to be more. I have to do better than them. So everyone, the legend will respect me, you know. I got you.

So what are you feeling? First round, second round, third round. What are you feeling? I always say, like, I don't know going to, I'm not like going to. to say like first man the second round the turn one but i'm gonna finish him how finish him like bro there's no way you will survive there's no way there you know every we went to another anywhere never you won't survive you won't you won't i can't wait to watch this it's always a pleasure to watch you my friend um good luck to you thank you for giving us some time i wish you all the best and uh always

appreciate your time so looking forward to seeing you in action it's always must see tv it's always very fun when you're fighting and I'm looking forward to it on Saturday. Thank you very much for it. Thank you. All the best. Salue, mon ami. Salue, al-Buta.

Bon courage. Bon courage. There he is. Atiba Gautier, kind enough to join us. Just 23 years young from Cameroon, he's on an eight-fight winning streak, eight straight finishes, seven in the first round. So when he speaks about, yeah, I'm going to finish this guy,

he speaks from a place of experience and confidence. His combined UFC fights have lasted just, just six minutes and 23 seconds. All of them combined. He went three and O in the UFC in 2025. All three victories via first round K.O. So just a little over a round, a round plus a minute and a half, if you put all his UFC fights together. Obviously a part of that Manchester top team squad led by the aforementioned Carl Prince,

who's turned into one of the top coaches in the game. Lorone Murphy and others a part of that team. and here he is going up against the 10 and 3 Andre Pulev on this very important card. I love the fact that he says, all that was great, but the highlight of my year was being gifted two kittens by my coach's wife, Maya and Lily. I mean, that's, I need some footage of Atiba tending to the kittens. He's just such a big dog, pardon the pun. And there he is with the kittens.

It's unbelievable. And he's 23. He's 23 years young. Unbelievable. All right. We move along, but we continue to focus on this exciting card going down this Saturday at T-Mobile Arena. Every single fight on the card, by the way, will be on Paramount Plus. New Era for the UFC, new platform, zero pay-per-view.

So if you have that subscription, you'll be able to watch every single fight, which is obviously new. And I'm sure very exciting for the fans who are buying each and every one of those paper views. Wouldn't you know it, we have reached a point in the world of MMA where all of a sudden Thug Rose Namibunis is now one of the veterans on these cards. And in fact, I think of everyone on the card, she might have the most tenure, the longest tenure in the UFC. It feels like just yesterday she was fighting an Invicta, let alone the UFC. But now here we are with her fighting in a massive fight for her against Natalia Silva, who has won 13 fights in a row.

Pleasure as always to speak to the one and only Thug Rose Namayunas, is kind enough to join us right here. Now, there she is. Hello, Rose. How are you? I'm good. How are you? I'm doing great. Much to discuss here. So thank you for the time. I appreciate it as always. Is that wild to you? Do you even think about that sort of thing? Like you're now the veteran. And it feels like just yesterday, you were like the young buck on these cards. Yeah. It's happened in stages. I've thought about it. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, I'm a little more, I think, used to it now. I just, I'm more aware of it now, but I think maybe to others, maybe haven't really crossed their minds, you know.

When you say that you're aware of it, in what way are you thinking about it? How does it sort of sit with you? Well, because, I mean, it's me doing it. So every step I take, I know that I try as of lately to, like, kind of bring. my fans along my journey a little bit more because I just realized that, you know, I've learned to appreciate my fans more. And so I want to give them more of, you know, what I'm doing. But aside from that, I mean, there's so much more that happens, you know, that more than I can show, you know what I mean? And so when I'm taking every step in this journey, it's, it gets long.

It's a lot that happens. It's a lot. It's, I don't know. it's just, it, you just realize, I don't know, this journey is awesome and amazing. But yeah, you're just carrying a lot. And so it's just, it's fun. And I think you just, you just have moments where you're like, man, I've been doing this for like a really long time. Yeah.

And when you talk about bringing your fans on the journey, I think you're referring to in large part the YouTube channel, which you're still keeping up with. And so shout out to you on that. Was there a part of you early on where you felt like you were trying to. seclude yourself from the fans where you didn't want to let people in? Yeah, I think so. And in terms of like, not that I didn't want to let people in, because I would have loved to do that, but I think I just needed to, I don't know, like, just like, not let certain, like, other opinions in and, like, not be distracted.

So it would, it would, and also, anytime you pull out the camera or, you know what I mean, try to record a moment. It just ruins the moment sometimes. So I've had to learn how to like still be in the present moment, yet be able to like at least capture little bits and pieces there to where even for myself, like I want to be able to

have some memories to where like little clips of my journey to where like when this is all done and done, I can go back and just see something and it'll just take me back, you know? When you started this journey as a pro 15 and a half years ago And so if my math is correct

You're probably around like 18 or so When you start this Something like that, right? Yeah, 17, 18 I think so, yeah I think my first amateur fight was I think I was 18 Point is like did you even

Yeah, yeah, MMA fight, sorry Right, did you think to yourself like Yeah, in my 30s I'll still be doing this Did you allow yourself to look that far Are you surprised that you're still doing this Into your 30s? Yeah, no, I when I was I don't know

if I was in the UFC already, but when I first started and, like, knew that I was, like, going full steam ahead with this and, like, committing to it. I said to myself, like, I don't want to be doing this in my 30s. And here I am in my 30s. Wow. But I knew that it was a possibility, you know what I mean? Because I know, like, we're prize fighters. So, like, as much as we're here for the journey and the experiences and, like, testing

ourselves, like, we are here for financial reasons. as well. So, you know what I mean? Like there's there, that does play a factor into some of the, you know, I guess, steps that you take. You know what I mean? And so, um, so yeah, like in, in the back of my mind, like before I was like, man, I want, it would be great to be done before I entered into my 30s. But, you know, um, because I started so young and I wanted to like, um, I'm a fighter, of course, like to like down to my, my DNA. Like, that's just who I am. But, um, But there's other aspects of my personality. I have other interests in life.

And, you know, I want to have a family and all that stuff. So it's one of those things where, like, you know, but I really enjoy this journey. And I really don't want to. I still have this goal of becoming two division champions. So, yeah, here we are. And this is a, you know, great opportunity to get there. Okay. So I was just going to ask, what is the motivation at this point?

Because you've climbed the mountain multiple times. You mentioned prize fighter. And if the motivation is money, I totally understand. I think sometimes we don't like when athletes say that. It's like we all work for money as well. Like you're someone who has bills and you have a life. And of course you want to get paid as much as you can. And so is it the two division thing?

Is it to just, you know, make the most amount of money before your time is up? What is the motivation? What keeps you going at this point? Yeah. I think like, you know, the financial thing, like as much as, you know, I'm not at a, I'm not like, you know, at a stage where I could just not do anything for the rest of my life. you know what I mean? So the financial thing is still a factor, but it's not like, it's not the main motivating factor. If anything, like, you know, I can, I know I can, I'm good with where I wanted to

be financially wise, like as far as what I wanted to get out of fighting financially, I feel I've, you know, sort of accomplished most of what I wanted to do. But in terms of, yeah, it's basically the two-division thing, like to just have that as an accomplishment. I think a dream come true And it's definitely like On the list of like when I When I had goals of what I wanted to achieve in MMA It's like you know

That was that was pretty much Yeah that was one of the goals that I had Why was that important to you? Um It's good question I mean I guess it's because Um I don't know

It just like it just sets you above It's like I don't know if you ever watched Dragon Ball Z But like you know you get to Super Sayan right So we're saying level one is like, you know, that's becoming a champion. And you will never, no one will ever be able to take that away from you, you know? And then, and not just that. I mean, obviously, like there's different levels of being the champ, like different greatness levels of each champion, right?

And everybody is their own unique story and everything like that. But for what I did at Strawade, I'm very happy with. And I can, like, be happy with myself at the end of the day for what I did there. And so now it's like, flyweight. And that's where I started in my career was flyweight because there wasn't really many girls at straw weight. So why not finish there? And also, it's like getting the super sane level two. You know what I mean?

It's like, you know, it's just the next level. And, you know, you're at a bigger weight class. So it's like, you know, generally speaking, even though there's challenges at the smaller weight classes that aren't there at the heavier weight classes, it's just, you know, in general people view. and myself I view it as like everything's just bigger at the next weight class. So it's like you just got to do everything better and bigger and stronger. When you were first booked on this card, it was against Alexa Grasso, former champion at 125. She pulls out now it's against Entalia Silva who's on a role. And I think a lot of people thought might be next for the champion, Valentina Shepchenko.

Were you happier with one booking over the other? Did you prefer Grasso? Did you like this scenario better? Yeah. So Alexa was cool And I think both So after the last fight I actually called both of them out

You know And it's just funny how I ended up Kind of having Pashed up with both of them But yeah Like stylistically I think Natalia poses more She's just a trickier style to deal with

Than somebody like Alexa I think the toughness that Alexa Would have brought you know like just her Like kind of mental fortitude and just kind of how she just seems like, you know, she doesn't change, like, no matter what's happening in the fight. Like, that would have posed a different challenge than Natalia as far as, like, you know. But, yeah, so I'm definitely more happy, though, with the change of

because I feel like I get closer to my goal faster with Natalia, as opposed to, like, Alexa. Even with the dominant performance against Alexa, I don't know if I would have, you know, where would that leave me in the mix-up, you know, So it's just kind of, I wouldn't, I was looking forward to fighting Alexa because we spent way more time breaking her down and doing all that stuff. But the switchup came very easy to me, even though we had to make some adjustments to this and that. Like I've been, I, ever since I knew about Natalia in the division, like I was looking up different people to like kind of emulate a Taekwano style. and I was able to bring in this, you know,

Taekwano Olympian, you know, bronze medalist to train with me. So it just kind of worked out, you know, but it definitely, I think Natalia definitely brings more challenges, you know, than Alexa did. Yes, that's Christina Teachout. How did you link up with her? Yeah, so, you know, I said before that, like, whenever I can't remember exactly when it was,

but when a tie, I really started to make it some noise, in the division. I knew out of all the girls, you know, and like people like Aaron Blanchville obviously been owned, like they're really good and like big, you know, top dogs in the division. But when I looked at a, for some reason, Natalia just like kind of, you know, she caught my attention early on. Like, and so I was like, she's, she just poses a very unique style that not a lot of girls can emulate. Not a lot of girls can do. And so I just thought to myself, like, she would need some forethought and some preparation, you know, even if I'm not matched up with her. So I started doing my research and I came across, I was like, well, there's not many, um, Taekwondo fighters other than,

like, I'm one of the Taekwondo fighters. When you look into Google, like, okay, look up like MMA fighters that, you know, have a Taekwondo base or something. And like, I'm one of maybe like a few Taekwano fighters that there are, you know? So, um, anyway, but, uh, and especially girls, too. It's really uncommon. So I did a bunch of research and I was like, well, maybe I can like, who's the best Taekwana person in the world? And I ended up going through a list of, you know, Olympians and she was, you know, bronze medalist when she was 18, you know, she very well could go on and, you know, these next Olympics and become gold medalists. So, and then I reached out to her and she was a big fan of mine. And she even said when she was younger, she did some kickboxing, you know,

So she kind of has some experience with like, you know, obviously Taekwondo, Olympic Taekwondo style is way different than MMA or kickboxing for that matter. But, but yeah, so once I, you know, got in contact with her and knew that she had some, you know, other training and she's a true martial artist. Like she's not just, like, locked into this, like, you know, only taekwondo mindset. even though she's such high level, like she kind of has to be in a certain sense because, you know, it's like the margin for error in the Olympics is like almost none. But as far as like her mentality towards martial arts and everything,

I was like, she'd be a great fit. I didn't realize she was going to be so big, though. That was crazy. But it was cool. We actually got to spar and stuff. Had I known about her fighting Natalia earlier on, I would have had her come earlier out so we could do like more, you know,

technical stuff rather than like we kind of just jumped into sparring right away. So, because we were so close to the fight. Right. And she was good. She hung and she, she kept up and, and I was very impressed with her. And yeah, it would be cool to see like, you know, whatever she does in the Olympics, you know, maybe she'll, she'll go and go for the Olympics this, you know,

coming up or, you know, maybe after that, maybe she'll go into kickboxing or something. Who knows? I feel like the general consensus is if Natalia when she's getting a title shot, do you feel like if you win, you're getting a title shot? Yeah, I think so. Have you been told that?

Yeah. Okay, amazing. And that would be against Valentina, who you have a history with. And so... Yes. How would that feel for you? How would that be?

It'll be weird. But, you know, I mean, we're martial artists, you know what I mean? So at the end of the day, Like if that's something, like I would love to have a conversation, you know, about it. And, you know, talk with her first and everything like that because, you know, she's somebody that inspired me and is I've looked up to. And, you know what I mean?

Like, it would definitely be, it would definitely be conflicting emotions, you know what I mean? But at the same time, like, I'm down to do it. But at the same time, I also understand if, you know, there'd be like second thoughts or if, you know, there'd be like second thoughts or just be kind of weird. But honestly, like, you know, yeah, we'll, you know, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. But I honestly, like, just as a fan of hers, like, she's literally like my favorite female fighter, for real. Like, so it would be like, it'd be so weird because, obviously, I would never want to see her lose, but then I would have to go into a fight and try to, try to beat her. And then at the same time, as a martial artist, like, I would, it would just be the ultimate

culmination of just like being able to test myself because I do feel like I like she is she's like to me I would say her and Amanda Nunes are like the greatest female fighters in MMA so um so yeah it would just be a dream come true but at the same time it would definitely be like oh you know but but that's kind of what fighting is you know like it's weird like I I don't I don't hate anybody I fight you know I fought I fought I fought people that I you know teach Torres like we we train together and then we fought and then we train together and then we fought. You know, I've done it before. I don't have to hate anybody in order to compete with them, you know.

It doesn't mean that I'm going to be like, we're going to have sleepovers and be best friends after anything. But, like, I love all my opponents, you know what I mean? Like, even the ones that maybe I was rivals with, you know, like afterward, it's like, it's water in the bridge, you know what I mean? It's nothing. So, you know, she in her last couple of fights, I feel like received, a little bit of flack because people felt like the fights weren't very exciting,

like she wasn't going for the finish. As someone who knows her, who's in the sport, who's out there trying to win as many fights as possible, has been a part of the sport for so long. Fair or unfair, the criticism that she's received. I mean, I feel like every great champion, like, I mean, they said that same thing about GSP too, you know what I mean? But, you know, look at him now and everybody, everybody still loves them, you know what I mean?

DJ also, right? Demetrius as well. Yeah, I mean, and he has a freaking, like, like, you know, suplex to arm bar finish. Like, you know, you can't, you can't, I said this before about my fight with Yawanna. It's like to try to paint the Mona Lisa twice. Like, that's difficult. You know what I mean?

Like, everything just lined up perfectly. And if you were to do it the same way every time, I mean, it wouldn't make those moments special anyway. So my thing is, is like, and especially with Valentina, her style, she's a very, like, counter-striking style. Like, she waits for you to make mistakes. You know what I mean? So, and she's really good at that. And so why would she go away from that if that's like her bread and butter? But I mean, I get it.

Yeah, I mean, just like I said, the margin for error is little to none. So it's, I think when you're at the top like that, it just gets harder and harder. And everybody's like she's literally been on the top for forever. And everybody's like studying her every move. And there's so much footage out there. People ask me, like, aren't you afraid of like, you know, showing your training and stuff like that to people? I'm like, dude, if you want to see how I move, you can, there's plenty of footage out there. You can study everything that I've done.

And you're still not going to know what went behind every movement that I've made. So you can do your best to try to see everything. But there's a lot of footage out there. And so with Valentina, it's like the same thing. Like, there's so much fight footage of her out there. Everybody's like trying to, you know, find little whole. holes and things to to

yeah to expose her and like to try to to try to beat her and eventually you're going to figure something out right but that's just how good she is considering you know her and Zhang Wei were you surprised how

dominant she was in that fight um no not not really I mean I shouldn't say like not surprised at all the only thing that I was surprised about I thought like, I thought the corner just, and, you know, I'm not trying to be like, I don't know, I don't want to be like, because I know that there's like things that go on. Like, I don't want to be like overly critical because like I don't know what's what's coming from their perspective, right?

Like I know. And I obviously, you know, people have said all kinds of crap about me and my, you know, trainers and my coaches or my corners and something. So you never really know everything that goes into it. But like, but like some of the some of the game plan advice. I just thought was kind of weird to me. Like, and it seemed a little chaotic in the corner. It seemed like nobody really knew what the game plan was. You know what I mean? But like I said, I'm not trying to be, I'm not trying to be like disrespectful or anything about that. I'm just saying that's just like my observation and maybe there's something that I don't know.

So to me, I felt like she could have did better had she had a better game plan. But as far as like her size, I also felt like she didn't really have like the, the transition it took for me to move up to 125. And I was still felt like I had a big weight cut for 115. I'm still like I feel like it's still a challenge to put on that size. And in between fights, like I'm doing a lot of weightlifting in between fights. And then, you know, like working my way back down to at least feel like I have the strength to accommodate for those 10 pounds. Because those 10 pounds, when you're at those smaller weight classes, I feel like do make all the more different.

So I felt like she was a little, maybe she didn't have quite the size. But, and I, I also don't like to put too much emphasis on the size just because, um, I don't know, like, strength is very relative sometimes. And then two, but I do feel like that was somewhat of a factor. And then two, I just felt like the game plan could have been a lot better, like fight IQ-wise or something. I don't know. Okay. Um, you know, it's interesting. Uh, this occurred to me.

You've fought, you know, obviously for so long, you fought all over the world. You fought in Las Vegas a bunch, but never at T-Mobile. You fought at the Palms at Cosmo. Does that, apparently not? I was going to ask, does that mean anything to you? Do you care about this sort of thing? It's a big card. Paramount Plus debut, any of that stuff, help motivate you.

Apparently you didn't even notice, so I guess not. Everybody always asked me, like, what arena is it going to be? And I'm like, I don't know. Wow. That's wild. Yeah, I never really paid attention. The only time it really was a thing was the Madison Square Garden. thing because like you know

unless you're like completely under Iraq like you know you're living up Iraq you you know the Madison Square Garden like or you know but other than that no I'm not like a I'm not like a big sports fan or anything like that I don't really watch sports that much I

hardly get enough time to like watch all the UFC fights you know what I mean or just MMA in general I do watch fights but I'm just saying like I don't really pay attention to that stuff too much fair no totally fair and I'm happy you say that you're not a Denver Broncos fan because they beat my team this weekend.

I'm still very salty about it. I know you live there, so I'm happy that you say that. I didn't want to have any beef with you. We have entered, though, a non-paper-view UFC era. You've been doing this a long time. Did you ever think that we would enter a period of time where there would be no UFC pay-per-view anymore? I mean, I guess I never really thought about it like that.

I know that there was like a point in time where I think, like, if I'm not mistaken, I thought I heard Dana talking about like going to Netflix or something, something at one point. And so that was kind of like, how is that going to work? Like, it just sounded weird to me. But everything's like, we live in a world where like everything's changing all the time and who knows where we're going to be in the next like three to five years, let alone, like, the journey that I've had with the UFC, I've seen so many changes. Like, and I've just gotten used to like, all right, this new thing we're doing now. You know what I mean? Like, whatever.

And hopefully the change isn't going to affect me negatively, you know, and that's kind of like my fingers crossed because like, you know, there's been, there's been multiple things like that. So, and so yeah, you just kind of like hope that it's going to help you and not hurt you. Well, unless you're a champion, I don't see how it hurts you. I am curious how it's going to work with the champions who get paper viewpoints, and it still seems a little unclear how they will be compensated for what was in their contract. Conner-Megger spoke about this a couple of days ago. But for now, not something that I think you have to worry about.

But I did see that you've got something that you're doing called Nama. What is Nama? What is this coming soon? What can you tell us about? And before, yes, I want to talk about that. I just don't want to lose you because I want to make sure I get a pat. Pat, can you give me a charger? Oh, yes, okay.

Yeah, because it's running a lot. But yes, Nama is a water that, a water company that we just started. Oh, wow. So, yeah. And I got it right here. Oh, wow. Oh, thank you. Hold on.

There it is. Yeah, I want to plug this in real quick. Okay, okay. Thank you, Pat. Appreciate it. There it is. Yeah. Thank you.

Always ready to coach and assist. Yeah. Okay, hold on. A water company. Yes, a water company. Hold on. I might need, Pat, you might need to help me out with this. Come in soon.

Do your best to be your best. That's the tagline. Yes. Hopefully my camera doesn't fall, but yeah, you got that? Okay. Yeah, so it is a, it's hydrogen water with minerals infused into it. And yeah, so you know, as like athletes, I mean, we, that's all we do is drink water. And I've been quite the water kind of sore for a while. Wow. I've had, yeah, I've had like reverse osmosis, well, I have reverse osmosis water. I've had a cangan filter. You know, I've had like your just normal like burkey filters. I've had just all kinds of water, you know. And then this one, so when we when we were just like researching water and we tried this hydrogen infused water with like the minerals and stuff. And it just was like the best water, honestly, that I've ever like had.

And of all the waters that I've had, like I, you know, this one. I just notice every time I would open a can, and by the way, it comes in a can, right? And rather than like plastic where, you know, the recycling, it just doesn't, it just doesn't get recycled as efficiently, you know, as like cans, right? And so, and I don't know if maybe the can has something to do with it tasting better. I have no idea, but I would assume it's the minerals and the hydrogen. And every time I would open a can, it's just like I would just, I noticed like more often than that, I would just drink the whole thing. And it's like, usually I start my day off with like 32 ounces of water. And I just like, and it's like kind of a chore to have to like sit there and like force myself to drink this water.

You know what I mean? And with this thing, it is not a chore. It is anything but. And it's just a special treat, you know, especially when you like are, your job was just to be hydrated all day. And especially in Colorado too, it's like super dry out there. And so, yeah. So once we ran out of the water that, you know, when we tried this water and we ran out of it, we just realized how much we missed it.

And then so we realized like, we need to make this water and we need to, you know, start a company. And so it was weird how everything just kind of like came together so fast. And it just seemed like it was just kind of, I don't know, divinely orchestrated. Like it just, like normally stuff like this, like my manager was saying how he's like, I've done, I've done drinks before. And he's like, it usually takes like years to make these type of things or like a year to, for it to come together. and this came up together so fast. And it just, it tastes great.

It tastes better cold. Which I'm like normally, I don't really care about temperature water, but it's like, it's just like extra crisp, you know? But yeah. And so we got my name on it. Wait, hold on. Yeah. And the signature?

Is it out right now? Can people buy it right now? Um, that, I think we're still like working on all that, all the logistics of it. You know what I mean? Like it just got produced. Okay. So this is like the first shipment. that came in to us.

So I literally like tried a can for the first time today, even though like I know how it already tasted, but like just the actual production of it. I finally got to taste it today. It was great exactly how I remember it. And then yeah, we're still like kind of finalizing all the, all the details. One might think that we actually plan this, that I would ask you about this and you would have the can literally on your desk

and you say you just, but we did not plan this at all, which is amazing. I'm quite impressed that you actually had it in your possession. You say you just tasted it for the first time today. Yeah, they just came. Yeah, we just got it delivered to the hotel today. Wow. So, yeah, I was, and it's just funny because I've just been like super thirsty all day. So I'm like, yeah.

And it's funny because like the last couple of weeks, I've been like hoping that it would have came, you know, earlier towards the end of my training camp. Because I'm just like, man, I'm drinking all this water. And I'm like, man, it would be cool to have this novel water. And now here it is. For Fight Week. Yeah. I'll ask you one more before I let you go. We were supposed to get Amanda versus Kayla on this card.

I'm just curious. Your women's MMA royalty, who were you leaning towards in that fight? Oh, man. I was really torn on that once, be honest. Like, because, like, it's so hard to bet against Amanda, right? Like, she literally is just next level, right? Like, she's just, you know, you know how highly I talked to Valentina. And obviously, you know, so I feel the same way about Amanda.

And, like, she's just, she's got that aura. You know what I mean? And she, and she looked really good. Like, one of her stories popped up on my, you know, social media feed. And she's, like, laying in, you know, flying knees or whatever. I'm just like, man, this is, this is tough. This is a tough, like, I would, yeah, she's amazing. But, but Kayla, on the other hand, like, her striking has gotten so much better.

She's just obviously like top level athlete, like as top as you can possibly get. And she just has that strong mind and like her spirit. You know, she always talks about her, you know, you know, belief in God and things like that. So I just, you know, I always, I'm always rooting for one, you know, for another like God-faring person. And I just, and I feel like, I don't know. I think it would have been a great performance from both ladies. and it would just kind of come down to obviously that weight cut though like when i when i think about um kala making that way it has got to be so difficult so that i would really i feel like

kind of come down to who's feeling better that day obviously so um and obviously she's she's not doing too well right now so that's unfortunate and um really praying for her that she gets to come back and they get to have that fight because obviously that's like it's one of those fights where it's like really hard to choose like who you think like predicts Yeah. You know what I mean? That's why I was looking forward to it so much. And hopefully she makes us be in recovery.

I know, I know. And we see her back in there later and we see them fight later this year. Very excited for you. Excited about this opportunity. Good luck to Rose. Thank you, as always, for the time. Can't wait for this. Rose Domunis versus the entire of a huge fight at 125 and on a massive card for the UFC.

So all the best to you guys. Appreciate it very much and good luck on Saturday night. Thank you so much. There she is. The one and only, Rose Dumas, two-time strawweight champion now trying to become flyweight champion she said right there she was told she wins this fight

she is next and most thought that Natalia Silva would be next even before this fight I think after MSG we thought Valentina's next fight would be against Italian because she's just beaten so many of those top fly weights kudos to her for taking this fight

replacing Alexa Grasso who's now fighting Macy Barber later in the year in March on that Seattle card and so here we go a potentially massive fight at 125 pounds with potential title implications attached to it as well. All right, very excited to speak to our next guest. He's going to be a part of the broadcast on Saturday,

part of the new era, the Paramount Plus era. He'll be a part of the pre-impost show squad and other interstitials, I'm sure, as well, one of the very best analysts in the game. He'll be with Michael Bispin, Chris Wyden, and as I said at the top, the inimitable Kate Scott, who I have so much respect for.

He is the former WEC Bantamweight Champion, the former UFC Bantamweight Champion, and now the current host of the critically acclaimed Love and War podcast, which is relatively new, but has come out with a bang, so to speak. The likes of Yoraiah Fabor, T.J. Dillishaw, the great Travis Barker,

Herb Dean, have all been on with him. Jason Mayhem Miller as well. He's the one and only Dominic Cruz, and he is kind enough to join us on this Tuesday. There he is. Hello, Dom, how are you? What up, Barrier? You got a good memory, man. I remember all my guests.

Bro, I told you, I like the pod. I've been listening. I see it. I love that you're doing it. A lot of people come on and they say, okay, I'm done. I'm going to do a podcast and they never actually do it. You took your time. There it is.

It looks good. It feels professional. I always knew you'd be great at this, Dom. You're cerebral, you're thoughtful. You listen. You do your research. But, you know, you never know if someone's actually going to do it. So I give you a lot of respect and I've checked it out and enjoyed very much.

Thanks. somebody who's been obviously in this lane that I'm moving into for many, many years. I appreciate your feedback on that. And you're not somebody who blows smokes up people to ask this too often. So not always, not all the time, but especially not me. So I know you're telling the truth. For sure. Have you been enjoying it so far?

Yeah, it's good. Like you said, I feel like it's kind of an easy flow into what I've been doing, because I've been doing it. I've been interviewing fighters so much for the color commentary. I've been doing the, I was with, I was with ESPN. So a lot of it kind of just molds right over. It just goes

into, it's just a different set of cameras, but realistically it's the same job. So I enjoy talking to fighters. I enjoy hearing. For me, what I enjoy most about it is what I learn. Like I get to learn so much about what other fighters have gone through

to compete at the highest level. Not just in fighting, but also in their relationships. That's the loving part of the podcast that I like to get into, because to me, that's the hardest part about fighting, is mixing regular life with what we just know is regular life, war. Every day when you're living in a fight community, when you're looking to fight somebody, your perspective of the world, my perspective of the world look totally different.

And when I come out the other side and I no longer have to worry about preparing for the next battle of war, whatever you want to call it, life changes, my needs change, the things that I wanting life change, the, you know, having things to do and not, you know, never having time, now you have lots of time and you can do whatever you want. You got to figure out where you want to put the energy. So I get how a lot of fighters want to come back to fighting. And I also get how a lot of fighters are such great parents, because after you're done fighting, you pour everything you can into your family. When you were in the midst of war, when you were, you know, at the height of your fighting career, did you have a hard time balancing the two, the love and the

the war, so to speak. That's what I like learning about, Ariel, on this podcast. I talk to the best of the best people in every avenue of, whether you're a chef, whether you're a podcaster, a YouTuber, whether you're a fighter, there's certain things that ring true for success. And for me, I wasn't very balanced. I think if you listen to some of the greatest athletes on earth, there's not a whole lot of balance for us.

And so I like learning about how other athletes and other people that are professionals and their craft have found that balance. Because to be great at something, sometimes you've got to be willing to give it all I've learned. And that's what I chose. And, you know, some people, I always looked at it. If you're not giving it up somebody else is, so go all in. And now I'm listening from everybody's perspective on that. I enjoy it. Do you regret not having a little more balance?

No, I don't regret anything, but I learned a lot from it, you know. I learned that you can't have it all. That's the biggest thing I've learned coming out the other side. I think there's a preconceived notion that a lot of times you just need to feed and stroke toxicity and ego and being, you know, separate and just focusing on yourself. And I think there's a very healthy way where you can be focused on a love. mindset, giving, balancing the two of just focusing on yourself, drawing a boundary, and then also giving, being a good pillar of the community, you know, giving to the community, giving to your family, putting them first on at times. But I don't know. I don't know. This is the discussion

that I like to be in real. You're somebody who's done it, you know, and you're somebody that I look forward to having on the podcast because then I can ask you these questions rather than you, you know, I can't do it hear because this is your platform. But when you come on with me, I'll be happy to hear how you've balanced it because this is not an easy job you're doing either. And you have to constantly travel, constantly to be different events. I'm sure sometimes your family feels a little bit secondary to your craft too. So I'd be curious to hear how you do it. For sure. And as I told you would be an absolute honor for me. You've given me so much time. The least that I could do is give you two, three, four, how many hours you ever want, talking about it on air or off air. But you're right, you do have to balance early in

my career. I felt like I was traveling a lot. And now my kids are getting older, 12, 13, and they have sports on the weekend. I'd rather be at the park next to our house watching their U-13 soccer game than be at the biggest arena in the world because right now that means more to me. And I know in four or five years, they're going to be gone. They're going to be college and out of the house. So I feel like this is the time to do it. And that's why I wanted to do this, where I can talk to people and still be a part of the sport and cover it, but maybe not be as omnipresent at all the events every week. So it is a balance, as you say. And different phases of our life, we make decisions as to how much we want to add here or there. It's all very interesting. And I love the

fact that you're taking it, like you're not just saying, hey, I'm going to interview fighters or celebrities. There's a hook there. And I expect nothing less from you. I am going to give you this kind of props. I think athletes, especially like super duper, you know, successful ones, are are so used to being asked questions that they don't make for the best interviewers because you have to be somewhat self-centered and selfish when you are a superstar athlete because everyone's just asking you questions

and you're just sitting back answering. And so sometimes I think when the roles get reversed, they don't make for great interviewers because you're not empathetic, you don't listen, you don't ask proper follow-ups, you don't care to learn about other people. I think Stone Cold Steve Austin, believe it or not, is one of the best athletes turned interviewers

that I've ever come across. He's a great interviewer. I think you do a great job like him. Obviously, you're very new into the process, but I think that says a lot about you that you're able to reverse the roles so easily, if you get what I'm saying. Well, thanks. I mean, I focus on everything that you just said, Ariel,

which is it's a very selfish position to be a pro athlete. When you're getting ready to fight somebody to your mindset, your body thinks it's dead or a lot. That's what you're moving into the next fight. It's hard to find balance and put your family first when you might get, you know, punched in the head or something or choked, unconscious. but this is something I've tried to find the balance in and I think what you're saying is that I've been able to do

kind of move into that realm well it's because I'm focused on the fact that that's what was missing so much while you're fighting it's just you know shut put on the blinders straightforward and just kill and focus and I did that for so long that you know coming out the other side yeah compassion empathy

coming from a loving place is what it takes when you're fighting it's like that's not always necessary So it's just kind of like lock in. Hey, I don't need to hear what you're saying, Ariel. I don't need to hear your questions. I don't need to be empathetic. I don't need to be vulnerable. I need to lock in because if I show those things, my opponent's going to see it. So when all that conversation goes away, you can kind of unravel the yarn and see who I can kind of unravel and see who everybody else is. Ask the questions that matter that I'm curious about moving into these next stages of life. A lot of things are off limits when you're going to war, Ariel. If you were about, to go into a fight right now and your family was sitting in the house wouldn't your mindset of what you want to hear and what you don't want to hear change yeah no no it's our life that's our life every day as fighters every single day it's that because not just the fight but we go to practice we got black belts killers that are better than us sometimes that are trying to hurt us on that day so um yeah it's a lot it's heavy and to have that removed has completely changed the way i approach everything

Brilliant move to start with Faber, to have TJ on. I saw the picture of you and Cody teasing that you'll sit. Was that a conscious move? Did you think of that from the start? Like, hey, to have my former foes sitting across from me, this would be brilliant. How did that come about? Yeah, you know, I think this is to me what's missing with love and war in the world today. I feel like there's not enough people who disagree that can come together and sit across from each other and even agree to disagree.

I don't, I'm not going to say these guys are my best friends. You might think people might get that notion from the, from the podcast, but that's because that's how I treat people. No matter who it is, any of my losses, I can sit across from them that way and communicate with them and learn from them about what they did to maybe beat me in the time or what they're doing to balance life at the highest level for themselves or what makes them great at their craft. Like, I enjoy learning because even if I disagree with somebody, that person's usually at my level at something. And so what if I could take everything they got

and add it to my arsenal now? It's a win-win for me too. It's just being open to seeing all the perspectives and not, you know, being neutral on it. So that's what I enjoy too. It's a real challenge for me, Ariel, because I'm a very competitive person. So, you know, moving to a neutral place,

listening to people hearing their perspective, I enjoy it. Yeah. It was January of last year where you announced the Seattle fight. You were expecting to fight on that card and then surely thereafter the injury and then you announced the retirement February of last year. That's the last time we spoke. Yesterday I spoke to Dustin Porier. He's six months into his retirement. And he says like the it's very much there.

And it's like this internal battle still thinks he can do it, watches, still compares himself, all that stuff. Do you do the same or has it dissipated? Well, you know, I think for me and Dustin, the difference is that. that Dustin had retirement with no injury. I had retirement with a blown out shoulder. So I went straight into shoulder surgery, and I've been nine months on rehab on my right shoulders. So it's been shut down.

Now that I'm just, yeah, it's completely dislocated. It was an extremely horrible situation. It was a really bad dislocation. One of the ones that doesn't just pop right back in. It's one of those ones that sits out and it sat on top of the nerve. And so the pain of that nerve was, the highest level pain I've ever felt in my life. And so it kind of sat me down and really made me look at this and say, okay, I can do this.

I can keep winning. I'm still just as fast, all this, all that. But, I mean, what else is there? Is there more? Is there somewhere else maybe that God's trying to show me that I can give or go or make a move? You know, and that pain really made me take a look at myself and decide, no, of course, I can keep competing. But to me, that's almost like the natural, easy rapid. out is to compete because that's what I've done for 20 years. The separate one is, okay, let's see

where else you can make a difference in the world. You know, at the end of the day, when you're fighting, you're just smashing people, right? You're just breaking things. It's like, okay, where else can I make a difference where I'm not just breaking things all the time? There's a way to make a big difference, be able to break things, but also be able to give and find that. So, yeah, I'm kind of mixing it up. But the shoulder surgery changed it for me. I think for Dustin, he, he's, He's just like sitting there like, you know, he just stopped training, competing, I should say. When you get hurt the way I did it, like there's, you're not even thinking about competing anymore. It's not even a thought of the shoulder is just so gone.

But I'm nine months through rehab. I have three months before the 12 month mark. And then I, you know, I start training again. I start hitting, punching. I've been hitting the bag. I've been hitting pads. I can't really grapple yet because the strength, the stability just isn't. quite where it needs to be for that. But yeah, eventually that's where I'm going to get to.

And then I give back by competing with these guys in the gym. I'll fight them. You know, as hard as I want to in the gym and they can go compete and I can live vicariously through their wins, support, teammates and winning, you know, have these conversations with people like you're doing right now with me. Find a way to give back to the sport like I've done as an analyst, but also in the gym. You think you'll be a head coach and have a whole team and really, you know, be involved like that? I don't see why not. It's just a matter of getting the right location, the right team.

It's what I'm learning the most area that's having the right teams. Like not just, I'm not talking about fight teams. I'm talking about teams of people that can hold the leadership together. And then when the leadership is moving and I can leave for two weeks and go corner somebody and there's a leadership crew that everybody believes in that can work together, And when I come back, it's still flowing. Those are the types of teammates and types of the type of gym and the types of people I would have to have around in order to make this possible. So I'm not just in the gym 24-7 sitting on the mat, staring at people.

I think there's a lot more I can move around, make a lot of difference in a lot of different areas. So I want to have a good team before I move to that route. But, you know, one iron in the fire at a time for me, and I'm trying to build this community in the podcast and bring people into that. And like I said at the same time, still keep rehabbing my shoulder. Some people never even get done with rehabbing their shoulder. I'm still doing that. I'm fortunate enough to get to keep commentating fights and analyze fights. I just enjoy doing that.

That seems natural to me. I'm going to do it either way. So there's a lot of different things I'm doing. And I like to do them all. So I just feel like they get one step at a time. Is it true that the fences were mended between you and T.J. when he reached out to you and offered some advice about, you know, the shoulder injury? Yeah, all those guys are very, like, I mean, how do you read that and not just kind of set everything to the side?

Yeah. Were you shocked when you got that? Of course. Because our last interviews were not nice. Right. We're not like, and when neither of us were faking it. Like, I didn't, I was just, but I'm, the thing is, when I'm in competitive mode, aerial, like you're you're that's just it i'm competing there's just no room for anything but that me winning

that's gone so i can sit down and have a conversation from an open place now it's just totally different and so when he sent me that message it's like yes let's let's do it i'm not competing against you i'm not trying to beat you i'm not trying to break down your mindset or anything like that so let's sit down and have a free and open conversation and hear each other out and i'd love talking to him uh obviously Faber. I definitely want to sit down. Cody said he would sit down and talk to me too. I loved to have to sit down with him.

And my biggest premise of talking to these guys, Ariel, is when I was fighting him, there was a lot of drama going on that people have forgotten about nowadays. You know, back then I had fought the whole team. They also were fighting amongst each other at the time while I was fighting them. There was a lot of drama going on in their team. A lot of them had separated from Faber and that team alpha male and gone to other teammates like Chad and,

or sorry, Ludwig. Yep. Bang. Bang. And like, you know, they kind of started separating. And so I wanted to know what was going on for each of these guys when I was fighting them, when they were going through all that. It interested me to know what their mindset was, what their mentality was to beat me, to compete against me, and other guys too. And it's been fun getting to know them.

And we obviously think a lot of like. I always knew that. There's going to be a lot of things that are in common. but a lot of things that aren't. And so I think it's fun for the fans to see unfold because nothing was faked between any of us. It's just that now we can move to a place where we can just hear each other out. But it doesn't mean we necessarily agree with each other still either.

What a time that was. What a time. And I was reminded of it because it was nine years ago, just a few days ago, the anniversary of your win over T.J. And so there were a ton of clips that came out. And I see a bunch of stuff on social media, our interview afterwards, which I've always said is one of my favorite of all time when I

asked you about, you know, this being the greatest moment. We've talked about that. When that stuff kind of, I don't know if it makes it on your timeline, your algorithm, I'm sure it does because it's on the top. That interview gave me is on the top of my algorithm. And I'll tell you why, it's everything that I'm doing in this podcast now. It's knowing, man, when I went through these injuries, Ariel, that's what had me start figuring out. Like, man, I don't have a lot of balance when I was broken and you want the people who love you around you when you're hurt i did not have any of them all i had was warriors people that were ready to get me back into the octagon and it's there's nothing wrong with that but i saw that i just

hadn't been building the relationships the way i needed to and so um yeah that that was the injuries really opened me up to a different set uh a whole other part of the world that existed outside of competition do you sit back and watch the fights and the highlights like when when the tj stuff comes out a a few days ago, the anniversary and everyone's celebrating it. Do you sit there and watch your body of work? When I watched the TJ fight, because that was, I just don't think people really understand the way people told me I couldn't do things. I'm not trying to be like whiny or bitchy about this by saying this.

No, it was nuts. I'm just like, that's what I think about when I go back and watch. Because I watch the fight and the fights the fight. But what I think about is the amount of people who just, think that it's not possible just so much. They don't tell you, but they tell you. Nobody comes up and says you can't do it, not straight to your face, but they tell you in questions. They tell you in doubtful cones. They tell you in what they hadn't been able to do when they talk to you. People give you their two cents whether they mean to or not. And before that fight, man, there wasn't a lot

of people I could lean on that had gone through the amount of injuries that I had. So I was really, really, really struggling, really struggling to find somebody to relate to for the belief of why I could do it. And I pretty much had me at that moment. And my team, my coaches, my teammates who knew I'd suffered with them were like, man, you're nasty. Those are the guys. But interviewers, you know, a lot of the world is just like, man, how? How is this going to be possible? the three ACL injuries plus a torn quad in between. I think Adrian Peterson and Derek Rose were two of the athletes that I was watching very closely to try to see NGSP too, but he hadn't had as many ACL tears as me.

But Derek Rose and Adrian Peterson, Adrian Peterson blew the doors off of the knee injury. He did. I think it was two or three ACL surgeries. And on the last one, he came back in six months and ran for a record number, a record number as a running back, right? I remember watching that thinking, well, shit, I wish I was Adrian Peterson. Like, that guy is a freak. How did he do that?

And it's like, he gave me a little hope, that. And Derek Rose, he didn't do so well, but he did come in and out. Yeah. The reason why I chose these guys is they're very high, how do you say, like, blunt force trauma to the knees, all sports that take a lot of athleticism, a lot jumping and sprinting and angles. And so I wanted to use them and say, okay, if they can do it, that's the closest thing I could resort to that I can come back and fight people and be okay. And it's just there wasn't a lot of results.

There wasn't a lot of proof of people doing what having this many injuries. And I wasn't proud of it either. I was also ashamed to myself for being injured. So mad. So just what's wrong with me? But then, you know, you can't think about those things, Ariel. So being forced to not be allowed to think about what's wrong with you, you suck, being ashamed. shaming myself having to reframe the mind is what taught me so much having to reframe myself from all my

pity guilt my figure you know you're the most injured da da da da da da da da they stripped your tight all the sadness reframing the mindset bulletproofing the mindset through those through those experiences are what's um really like man it just opened me up so much it gave me so much going through those injuries i'm growing up into a man you're part of the new era the paramount plus era did you ever think we would enter an era where the UFC wasn't on pay-per-view, where there was no such thing as pay-per-view points, where everything was on the same platform? This is all very new, and I thought I would never see it,

at least in this kind of period, because I still think, while people talk about pay-per-view being dead, I still think the UFC was the last entity left that was thriving on pay-per-view. It goes up and down, obviously, with fights, but this is big. This is a huge shift. What do you make of it? I don't think it's as big of a shift as everybody's making it.

Really? I do. This is why. Okay. I think it is in the United States because of TV deals. Yes. And I think that the TV deal to Paramount, I don't know how much, how many eyes are actually on Paramount other than now that they bought, the owners of Paramount have bought everything. Yeah.

I think all the eyes are going to go to it. But I think ESPN might have had more eyes in the first place. So that might have helped out the athletes a little bit more in the beginning to be on a natural chain of ESPN, ESPN. But I think Paramount is going to take over so many things that it's going to get bigger than that at some point. That's the plan. And it's going to end up helping out the fighters. I don't know how the pay structure is going to go at all. Obviously, I'm not in it anymore.

And I have no idea how they're going to do it. But I do know pay-per-view was the only reason I was able to have at least one fight worth a million dollars. Wow. And only because of pay-per-view only. I wouldn't have got that if it wasn't for pay-per-view. and I wouldn't have got that unless I was on a co-main event with Rhonda Rousey, which is a big, you know, a bigger earner. Or I wouldn't have got that unless I was on a card with like a McGregor.

Then you can, then as a co-main event, I had the opportunity to make a million dollars on that pay-per-view. But on the bigger scheme of things worldwide, internationally, I think it's still a pay-per-view system. So they're not off-paper-view. They're just off-paper view in the United States. It's everywhere else in the world doesn't get Paramount. So Paramount is killing it. And I think it's a genius business model because they still get to bring in pay-per-view. Now they get to bring in Paramount in the United States.

And, you know, the UFC is just a smart business. They just understand business. That's the thing about it. And promotion. How it does for fighters versus how it does for promoters? No idea. I literally have no idea. You're part of the desk crew.

for lack of a better term, with Bisming-Widman, and Kate Scott, who I've worked with, by the way, who's an absolute pro and an unbelievable talent, and I'm so excited that she's coming over to this world because she's very knowledgeable when it comes to boxing. She knows MMA as well, but we know her as a boxing and soccer hosts primarily. She's the Crem de la Crem. Correct me if I'm wrong. As of late, you've always been Caged side commentary, color analysts, not usually a desk guy. Are they doing this because it's the first one and they want to come out guns blazing with the top dogs or is this something you'll be doing more of? You know, I have no idea.

I need to sit down with my producer, Zach Condito, and ask him why I'm not doing color on the first show, why I'm not doing color on the... Yeah, that's right. That's right. You ask him. I'm just curious. That's it, but he's the guy. Right.

I don't know, he's the boss. He puts everybody where he puts everybody. So I would have loved to be on this card. I would love to be on other cards, but it's all just sit down and talk to the boss, right? boss makes the decisions. I'm not mad at it. I'm grateful. No, no. I'm just, he put me on the desk. I'm on the desk. It's been a while though, right? Am I right about that? I did desk pretty often with ESPN. Oh, you did. Okay. I always feel like I saw you at the same side. It doesn't really have to change, but before ESPN was kind of my boss. Yeah. Or ESPN

desk shows. Now, Zach Condito is the boss for the desk shows and the color commentary. And so he makes him and, and his bosses make the decisions for who. Who goes on what card? So who does the color? Who does the desk? It's up to them. So if anybody wants to know who's on what? Ask that, Condito.

Just hit him up. All right, fair enough. I did want to ask you about a couple other things and then we'll let you go. I've got to ask you about Alex Pantosia, suffers the injury and injures the elbow. And now he looks fantastic. I don't know if you saw some of the footage. The guy's a freaking beast. He's doing pull-ups and all this stuff.

On the night of the fight, I wasn't sure if this was like sarcastic dom or the tweet that you put out. You know me well, Ariel. You know me so well. I wish that Van versus Pantoja fight was allowed to keep going. It should be up to us as the fighter if we want to continue after that. We put the time in the training camp in that situation. People dislocate their arms and put it back in place to keep fighting all the time. And look at that.

A million views on that bad boy. Is that sarcastic dom? Is that tongue-in-cheeked dumb or are you being serious? I mean, I can be either, right? That's the thing about fighting. I think that's what's so hard about that tweet that really resonated with people is that I could be I could be being facetious or I could be telling the truth, right? But have we ever seen, did you ever see the fight where Bonwellos pulled his shoulder out and his coach put it back in?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Antonio. Yeah, that happened. I forgot who he was fighting, but that happened in the middle of a fight. Have you ever seen, did you see what Favor broke both his hands in? Yeah. And you still thought with two broken hands. Yeah. You see John Jones when his toe got cut completely dislocated sideways and he finished the fight.

Yeah. Have you seen where time and time again we've seen dislocated things come out? But the only reason that my argument was the only reason that fight got to keep happening is because the referee didn't see it until like, you know what I mean? It wasn't like it happened and then they can call the fight. It was like, oh, Faber broke his hands. They go back to the corner. They go, my hands are broken. And they go, okay, ignore it.

Don't show him, right? And so the fight gets to keep going because he toughed it out. So I don't, when I'm watching, I'm watching the Pantosia fight with no sound. And I'm seeing him fall and the elbow dislocate. And I'm not sure if he's looking at the ref saying, I'm good. Like, it came out, it popped back in. I'm good. Or if he's saying, no, like shaking his head like, no, stop the fight.

I'm done. So if you're, if you don't have sound, it just looks. like he fell, put it back in, and was ready to keep going, right? Okay, so you were actually being serious. Well, I mean, with no sound, you don't know. Could he keep going? I don't know what he said. Do you know what he said, Ariel?

He said he couldn't keep going? It seemed like he was telling the ref, like, I'm messed up. That's my point. With no sound, I don't know what he's saying. So I'm kind of like, did he want to keep going? Did he not? If Pantoja says, I don't want to keep going. Like I'm done.

Yeah, yeah. Of the boards, please stop. Like, I'm not an idiot. It's a fighter's done and they're done. But when I'm watching it with no sound, I'm like, man, you've seen, I watched Brendan Langman break his own in the second round and go finish the fight and win it and go on to win the title. Arm shattered.

I've done that. It's very painful. So it can be done. So when I'm watching it, I'm like, man, is he pissed off that this fight got stopped and he couldn't just pop it back in and keep going? Because I've also popped my shoulder out and kept going. This last one, I couldn't. do it, but I've done it.

And other fighters have done it in the past. So an elbow is one of those ones where I know from having dislocations myself, an elbow isn't the worst dislocation you can have. And it can go back in and you can keep going. So with no sound, I thought maybe he could tough it out. But also, if Pantoja didn't want to, no disrespect. It's not like you needed to go back. But I'm just thinking of myself, like, man, if the ref can come in and just stop a fight with

no option. I wonder if the fighter wanted to keep going. You know, when there's like world titles on the line, for me, it's worth it to keep going. For me, I want you to put a stamp on it before you let me go out if I'm fighting for a world title. Don't let there be anything in my brain where the referee stopped in. I didn't have something to do with the fight. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. So if you, I know this is a hard one to answer potentially, but if you were in his position, knowing it was an elbow dislocation in the moment, do you think you would have kept going? this is the thing you don't know how much pain he was in Ariel

right yeah but knowing what you know about dislocations do you think you would have been able to tough it out I don't know it's the pain as a whole it tells the story so I don't know what Contosia was going through with the pain that day but I do know it's possible to pull back in because we've seen it happen

I just gave you an example of fights about Bonwellos am I saying that right Benuelos yes he was it's a 135 pound fight and they in the middle in the second round they popped it back in so all my only thing is I would love for fighters to be able to have the option like why can't we just take them to the

corner and be like okay do you want to keep going kind of like an eye poke like what if he wanted to keep going could he and then if he could what does that teach the world about how tough human beings actually are there's a chance he's like no I'm done that's too much it hurts cool no harm right no big deal But if he could go on, if he could pop it back in, and we've seen the guys that I just mentioned have injuries like that and go on and finish, what do we learn about ourselves as human beings watching guys perform like that? And he's one of the highest of athletes on Earth. I hated seeing it go that way. It doesn't mean that I'm right that he should have kept going.

It doesn't mean that herb was wrong. He shouldn't have stopped it. What I'm saying is, should there be an option to where fighters can have a choice? to me it didn't look like he had a choice. It looked like it just got stopped before he even had a choice. And with no sound, it was like, I was kind of disappointed. I was let down. I was like, man, what if he wanted to keep going?

Can you understand that perspective? No, no. I mean, I understand all perspectives. I was just curious to get, you know, more clarification or an explanation as to what was going on in the tweet. So I understand it and respect it. What are you hearing me say about it? What am I hearing you say? Well, obviously, I'm hearing you say that it's hard to put yourself in his shoes specifically because you don't know how painful it truly was, but we have seen instances where fighters have been able to put dislocations back in and fight on.

We've obviously seen instances where they couldn't. If I'm remembering it correctly, obviously top of mind, it was about a month and a half or so ago. If I'm remembering it correctly, it seemed like he was looking at the referee end in so many ways saying, I can't continue. It was so freaking scary. I think that's what's hard is when a referee sees that, now they're like there's no way he's continuing. Yeah. And my only thing is if he didn't see that,

if you didn't actually see it, would the fight have been able to keep going if you could just pop it back in and keep going if he wanted to? We heard recently that two former foes of yours, Faber and Suhuda will be competing in this RAF event end of February. A, what do you think of that? and B, are you interested in doing something like that once you fully heal? I don't know if I'm not going to say no to any to like,

I'm not going to say an absolutely no to competition. But like I said, I think it's easier to get back to competition for athletes than it is to not and find different avenues to expand and transform. So I think just going back right back into competition would be the easy route for me. I think it'd be the natural route. I think it'd be what every athlete wants. to do. I think the tough one is can I be outside of that avenue and still be just as,

you know, giving to the world from a different perspective. So I might compete. I might not. I'm never going to say no, but I'm kind of in the realm of not competing right now, focusing on my rehab, focusing on giving back to the community, giving back to fighting with, you know, coaching athletes, living vicariously through supporting athletes, create their dreams, things like that. Not that I can't do it while I compete, but I just know that once I lock in and compete and focus on making my money through competition, it shuts off everything else in my life. Like, I just shut off. I stop doing all the other things, and I focus on winning the competition because I'll do anything not to lose. And so to be outside the competition is like I can actually see the world and see what's going on around me. And so I'm going to give it some time. And like I said, my shoulder needs at least three more months before I'm, I even.

start really full-time grappling again. But kudos to both those guys for keeping the ball rolling. It's not easy to compete and just keep putting your name on the line like that. I'm not saying it's easy to compete. What I'm saying, it's easier for me to just go back to what I know. Does that make sense? Yeah. Yeah, like I just know competition.

So it'd be like, oh, just go back to where you started, Dom. And it's like, I just, why would I retire if I'm just going to go right back to competing is that really, it's pretty much the exact same thing, isn't it? Mm-hmm. You know, mindset-wise. Right. So it's like, I'm, I can do that. I know how to do it. I'm really good at it. I know how to win. I know I can win. So why do I want to keep beating

a dead horse type of thing? Like, let's see what else I can grow in. Let's see how else I can transform and still keep competing. I compete in the gym. If I want to show up to, you know, favors practice and go spar him and song yodong, I can go do it. Who do you think? For sure, no. He's invited me. He's invited me. And I would love to when I get healthy.

Yeah, those guys have invited me. Different guys have invited me. So I can go compete. But those guys, I think that they're doing it for the money and the notoriety of being the man, right? I don't. Why else would they do it, the money and the notoriety, you know? Yeah. I mean, that's what prize fighters do.

Yeah. Yeah. But there's other ways to get. get that too. Sure, no, for sure. I'll ask you two quick ones and then I'll let you go. And this has been a lot of fun. Always great to talk to you, Dom. Thank you very much for the time, as always. Who do you think will be the Bantamway champion of the UFC this time next year? Can I ask? Man, it's barred this top five moving around. Peter Young looked really good against Rob. I think he's kind of got his stylistic number now, right? Went from 20 takedowns

to two. So I think that, you know, it takes time, but the division of the eventually if you stay in one division, they start to adjust their style to beat the champion. So the question is, how will the division adjust now to the take-down defense and striking style of yon? And I think that, you know, we've seen O'Malley beat him. So it just, it was close. It was a controversial win, but it was still an extremely competitive matchup. So now it just kind of stirs everything up. I love it for the Bannonweight Division when something like this happens because

Jan got his revenge. Mara was going to want his revenge. Does he, does Mara put together another sick win streak after what he just did? That would be incredible, that would be incredible, wouldn't it? Yeah. To watch him bowl after a loss like that. And then you got O'Malley, can he get back on the winning train? He's a co-main event now.

It's a lot of pressure after the things that he's, you know, revisited. his mind and gone through all this transformation himself on where he's at. That'll be interesting. You got Sandhagen who's still always right there in the mix. Everybody. You got Song Yadong who is getting ready to scrap. O'Malley, the winner that fight will say a lot. So there's so much kind of just waiting, right, to take place with these next fights that I kind of got to wait for them to unfold and see who's got the mindset. I think this year it's going to be all about the mindset, who can stay the most disciplined and keep the mindset locked in for the championship title for 2026 to 2027 because I see a lot of rematches and round robin's happening.

So it's different. It's a different mentality when you're in that than just facing somebody new. It's like they're going to have some rematches going on. So it's going to get pretty heated this year, I think. I'm looking forward to it. One of the biggest stories heading into this year is obviously the White House card. Connor McGregor is involved. Everyone wondering if he'll actually fight on the card. And we all thought if he did, it would be Chandler as his opponent. But Dana White's saying recently he's kind of moving on from that. And now it seems like there's Jorge Mosvidal.

I feel like maybe the winner of the BMF, they might want to put Connor in a title fight, if you will. Even, you know, if Gaichi wins the interim. But who knows? Who would Dominic Cruz? If Connor is fighting on the White House card June 14th, who would you say should be his opponent? man isn't that crazy just to think that after that kind of layoff the thing would have been said that we're talking about that that just i think just that alone ariel shows how much money makes the decisions in the sport than anything else does it not he's a big deal he's a big star money yeah you bring money yeah and when you bring money it doesn't matter who's in line when there's enough

money. It just shuts everybody else out. And that's what he does. And he knows it. So he says it. He tells everybody. And then he laughs at all the fighters who have been scrapping their butts off to try to get to the top of the line, laughs at him, gets to the front of the line with his tax of money, and then says, okay, who are we going to get here? I have no idea who they're going to hook him up with. I'm not saying, who do you think? I said, who do you want? Who would you pick? And how about you give me a hypothetical Top three for him? Well, Chandler has been very, very, very

patiently waiting, right? Say it, come on, say what you mean. No, I swear, he's been very patient. I mean, he's actually been patient. I give him a lot of credit. He's actually... No, I was going to say impatient, but then I was like, no, that's actually unfair to him

because I think he's been very patient. And I think he's turned down some opportunities to wait for this one. So top of my list would be, Chandler just because he's put in the time he did the ultimate fighter he did all of that the Mazvedal one makes a lot of sense because that one goes back six years. Connor beats Soroni. Mosvidal is the BMF champ at the time. He's sitting in the front row and obviously Mazvedal and Trump seemed to be very close and so I can imagine him saying, hey, have Masvadel fight

Mr. Connor McGregor. And then I could see the UFC saying, okay, BMF, there's no meritocracy there. Let's just have him fight the BMF champion and it's, you know, it's a big deal. It's either him versus Max again or it's him versus Charles O'Overe. I could even. I could even see them saying the winner of this fight, him versus Patty would be gigantic for the interim belt and have Armand fight Ilya for the other belt. You know very well, better than anyone. They'll have someone defend that interim title, Henan Burrow back in the day. So it doesn't necessarily mean like you have to unify. And so those are the names that come to mind. And is he, do we know that he's going to stay at one weight at 55 or 70?

I think it's 70. And I think anyone would move up to fight him. I think it's 170. 70. I would love the matchups that either Chandler, like you said, because it's already been on there. Of course, he's my friend. We go back. Massadol, also my friend. He's got the old school style and he's got the striking style. One gives a grappling style. One gives a striking style, right? So I think Mossadol is going to be a full striking battle. I think if Chandler fights him, it's going to be we know he's going to want to take him down and keep him there as long as he can. Armand, you know, you know. You know, would be great, but they won't. I don't know about that one. Yeah, I don't know about that one. This is why I'm saying money rules it.

Yeah. It's like that's, he not only deserves to be fighting for the title soon, but he deserves one of these, but he pulled out. And so now you say he doesn't deserve it. I mean, I just don't know. He's beating guys. He's still doing these wrestling tournaments. He's still competing.

He's active. Yeah, like, I don't know. That's probably going to piss people off. but it's like, I don't know, you just, you just, with Connor, I think what you got to do is give away anything other than what are we looking for for excitement. Right. That's it. How do you make an exciting fight? Forget how good or bad anybody is.

He's had a long layoff. How do we make an exciting fight? Everybody wants to see a superstar like Connor fight. So it doesn't really matter they put him up against, does it? That is true. Ultimately, I think they just want to see Connor. Yeah. And they're on seeing

so it's like I get it I was out for three and a half years with three ACL injuries in a torn quad at the end of the day people just want to see you come back and compete

with that big of a layoff and see if you can still be good. I think that alone is McGregor's biggest adversary is the time that he's faced out and he's saying that he's locking in

and he's motivated now and he's shut out all the other noise so that's what people want to see about Connor now can he be the one of the greatest to ever do it stop for five years come back and do it we saw Muhammad Ali do it we after some crazy stuff but um we I did it after three and a half years about the layoffs and the injuries I don't know how many injuries he has I don't think he's been that injured I think he's just swimming in money like you know like he's like

what's that duck yeah what's scrooge mcduck scrooge mcduck grudge no and not scrooge um I forget what it was called, but like he used to have this big room. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're just swimming in it. That's what it reminds of Connor. So he's just been swimming in money, and that's, that in itself is its own battle when you're trying to compete. I think when I follow him on social media, it looks like he's trying to go back to just

living in the gym. And that kind of makes you feel like you don't have all the stuff that he has. The website is Dominicruis MMA.com. That's where you can get the merch. check it out merch footwork i have courses on there too if you're curious on you know everybody asked me where'd you get your footwork where'd you get your footwork i literally break it down on the courses they're on my instagram break it down step by step i did these these exercises every single day for 10 years before and after workouts plus jump and rope so if you want to learn footwork

it's a good base it's not my footwork it's just footwork um love and war with dominic cruises on youtube yeah and then all the information's on my instagram you can just check it out there and Spotify and all that stuff has me too. And thanks for having me on here. I love it. I love it. Thank you so much. Good luck to you. Congrats on the pod. And of course, good luck to you and the whole team this weekend looking forward to the new era launching on Saturday. Appreciate it, Dom and all the best to you. Thanks, Ariel. We'll talk soon, man. Yes, sir. There he is. The one and only Dominic Cruz, the former UFC and WECB Antibon champion the pod is great the guests have been great as I said the likes of uriah faber and

jason mayhem Miller al Jermaine sterling t jillshaw Travis Barker Jeremy Stevens Herb Dean these are all people that have been connected to him in some way shape or form and as he continues to do it I think that he will he will continue to have success because he's very good at it he's very thoughtful I do think the character by the way is Scrooge McDuck I think I think he was thinking of Scrooge as in like Christmasy guy screwed bad guy but um Scrooge McDuck was the one with the money. 100%. Right?

I'm right. Yeah, you're correct. It was off the dome. It was off the freaking dome with the Scrooge McDuck. At first I was going to say Darkwing Duck, but he was more of like a superhero, right? Fighting crime? Yeah, it would have been a horrible guy. Yeah, that would have been bad.

All right, let us move along. Back into the show, more news and notes. Lots to get to there. And we shall get to all of it and more. But want to get to our last guest of the day. Very, very excited to talk to this man. Never talked to him before. But he has made some waves.

some headlines very recently. You may have heard, if you're in these circles, if you're paying attention, especially to the sport of boxing, that there's a new outfit called IVB. I visit boxing. And you may have heard late last week that they announced plans that on July 11th of this year in San Francisco, California, they will be holding an event in which they anticipate and hope that they will break the boxing attendance record, not just here in America. but around the world. They are hoping to draw approximately 140,000 people. The record is one that is about 80 years old, a fight that transpired back in Milwaukee, 135 or so thousand.

And they've got big plants, some lofty plants, and I'm curious to learn more about it. And so here to talk to us about it more is the CEO of I Visit Boxing and I Visit Media, Ed Pereira, is here to talk about these massive, massive plans. Ed is here. Hello, Ed. How are you?

great to meet you. Really good to meet you, Ariel. And yeah, Scrooge McDuck, what a brilliant show. Used to watch when I was a kid. Yes. We're right. Thank you. I appreciate that.

Legendary. Well, great to have you on. Like I said, I've been very much looking forward to this chat because I have a lot of questions about the stuff that you are anticipating and planning and hoping to do this year and beyond. And so first, can I ask, I visit boxing, IVB. How old is IVP? I'll be honest, just kind of hearing about it. for the first time over the last few days?

And how did this all come about? Because you've been in the world of marketing and you've been the CEO of I Visit Media, you've been involved in big events, but to specifically zero in on boxing, how old is this venture for you? Very fresh. So I'm not a promoter.

I'm a marketing guy. I've been working in marketing for over 28 years. Sports marketing, to be precise. So IVB is very fresh, very fresh out of the box, as I like to say. This is going to be our first series of events. Why are you doing this? So we'd, for those people in the know, we have been behind the scenes pretty much over the last couple of years, working in boxing, doing some of the most notably Times Square, the Times Square takeover. We were the guys behind it. We did all the logistics, the setup, etc. Just after that show, we started to get a lot of phone calls from quite a few cities, actually, around the US saying, look, we'd love to do the same thing.

with you guys. And we were in San Francisco, spoke to the great mayor there or his team about it, about six, seven months ago. And then started working with the guys of San Francisco to put together and to go through all the permitting process to put together this huge card. So, yeah, so it's been about eight months in the making. Okay.

And we needed to give it a name. So we arrived at media. So it made sense to call it. I visit boxing. So obviously we know about this Times Square event. I was actually there in attendance, and that was a ring card, and it was headed up by Turkey Al-Shake

and the whole team over there, emanating from Saudi Arabia. When you say that you were involved with that, in what capacity? You obviously worked with him, because it was his event, but in what capacity were you involved in that? So we did all the logistics.

So we were the right, the permit holders. So we did all of the logistics. We got the permits, all of the 40-odd permits. we actually built the whole event out, so actually built the stage everything. So we did all the nuts and bolts as like to say.

And so what is the state of your relationship now with Turkey and company? My understanding is this event, the one that you're talking about, and even the IVB venture has nothing to do with them. Why haven't you continued to work with them post this Times Square event? Correct. It's got nothing to do with them. But we had a really good relationship. great run, particularly with the guys at Seller. That's who we're working with over the course of 18 months, 24 months.

Really good relationship with those guys and what I've got to say about his excellency is he did amazing things. He's done amazing things and we'll continue to do amazing things for boxing. It was great to be part of that team and working with that team and maybe in the future we'll work again. This round of events, though, is all us. Could I ask though, why aren't you continuing? Look, I think we had a chat about this. We said to them, look, it'd be great to work with you. Just didn't work out on that particular front.

Maybe once in the future do, these ones didn't. So still looking forward to doing this one on my own. I think it's going to be a big challenge, right? The Times Square event, was that the first one that you had been a part of regarding boxing? No, we'd helped with marketing. So we were brought in to help with marketing. The first one we were involved in was for a music one. We did the marketing out of the UK.

So all the advertising side. And we were involved with the LA, Crawford Madreemoff as well, and AJ Dubois at Wembley, mainly in the marketing on the ground marketing and the activation side. Okay. Regarding Times Square, how would you view that event? Because as you know, a lot of hype surrounding it. And in the aftermath, there were people critical of it. It wasn't quite what we thought it was going.

to be how would you view it absolutely i think look i i'm proud of the work we did but i'm also critical um i think there was a couple there's the side that you can't control um the sporting side the boxing side i didn't i don't think really worked out the way that anybody wanted that to um that's we can't control that the side that we could control i have to be critical on the fact that you know the vision for me when i was working alongside the city was for it to be an open event so that people could see into the ring and we had a lot of people turn up to that fight. We had to shut as you were there from 41st up to 47th and it was logistically big. But I think if I'm critical, the fence that went round it, that was not great.

That's where I think we failed. I think it's fair to say. But I think ultimately when talking to the city of San Francisco with regards to this event, that's where the key thing was. It's got to be open, it's going to be clear, the people have got to be a part of the event. It can't be fenced in, that's for sure. And I think I have to be critical about that.

That's the area where I think, you know, it didn't work out how we would have wanted it to. And so just so I understand, how do you go from that experience to then saying, I want to start doing these on my own and really getting into the nitty-gritty of boxing and not just do events on my own, do events at this scale trying to break records?

Like, what's the part that I'm missing? there between that event and now? It's a really good question that one. I love challenging myself. I'm a fan, first and foremost, I'm a fan, right? And I got bit by the boxing bug a long time ago, but being involved in boxing, I think it really kind of gave me, how can I say, I think it gave me that bug,

but I wanted to kind of maybe in a way, I don't know, deliver what wasn't delivered in Times Square, possibly. That's probably the best way of doing it, of saying it. It was something that I felt that in San Francisco we will do. An event for the people that the people have access to. That was the key thing. So that's really the missing link.

I'll kind of deliver on what I felt we hadn't. Look, don't get me wrong. Together, we did a great event. I think Times Square logistically was tough and it was a once-in-a-lifetime event. But I think that's the missing link that you're trying to get to. Okay. And so when you're doing those events, obviously the money behind it is Sela and Turkey and his team and whatnot,

could I ask bluntly, like, who's the money behind this now? You know, because these are big plans that you have. So who is backing you? I think one of the key things is that we come, I'm a businessman. I'm an entrepreneur and I come from 28 years of being in business. And I'm a sports marketer. When I look at it, I think the sport of boxing has been always held up by either a super rich person or a super rich corporation.

The way that we're looking at it is actually building it on three key pillars. First pillar is sponsorship. One of the key things that we're looking at are bringing in corporate sponsors. We're very lucky to have been working within the soccer space and the rugby space. And a lot of our partners that we've been working with in the soccer space, see a natural kind of link between soccer and boxing. The audience is the same. And the big soccer brands haven't had that link into boxing.

So if you look at the sponsors that currently sponsor boxing, they're not your big blue chip companies. So for us, it's about bringing those guys into the boxing space, and they're going to do the heavy lift. The second side is through partners. For us, looking at partners when it comes to experiential zones, you know, we're not just doing the boxing event, which is what it was at Times Square,

but actually creating a fan experience village, creating a food stone and a food village, where we've got local Californian food vendors coming in. So they're bringing in quite a bit of the heavy lift as well when it comes to the investment side. You've got a fun experience village with about 20, 30 different companies all backing it and being part of it. And then thirdly, it's the YouTube.

For us, having done a deal with YouTube, we're really excited about that, and it will be a pay-per-view event. The card level that we're looking to put on, it will be big, and it'll be a pay-per-view event. and the pay-per-view and the associated ticket sales as well, that's where the money's going to come in from. So I think the idea for me was always to say,

look, let's bring in some values from the sporting world that are kind of the FIFA values, where we bring in sponsors to do that, that cover those costs. So that's where the fund is coming from. It's not to say it's going to be easy. Of course, it's never going to be easy. But I think I'm looking at it, two things.

I'm looking at it as a fan. and I'm really excited about it. But also, I think I want it to be as open to the public and as accessible to the public. And that's essentially where the vision's coming from. So one of the first thing that you said in this chat was you're not a promoter. And so who will be the promoter of this event? So the first thing that we had to do was obviously get the permits.

And it took quite a few months. We've been working on this project for a few months. The second thing, because when we do deals with promoters, The first thing they ask us for is who's going to be broadcasting this was to get the broadcast deal in place. Now that we've got both, we've been talking to a few promoters, the usual suspects, as you can imagine, I've worked with quite a few of them for the last two years. So we're talking to them and now it's our focus on the promoter and on the card. So we'll be making decisions of those over the next couple of weeks.

So like the likes of, let's say, Eddie Hearn, Matron, Matt Room, Frank Warren, Queensberry, on and on it goes. was they put on big events. And so why would they do a deal with you? Like, why don't they just do it on their own? Why do they need you? What do you bring to the table that they can't do on their own? He just did Tottenham Hotspur twice last year, two massive events. I'm talking about Eddie.

You know, he does events with Turkey, with not. Ussick Dubois was without Turkey to the best by knowledge. I know Rietz's he sponsored it. So my question is, why would they come to you and do any kind of deal when they could seemingly do it on their own? That's a really good question. and it was the one that everybody asked me. Look, I think when I'm looking to put events on,

they're not stadium events. The last two that I'm known for this one and the one that's coming up are in the open air and their big cultural moments. For us, the vision here is to create that cultural moment, to do something that people talk about that gives back to the people, that gives back to the fans,

that activates two key kind of groups of fans. First of all, the young fans, the 16 to 24, the 18 to 24 fans that have, in some cases, may have been left by the side by boxing. And the second is your casual fan, right? Those are the guys who have lost out maybe as boxing retreated behind some paywalls and behind subscription. They may have lost touch. So the idea is to say to these promoters, listen, we're going to give you actually. to these huge events that are going to get you more fans.

You're going to have a bigger fan base. Your boxers are going to have a bigger fan base. And you're going to be part of a boxing moment, a cultural moment. You know, when we were talking to the mayor of San Francisco, what I was really excited about was he got up on stage on our press conference and said, this is for San Franciscans.

If you look at the World Cup that's going there, if you look at the Super Bowl that's going there, these events, I don't think, are going to have a lot of San Franciscoans in there. They may be priced out. Tickets might be impossible to get. I know they're going to be priced out with FIFA. With us, a huge proportion of these tickets are going to be free, right? So it means that it's going to be a moment where the city can come around,

and they're going to revolve around boxing. That's the beauty of this, right? They're going to revolve around a combat sport. That's amazing for the sport. That's amazing for the brand. and I think the promoters, and I've been talking to them, so I can tell you they are excited, they want to be a part of it.

And ultimately, look, when you create an event that's going to have 150,000 people, 140,000 people, people are going to make money. That's the whole point. So it gives them another revenue stream. So I'm not saying that they're completely altruistic. They're going to love the idea that they're doing something for the city. They're going to love the idea that they're doing something for the sport.

They're going to love the idea that they're taking their boxes, their brands further out to a greater public. But they're also going to love the fact that with people, with eyeballs, comes more money. And they're going to make more money. And I think that's kind of why they're coming to me. So there's no scenario where you're the promoter, with a promoter's license? Look, I'm never going to say never. But at the moment, no, I think the idea for me is to work alongside other promoters.

I want to be a safe haven for promoters. I want them to come up. I'm willing to pay fair money for good fights. And really, listen, I think it's difficult to say because, you know, I'm a big boxing fan. But I don't have the experience that Eddie has. I don't have the experience that Frank Smith has. And I love working with those guys the same as George Warren or Frank Warren or, you know, Oscar. These guys are promoters through and through.

I'm not a promoter. I'm a fan with an ability to create big events, you know, and because of that, I think it's great to be able to say to them, come on, come on work with us. We're here. The door's open for you, and we want to work with as many promoters. And we've just mentioned three of them. Listen, I want to work with as many as I can to make these big shows. Can I ask a small favor, if I may? I'm hearing a lot of your notifications and they're startling at times.

as I'm thinking of the listeners on the podcast, is it possible to just mute maybe your device so that the notifications won't make the noise? No problem at all. Apologies for that. No, no, no worries. I could just see some... They can all see me talking to you, obviously.

No, of course. Oh, well, you know, you never know. But yeah, just wanted to do that for our listeners. Usually, as you know, when you draw a big crowd, unless it's WWE WrestleMania, there has to be a fight attached to that. Meaning, Eddie Hearn announces Ben Eubank. Everyone's like, hey, I want to buy that.

Eddie Hearn doesn't announce, hey, I'm going to go to Tottenham Hotsburgh, get your tickets down, and I'll tell you later about who's going to, you know, compete. And so when you start saying 140,000, and it's very, it's very unique to hear the numbers, to hear the venue, but to not hear any fights attached to it. And so how are you planning to do that? Because, as you know, here in America, boxing isn't as popular here. as it is perhaps where you're from, the UK, where you can fill up a Wembley Stadium. There is no American fighter or fight that I think could draw 140 paid or not paid.

Even if it's free, come one and all. Unless you're having like a Travis Scott and a Drake perform, I don't, even if it's Ousikwolder, the fight everyone's talking about, I don't think that draws 140,000 because I don't think they are commodities that could draw that here in America. And so I'm very curious to know how you plan on getting to that number without a yet a fight attached to it. And even if you get the greatest fight ever, even if you get Tyson Paul 2, I don't know what that fight is, how do you get to 140? I think you've hit the nail on the head. There's two issues that we've got to overcome. The first issue is there is no card,

and I agree with you 100%. There is no card big enough to draw 150,000 in the US. But I will say this. I think the concept is that we're creating a festival, a festival for the city that we're that includes music, that includes the experiential song, that includes the boxing. The boxing is centre and core of it, but it's not your, you know,

it's not the only draw to it. I think you mentioned some, some music stars in there, but I think, you know, if you're looking at it, we like to call it like a mix between Coachella and a World Championship boxing fight.

I think that's essentially what we have to do. And ultimately, as well as it's about the people. It's about the fans. The fans themselves, are the guys who I think that it's got to be about them and they've got to know that they've got to turn out for the city to break that world record

and it's going to be their record as well. So I think it's about creating this festival atmosphere. It's about creating something bigger than, I use the word cultural moment. So I hate to use it again. But it's about creating a cultural moment. I was their moment, I call it. You know, you want the fans across the whole of the Bay Area

to say, look, I was there. First of all, it has to be the, the best card we can put together, but it has to be about other things than that. It's got to be about the music. It's got to be about the food. It's going to be about the experience. It's going to be about everything. And when you create that festival atmosphere, when you create that festival atmosphere, that's when magic happens. And I think what everybody will remember is that it was a great boxing card, but they're not just going to be going for the boxing. And I think that's important. And that's how we capture the casual ban. I, you know,

So when you talk about the stadiums in the UK, you're absolutely right. Boxing in the UK is down to the great work done by the promoters is on fire. They feel stadiums left, right and centre. Unfortunately, here in the States, it's not. So we've got to kind of dig into that casual fan. We've got to get them excited about boxing. And at the end of the day, I know that the purists are going to be maybe a little bit upset with me because they're saying, look, it should always be about the boxing.

but ultimately if we can get these guys, it's 150,000 people, to come for a festival, a citywide festival, an experience. And they happen to fall in love with boxing. That's a win for the sport that we all love. You know, when people say to me, there aren't enough boxing fans anymore.

You know, some people might say, and the purists might hate the fact that Jake Paul is in a ring fighting, right? But there is no denying, that that guys put eyeballs on the sport. And when you look at the numbers that he's converting on Netflix, and then you look at what Netflix is done when you've got Crawford, Canelo, those numbers, those 40 million, those 100 million, those 70-odd million,

all those numbers that we've seen from Netflix, that says to me people still love boxing. And those are casual fans. So we just got to activate those casual fans, but you're absolutely right. It's not going to be easy, that's for sure. It's a challenge. I love a challenge, but it's going to be tough.

Is there a possibility that it becomes this festival and the boxing is sort of the side piece, if you will? Because the way it was sort of, I think on my radar was like it's about 140 to see this boxing, but what I'm understanding from you is it's going to be a lot of stuff that will draw on people and there just so happens to be boxing as well, and so you can say this many people watch the boxing. No, because of the positioning. boxing will be front and center and everything will revolve around the boxing so if you can imagine

city hall the ring is going to be right there right in front of city hall the sections are along and we're moving all the way back to UN Plaza and the roads to the side they're going to be huge and you're going to be able to see the boxing but you're going to be able to experience other things but no boxing is front and center

it's number one is the most important thing I think for me otherwise I would have kept in the name I visit media instead of I visit boxing so where I visit boxing because boxing is the most important thing to us. Okay, so I've consumed a lot of your interviews, and one thing that I'm unclear on is you say that it's going to be free

for the vast majority of people, but there will be some tickets that will be sold. And so can you clear it up for me? Like, what is it? 5%, 10% of the tickets are to be paid for, and the rest are free. And if they are free, how are you making money?

Because, yes, we'll get to the YouTube in a moment, but as you know, tickets do help generate revenue for an event, a promoter. I know the Times Square one was different, but it was much, much smaller. So that many people walking in for free, how do you generate money? I think we're looking at around 50%.

So just to give you money, 50% will be free. So 50% of 140 is still 70,000 people that are paying for tickets. Absolutely. So you still got a stadium. Oh, gosh. All right.

Okay, okay. I thought it was free for everyone. No, no, no, no. I think we've said free for the majority. So I think it's going to be over 50% will be free. There will be paid for tickets. It'll just be scaled. So in essence, if it's 70,000, then you're paying free.

You're all the way like you're in Los Angeles watching in seven years, right? How are you going to? I've been really lucky. It's a great open space to be able to build a ring. And I've been really lucky to work alongside some amazing designers and engineers that are making this work for me. than me sit there and tell them what to do. Sure.

But yeah, the idea is that everybody has a clear view of the ring. Okay. Okay. You may be watching on Jumbetrons. You'll be watching on repeater screens too, for sure. But it's the same as you do in a stadium. So as you can see, it's a great open space there. And it goes back even further.

So we're really excited that the majority of the people will be able to see the ring and the build. Okay. I guess if it's 51 to 49, that would be the majority, right? If it's 50%, that's half. But I understand what you're saying. Now, I want to talk about the YouTube component because I'm a big sports fan, sports media interests me. When YouTube did a deal with the NFL, they had a football game that they aired Chargers, Chiefs, back in September from Brazil.

Like, that was a big announcement. And I've seen you say YouTube. I don't see where YouTube is talking about this event. So this show is on YouTube right now. And I could charge for it or I can not charge for it. Anyone could put their prelims, their main card, anyone could do anything on YouTube. How is your deal different than everything? everyone else who's putting their content on YouTube. What is the nature of this deal that you have

with YouTube? Because as you say, you know, like, yeah, YouTube is a massive platform, but anyone can flick that switch. Very few, the NFL being one of them. I saw this graphic on your social media. Yeah, 2.7 billion users. I get that. But, you know, the ones on Netflix, like they have a deal with MVP. MVP is getting money from them. So is PBC from Prime, etc. What is the nature of your deal with YouTube? I think it's really exciting. There was multiple. reasons why we went with YouTube. I think the first reason you've clearly showed it there is the scale and the reach that they've got. The platform is incredible. The audience is incredible. But looking at the NFL, I think one of the things, and we were using the NFL as a guide,

you're absolutely right. It's a really good point of bringing that up. It's all the added extras that we were looking at, the technology that they invested in that they're going to put it behind our broadcast. So the live content creator watchalongs, which doesn't happen at the moment with other boxing. I, the pay-per-view fights. I haven't seen anybody do paper-view fights to YouTube as well. So you're absolutely wrong. Logan Paul, sorry to interrupt.

Logan Paul and KSI was YouTube pay-per-view back in the day. Yeah, a few years ago. We're not talking about now on the process. And also the fantastic agreement that we've done with them with regards to them pushing us out there and being part of that advertising and, um, I think for me, the great excitement of doing the deal with them was about accessing that new audience I was talking about, that new casual fan, the younger audience. And I think that has a lot to do with the content creators. That has a lot to do. I think I was really excited about, A, the multi-streams that at the NFL

had, be the content creator watchalongs, see the access to the pay-per-view. You're absolutely right. I think when you look at pay-per-view on other channel, other streamers, like the zone, I think the actual reach of the pay-per-view for YouTube is the base is a lot, lot bigger, which means that we only have to convert a very, very small percent of this to become a huge pay-per-view by, right? So I think it's in the intricacies of the help that YouTube are going to come in and be part of this growth strategy, within the sport of boxing, but also I think within that audience base and talking to the guys,

you know, they know that combat sports is one of the biggest growth areas within the stream, their platform. So it's about closing in on doing some more closer work with them. And we're going to be announcing that

in a future press conference very soon with a little bit more information and a little bit more depth around February time. Okay. And so I hope you just understand where I'm coming from. you know like when the google NFL deal was announced they announced Sunday ticket going over there two billion dollars i don't see i'm i'm trying to find the announcement where youtube has yet to

comment on this and so i'm wondering like do you have a rights deal with youtube or are you doing like some sort of like revenue share with them is a is it a is it a different type of deal where again promoters can put events on youtube and so i feel like it's being positioned if i'm if i'm able to be 100% blunt as like we have signed a deal with YouTube. This promoter has Netflix. This promoter has the zone. This promoter. And we have YouTube. But I don't see any indication that makes it seem like this is an exclusive rights deal in which YouTube is paying you to put your events on their platform. No, absolutely. I get what you're saying. And I like you being blunt. For me, we're going to be announcing it, the details of everything around that time in

February when we announce our first card. And that's really when you guys. are going to get all the details that you want to see. Okay. And that's kind of why we... Is it a right steal? Are they paying you to put your events on YouTube exclusively? We're making money together with them, and that's what we're going to announce at the beginning around February time.

Okay. Your first event, when is that? We're looking. Well, that's the press conference. It's going to be tied in together. Okay. Looking around April time. April.

And that won't be an event of this scale, right? This will be like a regular arena show. Look, one of the big reasons that we wanted to do, we're not just doing the one event, we're looking at multiple events, which we streamed on YouTube. For us, Iconic was always the kind of the guiding principle. Two things that have always kind of driven.

Number one is the fans, bringing boxing back to the people. And number two, we want to kind of to draw upon kind of history. And we wanted to draw upon legacy. So I think one of the biggest things that we wanted to do was looking at legacy and that history. So all the events that we do are going to have

quite a big level of legacy and iconic element. So it won't be an arena show, for sure. It's not going to be in a standard arena. It's going to be iconic in one way shape or form. And who would be the promoter for that? Again, that'll be announced. That's what we're working on right now. That's in three months.

That's in three months. And so what I'm worried about is like, Eddie has an exclusive deal with DeZone. I know DeZone got paid by Netflix to allow AJ to fight their same with Katie Taylor, but which promoter is going to be able to do that and give you their talent? Unless it's a top rank or a golden boy who at the moment don't have deals, is it them? I'm not. It's very good to ask me and it's one of the big questions that everybody's asking me.

I think it's fair to say that it is time is ticking. and we're fully aware that we've got to sell the tickets for it and put the show on. We're very close to agreeing a deal and when we agree, we'll let everybody know. True or false, Alexander Usik, Deonté Wilder, is the fight that you were targeting for this July 11th event. That seems to be the one that has been, you know,

connected to this event the most. False. For us, I think we, listen, I think we did have chats with the Usik team a little while ago, quite fruitful chats with them. Nothing was agreed. We've seen all, everything blow up about that. It came from the fact that someone said to me, would I like having Ucic on a card?

And anybody would like to have music on a card, right? And that I think blew up that way. But no, nothing's been confirmed yet. Okay. And so if it were up to you, what would be the biggest fight that you could put in that main event to draw that amount of people? I've heard you say Tyson Fury against anyone. But again, Tyson Fury, Spencer Brown, Frank Warren. I just have a hard time believing that they're just going to offer him up to you.

Maybe I'm naive. Tell me more. What's the dream fight? Oh, that's a really good question. Every time I say it, I'm a fan, so I want to tell you the story. I want to tell you what I really like. But every time I say, it blows up in the news, it blows up on socials. This is the gift and the curse.

You're in the news right now, so people are hanging on every word. So I can't tell you what I'm really like. Otherwise, the socials will blow up and I'll be on your show next week, and you're going to say, is it real? I think I'm a fan and what I really want most importantly is the biggest card

we can put together and I'm going to listen, my head is very much on that now I know that the world is waiting I know that the world of boxing is waiting for me to kind of deliver that news and as soon as I do my business believe me I will go out there

and I will tell the world and once the promoter is done for this fight I'm sure they're going to be side by side telling the world that we've done it. And I'm sure, and I will tell you this, that we won't have any disappointed people out there. They're going to really look forward to the cards that we've put on this year. Could I ask about Plan B, what if no promoter says I want to work with you, for whatever reason, right? And now you need to be your own promoter. Have you had the conversations with the Andy Fosters of the world, the executive director of the California State Athletic Commission,

to do this on your own if you have to? Or if that comes to past. you have to completely scrap these plans. No, I'm really glad to say that we've already got office room promoters already. Okay, okay. You're not worried. No, no, no, not at all. Not at all. I think, listen, we would not, this isn't something that we came up with last week.

This is something we've been working on for the last seven, eight months, as you can imagine. So we've already had quite extensive talks with a lot of promoters, and a lot of promoters have already said that they want to do it. Um, it's, uh, we're in the moment of finalizing those deals because we want the very best for the fans. So we would like to put the best cards together that we can. But, um, I will not promote that first five. I will not promote the July five. That will be done by somebody else.

And, um, we have offers already on the table. And, and the plan as of now is 24 events over the next 12 months, right? Minimum of 12. I'm looking at the 12 big ones. We'd like to do 12 special ones, 12, 12 iconic ones. Okay. It may be an opportunity. There is an opportunity.

We've talked about this at length with YouTube, but doing some more kind of next-gen stuff. But at the moment, our focus very much is on those 12 big iconic fights. And I've heard you say you really want to give back to the fans. You want it to be accessible, free, and whatnot. And I understand that. You've explained the breakdown in terms of ticket sales. Why then put it on pay-per-view on YouTube?

Why not the NFL is free on YouTube? Why have a price, you know, what's the word? Like, you know, like, well, I have it on pay-per-view. Why is there that barrier? There will be, we've had long chats with YouTube. There will be fights that will be, and some of these iconic fights will be free. Not all of them will be pay-per-view. But I feel that, you know, when you're looking, I'm not going to sit here,

and I've heard other people say this, I'm going to scrap pay-per-view. we're not going to charge anymore and then next month the pay-per-view goes on again look i'm not going to lie paper views and i heard you talking about it with your previous guest you know paper view still is an integral part of boxing to realistically fund uh the purse that you need you need um pay-per-view um so in some of them particularly when we're looking at the larger names the stronger cards we're going to need payper-view to be a part of it and the one thing that i will say about pay-per-view and it's something that we, even today when talking to YouTube, it was something that we were both extremely committed to, is affordability and accessibility. So the reason why we went

with YouTube was because it's accessible. The reason why we went and then the decision together was that it would be affordable. Surround the $15 mark, which is a huge price saving to what's currently out there in the market. And as a fan, I look at the fans and they're being asked to to pay more and more for their pay-per-views and more weekly pay-per-view shows that you can't afford it. And I think in a way, I want to say to the fans,

listen, guys, our shows are going to be once a month, give or take, and we want to make it affordable so you don't have to worry about paying to watch our shows. It's going to be really affordable. And we kind of capitalize on that huge platform

that YouTube is, as you mentioned, you're on YouTube, and it's a huge platform, and make it accessible for everybody at the $15 mark. And so it would be disingenuous of me to say to you, listen, we're not going to charge pay-per-view,

we're going to get some, it's going to be paid for and it's going to be free. There will be some that are free. There will be big fights that are free. But the majority will be pay-per-view. And that's just the way that I see the world continue. And by the way, for boxing, I think, is the most sustainable way. what you don't want is people coming into the sport saying they're going to do this,

saying they do that, run out of money, and then the sport go back to what it was before. You want to have a steady, a business that makes sense financially, that builds towards the future, and that delivers stability for the fans so that they know, yeah, I may not be paying a lot of pay-per-view.

It's affordable. I know the quality is always going to be good, and I know the show's going to be good. So really kind of our vision is for the fact, fans. It's a fan-first vision for boxing, really. And rather than come in, do some big shows, give it away for free, and then disappear in three, six months, three months, two months. And just curious, why did you pick San Francisco? Any particular reason why you've chosen to do that big event there? Multiple reasons. First of all, San Francisco is a city that has, at the moment,

a mayor that really is investing in the city. It's investing in change in that city. and see sport as a sport and entertainment as a key driver to the reinvention of San Francisco. Second of all, and I know everybody's really keen to find out the nitty gritty about the YouTube deal, but it's home for Google. It's a tech base, and we want to align ourselves very closely with tech. But also, it's an old fight town. Some of the biggest and best fights were there, and it has history. It has a fight history.

If you go back to the beginning, you can go back to Alcatraz, is a really good. example, look at the fights they did informal fights and then they did Army Navy fights, which they paid for and the fans would go to our Catrass to watch those fights. It's an old fight town that apart from, I have to say, there was a fight that Eddie put on there has by and large been forgotten. So we wanted to... Devon Hini, we just pro great. Yeah, exactly. By and large, there's been some big fights there too, but by and large has been forgotten as a fight town, but there has been some. That eddy fight was incredible, you know, so at the arena.

So we saw the green shoots. We know there's a fight fans there in the Bay Area. We know that there's a huge community of fight fans and wanted to give back to them. I'll let you go in a moment, I promise, and thank you for answering. Another time, I'm happy to, you know, as a fan, I'm quite, I'm quite like blown away. I'm sitting here talking to you. No, well, I appreciate that. You can keep on talking to me.

July 11th, it's a big summer in the United States. there'll be two quarter final World Cup matches that day. Are you cognizant of this and are you trying to work around that? Will it not coincide? Because I feel like the eyes of the sporting world, especially in this country. Now, those events won't be in San Francisco, Miami and Kansas City, but it still feels like a lot of attention will be on that. You're going on the same day as two quarter final matches.

Rights pending, and I say right pending because I need to discuss this with the relevant teams, I would love to be able to, you know, when I looked at, sorry, when I remember big events like Glastonbury and there's in the UK, the music festival, and there's a big football match. They tend to show them on the big screens. Big soccer match. A right pending, I'd love to do that. So the vision is that we put those soccer matches on. I'm a big soccer fan. I even slipped up and said football.

So I'd love to have that on there. and right spending, we will. We'll put on the fights in the, sorry, the matches on optic screens. Okay. All right. So that answers that question. And so in the end, to sum up, first event, you're hoping for it to be in April. You're going to make an announcement with more details in February after the April event.

Would the next one be July or will there be one in between? Will there be a May or June? There will be one in between. Okay. One, two in between. So for us to hear our 12, our 12, we're going to basically look at doing one a month or one every six weeks. So there will be some in between.

And all in America? April, America, May, America, June? Some may be, some may be heading their way, making their way to Europe. Okay. Any fights signed? You don't have to tell me if, like, what they are, but just like, as of right now, are their fights signed? Yes, there are, or agreement four.

Okay. Yes, some already planned. All right. I think we'll leave it at that. I appreciate the time, Ed. Good luck to you in the team. It seems like a Herkulean task. You seem up for the challenge.

I wish you the best, and I'm looking forward to hearing more about this. I am super excited. I know it is a thank you for realizing it's a huge task. What do they say? If you aim for the stars and you hit the top of the mountain, that's really good. Essentially what we're going to do. We're going to aim for the stars.

Not to say we're going to manage it completely. I'm sure there'll be some fans. They'll just find it dreadful what we did, and there'll be some fans that appreciate what we've done, but though, we're trying to do the very best for the sport and just grow the sport, just see that there's more fans engaged with the sport. Boxing is a fabulous sport. It's got some amazing qualities that know other sport. And I always say this to finish off. I'm going to say this, listen, many, many years ago, boxing was bigger than soccer. Boxing was bigger than

football. It was the biggest sport in the planet. You'd walk around the city and anybody would know who the heavyweight champion of the world was. Unfortunately, that's not the case anymore. And I think we can get it close to that being again. You know, we can make sure that people know who the heavyweight champion of the world is for sure. So hopefully we can get at least some way towards that. I lied.

One quick one. Do you have investors? Do you have money behind you in terms of, I know about the sponsorship and whatnot, but like, do you have any people who are backing you at the moment? At the moment, it's fair to say no. But look, I'm an entrepreneur. I own a very successful business in the UK. We're a big media owner in the UK.

We own a lot of digital screens and look after a lot of very big clients. So we've been funding it with the revenue from that business. And that's where the investment's been coming from up to now. Ed, I wish you the best. Thank you so much for the time. Looking forward to hearing more about this. Definitely. I'll keep you in touch.

And thanks for your fans for all the support so far. Appreciate it. There he is. Ed Pereer, the CEO of I Visit Media. and the newly formed I Visit Boxing was some, like I said, some lofty plans, a Herculean task to draw that many people.

The deal with YouTube and whatnot, these are some big plans. And look, he seems like a very smart man. He seems like a very pleasant man to speak with. I hope he didn't think that I was poking or trying to poke too many holes. You all just know, if you've been watching us for a long time,

look nor further than this. this time last year with the GFL, we have talked to a lot of people who have been in the fight game and who have had lofty plans. I mean, we just went through this in MMA with the GFL. And boxing has certainly seen its fair share of people who have come on and, you know, said, I'm going to do this, that and the other. And it hasn't quite worked out that way. And so I am very curious to see how this pans out, how they expect to do it, what kind of deals they have in place, what the nature of the deal is with YouTube, with the nature of the deal or deals are with the promoters, how you're going to get these promoters to give him his best fighters and put them on these events.

There's a, you know, he was on for 40 something minutes, if not more, maybe 50 or so minutes. And I still feel like I have a lot of questions that need to be answered, not because I didn't ask the questions that I wanted to ask, but just right now it seems like all those answers aren't quite there just yet. So let's see how this all plays out. a very interesting story and I do wish them the best and I'm very curious. I'm very, very curious to see. These types of stories are fascinating to me, certainly when it comes to the business side of the fight game. All right. A few things I wanted to get to. A few things I wanted to get to. Number one, if you're

watching us live right now, you may have noticed that there is a pinned chat. Well, I just opened it. Hello, chat. How are you? I see you guys. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it. Lazybed. Dave. Andrew Barker. All of you. Why am I seeing this? Oh, there it is. Okay. There was a chat summary thing that I was hoping would go away. You may see a GoFundMe link pinned to the top of the chat right now. There it is. And this is a very cool thing that a man by the name of Mike Fonseca is doing for Kane Valenna. Mike Fonseca, longtime agent of one Kane Velasquez, reached out to me about this, and he wanted to do something very special for King Belasquez. As you know, Kane Balasquez is currently incarcerated, but the plan is, the hope is that he will be released in February. That is the hope. That is the hope. And what Mike wants to do is he wants to put together funds, hence the GoFundMe, to to give this gift to Kane upon his return to society. And so I'm reading this off the GoFundMe.

Recently we discovered that Kane's dream car in 1971 Ford Torino has been sitting mostly forgotten in a warehouse in California. A restoration project that began nearly a decade ago was never completed as life got in the way. The opportunity to show Kane the love we have long wanted to express is now before us, restoring his dream car to its original glory

with a touch of Kane Velasquez's flare. So how you can help, your support will go directly toward restoring the 1971 Ford Torino as a welcome home gift to Kane upon his release. And why does it matter, it says. Kane has always been a fighter. This time, the fight is about healing and redemption. By contributing, you are not just helping restore a car. You are reminding a father who risked everything for his family that he was never alone

and that compassion still surrounds him. Every donation, no matter the size, is our gift of compassion and love for one. of humanity's kindest and most gentle souls, thank you for your unwavering support. And so there you have it. If you want to contribute, and I know everyone has their own situation, so not forcing this upon anyone at all. There's a link right there. Check it out. I think it's a pretty cool idea. It's a great gesture from someone who has been by Kane's side for quite some time. And so I wanted to shine some light on that. Gentlemen, you going to the, You planning on going to the July 11th event?

For sure. Okay. I'm going to there. What are you listening to there? What's going on? I caught that to me. I caught him with, you know, it was like when I walked. You catch me to them.

I saw you with the, the headphones. Yeah. I'll keep it in and do this. Yeah, no problem. Why are you getting so defensive? A laptop's back here. I don't like we're getting in trouble. No, I just wanted to know what you were listening.

I was done. wondering what you were listening. I was a bad bunny, man. I was getting ready for the... Nah, na, no, no. Yeah, I'm going out to San Francisco for the Super Bowl, and then I'll be back for I Visit Boxing. It's actually Santa Clara at the Super Bowl.

Super Bowl 60. Bay Area. Yeah, that is the Yay Area. Very interesting, very interesting. You guys, you guys think it happens, or... No. Okay. No.

No. No. Wow. I'm trying to be... It's too ambitious. I'm trying to be a little optimistic. I don't think they get Ussick versus Wilder. I don't think they get 140,000 people there.

I just don't. It would be incredible. You said it five or six times, Herculian effort. For a moment there, I was like, oh, maybe the move is like you'll get Bad Bunny or Travis Scott some way somehow. Are you paying for them? I mean, yeah. Well, then that was the other thing. How are you going to pay for Bad Bunny and Travis Scott?

I'm just saying, I'm just saying, because at first it was like, okay, there's concerts and food. Okay, this is going to be a festival. I get it. and then you'll have the boxing on the side, but it seems like the boxing is supposed to be front and center. And so then I don't know how you get the other people and then how you're paying for it. And yeah, it's, I mean, talk about shooting for the moon, right?

Talk about shooting for the moon. It feels better as an idea. I just don't believe it will happen. Yeah, especially in this country, right? Like if you told me they're going to do Tyson Fury versus A.J. Somewhere in England, I'd be like, yeah, you could probably get 140,000 people if you're going to pay you know, them top dollar and charge very little for tickets and all that stuff.

But in this country, I don't know if there's a, is there a single fight in this country that could draw 100,000 people? Yeah, I mean, what could draw 100,000 people? Connor versus Jake? Hmm. Could probably draw 100K. Yeah, maybe. Maybe. Connor versus Mayweather again, maybe?

I don't know. Again. You can fill a stadium for that, I think. I will just say originally I heard like the vast majority are going to be free and now you hear 50% and they say all right I'm I'm less concerned about how they shake out the tickets at the end how are they going to foot the bill for all this stuff that they're planning up front sure sure where is the money coming from yeah yeah to do this time square right they were involved you know yeah ed was talking about being involved in the time square thing with turkey I can't imagine that that made them a significant amount of money and so no they didn't sell any tickets yeah and you have to be sitting on a massive long for that, how can you do an event of this scope of this scale without insane amounts of money up front? And if it's not Turkey putting up this money for it, then we've got some kind of new player who's very interested in burning through cash in the boxing space because I can't imagine somebody footing the bill for this.

All right, let's wait and see. Speaking of big boxing events, I stumbled upon this and I hadn't really seen it picked up anywhere. Very recently, Katie Taylor was speaking at Croke Park, and I've not heard her say this to anyone. She said, essentially, this is going to be, or the hope is, this is going to be her last year, and she wants her last fight, sort of insinuating that there's one more fight left, and she wants it to be at Croke Park. Again, hadn't really seen this picked up anywhere. It was just sort of, like, it was there on the feed, and I was like, wait, what is this? Is this new? Yeah, it seems new. it seems very relevant and it seems newsworthy.

Here's Katie Taylor talking about this. 2026, hopefully, is a promising year for you. Obviously, you haven't been in the ring since last year. Do you plan to make a comeback? I do, actually. I was thinking I loved to have my career here in Ireland, and I love to have my final fight here. This will probably be my last year in the ring, I'd say.

And I love to have my career here in Ireland. And the Crow Park is looking very nice today, isn't it? It is. So please get it make it happen, please. I want to end my career here. I mean, there's rumors of you taking on UFC champion. Ronda Rousey. Will that happen this year, do you think?

Yeah, I mean, I'm obviously up for any challenge. Rhonda Rousey is an iconic figure in her own right, a legend of her sport. But I'm not really too sure how those rumors started, to be honest with myself, and Ronda Rousey. Yeah, I know Shantel Cameron is, is eager for a second bite of the cherry as well. I mean, she's the only professional to have beaten you in your career,

1-1. Would you like a rematch with her? Yeah, I mean, like I said, I'm genuinely up for any challenge. Chantal Cameron, Rhonda Rousey, Holly Home, whoever may be, I'm up for the challenge. But the most important thing for me is to end my career here in Ireland in front of my home crowd. And for me, to have a chance to fight here in Crow Park, for me, it would be ice on a cake. I mean, 80,000 people here, would it be incredible?

Wouldn't it be absolutely, like, so special, so insane? Number one, and shout out to Ireland AM for that clip. Number one, no one deserves that moment, that fight, that send-off more than her in fight sports, because she's never had the opportunity to fight there. Only a couple times in Ireland, it took her so late into her career to finally get there. we've obviously heard about Croke Park a bunch of times, whether it's regarding her or Cona McGregor, and we've kind of, I don't know, we've kind of hit a wall with that. To hear her say, I want to end my career in Ireland this year is newsworthy.

And to hear her say, this is going to be my last year in the ring, is very newsworthy because I know you ask her. Anytime you ask her this, she gets uncomfortable, she gets almost upset, dare I say upset, like Katie Taylor upset, which is, you know, not really upset. Very pleasant, very nice, very sweet. and so to hear her say that is very noteworthy and newsworthy, and I hope it happens, and I wonder when and if and how it could happen. I know that there was some hope if Holly Holm fought and beat Stephanie Hahn January 3rd in Puerto Rico that they would do Holly Home versus Katie Taylor. Holly lost that fight, so you can't do it. I don't think Stephanie has that kind of cachet. The Cameron fight's a big one.

Not sure if, you know, I think Katie versus anyone, especially if it's bill does the retirement fight, I think it can easily sell out or draw an immense amount of people to Croke Park. I'm just really curious to hear how we got to this. And hearing her say it is fascinating. And it's been a lot of speculation. And so let us see. But I thought that that was extremely newsworthy. Speaking of newsworthy, we mentioned yesterday that Gable Stephson is coming back in February, Mexico Fight League.

This could be his last fight before inevitably. signing with the UFC and some footage has dropped of Gable training with John Jones. And we know they train together, but to see Johnny Bones Jones hold myths for Gable. And we know how great of an athlete he is. We know how quick he is. And we know how he's still so new to all this. As Clyde Frazier would say, he's a neophyte when it comes to mixed martial arts. But he is picking it up.

And yes, I know this is just pad hitting. But that's Brandon Gibson, one of the very best of all time, who is, been by the side of John Jones for the vast majority of his career and all the great fighters that have come out of Albuquerque over the years via that Jackson winked gym. Look at this. Look at this. And then you look at this on the mats at the University of Minnesota. This is John Jones, one of the greatest, if not the greatest, MMA fighter of all time, the greatest certainly in most people's eyes. You see them going together. Yes, D.C. says, hey, as a fighter, obviously, great mentor, as a person, D.C. would say not.

But to just see John invest so much in this guy, and perhaps he views Gable as like the passing of the torch, and perhaps he views him as the guy that he is going to truly invest in, as he transitions out of fighting, maybe not quite done yet, but certainly the back two of his career, is fascinating to watch, is really fascinating to watch. and if he if Gable listens to these guys to the likes of John

to the likes of Brandon Gibson and of course Greg Jackson Yoda I mean he is well on his way he is well on his way even without them with them I mean we're about to see something very special

the likes of which that I don't know if we've seen in quite some time like a true blue chip prospect coming into the sport with very little fights I mean maybe the last time is it possible off the top of my dome Brock is that possible and the connections there are obviously so similar.

Brock University of Minnesota, you know, heavyweight champion multiple times, all that stuff. WWB, yes, and Gable's journey a little bit different. But I don't remember, obviously there have been big names that have come to the UFC that have been signed by the UFC that we've been excited about. But this early in their career where we were like, yes,

we know that guy, we're aware of him, he's done amazing things, Olympic gold medal, and he's jumping right in. A couple fights here, a couple fights there, but he's jumping right in. I am very, very excited to see how this plays out. And that footage to me is fascinating. Speaking of worlds colliding, so to speak, Marab and Ilya.

I was just going to say, Alex Pereira is probably the last one like that. Like, I think he only had three or four fights before the UFC, LFA, and then it was like, all right, it's time to bring this guy in. Now, circumstances different there because it felt like they were angling toward Izzy specifically. He was supposed to kind of be that foil. Was it this big? Was it this big? Oh, no, because I think most people didn't think Alex would be good. Like, most people were kind of hedging their bets and skeptical about Alex Pereira.

But he was certainly somebody who, with minimal fights, they were like, okay, we're grooming him for the UFC. He comes in. Then he does what he does. But it was supposed to be for Izzy more so than for Alex as Blue Chip prospect. I just think people were excited about the prospect of him being in the sport. And he came so quickly in his MMA career. He did have a whole other fighting career before that. 100%.

I mean, Gables had a wrestling career. Sure, sure. But I'm talking about people have sort of graduated into MMA. He's going pro to pro. I get the, I mean, honestly, Ronda to a degree, there was a ton of hype when she was competing on those tough enough shows. There was a ton of hype. And then her early Strike Force fights. How many in was Ronda before Strike Force?

Not that many. Maybe one. Let's see. Maybe one or two max. What we put bow on this spectrum? Hmm. You know what? I like that one.

Let's just first answer that. She had two before coming into strike. to strike KOTC, King of the Cage and Hard Knocks Charmaine Tweet, shout out, it's been a while By the way, those are actually really good wins Yeah, before coming in. Edian Gomez, yeah, okay, tough enough were, but even like, so tough enough was That's amateur, but I still remember those, because she was winning via Arm Bar

Arm Bar, Arm Bar, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. Her first 11 wins in a row, amateur and pro were all via Arm Bar. Yeah, she was pretty good. I mean, we're going Gaga over Walter Walker winning three in a row. This is 11 in a row. That might be... Heel hooks, though. I don't know. I mean, just like the same move

over and over again. And heel hook is probably tougher and especially... Remember the Paul Harris era? Don't ever forget. Yeah, man, but this is nuts. That's why I maintain they totally botched her WWE debut. She had an actual finisher baked into her persona.

She had the benefit of coming over to the WWE without them having to get the finisher over, having to explain like, oh, what a stunner is or a DDT. No, we all knew. Rhonda slaps on the arm bar. It lights out. The match is over.

The best fighters in the world tap. And here she is in a match against Stephanie McMan and Stephanie's getting out of it multiple times. Obviously, no knock on her. And I know it's wrestling, but it's like, no, it should have been

automatic. It should have been people like scrambling to avoid even her locking it in because if she locks it in, it's over. And I felt like they kind of, they diluted it. They watered it down.

I think you're not giving enough credit to Stephanie McMahon's like escapes, you know? She's been wrestling for a long time. No, you're right, you're right. The bow one is interesting. The bow one is interesting. But I don't know if it's this. No, this feels different.

There were a couple of bow knockouts there early on, remember? Like, what do he have? Two fights before coming into the UFC? Let's see. But he also had two on contender series. Don't forget. No, but I'm talking about like... I think they did that as like a publicity thing.

No, okay, so he was, he had one. I remember the knockout on Jorge Mazvedal's icon FC3, June of 22, and then he made his contender series he was 1-0 when he got the Contender Series fight That's a big one That knockout went crazy The John Nolan knockout I remember that knockout was everywhere

What was his debut? Val Woodburn His actual debut was Jamie Pickett Yeah then Val Woodrow Yeah Then Cody Brundage Yeah And he made it up to 7 and 0

But I think the Gable Because I think And Beau had He had the ATT guys He had Dustin there sometimes And Jorge there sometimes but because I think it's so rare seeing John attach himself to someone like this

and because it's the heavyweight champion and it's a gold medal like boating compete in the Olympics I feel like this one's big heavyweight feels different and he feels different it's 100% by the way I wasn't offering these names

to counter this remember you know even though my singlet has fallen I'm predicting that Gable Steve's going to be listen you know where did it go it fell the tape the tape wasn't strong though we can put it back up

yeah we could put it back I thought it added a lot. There was a nice little thing there, Clarissa and Gable, the gold medalist. But gold medalist into a division that has no like real depth to it.

Like it is as shallow as it's ever been. And heavyweight's never been a great division. It's just hard to find men that big and that's skilled and not be in the NFL, the NBA, or some other sport. He feels completely different as a prospect. I'm 100% with you.

It's been a while since we've had somebody like this. And it's names like Ronda Rousey, like Bo Nicol, that, like, are significant and mean a lot. And Alex Pereira. It's also going to be fascinating. Inevitably, when he signs with the UFC, do they give him the slow push or the quick push? Is there any chance he doesn't sign with the UFC? No. Could PFL come in and just be like, here's the most money we've ever...

You see the smile on Dana's face when he's asked about him? I know. I know. He's like, he's foaming at the mouth. And there's no way. I mean, to the best of my knowledge, PFL hasn't really inquired, which is... wild to me and maybe they just know that the the price tag is just you know out of their market but no one's you know what it would take a herculean task to sign him uh able steves in headlines i

ivy wow that would be a good one um so so do they give him frank meir yes you think so so why wait and by the way for the audience at all i'm not suggesting actually actually frank mirror but that's what brock did frank was a former heavyweight champion and not too far off from being the heavyweight champ. It was UFC 81. I'll never forget it. It felt so freaking massive. All the WV you guys were in attendance. Do you put him, who? Can we do? Let's do it again. We did it the first time and you guys called me a crazy person or were laughing at me. I'm curious if you have the same stance. Like are you putting him in there against Alexander Volkov? He'd smoke him in a minute. That's number two right now. Smoking Volkov in a minute? Yes. I think he.

got taken out by Jolten Almeda like it was, like it was... You see when he punched the dude and shot at the same time somehow? You love the punch in the shoot. It's fucking nuts. We have to be realistic. Like, I get that Volkov is an experienced fighter. I totally understand. He's a veteran.

He's a really good fighter. It's a different level, man. Gable Steven is a different level. I want to see it. I believe you want to see it. Curtis Blades? That's more interesting because I think stylistically, but Curtis Blades' best thing is Gable Stifes.

Steven's best thing and he's the best in the world. Winner of Derek Lewis versus Waldo Cortez-A-Coste? Yeah, this is not, I don't see anybody here that I'd have them as a favorite over Gable Steven. Up to the champ. By the way, this is actually the closest to the Frank Mere comparison in some ways, not resume. But Walter Walker is so good on the ground.

Oh, come on, man. I'm just saying, what if he gets sloppy and he catches him? That is the same thing as Frank. Frank got him in the knee bar. Yeah, it ain't happening. What if he catches him? That might be the one. Walter wins his next fight.

That might be the one. Do you think they're either that or Mick Parkin? Or rush him. By the way, there, you can't really slow roll him. This division doesn't allow you that opportunity. Really, just a lot of guys, yeah. If he beats Walter Walker, let's say his debut is Walter Walker. I don't believe that would happen, but let's say it is.

Who's after that? Like, you can't really, there is no slow roll. UFC 81 was in February of 2008, Super Bowl weekend. remember. Can we see top 10 MMA heavyweights in February 2008? Yeah, there was like a was it fight matrix? There was there was a site that had historical pay per view. Shout out the fight matrix. Here I'm seeing I'm seeing bloody elbow. Okay. February of 20 2008. The number one heavyweight in the world was Fyodor Armeleineco. Makes sense. Um, the number two heavyweight was big nog, Antonio Hugo no Giro.

Randy Couture, Fabrice O'Radovsky, Josh Barnett, Czech Congo, Gabriel Gonzaga, Mirko Kroko, Alex Amelianenko, Ben Rothwell, Brandon Vera, Sergey Jari Tanov. I know to a new fan, you're like, these are all a bunch of old guys, but again, we're talking about 17 years ago. Like, that is, this is the greatest era

of heavyweight fighting, a little bit past, like, you know, fade or pride, but like not too far up. And you compare it to the names now, and you're like, wow. You know what I mean? It's not the same. It's not the same. This is why, if you, have a chance. Let's say Gable Steven is every bit as good as many believe he is. If you have a chance

to have a, what is he, 25, 26, how old's Gable? Somewhere in that range because he's a few years out of college, 25. 25 year old guy to carry the flag and be your heavyweight champion of the world, you have to take it. And if he can't, right? Let's say Tom Aspinall thwarts that, man, what does that do for a guy like Tom Aspinall? I think you have to. You have to take this opportunity. Could you imagine if they just say like F it? In the first fight? Yeah. No, second.

Give them one. Second and right away. Put him on the White House card. Walter Walker, whoever it is, sounds fine. And then the next one, you give him a title shot. Do the Brock thing. Because Brock lost to Frank, beat Heath Haring, got a title shot. You remember everyone blew their minds?

They're like, what? Title shot? You're one in the UFC and smoked. I mean, it was like uncomfortable watching him against Randy because Randy looked like a lightweight next to a heavyweight. Remember like the way he punched? It was almost like Inspector Gadget. like his arm just kept growing and then it was

hammer fist um obviously the the yeah i don't think he loses in his debut unless they really you know and and that was weird because mazagadi stopped the fight he was probably on route to a win let's be honest imagine they give him like one fight mid-tier guy bolkov and then say eff it winner of tom versus surreal gun i think that's very realistic that's what i'm predicting end of the end of this year you say he fights for the belt that's what i had what is the

What is the argument against? Todd me. Give me this, though. Like, this is so, this would be so fun. We desperately miss this, right? Heavy weight needs it more than anything. That's the thing. Again, you could have an opportunity where either Gable Steveson, 25-year-old, Olympic gold medalist,

beast of a fighter trained by John Aspinall, by John Jones, is your champion, or a world where Tom Aspinor or Sir O'Gon has just thwarted a massive name, a massive star that everybody gets excited about. It's the John Jones versus Shogun thing, right? Like, there was an opportunity for Shogun to be like, yo, I'm the guy. Like, nobody can mess with me right now. Or it was an opportunity for John to say the new era's here. Do it. Do it.

There's no reason not to. There's no reason not to. Man. Let's get him in the UFC. White House card. That's the first. I feel like that. Order of business. If he loses in Mexico Fight League, then maybe not.

But I feel like they're even like helping him, you know, they're guiding him now. I mean, not for nothing. like, you know, I just want to, like, not forget Buccecha. As long as, like, we're having the conversations about future champions, let's not. But they have had him on the Paramount Plus debut, or bigger to have him on the White House. Buccecha? No, no, no. Talking about Gable?

Yes, White House. White House would be a great debut. Yeah, gold medal, yeah. Where's the gold medal out? Oh. Yeah. And now we're talking. Man, him and Kayla, first time ever two gold medalists on the same card.

That would be something, right? man I hope Kayla can fight by that that is so soon yeah that is in less than five months from now speaking of co-labs what about what about our good friends Marab Duwale Shvili and Ilya

still browing it out and here's Marab wrapping the hands getting ready to do a little training with Ilya nice little space there I like the lighting what is that recess lighting is that what it's called not sure

Anyway, are there rocks in the... Oh, yeah, yeah. Man, Antonio Margarito-esque. Here he comes. I think I'llia notices. Oh, yeah, I see a smile there. Man, these two. They've really been there for each other.

I love it, right? You think Ilya watches this weekend, guys? Do you think he watches Justin Gaci and Patty Pimilar? I think we'll get a tweet from him. You think he's there? Is he there in attendance? No. No.

Stays away? I think that's almost like giving them too much of a rub to be like, let me be here for this. Like, they have to come to him. He is the king of this division and they need to hold court with him, not the other way around. But he's watching. Oh, yeah. He's paying attention. He'll have something to say.

I will say, I've been heartened by Patty Pimblitz really said some positive things about him lately. Yeah. Like, I don't know if the heat is as much, but I think it could get built. back up pretty quickly. There's enough timber. You like that match. It'll go up. Well, our good friend, Armistarukin, doesn't think that Patty is doing his part in terms of promoting the fight. I saw on Instagram. He had a very interesting caption regarding one Patty Pibblet. It's chubby Patty Fight Week, but I'm doing the press run. Wake up fat ass and get to work. It's not a good look for the UFC. I mean, he is doing the work. Let's be on. I mean, every time I go

online, there's another hour plus Armant-Sarukian interview posted with all kinds of people. We showed the one yesterday with the YouTuber Matan. I see a DJ one. I saw him with Steinie. Saw him say that I was his favorite interviewer, which was nice.

Appreciate that. I thought that was cool. Call me a UFC only. I like to think that we'd do other things as well, but I'll take the compliment, no doubt. But he's really on a generational run as they say. And I even saw a lot of people in the comments say like, man, shout out to Armand's manager.

This guy's killing it. And I sent that to his manager, Danny. And he was like, listen, man, I'm not taking any credit. But I'll give you the credit. I'm lying. I mean, I'm calling bullshit on that. Meaning what? There's no chance that the words

I'm not taking the credit for this ever came out of Danny's mouth. Never. I'm going to say people weren't showing him love. No, no, no. People are definitely showing him love. Perhaps if they knew it was Danny, they wouldn't show him love. There's no way.

There's no way. No, no, he says, it's all him. I even asked, I was like, is he in on the joke on these or not? And I don't know. Like with the Matan one, it seemed like he was getting a little bit annoyed. Nah. I feel like by the end, he kind of picked up what Matan was doing there. Well, he's still eating.

He's still eating. This one less grandiose, I would say. He's having this dessert. What is this? What is this? A souffle? What is it? Rice pudding?

Yeah? What's on top? It looks like at first. Pineapple? What is that? What is going on? It looks like a beautiful setting. I like when he goes to the guy, yeah, what's that?

What's that? What's going on there? He likes it. You know what we messed up? You know what we should have had when we had the pizza in here? Oh. Dessert, too. Dessert. I suggested the banana pudding.

Yeah. You know, like one of those, like, a little vats. Little vat. Like, you're talking just like a little part. I actually looked up comically large cheesecakes. Oh, yeah? And? Nothing.

Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. up. Like, Juniors has like a six-pounder, but I... Yeah, that's still pretty hefty. Not a big fan of Juniors. That's, like, gigantic. Juniors feels very commercialized.

I'm with you. I'm not a Junior's guy. Worst breakfast I've ever had a new... Oh, yeah. Oh, okay. I'm talking only cheese. No, no, no. I've had the cheesecake, and it feels like one that you know, like I didn't like the grocery store. Like, it doesn't have that special genetic bar.

It's above that, but yes, I agree. It's not like the best cheesecake. Where's the spot that we went, Ariel? Next to Santo Taco. That's Junior. Oh. No, it wasn't, no, you're right. Oh, yes, it's something like that, yeah.

That was pretty good. That was pretty good. That was very New York. Juniors is like, there's like a million juniors now. You can get juniors in the freezer down in Atlanta. Yeah. You can get it in the freezer. You're not wrong.

It was Eileen's special cheesecake. Yeah, the nice little small ones. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that was good. Juniors is a pretty solid baseline. It's just very commercial. I'm taking the factory over it any day. Yeah.

Wait, the what? Cheesecake factory? The factory? Oh, the factory. What's the, what? What's the order there? By the way, Cheesecake Factory is infinitely better than juniors.

Yeah, because the variety, right? No, it's just the quality. It's not the variety. It's like you eat it. Original for original, they're pretty similar. The quality? There's something about the quality. Original for original, they're pretty comparable.

But once you get into the... You ever go with your kids? Chocolate chip cookie dough. Sorry, peanut butter chocolate chip cookie dough. Oh, that's where it's like... I like the Oreo's fire. They have like a banana pudding one as well. What do you say when we're on work trips?

You're like, got to change up the... The composition. The composition. You just got a little something, something, a little something. A little something, something. A little something, something. And then we get like four full-sized dessert. But it's good.

It's good. It's good for the soul. It's fun to go with the kids because they run to the thing. They look at it. They pick their favorite one. I always felt like there were too many pages in the menu. No, no. That's the flex.

Yeah. It's great, though. I mean, never look at the caloric value on no slices, but they're great. Yeah. You mean like 2,000 calories per slice? It's scary. how bad it is for you. No, it's a mess, but it's good for the soul, like I say.

It's good for the soul. If you've never been to the cheesecake factory, shout to them. And they are quite omnipresent as well, especially in the Northeast. Is it a, is it a, is it a, it's national. Not worldwide, though, right? It might be worldwide. Yeah. Yeah, we had several down in Atlanta.

I actually used to think it was legitimate fine dining. I'm not kidding. It was when you're young. Yeah, when I was a kid, I was like, why are we at this place? This place is so nice. That's like when you're old enough to, like, take a woman. on a nice date, not like, like, you know, let's go eat some fast food. Like, you take her on a nice date.

You're like, that's the step up. We're going to cheesecake factory, baby. That's like you got your first, like, job with. Yeah, yeah. Like, you're making like 10.50 an hour. Yeah. Yeah. Cheesecake factory has.

We're going to the factory, baby. Is that or legal seafoods? Shout out. Legal seafood's a step up. Is it? Legal seafood's, oh. We got China. We got Hong Kong, Mexico, Canada.

Oh, shit. Middle East, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Qatar, Bahrain, Lebanon. I'm trying to rip that Bahrain cheesecake bag. Bahrain. I wonder if it's like McDonald's where they have local types of cheesecake, you know, on the menu. I know that Hong Kong one's slapping. Oh, that'd be sick. If it was like Riyadh.

Exactly. Wow. Different ingredients. A little Dubai chocolate cheesecake. Although now you get the Dubai chocolate. Guys, a big fight coming up this Saturday, Waldo Cortez-A Costa versus Derek Lewis. Derek Lewis, obviously a fan favorite. Nice little bit of trash talk.

He's not one to do a lot of trash talk, but I do believe he was on UFC embedded with a banger of a line, if you ask me. Here's Derek Lewis sending a message to WCA. You got anything to say to across that? Don't worry about getting any sleep, because Saturday you will get plenty of sleep. I promise you that.

I thought that was pretty good. Still got the shirt here. Looking great. Look at that shirt. For those that are wondering, we have confirmed, right? We've confirmed in his baseball days he was just Waldo Cortez.

Right? Confirmed it long before the jersey was purchased. Sure. How did you confirm that? Did you ask him? No, there's a website for the roster for the 2010 Dominican League. And this is the what?

Which one was this? This is the San Juan? No, Dominican Summer League Reds. Yeah, yeah. But that's what they were called? It's not like the name of the, it's not the Mataleon. No, no, no.

The DSL Reds. Matalon. There's like the names on the Dominican team, like they are the Dominican League, the Winter League. They all have like, you know, they're like, but that's the Lentatana. That's the lion's tamer, right? Like that's the rear name. Sure, no, I know. I was just trying to say something that was somewhat.

Can't wait for the WBC. That's going to be sick. Anyway, that fight is going to be sick. And speaking of crossovers, what about Justin Gaichi guys? Did you see this? Justin Gehci getting invited by the Vegas Golden Knights. Still don't like that they're called the Vegas Golden Knights. It should be the Las Vegas Golden Knights.

But anyway, the VG. and he was invited into the locker room to read out the starting lineup. This is a thing that happens in hockey, and sometimes teams will invite a celebrity. I've seen Bill Bird do it with the Boston Bruins, and so Gaichi, who is, of course, fighting in Las Vegas this weekend, at Team Mobile home of the Golden Knights, was invited into the locker room.

We could play it here, and I thought it was very fun for multiple reasons. We've got a special guest in the building to announce the starters. It seems very excited. They seem excited. Nice pop for, here's the part that I love. He commits to the fist bump, and then I think at some point he's like, man, I didn't realize this was going to be so long, right? Like this is a lot of fist bumping here, right?

Like at some point he does the little half jogs. We cut it. All right, all right. Fist bump, fist bump. Okay, all right. One more. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, that's like naming all the people who work on the team, and they're like, damn.

Anyway, nice little motivational speech here from Justin. Take a listen. It off, but I want you guys, come on. All right, tonight we got starting forwards. We got Braden Bowman. We're going with Keegan Colissar. Do you guys think they knew who was starting? Tomosh Hurdle.

Or they're just kind of playing into it. Look at the pops. And the guys that win the championships, we got Kaden Korzak. Let's go, and we got Noah Hanofi. Let's go. And taking other shots tonight. we got Aiden Hill. Awesome.

I love this game, how fast it is, how aggressive you guys play. All the work's done in the preparation. I know you guys trust that. So go out there and take it to them. Nice job. Justin Gachey, doing a little motivational speaking before the Vegas Golden Knights game. Although, on-air Jordan told me that they may have,

if that was yesterday, two-one loss. Two-on loss. You know what? Also, kind of nice of the Golden Knights not to be like, throw out like three Swedish forwards that you're going to have to he nailed every name.

A couple of them were doozies but I think he may have been maybe he's a big fan by the way or just prep beforehand, good producer but he did nail them. Good for him. Well done. Justin Gichi.

All right. And now we talk about yesterday's program and we talk about me waking up this morning you know, wake up around 6.30 and 6.30 a.m. that is. Yesterday was a good show.

And, you know, first I see who won the football game. Indiana, shout to them. We spoke about them already. Then look around. Inevitably open up the old X, formerly known as Twitter. And I see a crazy amount of replies. And the first thing I see is a crazy amount of replies and sort of like my name being attached to Max Holloway's X account.

And I see a lot of the replies are not very friendly towards me. So I go to the original tweet. and I see this tweet no not this one I see the tweet from Max Holloway about me and I see this I meant people was saying

it was a laughing stock and one of them people was you at Ariel Hawani stop trying to start shit you're 43 years old dude I'm like oh man what's this in reference to and so then I go look at the

tweet that he quoted which is this one Jorge Mosvedal response to Max Holloway calling the BMF belt a laughingstock before he held it. Quote, I love Max as a fighter. That's his opinion. I think he's one of the best to ever do it. He's a dog when he goes in there. But whether it had been me or Nate fighting Max, it wasn't going to be his best night either. I would love to fight Max just as a stylistic matchup. I think he's a great stand-up fighter.

I just think I'm better. I don't know what he means by laughingstock. And so you may recall on the show yesterday, I had Jorge Mazvedal on. And I read him a quote in which Max Holloway refers to the belt as once being a laughingstock and now essentially saying, now that I have it, everyone wants to fight me. I think it's funny. And I read it verbatim. I read the quote verbatim. And I'll show you that clip in a moment.

But I sort of had a mini panic attack when I read all of this because I was like, wait a second, did I misquote him? Did I mess this up? Did he say something different? And then I said it to Jorge and the. Thus, he's clearly a little bit annoyed, mad, perturbed towards me. And so the first thing I did was go on his YouTube channel and re-listen to the clip. He had like a, I don't know, a 15 or so minute video, 20 or so minute video where he talks about fighting Charles Olvera and whatnot.

And I scroll to the part, thanks to close captioning. And I get to the part in which he is saying this quote that I read to Jorge Mazvedal yesterday. And I listened to it. And I'm like, wait a second. I'm pretty sure that's what I said. And so for the sake of clarity and for the sake of being right, which means a lot to me,

here is what Max Holloway said via his video blog about that belt, the BMF belt, which he is defending on March 7th. Here's specifically exactly from his mouth what he said about that BMF title. A BMF belt to me personally represents

just a bad motherfucker, you know? Blessed man forever. You know, only very few get to fight for this belt. You know, the belt was a laughing stock, I feel like before, and then all of a sudden I got it, everybody wants to fight for it now. So it's just, it's hilarious. It's fun to me. I mean, title, no title.

Like I said, I carry myself as a BMF to whatever fight it may be. So at the end of day, having this title, you know, getting this headlining, pay-per-view cards is awesome, you know, and I'm loving it. was a laughing stock. That's what he said, right? He said the belt was a laughing stock. Now look, I just want to say, I am not looking for any type of war, any type of fight, any type of war of words, any type of battle. I'm not looking for any of that with Max Holloway. One of the most beloved fighters of all time, one of the most respected fighters of all time, a guy that I've been covering for well over a decade that I always feel like we had a great relationship. I'm not looking for any of that from him. And it would be stupid of me to try to do that because, like

I said, he's beloved and I have the utmost respect for him. Although, like I say, time and again, if you insinuate that I'm making shit up or that I'm instigating or anything like that when it's inaccurate, I'm going to defend myself. I have to defend myself because then you get to just run with narratives and those narratives take a life of their own. And so that's why I went very quickly to that clip to make sure that I quoted him correctly. I quoted him exactly the way in which he said it. And in case you don't believe me, now you saw the clip. He said the belt was a laughing stock. He did not say people were saying the belt was a laughing stock.

He didn't do that thing. He said the belt was a laughing stock. He didn't say some were saying, the media were saying. He didn't say any of that. He said it as himself. He said that. You heard it. Here's what I said to Jorge Mazvedel.

Max Holloway said this on his YouTube channel. The BMF belt to me personally represents just a bad mother effort. You know, blessed man forever. Only very few get the fight for this belt. The belt was a laughing stock before. all of a sudden I got it and everyone wants to fight for it now. It's hilarious. It's fun to me.

What do you make of that? Him saying that it was a laughing stock before because not many people held that belt. You were the one that put it on the map. I mean, I love Max as a fighter. That's his opinion. That's his opinion. You know, I think he's one of the best fighters to do it. He's a dog when he goes in there.

But whether it have been neat or Nate fighting Max, it wasn't going to be like his best than that either, I think, you know. So I don't think of how, in laughing, We're talking more way because the skill level is obviously there, you know. I mean, I would love to fight Max just on a stylistic matchup. I think he's a great stand-in-fighter. I just think I'm better. And so I am curious, ultimately, at what is bothering Max in all of this?

Did I misquote him? No. Is he bothered that I read the quote verbatim to Jorge Mazvedal? And by that, he views it as instigating. And look, you know, I'm not new to the instigating. thing. Nick Diaz said it way back when. Others say it way back when and they say it when when you bring information a quote to them. My response has always been to the instigating claim. That's the job. The job is to advance things. The job is to listen, to read, to digest what other people are saying,

then to have someone on to do your research and say, oh, this is interesting. This pertains to that person. That's the job. And I don't expect everyone to understand what the job is. I'm not trying to say like, oh, journalism is this very complex thing. I've said time and again that there are many levels of journalism, but to me, part of the job is being right, and part of the job is advancing things. And so when Max Holloway says something like that, the belt was a laughing stock before I got it,

before I won it, when he won that belt at UFC 300, and here I am talking to Jorge Mazvedal, the guy who helped put that belt on the map, I think that that is a very fair question. That is not me trying to stir the pot or instigate, as they say, that is me trying to advance things. I'm curious what Mr. Mosvedal thinks about all of that.

And so I can understand if he would have said, oh, you misquoted me, or if you paraphrased me, that's not really what I said. That wasn't the tone. I literally, short of actually playing Jorge the clip, which I read, again, word for word, I don't know what else I could have done,

and I don't know why I, you know, I am drawing the ire of the great and respected Max Holloway, The job is to advance things. I never said, by the way, I want to make this very clear. I have never said, and if someone can find me saying it, the belt is a laughing stock. You know why? Because to suggest that something is a laughing stock, it's that a whole community laughs at it. The laughing stock is when everyone is laughing.

I don't feel that the MMA community dislikes the BMF title. I don't feel like the BMF title is the laughing stock of the MMF. community. I have said that the belt is a joke. I have said that the belt is a gimmick belt. I have said that the belt doesn't really hold any true value in my mind because the belt, to me, runs counter to what we've always been told about fight sports and in particular the UFC.

In my opinion, the champion of a weight class, and it was once max at 145 and perhaps one day it will be max at 155 is the baddest motherfucker on the planet. That's always what we have been led to believe and what I still believe to this day And so when Max was the BMF champion at 155 When he won that belt at 300 I still viewed Islam Mahachav And I can guarantee you Islam still viewed himself

As the BMF of that division Just because they slap a title on someone Doesn't just automatically make you that thing I have always believed that I'm not shying away from that stance I have said And maybe he didn't like the fact that I said I didn't love this fight for UFC 300

or maybe he didn't like the fact that in the past because he's referring to things that I've said in the past. But I never said it was a laughing stock because that's actually inaccurate. Because I feel like I'm on an island when it comes to the BMF title. I actually feel like a lot of people, including the UFC brass, love it.

And I think the fighters love it as well, but I'm telling you to how I feel. But you know what's the crazy thing about the BMF title? It's the fighters that have helped legitimize it. And so you have never, ever, ever heard me say that the men who fought for that belt are laughing stocks or jokes or gimmick fighters. the first two that fought for it

were Jorge Mosvedo and Nate Diaz technically Anthony Pettis fought for it as well and I can explain the timeline and then of course Jorge won the belt and he never defended it and then they did Justin Gaichi versus Dustin Porriere and Justin won it and then Max fought Justin

and then he defended it against Dustin Porey those are the only fighters that have ever competed for the BMF have you ever truthfully heard me disparage those men in any way shape or form disrespect them say that they are a joke, say that they are a laughing stock. I never said that.

I never, ever, ever said that. It's the same way that I feel about the hardcore title in WWF days. That was a joke gimmick title as well. But Mick Foley helped legitimize it. Mick Foley helped make it into a thing that people wanted to talk about and to go after and stuff. And you got to give all the credit in the world to Nate Diaz. My issue with the BMF has always been, Nate Diaz beats Anthony Pettus in August of 2019.

and he gets on the microphone afterwards and he says, and now I want to defend this title against Jorge Mosvidal and everyone's like, wait, what title? What are you talking about? There is no title.

You're not a champion. And he just made it into a thing. He wielded it into existence. And I love that. I've said this a million times if you've been listening to me. You've heard this, no doubt before. I said it when I was at ESPN

and every stop in between. And I said they should have kept it that way. Make it into like the people's belt but not have it as an actual belt. And then, of course, the UFC, you know, grabbed onto it. And they made the belt and they had the whole ceremony and had the rock, you know, put the belt around his waist, Mazvedal's waist and all this stuff. None of that screamed laughing stock to me.

Having it at MSG, having the president of the United States there, having the rock, put the belt around the winner's waist, the whole ceremony that we were taking. Like, that was a big freaking deal. I just said I didn't like the idea of a title being called BMF when we were always told that the champion was the BMF. So laughing stock, I don't know, that's why I was surprised to hear it, because to suggest that it was a laughing stock

would suggest that when Mazvedal and Nate fought for it, it was laughed at. It was not. I was there. No one was laughing at it. I thought the belt was always a little silly once they corporatized it, but no one was laughing at it.

No one was laughing when Justin Gachie fought Dustin Porier in Utah. No one was laughing at it when you fought Justin Gatia, UFC 300. But he says in that clip, before I got the belt, it was a laughing stop. So what am I supposed to, what am I supposed to do?

I'm reading it to the guy who won it first when it was a physical title and helped put it on the map. Who will forever be linked to that belt. Who when Connor McGregor fought Donald Sorony was sitting cage side, wearing that belt,

helping to make it into a thing. Again, if Max would have said in that clip, people said it was laughing stock. All right, I never said that word, but I get what you're saying. It's splitting hairs. Okay, that's accurate. But he said it as himself as his own opinion. And so how was that instigating? I read what you said verbatim. Pull up his tweet one more time. I read what he said verbatim. I said it to a guy that was being talked about when he fought it. I meant people was saying it was a laughing stock. Okay, did you misspeak? And then again, how is that? How is that my thing? And you're trying to get me in a gotcha moment saying, and one of them people was you, I don't shy away from that. And then the last line is like, man,

43 years old, I've been called an instigator because people have confused just doing the job as instigating since the very beginning. And guess what? If all goes according to plan, I'll be quote unquote instigating,

which I don't actually believe is instigating, but doing exactly that, hopefully God willing, until I'm 75 years old. So the age thing means nothing to me. It means absolutely nothing to me. Yes, I am 43 years old. And I hope that I could do this until I'm very, very, very old and gray.

But felt like an unnecessary shot, felt like he was perturbed. I never talk about people's ages like that in that way. I mean, I wouldn't play and stream video games in my 30s. I don't begrudge anyone who does that. What does that have to do with anything? do what makes you happy. This job makes me happy. Learning, reading, being informed of things makes me happy.

And then talking to the newsmakers and to the people who are being talked about, that is what makes me happy. That is what the job is all about. And so I could, I don't, truth be told with the audience, I don't think Max messes with me. Maybe it's because I've said these things about the BMF title. Maybe it's because I said, you know, the H-Dow days, Arnold Allen, I thought was going to win that fight because he was the underdog. So I picked him. I don't know.

He hasn't been on the show for quite some time. I have certainly asked, I am not looking for a fight. I have never brought this up. I woke up to this tweet. I, in my heart, I was like, my heart was pounding. It was pounding because I thought I misquoted him. And I checked what I said. I checked what he said.

I checked what the script said there, what the text on my tweet said. That's happening in the middle of the show. Obviously, I'm not writing it. I checked at all. And I'm like, we got to write every single step of the way. I don't know what. the issue is here. I really don't. And then of course, you know, everyone's dunking on me and having a whole grand old time. And I'm like, yeah, of course I'm going to, you know, the easy move would be

to ignore this because you don't want to mess with the, the most popular fighter in the sport in many people's eyes. And I'm not trying to mess, but I'm going to defend myself 100%. That's the job. The job is to get things right. And I don't see how I got this one wrong in any way, shape, or form. If I would have, I would have sat here and said, I misquoted you. If I would have paraphrased instead of actually quoting or messed up by whatever way possible, if it wasn't a real, whatever it is, yeah. But the instigating thing is weird. And I would never, ever, ever disparage his career, Nate's career, Jorge's career,

Gae's career. They are not jokes. I think the belt is a little funky because the BMF is the champion of the weight class. They are not the joke. I think I've made that very clear over the years. But I can understand why someone would want to, you know, win that belt. It's a great thing to have. You can get pay-per-view points.

Well, back in the day you could have. You're getting a lot of love. You're getting a lot of admiration, all that stuff. I get it. But come on. As old school fans, as purest, whatever you want to call us, we all agree that the top dog in the division is the BMF. And that's always been my thing with it. If they created it, they used it a couple times to headline shows when they needed titles

at the top of the division, excuse me, at the top of the pay-per-view bill. And that's that. And it's not that big of a deal. But, you know, 43 and a half, to be honest. Almost 44. It's getting crazy. But if that's instigating, there's going to be a lot more of it. There's going to be a lot more of it.

So I hope that no one gets offended by that or upset by that. Anyway, that's that. All of Branch, no issues here. Hopefully no issues on his end. I think there are, if I'm being honest. I'm being 100% honest. I think there are. I don't know why, really.

Certainly tried. Been talking to him for a very long time. But I think he didn't like that one. I think he didn't like that one. I think I kind of said it all on that. Did I miss something? No. No one wants to say anything because we all love Max.

And I get that. We all love Max. And I love him too. but yeah I don't think I I did anything wrong I don't think I misquoted him I was thinking though

like does it take one to no one when it comes to the instigating because remember when Max went to Ireland that one time and he did that whole trip and he did the Guinness thing and I think he was trying to get the fight like that to me is

you know kind of instigating you know like you're trying to pick a fight I was not doing that I was not doing that I don't think I was doing that not even close Frank, any super chats?

Oh yeah. Okay, I'm glad you're still there. Of course. Talk about being on an island, huh? Are you talking about low key, the pro wrestler, L-O-K-I or L-O-W-K-E-Y? I think they were saying L-O-W-K-E-Y. This one's a binger. Ivy B is different, for real.

Okay. I mean, I guess we'll see. I guess we'll see. I appreciate the optimism. You can understand our skepticism. We have seen and heard this before. but let's see, let's see. What else, Frankie? What else?

Boss, you've got to start mentioning GFL to these guys. No, I don't think I do. I don't think I do. But I appreciate the song. I think that they should... You know what a wise man once told me, Frank? What's that? Those who do not learn from history

are doomed to repeat it. Different type of plans, but still, I do think if you're going to get into the promotional game, so to speak, history should be studied. What else, Frankie? What else? This is last. With so many different boxing promotions and every promotion doing something different, will we see the best fight the best?

I just don't understand. I don't understand why someone would say, like, hey, we're going to attach ourselves to you and why, look, Netflix is paying a ton of money to get AJ to fight Jake Paul, right? A ton of money. Is YouTube paying this money? Like, if we're going to do Usikwadr, which he said unequivocally no. Are we going to do Yusik Wilder? I don't think so. And, well, I guess those two actually, you know what? Those two right now aren't tied to anyone.

So I guess you could do those two, but you're not getting AJ versus Fury. So I don't know. And I'm still curious about like why he's not working with Sella and stuff like that. Speaking of boxing, you said that was the last one, right? Yes, sir. I saw this tweet here for my boy Darshan, everything boxing.

Opatai will be allowed to unify. Mick Francis, who is Jai Opataya's co-promoter, so I guess he is still attached to the Tarzan fighters, has said that despite Dana White's and Zufa boxing's insistence that they would not recognize the sanctioning bodies, they will recognize the sanctioning bodies when it comes to Opitaya. Quote, they will let Jai fight for the titles and unify the division. Unifications would likely mean that Zufa would have to work with other promoters, which is something that White again said that he would not be doing.

This is what I said yesterday on the program. I said yesterday on the program that it's just, I am not betting against Dana White, Nick Khan, Mark Shapiro, Ari Emanuel, W, WFC, I am not betting against them. When it comes to fight promotion, they know what they're doing very, very clearly. I'm just wondering why it seems like we're getting mixed messaging. From everything from like working with the sanctioning bodies to not, co-promotion, not. Ali Act, dead, not. Like, it just seems like there's a lot of mixed messaging.

Linear TV deal, so far, not. So that's all. In a year, this whole thing could be very, very different. And I don't mean going away, but it could crystallize. But right now, I think most would agree, given this, A, copromotion, B, unified, undisputed, runs counter to everything that they have been saying since they launched this in March. That's how I feel about it. Tomorrow, Giuliana Pena is going to join us, among others.

So stay tuned for that. It will be my last show before we head closer to UFC 324, BITB on Thursday, crack on Friday, watch party on Saturday, post show on Saturday. So it's still going to be the same type of offering from us, PPVs or not. I do see one fight being announced here, Jelten Al-Meda versus Rizvan Kunev.

February 7th at the meta apex, Jeltena Meda replacing Rhine span. So everyone seems very excited about that, right? And there'll be more to talk about tomorrow. Tomorrow's when like the media day and all that stuff really begins in earnest. So we'll get into that. And also, last thing, I knew there was something on the nose is tomorrow. Arielhuawani.substack.com is the place to be. How good is it that we are ending the show at 4.30 and it's actually

bright. I forgot what this feels like. Is it actually happening earlier than usual? Usually mid June or January, excuse me, I don't think it's light at, or bright outside at 4.30. Not sure why I'm talking like that, but, um... Yeah, sunsets at 458 today. It was 457 yesterday. How about that, Frankie? Yeah. How about that? All right. Time to go, Frankie. Also say it was 459 last year. This time last year the sunset 4.59? Yeah.

It feels refreshing, right? No, it's great. We're almost a daily day. It's about six more weeks. Is it? Yeah, first, what, like usually first or second week of March, right? Yeah, I think it's March 8th this year. We'll be waking up after UFC 326. Man, the best is like any of the fighters in Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, you see them enjoying summertime weather and you're like,

Man, what I was tell on camera at some or two. Right? They just seem happier. They seem healthy. You see the rays. I love when they're on at like seven in the morning on our show. And you just kind of see the rays like poking through. Bright and warm shorts and shirts.

I should address my, I've broken my chair. I can't raise it anymore. Okay. I was wondering about that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, there have been times where at this juncture in the show you're kind of a little bit lower. Yeah, this is not intentional. Okay.

All right. Well, we hope that you can fix that. finds a problem back there. Right? I've been sort of disconnected here, a lot going on today. The bill's hired a new coach yet. It doesn't seem like it, right? No.

Hmm. They just posted something about John McGerman on social. It seems like a little bit late. Anyway, it's a weird time, but you don't have to worry about that. Thank you very much to Atipa Gautier. Thank you very much to Rose Numerunis. Thank you very much to the great Dominic Cruz, Ed Pereira, as well. Thanks to all of you.

Thanks to all of them, back tomorrow's San Bernardis, let's see.