The Ariel Helwani Show - Dricus du Plessis, Jared Cannonier, George Lockhart, MMA 4 Nations Face-Off?

Episode Date: February 18, 2025

Ariel Helwani and the gang kick off the show by laying out MMA's own version of the NHL 4 Nations Face-Off tournament (06:46).Dricus du Plessis discusses his latest UFC middleweight title defense over Sean Strickland, Belal Muhammad's recent comments, his game plan to stop Khamzat Chimaev and more (31:23).Jared Cannonier discusses his "y'all must've forgot" win over Gregory Rodrigues, how he's somehow still competing at an elite level at age 40, what's next in his UFC career and more (01:06:51).George Lockhart, Joseph Parker's nutritionist, previews Saturday's gigantic boxing card and Parker's upcoming challenge against IBF heavyweight champion Daniel Dubois, plus more (01:31:01).The Boys in the Back rejoin Ariel to discuss outstanding news and notes, including an update from Eric Nicksick on his relationship with Sean Strickland (02:06:41).

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Erya Hawaii Show! Back in your life on this Tuesday, February 18, 2000. And 25. Hello again, everyone. I sure hope you're doing well. It's great to be here on a choo-choo Tuesday. We like to play two on Tuesdays, as you know by now. A8 show, usual time.

And then we go to Riyadh at 5 o'clock on the DAZN channel to check in with Adi Oladipo. Oh, my God. Ahead of this massive card on saturday in riad so we got a lot to discuss great show yesterday on the program as my is yet a sanya plastic cell falls one of my favorites uh great show yesterday tremendous stuff from the likes of keshaan davison studio if you have not seen that interview i highly suggested a very emotional interview, a heart-wrenching interview, an honest interview, what this man has overcome and what he is doing in spite of what he has overcome and despite what he has overcome and now becoming one of the faces of boxing and certainly American boxing, nothing short of amazing and just 25 years young. So check that out. Dominic Cruz was fantastic as well.

We had a great show yesterday, and we're going to have a great show today, my friends, because today on the program, we are going to check in with one of my favorite people in combat sports. I've talked about him a lot. He's been on the show in the past as well. His name is George Lockhart. If you are a hardcore MMA fan, you definitely know of George Lockhart because he has worked with the likes of Frankie Edgar, Conor McGregor, Holly Holm, Brian Stann, many others. If you're a boxing fan, you are familiar with him because he has worked with the likes of Badou Jack, Tyson Fury. But recently, he has really focused on Joseph Parker. He has become supremely close to Joseph Parker. In fact, he essentially spends all of his time in New Zealand

with Joseph Parker, who is, I think, maybe the nicest human being in all of combat sports, regardless of combat sport. And he is with him in Riyadh ahead of the massive showdown for the IBF heavyweight title against Daniel Dubois. He's a brilliant mind. He's a nutritionist. He's a coach, strength and conditioning trainer, former fighter as well. Just a brilliant, fascinating dude, a former Marine as well. George Lockhart will check in in about an hour and a half to talk about the Joseph Parker fight, his connection with him, and just everything that he does. He's been on the show several times in the past, but it has been a while since we had him on,

so I thought this would be a good time to have the great George Lockhart on, who has one of the most unique voices as well. He's very much talking like this when he speaks. It's great. Prior to that, we'll be joined by the killer gorilla himself, Jared Kananier, who snapped his losing streak on Saturday. Brilliant win over Gregory Rodriguez, Robocop. A little dicey to start off. Turned it around. Got the stoppage. Brilliant elbows. Brilliant stoppage. The man keeps on kicking. And I think he's, is he 41 or is he 40 on the dot? He's 40 on the dot, turning 41 on the 16th of March.

So in less than a month's time, a guy who has fought at light heavyweight, at middleweight, at heavyweight as well. Actually, I do believe along with Conor McGregor, the only man to get a stoppage in three different weight classes in the UFC. McGregor, 145, 150. Did he get a stoppage at 170? No. So what the hell am I thinking about? There's an interesting stat there regarding Jared Kananier. Cerrone?

What is it? What is it? What is it? Donald Cerrone at 170, no? One of two fighters in UFC history type KO, oh yes, Cerrone. Thank you. Thank you, PZ. I was Donald Cerrone, 170 now. One of two fighters in UFC history to have KO. Oh, yes, Cerrone. Thank you.

Thank you, PZ. I was thinking Cerrone. Yes, you're 100% right. One of two fighters in UFC history to have KO wins across three weight divisions, middleweight, light heavyweight, and heavyweight. Conor did it, 45, 55, and 70. So a pretty amazing stat there. And it looked like they were maybe trying to build RoboCop off his name.

Killer Gorilla said, not today. Prior to that, we have promoted it as a mystery guest. You will soon understand why it is being promoted as such. That will be at 1.30. We invite all the guesses. We invite all the speculation. Who is our mystery guest? I'm not even sure if that silhouette is of said guest. It might be. Nevertheless, let us know in the chat, and certainly a thumbs up to the chat on this frigid Tuesday, windy Tuesday here in New York City.

Let us know who you're thinking. And in 25 minutes time, we shall hopefully, inshallah, reveal said mystery guest. Before we get to all of that, and as you can see, a fun day planned. By the way, on the Aday show on DAZN at 5, we'll hear from Artur Beterbiev, Dmitry Bivel, Joseph Parker, and Daniel Dubois. So a super stacked day here around Uncrowned HQ. Before we get into all of that, at the end of yesterday's show, we were talking about this Four Nations face-off, this brilliant hockey tournament that the NHL has put together, Canada, USA, Finland, Sweden. And it's been incredible. The ratings have been phenomenal.

Four million watched Canada,A on Saturday on ABC. And I found out during the show, I didn't realize it was a day game on President's Day. Canada advances to the final. So we'll get Canada-USA 2 on Thursday, which feels like the most anticipated meeting between the two countries since the 2010 gold medal game, which of course was won by Cindy Crosby's Golden Goal. It was amazing in Vancouver. And I started to think about this four nations idea and why it's so special. And then I started to think of MMA as well. And believe it or not, as I'm driving home,

I started to think of the GFL and I'll explain how this all comes together. I've been very critical of this idea of the Los Angeles team versus the Sao Paulo team versus the Dubai team versus the New York team. And especially now that we're seeing trades just happening willy-nilly to create, you know, the best type of matchups and the best kind of cards. Well, then I'm thinking, what the hell is the point of all this? And then I started thinking of the IFL, which had a similar format, the LA Vipers versus the New York Anacondas and the Iowa Hawkeyes or whatever the hell it was.

And then I started thinking like, maybe what we're missing is that it should be about the country. It should be country versus country, not fictitious team from X city with guys who have no connection to those cities. Maybe it should be country versus country. Maybe that's what we're missing. We don't get it certainly in the Olympics. We do get it in the IMF, which is going on right now in Europe. But could you imagine if there was a four nations type tournament in MMA? And so I

wanted to have a little bit of fun with this with the guys. Didn't really tell them about it beforehand. And I started to think, okay, the u.s would be one of the countries would canada make the cut don't think so pains me to say russia i think makes the cut thousand percent brazil thousand percent and then the last one that i had was like team oceana like uh australia new zealand am i missing someone? Should it be Team UK? What do you guys think? Team UK have a really good team at the moment. Yeah. We're trying to drag some eyeballs,

Tom Aspinall, Paddy Pimblitt, Leon Edwards. Okay, okay, okay. So let's have some fun here. How many different weight classes? Are we going five on five? Are we going, you know, because you can't just have, there has to be connective tissue, right?

If there's a middleweight here, there has to be a middleweight here, there has to be a middleweight here. It can't just be middleweight, you know, because you can't just have, there has to be connective tissue, right? There has, if there's a middleweight here, there has to be a middleweight here. There has to be a middleweight here. It can't just be middleweight, featherweight, flyweight. You know what I mean? And I, and I, and I, and I feel like. Yeah, so you do five matchups.

Five matchups. Obviously the winner of the three. Two cards, five main cards. And then you have, you have a final. And so are we, okay okay so this is good so do we all agree on the u.s yeah yes u.s is in do we agree on russia absolutely yeah now now now the general sentiment seems to be these days olympics world cup four nations russia isn't invited to the dance they're invited to this dance this dance okay no politics here they have way

they have way too many high level fighters okay Okay. No politics here. Russia's invited. Brazil? Yes. I think so. I wonder. Even if it's based off the legacy. They deserve it. Yeah.

It has to be. Legacy. Okay. Prestige. Okay. So, so, so PC brought up UK, which, you know, credit to you, bias aside. I appreciate that from an Irishman.

Look, you'll probably be hated all over the country after this, but I think they deserve it. Listen, they can't hate Batman. You're their protector. Come on. I haven't protected anyone in England though. Oceania, Anzac, or England? Who would be included in, would it just be

Australia and New Zealand in the Oceania? Why, are we including Samoa and stuff? I was thinking Australia. I'm not familiar with the rigid lines of Oceania. I was considering Australia and New Zealand. Okay. Yeah, well, that would be huge. I kind of feel like...

Okay, okay, okay. Okay, so... All right, this is fun. This is fun. Pick the divisions first. You could also have Dakota Ditcheva on a UK team as well. Yeah, but how are you going to match her with another... Now we're picking four.

Out of the five fights, we have to have four women. There's no great Russian women. Is there a thought to expand it to six teams? Do we do six teams? No, we're doing four nations face-off here. It's got to be semi-semi and then a final. Okay, so I like this. I like this.

I don't know who misses the cut here. Okay, we're going to... So they're in? I'm keeping them to the end. Okay, so Islam is in, right? I'm writing this down. Wait, so are we... But we have to pick a division.

Who's in? Is UK in or is Australia and New Zealand in? I'm keeping that for the end. You'll see why. Lightweight is definitely in. So because Islam is in, that means lightweight is in, right? Yeah. Okay. Heavyweight is in. 100,000%.

Heavyweight is in. Okay. John Jones, Tom As... Yeah, yeah, yeah. Heavyweight is in. I like this. If we could do Pereira, heavyweight for Brazil. Okay, I like this. Pereira. If we could do Pereira. Heavyweight for Brazil. Okay, I like this. Who is... I feel like

Welterweight is probably a decent one. You know, I was thinking Welterweight. Some guys may have to fight up. You know what I mean? That's the fun of it I think bantamweight is a good shout I think we're going to have a lot of good things in bantamweight So 135, 155

172, 165 170 and heavyweight? 170 It's four So we need five, right? No love to the women That was our... I don't think it's enough.

I don't think it's enough. Give me a good Russian woman. There aren't any good Russian women right now. Can we throw Kyrgyzstan into the region there? We got lightweight. We got heavyweight. We got bantamweight. We got 170.

It's down to featherweight, middleweight, or light heavyweight. Featherweight is between bantamweight and lightweight just go up or down you know what i mean like if we want them in there they got to go up or down i say we go middle i could be convinced okay let's just okay so okay we'll start with lightweight we'll start with lightweight islam is team russia yeah. Yeah. Okay. As far as America is concerned. The highest, like Chandler? Okay, we'll go to Brazil.

Charles. Yeah, for sure. And then our choices for America is like Justin Poirier. Justin Poirier. Holloway. Holloway. Yeah. Holloway up to 55.

Nah, we'll keep, maybe we do. Okay. I say Poirier. I say Poirier as well. Okay, so Islam, DP. Man, it does feel weird boxing out Mr. America Michael Chandler though

of this national. I mean, even Gaethje had the custom American flag shorts at US 300. Michael Chandler, Michael Chandler. You're making me feel bad.

Okay, okay, we did Russia, USA. Okay, Brazil is Charles. Yeah. And we have to make a call Michael Chandler You're making me feel bad Okay okay We did Russia, USA, okay Brazil is Charles And we have to make a call on who the Fourth country is UK Okay alright You could go Volk up to 155

Or Dan Hooker for the Anzac region Yeah they have some good people There to throw in. Lightweight isn't where we're going to struggle, I don't think. If we're talking about Hoyer rankings, they knock Paddy out of it completely. We can't do heavyweight and not have Tom Aspinall.

I feel like UK has to be in it. Paddy adds intrigue. Paddy makes this fun. Okay, so we have our lightweight bracket set. It's Islam, Russia, DP, USA, Charles, Brazil, Patty, UK. Man, that is a beast of a fight. That'd be a lot of fun.

Lightweight, the best, as always. Okay, okay, okay. We move on now to bantamweight. We're going to struggle here, boys. You think so? Yeah, like the bantamweight UK guy is going to be like Dangerous Davey Grant.

Okay, USA. Dangerous Davey Grant is just coming off a win, though. By the way, USA. He's coming off a win, but now we're going to match him up

with Sugar Sean O'Malley. Is USA Sugar or is it Corey Sanhagen? Sugar, Sugar. Sugar? I think it's Sugar. Too good for the global scene.

Okay, Sugar USA. My vote, Piotr for Russia. As opposed to? Omar. Like it. Like it. Goiotr for Russia. As opposed to? Omar. Like it, like it. Go to the former channel. By the way, by the way, I guess Aljo is no longer, yeah, okay.

Aljo's at 45. Okay, so Russia is. He could come down if we wanted to put him in, but I feel like Sugar's good there. What are we doing as far as Brazil is concerned? Oh, Figi. Figi or Aldo? Figi. All right, Figi's in.

Nah, really? Aldo's a little bit older. I feel like All right, Figgy's in. Nah, really? Aldo's a little bit older. I feel like Figgy's actually going to win. Wow, this is fun. Yeah, he's better. He's better for the tournament. You're dead right. Yeah, Figgy can fight more, I think.

Okay, Figgy, Brazil, and now what are we doing about the UK situation? It's Davey Grant. Can I throw some... Or we can put in Laurent. We can put in Lanier Kavanaugh moving up from Flyway to compete. Can I throw some We can put in Laurent We can put in Lanier Kavner moving up from Floyd to compete at Can I throw a curveball

Can I throw a crazy curveball your way Murphy would have to cut off a leg What about Makayev moving up Who does he rep He's represented England He's represented England for a long time Can we send Nathaniel Wood back down

I like this Makayev rep Jack Shaw out of retirement Yeah, that's what I'm saying. He represented England for a long time. You put Makaev there. Can we send Nathaniel Wood back down? I don't know. I like this Makaev rap. Jack Shaw out of retirement. Yes, I love that. Makaev gets massive fights too. I like this. Okay, Makaev is UK 135.

I like this. That's a great show. That's a good call by you, Ariel. All right, thank you. Thank you. All right, now we're going to go to 170. Okay. 170. I got to admit, how much fun going to go to 170. Okay. 170.

I got to admit, how much fun would this be? I'm buzzing. I am fucking buzzing. It's not even happening. I know. Who's our UK representative for 170? Is it Leon? Yeah. Leon.

I think it has to be Leon. Yep. Not Ian. No, fuck. How did I say that? Wow. Wow. You said that.

Not me. That wasn't me. I guess you didn't say it. No, because he lives in London. He lives in London.? Wow. You said that. Not me. That wasn't me. I hope she didn't say it. No, because he lives in London. He lives in London. It doesn't matter where he lives. Okay, okay, okay. He said it, not me, everyone.

Yeah, no, that was on me. Okay. I can't believe it. Brazil, Gilbert? Yeah, it's probably the best you're going to get. Or you could, if you really wanted to have some fun, the up and coming, you do Pratchett. Pratchett. Yeah, I like that.

I like Pratchett. I like that better. I like that better. I like Pratchett in there. That's the move. That's the move. I like Pratchett repping on Welterweight. What are we doing about Russia?

Yeah. I mean, that's the thing. Islam competes at 172. Islam competes both. We're not Fakhretna. Habib out. Habib out retirement, 170. Okay. I like2. Islam goes both. Renat Fakhretna. Habib out. Habib out at retirement, 170. Okay, I like that.

No, no, we can't get crazy here. Okay, what if we did this? Fakhretna. What if... Is this UFC only? No, no, no. What if Usman was 55, and then you push Islam up to 170?

Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes to 170. Yes. Yes. The move. Yes. Come on. Oh, this is the move. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Who's stealing our idea?

Okay. Oh, this is a great call. Let's go. Okay. Let's go. Okay. Islam, Russia. And then USA.

USA. What are we doing about the USA? Kamaru? Remember the name. Sean Brady. Nah. Who's he repping? Who's Bilal repping?

You got to pick a lane, bro. You got to pick. Chicago. He's from America i go he's from chicago oh yeah he's okay yeah yeah sorry shit brady buckley colby nah hell no not colby it's got to be the champ. I say Bilal, but as a backup, I would say Buckley is the two. Buckley? Really? Over Brady? Over your boy? This is just a mind game.

He's playing mind games. That's my number one rival right there. Oh, jeez. All right. All right, all right. Bilal, USA. Now, we go to light heavyweight. And by the way.

Wait, but didn't Bilal say he wouldn't fight? He said heavyweight. No, I said heavyweight. Sorry, sorry. Well, you do it for the four nations. And by the way. Wait, but didn't Bilal say he wanted to fight? He said heavyweight. No, I said heavyweight. Sorry, sorry. Well, you do it for the four nations. This is our problem. Bilal said he wanted to fight Islam. Does he do it for the four nations?

Nah, Bilal has too many issues. Too much politics with Bilal. Too many issues. He's out. Brady's in. Brady's in. All right. So we got Brady as our.

What about Kamaru? The Usman shout isn't horrible either. You want to go freaking the Nigerian about Kamaru? The Usman shout isn't horrible either. You want to go freaking the Nigerian nightmare, Kamaru? Why not? I mean, he also

rubs America as well. Okay. I do feel like we have some one young blood. Does Kamaru fight Islam? I don't know. I think he would. But I'm okay with Brady.

I'm okay with Brady. I'm okay with Brady. You put it all on the line. I'm going with our boy Brady. Let's go with Brady. I'm going with our boy. Okay. Now, do you guys like heavyweight over light heavyweight or middleweight?

Yeah? Yeah. You got to have heavyweight. Okay. Heavyweight. This is the only one that matters. You're right. You're right.

This is the fight we want. This is the only one that matters. My bad. My bad. I was just asking. Aspinall UK? Wow. Yeah.

This is actually great. Jones? Aspinall, Jones America, and then you do Volkov Russia, and you do Jelton Brazil. Wow, you had it all already. It's sorted. Done. No Blades America?

No, Jon Jones. What did we do? What did we do again? GC, say it again. Say it again. Jon Jones America, Aspinall UK, Jelton Almeida Brazil, Volkov Russia. Oh, are we doing 205 as well? No, no, no. What? Well, then put Pereira

in there. Put Pereira in there. Oh, Pereira over Jelic. Oh my God. For the love of country. Brazil is the best one. We are fucking killing this today, boys. Brazil is the best one. I feel like Russia's Do we do all five? No, that was four.

That's four or five each. No, no, no. We're good. We need one more weight class, right? Yeah. Oh, that was four. That's four or five each. With weight class? No, no, no, we're good. We need one more weight class, right? Yeah. Oh, that's right, that's right, that's right, that's right, that's right. Do we do an absolute division? Well, no, heavyweight labs

are going to win, all right. Yeah, I don't want to see Tom versus... Does it, yeah. Some random weight. I'm looking here, I'm looking here. Piotr Jan versus Tom Raspel. Just for shits and giggles, let's see one,

one women's weight class. Yeah. You guys say, you guys say 125? So, okay, look, we've got,

we've got Dakota for UK. Yeah. Um. It's going to be a hell of a call for Yannick Unzakaya. I'll tell you that much. Yeah. Blanchfield.

I was going to say, do we do North America and we let Jasmine slip in? No, we can't do it. We can't do it. Yeah, I know. I guess for the women's, you could have, if you wanted to change the regions up, like Valentina comes from that region, she could represent. How could we put a name on that whole? Dakota.

I'm adding middleweight. Okay. Okay. USA Strickland middleweight. Okay. USA Strickland. Okay. Brazil, Kyle. Love that. I guess you could do Paolo, but I like Kyle there. Costa.

Yeah. Hamzat. Hamzat's obviously in there. Hamzat, Russia. Right? Yeah. And then UK. Darren Till is out of retirement.

He's back. Let me just make sure I'm not missing anyone. What about Bo Nickel? Bo Nickel. Fuck, you know what? I'm putting Bo in there. All right, Bo America, Hamzat, Russia. Yeah, that's way better.

Those are sick. Yes. Yes. But who's the UK? That's a fucking... Darren Till, no? Darren Till. Let's just do Darren. Those are sick. Yes. Yes. But who's the UK? That's a fucking... Darren Till, no? Darren Till. Everyone, stop chatting shit.

Till UK, and then Brazil is Kyle. Yo, Michael Page at middleweight for the UK. Yeah, I like that. I like that. Because he just won a fight. Yeah, get rid of Till. Till, you're out. Sorry, bro.

Okay, guys guys This is unbelievable Now just for fun Just for fun Can we just look at Who would have been In Team Anzac Yeah Yeah

Just for fun Izzy for middleweight Izzy for middleweight No brainer Jack Della for 170 Yep My vote is Volk for 155

Alright Volk for 155 Or Hooker Anthony Perroche out of retirement for heavyweight Oh freaking Hooker's a great one Can our boy Ulberg go up to heavyweight? Yeah for sure If Banner is going up we can shove

And then what's the last one? Bantamweight right? Yeah Bantam Can our boy Kaikara go up? Kaikara or Steve Ersik. Ersik. Ersik's kind of tall. So what do you like better? You like that better?

You like that better than anything we have? We can't miss out on Tommy. All right. Sorry, Anzac. Matty, Makayev, and Paige. That's a good team. And we've kept this clean. It's not like two nations together.

Guys, these are, okay. So these are our guys. At 170 pounds, we have Kamar Usman representing. I thought we were Debrady. How did we get to Usman? I screwed up. No, I read Usman here. I forgot the word.

At 155 pounds, we're at Usman Armagomedov representing Russia, Dustin Poirier representing the USA, Charles Oliveira representing Brazil, and Paddy Pimblitt representing the UK. Now, should this be Great Britain? Because, you know, in the Olympics, they say Great Britain. Sure, call it Great Britain. Great Britain, Team GB.

Okay, at 135 pounds, we have Sugar representing the US, Pyotr Yan representing Russia, Figueiredo representing Brazil, and Mohamed Makaev moving up to 135, representing his adopted home country of Great Britain. Might be the best division. Might be the best division. That is crazy. At 170 pounds, country of... Might be the best division. Might be the best division. That is crazy.

At 170 pounds, we have Leon Edwards representing the Team GB. Carlos Pratchett representing Brazil. The heavyweight PC. Islam Makhachev representing Russia. Sean Brady representing the US. And then at 185, we have Bo Nickel representing the US. Hamza Chamayev representing

Russia. Michael Venom Page representing the UK And Kyle Bahagio representing Brazil Love it And then heavyweight Tommy Aspinall UK Jones USA Volkov Russia Perheta against Free

For Brazil Wow That heavyweight one would be pay-per-view worthy Alright so how do we make It's crazy How do we make the matchups just basically by world ranking? I say, no, this is what you do. Bracket one is USA-Russia.

You got to capitalize on the history. And then bracket two is UK-Brazil. Semifinal, semifinal, meaning the final. Which means, which means, my friends, that on night one of the four nations mma face-off you are getting sean o'malley versus macaio versus muhammad oh no usa brazil brazil oh i thought you just so you said russia yeah you said usa russia sorry so you say russia so sean o'malley no macaio is uk oh yeah yeah uh sean o'malley i'm trying to get, yes. Sean O'Malley versus Peter Jan.

Sean O'Malley, Jan. Yes, yes, yes. Okay. You are getting Figueiredo versus Makaev. Continue. On the other side, right? Oh, I'm so confused.

Right? Yeah, that's the other bracket. Okay. Then, okay, so that's the other side of the bracket. Okay, let me just stick with night one. I'm sorry. You're getting Shuga versus Jan.

Correct. You're getting DP versus Usman Ramagomedov. Yep. You're getting Sean Brady versus Islam Makhachev. You're getting John Jones versus Volkov. Sick. So should we, should we? No, that's great.

Okay, fine, fine, fine. That's great. And then you're getting Bo Nickel versus Hamzat. Yeah. Fuck yeah. that's great. Okay, fine, fine, fine. And then you're getting Bo Nickel versus Hamzat. Yeah, fuck yeah. That's great. Is anyone writing this down? Yeah, I'm writing it all down. Then, on the opposite end, night two, you're getting Olivera

versus Patty, Mikhaev versus Figge, Leon versus Prachez, Aspinall versus Tejeda, and then MVP versus Caio Bejaglio. I mean, this is some kind of tournament. Is the chat loving this?

Absolutely. Here's what we have. The matchups to start it off would be at Bantamweight, O'Malley, Jan, Figi, Mikhaev, 155, Poirier versus Usman or Magomedov, Oliveira versus Patty, 170, Brady versus Islam, Leon versus Proches,

185, Nickel versus Hamzat, MVP versus Bahalio, and then Heavyweight Jones versus Volkov, Aspinall versus Pereira. Sick. And then, okay, here's the thing. How does the scoring system work? No, it's just. Just move on?

Yeah. Win in advance. Okay, so you win in advance, and then whoever gets the three of the five, it's impossible to get a draw. Right. Whoever gets the three of the five advances, and then same thing for the round as well.

What do we do in the case of a no contest? Ah, fuck. Stop throwing these crap on me. We need people in reserves. We need some sort of tie breaks. Oh, yeah. Do we have reserves? We need reserves.

By the way, why can't there be a sudden death round? What if there's just a no contest, though? An eye poke and the guy can't see? Yeah, or if you get hurt and can't continue, we need a backup. Can we go to who was up? I mean, I guess if it's like 10 seconds can't continue, we need a backup. Can we go to, like, who was up? I mean, I guess if it's, like, 10 seconds into the fight, there's a problem. You know what I mean?

Yeah. That's what I'm saying. We need a tiebreaker. We need something. That's going to be crazy. If the fighter can't continue, does the other guy just go in his place? No, he can't do that.

No, sorry, bro. You're out. Just go. People going in just poking each other in the eye. You're out. People going in just poking each other in the eye. You're out. Here's the thing. How long in between cards?

Meaning, you have night one, night two. When do the finals happen? Three, four months later? Yeah, six months later. Fuck, it'll be amazing. Everyone has to commit.

Everyone has to commit. I mean, by the way, every single one of these fighters are UFC fighters. The UFC can actually pull this off. Except for Usman. That's right. Well, he'll soon be an UFC fighter. By the way, should we bounce Usman to make this clean UFC?

No. Hell no. Okay. I'm just saying. The bottom line is, look how much fun this is. And I feel like fans of those nations would get so behind it if you're from new york as much as we joke about the new york merch the the dubai merch the sao paulo merch no one's getting behind it from those cities but i feel like once you start representing

the flag in the country it changes everything and so maybe the maybe the the thesis here is gfl should change it to country as opposed to city. Because they could easily do it. They could turn Sao Paulo into Brazil. They could turn Dubai into UAE. They could turn New York into America. I guess they have too much in America. But they could have easily figured this out.

I mean, the whole thing was kind of. God, this really would be so great. I wonder what the line would be in some of these. This is pretty cool. Yes, thanks, Frank. How about a Tom versus John potential heavyweight final on the final day?

Yes, yes. On the final fight. Say it's a, yeah. By the way, it all culminates with Tom versus John as the final fight. Okay, so what's actually crazy, it might not be, though.

Why? John and Tom could both win, but it could end up being like a Brazil versus Russia final still. Yeah. Right, because if the teams don't perform, that'd be a shame. No, but then wouldn't we still get it as like the secondary round, like as the bronze winner or whatever? No, they're not going to do a bronze winner. Yeah, it's for a point. John versus Tom, just for the hell of it.

No shot. By the way, this is why. I think at that point, you got to do America versus UK in the open. Boy, instead of like GFL doing this, why didn't the UFC just fucking do something like this? Like don't put like, what do you do with the champions?

Well, technically the UFC doesn't need to do it, but I guess the point is, I actually think if GFL leaned into country as opposed to city, more people would get behind it but we're excited about the fights no i know but i mean you can have like chris why i remember i i just think these fictitious teams that they're they're coming up with don't make sense ultimately though we are making the mistake that i always say i hate that when these tournaments make this

mistake which is like you have the money fight in John versus Tom. You can't tempt fate. You can't risk it by putting them on the opposite ends of the bracket. But I think in this case, you have to. This is on the air, by the way. If you're starting with UK-Brazil, you're still getting Tom versus Alex, which is just incredible. Yeah, you're right.

Yeah, it is kind of incredible. And by the way, you're 100% right on there, Jordan. Thank you for that, because if Alex wins, you're still getting the mega Alex versus John fight, which it's still up in the air, which is bigger. You could get Pereira versus Volkov in the final. We got a

tough road to get past Russia. I mean, Bo Nickel versus Hamza. Hamza will be the favorite in that one. Brady versus Islam. Islam will be the favorite in that one. Brady versus Islam. Islam will be the favorite in that one. Poirier-Ousmane? That one could be interesting. O'Malley versus Kyrgyzstan.

Might as well flip a coin, especially if it goes five rounds. I mean, Jones versus Volkov. I like Jones there, but I mean, we got to win three of those matchups to get to round two. I love this. National pride. We. It's not easy. Hell yeah, we. Do you guys think this would be a smashing success

oh stop man it's fucking unbelievable there it is yeah i'm gonna go near for a while i'll be the biggest john jones fan on earth oh my god people would show up with their flags and shit i'll be forced to cheer for john jones against tom aspin. Oh, my God. Don't tell Tommy that. I wonder if that would turn our nation. It's the Four Nations, Tom. I'm sorry. By the way, Tommy's watching right now, and he's probably freaking devastated by this.

No, no, no. It's the Four Nations. He gets it. He gets it. I mean, Ireland might have to turn on Tom. If he's representing the UK, they'll just cheer for anyone. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

Everyone's going to be Jon Jones' biggest fan. Leon's under the bus. They're all fucking out, exactly. Exactly. Everyone's going to be Jon Jones' biggest fan. Leon's under the bus. They're all fucking out of here. Yeah, no worries, Franz, for any of these guys if this happens, but it's amazing. All right, well,

let us know in the chat what you think. Let us know who you think has the best squad. Perhaps we could put it in there for you guys to dissect, to chew on, and we can revisit

at the end of the day. Coming up in about an hour's time, we'll be joined by George Lockhart over in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He is there with the great Joseph Parker ahead of his massive fight against Daniel Dubois this weekend. Prior to that, we'll be joined by Jared Kananier, who had a gigantic win on Saturday over Gregory Rodriguez. But my friends, it is now time for our first guest of the day, who happens to be our mystery guest. Yes, you don't know who it is. No one knows who it is, except for the people working on this program. But without further ado, let us say hello to the man who will be joining us first on today's lovely program. He is a former EFC double champion that's at Middleweight and Welterweight. He's a former KSW Welterweight champion.

And he is the current reigning defending UFC Middleweight champion. He's the pride of South Africa. Is he really there? Is he really there? Drikus Duplessis, are you there? I am here indeed. He is there. Drikplice i am here indeed he is there trick is you are here but we don't see you we only hear you yeah unfortunately so i'm uh i'm a better i went on a little breakaway and uh yeah the signal is not great i mean isn't that what a breakaway

really is it is yes no it is and i And I do appreciate you joining us on your vacation. I have to say, the sound of your voice on this program is warming my cold heart, Drakus. It is lovely to hear from you. Because I wasn't sure about us anymore. You left us at the altar twice in a row last year after the win in Toronto. So I wasn't sure if there was going to be some, I don't know, some more heartbreak on today's program. Well, here we are we made it happen we made it happen and thank you very much to your brother and thank you to danny for making

it happen uh i appreciate you very much and i want to congratulate you on all the great things that have happened over the past year to you you're coming off a phenomenal win over sean strickland and uh i'd love to start there if i can um sean you probably know, has received a lot of criticism in the aftermath of this fight for his performance or, you know, lack thereof, the lack of offense, this, that, and the other.

You were the guy standing in front of him. You were there. And so no one better than you, in my opinion, to answer this question, do you think the criticism is warranted?

Do you think it's fair, the stuff that he has had to hear since the fight a little over seven days ago? Well, listen, it's complicated because, you know, I said it before the fight, you know, Shukrin has his way. And if you don't give him his way, it just shuts him down in a way. But then again, that being said,

everybody criticizing Sean Shukrin hasn't been standing in front of me. So, you know, when you're in there with me, it's a very different story. When I'm, you know, when you're eating the punches that Sean Strickland has eaten, when your nose breaks the way that his nose broke, you're in a situation where, you know, just going forward and fighting is not really easy. And unless you've been in that situation, you can't really criticize Sean Strugan at all because he's a tough man.

I don't think people should be surprised at this stage because Sean Strugan, when he gets his way and he gets his momentum, he fights a certain way. And when you take that momentum away, he fights a different way. And when you take that momentum away, he fights a different way. And that's all game plan. That's also, you know, you have to go and implement that game as you get him off his rhythm.

But yeah, the man takes a punch like nobody else. Are you talking to yourself during the fight and saying, when's he going to bring more to the table? Even his coach was saying, you know, during the fight, this is too predictable. When's he going to mix it up? When's he going to bring more to the table even his coach was saying you know during the fight this is too predictable when's he going to mix it up when's he going to throw more combos when's he going to try to threaten to take down i know towards the end of the fight he was doing a little more of that but it was almost you know too much too late are you are you questioning what's going on in the fight because the first time you guys fought i mean he threw almost double the amount of strikes your way back in Toronto as opposed to in Sydney last week.

Yeah, I think also how many strikes did I land? What was my striking accuracy in Toronto? 27%? What was my striking accuracy last week? It changes the whole game. It changes the dynamic because it wasn't so much that Sean Strickland, when I was in there thinking, oh, he's not doing this. It's not the same guy I'm fighting. It looked exactly like the same guy I was fighting.

I just evolved so much over the last year, and I said that was what was going to happen. And that's what I felt when I was in there. Can I ask about your motivation going into this fight? I said before that I felt like the rematch wasn't necessarily warranted. I thought you won the fight in Toronto, fair and square. I know it was a close one, but I didn't see any controversy there.

He had fought once, and I don't know if he did enough to warrant the immediate rematch, especially after not successfully defending the title once. Did you feel like you had to, you know, getting up for an Izzy fight? No brainer. Getting up for a Whitaker fight? No brainer.

Getting up for your first title fight? No brainer. Did you feel like you had to search in different places to be motivated for this one? Absolutely not. You know, for me, whether I was fighting Sean Strickland or was fighting anybody else in the world, I'm not motivated by my opponents. I'm motivated by my own achievements. That's the only thing that motivates me.

And that will never change. That has never changed. So whether I was fighting Sean Strickland or was fighting Israel Adesanya, it made no difference to me, and it hasn't. You know, fighting our first time when we fought in Canada, fighting for your belt the first time, the first time ever fighting five rounds in the UFC,

and the first time ever fighting for your world title, it's a different mindset. Well, not actually mindset, it's a different mindset. Well, not actually mindset, just it's a different motivation and it also in terms of how nervous you are going into that fight. Now I know I can go five rounds. I know I can push the pace

and I know I am the champion of the world. And I believe that was the big difference in this fight, being able to train a certain thing and going out and doing it in the fight and not just react more on getting into the octagon and doing what I think is the right thing to do. No, but staying calm, staying cool-headed. And I think that's what helped me a lot in this fight. I heard you say that going into the Izzy fight, you had never felt those kinds of nerves

before, and obviously that was a big one for you, considering who he is in the sport. This time around, did you feel nerves as well, or do you think that that was just about the opponent on that night back in August? No, I felt the nerves. I felt the

nerves of this fight, too. I felt this guy, there was a lot of people that thought he won the fight. I didn't think that at all in Toronto. But, you know, if you lose to this guy, it just created everything I've done as a champion. And so there was the nerves were there, but when I got into that octagon, I knew I was going to walk out of there and still champion.

There was nothing that was going to stop me. I think it was pretty evident in the fight that the amount of work I put in for this fight was incredible. Everything from the game plan to my conditioning, everything was just perfect. I made sure that I put up one of the best performances of my life yeah and and i think you did that it was very uh emphatic five rounds to none a lot was made of his arm before the fight and how it looked and it appeared as though he had staff and and afterwards that was confirmed as well when you see that do you do you talk to the ufc do you have concerns

obviously you're you're used to dealing with all kinds of things in training, but probably not something that you want to have to deal with going into a fight. Do you even ask about it? How do you approach that? We all have problems when we go into a fight. That's being a fighter. No respect for Sean for not using it as an excuse. I don't know if he did afterwards.

I mean, it was clearly staff. It wasn't the new staff. I can see that. It wasn't the new staff inspection. It's been there for a while, maybe a couple of weeks, but when I go in there, you know, when you fight, you know there's something about your opponent that's not 100%. It's

a fact. So, yeah, so he had staff, I had something else. It doesn't really matter. It's when you sign the contract, when you get into that octagon, there is no excuse that warrants anything. When you get into that octagon, you sign the dotted line that I am here to fight, I am fight ready. And it's not my concern on what happens outside or what you miss

you dealing with or what injury you're dealing with we all have our injuries right we all have our injuries you all have illnesses sometimes when you get into the fight you're not a hundred percent but once you get into it our oxygen it's your responsibility do you think that's the last time you see Sean in a fight? Usually when you're up 2-0, it doesn't warrant the trilogy. Sometimes we've seen this in the past. There have been a couple of occasions where a

trilogy has happened because of the closeness of the first fight. Do you think there's any possibility where he comes back around and meets you again? Well, I think he's going to need to convince the UFC pretty bad. So, I honestly feel that you again well i think he's going to need to convince the ufc pretty yeah bad so i honestly feel that for him and you to fight again like i said i'm not the matchmaker i just fight him over but you get a third fight without winning a single fight especially after the last one

that's going to be hard for him. But, you know, it's going to... A lot about his next performance is going to dictate a lot on where his career is going to go. That's what I personally think. You entered, Drikus, the UFC back in October of 2020.

That was your debut date, October 11th, to be exact. Since then, you have now tied Chris Weidman for the third longest winning streak in middleweight history. You're at nine. Very close to you is Izzy at 12. And then the face of the middleweight division, the man who put it on the map, Anderson Silva, is at 13. You're not too far away. If we would have spoke back in 2020 about your goals, your ambitions, where you think you ultimately end up, your ceiling,

would you have imagined all of this? Or are you now at a point where you're exceeding your own wildest dreams? Ariel, absolutely. I'm not celebrating being the third-based middleweight, the third-longest winning streak. Absolutely not. I am number one, and third longest winning streak. Absolutely not.

I am number one, and that's what I'm going for. I never doubted myself on one single day. There wasn't a fight. There wasn't a time I've ever doubted it. I knew there was work to be done. I knew I had big, big shoes to fill. You know, guys like great Anderson Silva is one of my heroes in all sports so i am not uh oblivious to the fact that how big these shoes are but i've never for one day student stood up

when i woke up and thought i can't pull these shoes i know i will that's what i'm often that's what i'm going for the legacy of being the greatest to ever do this. Do you feel like now, and you probably don't really care, but it feels like the entire MMA community is showing you praise and love. Very smart people are saying that you are going to win your next fight and we'll get to that in a moment. It feels like if there were any doubters

they don't really exist anymore. Do you feel like you're now finally getting the respect that you deserve in the community, in the sport, from the fans to the pundits to the fighters as well? Yeah, I mean, respect is something that I do hear. And that's the only thing that I've ever felt. I don't hear people that say I suck. I've never heard criticism.

I've taken criticisms from the right people. I will heard criticism. I've taken criticisms from the right people. I will take criticism. But when media talks about your fighting not being good, I always think to myself, what on earth do you know about fighting? You're sitting behind your computer. So you don't know anything about fighting. So don't tell me how to fight.

I'm in the usc you're doing media your opinion doesn't really matter because you're not a coach when people start giving me praise i do hear that i do appreciate that and that is something that i fight for that is something i appreciate and you have to realize that one person's praise means as much to me as the whole world's praise. So when everybody's booing, I'm still going to do what I'm going to do, but it does mean the world to me to have people saying,

listen, this guy looked great, and yeah, he proved us wrong. It means a lot, and I do appreciate it. When you hear pundits, fighters, not media, analysts talk about how your style is unique or unorthodox, something like that, is that a badge of honor for you? Is that a compliment in your opinion?

Or do you view it as something different? Yeah. Absolutely. When I saw Izzy and Whitaker saying, they don't know how this works, what is going on. I finished both these guys. That was something good because that means they still haven't figured out how to beat me.

That means they still haven't figured out what went wrong. Maybe some people still, and I know they don't. I know a guy like Robert Whitaker specifically is not a guy that ever went and said, this happened by accident. He gave me my flowers and said, this guy fights a certain way and you have to be ready to face that. Otherwise, you will face the consequence.

And I believe a lot of guys who do that, they go, he caught me. Something bad happened. And it's not that. You know, you only get lucky that many times. Is Hamzat next? Yes, I believe so. It does.

All things do point to that. You know, Dana said it many times. We haven't signed a contract but you know i would really really hope so it feels to me like this has the makings of one of the biggest fights of the year given how good you've looked the run that you're on his popularity he hasn't fought for a belt yet we've been waiting for him to to fight for a belt it feels like a potential gigantic fight that would headline an international fight week does that timeline make sense for you or is that too soon? That's essentially in four months time.

Would you like something a little bit later? What are you feeling as far as your body is concerned? Yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, as of right now, that is a big thing is taking this vacation. You know, I'm here for the week and then I'll be ready to make that decision get back to the gym and speak to my team and then ultimately make the decision

will we be ready for a date like that because that would be incredible if that's possible International Fight Week is amazing I've been lucky enough to fight on International Fight week a couple of times. So to headline it will be something special. Right now, one of the big mysteries is his travel situation.

Do you have any clarity on that? Because it still seems to be one of those things that we don't really understand or don't really have any sort of understanding as to where he stands. To the best of your knowledge, can this fight happen in America or anywhere outside of, you know, the Middle East? Well, I mean, according to Dana, yes, things are being sorted out. But I mean, that's just what we saw, what he said. I know as much as you do in terms of that.

Hopefully, I would have, you know, once again, after the break, I'll be talking with Hunter and the guys and get more clarity on that. But yeah, I mean, I guess, you know, we can't go on a, yeah, we have a fight date but we don't have that sort of yet you know going into a fight camp and getting ready for a fight and committing to a fight and preparing for somebody like him and then the fight doesn't happen because of something like a visa we need to know that that's going to be a certain for sure thing before any fight is signed. There definitely seems to be a sentiment now that if you get past the maybe second round, go into the

championship rounds, that you are going to outlast him. We had Dean Thomas on the show last week. He had I thought a brilliant breakdown of the fight and picked you in the fight and I'm seeing this more and more. Do you share that sentiment? Do you think that if you guys go into the championship rounds, you have the experience, he doesn't, you have the gas tank, he doesn't. Are you seeing those types of issues with his game? Yeah, I think there's absolutely that. The way he goes forward in that first round, he's really hard to deal with in the beginning of a fight, but so

am I and once we get there that's the thing when you go that hard in around 2, 3, 4, 5 comes you still have to be there and I've proven that I am there in those rounds so that is 100%

a situation where I see if he can last that long, he has to realize every round he's going to come out, I'm still going to be there like I was in the first, ready to kill.

And that will never change in my game. Do you feel like some opponents lose to Hamzat before the fight, that he has some sort of presence and aura that intimidates fighters, as crazy as that may sound, and they are essentially defeated, broken, before they fight him? Yeah, no.

Some opponents, but I mean, if you look at the guys that he's fought, obviously the situation with Rob Witteker was, I mean, that was tough. That was, you know, big up to up to hamza he is an incredible fighter he did what he did to rob rob's teeth were already a problem and that happened it is what it is but i mean if you look at a guy like tomorrow uzman what he did with hamza on 10 days notice you look at the gilbert burns those guys don't get intimidated by people screaming, I shmash, I shmash on the microphone

of the missing weight. That is not how it works. Guys like Gilbert Burns, Kamara Usman and Robert Whitaker don't get intimidated by that. So no, he went in there and he fought. Once again, in those fights with Gilbert

and Usman, we saw him. We saw what those guys were able to do. And those were smaller guys. And I don't believe that. I don't believe at this level there's any intimidation. I don't believe it. There are some people, Driggis, who believe he hasn't done enough to warrant a title shot.

Are you in that camp? No. I don't really care. I just know he's a big name. I think after the Whitaker performance, sure. Sure, why not? For me, it's the next big guy and everybody speaks about him as if he has ever been close to a title, which he hasn't.

But for me, it's just good to be fighting somebody with, you know, what people think of Hamzat as this boogie man. That's a fact. I don't. I don't see that. For me, I only see one thing, and that's the potential to do good to to my legacy a potential to even make to make my legacy even better and i know after the fight you talked about uh alex and you had the quote and and and you have mentioned that you'd like to go up at some point but because you are so close to

breaking some serious records at 85 do you think you will stick to 85 until you do that and then think about moving up no those records are not my are not the thing that uh that will keep me at 85 you know if the if the time is right the one thing that does keep me at 85 at this point is the exciting matchups that are that are available the exciting that how exciting that the the new gen of the 185 that the union is looking at looks incredible. And as me as a champion, at the top of that, that is very exciting. And after Hamzat Vard, we'll see what happens. We'll see what happens.

And if it's time to move up, if there is a situation where that makes sense, it has been three defenses then, and that's what I've said. At least three defenses before even considering going up. That would warrant going up. But in my mind right now, Alex has a fight. I have a next fight. That is all my focus on that fight, and then we'll worry about what's next. Okay, and just a couple more, and I'll let you go.

And again, thank you very much for the time. I really do appreciate it, especially on vacation. It's been a pleasure. Currently, the sports books have you listed as an underdog against Hamza. Does that bother you? Does that annoy you? Do you care about that sort of thing? No, no.

I mean, I've been the underdog every time, I think. So, you know, odds don't win fights. Odds just make people more money. Yes, especially, yes, I think the Strickland fight, this past one, the rematch, was one of the rare times as of late that you have been the favorite. So perhaps there's... Yes, I was aware of that. I was aware of that.

All my friends were really pissed off because they said, no, we stopped making money on you. I'd love to ask you about something Bilal Mohamed said over the weekend to Barstool Sports. He said, quote, for me, I'd rather go to 185 and let Issam Akhachev just take 170. Since I've already had to fight my way up to 170, I've beaten five top 10 guys.

I'm two fights away from being able to challenge for the middleweight title, saying, hey, I want to be double champ. I think 185 is probably the easiest weight class. Besides Hamzat, when you look at that UFC 312 main event, you're like, bro, Strickland and Duplessis suck. End quote. Have you seen this quote?

And regardless, what do you think of what he said? I think I saw it, yeah. I saw something along those lines. But Omar Hamid, I can't even remember the way he fights. I don't know. The man, has he ever finished anyone? Sean Brady, a couple of years ago, was one of the few finishes in his current winning streak.

All right, all right. Well, happy for him. Happy for him. He's just, I mean, I like how he acts as if he has a choice to ever go up to 185 the UFC will never let him if he wants to do that he would have to abandon his belt give up his belt, vacate and go up to 185

and there's no way they give him a direct title shot there's no way the UFC doesn't even like Bilal Muhammad and there's no way they give him a direct title shot. There's no way. The UFC doesn't even like Bilal Muhammad. What makes him think that? He hasn't even defended his belt once. I don't know why. I mean, yeah, he's definitely better on Twitter than he is in fights, I have to say that.

Are you motivated at all? I mean, he is on a run, and he does say these things about you and the weight class. If, you know, the stars align and this is presented to you, are you intrigued by this matchup at all? No, I mean, that would be unfair.

It would be unfair, you said? Yeah, if I fight for Long Island, it would be unfair. Meaning it would be aaithful. Yeah. Meaning it would be a very one-sided matchup? 100%.

Have you seen the size of the man? What is he going to do? Is he going to get somebody to help him? Is he going to sit on somebody's neck?

How is it going to work? He's the smallest. I couldn't believe that he's at 170 when I saw him. I couldn't believe that he fights at 170 when I saw him. I couldn't believe that he fights at 170. Just for fun,

how do you think that fight goes? I step on his head and it's over. That's how that fight goes. All right, fair enough. So perhaps it's not happening anytime soon.

I did see, and maybe this matchup would be a little tougher. I saw some photos of you in December with, I think, like a great white shark on the shore. Can you explain what's going on here? Like you're pulling on the tail of the shark. It looks absolutely terrifying. Clearly you're fearless, just given how you fight and what you do for a living.

We're showing the photos now. You're on the shore. You're not in the middle of the ocean. Like you're clearly towards the end of the ocean here, and you're pulling for a living. We're showing the photos now. You're on the shore. You're on the middle of the ocean. You're clearly towards the end of the ocean here, and you're pulling on this shark. What is going on here, and is this shark alive? This shark is indeed alive.

I can see it's coming around, trying to bite my arm. I'm actually terrified of sharks, to be honest. You're terrified? Yeah, I'm terrified of sharks um but uh like you say facial fears i was uh i was uh fishing and uh this is actually a raggedy shark i was fishing and this shark um was on the line and took me a couple of minutes maybe like 25 30 minutes to

reel that in it was a big fight mean, that's a big shark. Obviously, when we got it to shallower waters, I pulled it out by the tail to get it out of the water for a photo, and then we dragged it back in. Yeah, we released it once again, so the shark was not harmed in this. But, man, it's a

scary beast. That thing is so strong. Damn. How many times have you done this um this is my first time catching a shark off the beach i've caught some sharks off a boat but that's a completely different game than doing it off a beach that's that's a tough one and and did it did it get close to biting you yeah well, well, I mean, in that photo, I mean, that's a, what's that? Half a meter of biting me? So it does try to get around and bite you, but, you know, it's pretty immobile once you have it in shallow water. Especially when you're behind it.

If you're at the tail, you're pretty safe. If you can just, you have to keep hold of the tail because then you can dictate where the shot goes. Unbelievable. Well done. I know you gave a shout-out to Gaten McKenzie, the Minister of Sport from South Africa. In your post-fight press conference, you showered him with praise for everything that he's doing to bring major events to South Africa, like the UFC, like F1. And obviously, the UFC has had many opportunities to bring a an African

champion back home and it didn't work out and so now you are that guy and I'm wondering how close do you think they are actually to making this happen while you are champion it would be such a shame to go through Francis and then Kamaru and then and then Izzy and then you and not make this happen do you think this is going to happen in your reign yeah i think i think 100 i think so or wish believe and um 100 i do think so i think it's um it is it's a must have i think it would be a waste a big big waste of a massive opportunity if that does not happen and i, we have

a guy, Jamelo Manjamala, that's also going on a tough series now. There is a challenge here. And, you know, I'm just, you know, it would be a massive honor for me if I'm the guy that's going to, that's bringing the UFC to

Africa, and South Africa more specifically. I know we are more than capable of hosting that event. We've hosted a FIFA World Cup. We've hosted a Rugby World Cup. I know we have everything that we need. I have 100% trust in Minister Gabriel McKenzie and the UFC working together to making that happen. There's a South African fighter on this season,

the ultimate fighter, Tumelo Manyamala. to making that happen. And there's a South African fighter on this season of The Ultimate Fighter, right, Tumelo Manyamala. Manyamala, yeah. And this is someone who you're very proud of, right, and have worked with in the past. Yeah, absolutely. I've trained at their gym whenever I'm in Cape Town. They have a gym there.

Yeah, and I mean, it's amazing to see these guys, you know, more South Africans getting to the UFC, more South African talent being exposed to the world stage and, you know, more South Africans and African fighters that are living, residing and training in Africa that start believing in themselves that, you themselves that they can also do it. You don't have to leave. You don't have to have that opportunity to also get your opportunity to fight in the UFC. You can create those opportunities for yourself right here.

Like I said, I know there's a lot of talent and Tomello is going to in my opinion, prove that once again. Two last things. Oval track racing. I understand this is something that you're really into. What exactly is oval track racing? Well, if you think of oval track

racing, if you look at a NASCAR track, a lot smaller and also I do dirt oval mostly. So it's like a smaller track but, you know, it's not that small. In meters, it would be around 500 meters, and then you're racing this oval. It's a dirt road. It's also a tall road, but I do dirt

road racing. Just for fun, or on a major scale? Well, you know, it's a lot of fun. It's my other passion. And one day after, when I finished with my career, I would pursue this professionally 100% as a full-on career. But, you know, right now it's for fun, but I'm also pursuing this very competitively. Wow. Good for you. Last one. Is it accurate that the current middleweight champion who's breaking these records, who's getting close to Anderson Silva's record,

who's on the pound-for-pound list and climbing each and every time out, is it accurate that this man got into fighting, fell in love with MMA through the film Never Back Down. Is that true that you watched that movie and that's what inspired you to become an MMA fighter? That was the first time I ever saw MMA. That is great. That is the first time I ever saw MMA. Before that, I've never heard about the sport. And

when I saw that movie, that's how I, you know I I've been training martial arts since I was 5 years old. I think I saw that movie when I was 14 years old and that was the start of my MMA journey. That's where MMA became my passion. So it wasn't seeing a UFC fight, a UFC highlight, something of that nature. It was Never Back Down starring Michael Jai White.

100% that is as much as it I guess it's embarrassing to say, but that's the fact. That is incredible. I love that. Well, kudos to you. You've come a long way since seeing that movie, which came out in 2008. Really appreciate

this, Drickus. It means a lot to us. It's great to have you on. Congratulations on all the success, and hopefully next time we can have you on via video. It'd be lovely to see your lovely face. Yeah, I'm really sorry about this. I really thought that we would be able to do it,

but the signal here is just too bad. It's all good. No, I appreciate you taking the time. Really, sincerely. So thank you very much and we'll talk to you soon. Will do. Cheers.

Have a good one, guys. All right, take care. There he is. The reigning defending UFC middleweight champion, Drikus Duplessis. How about that? This is truly the moment I have been waiting for. Oh, yeah.

Great job. Great job. Does anyone effortlessly talk shit as well as D his two plus eight he's good it's just too good he is i saw you guys talking about this on the uh the watch party i think it was on the watch party or it might have been boys in the back how he's like he is truly a 1980s you know character right yeah even down to just being like yo look at this goofy MMA movie. I should try that. Oh, I happen to be a champion. And own it. One of my favorite, you have a catalog of memes, GC, that you use. And the one where it spins around and it's him like doing up the jacket.

Oh, God, I love it. Because it works. It works. The usual go-to is like when the thing, what do you say about like when you invite people over to watch on stream? Yeah, when you bring people over for a watch party, you charge them for the pay-per-view, but you use the illegal stream. Also, whenever I post that meme, the amount of people that think that I actually do that is a little bit

concerning. Oh, it's great. It's great. But like the look and the jacket and the posing, it's perfect for it. So there you have it why did we uh list him as a mysterious guest or a mystery guest well because who me yeah well no you would have been a great option frank do you think people would have been upset if you ended up being the guest no it's like we said all right guys you know what for the next 30 minutes It's just going to be one on one with Frank

We're going to get to know him better You know what I'm here for it Oh there it is Robert knows Yes Michael also knows Were there more I think that was it

No you know I just wanted to keep you guys on your toes That's all I just wanted you to You know we give you so much We give you so much these days, I just wanted to keep you guys on your toes. That's all. I just wanted you to, you know, we give you so much. We give you so much these days that I just wanted you guys to, uh, you know, to feel like there was something, uh. A little sprinkle on the top. Yeah. You know, left to your imagination, that sort of thing.

I think they appreciated it. I think so too. You know, sometimes it's nice to get a little spice in your life, right? It's very much like that. Name that Pokemon that used to be on the pokemon cartoon show and they were all making guesses and then they got to see ddp well here ddp but you know yeah yeah close enough yeah winner learn uh thank you very much to the champion thank you to uh danny rubenstein his uh his manager for making that happen we we certainly do appreciate it. And we look forward to that Hamzat fight. I think that could be gigantic stuff. Let us move along now and say hello to our next guest. He

had a massive win this past weekend, a tremendous finish, vicious finish. He looked fantastic. And he thought that he was slowing down at the age of 40, almost 41. Out the window, a man who, like I said at the top of the show, is up there in the record books with just Conor McGregor as the only fighters to score finishes in three different weight classes. In his case, it's heavyweight, it's light heavyweight, and it's middleweight. He got another one on Saturday. He's the killer gorilla.

He's Jared Kananier. He's kind enough to join us right now to talk about the win on Saturday. Hello, Jared. How are you? I'm doing good, Ariel. How's it going to join us right now to talk about the win on Saturday. Hello, Jared. How are you? I'm doing good, Ariel. How's it going, man? Thank you for having me on again. Yes, always a pleasure. I said on Saturday after the win that you are timeless. Like age doesn't seem to affect you. Even a rough first round doesn't seem to affect you. And you looked fantastic. We've seen you in many different forms, heavyweight, light heavyweight, middleweight.

Maybe this is me being a prisoner of the moment. I thought you were in the best shape of your career on Saturday. You looked like you were chiseled out of stone. Is there anything to that? Yeah, I actually was in a lot better shape this go-around. I didn't really add anything too drastic. I just started going to the gym on my own, you know what I mean, instead of just going during my scheduled classes.

Just adding more to the schedule. Trying not to overwork myself at the same time, which is a tough thing to do. But, yeah, I was able to come out of this camp in really good shape. I looked really good.

I felt really good, and I got the victory. The potential threat of a three-fight losing streak, did that weigh on you? Was that part of the motivation as well? I wouldn't say it's part of the motivation, but it's definitely a factor, something that I considered. Who wouldn't consider it? So yeah, it was definitely a factor, but I wouldn't say it weighed on my yeah, it was definitely a factor, but I wouldn't say it weighed on my mind. I was worried. I was more focused on displaying the skills,

me performing to the best of my ability, not getting hit. The third one didn't come to fruition as I would have liked it to, but I was still able to get the win, so I'm still happy. You know, I know that you were asked a bunch of questions regarding gatekeeper, this, that, and I could feel like it sort of annoyed you on fight week because you don't view yourself as such.

Who would want to view themselves in that way? And so I'm just wondering when people keep bringing up your age and they bring up questions like this and they bring up in the buildup to the fight, how do you process all of that and not let it get to you where you're starting to question yourself and being like, is there anything to this? Because every fighter has to deal with this.

When are you going to retire? When are you done? And it's probably unfair as you're preparing to go into battle. No one wants to think of these things. And so how did you block all that stuff out? I guess I've gotten used to it, man. Ever since i turned 40

everybody's been talking about how i'm 40 and still fighting so it's been over it's almost a year now so i suppose i'm used to it at this point um i'm still i guess i'm busy uh proving everybody wrong you know what i mean showing them that 40 isn't the end of the road, isn't the descent down the hill, if you will. So, yeah, man, I still got miles left on, I still got tread left on my tires. Are you surprised that you're still fighting and thriving at 40? Like, was this always part of the plan? I mean, perhaps not saying like, oh, I want to fight into my 40s, but there are some fighters who say, I don't want to get there.

I don't want to do this as a 40-year- you surprised i mean i enjoy doing this i don't i don't know how those guys feel about fighting but for me fighting isn't paramount in my life you know what i mean fighting is a part of my training so um yeah there's risks involved and stuff like that. But what part of life doesn't involve risks? Being born is risky in and of itself. So I don't know, man. I can't really compare myself to anybody else. Again, my motivations are different from everybody else's. And yeah, I don't really see no end to it. As long

as my body can keep going, as long as I'm able to take care of my body and able to take care of things outside of fighting and martial arts, um, still being that, you know, still being able body, uh, you know, I don't see no end to this. You say that your motivations are different. So, so what are your motivations at this point? Well, as far as fighting and martial arts goes, it's not about being in the UFC. It's not about making money or anything like that. It's all about growing and learning and getting that fulfillment.

Martial arts is fulfilling to me. So I really enjoy it. It brings a certain amount of quality to my life that nothing else can that not even the ufc does so um again the ufc is all apart is encompassed within my martial arts journey so uh my motivation is to be a better fighter be a better martial artist to grow and be a better human being through the martial arts. Do you think martial arts has made you a better human being?

It has definitely attributed to me being, yeah, me improving myself. Absolutely, yes. There are some fighters who I feel like maybe get a little down when they're put on the Apex cards because they want the buzz, the hoopla, the fans, all that stuff. Correct me if I'm wrong. I feel like you don't really care. That it could be in a warehouse. It could be out back.

You just, you want the process and you want the challenge. You want the reward. And that's it. You're not really in it for the other stuff. Am I right with that sentiment? To a certain degree yes i don't really i'm not uh motivated by the attention the lights and being on camera and being you know garnering fans and stuff like that um i do enjoy that aspect of it i do benefit from being getting paid so uh i'm not going to sit here and shun that aspect of it i understand i use it for what it's

worth um but it's not my primary motivation and um i'm not i don't want that to determine how i uh think how i speak how i act um you know how this game goes uh they're always trying to build new stars contendersenders, et cetera, circle of life. It's like the lion King. And so I'm wondering if you viewed this as a situation where they were trying to build Gregory off of you. He was a little bit younger. He's on a roll.

Did you view that? And, and, and perhaps that was part of the thinking like, nah, not tonight, not today. I'm still here.

I'm still, I'm still a top contender in this division. Well, I think when the guys, when the matchmakers are in the office doing their thing, I'm sure they're trying to be as unbiased as possible unless one fighter or another has rubbed them the wrong way. I don't think I've done that. I've just lost my last two fights.

So, you know, not every matchup is going to be 50-50, right? We all want to fight up in the ranks. We all want to fight the best. So somebody's going to be on the high end. Somebody's going to be on the low end. I just happen to be on the high end on the last three occasions. And I'm glad as hell that I won at least one of them. Shit.

What did you make of Gregory, especially early on? Was he tougher than you thought he would be? Were you surprised by anything he did as far as offense is concerned in the early portion of the fight? No, I think he came as expected. I expected him to throw hard, to throw heavy. I expected him to throw hard, to throw heavy. I expected him to come out hard, to be aggressive at certain points of the fight.

Just like anybody else, I expect him to take advantage of whatever momentum they can take. So when he knocked me down in the first round, I expected him to try to build on that momentum. And he really put the pressure on in that first round. I wouldn't say he did anything that surprised me. I have all the confidence in the world in my skills, so I feel like I had the advantage as far as striking, the speed advantage. On paper, he had the grappling advantage, but I think as far as the grappling exchanges, I felt pretty comfortable, pretty confident.

The clinching stand up. He threw some strikes. I threw some strikes. Mines were better. Of course, the elbows are the ones that helped facilitate the finish or finish the third and continue that in the fourth. Yeah. So, no, I wouldn't say he did anything that surprised me. Yeah, I'll leave it at that.

You have a great team by your side. Shout out to the MMA Lab. You guys have been together for such a long time. Between the first and second round, in order to weather that storm, do you remember some of the things that were said to you? Do you remember some of the thoughts, some of the advice? I think it was the energy. I can't remember.

I'm going to paraphrase, but I think the energy i can't remember i'm gonna paraphrase but i think the energy was come back down recollect myself we lost the first round um but this fight's not over um get back to the game plan the game plan is a b c and you know a few techniques uh from my coaches you know from from the other corner so So smooth sailing ahead, if you will. And how are you feeling now a couple of days later? How is the body? You know, my knees are a little sore. I think that's from a little bit from arthritis,

and from checking kicks and stuff like that. My arm is a little sore from blocking kicks, but nothing major. I saw the doctors today and just going to give me some anti-inflammatories and some physical therapy and I'll be good to go. Man, here we are trying to squash the 40-year-old talk and you're talking about arthritis? Dude, I've had arthritis for years, man. This isn't nothing new to me. Really? So you guys have been seeing me compete with arthritis.

Not that it's affected my performance or anything like that. So if any of you guys think y'all can take advantage of these old knees, then go ahead and give it a try. How long have you had that for? Like four years, I'd say. Wow. wow yeah that's a little young for arthritis no huh that's a little young for arthritis no well i had my knee scope years ago and uh you know this game is pretty rough on the body so um i had to learn a few things on how to uh work you know strengthen my legs and and do all that stuff and i'm it's a continued journey for me so it's not debilitating arthritis it's just annoying that's all okay and what about

your teammates speaking of the lab eric mcconico in your corner on saturday debuting this saturday in seattle um pretty awesome to see you know a debutante corner a legend like you a week before his debut, and I believe you're going to return the favor and be in his corner on Saturday in Seattle, right? Well, I was going to be in his corner, but I got a lot of stuff going on right here, so unfortunately I'm not going to be able to make it. But again, we got a bunch of good guys on the team who's going to be there to help get them ready. Coaches who are always there. Eric has his head right.

He was already getting ready for a fight the day before my fight. So he just has another week to get even more ready. So Eric is ready. I've got all the confidence and the word in him to get this job done, to go on there and make a splash in the UFC in his debut and continue on this train that we got going at the lab. Yeah. Wish him the best. You mentioned in the Post Fight Press Conference that you want to forget 2024 for in the cage stuff and out the cage stuff.

It was not a good year for you and you're happy to start 2025 on a on a on a good foot if you will um can i ask why was 2024 so difficult well outside of the losses of in the ufc um i started the i started the year off uh injured with the mcl tear i injured i ended the year with the injury with uh a fracture in my forearm. My wife, we miscarried our baby earlier in the year. And at the end of the year, right there, right between Christmas and New Year's, we ended up losing my dog. So it wasn't fun. 2024 was not good for us. We're happy to put it behind us and we're looking for looking to looking for green pastures ahead of us um so i'm really really sorry sorry about that how is your wife

doing she's doing good you know life goes on we still got the three kids who still have their needs and um demands and we still have another dog who still has knows how to annoy us and and you know what i mean we still got 15 chickens and a turtle and we still got plenty of stuff keeping us busy you have 15 chickens yeah you where do you live you live on a farm or something no not a farm we live in a neighborhood but we don't have an hoa so, so we don't have somebody telling us what we can and can't do, for the most part. But we've got plenty of room for chickens. There's not a lot of room. It's not too messy as long as we keep them confined and we take care of them. They're in the backyard? Yeah.

And do they produce eggs and things like that? Oh, absolutely, yeah. That's the only reason why we have them. That's the only reason. Is there a particular reason why you have 15 why 15 um for the eggs we eat a lot of eggs i mean i i eat a lot of protein yeah if we have extra then we can always uh barter some off with the teammates with friends just give some to people who might need some how long have you had them for? Oh, shoot. A little over a year, I'd say. Wow.

And what prompted to get them as opposed to just, you know, buying them from the supermarket? Well, we've always wanted to be more, I mean, self-sufficiency is the goal. You know what I mean? We don't want to go to the store for everything we need, especially in these times where

certainty of the future is, can be, you know what the future is, can be, you know what I'm saying? Can be a news article away. Right. So, um, yeah,

um, I'd rather be, uh, dependent on myself than dependent on employees at the local grocery store. Uh, truckers bringing it in from Lord knows where you got listeria outbreaks going crazy man i trust myself more than i trust other people so um yeah i would like to have more land to where i mean we grow we grow some plants outside as well um i would like to have more land so i can can have uh some uh livestock though oh like uh cows and whatnot yep cattle mutton goats damn whatever yeah whatever's edible i guess and you would do you you could do that on your own

or you have to teach yourself i mean i don't know i mean i would definitely need people you know what i mean so uh i would um hopefully i mean shoot i don't know but i do know some people who would love to uh um buy a big plot of land and work the land you know what i mean yeah so um i know some people who who are who are down to do that so um yeah um who knows what the future holds all right um can i ask you you know we just had uh the champ drickus on right before you and um you know what a run he's on nine in a row now uh the record is 13 anderson silva are you surprised by he's one of the top guys in this division that you haven't fought are you surprised by how good he is by how how great he has become no man um in this sport

as long as you train as long as you're uh as long as you train the right way you do the right things anything is possible you know so uh yeah he believed in himself his team believes in him and he went out there and made that shit happen so uh good for him man uh more power to him i'm trying my best to do the same yeah can i ask who do you who do you like in that fight against hamza uh uh uh hmm that's a tough one man because i've i've i've i'm boycotting predicting i'm boycotting predicting. I'm boycotting fight predictions. All right. You're done. Yeah, I'm boycotting fight predictions.

I will give analysis, but fight predictions I can't do. Because the fight can go any way. Who knows how the fight's going to happen? We know what skills these guys have. We know how they can employ their skills in the fight. The question is, on that night, who's going to be successful? And we can only make guesses as to that, but we all know that. There seems to be a sentiment that if he can take him into deep waters,

meaning the championship rounds, he will be very successful, meaning DDP. Do you share that sentiment and and do you think that he can get by that you see you see what hums that did to robert whittaker right uh just completely annihilated him early on it was it was shocking to see it happen in real time and so what do you do you think it it looks more like that fight or do you think this is one where we get to see you know how hums that looks in those championship Well, we haven't seen nobody really try to wrestle Drakus. Yeah. I think he leans on his wrestling a lot.

I think he feels like he's a bigger, stronger, more imposing guy than most of the other middleweights. And I know Hamzat has all the confidence in the world in his grappling. So it's like an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object. Yeah. What a fight that would be. When would you, in a perfect world, like to return? I would say early summer, maybe late May, June, July maybe.

And you're in that spot because you've been in the UFC for so long. You've fought a lot of these guys in the middleweight division. And so what are you feeling? You think it's going to be a rematch? There could be some interesting rematches. Do you think it's a fresh opponent? Where do you think they'll go with you? Well, there's definitely no fresh opponents that they're going to match me up with that are ahead of me.

That being Hamzat and Drakus. Sorry, I think it's too high. But as far as rematches, I think a rematch with Robert Whitaker or Sean Strickland is feasible. I would like a rematch with Adesanya, but I don't think the world wants to see that. So, yes, I would like a rematch, one of those rematches in the next one.

If it was going to be a new matchup, definitely a ranked opponent. There's going to be a fight this weekend, Brandon Allen versus Anthony Hernandez. Both of those guys have expressed interest in fighting me I don't know if they're still on that or not but that'd be a good matchup as well they've tried to match me up with Costa in the past that'd be a good fight as well if it's between Whitaker or Strickland which one do you like?

who's hotter right now? That's the question right now. So Strickland's coming off of a title defense. I don't know if the fans are still behind them as they once were. Everybody loves Robert Whitaker.

And the fight that we had was... I don't know. I mean he he won that fight sure so i don't know the fight i had with strickland was a little close people you know are are are on both sides of that one i don't know maybe i think the uh the whitaker fight would be a better fight yeah i like the fight okay fight. Okay, fair enough. And just curious, with the Strickland situation, do you think that was more about what he didn't do or was it about what DDP did do in that fight

when you talk about it? I think it was more about him, about the way people heard him talk, how they perceived him talking, and their expectations. They let the talk create their imagination. But also, it's also the way DDP handled him as well. You know what I mean?

Yeah. So DDP was throwing hard shots at him. I mean, it's hard to come forward when a guy is throwing hard shots like that at you. When you watch these fights, do you look at it like, man, this is how I'd fight DDP? This is what

they're not doing that I would do? No. I try not to do that. I try to be more analytical than egotistical. Fair enough. I try to separate

myself from it to see what skills this guy is employing the frequency in which he employs them the intensity in which he's employing all those different things there's a lot of things to consider when I am watching fighters

when I'm watching fights and I also try to say what I would do against this person as well. Ah, yeah, there it is. By the way, what would you do if you fought DDP that they're not doing? What would I do? I mean, I would fight the way that I fight.

That's what they're not doing. They're not fighting the way that I fight. So I would go in there, I would hit them, and it would be over with uh who's the musician in the family i see a guitar there i see a piano behind you yes uh my kids learn or learning music okay i thought maybe it was you oh no i'm not i'm not no my art my uh my artistic side is in martial arts okay yep uh well you have mastered that no doubt about it um and it was on display once again on saturday congrats on the win uh always a pleasure jared and uh you're doing it for us 40 year olds now you're now a part of the club so uh we are living vicariously through you and your exploits i went skiing on saturday and

i'm still feeling it i don't know how you get punched and, and are sitting there smiling and looking as good as you do, but that's why you're an elite athlete and I'm not. So well done to you. Well, thank you very much, man. I hope you enjoyed your ski. We all do what we can,

right. To get the kicks out of our lives. That is right. That is right. Thank you, Jared. All the best to you and congrats on the win. All right, man. We'll see you next time Yes sir there he is Jared Cannoneer

The killer gorilla still doing his thing After all these years His MMA debut back in June of 2011 Approaching 14 years In the game UFC debut if you're wondering January of 2015

10 years ago, last month. Who'd he fight? Who'd he fight? Sean Jordan. That's right. Sean Jordan. Remember him? LSU guy.

Fullback? I believe. What was he? Was he a fullback? I believe. What was he? Was he a fullback? GC would know. Sean Jordan, LSU. Was he a fullback? Fullback.

Gosh. Man, you're good. I'm so good. So good. You remember Sean Jordan? Frank? Oh, absolutely. LSU?

Yeah. 06? Is he really 06? No, mean okay i mean it's not a bad shout uh what year is that true when you're good you're good you know yourself frank well done all right frankie uh i'm very excited to say hello to our next guest let's go all the way to riyadh now he is one of my favorite people in this crazy world of combat sports. I've known him for quite some time and the work that he is doing, especially as of late with the great Joseph Parker, who may in fact be the nicest human being in the world,

not just combat sports world, world period, is nothing short of amazing. They're this close to getting one more belt, perhaps en route to an undisputed title fight against one Alexander Usyk. But one step at a time, let us talk to the great George Lockhart, who has been by Joseph's side for quite some time now, and he's kind enough to join us. My guy, George.

What's happening, George? Salaam alaikum, my brother. How are you? What's going on, bro? How you doing? It's so good to see you. It is great to see you. What a time we had in London.

You, me, Joseph in the cab, an hour and a half one way each. I really got to hang with you guys. It was the highlight of my trip. We talked about a lot of things, some personal things as well. But honestly, my big takeaway from all that was, I don't know if I've ever seen a coach fighter have this kind of relationship. You guys were so in sync, were so lovely to be around, the love that I saw from both of you towards each other, the stories, you living out there with this family in New Zealand. I've talked about this

experience on the show so many times since because it really struck me as something unique. And so off the bat, can I ask, how did this all happen? How did this connection forge with the great Joseph Parker? So, you know, I was working with Tyson and obviously everybody knows that Tyson and Joe are really good friends. So Joe, you know, Tyson had told me, George has done this for me, done this for me. And he just came in and was like, hey, can I jump in on the food aspect? And I said, yeah, no problem.

So I started cooking for him. And me and him, like I said, we had a bond. We clicked right off the bat. Started talking about life and where he wanted to go. A lot of people that know me know that even though I work in the combat sports world, I'm not the biggest fan. I don't keep track of who's fighting, the fights, stuff like that. I didn't even know he was a fighter when we first started working together. We started going, and I had no idea.

He's like, yeah, bro, they wanted me to retire. I said, I'm on my way out. We started working, and I was like, no, man, you're going to take over the sport. He called me for a fight against Jango. He's like, can you come out? Flew out there. Man, I've been living with him ever since. He's the only fighter that I've ever said, you know what, I'm going to finish it.

We're going to stay together for the end of your career. There we are. Go to Riyadh. As soon as this fight's over, we fly back to New Zealand and we continue this amazing journey together. So you live with him. You have moved your whole life to New Zealand to be by his side.

Yes, sir. Yes. Wherever Joe is, that's usually where I'm going to be. I come home occasionally. I think I was home last year for like 30 days and I think I was home last year, like 30 days, and I was 20 days this last year. Probably won't get home this year, the way things are looking,

but I ain't complaining. There's worse ways to make a living. Why is it worth it for you to do this? Not a lot of people would sign up for this. Why are you down to do this sort of thing for Joe? Anybody that's ever worked with me knows that you know one of my biggest things it's not about money it's not about um accolades it's you know me being a former fighter i know what these guys they put on the line you know and whatever you give me uh i'll give you back 100 and joe's one of the first people if not the first person that's ever really given me everything he's like okay you know i 100 trust you when it

comes to what to eat what time to go to sleep how much water to drink um what we're doing with his training um and the fact that he does that you know it's basically you know he's this is how he provides for his family his legacy everything um that that that's a lot you know that that puts a lot on you know to say that if a man does that for you it's okay i'm gonna give him 100 and if i'm calling him from my house big hey joe do this and try and do training sessions with them there that's not 100 so you know i said i'm gonna give you everything i got to the end of your career if you give me everything and it's been like you said it's been a mutual thing and i know he's got my back and you know he knows i have you know i have his so um here we go man

he's my brother he's my best friend and um you know i see the sky the limit we have we have goals you know like this is just a stepping stone for the beginning of our goals what we set out to do but one really cool thing i know it's a long-winded answer you know but a year ago i said give me give me a goal and he says obviously we're world champion like that's not a that's not a specific goal a specific goal is you know what champion do you want to be? You know, because every fight, you know, fighters get all these fights offered to them. And I'm like, if you have a very specific goal, then you ask yourself, does this fight bring me closer to it or does it not? And if it doesn't bring you closer, you don't take the fight.

If it does, then it does. And about a year and a half ago, he says, I want to be the IBF heavyweight champion of the world. Wow. Here we are why that specific one i honestly don't know i i couldn't tell you i i don't know but i just remember we were sitting in his pickup truck on our way to the gym and he looked at me like i thought about it he's like i want to be the ibf uh heavyweight champion of the world let's start it i'm like let's let's do it baby And you're literally days away from fighting for that belt.

I said at the beginning of this interview, he might be one of the nicest human beings I've ever come across. Do you share this sentiment? And what makes him so unique? You've worked with all different personalities, egos, from the world of fighting to entertainment to music, the likes of Jelly Roll to Conor McGregor to Tyson Fury, Brian Stan, Holly

Holm, Frankie Edgar, on and on it goes. What makes Joe so different? You know, I don't want to, because all the names you said would be like, oh, Joe's nice, so it makes him different. They all have the same thing in common. You know, that old saying, true strength is the ability to be gentle.

Conor, Tyson, all of them are probably the most humble people in the world. In person, when you're one-on-one with these guys, the show just accentuates it. That's how they sell tickets. Joe,

what you see is what you get. What makes him the nicest person in the world, which I hate, because there's nothing that shows you how bad a person you are when you're hanging out with one of the best people in the world. I've never seen this guy lose his temper one time.

When you say family man, you see some people, everybody's a family man, but sometimes they lose their temper. They complain. I've never heard this. When he's with his family, he's with everybody's a family man but sometimes they they you know they lose their temper they they complain i've never heard this when he's with his family he's with his family he puts them number one um his mom his dad you know being around this man just makes you a better person and um you know i will say you either you're either a thermostat or a thermometer you either

tell the temperature around you you change it and joe everywhere he goes just makes people better i think that's what separates him he's not that way in front of the spotlight he's not that way in front of specific people he is that way all the time which was your first fight with him it was the django fight in australia okay so that was, uh, 2023. Yes, sir. Okay. Obviously since then, um, undefeated, he's won four fights. I've heard you say, I've heard you tell this story that the first time you worked out with him or one of the first times you guys were lifting weights and, and you were like, okay, you know, quit joking around. Let's see how much you can really lift. And it was, in fact, true. And you were blown away by just,

I'm not trying to put him down, but just like how much he couldn't lift. Is that true? Yes. I mean, I'll say this. It's not a knock-on. I think this is one of the greatest compliments. It's not just the amount

of strength. We were doing kettlebells. Anybody that's ever, not kettlebells, but military press with dumbbells, and he had 20 kg. He's a heavyweight, man. Anybody out there that's ever lifted, they would be like, there's no freaking way. I started laughing because Joe's always joking around. I'm like, oh, crap. Are you serious? Like, this dude can't lift his weight. And, you know, when it comes to, you know, mobility, movement, strength, power. Well, he's always had power because he's a very fast individual.

But all aspects of fitness were the lowest I've ever seen on somebody. And the thing is, I'm like, this guy won the world title off his sheer heart, tenacity, and boxing IQ. And I was like, bro, once we give you the base, because he has the peak, once you get the base, I'm like, you're going to take over the sport. Nobody's going to be able to touch you. And here we are. Yes. So we saw his grand arrival today. A lot of pomp and circumstance.

I'm feeling something, man. You know, Dubois, there he is. There's Big Joe looking great, looking suave. I'm feeling something here. What is it? Speaking of the temperature, like he's got confidence. Look at this guy. He's skipping over there.

This is the evolution of the Big Oos. What's the vibe like around the team? Well, first off, I want to tell you, this is my favorite day of fight week, Ariel. And I was like, I'm so excited. And then I got this call. I ruined it.

Bro, you kidding me? I was like, dude, don't do it. This is how excited I was to be on the show you could have told me that i don't want to take you away from that i apologize no heck no man i think everybody's been videoing me and seven stuff and everybody's like dude good luck today though so uh it's an honor to be on the show bro you made i just want to see how valuable and how awesome it is um in terms of the vibe, um, Ariel, I have never been so confident in a fight in my entire life.

Um, I've, I've, you know, I think you've known me long enough when I, when I say, you know, with confidence, if somebody is going to win, I can't, I don't know if you remember the last time I was in the losing corner of a fighter, you know what I mean? Um, it, it very, very rarely happens. And sometimes if it does happen, if you would ask me prior to the fight, I would have honestly told you like, you know, I don't think this is, you know, the best matchup, you know, there's so many different aspects and traits of you,

you're around world champions for so long that you, you, you see commonalities. Um, and one of the big things is i think joe had always believed that he's like yeah i'm uh you know i'm gonna be a world champion when i when i told him when i first started working with him like bro you're gonna take all the sport he was like yeah so yeah yeah and then um after you be wilder you kind of see there's like a transition to take place where it's like i think i had enough belief for both of us and then the scary thing is that he started believing it and i think that's that's the part like when somebody truly believes that i know he he's like

bro we are going to be the best in the world like not just getting undisputed but we're going to take this thing and run with it. You know, that's, that's, that's where we're at right now. And when I say that, it's not like we're looking past the twilight, you know, like that's not what I mean at all. It's just when you have this undeniable faith and things to back it up, the tangibles where he's in the best shape he's ever been. And he's the biggest he's ever been.

This guy is so much bigger and runs so much faster, so much longer than he ever has in his entire career. His focus is on point. Working with Andy, when it comes to not just what me and Joe do, but the way that we work as a team, he's the first coach that I've worked with that I put it, and I'm not saying this bad about other coaches, but he has no ego. We have the same common goal. Let's make Joe the best version of himself. So he talks to me every single day. I talk to him every single day. I say,

okay, we're going to do this for training. And he'll be like, okay, we're going to spar on this day. I'll be like, okay, we're going to do this. And he'll be like okay we're gonna spar on this yeah but okay we're gonna do this and he'll be like you know what we'll back this up you know so we we work in unison my job is to supplement what what the game plan is that andy comes up with um i'm not i'm not trying to get the spotlight i'm not trying to be like okay well he needs to be doing this and this for strength and conditioning now you know um my job is when the fight's over, you know, that's when we really amp up the strength and conditioning aspect. Here at fight camp, it's all about boxing. It's fine tuning.

If he has a missing link or a chink in his armor, that's my goal is to fix that during the camp. But yeah, man, with any aspect of a champion, we're there and it's exciting. And I think everybody knows, the whole team believes, Joe believes, and it's exciting times. Amazingly, his last fight was against Zhilei Zhang on the Nganou Joshua card almost a year ago, March 8th of 2024. Since then, Dubois has fought twice, the Hergovich win on june 1st and then of course the big win over anthony joshua are there any kids how do you how do you fine-tune a guy who hasn't fought in a year and and hope that he doesn't peak too early that it all kind of comes together

at the right time are there any concerns about ring rust how do you deal with all that yeah you know ring rust you know there's a lot of uh sayings and quotes lines that people use like ring rust adrenaline dump and stuff like that people don't actually understand where that comes from but 99.9 percent of fighters when they have a fight schedule then they start getting ready for the fight um whereas we were okay we have phases you know just like bodybuilding like uh you know just any other jd1 sport there's phases for for example you have a strength phase and with with boxing i've noticed that they try and fit everything into an eight-week period you can't build strength and speed and power and you you know, endurance during this time frame. You have to peak out during this time.

That took the eight weeks before to peak out, whereas we had time off. So Joe worked on a strength phase and we had an endurance phase. We had a power phase. And then now we're peaking and putting everything together. So there is no time off. And I think guys get ring rust because they take time off and they're not really building that base. You know, it's like this. I'm training, which means you're doing road work and they're hitting the bag and so on and so forth. But there's no tangibles that have been increased or improved upon.

Whereas Joe, like I said before, you know, he went in there, he couldn't lift 20 kgs. Now we have to go to specialized gyms for the amount of weight that he's lifting. You know, he had, he was doing squats with 10 plates on each side. He's doing the hip squats, you know, with 10 plates on each side of the day. He's got tree trunks now, you know, he's definitely got an inch behind that caboose. But yeah, it just kind of shows we have much wider base, which allows us to peek out. And brother, let me tell you, when we say peeking out at the right time in a perfect position, there couldn't be a better example of this. You're one of the few guys who has worked with the highest level boxers and MMA fighters in your specific role. Is there any difference between the two,

the mindset, the training? Obviously, what they're doing is different, but just like the overall vibe, the way things are structured, is there anything that you can pinpoint? You know, I'm doing blessed because, you know, even though MMA is a younger sport, I never got into boxing because, I mean mean it's been around for so long that they have everything figured out when i started working with boxers i realized that it's very very primitive um in terms of structure you know um you know for example let's say you're training someone like you saying bolt um you you tell the guy run 100 meters run 100 meters run 100 meters um and it's like okay we time it and then you're like okay run 100 meters again then you time it run 100 meters again time

it that would be the stupidest methodology in the world whereas in boxing they do the same thing like one two three four one two three four you know and it's like doing the same combination over and over again but the truth is it's like what are the biomechanics okay where does your head go where's this shoulder position to improve the the proficiency of every punch and i work with boxers like no nobody's ever never done that for me like movement are you pushing with your back leg you push it with your lead leg are you pulling with your lead leg they nobody's ever done that with them and it's like they do what they do because it's always been done that way there's no reason reasoning to why so mma to answer your

question mma has taught me to create structure everything that you do with mma um one technique the instructor is not going to show you a technique and then move on to the next technique you're going to do that technique a thousand times because you know to actually apply it in an active situation, you have to have it down pat. It's got to be, you know, reflex. Implement that with boxing has helped me in leaps and bounds and helped a lot of the fighters that I work with in boxing in leaps and bounds. You know, their work ethic is the same. The mentality is exactly the same, Ariel. I would say that boxing to me, I think, is a tougher sport.

Meaning, you know, I don't want to get mad and be like, oh, it's tough. What I mean by that is, in MMA, you know, if somebody's better than you, you're getting tapped out relatively quickly. Or if you get punched in the head, you go down, take a couple punches, and it's over. You know, the safety of the fighters is paramount.

Whereas with boxing, there's a lot of fights I know you've seen where it's like third round, you're like, okay, you know who's better. You know, and it's like, crap, this guy's got seven, seven to nine more rounds to go. And there's only one way out. He's getting knocked out. And even if you get a drop, like, hey, go ahead, buddy. to nine more rounds to go. There's only one way out. He's getting knocked out. And even if you get dropped, like, hey, go ahead, buddy. You got 10 seconds to try and unrattle your brain so you can get punched again.

Very tough sport. And again, you said why I moved in with Joe is I'm cognitive of that. He's my best friend. If I ever see him, he ran out of gas and he's taking headshots because it's something that I was lacking. I don't know if I could deal with that. So going in there Saturday, I know I've given him everything that I got. He's given me everything he's gotten.

That's where all this confidence goes from. I think that's where anybody's confidence goes. I think think that's where all anybody's confidence goes. I think the lack of confidence comes from the lack of preparation. We know we've done everything humanly possible for this fight. We showed a photo earlier of you and Joe, John Jones and some members of his team. This was, I do believe, before the Stipe fight in November. How did this come about where you guys went out to Albuquerque

to train with john uh joe john actually hit him up and i you know i told joe uh that john was one of the first people that i'd ever worked with in mma and uh i told him i'm like bro he is he's the goat you know he is the absolute best his mentality the way that he views things he's very very open-minded to to so many things um you know it'd been a while since me and him worked together i showed up and he's still you know he's like easy day things that i used to say you know he implements and he you know he still remembers that which shows that no matter how high this guy gets, he still has the, I guess, the humbleness to learn from people. What I think I've noticed a lot of times when some people hit that top level, I think a lot of times that stagnates their lack of ability to keep their mind open and continue to grow and continue to learn. They just think, I've arrived.

You're a white belt. You can't teach me anything. Where John is that way and i told joe like it's a different it's a mma is a completely different sport but if i'm a business owner and i sell concrete and this guy is the best car salesman in the world uh i can apply the fundamentals and understanding of business to mine, even though it's completely different businesses. And now we learned so much. Joe John's camp, you know, his speed, his speed coach really helped me out a lot, Matt. And I always forget his last name. He's going to kill me, but he, you know, he taught me some things and there's, there's things that I, I knew,

but when he put it in perspective, I was like, yeah, it's that, you know, teach me that, you know, speed is in perspective, I was like, yeah, it'll teach me that speed is systemic. And I'm like, no shit. You know what I mean? Like I'm trying to, people are trying to work on speed on punches. Well, if I'm able to sprint faster, it's like my arms can't get faster without my legs getting faster. It's systemic throughout the body.

You know, you're not just going to get fast hands and slow legs. So we implemented that a lot with Joe. Joe was already fast, but man, come Saturday, you're going to see some real speed. I can't wait. I mean, it's such a great fight, such a great card, such a great story. And your story is amazing as well. And you're so knowledgeable when it comes to this stuff. Just listening to you speak, again, I was able to pick your brain a lot when we were together in London.

Um, I am wondering if you feel like, you know, I, I always feel like we're, we're a tragedy away or a miscalculation away. And luckily, especially in the UFC,

there's a, there's a bigger gap between the weight classes as opposed to boxing. You see some scary scenes of people on the scales. Do you feel like it's evolved? Do you feel like fighters are getting smarter? They're putting the right people around them from when you started working with fighters way back when with Brian Stan? Or do you still feel like we're constantly dodging bullets and people are doing some serious damage to their bodies? We had Josh Barnett in studio a month or so ago talking about how weight cutting is such a big problem and how that needs to evolve.

How do you feel about it as, as you're so close to the front lines? Man, um, I got, you know, with, with my, my former company, Lockhart and Lease, we, you know, we came out with the certification. Um, and we still have that. 50% off. certification um that we still have out 50 off no it's joking but the uh the uh if you look at um most of the major boxers you know in the in the community today like uh giovante davis uh body jack triple g um uh earl spence like all those nutritionists have been certified underneath me my goal as a fighter because i've seen because I've seen the dangers in this,

and it's funny, Ariel, because once you think you've seen it all, you're like, nope, it's getting worse and worse and worse. The one thing that I love about the UFC is they have a litmus test, whereas they have the UFC center that everybody can go to, and you're not just hiring random people off the street, like a street conditioning coach and nutritionist. They go to the specific place and they know, okay, this is, this is kind of like the base.

This is a litmus test of what I'm looking for. Boxing doesn't have that. You know, when I started working with Joe and I started bringing up, and it's honestly, it was really basic stuff uh their mind was blown like whoa I've never heard of that you know I thought about it and it's like there's nowhere to go it's all hearsay like well so-and-so has worked with so-and-so works so people are like okay well he's got to be good but there's no actual you know criteria there's no you know I'm saying there's no baseline so in boxing i think it

is extremely extremely dangerous especially with the the headshots and things like that you know like uh second impact syndrome and um you know the blood-brain barrier if you're dehydrated it's always going to be a huge thing my goal in life is to actually educate people as much as possible um sorry you know you got me on a very sensitive subject, and I'm trying to put everything in one word. To answer your question, it's always going to be a huge issue, and I pray anybody watching this, you need to get somebody that is extremely knowledgeable.

My goal is to have somewhere for boxing so these guys can actually go to and have a confidence. OK, this is the correct way to do this, this and this. Like the UFC has that. If guys aren't cutting weight properly in the UFC, that's a deficiency on their part because they actually have a place that the UFC has put into place for them. Like I said, I'm hoping to do that with boxing but yes fancy question is there is a huge factor problem but i do think they're getting a little bit better okay but uh where it should be a couple weeks ago we had ben rothwell on the show and he talked

about after his fight that he had to deal with the toughest thing that he's ever had to deal with and that was cutting uh i think it was the 275 and he said that he reached out to you um virtually and just said like hey can you help me on a couple days notice he got it done he won the fight he became the bkfc heavyweight champion how difficult is that for you to do it remotely and on two days notice like when you got the call is this something where you're like, golly, I, you know, I mean, you got it done, but sounded like a Herculean task. It was, uh, I went, honestly, I went three days without sleep. I remember Joe waking up and he's, uh, Joe's like, do you want to sleep? I'm like, nope. I'm like, I got you, bro. And I was, I was, uh,

writing stuff for, for Ben while I was, you know, videotaping Joe Spahr and so on and so forth. It is something that is so valuable to me. And I get angry when I'm talking to the team. I'm a Marine. And it's like this, this, this. And if you're not doing it the exact way that I tell you to do it, I'm going to be pissed off. Not because I want things done my way. Because if you don't do it in this way, your fighters is going to be in danger.

You know, they're not going to be optimal. These guys put their heart and soul into the camp. And then they can be jacked up by a bad weight cut. At first, there was a couple of, you know, hiccups. They're not doing exactly what I was saying. And then I actually talked to Ben himself. And I was like, okay, we're going to get this. I got the whole team on there. And Ben gave me everything to a team that I asked for.

And like I told you, if you give me 100%, I'm going to give you everything I got. So he did. And I told him, you're going to be in the back this long. You're going to stay in the back this long. And they called me. They're like, it's been's been that long I'm like get him out of there weigh him he's gonna be on the dot literally uh he got out of the bag 275 pounds on he's like bro you are amazing I just done this a lot but um it was it was great but I'll tell you what man it was it was an honor I've watched him for so long. And like I said, all fighters, great fighters. They're just humblest people.

He is one of the most humble guys. And it was just an honor working with him. I love that. That's unbelievable. Can I ask, you did tell me at the beginning of this camp, you had a very specific prediction as to how this fight ends, Parker Dubois. Are you comfortable sharing that or was that between us? No, no, bro bro I tell 100% if I was a bad man uh and it's funny because I've said I and you can you can tell it but

I said third round Joe's gonna knock his ass out um and it's funny because right after that uh Dubois like the fight's over in third'm like, yeah, 100%, even he knows it. I think, so, yeah, I just, I think a lot of people sleep on them. You know what I mean? I'm not going to give anything away, but, yeah, third round, that's the confidence. And there's a lot of reasons why I say that. You know, you know as well as i do that i just don't say things out of the blue i think you know my track record calling the fights

is pretty pretty on point man but um yeah so we'll see so third round and then we're on to usic yes sir absolutely this time next year this time next year you think joseph parker is the undisputed champ i don't think i know but every ounce of my being i know you know it's like i think i don't remember we were talking today i was like dude i was like the ball's gonna be his next fight and then i told you and i was like that'll be that'll be in february and then i said he's gonna fight for Undisputed in July none of this stuff has been written down but I am so dang confident uh but it's funny how everything has come to fruition you know the things that had to happen

Joshua had to lose yeah um for this to happen it's the amount of stuff that's had to happen to put this into place but like I said um like i said i've believed in joe since since day one and he's put in the work and uh he's had to believe in faith and here we go baby well i wish you guys the best thank you so much for doing this and again i'm sorry you missed the grand arrivals i didn't want to take you away from that uh but uh plenty more excitement to come this week no doubt in riyadh Good luck to you and the big oos, Joseph Parker. Love the guy. I think he's an unbelievable fighter, human, father, husband.

He's just such a lovely soul, a gentle giant, truly. And I say the same towards you. You're a tremendous human being as well, and you've done incredible things with amazing people throughout your life, pre-fighting, during fighting, and no doubt post-fighting as well. And by the way, I hear maybe one more fight, yes? Is that true, George, one more fight?

Yeah. So I'm trying to – it will be a boxing match in New Zealand. I'm trying to get – I got one left in the tank, you know what I mean? I'm not trying to do anything. I just love fighting, man. Yeah, so if we can get a fight on the Ducal Boxing, which Joe's actually a promoter, with

Dave Higgins, yes, I'd love to get on that freaking card and put my practice to work. I love it. Well, good luck with that. Good luck on Saturday, George. Thanks for doing this. Appreciate it very much. No, man. Thank you so much, Ariel. Until Zhang fight, and he's been on the And it would be a fresh opponent and an opportunity to become undisputed again.

And then who knows? Does he fight Alex Pereira? Probably. I hope so. He's not fighting Alex Pereira. But he did mention Alex Pereira somewhat surprisingly, right? That fell out of nowhere.

Yeah. But maybe it's not out of nowhere. It's one of those things where it's like Usyk doesn't feel like the like just spin a yarn type UFC ain't doing it I wish they would I mean if you're the UFC

and there will never be a more perfect circumstance in this right if you're the UFC and Usyk goes I am not interested in being your champion I'm not interested in anything more than this. What I want is one super fight with Alex Pereira, and then I'm out of your hair.

You don't have to worry about negotiations. You don't have to worry about anything from the future. There will be nothing messy and tricky to unpack from this. We do it. We make a lot of money, and then I'm off in the sunset. That feels conceivable. I think their thinking is

not a big enough worldwide star to warrant the risk of seeing perera get even if it was boxing though like perera steps into a boxing ring with their whole thing is we build this guy up it's kind of like what dave feldman said about mike perry like we built this guy up and then he crosses over into something he isn't well-versed in and now all of a sudden it feels like the work that we did has kind of gone to waste. Has that happened with Francis or Connor? Do you feel like their star has diminished?

Well, I think there's an argument to be made with Mike. He hasn't fought since. I think there's Mike Perry. Right? I'm confused. With Mike there's Mike Perry, right? I'm confused.

Mike Perry? Mike Perry, yes. Mike Perry went to boxing. He lost. And now all the momentum in BKFC, to Dave Feldman's point, dissipated. So that's the comparison. I mean, I was thinking like Francis and Conor McGregor. No, but I'm saying Dave Feldman said, I wasn't happy with Mike Perry going over to boxing because we had built so

much with him, so much momentum, so much time and investment. And then all of a sudden it feels like the aura went away when he lost to Jake Paul. You can make the case that some people felt the same post Mayweather with, with Conor. He was on an unbelievable run and,

uh, you know, didn't win that fight. I can understand why the UFC would say Alex Pereira is, is untouchable. He's a mega star. We don't want him to walk into a boxing match against arguably the number one pound for pound fighter in the world and get clowned because all it does is not only potentially tarnish his legacy, but it tarnishes the UFC As well because it makes the UFC seem Inferior to Boxing superiority

So I get it I understand Why the UFC now do I wish they would do it Yes it would be fun as hell it would be incredible But I understand why they would feel Some sort of way If it was Usyk going over to MMA I think they would say yeah for, for sure, come on over. Yeah, because Alex would smoke him

in five seconds. I think it's worth the gamble. And I don't often feel like it would be for the UFC. This one feels worth the risk to me. If you put Alex Pereira in a boxing ring with Usyk and something happens

where he's able to find that left hook, it could be monumental. And I don't think Alex Pereira's star power would be greatly. And I don't think Alex Perra's star power would be greatly diminished. I don't think Conor McGregor's star power was diminished. In fact, I think it was significantly enhanced. I don't think Francis Ngannou's star power was diminished by going to boxing. I think it'd be worth the risk in this very specific scenario for the UFC. A couple of news and notes before we turn our attention to our Dizone Boxing Show at 5 Eastern.

So in less than two hours time, Adi Oladipo is going to be joining us live from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Eric Nixick, who of course was on the program seven days ago, talking about the Sean Strickland thing. You know by now everything that transpired. He did post this earlier today. I've learned a lot this past week And I promise you

This experience will make me a better person And coach all around Apologies to my team And coaches for bringing any negative light To our home That's on me This has been a blessing in numerous ways And has opened my eyes to how I need to be better

Love you all Hashtag water under the bridge at versus us pod. Is it versus us? I think it's versus. Versus, yes. So hopefully that's the end of that. And who knows where it all goes from here. I did see some people yesterday saying that I was playing the victim.

I have nothing to do with all this. I asked him some questions and he responded and that was that i was just pointing out the irony of the fact that the the break the biggest truth teller in the sport seemed to have been offended when his coach just kind of i thought i viewed it as him lighting a fire under sean's you know tuchus saying like you like, you know what, we need to have it come to Jesus. I didn't think it would translate into Sean being like, yeah, we're done. 24, like some, one thing that we always say about Eric, he knows how to talk to his fighters. And, and I think that he read that situation correctly. I'm, I'm surprised that Strickland

had the reaction that he did, but you know, a lot can happen between the next time he fights. So let us see how that all pans out. But I'm happy to see that message from Eric Nixick. The PFL has announced who will be in their women's flyweight tournament. Remember, it's one and done now. No more season, no more standings, no more points. And the names are as follows. Diana Avza-Ragova, Jenna Bishop, Liz Karmush, Elora Dana, Ilara Joanne, Tyler Santos, Juliana Velasquez, and Kana Watanabe. So somewhat notable is the fact that Dakota Decheva isn't in the tournament. But if I'm being honest, I wasn't expecting her to be in the tournament. She has conquered the tournament, the Europe tournament, and the big tournament,

if you will. She became European champion and then this past year won the season. There's nothing for her to gain. She should be the PFL 125-pound champion. That simple. Usman Armagomedov should be the 155-pound champion. Dakota should be the 125-pound women's champion.

Who else is there? Pachi Mix should be the 135 pound champion There's certain guys and gals that should just become the PFL champion In my opinion And speaking of the champion series I did get this note Just moments ago The PFL champion series

Is going to kick off in July With major announcements Dropping in March It's an all-new high-stakes MMA product featuring champions versus champions in exclusive one-off matchups. Is it really going to be champion versus champions? Or is it just going to be championship fights?

In any event, that should kick off in July. The question is going to be where it's going to air here in the United States. Obviously, the one from January in Dubai aired on Max. I had heard some talk of Amazon. And so let us see. But they are going to kick off in earnest. Everything's going to be happening really starting April, I do believe, with these tournaments.

Yes, Friday, April 11th. We told you last week that they will have four straight shows at Universal Studios in Orlando, which is fine. I just noticed something. Can we put that graphic up again? Bottom left, Friday, April 11th at 11.30pm Eastern? What? On ESPN2? The main card is at 11.30

in Orlando? I'll be there. Come on. What is going on? What are we going back to? This is truly the moment I have been waiting for. What is it? Are we going back to 1989 kickboxing in the

middle of the night on ESPN2? 11.30? I hope so. That makes no sense. You know what's crazy? ESPN, put it on ESPN+. It is on ESPN+. No, no, no.

But forget about the deuce. Yeah, but here's the problem. The prelims start at 6.30. So there's five hours of prelims and then the mains start at 6.30. So there's five hours of prelims, and then the main card starts at 11.30. No, come on. No, for real. According to ESPN Fight Center,

according to, and I trust this when it comes to ESPN Plus broadcast products, the April 11 card, the prelims start at 6.30. The main card starts at 11.30. For the April 3rd card, also from Orlando, the prelims start at 6.30. The main card starts at 11.30. For the April 3rd card, also from Orlando, the prelims start at 6.30, but the main card starts at 10. So it's actually only three and a half hours

of prelims. But for some reason, we've got five hours of prelims on the April 11th card, and then 11.30 main card start time. Last week they did announce the featherweights. We already told you about the welterweights,

but the featherweights are as follows. Adam Borix, Gabriel Braga, Nathan Kelly, Jeremy Kennedy, Movelid, Hai Bui Lev, one of the great flying knee knockouts of all time, Tai, Kuhn, Kim, Eve, Landu, and Jesus, or Jesus Pinedo. Thus far of the three divisions, like no real like superstar

like can't miss name on there, right? You guys agree or disagree? Yeah, for sure. Yeah. We showed the grand arrivals. We showed Joseph Parker loving life out there. Here's Daniel Dubois from earlier today. I love a good grand arrival.

It's a lot of pomp and circumstance. Who doesn't? Would you guys like to see this happen in MMA, or do you think that it's... Nah, I don't need it. You don't need it? There's already enough pomp and circumstance surrounding it with the presser

And then the Well they got the presser too The weigh in's on Friday And We don't need it It makes for a long day Does it not I mean

Not only that It makes for a long week It makes for a long week It really does It makes for a long week Because if you're one of the media guys Like I was talking to Addy about this Like you got media day on

On Monday You got grand arrivals On Tuesday You got presser You might. You got grand arrivals on Tuesday. You got presser. You might have, no, I think you got workout on Wednesday. You got presser on Thursday. It's just a lot of stuff, right? It could probably be consolidated.

Yeah, let's consolidate it. We do have Better Be Evan Bivel showing up. This, of course, is the main event. Light heavyweight, undisputed. Bivel checking his phone? I'm going to check the phone real quick, see if we got any event. Light heavyweight, undisputed. What? Bill's checking his phone? I'm going to check the phone real quick, see if we got any texts. Dimitri, come on, bro.

See if we got notifications on the old X. This is why you lost. What are you, checking your phone? You're not focused, Dimitri. He's ready to roll. He wins Trilogy. Rate the fit. Rate the fit.

It fits good. Box bra. Fit. Black and white. Track suit? Down. Ooh. I'm a high neck kind of guy.

Archer. Archer looks like he just came off like a 10 mile run in the Dagestani mountains. No, on the streets of Montreal. Yeah. Brother. He's one of our own. Archer better be if he's one of our own. I think he calls him Beterbiev.

I think it's Beterbiev. I think it's Beterbiev as well. Beterbiev sounds like you're cutting it short. Yeah. Shakur showing up. I mean, it's some kind of card. In fact. Out of Newark.

Let's go. Brick City repping in Saudi. We should let everyone know that we'll be doing a watch party for this card on Saturday, yes? Yeah, we sure will. Yeah. We'll join in three, the final three fights. We'll come on as the fourth fight down is going on, but then we'll get the Shakur fight. We'll get the Joseph Parker fight against San DuBois, and we'll get the Better Be It versus Bivel.

You wanted us to do the whole card. I wanted you to. We said otherwise. I said Cal Smith, Joshua Boazzi. That's the one. I'd be there. Every time anyone talks about this card, it's actually brilliant. Frank Warren, Eddie Hearn, it doesn't matter who,

they mention the top two fights, and then they always mention, this card is so good, you're getting Boazzi Smith as the curtain jerker. They always mention, this card is so good, you're getting Boazzi Smith as the curtain jerker. Like, they always mention it. It kind of reminds me of the time Uriah Faber asked to be on the prelims because he's like, more people are going to see me anyway. Well, who was it? Was it Cody? It was Cody.

Figgy Cody Garbrand is your curtain jerker. It's so good that Figgy Cody Garbrand. And then meanwhile, like later in the card, it's like Marina Rodriguez against Jessica Andrade. I mean, like that could have been. It's so good. Whenever the high voice comes out like that you know it's so good uh we did find out that the gfl is going to do uh hannah burrell versus your eye favor one thing that does concern me not the song let's concern me It does concern me

That we're getting a lot of fights But not a lot of dates or locations Anyone concerned about this? Concerned? I will not believe anything Until we have a date or a location We can just keep naming fights all we want It's just like the PFL, we signed Jake Paul, we signed Amanis Serrano We signed Francis Ngannou

I need dates, I need venues Before I believe anything I'm cautiously optimistic I feel like we'll sort it out We signed Francis Ngannou. I need dates. I need venues before I believe anything. Cautiously optimistic. I feel like we'll sort it out. Actually, last week you guys were on the show, and I think it's when the Weidman-Rockhold fight got quote-unquote announced. And I wasn't sure.

I don't recall if it was GC to Rick or Rick to GC, and you're like, okay, so when is it? And where is it? These guys are going to fight at some point. So basically we is it? These guys are going to fight at some point. So basically we know nothing. These guys are going to fight at some point. It's okay. We were all clamoring for favor of Route 3 too.

Okay, can I just go on record? I want to say for the record definitively. Yes. I know we're going a different direction, but I do want to say. Please. I prefer Rockhold Weidman, Hennen, Faber, to the alternative,

which is sacrificing these guys to the altar of some young stud who's going to steamroll them. So I like the direction. Who are the young studs in GFL? No, no, I'm saying, I like this being the thing in GFL. I'm not saying there's an alternative in GFL. What I'm saying is,

I'm uninterested in Chris Weidman being served up to some young guy. And so I like this. I like the matchups being made. Now, would I feel better if there was a date and a location attached to it and something concrete? Sure, certainly. We did the draft. We did all of this. Like now just kind of go quiet for a little bit.

Let us, you know, forget about the GFL and then just come up one day and be like, oh, here's our first card. It's going to be on July 18th. And these are the fights that are going to happen. And it's going to happen in L.A. It's going to happen at the theater at MSG, wherever it may be. There it is. And everyone goes, oh, this is like a pretty fun card. I'm looking forward to that.

I can't. Oh, yeah. It will also be broadcasted here. Where are we going to be able to watch this? Is it YouTube? Is it television? Where is it going to be? When is it going to be? Details. They're going to fight eventually.

Maybe. They might. This slow drip of fights with no dates or location and the trades. Prove me wrong. just drop it all at once I will watch if they have an event

It'll come it'll come I'm confident You guys alright I appreciate The confidence And by the way I mean April is Rapidly approaching Is that when the first event is supposed to be That's what they said yeah It's getting tight

I mean we're two months away We're less than two months away from the start of April. It's tight. It is getting tight. And it's tough. It's tough as well. Speaking of which, I mean, we're less than two months away from the UFC card in Miami. Can't wait.

And no main event. Although we're getting... They got the date and the location, but they don't have the card. But we have Hooker keep saying, you know, I thought it was going to be me, Kaikai or France, and Volk on the same card. And then they called me earlier. So if it is Pantoja versus Kaikai or France

and Volk versus Ilya, and Ilya seems perfect, although I'm assuming he would know. I asked his team. They said nothing confirmed yet. And I was like, well, yeah, that's why I'm asking you. You want me to be honest? Yeah. I'd rather have the date and venue and no fights.

Sure. And fights and no date and venue. Well, that really just speaks to how powerful and successful the UFC is now. The UFC can say, we're coming to Montreal for UFC 314 or whatever it is. 15. We're coming to Miami. And they could sell every single ticket based on the three letters, the number alone.

No one else could do that. The only other combat sports entity that could do that is WWE at this point. Yeah. Right? That's it. Boxing is so reliant on the two people in the main event. Matchroom can't say we're coming to uh to manchester no they'll do pretty well they could probably sell a ticket or two but it has to be

dependent on the card and most importantly the main event the ufc is the only one i mean we obviously have the march 8th pay-per-view and then a couple but like come april there's not much there's there's like rumored, but nothing official, right? Well, what they've established and what they've built is a reliable assumption about quality. If they say we are bringing a pay-per-view to Miami or we are bringing a pay-per-view to Montreal, people are operating under the assumption

that it will be a decent main event and maybe co-main event. If it is not, I imagine that from there, tickets won't sell so well. But UFC has created an expectation of a certain quality of card. And so, yeah, they have that right now. They can roll into town and just be like, we're coming, and people will buy the ticket. Chase Hooper, Jim Miller is enough to get me to buy tickets. Is that on Miami? Yeah.

Main event? That's a fun one, but I don't even think that's main card. Nah. It might be main card. I think Dominic Reyes. Maybe the kickoff, like the first fight, or that swing. Nikita Krylov? But none of that is actually officially announced, right?

Oh, I think Chase Hooper has gone on his Twitter and said he's not. Well, but I mean like From the promotion On their social media This that and that We'll probably get all of it On 313 You think so?

That would be a month out Maybe we get 315 On 313 Yeah I think two months I feel like we haven't gotten A Dana White video in a while Where he's in the water

What's up guys? Yeah I'm craving one Is that how Darren Owen Is gonna announce the the dates and locations? He just does a What's Up Guys video? Not a bad idea. I would really love to see what they're going to do for Miami.

I feel like we have some sort of, I'm not sure about Montreal. I'm not sure about Montreal. A little bit up in the air at the moment. I think I threw this out on Boys in the Back. Jasmine Jazdavicius versus Rosnami Yunus. Jazdavicius. Yeah, I love that. Not main or co-main, but on that main card wouldn't be bad.

We need a featured fight for Jasmine, for sure. And you need a Canadian. Malat. Oh, yeah. Jazdavicius. Kyle Nelson. My guy Kyle Nelson's got to get on there. Zahabi, for sure.

Oh, Zahabi has to be on the main card. Zahabi is probably, at this point, the most successful Montreal fighter. I think Zahabi and Jasmine are the only two top 10 Canadians right now. Is Zahabi in the top 10 or is he like 13? I think he was top 15 bare minimum. Let's see right here.

He's definitely ranked. He's 14. 14, okay. I'm sorry. Yeah, that's crazy. How is he 14? By the way, since last week he went down one and Marcus McGee went up one. Yeah, you know.

Some stuff came out. The old rankings. Before the program we love to talk about hard outs. We get a couple of super chats. Oh, we do? Okay. I was about to see. My 339 is coming. I'm good.

All right, go ahead. Duncan writes, with New York Rick's continued and reoccurring sickness, I just wanted to say- It says recurring, not reoccurring. Let me just help you there. Wow. Wow. All right, man.

I just wanted to say a big thank you to the rest of the team for stepping up, filling in the void, and picking up the slack. Wow. And Eric is not operating at 100%. Okay. No problem, Big Dave. You know, I'm so thankful. The unfortunate news to everybody else, though, is I'm not sick and have never been sick.

Well, you're not sick anymore. You sound great. Yeah, now you sound – Sounds like you got over it. I mean, was I ever? I mean, if there's no evidence to the contrary. Your eyes are so puffy. I have never been. Yeah yeah uh frank how are you feeling i heard yeah a little under the weather the rich developed a speech impediment the words got really blurry i was having a hard

time reading and then what happens he just he just hits me while i'm down he's like i've never experienced that so i have no sympathy for it uh we're gonna put again on your graystone we told you you were sick. I don't know if I'll ever die. I don't think I will. By the way, do you do the yearly doctor checkup thing? Me? Yeah. Yeah, of course. They say, you're fit as a fiddle, and I just walk out. That's great.

At least you're not that guy who's like, I don't need to go to the doctor. No, I never go to the doctor other than the physical. Sure. In fact, I do it twice a year. I go six months. Where they take pictures for sure. Go to the, in fact, I do it twice a year. I go six months. Is this where they take pictures for the encyclopedia? Wait a second.

Wait a second. You do it twice a year? Yeah, I go every six months. I didn't even know that was an option. The five-yearly physical. Go to the doctor. Hey, how we doing? Doing great. You're fantastic.

Never been sick in your life. Wait, for someone who doesn't believe in any of this stuff, you go twice a year? I've never heard that. I believe in a body breaking down and a body actually having to be maintained. I've just never been sick. A flu and things like that, just never experienced it.

So it's, you know, and I'm fortunate and I'm happy and thankful. It's ironic you've never experienced the flu when you have a flu named after you, the Jackman flu. Wow. You guys have done that. I feel like it should be named after somebody who has experienced it, but that's just me. I mean, I'm not here to... I'm out for it. I don't want to

micromanage, you know? Oh, really? When I corrected Frank on his poor reading. By the way, do you do a blood test? Yeah. I don't think he has blood tests. Twice a year? Yeah, why not? I actually do a blood test twice a year as well. Wow. I only do a blood test when it's required of me.

Why is this like... I used to go to a doctor and I've since switched because she said we're going to do it every second year. And I was like, this seems too long in between.

Like, what if something happens in between? But now it seems like you're like six months is too short. You seem very like trepidatious about this idea. I kind of felt like

once a year was the standard. The standard. It could be, but what's wrong with twice a year? I mean, I guess you could do it once a month. Check the pipes, you know? You could do it once a week if you want. Yeah, when your blood's good, it's good. Well, see, this is you guys. You guys who, you know, experience illness and... No, now I'm starting to feel like I haven't done it enough. There you go. As I said, I work with a lot of

hypochondriacs who are very concerned about their health at all times. But usually people with your mindset don't do two times a year. My mindset, what is my mindset? Do you not get sick? I don't get sick. What's my mindset? They're probably like, Rick, please stop going out into society.

You're making everyone sick. And he's like, yeah, yeah, I'll see you in six months. I know. He actually does this because he's immunocompromised. He actually gets sick more than anyone else. What else, Frank? Never miss a day. Hammer Parsa writes, Hello to the man at the front and the boys in the back and PT.

If you guys were fighters, what weight class would you be realistically fighting in? Oh. Thanks. I think I would be, I mean, I hover these days around 198 to 203 uh believe it or not some people think i'm a flyweight i see sometimes i'm like golly don't want it huh what's up yeah you'd be a middleweight and that'd be tough but i i feel no i i i've always felt like my ideal i've always felt like my ideal weight is uh 188 so so then you're 185 you might be a 70 or though get the fuck out of here

so cut down to 170 are you out of your mind well are we are we cutting or not are we taking the water out or not i i 185 is is doable all right ariel versus izzy bounce back nah me versus hamza no perfect easy work Easy work Pick the biggest guy What about you GC? Uh 155 I'd cut down to 155 What are you

What are you walking around at these days? Right now I'm like 173 That's a big cut 18 pounds Eh It's worth the risk Use the size advantage Reach

What do you see that sprawl I have against This long maca show Fuck Imagine the mentality He's He's training wrestling All camp

And then I get in Stuff the first Six takedown attempts He doesn't know What's going on With a knee as he's shooting Elbow Yes

I would love to see You versus James Vick I feel like that'd be A good fight Frank how do you He versus any of them Would end in a mauling On them mauling me

Frank your thoughts On the elbow To the microphone Your reaction That was light, too. That was right. I'm a southpaw. My reel is left. Oh, that's good form right there. When all of a sudden you're like... Push him up against the cage, grab the... Why does Connor sound like

shit compared to everyone? I don't know. Maybe it's the abuse of the microphone. That lefty elbow. Breaking the microphone. These are razor blades right here. Shut up. Rick, what are you fighting at? I would probably be 70 these days. Back in the day, probably would have been 55. When you did UFC Fit, what was it? I got way too low there.

What was that? I got down to like 45. That's crazy. But I was skin and bones at that point. That was crazy. Yeah, do I do the super cut, get down to Gregor's skinny and then be the 6'1 featherweight? You're too tall for that. You don't have the fat to lose there in the water weight. You're too lanky. You're too tall. I'll too tall for that. You don't have the fat to lose there in the water weight.

You're too lanky. You're too tall. I'll rip 155. I think you could make 55. Great. Most stacked division. All right. Wait, so you're 55 too, Rick?

No, I'd be 70. Okay. Years ago, I'd be 55. So we've got it covered. 55, 70, 185. We could be in the Four Nations faceoff. With a cut, by the way, I should say. Okay, okay.

I need to cut some water. I could be flowing through the weight classes. I might come and take the belt from both of you guys. Triple champ over here. You can't make 185. I can't make 185. I mean, the heaviest

I've ever been is like 209. What about, what about, well, that was weight. I mean, wasn't that like when you were in college or something you said? Yeah, those were my drinking days.

What about, hey, Drikus, how do you think the fight against Bilal would go I'd step on his head No he was First Before the lead up to

I'll step on his head He just laughed Hysterically And you were like Wait you're saying That it wouldn't be fair He's just like No look at the size of the man

I'd absolutely kill him It was a little Conor McGregor-esque Like just feeling like He's a mite To just like brush away But also he He made a good point

He's like I've stood next to this. I've seen this man. He is not the same size as me. He's just like, my favorite part about the quote is that he thinks he could even come up to middleweight and challenge. Yes, exactly.

In a three-point shooting competition, me versus Bilal, who do you think wins? I don't know. What's going on, Frank? Oh, that was the hard-out music. I'm sorry. We had programmed it into the machine. It's automated.

We're actually about to go to a commercial break. Did you guys see that? I mean, the form was just. You hit two elbow jumpers. What do you want me to say? You're the next Tim Duncan over here? You don't. Big fundamental.

No problem. You don't think I could beat him in a game? I think I could beat him in basketball for sure. I'll take 95% of the roster. I think I could beat him in a game of one-on-one. Who is the 5%? I'm sure there's a guy out there. I'm sure there's a Corey Sanhagen who will hit a couple shots.

Are you concerned? Here's my concern. The heavyweight division is just going to be able to back you down. I know you can stroke it. I know you can. Folk off, for sure. Yeah, that sounded weird. I know that you can shoot a basketball.

I've played on your basketball team. So I know this. I have no doubt. I didn't need to see those two elbow jumpers. I know you can shoot. Thank you. I appreciate that you can shoot a basketball. I've played on your basketball team. So I know this. I have no doubt. I didn't need to see those two elbow jumpers. I know you can shoot. Thank you. I appreciate that. Are you concerned about the physicality, though?

Because there's some big boys. The ball was getting away from you a little bit on the dribbles. Wow. I'm playing with balls. I'm wondering if the cookies are getting felled. We're breaking down the film. The phrasing on all this is just horrific right now. Yeah, we're breaking down the film.

The ball is getting away from me. Can we clip this segment out and erase it from the internet? Oh my gosh. Listen, I was getting warmed up. We just got there. It was freezing.

The balls were a little bit, you know, deflated. Freezing. Deflated. I had not played with many, you know, balls at that point.

It was unfamiliar. So, no. I'm good. I would would beat 95 of the roster quite confidently in either a game we played knockout i smoked everyone you know kids ain't you know age like nine through well my daughter played too she was seven had to feel good against the nine-year-old that was probably it felt It felt really good when I eliminated my wife. You never let the kids win, right? Absolutely not. Never.

It'll be that much more special when they eventually do beat you. Actually, recently we played two-on-two. It was myself and Walter, the now 11-year-old, against my older son and his friend, two 12-year-olds. And it did get dicey there for a moment. I'm trying to get Walter involved and whatnot. But then as we were getting close to 21, I was like, all right, enough of this.

And I just scored like six in a row. And I said, not today, fellas, not today. And I loved it because it was actually competitive. And I know at some point they will beat me, but I still got it. It'll be that much more special when they do. I can't let them beat me. You can't let them beat me.

No way. I've been playing my five-year-old nephew in chess. I mean, it's no mercy. Yeah, no, no, no. Stop. Absolutely not. I did tweet about a great moment that I had yesterday with Walter.

I went to his game after the show, and he's really getting into basketball, and I swear when I watch him play, I feel like I'm looking at myself. His mannerisms, his intensity, the way he gets pumped up about certain things. I feel like I'm looking at myself, his mannerisms, his intensity, the way he gets pumped up about certain things. I feel like I'm watching myself. And at one point, just where I'm sitting, this kid comes down and they're a little bit out of control, the 11-year-olds. They don't exactly

know the ins and outs of pacing and how to move the ball and how to play defense the correct way, but they're getting it. They're getting there. And at one point, Walter draws a charge. And I'm like, what the heck is this? I've never seen this. No kid has done this in the league, at least not this season. And afterwards, I said to him, and he scored a couple points, and the team lost a heartbreaker, but it was all good.

It was a great game. It was pretty late. It was like 9-15, late game for 11-year-olds, if I'm being honest. And I said, you know what my favorite part of that game was? And he said, the shot, the free throws, this and that. I said, no, the charge, the charge was unbelievable. I never seen you do that. And he said, oh yeah, you know, I did that on purpose. And I was like, yes, I could tell you did it on purpose. And it was brilliant. He didn't flop. He took the hit. He fell hard. He put his body on the line for the team in a crucial part of the game, like three, four minutes left, three-point game. And he said, you know where

I saw that? He said, I don't know. I said to him, I said, where did you learn that? And he said, I saw Jalen Brunson do it. And I was like, as a dad who loved basketball, as a kid who still loves basketball, and also a Knicks fan, to hear him say that, I started getting emotional i

honestly thought you were gonna say the like commercial the drug commercial from back in the day where he's like i learned it from you dad i thought oh that was i mean because that's your i mean you know he didn't see me in my prime yeah you're but i told him i used to do that defensive like that would that would have been i told him i used to do that i mean i the the the the the tennis elbow that i used to have like the i used to have tennis balls on my elbow because i used to fall all the time diving for loose balls i mean i was a real sort of you know lunch pale hard hat kind of player yeah yeah and to see my son develop i feel like i'm watching myself it's a wild thing and now to see him watch basketball and fall in love with it and emulate those guys.

And again, Brunson not really known for his defense per se and certainly sometimes gets a knock of drawing too many fouls or trying to draw too many fouls. I disagree. But it was a moment I'll never forget. It was – It's big that he got the call too. Yeah, he got the call.

Didn't get the blocking. Got the call down three, 30 seconds left. Chucked it left Chucked it Chucked it And it looked good For a moment But missed the shot For a moment

I thought Holy shit He's about to tie the game A little out of the range You don't make all of them You don't make all of them Yeah he got a little too He didn't airball it

He didn't He didn't airball it But he chucked it And it was one of those It was the fresh prince Carlton Banks It wasn't quite that But it

It didn't land softly You know what I mean It was Just Fresh Prince Carlton Banks It wasn't quite that but It didn't land softly You know what I mean it was Just a bit outside If you're on the other team you're talking shit at that point I was sitting here from the vantage point Of the shot and I was like Clanked it Go sit down bro go sit down

Take the charge next time You went for the glory shot No foul You gotta go for it It was a heave Take the charge next time. You went for the glory shot. No foul. No, you get the confidence. You got to go for it, man. You got to go for it. It was a heave. It was not so much a shot.

It was a heave. Hey, he's young. Throughout my entire playing career, two game winners under my belt. Buzzer beaters? One was a buzzer beater. Wow. It was like I was in seventh grade.

Never a more magical moment. It's the best. You never forget it. You know what also is the best finishing before the hard out not before the hard out finishing before my expected hard out you said 339

hit the music Frank let's go I'm not hitting the music until 347 no by the way one other super chat I'm pretty close every time shout out to Josh Jones who said shout out to Keyshawn Davis. We're all repping you back home in the 757. Snatch Tank's belt and bring it back home to Norfolk, a.k.a. Norfolk, a.k.a. Norfolk, Virginia.

Norfolk. Where's the music? Where's the music? There it is. Hey, by the way Tomorrow on the program We are going to be joined By Kyle Bohalio Of the Fighting Nerd Squad

And yes, you can send in your questions Wednesday on the nose We answer all your questions So do send them Over at ariahawani.substack.com and uh do have another sort of we're in a um we're in a peace and love mood my friends and and the boys don't know this back there uh we do have another somewhat surprising guest booking for tomorrow's show do you want to know who it is yes please i'm quite curious any guesses this just happened uh during the show i uh who's it bernie

shop nah it's not a pat shout uh no it's uh it's a man who uh once uh publicly proclaimed that he would never come on the program muhammad mukayyad will be joining us he's joining to talk about the four nations talking about how he's going to be selected as 135 uh The first member of the Four Nations squad joining us tomorrow on the show. So we are in a spot where we are trying to show the world that it's all about peace and love, peace and love. And again, trying to show the world that there are no hard feelings, there are no grudges on this side of the table. You may believe me, you may not, but that's how I feel. And I think it is an important thing, not just as a journalist,

but as a human being as well. So I look forward to those conversations and others, I look forward to your questions and I look forward to the Ariel and Ade show at five o'clock on the DAZN Boxing channel. So stay tuned for that. For now, thank you very much, Drikas Duplessis.

Thank you, Jared Cannoneer. Thank you, George Lockhart. Thanks to you, thanks to them. Back on Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday, Saturday.