The Ariel Helwani Show - Dricus du Plessis, Rico Verhoeven, Arman Tsarukyan rival Georgio Poullas, Petr Yan, more

Episode Date: March 3, 2026

Ariel Helwani is back with a stacked show. Petr Yan joins first, reflecting on his massive win over Merab Dvalishvili to recapture UFC bantamweight gold, then talking about recovering from back surgery, hoping to fight on the White House card, and being willing to fight anybody, including rematches with Dvalishvili or Sean O’Malley (05:26). Petesy Carroll checks in to discuss Eddie Hearn hinting at a Croke Park event featuring Katie Taylor and Conor McGregor’s return (42:05). Rico Verhoeven is back on the show to preview his big fight against Oleksandr Usyk, talk about receiving offers to fight Anthony Joshua and Derrick Lewis, whether he could still fight in the UFC, his training for Usyk, and more (1:00:17). Dricus du Plessis reflects on the Khamzat Chimaev fight, revealing he watches it twice a week and believing he could make Chimaev quit. He also touches on whether he was offered a bout against Kamaru Usman, wanting to get back to the title, hoping to teach Brendan Allen a lesson, and more (1:32:12). Georgio Poullas joins to break down his rivalry with Arman Tsarukyan, stemming from their match and brawl at RAF 6. He also accepts Tsarukyan’s challenge to fight, responds to claims he’s wrestling dirty, then discusses how the match came together, his $1,000 takedown challenge, and more (2:05:45). Ariel answers your Super Chats to wrap up the show (2:48:55).

Welcome to the Ernes, Tuesday, March 3rd, 2000. And 26, hello again, everyone. I really put the emphasis on third there. I was very excited about the third. I love the number three. One of my favorite numbers, and I love being back. Yesterday was a wonderful day. Thank you all for the warm welcome, the kind wishes.

I missed you all. More than you missed me, and I'm assuming you missed me. I'm assuming you missed me and not just the guess. Like it's kind of a two-fer, if you will. It's a package deal. It was so great to be back sitting in this chair in front of this camera, in front of this computer. And look, I actually got my computer back.

So as you can see, we have not jumped off the bandwagon. I actually got this really cool Chris Wood mug for my friend Illustrator Studio. I want to give him a shout out on Instagram. He's doing really cool things over there. So shout out to Chris Wood, the Pride of New Zealand. Try not to break anything here. and shout out to all of you. Thank you for the support.

Yesterday was amazing. Yesterday was an incredible day. Five pack of guests who are all phenomenal. And today is an incredible day. As I've told you, the best part about me going away is that we always come back with bangers. That has always been my vow. And I think that, is there a chance that today's episode is better than yesterday's?

You can make that claim, I think. I think you can make that claim. Today's episode is a phenomenal one. Can't wait for it. We've got a lot to discuss and we've got a lot of interesting people to talk to. In a matter of moments, we're going to be joined by the reigning, defending UFC bantamweight champion, the one and only, the pride of Russia, Psyrrian. Now the record holder for most significant strikes landed in UFC bantamweight history.

And when you consider the dudes that have fought at 135 over the years, pretty significant. But what's even more significant is that he was champ, he lost the belt, unceremoniously and then of course late last year he wins the belt against Marab in an incredible fight and incredible performance. My performance of the year and my comeback fighter of the year. That singular fight

was the performance of the year in my opinion and I thought the way in which he's come back starting in 24 but culminating at the end of 25 was the comeback of the year. So looking forward to talking to Pierrejan in a matter of moments right here live

on the program. We'll talk to Pizzi as well in the first hour, talk about some news and notes, curious about that Eddie Hearn, Katie Taylor post. What's that all about? Then at 2 o'clock, one of the most talked about fighters in the world today, the one and only Rico Verhoeven, the now former Glory heavyweight champion, man who has not lost in 12 years,

was the face of glory, has been the face of kickboxing, has been the king of kickboxing, all that and more. He is going to join us at 2 o'clock to talk about this massive fight against Alexander Usik on May 23rd in Egypt at the pyramids of Giza. He is fighting for the WBC title, this belt right over here, which was gifted to us by the great Mauricio Suleiman, looking forward to having Rico on. I don't know if he's talked to anyone, certainly not in English just yet. So I'm looking forward to that. We'll talk to him at approximately 2 o'clock.

What about 2.30? Our old pal, the pride of South Africa, Drickus Duplessi is going to join us. F. Middleweight champion, the man who last fought against Hamzat Shamaev in August, didn't go his way. There's been some talk about who might be next for him. Is it Kamar Usman? Is it, I don't know, some other middleweight? Is it a Brendan Allen type?

I thought maybe it could have been Apollo Costa type. Nevertheless, I'm sure he's interested in the Kyle Bahalio fight this weekend against RDR, but just wanted to catch up with him. I have not talked to him since before that fight against Hamzat. So we'll see what DDP. has to say, and then 3 o'clock

Eastern, we will talk to another much talked about man in the world of combat sports right now. The man who Armand Sarukin went up against this past weekend, Giorgio Pulas, in that RAF match, which ended

with Armand landing shots and saying he wanted to land more. And as you may recall, yesterday on the program, we had Armin on saying, like, I want to fight this guy. I want him to come to my gym and let's just spar Well, we wake up this morning And we get the news that Armine and Giorgio

Are apparently going to be competing in a hype BJJ event in eight days? Eight days. What's going on over here? They posted that. There's the graphic right over here. Submission only rematch. I wonder how RAF feels about this.

But it's Hype Brazil, March 11th, Rio de Janeiro. It's Armand Syrukion against Georgia Pulas. So we'll talk to Georgia about that. Get to your super chats as well. Answer some questions. There's the four-pack of guests. A star-studded lineup once again. And we will kick things off with the relatively new reigning, defending UFC Bantamway champion, the one and only Peter Yan. Is he here? Is Peter actually here? Hello, brother. Your order, my friend. How are you? Best, best, awesome.

And Sergey is here to help us as well Thank you Sergey, we appreciate it Peter, I was getting worried because after you won We were supposed to have you on the show and you didn't show up So I was afraid that you were not going to show up again Everyone was getting very worried I was worried I was worried

I was after your victory to come to us But you didn't come back to you I'm probably that today you don't You'd be there, yeah, Yeah, there, there, after We've got to be a lot and a little bit of time But, today was all overlapped

So it was all planned for a lot So I'm here. Yes, of course, that time after the fight, we had to go home quickly. We had to fly out, so we kind of lost track of time. But this time around, everything was planned. We were ready, and I'm here. Some people were...

Areles, Aral, all for you. We need to do history, today. Ariel, everything's for you. This is for you. Today we make history. Today we make noise. We hype it up.

I love it. Okay, because, you know, some people were saying, Peter, he's champion now. He forgot about the little people. He's too big, he's too popular, but here you are proving that that's not the case. Because some people said, so, he's champion, he zanzas, he, he's about us, about many people. But it's not that, because it's just right now.

It's a full chush, full chush. Just I never never internet. Of course, it's nonsense. It's all nonsense. I just didn't have internet connection. Okay, okay, fair enough, fair enough. Okay, so there's a lot to talk to you about, Peter. You've been championed now for a little over two and a half months.

Congratulations. I want to start in. in order and go back to that night in December against Marab. Were you feeling leading up to the fight? Were you feeling in the buildup? Because you fought like it, but I was wondering if you were feeling from a confidence level that you were going to have the fight of your life. Because I thought it was the performance of the year.

It was an incredible performance. A lot of people didn't expect that. I thought you were at your best on that night. Were you feeling that way on the night or did it all come together on the night? It's just a bit more two and a half months. since the first of the time, how you've become a champion. But I want to

about to turn to the night in December. So, it was that's the whole year before that you said, all the same was your behavior, it looked like, and then

in the end of the battle was like, that you were being able to and you were sure, that you were that you in that the night,

because for me it was not just a better boy, it was a better boy of the and the last come-back God. Yeah,

Yeah, of course, I'm going to back to our poedinical I'm going to now my thoughts, my thoughts,

I was motivated, I was motivated, I was going to fully motivated, fully charged ready to go. You know, the same,

the main, the real, that in the time I was I was good, I was good and I I was going to, from our first poedinica, if in this situation I'll go to

the poedinka, umirabov would be big problems. What we'll see. The entire time for the buildup, what I realized and what I knew was that I was 100% healthy, I was 100% ready and all I had to do is get all the way

to the night of the fight, to the fight itself in that state and there was going to be no way that I could have lost that fight. I would have won 100%. I just remember our first when I was with him with one hand and

our boy passed all the distance he didn't even he was notherst, and I knew, that today I was to show, to show to what I'm able. I just realized, my thought process was

that let's think back to the first fight when I basically fought him with one hand and still we went the entire distance, we won five rounds, you could not finish me. So now I knew exactly this night that this was my night because I was 100% ready. I saw a photo of your coach

Krat, I hope I'm pronouncing his name correctly and he had the whole breakdown of all the different scenarios. This photo right here, this went viral. And in fact someone on our team, our producer Eric, named your coach the coach of the year for this, for this game plan. Can you tell me about this?

What does this signify? And is this what you guys usually do before your fights or was this put together just for the Marab fight? I've seen this photograph. I, I saw this photograph. I saw it, I've seen him, how he's all the time and all the boy, absolutely.

And this is a photograph. It's the photo that he shows. It's overused. And even on our show, it was actually, you before each ball, do you do that kind of

set? Or it was specifically for Maram? Kairat, we'll return to to the trainer to Kairat. He has a

sort of strategy of the and very abshirn't an analysis he does a supernick, and he's technical and his his behavior,

how he starts a fight in in the first round, how he does he did a boy in 5th round and, from this, he

has formed this set- set-up, so say, game plan on the boy, which you will see

I thought, I thought, I thought, I thought, I thought, Kairat wrote their

family since first. To be honest, if we go back to my coach

Karat, this, he's a different type of animal. He analyzed and deep

dives into the entire way the opponent exists. I mean, anything from the way

he fights, the way he feels in the fifth round, the way he behaves, the way he

carries himself before and during the fight, the way his breathing patterns are. I mean,

he literally dissect everything you can possibly imagine about your opponent. And, at first when I saw this thing, this grid, if you can call it,

at first when I thought, I thought that was his family tree because it was so detailed, but it turned out to be the game plan. Wow, that's amazing. And you've been doing that with him? He's been doing that for you for all your fights, your recent fights, or was it the first time for this one? He does it always on all your poeinets, or it was only the first time for this one?

He always He always He's always He's always We're with him We're with him We're from From the end of the

Lager You can't If you If he had a He was a He was He was To be in

It's always It's always Yeah, he will be It's always It's a He'd be He'd be a

Bigger You for but usually he does it for all of my fights but this time around we were able to do the entirety of the camp the beginning first day all the way through the end we were able to do it together so we worked on this together and we were able to put this stuff together he was putting this together for me as we were training but imagine if only he had the visa and if he was able to be in my corner do you understand what that would make what a difference that would make and what i want to do right now while i have this opportunity is i'm pretty sure he's going to be watching this so i just want

to say thank you. Hey, how you doing? And thank you so much for working with me. Correct. Amazing. Spasiba, as you say. Thank you. Yes. Yesterday I spoke to Marab, Peter, and he told me he was surprised. He felt like you were stronger than the first time that you guys fought. Were there any surprises about him, in your opinion?

Anything that he did or maybe, more importantly, didn't do that surprised you in this fight? He said, he said, he was going to Smyrabo. He said, he was significantly stronger, just physically even more than in the first boy. And it was very strongly was, you ever, you did he? You whatever

did it, in his time? Or, not? Especially not only only the only that he did, but that, maybe, he didn't did, that you did it? Well, listen, I

just, I've ever I've always, I was, I was, I was from our first poedink. I was with one-row-

I, for five rounds in the first in the first battle, I was four times with the right-of-rund. I, I didn't get-hach, or to help, push, bring-ed,

I could work because I'm not working with trauma. Bessorav, a strong sportsman, a strong

boyce, did it, by the bayam. What? What I'm was not going to say that me something

really, I'm not sure, I was trying to do with him on different in the other end of the other end of the stork of in storkman, I just was, and I was

the best version, so say, in that day. You know, I tend to repeat myself when I answered this type of questions, but I'm telling you, in the first fight I was heavily compromised, totally different than I was from the second fight. In the first fight, the entire five rounds, I threw my right hand four times, the entire fight. I wasn't able to grab him.

I wasn't able to push off. I wasn't able to wrestle. to defend. I literally could not use my right hand at all, so I was I was handicapped, the entire fight. This time around, I was coming in strong, I was coming in ready. I understand Maraba's a great fighter. He's a strong fighter. He'd definitely proven himself time and time again with his defenses and the way that he fought. But this time around, it was just a different animal. I couldn't possibly have been the same. So nothing specifically, you know, surprised me about him it's just that me myself I was a different version a hundred percent better version of myself

Ariel Mirab in the war you know Mirab in the last fight was that that bull you know the bull that you kind of guide towards these gates you kind of guide him through the red cloth I understand the analogy I'm also wondering if you feel like he made a mistake by coming back so soon soon after his previous fight in October. In other words, do you think because the first fight between you two was so one-sided in his favor, whether you're injured or not, he sort of took you for granted and thought, all right, I can come back two months later and fight this guy,

my fourth fight in 2025, and didn't really expect you to look that way against him? It's not the same way against him. He said he was not able to be in October, then, and he decided that he'll go to the fourth safety of the title, because in the first battle, he didn't feel you, not felt felt your

natural soul, and so I thought that he'll, he'll, that time, he'll start his story, and fourth last will protect him first time. But he, from these four poedinings, two boys with Sean Amelie. One time, had dushed him

one hand, and the first You know, two of those four fights last, last he fought, it was Sean O'Malley. He fought O'Malley twice out of those four. One time he basically mold him, and the other time he choked him out with one arm, so does it count as four? Me, I think he's actually to Sean O'Malley not quite. He knew that he didn't even prepare for Sean O'Malley, honestly. He just knew he was going to grapple him out or wrestle him out.

Do you think he prepared for you? To you, he was got to do you? Well, he would see. If he didn't get himself, then he's done he's a grubble a mistake. You know, you saw the fight,

so I guess you can judge for yourself, but if he decided that he shouldn't have prepared, then he made a huge mistake. When you held the belt for the first time, Peter, I thought that you were going to be a champion for a long time, and then obviously the mistake against Aljo and everything that happened afterwards.

When you won the belt in December, did you feel like, whatever weight that fight that mistake was in 2021 was it lifted off your shoulders were you more emotional this time because of the journey that you had to go through to get the belt back over the course of the last four years? After the first time, I thought you were with poise

a long, long time. Then, the, you know, was this a mistake against Aljou, and after it was done a grandly shepard, to return to back, to zavvive a poise. After the second time, you've got to the first time up against the with the spleach,

up the gara, that was, that was, to get back to work, to work. Yeah,

of the second first, this is the point of the pedestal, it was a more more more than

more than it was with the smuslawful and analysis and done the work and how it

was the first time, I was I thought, I'm needed to more for the

And I also had also in the back room in my opponent, I was my opponent, I had to make sure,

that we need to be there's any other other, some other other side, and there's second time,

the second climb to the pedestal was what's much harder than the first time around because besides just the physical, besides the fights,

there was all this mental pressure. You know, something I had to constantly deal with, something I could turn inside of my brain the time of time

had to analyze, what these mistakes were, analyze what I have to do to get there, and finally, getting to the fight itself, I understood that I was basically fighting in my opponent's backyard. So there's nothing that I could do to leave this to the judges. I had to cleanly win without any questions unanswered. By the way, we've seen you sometimes with your son and how proud he is of you. I don't recall seeing him at the event.

I'm not sure if he was there or not. How did he react when you got to show him that you were champion again? We often We've always to see you with your son, who often

come to come back to come to I didn't even I didn't even I didn't even he was there he was there and how he

had reacted to get around to his not there there's not in America, they also have a

American visa but but all all the friends and friends and people all were very much

were very about the the event, the whole family wasn't there, the whole family wasn't there, they don't have a visa either,

but really everybody, friends, family, everybody's close to us, they were very, very happy, they were very excited and this is a huge event for us, you know,

the return of our belt back to where it belongs. And can I ask, and I'm not trying to start anything here, but I did see a video where it seemed like someone from the UFC

tried to take the belt away at the press conference and you said no way, what happened there in this interaction? We have the video, I think you know, right here, when you were saying goodbye, someone was like, hey, I'm going to take that, and you're like, no, no, no, I'm not taking that. What happened over here?

I'm not going to say, but I'm not going to dovite, but just interesting, this video, that's going to, you see it right? There's just, you know, no, no, no, no way. What there actually happened, not, not, not, no, spleen. Well, in the situation, me gave me. I've got a, I've got a boy, we've got a poise, original poise, UFC. After the after the

time He goes He said, he says, I need to change the I'm going to

why's the problem? He's he's a duplicate it's a original poise, he wanted me

to give you. I think that it is not not really I've been the point, I've been

my poise which I have been the first It's a different Sophaned a different story How I go to Home without original

Poece, I think that It's a big mistake and not tacticality was a Worker UFC You know I won the fight I got the original

The real championship belt I had it over my shoulder We went and we did the press conference And then as soon as I was coming off the press conference stage One of the UFC employees Says you know what I got to get that belt and I'm going to give you this one.

And I said, wait, what do you mean you're going to get this? This is the belt. I want this belt. So why do you need this? And he said, well, you already have this belt. I need to give you this version. And he's showing me basically like a replica of a belt. And I said, no.

Why would, how would I get home with not an original with a replica? It doesn't matter where my other belt is. It doesn't matter when I wanted, how I want it. This is a new history. This is a new chapter. This is a new belt. And I wasn't going to be. leaving without it. So I feel like it wasn't really nice, I would say, or it wasn't really

correct, I would say, from a standpoint of the company or a standpoint of the employee of the company to try and take my original belt. Okay. I'm not, I know that by the law and you see, by the reglament, when you're going to go ahead, for each side of you're in the back you're in front of the but this was not a notherstead a fight for the next

police UFC and in the next in the next one case of their defense, of course I would get rubin on the point of the

point I know that by law or by the rules of the UFC every time you defend the belt you get Ruby this wasn't a defense this was an actual first belt right so next time when I fight when I defend I'm expecting to get a ruby for it but at this time

I wanted to have the belt itself understood and respect you for standing your ground a month and a half or so later late January so just a few weeks ago you announced that you had um lumbar surgery back surgery could you tell us when this issue came up when you injured yourself how the surgery went and how are you feeling now? Yeah, a 1⁄2 months ago, you got a month ago, you said, you know, you had a minute,

you said, you know, was an operation on poisednizs, how it happened, when this problem has happened, and how you now you're just doing? Yeah, I, a month ago,

I've done a lot pavis'n't spina. Neapriotny were episodes, what, so, still, it was enough time we decided to

we've got to doleach this starry trauma, that she'll be not going to be in the next this is a process of the process

rehabilitation and in the month I'll start a full-cent training I had a back surgery. This was a

lingering issue. My back's been hurting for a while and at this point after the fight we thought that we had enough time to go ahead and address

this and as opposed to keep struggling just to clean this up, to fix it, and then have the time to recover. And within about a... You know, right now I'm doing the rehab stuff, and within about a month I'll be able to get back into heavy training and sparring. So given that, in an ideal world, when would you return? When would you like to fight again?

In the future situation, when would you want to return to octagon and to fight? Of course, I'd be In a great In his In fact I would want to To fight

On a historical Involta in In June Here, Here, All right, All over UFC

And so I'm I'm going I'm going Of course Ideal case scenario We're fighting

In the Historic Event The one Time only UFC White House Card That would be

perfect But if not that, we got June, July, August, all of those months, I'm ready to go. Marab has said that he suggested that, but was told that Russian fighters couldn't fight on the White House card to just be as blunt as possible. Have you heard the same? Murab said that he said that he said that he's not going to be a good idea to be able to be a lot of time. It's true, not really? It's not really, it's that I've heard. I don't hear that you see that you see it's a

international organization in which they're boys from basically from different countries from different countries of the world I think that it was to be in a other than a great gesture

to show that sport is not politics you know I haven't heard a definite no regarding you know Russian fighters but I think that you have Cofc

is a huge international organizations. Probably fighters from all over the world are fighting in the UFC. So I think that if anything, this would be an incredible gesture, kind of like a gesture of goodwill to show that sports, after all, is outside of politics. Okay. And you- Go ahead. Arreel.

Yes. First, we'll takehattim a belly dome, and then we'll go back a grand place on the red place. And the goal is, first we take the White House and then we'll do a huge event in the Red Square. Oh, yeah, that would be something. But you would be healthy enough to fight in June given the surgery? So, even after operation, you're just in the period, you're just in the way to be in June in the battle to be in June, in the Bailom in surrogate?

I want, yeah, be in the United. If UFC comes to this decision, I will be there. Yes, the goal is to be very healthy by then, and if the UFC grants that type of decision, then I will be there. In your opinion, who should be your next opponent? Who should your first title defense of this reign be against? Your opinion, who does be first your opponent, your opponent, your opponent, your support your opponent, your opponent, who wants to protect the poise, first? I think that, you know,

Rukovosts, again, matchmaking, UFC, they priority themselves decide, what the one of the poedinic will. Bessuslawful, they are from the desire of fanatists. What you see in my next in the second poedinings in the Yeah, I understand that

UFC had a revenge Mirabu. Also, there's there, Shona Mali, who very wants to to do a fightinic in a in a bellom he's not, he's not, he's

he's not, but by fact, will he is he will be he is going to be able to be able to

protect his person, with whom anyone, where you know, obviously UFC is the

type of company that decides this stuff, they listen to the fans, they really hear what the fans

wants, and I know they've potentially promised their rematch to Murab, but really it's

it's whoever, you know, I'm ready for everybody, whoever they put in front of me, I'm going to be ready, I'm ready to go just. I know Sean O'Melly was talking about it as well, and he said that he wants to fight in the White House, so, you know, that's one thing to say, but will he be ready if this gets announced, will he all of a sudden not have enough time to prepare for me? I know he wanted to have a fight, but really, I just want to make sure that you know that it's anyone, anywhere, anytime. Who is your preference? Who would you pick if it was up to you? If you could you make, who would you

would you have to? Aureli, I think that it's right, that champion is not right to choose. I'm not with whom to do it. I said, me absolutely without reason, who it will. It will be revenge. It will be King Kong. I need a contract,

date of war, and absolutely without any reason, who it will. You know, Ariel, I've said this before. I don't necessarily think that it's the champion that gets to decide who he fights. He shouldn't pick himself a next opponent or the next fight. It's a company deal. Let them decide. You guys decide.

You people decide who you want me to fight. You want me to do a rematch? Let's go. Let's do a rematch. You want it to be King Kong? Let's go. Put King Kong from me. Just give me the contract.

Let me sign it and let's go. I love that. I think it should be Marab. I think Marab has done enough. He deserves it. Would you have an issue? with fighting him again. You'll ask you, I think that it

should be Mirab. I think he's he deserved, he's just to get him you're going to you're going to be. All right. All right.

I then, I then I'm going to get a contract. Okay, Ariel, let's go. I'm waiting for the contract. Send the contract. Okay. And regards to,

I would love to see the Sean O'Malley fight too. I think Marab then Sean makes a lot of sense given the fact that Marab has been Sean twice.

That feels like a fight that at some point you want back, right? given what happened the first time, do you feel that way? Do you feel like you need that one back at some point? I'm not. I mean, if not Mirab, then Ameli,

because it, you know, it's, well, it's, well, it's, how you think it's, it's put forward? Because you've also been a boy, and had you'd have been back this boy, too, do you think that he's deserved? Of course, I'll stop him, too, in his plan and poedink.

As I understand, A white dome, absolutely, it's not, that's a Americanist. If Sean, of course,

if Sean, can't even will be chance to get to get to this platform. But, and in the

whole, it was interesting, yeah, to give him an old dolg. I think that in the first

poedinies U.S. Abackrly, we've got or she was she. What, and I'd like he want to

him to know, I definitely keeping Sean Ameli in mind because it makes sense for an American to be fighting on the white card.

So I think what Sean Ameli should do is potentially re-color his hair into an American flag. I think that would bring more attention to it definitely would make it

easier for him to be fighting in the White House. So I'm considering that to be a fight if he's going to be ready for it. I'm happy to do it because that last fight, obviously, that was a poor decision by the judges. The UFC pretty much pulled him out by his ears, made him a victor. So I would love to give him what I owe and, you know, kind of kick his butt a little. I saw the night that

he fought against Song Yadong in January, you tweeted, just woke up, anything important happened. It sounded to me by reading this, it felt like you weren't impressed with his win over song. Is that accurate? After his boy with Son Yudong, I saw that you in Twitter wrote,

I just I've just I've been to think that is it is really to think that that's

that's not that's not not much you've got that I was not much I'm not I'm just

I'm not much I'm not even their poeting yeah I mean all I could

say is was not impressed I mean I can't say anything else I was not

impressed by their bout okay again Again, you You see, you understand how it's how it's built and how

are done big wars, I also I'm also it's important. Show, I need there. Obviously, you understand how

UFC works. I understand the structure. You understand the structure. We understand how they build these things, right? Sean is needed there for a specific

person, for purpose. In your opinion, what is that purpose? Well, what, what, In principle, how you think? Well, he does himself, copier, parodirroar,

like, um, predilearing, there's trying to be on the slew, on the vidu, much boltack, but, but, but he he's lopened,

like mulled puszy. You know, the way he acts, the way he conducts himself, he kind of mimics or tries to replicate other people, the way they conducted themselves, he talks too much, is very loud, he's very outspoken,

this and that, and then he gets to the fight and if you look at it it's basically a burst soap bubble. Okay. Okay. UNICE BREYER C. They don't know how it might can't even want to put him on the White House card.

They understand what this fight will look like. Meaning you would beat him. I'm going to say you would be it. Sam, he answered on my question. You answered it. Okay. The one guy, you know, you fought most of the guys at 1.35. but never against your fellow Russian

Umar Namagamadov. Would you have an issue fighting a fellow Russian? Some people don't like to fight people from the same country. Do you feel the same way, or would you have no issues fighting him? You practically with all 315, you've got from your country, Umar,

would have you a problem if you if you'll be to fight against Umar? I again again, I'll return to the that all in the plans of UFC. If we, if our poedinic, organize so how I

can't I'm in status champion I'm I'm I'm I'm

should I'm know that would again this is a UFC decision

this is something that they can control if his name goes in front of me on the

contract then I'm I'm a champion my job is to defend my title everybody wants it

my job is to defend it not to say who I'm going to defend it against so no issue

I feel it I feel it I feel it Can you imagine you versus Umar at the red square? That would be some kind of scene. Do you think it could be possible, really? Do you really feel like that could happen? Can you, pretty?

You're really on the Red Plochard? You're thinking, what do you think? What, in Russia is champion, you know? On the crossly place, you're going to be a fightenic with a guest, with a boyceau, with other side, with contendant. You know, what it will be shunner. It will be a lot of it. world.

And when I'm going to drot's in clets in one side, I don't think that it will be not so much much

much much it's all the in the plan of UFC but I think that I'm

listen brother Russia has a champion all right so if we're doing really like a hypothetical fight in a

red square it has to be a Russian fighter against a foreigner against somebody who is not a Russian that will create

hype that will show kind of like a world scenario of Russia against somebody else versus if you're going to have two Russians fighting in the Red Square in the cage, it's not going to be as noisy, it's not going to bring that much eyes to the event. Okay, all right. Have you talked to the UFC about this?

Have you pitched them this idea of you fighting in the Red Square against anyone, a non-Russian? You actually, you said to the UFC, on the show that, you could be able to do make a tournament, or not against Russian, actually, in the same. Ariel, you're closer there, so now we're with you have been made this information. You know, you're closer to the powers to be, Ariel, so you've got the information now, so do what you do.

Okay, maybe you want me to represent you, we work together, you and I, Peter. Quote, I will you to present, we're working, yeah, and you. Yeah, brother, all, we're in with a... Let's go together, we're chained together. I love it, I love it. Can I just ask you, before I let you go, Peter, and this was great, it was so great to talk to you. What has the reception been like back home?

I saw you. There was a big billboard when you came. I think you got a G-wagon. I saw you with Dimitri Beavol as well. It feels like life is good for you over there. What's the reception been like? What's the reception been like? How did you?

Tell you, how you've got to tell you, how it was all right? I saw it, I saw it, was this, a lot of, a lot of this, like,

were, like Mercedes, and a lot of people. Tell you how about it. Yeah, it's, I've met my team, our RUkowodd. This big billboard

is on our where we're training this, this photograph after-boa, a gift of both of the and from the and from the

government, it's very very so, so, also, a big responsibility,

to, and to and to we're not just just so we're not just very very warm welcome everybody was there the head of our gym was there

this giant billboard this giant poster the picture is actually on top of where we train on top of our gym building so everybody sees it everybody knows where we are and yes there was lots of friends lots of family this was a gift the car was a gift from

the close family and close friends and, you know, every now there's so much more pressure on the shoulders. Now we have to keep moving. We have to keep moving forward, defending. We have to make sure that we hold what's ours and defend it. I love it. Well, congratulations on being champion again. It's such a great story.

You were my comeback fighter of the year, and you won my performance of the year last year. So congratulations on that. That, to me, is actually a bigger honor than being champion again, in my opinion, at least. So well done to you. I even have the, where's my thing? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. This, this.

You have two of these. Two of these for you, Peter. This, this, you won. Let me see Peter. Let me see Peter. Two times. Two times you won this, Peter. I don't see you, I don't know.

You don't see me. This whole time? What is going on? Oh, okay, okay. You won this twice. Two nose. It's a good, for the last comeback for the best comeback and for the best boy of a year. Thank you.

Thank you, brother. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you so much, Ariel. I hope you feel better. Ariel, you have to talk with Dana about big fight in Moscow. I will talk to him. I'm going to call him after this. Who's the ideal opponent? Your dream scenario. You versus who in Moscow? You in Moscow.

I don't know. Anybody. Who will deserve this fight? We can do it. Okay. You versus Marab three, you versus Sean, two. All of those are big fights. It would be great. It would be great. I hope you feel better. A speedy recovery to, Peter. Congratulations, and thank you for joining us again.

We'll talk to you soon. Thank you. Zeravloi, all. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Sergei, thank you for you for for your word.

And Sergey, you're an incredible interpreter, my friend. Thank you so much for helping us. You're amazing. Sergei, you're professional. Professional translator, brother, okay? He's the goat right here. Him and Fabian, Fabiano, they're the best, number one. Thank you.

Sergei, Sergei is the best. Sergei is out. Sergei is in. Sayat, no best, no best. Sayat is the boss. The boss, yes, yes, yes, yes. Thank you guys. All the best to you.

Thank you. Bye-bye. There he is. The reigning, defending UFC bantamweight champion, Peter Yan. In great spirits, despite going under the knife very recently, that was a great chat. He's open to anyone.

It should be Marab, then Shuga, see Umar's in the mix as well. Corey's still there. Let's see how it how it actually plays out. Sergey was on. First of all, Sergey's Mike and the way in which he was on that

and I could hear some words. I mean, he was, golly. Between Sergey and Fabiano, the two of them, like the Avengers of interpreting. Okay, 2 o'clock, Rico Verhoeven, 2.30, DDP. 3 o'clock, Georgia Puyas,

or Pulas. Can't wait for those three chats. Great way to start the day. appreciate it very much. Thank you, Peter. Let's bring in the patron saint of the Emerald Isle here because I have a few Irish-related things to talk to the man about. He is the one and only Pete C. Caira. Hello, Pete. How are you? Hello, everyone. Well, what about Peter Young's look there? Purple Tortenac with the Loi in the background? Very impressed. What about your luck, bro? Yeah, yeah. What's going on? It's like you're in Snatch or something.

Don't worry about it. You know what I mean? Had a bit of a, the corals took on the Loif at her own today, so I had the cover of the moment. No, you look great. Gearing up for the big Irish debut of 1GC? Yes, and three weeks and six days until Orleans play Czech Republic as well. In what? In the World Cup Qualifier, yeah.

The semi-final of the playoffs. Wait a second, wait a second, wait a second. Are you going to be there for that? No, no. No, no, is Connor going to be in Ireland when that happened? No, that it would be before. Like right before, right? That week, like just about a week before.

And the thing is, if we beat Czech Republic, we'll have to play another game the Tuesday. Oh, yeah, that's going to be great. What a stretch. What a sporting stretch. I mean, we've got the WBC starting this week. Can't wait for that.

Did Ireland have a squad for the WBC? No, I don't think we do. Not the World Boxing Council. I'm talking about the World Baseball Classic. No, it's kind of mind we do. I'm going to try and get a team together for next year. It's every three years. Every three years.

2020, whatever. 2029. Yeah. Speaking of Irish sporting activities, what about this tweet this morning that we wake up to from the one and only Eddie Hearn and I was trying to decipher it. You know the locale better than I. This is obviously Katie Taylor and that's obviously a stadium. Yes. And there's the praying emoji and the Irish flagged the tricolor. What is he trying to say to us here? Is that is that like an AI stadium, like generic

stadium? Is that Croker? What is it? Well, listen, it's getting the juices flowing in the Croker direction. And all weekend, there is newspaper, there's opinion pieces, columns all about, like, will Katie Taylor get this moment at Croke Park? Here's the thing. This historically has been a difficult thing to get over the line because Crow Park said there's going to be extra prices in terms of security, 80,000 people in the middle of Dublin City Center, in the most historic venue in the country. It is going to take a lot of arm power, like manpower from the police, security, all this kind of stuff. and we're pretty much in the same it feels like the same situation it was the first time it's kind of who's going to blink first

Connor McCown wrote a great article about it in the independent over the weekend and he's kind of saying what everyone's feeling like everybody wants to give Katie Taylor this moment we all know what's going to cost an extra bit of money he made some arguments like should we get into state funding obviously the state paid for the NFL to come here last summer

a huge success there was also there's also an investment being made in Adair Limerick ahead of Royder Cup next year. The thing is, you know, there's another argument to say, like, Katie Taylor had a fight with Shantel Cameron here in Dublin, and on the day of the fight,

there were tickets still available. That venue has 10,000 people in it. Like, this is 80,000 people. His suggestion McKeowns was, which I thought was very good, was Eddie needs to come the same way as the NFL do, the same way as the PGA or whoever's in charge of the Royder Cup do. Come with a financial impact report.

Say, like, this is what we'll do to your city if you let us put this event on here, give them a reason to want to front up some, meet them halfway or something, because right now, when they're sitting in this kind of deadlock, waiting for one to blink, the GAAA aren't going to do that. Like, they don't need shit. Like, they, they have people coming in there when the Gaelic games aren't on there. Massive acts come here and pay extortion amount of money to play this venue, to get out before

the curfew was broken. Like, Eddie, Eddie needs to play this a certain way. And I think, maybe he's, maybe he's trying to tell us that he is. maybe this is a sign. I can't imagine Eddie Hearn is posting something just like, oh, I got this cool picture. I feel like he was trying to tell something. Now, that something could also be like,

okay, the last show is going to be in Cardiff or at Wembley or something. You know, that's a stadium, as you said, it didn't look specifically like Croke. But it got me excited about what could be in. And I also think, by the way, I get what you're saying about the rematch and the tickets. I also sort of feel like, you know, if she fought at Croke against you.

you against a broomstick, it would just be elevated, right? I think people felt like, okay, you just did that fight. What was it? It was like, it was just a few months later, right? It was, it was not that far removed. Yeah, you just did that fight, same venue. The appeal of the debut was gone, but the appeal of the, the croak fight would sell tickets in its own right.

I think people would want to be there for that. So I don't know. Especially if they go in saying, this is the last time you'll ever. Oh, and it's a retirement for, yeah, of course. I mean, like that. It's huge. She's an icon. everybody wants her to have this moment.

I just feel like it feels like a bit of deja vu from the last time we had this conversation. But the appetite is there. Like I'm seeing it on all the newspapers. Of course, our questions about can you get 80,000 asses into seats for this? But that's everyone's question when they're booking crow park. It's massive.

It's one of the biggest stadiums in Europe. I think she'll do a good job. And if they go out with that as the Marquis, this is the last time we get the CK Taylor-Foy ever, I think a lot of people will buy tickets. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, it would be incredible. What a scene that would be.

You know, yesterday we talked a little bit about the Connor Ben situation, you know, regarding Eddie Hearn, top of mind. I saw he did a long interview with the IFL TV. I definitely would suggest checking it out. But I wanted to say one thing about that, one last thing about it before we move on, because I talked about the way in which the contracts were structured. Ultimately, like my final say on Connor Ben leaving Matrim and signing with Zufa, TKO, Sela, ring, whatever it is, ultimately, I don't blame Eddie Heard.

Hearn for feeling the way in which he has felt. In fact, I give him a lot of credit for pretty much like pouring his heart out, even though some may ridicule him, i.e. Dana White and say that he comes across as soft or what the hell, why are you crying? Like, that's not the way it goes. I certainly don't blame him or anything he did. I don't even necessarily blame TK. or Zufa. Like, this is war. Do what you got to do. This was a big piece, a foundational piece of Matrum. I think there are three faces of Matrum. There's Anthony, Joshua, Katie Taylor. Connor Ben, I would probably rank them in that order right now, given their longevity

with Eddie and how close they seem to be with Eddie. And so this is war, this is what you do, you sign people, and that's the game. You want to front load it, you want to structure it a certain way, so he can't match, that's the game. Ultimately, based on everything that I've heard from Eddie at this point, and it's been about like two weeks' worth of interviews, and everything

that we've heard of Connor, and he mainly did a bunch of interviews at the Mario Barrios Ryan Garcia fight, I ultimately feel like the bad guy in all of this is Connor. If I'm being honest, and I like Connor very much. But unless we're missing something, Connor should have met with him.

That's the least you could do. You meet with the guy face to face. You tell him I want to move on. But if everything that Eddie is saying is accurate, and I have no reason to think that he's lying, if Eddie is saying that they reached out, they wanted to meet, they wanted to talk, they wanted to figure it out,

they wanted to come up with a deal with, hey, you could take this fight, but we still worked it, whatever it is. And he said, no, that's a lot. that's a tough pill to swallow because this isn't your typical fighter leaving to go fight for someone else. This is a guy that he really did have your back.

I mean, he really did fight on the front lines for you. He really did, you know, front you money and all the stuff that went into that suspension that could have resulted in a lifetime ban. Like, that was on the table. The least you could do. I was trying to equate it to my life and I'm just trying to tell you like the mindset.

In 2018, when I got an offer from ESPN, after I had been with Vox for eight years, I brought the offer to Vox, we talked to Vox, in the end, the ESPN offer was better and more enticing, and it's where I ultimately wanted to go. But I did give them the opportunity to match it, and we engaged in talks for like two months. When I decided to leave and take ESPN's offer,

I reached out to the CEO of Vox, Jim Bankoff, who doesn't live in New York, who lives in Washington, and asked him when he would be in New York, And I waited for him to get to New York. And then I drove about an hour to the office so that I could tell him face to face that I was leaving. And I got emotional and cry. But I felt like I owed him that

because he had been so good to me and so loyal towards me. And so I feel like, and that's like what he had done for me was 1% of what Eddie did for Connor Ben based on everything we know about the relationship. And so I feel like at the very least, he should have met with him. He should have met with him. And if he didn't like their offer,

all right, that's business, man. I don't think Eddie would have had a like to stand on. But to me, the part that doesn't sit well, and I'd love to talk to Connor about it, I'd love to be proven wrong. Why didn't you meet with him? Why didn't you at least go for coffee, meet him at his house,

meet him at the office, and just be like, man, I can't turn this down. This idea, like, this is generational money. Like, you've made the money. We know you made the money from the last two fights. So why didn't you at least just meet with the guy? Because you couldn't look at him in the face. Why? Why?

That's the part that is surprising to me, because based on what I've learned from Connor over the past year, or so that we've talked to him more than a year, a couple of years, he seems like a really smart, thoughtful, respect. I really enjoy our chats, and I hope he doesn't take this the wrong way. But I just feel like at the very least, when you sever a relationship, a business relationship of any kind, you are owed that.

As the one, you know, getting his heartbroken, which Eddie has said he did, meet with the guy. And that's that. And move on. And I'm surprised that didn't happen. I just wanted to add that because we didn't talk about that yesterday, that component. And I just feel like that's the, at the end of the day, I don't don't think Matrum are the bad guys.

I don't necessarily think TKO, like war is war, and that's what you've got to do. I think Connor, and I don't blame Connor for going and getting the big dollars. Like, who would blame him to get $15 million for one fight? If that's truly what it is, the fight Regis program, all you had to do was just meet with the guy and tell him I'm out. That's it. That's all you had to do, in my opinion. I don't know.

Anyone disagree with that? No, it feels like it was beyond business what happened with those two guys. And look, after the fact, Connor Ben spoke about, like, the mental turmoil. he was in during those phase and Eddie was there through the whole thing. I think it's to just kind of look at this like a business transaction between match room and TKO and Ben, that's really underselling what happened there. You know, everything that Eddie did during that situation. And honestly, that seems to be all he's saying at the moment as well. Like there should have been some kind of discourse between us before this happened instead of a legal letter. And he seemed to be

suggesting in that IFL, I listened to it myself today. A real great one for the old drive in 45 minutes, you know what I mean? Hell yeah. But he was kind of suggesting, like, I'm here answering all these questions. I know you're doing interviews on the other side of this where people aren't answering answering questions. They want to see the video before it goes out. As a journalist, as a guy who works immediate, that kind of suggests something too.

Oh, yeah. If there's one guy just laying it all out there, 45 minutes, ask me anything you want about this. And he seems to be suggesting the other side is being very tentative about what they put out. That tells me there's a part of Ben who knows he didn't come correct in this situation. Yeah. It's going to be interesting to see how this plays out. Jaya Pataya fighting this weekend, by the way, at the apex. Woo! Could you imagine? Could you imagine the best cruiserweight of the world? And save me, the Zerdo is the best cruiserweight or any of this. Like, it is Jaya. I don't care how many belts he owns. He's the best cruiserate in the world. Anyone with two eyes knows this. And he's fighting at the apex on a Sunday night. Golly. So I guess it will be like, I guess it will be like Monday morning in Australia when he fights, which is wild in its own right.

I did want to ask you about this video from Connor McGregor. He's talking to a young lady outside the Black Forge Inn. This popped up on the social medias. And he seems to suggest what I've been saying. He's asked, I think, about the White House. And then he's like, yeah, maybe the summer. It's that July 11th card. That's the one that makes the most sense.

And that's the one that they want. Let's see if they can figure it out. Here's the clip in case you missed it. Are you going to be fighting at the White House? So I am in the ghost. with the ultimate fighting championship about the bout either the white house or there or thereabouts sometime in the summer mcgregor will return who's this young lady peter you know her she's american i think oh is it i couldn't tell with the accent no i don't know her you know one of us no i don't think so well she got the scoop right

there she got she got the scoop that's the main thing you know what i mean she has a big future and yeah as i said before i think there's a lot of incentive there for a McGregor to fight this year. I think he wants to fight. I think it means a lot to him, his enterprise, everything around him, the catalyst for it is fighting. He needs to fight right now. The same questions I've always had. Just can he get through a camp? Can he put himself, redline himself for eight weeks? His body's been through an awful lot. We've seen the breaks against Porreier. He's had a lot of injury, the toe, etc. that put him out against chance there. That's only my concern. I think he's 100% on it. I know that he's training. There's already whispers going around

as it tends to happen when McGregor is training. What kind of whisper? Anything you can talk about? What are you talking about? Like that he's training? Just complementary training stories. You know, he's looking very good in training.

That's the word on the street. Okay, okay. Every single camp, I will say, people said he looked very good in training, though. So, I mean. Okay. But it's good news to hear that he's trained. I thought you were just going to say,

Whispers, that he's actually training, that it's not just for instance. No, he is. He's for real training. I know what I'm, I know sparring partners that are in there with him. He is definitely training. What is the same?

sentiment back there? What is the sentiment about a potential comeback? Is it making any kind of ripple? No, it isn't. Well, I'm talking in terms of it's not really a talking point right now. But if he has a date booked and your own fight week, people are going to be watching. He is the most famous Irish person. Regardless of how people feel about him, he is a very, very famous Irish guy and whether they're tuning to see him getting

knocked out or tuning to see him getting knocking out somebody, I think everybody's going to be on it if he is going to make it to a fight. Do you think that that reaction or lack thereof is as a result of like some false starts or more of a sentiment towards him in the country? It's a sentiment towards him. It's been a been a massive, massively troubling time from McGregor and the Keita Han civil case reports of his all of his brands being taken off the shelves. I know that doesn't apply to the US, but it certainly was in the UK and Ireland. There's reports about losing financials,

like with his pub, with his brewery, the forged dollars out, all this stuff. So I think all of that will be pushing him to get back in there. Like sport is very, very forgiving. We have countless examples of athletes who've had a complete turnaround

with a win. People love winners. And that's what sports does. Tiger Woods, sentiment couldn't be lower in him and he went and won a big major and it turned it all around. Tyson Fury before he had his comeback fight, wasn't thought of very well, and then he became like a mental health ambassador.

Look at him now all over Netflix, massive fights. Sport is very, very forgiven, and McGregor will be looking to get back in the cage remind people of what he was all about, and if it's signature McGregor, things will definitely pick up for him. That's the way this works. Bigger deal in Ireland,

if it happens, if they both happen this summer, Katie retirement at Croke, Connor returned, let's say, Vegas. I think Katie, Katie, because of what she means to the country, I think everybody would be switched

on to that. I think it would be like a legacy media moment as well, going back through her career, I'm sure to be specials all over RTE, all kinds of radio specials, everything like that.

Like, she is just, she's our ultimate sporting ambassador. She is very different in how, how Irish people feel about Katie Taylor and how people feel

about Connemer Greger. You would be, you would struggle to find anyone that has a bad word to say about Kay Taylor. And that's not bullshit. Like, I really, really mean that.

I sort of feel like the retirement fight should happen in, in Connecticut. Don't. Adopted hometown. You know? Yeah, look, she needs to go there because we annoy her so much. She doesn't say that, but that's what I get. That's the sense that I get.

She can't, she's like David Beckham here. She can't just go down to the shop and do her, like, you know, she can do all that stuff in Connecticut. They aren't big women's boxing fan of it. You follow her trainer Ross on Instagram? Ross, no. Very, very serious dude, though. No, no, no.

I've never, I've never seen workouts like this guy. Never seen work. The workouts are insane. He does that thing, that roly thing for the abs. You know the one? You know that one? He's an insane shape. I've never seen a person do it that many times and in such perfect form.

Like he goes like, the video doesn't stop. I quit the video out of being tired. He doesn't stop. I've never seen workout. That's a whole thing, right? Like he was a brilliant amateur for her, bro, both his hands. And when Kay Taylor was looking to go pro, her dad. had left a lot of his books around the house you know train and drills different things like

that and that's she found the book and she said i'm going to ring this guy it's crazy legendary all right Pete great to talk to you god bless all right we've got to go to yeah you're done you're done you're done we're out uh we've got to get to uh our next guest massive massive massive massive massive massive massive news late last week we find out on friday afternoon that riko verhoeven the king of kickboxing the the man who was the face of glory kickboxing for i would say about 12 years or so who has this unbelievable streak. He's done it all. He's fought them all. He's won it all. We know late last year we find out in November, he left glory, he vacated that title. He was on to greener pastures. Rumors of a potential deal on the table with the UFC. Rumors of a potential

deal to fight Anthony Joshua. And then we find out on Friday that it's going to be neither. It's going to be Rico Verhoeven versus Alexander Usig for the WBC title in Egypt, in front of the the pyramids of Giza, of all places on May 23rd, on DeZone. And so I have a million questions for the one and only Rico Verhoeven, and he is kind enough to join us right here. And now can't wait to talk to him. Rico, my man, how are you? Thank you so much for doing this. Thank you for having me, brother. Good to be back. Oh, it's great. It's great to have you here. We have so much exciting things to talk about. But I would be remiss, Rico. I understand you recently suffered a loss in your family. And so I just want to send my condolences to you and your

family and I hope that you're doing well all things considered. Thank you so much brother. I really appreciate that. Okay so my best to you and your family of course. We, I would love to say, I've been wanting to talk to you. You can ask your guy, Kareem. I've been wanting to talk to you for several months. I've been bothering him every couple weeks. So I would love to start in November. I would love to start in November. All of a sudden we get the statement, you're leaving glory, you're vacating the title, effective immediately. How did we get to that? Why did we get to that point? What happen? Yeah, well, what happened is just like we did it all.

We did everything and I did my last fight at Glory 100, well, within the contract. And yeah, we just started to look around and see what options were out there. So, like, I just wanted to, I wanted to do or I still want to do like big stuff that hasn't been done before. So either make like a crazy crossover to the UFC or a big crossover fighting boxing or whatever. Like, yeah, I just wanted to see all options. So that's what happened. So that's what the decision came from, I think, yeah, we did it all within glory.

Okay, you had conquered the mountain multiple times. You fought them all. You beat them all. I can understand the desire to want something new. And so shortly thereafter, we start to start. to hear, at least for me, the order was, all right, I remember, I remember finding out that you left on my way to the Jake Paul Anthony Joshua press conference. And I remember hearing, hey, if AJ gets by Jake, there's a deal on the table for AJ to fight Rico in February. Was that true? Was there something

on the table for you to fight Anthony Joshua in February in Saudi Arabia? That was 100% true. That was 100 true. So it actually started off somewhere in August. And I was, 100% true. And I was 100% true. So it actually started off somewhere in August and I went to the International Fight Week in Las Vegas. Yeah, I remember you were on our show. We spoke to you. Yeah, we were there. We were talking to. So we were there and then, yeah, you know, started talking to the UFC as well and also

talking to, yeah, to his excellency about like maybe doing something, something crazy. Oh, well, then it came a little after that because the cool thing was, I was like one and a half year ago, I was at the Usik, Tyson Fury fight. And my good friend, Jason Statham, was there. So we were talking and, yeah, it's like, oh, yeah, man, this is the place to be. This is where you got to be. He's like, let's do it, you know? So I think he slowly, like, introduced me there.

And he was also present when I did, like, the crazy tournament. and glory and I yeah I beat up three guys in one night so that was yeah it was so cool and then actually later that month so after the international

so it was like about a year a year later the Canelo Crawford fight yes was coming up and I saw Jason was there so I texted you're bro you at the fight oh my god have fun so he's like yeah i'm crazy excited i can't wait for him so i said like yo

we talked about it i said we should do something he's like yep i'm gonna bring it up okay so that was somewhere there somewhere there september august and that was um and there was like night time in amsterdam so the next morning i'm on the thread mill and And said, the fight just happened. It said, oh, my God, what a fight. It was crazy. He said, yeah, it was amazing. And then he called me.

Jason calls me. I was under third mail running. Like, yo, Rico. Joe. I said, I talked to his excellency. And he was like down. He says, let's do it. Like, what does that mean?

He's like, we're going to do it. Okay. So he said, I gave his team your number. They're going to reach out. and we're going to talk about it. So that's what happened. And that's what they said. Like, hey, when you come in, you're a champion.

So we've got to face somebody with a name. And you got to promise us that you're not going to disappoint. You're not going to be out in one round. So what do you mean? I've been boxing like for the last 50 years on the highest level. I got this. It's like, okay. So we got like whoever, whoever you want.

said, I don't care. You tell me where you want me to fight. So like, what about Anthony Joshua? So let's go. I got it. So that's how it came to work. Was there ever any talk of you and Francis? No.

No. That was not. Okay. Now, Jason Statham is an unbelievable friend. The fact that he put in a good word for you is pretty remarkable. Around that time, though, I had also heard that there were talks with the UFC and that the UFC had put forth an offer for you to fight Derek Lewis on the first Paramount Plus card. That's correct.

So what ultimately happened there? The UFC was interested, you were interested. How did it go? How was the offer? It was a decent offer. But like I said, like you just like put the two next to each other and like a big crossover fight versus Anthony. Joshua, with also like a serious paycheck as well or a crossover to the UFC, which is different. Like it's a, Derek Lewis is a, he's an amazing fighter.

He's a good name within the UFC, but doesn't get that like that stature that I'm looking for. I'm like, I don't know. It was a good coming in fight for transitioning to the UFC, but I was. I was like, no, let's go for the Anthony Joshua fine. So that's what happened. I'm assuming the boxing match against Anthony Joshua was great money. They pay everyone very well.

I'm assuming that was better than the UFC offer. 100%. Was the UFC offer comparable to what you were making in glory? Yeah, it was getting close. Getting close. Okay, because I had heard that as well, that it was a respectable offer, but that the AJ offer was much. better 100%. So like I said, it was a decent offer. It wasn't like I see so many stuff on the internet.

Yeah, yeah. But that is definitely not true. Like, oh, the UFC just came in like, oh, Rico is a no name. So we just gave him like a bullshit offer. They definitely did not do that. They treated me with a lot of respect and gave me a really decent offer, especially in terms of what, yeah, what they offer other fighter. So I really felt that. But yeah, like I said, within the sport of, yeah, just like martial arts in general and within what I made within glory, yeah, it was just like, it doesn't make too much chance for me. Obviously late December after the Jake Paul fight, Anthony gets into that car accident and his fighting future is up in the air. At that point, what happens? Because now it starts to seem like he's not going to be fighting anytime soon.

So how do you proceed? Yeah, so what happened was the fight was like in the air. We were talking about it. I was actually on set on the movie Roadhouse. And finally it came through while I was shooting the movie. And I was like, oh my God, that's so cool. But let's get the training. So I was already training while I was on set.

So every time I had the time to get off, I was like in the gym, putting in the work. And then I finished the movie beginning of December, went straight into camp, coming back, straight into camp. As worked out through the whole of December and then already planned a training camp in Spain for the whole month of January because the fight was going to be the 14th of February. And then the accident happens, but everything was planned already. So even though the accident happened, I still went to Spain for the whole training camp. So we did that. It was a great experience because, yeah, we didn't know what was going to happen. But I know we, I knew something was going to happen.

But we just didn't know when. And for me, it was just like another experience that I put in my backpack. Like, yo, we're going to do it. So it's going to happen anyway somewhere down the line. So it's just another experience for me in boxing. So that's what we did. And that's how we continued. And we were just like waiting for, yeah, like a little bit of news.

But we knew, of course, Anthony Joshua had to go through this whole process. Yeah, physically. And I think more importantly, mentally. So then how do we go from that to Usik? That's quite interesting, actually. So what happened was we got on the phone and we heard like, hey, the fight might happen, but AJ just needs some time to recover physically and mentally. Okay. So probably somewhere in March we'll hear more about it.

Okay, no worries. Totally understand. Totally respect. this whole situation. So we left that. I was still in Spain. So we came to the gym and actually

my trainer, my boxing trainer, Peter Fury, said like, hey, I was thinking, what about fighting Alexander Usik? Like, yeah, what about it? Like, yeah, why not?

Isn't that an option? Like, I love the idea, but I don't know if that's an option. Let me check. So there was, I think, like, a few days after the call we had, and I called them up. I said, like, I have an idea. Or me and the team, we have an idea. I just wanted to check with you.

Like, I've been undisputed champion for the last 12 years within my discipline. And Alexander Usik has been the undisputed champion in cruiserweight and then came up. And is the champion now undefeated for a long time. So what about undisputed versus undisputed? And they said one thing. I love it. Wow. Let's do it.

So they started talking to Alexander about the whole idea. He loved the idea. So they made it work. And now we're here. Would it be fair to say that the idea of fighting Usek, given who he is and his current resume, interested you more than A.J.? 100%. Yeah.

Well, it's like a, like it's true. said the fight versus versus Anthony Joshua was also super exciting but it's like a totally different fighter. And Alexander Usick is the

yeah the RICO Verhoeven in boxing. So like he's been dominating for so long and in such phenomenal fashion so I was like wow if we could do this that would be like the cherry on the cake.

And so from the start, were you told that this would be for the WBC title? Because when the fight got announced, initially, WBC said they would create a special belt. And then two days later, they said, no, in fact, the belt will be on the line. What were you told? No, they said, yeah, we want to do something. But we'll let you know, like, what it's going to be. If it's going to be for a title, if it's going to be for one title, if it's going to be for whatever. like so like

I'm yeah let's see I'm okay with we're just like facing Usik just and then they came like hey the WBC belt will be on the line because he has like a voluntary defense yeah

WBC has their yeah I don't exactly know what they have but they have like these certain rules or sanctions how they they look at opponents if they're credible enough. So I guess the WBC looked at my credibility from a martial art standpoint as a kickboxer.

And yeah, like I said, I've been dominating the sport of kickboxing, of course, for over a decade. So I guess, yeah, there was resume enough for them to sanction this as a WBC world title, heavyweight title fine. Which I have no problem with. I know some of the the hardcore boxing fans are like, oh, you know, this and that. What is your response to those people who say you shouldn't get a WBC title fight? Totally understand. I totally understand because, yeah, it's their sport.

It's what they love and what they, yeah, what they defend, of course. But I think it's, we're in a totally different time than five or 10 years ago. and I think everything just keeps on developing and it's such on a broader and bigger scale than it ever was and especially if you look at it now I remember the time like before we had the Francis Nagano and Tyson Fury fight I saw a lot of like posts on social media I'm like, hey, boxing is dead.

Boxing is not out there anymore. This, blah, blah, blah. But then His Excellency came, and he put up the big fight versus Francis Naganu and Tyson Tysen Fury, and all eyes were on it. And I think that's when everything within the world of boxing became back to be irrelevant. And as big as it is today, I think it's, yeah, it's been a long time since it's been here. And why is that? Because I think his excellency goes right, but everybody's going left.

So he's just thinking outside the box. And everybody wants to keep it in that exact box. But, yeah, why not go outside the box? I love the idea. Do you have any idea why the IBF or WBA belts that he holds aren't on the line as well? No, sir. I have no clue. Okay.

And I'm assuming it's 12 rounds, typical title fight, right? Now, how do we end up in Egypt at the pyramids? How did that happen? Well, they were talking about multiple monumental locations. I was like, okay, yeah, I'm excited, just let me know. And then, yeah, out of the blue, they called me and they sent me a picture. Like, this is the location. I saw like the three pyramids

on the background I was like, what? Yep. This is freaking iconic. This is crazy. I said, I love it. Let's do it. I said like, yep, it's going to happen.

Is it okay? And then we found out. Now, this deal that you have with them, is it just a one-fight deal or is it a multi-fight deal? Yeah, it's like they, they want to build up something and create like a whole thing. So we start off with this fight, but we want to do multiple fights.

The reason I ask that is, because I think there's a lot of people who would still love to see you fight in MMA in the UFC against big names there. And so they were thinking, okay, you'll do this fight and then maybe you take that UFC deal. Is that now off the table because this has gone through? we're always open to to see and discuss and what happens i think i think that's the the beauty of this we're not like super solid on on everything and they're they're also so open for other and different things like yeah like like they're so open-minded especially with what we saw with Anthony Joshua and Jake Paul fight as well, they think outside

the box. So they're not just like, hey, this is how we're going to do it and this is the only way to do it. No, they're going left and right and they're always open for debate. Are you interested? Now that you're a free man and you could do all these fun things, does the UFC,

does MMA, does that get you excited or does boxing finishing your career as a boxer, does that get you more excited? No, I think I'm still open to do both. But, yeah, like, being, for me, the transition from being a kickboxer going to boxing, like I've been boxing for the last, like, 15 years. Like, the fun thing now is, like, everybody's like, oh, Peter Fury is added,

being at Team Rico. Guys, I've been training with Peter Fury for the last 15 years. so like back back in the day just coming as a sparring partner for tyson fury and just being there constantly putting in the work and getting better turning into from a sparring partner into a training partner and yeah i think that's also what one of the key elements that made me such a good kickboxer yeah and we know that you've trained with the likes of tyson fury as well i've seen you spar with I've seen you with the Kabayel, obviously Tom Aspinall and his team. You've been around other martial artists from other disciplines.

And since you brought that up, I talked about this yesterday on my show. And I get it. I think that there's more of a connection between MMA, the MMA community and fans and kickboxing fans. We have a greater respect. You know, we've seen people like Alex Pereira come over, Anderson Silva, Israel, Adesania. So we understand who glory is, what glory is, who you are. We talk about you, all this stuff, as opposed to boxing and kicking. boxing because I have to be honest, Rico, I don't know how much you pay attention to this.

I feel very upset and I feel disrespected on your behalf at the way in which people are talking about you. Who is this guy? Do you see this stuff and you get upset about it? You get annoyed by it. No, no, no, definitely not. Definitely not. But because it's a different perspective.

So you've got to look at it from a different perspective, Ariel. So what they watch is boxing. And that's what they've been watching. So they haven't been watching just martial arts in general. Because if you watch, for example, UFC, there's wrestling, there's jiu-jitsu, there's king boxing, there's boxing, there's so many. All elements come together with MMA. I think definitely because it starts standing up.

kickboxing is one of the most important elements within MMA. So I think that's why the connection between the two is so much closer than within boxing. Because the people that watch boxing, that's what they watch specifically just boxing. No wrestling, no kickboxing, whatever. They watch boxing. So then for them, I'm like, they're like, who's this new cat in the game and trying to fight for a world title he did one like professional boxing match like 10 years ago and now he's fighting for a belt that doesn't make any sense so i understand but like for them i had my credentials

within the sport of kickboxing i've been dominating the sport for over 12 years does that make me uh worthy of fighting for a world title i don't know it's up for for everybody's opinion. It's up for debate. But the WBC looked at my credentials and they were, yeah, okay with it to sanction the fight. Do you feel like you're representing kickboxing?

Do you feel like you're doing it for your community, for glory, for everyone that maybe doesn't get the respect in the world of boxing, from the world of kickboxing? Do you feel like you're Mr. Kickboxing? You're doing this for kickboxing? I'm not just doing it for, for, kickboxing, I'm just doing it for martial options general. So

for me, it's just like I'm a kid with a dream. And like, Ariel, we've been talking about doing a crossover fight like multiple times already within your show as well. So, and now we're here. So how beautiful

is that? It's just like manifesting. Manifesting and now finally that dream came to fruition. So how thankful am I for that? Just keep putting in the work and keep believing in that in that whole situation. I love it. I love it and I'm so happy for you. Do you can you tell us, you know, you mentioned the Purefury stuff and all that. Are there any

other names you could tell us that you'll be training with sparring partners, people that you'll be bringing in to mimic Alexander Usik. Come on, Ariel. I can't do all the insights. Okay, okay. So many insights today. You did, you did, you did. I told you so many things that like, knew. Yeah, like nobody knew what was going on for the last, like so many months that since I've, yeah, quit with Gloria and I vacated the bell. So this is the whole story that has been going on for the past, yeah, months. And, yeah, like now finally the word is out.

We're finding Alexander Usik. So let's stick to that. And after that, I've got to give you all the insights on how we approached this camp and how we won the WBC World Heavyweight boxing title. Let's go. Incredible. Can I ask, where will you be training for the fight? I think primarily it will be here in the Netherlands. Okay.

But, yeah, I think, yeah, we're going to go to Egypt as well somewhere. Okay, okay. Okay. All different. Of course. Okay. You've probably watched a bit of tape on him. He's been virtually unbeatable in his career, right?

Obviously around here, around there, but he beats everyone and he beats them twice, and he beats them better the second time around. Do you see holes in his game when you watch him? Yeah, definitely. I definitely see some holes, but he's playing chess while everybody's playing checkers. Yeah. And that's, yeah. To be honest, that's what I love to see.

Because for me, that's how I approached kickboxing as well and my opponents. Because I also fought like multiple guys like two or three times and just keep doing it and keep beating them in a better way and becoming a better version of yourself. And staying focused and staying mentally strong and resilient. And that's exactly what he does. So, yeah, it's a huge challenge, Ariel. It's a huge, huge challenge. And I'm crazy excited about it. Are the nerves different?

You've done one-night tournaments. Like I said, you fought the best. But these nerves, almost as a debutante, if you will, does it feel different? Because you're the massive underdog trying to shock the world this time? No, I think I've been on the biggest stages for, yeah, like, as long as I can remember. So selling out arenas and being, yeah, fighting for thousands and thousands of fans within the arena and millions watching at home. So within that, I'm used to the pressure of fighting. And I think the cool thing is now, like for being the guy with the target on his back for the last decade,

now the target is on somebody else's back. So I think that's a good feeling. So I love to come in as the underdog. I don't mind that. Is Jason going to be at the fight? He guaranteed he was going to be there. He's like, I won't miss it for nothing. I feel like he should walk you out.

I feel like he should be a part of the entourage. I'm not sure he's into that. He's like just like, like a chill guy but he really uh he really loves it he's a fanatic a martial art fanatic he loves it he loves everything all martial arts kickboxing m ms boxing he loves it all and he supports it with this uh yeah with everything he has so it's amazing to have him have him in my corner and supporting me so and of course with the thought of him actually being Yeah, maybe the initiator of this whole situation.

So I was super thankful for it. And yeah, a true friend. Do you feel like you have to prove Turkey right? Because when Turkey did that video, he said, hey, you know, blame it on this guy if you don't like the fight. Like, do you feel pressure to prove him right that this was a fight worth making? 100%. 100%. I think it's something that is not just for him.

for his excellency or for for Jason but also just for for everybody just for the whole boxing world because I know they have their doubts in how I'm going to

be performing during this fight and I'm going to be standing right across of the probably one of the best heavyweight boxers ever and how is this kickboxer going to look?

So I feel really responsible to look as good as possible. And that's why Peter Fury is going to be in my corner, as well as my trainer Dennis and the normal team that we have. But we got to look as good as we can. And that's why I'm so happy that I already started training before. than just like now like oh I'm going to go blank into this fight

training for 12 weeks and let's see what happens two last quick questions and again thank you so much did you leave on good terms with glory yeah all good

you moved your head there it was like okay of course everybody when you leave and everything it's like nobody's like really happy with it but it's like hey they have their opinion I have my opinion about certain things

But that's life right It's like you agree to disagree So I think that's that's where we left it So but I'm I'm super happy with With everything and all the opportunities glory gave me And yeah now we're here So it's also thanks to them Did you fight your last kickboxing match

Are you done with kickboxing? I think yeah I fought my last kickboxing match for glory Maybe we could do something crazy for example like Ariel now we're here anyway

so why not let's do it so we're talking about a crazy crossover fight right and everybody's like yeah Rico's going from

keep boxing into boxing but like I'm doing that you know that's my decision let's say and let's ask

which boxer would be willing to jump into the kickboxing ring with me and do a kickboxing match. Because we're talking about crossovers and the MMA fighters are crossing over to boxing. But I haven't seen no boxers saying like, hey, I'm going to take my shoes up.

I'm going to do an MMA or a boxing match with one of these guys. Let's go. Put your money where your mouth is. I don't expect any of them to sign up to fight you because you possess weapons that they don't possess. In boxing, it works, because you strip away the weapons. But if they walk into your world, you would eat them up.

Yeah, I understand. But they're so clear about like, yeah, he's not a boxer. They're jumping into our world. Okay, jump in our world then. Let's try that for a change. Well, let's see how May 23rd goes. I'm sure there will be a lot of people weighing in before and after. I'm so excited about this.

Glory in Giza, there it is. I love the play on words. Usik versus Rico. Great poster, by the way. Tremendous poster. I love it. Congratulations, Rico. Love the smile on your face. Good luck to you in preparation. And perhaps we talk again right before the fight, but really appreciate you coming on and giving us the whole breakdown here. It was great. 100%. Thank you so much, Ariel, for always putting martial arts in general, just always on the map. So really appreciate you and talk to you soon. Yes, sir. There he is. The King of Kickboxing now crossing over to the world of Queensberry Rules,

boxing, the one and only Riko Verhoeven, the pride of the Netherlands, and it's May 23rd, the date of that fight. Glory and Giza, love the play on words. Okay, let's move along to our next guest. Very excited to talk to him. We haven't talked to him in a while. Last time we spoke to him was in the summer right before his title defense against Hamzaa Chamaev. We all know what happened. But now the talk is, when is he coming back? Who's he coming back against? All that stuff and more. I know a lot of you are excited to hear from the pride of South Africa. The one and only Drickus Duplice is here. He's kind enough to join us right here. Now, there he is. Hello, Drickas, how are you? Hey, man, what's up? How are you guys doing? I'm doing great. Great to talk to you. Thank you for coming on.

I appreciate it very much. A lot to talk to you about. And I'd love to kind of work in chronological orders since it's been a minute since we last spoke. Could I ask, as you now, what is it, six, seven months later, look back on August in Chicago, how do you feel about that night? How do you digest that night all these months later about what transpired at that event in August? Yeah, I mean, it was obviously not a great night at the office, and that's the way these things happened. I mean, it is the fight game.

Sometimes, you know, it's just on the night the game plan just doesn't come to light. And what you had in your head didn't, what I had in my head didn't come to light. And at the end of the day, I lost that fight, fair and square. But, you know, the great thing about that is now I get to come back and show the people why I'm the best in the world. It had been so long since you tasted any kind of defeat, you had been on this amazing run. What did that feel like to go through a bad night at the office, so to speak, for the first time in so long, first time in the UFC as well? Yeah, I mean, it was obviously a horrible. I'm losing. I absolutely hated it. It was the worst. I hated it. But no, it's passed me not.

It's what I'm about to do. It's what the future holds. And I just can't wait. You know, it obviously stung. It hurt for quite a bit of a while. But I mean, if it didn't feel like that, I wouldn't be the world champion. Right. And that's also the reason why I'm going to be the world champion again is because I hate losing. How long did it feel like you needed to get over it? Like clearly now you're over it and you're looking to the future and I get that.

How long did the sort of morning period last? I mean. It will probably last, like, I will hate the loss until I get my win again. Okay. That makes sense. But, you know, in terms of getting back on the horse, not very long. You know, that's not the kind of person I am to stay down. You know, as soon as I got, I was beaten, and there was time to, you know,

shake it off and get back on the horse. He received a lot of criticism, Hamza did for the performance. Do you think it was warranted? Listen, it was a good performance It was just terrible I would have hated it if I paid to watch that I know your head coach Was critical of Mark Goddard

For not standing you guys up Did you share that sentiment Did you feel like there should have been more stand-ups? I think there were situations where Me and my coach actually spoke about it After he said it And there were situations where they could have stand this up But he was striking

The strikes weren't damaged If you look at the amount of strikes versus the significant strikes, the strikes weren't doing damage, but I guess you can't really stand a guy up when he is throwing. So there were some situations where I thought we could have been stood up, but at the end of the day, he was in a position where he was in a very dominant position. So it was my responsibility to make sure he's not in those positions. Was he tougher than you expected him to be?

No. No, no, it wasn't tougher than I expected him to be. I could see at the end of that fight where when we went to the final round, and I was, you know, I was honestly thinking I'm winning this fight up until the, up until I heard that 10-second lapper and I knew it's over. But when I went out for that last round, I was 100% certain that I'm either going to stop this guy or I'm going to knock him out. Wow. Wow. And when I got that takedown, I got on top, got into choke and started landing. You know, I was, I was starting to, I mean, but just too little too late. And I could feel he didn't want to be there anymore.

I could feel it. Really? But based on what? 100%. Just on the way he looked, just in the way he felt. I could feel when I got on top of him, I could feel he went, oh, shit. Wow. But I mean, but he was on top for the whole fight, basically.

but I mean I know I can make that man quit So you never lost faith He didn't break your will You always believe till the dying seconds There's not a man in life I can break my will Okay And I'm not suggesting I felt that to be honest But because you know

The people start reading body language and whatnot You're always wondering what's going on In someone's mind as the fight is playing out that way But to hear you say that you had faith Until the last 10 seconds is remarkable Yeah yeah 100% I mean, like I say, I mean, for me, there's not a man in life I can break me. Mentally, there's no way.

Do you think a lot of it that goes into like fighting him is his presence, his aura, that people are intimidated by it, but now that you've actually been there with him, you have a different read on him? No, I actually don't. I really don't feel, I didn't feel the aura. It wasn't that. It was just the way he took me down and the way he was able. The takedowns were one thing.

It was more on the ground. I thought it was going to be more of a scramble. I thought it was going to be more. But, you know, like, look at the fight. You're going to go for one submission attempt. If you look at the stats, it's not one submission attempt, which I thought, you know, everybody talks about this first round that's going to be chaotic. And if you look at all these other fights, but it wasn't.

It was not that. It wasn't, he was controlling me. He wasn't smashing me, you know. He was just controlling me, landing shots and, not very hard ones, just a lot of them. And like I say, I'm not taking anything away from Hamza. He won that fight and it was my responsibility to stop what he was doing. And he's an incredible fighter.

Otherwise, he wouldn't be the world champion. I love the statement that you posted afterwards, making no excuses. You wrote, this loss has exploded a desire in me that will have the consequence of an onslaught bigger than the original domination. My return to glory in pursuit of greatness will be unamendable. imaginable for the average minded. I love that. Love the wording as well. You also said you felt bad for your next opponent, your next foe. Can you describe the feeling like that explosion that you're talking about? What does that feel like? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, the last time I lost before this was,

I think it was seven or eight years ago before this fight. And that loss just made me so much better. And this one will do exactly that. I have a lot of a lot of, a lot of, left to me a lot to prove and I am not satisfied yet with what I have achieved. There will be a lot more coming. Do you feel like you have been, I don't know, for lack of a better word, disrespected by the community that people have taken shots based on the fight and how it went in your performance and people have forgotten what you've done leading up to that point? No, not a lot. People say, why am I silent, why I'm not out there because I'm not an influencer firstly. And secondly, because what am I going to say?

There's nothing to say. What happened happened. There was no excuses. I wasn't injured. There was nothing on the night. I felt amazing. I had a great way cut out, a great, great camp.

I just lost. And the next fight, that will be my talking about this. You know, it's disrespected. No, it's the MMA community. He's even not disrespected. Okay, so then let's talk about that. Let's talk about the future

and somewhat the president. as well. Do you have any idea when your next fight will be? I had an idea for April and I was, I really wanted to fight in April. And I had a little injury, something, nothing too serious, nothing that needs surgery. It was just something that took some time to you. And April was out for Sue. And then maybe May, but I think May might be early, but we don't know yet. I'll know by, I'll know by Monday if May is far.

if he's done all the tests and everything. And yeah, I mean, that'll be great. I mean, like I said, I wanted to be back in there by April. The injury helped me back a little. I could train, still train, but not camp. I couldn't stop preparing for a fight. So I'll know on Monday if I can start a fight camp for May, maybe June, July, you know, just,

it has to make sense. I think with the Minowai Division right now, it's so, it's weird because there are no long winning streets. There's no big winning streets. Almost all the guys that were on these big winning streets lost. And so it's interesting. It's going to be interesting to see who they give me. I know they said, Kumara Usman got the offer.

I didn't get that offer ever. Okay. I was just going to ask you about that. That never came your way. No, never got that offer. I mean, if they gave me that offer, I would take that fight. I mean, if that is what they offered me. You like that fight?

Yeah, I like any fight. Like I don't, right now, like I say, I mean, whatever gets me to a title shot again. That's what I need. I like any fight. Did you hear it? He talked about it on his podcast saying like the fight has to mean something to me. I was offered DDP fight to mean something. And my read on that was like, how does a fight against the guy who last held the belt not mean something to you?

It felt to me like he was trying to say, I'm not interested. Was that your read on that or did you have a different perspective? Yeah, he said basically it wasn't. I mean, he has these reasons for that and his team, and maybe they don't like the style, maybe they don't like the fight, but yeah, 100% I just had the belt. It's not like I'm a former champion years ago.

I literally just lost the belt. So if you are looking for that title shot, that fight makes a lot of sense. But that being said, I mean, there's a lot of guys that maybe do want the fight with me. I know Brendan Allen said that he would like to fight me. You know, he was there being supposed to be in the top five. finally we might get i might get the opportunity to uh face him and teach him some manners

you said april was there an opponent attached to that no it was just that was it was it was the april 11th miami card yes but they hadn't talked about an opponent yes yet no nothing was finalized there was no contract no opponent yet but um when you just talked about brendan allen you said maybe i could teach him some manners What are you referring to there? Oh, no, he just talks a lot. No, it's just one of those guys. I mean, he's on a two-part win streaks,

the biggest of his life, I think so. Would he be your top choice? No, like I said, I don't have a top choice. No, there's no preference. There's no ranking. There's no guy at the top. No preference. Nothing.

Just get back in there. I want to do whatever I can to get back to my belt as quickly as possible. There's a bit of a jockeying for position for that title shot right now. It seems like Hamzad is more interested in Sean Strickland than Imov, who we all thought was next. Strickland obviously wants it. Who do you think should get it?

Yeah, that's interesting because as far as I know, correct me if I'm wrong, Imamov and Hamzat said they didn't want to fight each other. But there was some, and you know, if the UFC doesn't like that at all, they never do. so yeah it's going to be interesting I do think the Strickland fight does make sense and for me I don't want to fight Strickin again unless he's the champion so

I've been there done that yeah so I mean I do think Stripin will do great against Hamzaa I honestly do just in just his style I think you would wow you think Strickland has a better chance against Hamzat than Imov

100% really interesting how come yeah I mean, did you see what Strickland did to Imamov? And the other thing, and that's striking, of course, the other thing, Strickland's ability to get back from, you know, when you take him down to get back to his feet, he does a very good job at that. You always know, when I put him the first and second time, he's really good at that.

And Strickland is stronger than people think, I think, on a physical level, and his technique to get back to his feet is very good. Do you think, like based on what you saw from Strickland, Do you think he's a much improved fighter what we just saw from him against Fluffy or do you think that was just a good matchup for him? No, no, no. It's Tritken.

He always fights the same. Yeah, yeah. Were you surprised he beat Fluffy like that? It was an interesting fight. Like, he made it look easy, but I did have him winning that. I did say I was Strickened winning that fight. Definitely, I just think Stricted,

he has this unique abilities to make people fight his fights. and if you haven't been in there with him, it's really hard to figure him out in a short period of time. And, you know, if you don't make a plan very quickly, like if you look at our first fight, the first round, you know, I got caught with that jab the whole time. And I got caught with the jab throughout the fight,

but I had to make adjustments and I was able to make those adjustments. Where Nandez, I feel, firstly, was very small, very, very small. It looks like he can shed a few more and get down to 170. that's just my opinion, but Strickland's big too, so yeah, I wasn't too surprised. Based on your read of the landscape, how many wins

do you think it will be needed for you to get back into a title fight? The thing is, I honestly believe it's all about performance. It's not just the win. With the UFC, it doesn't work like that. It's not always the guy

wins. The most fights that get a title shot. It is about performance, entertainment, and going out there and showing that you deserve to be the world champion. You're right about that. Because, I mean, just look at Strickland, right? He gets one win. Yeah, 100%.

Yeah. And now he's right back in that picture, which is wild. Other than you, do you see anyone that could give Hamzat a run for his money? Would you say it's strictly? Like, in the middleweight division, based on who's available right now, do you feel like there are any great threats? Obviously you believe in yourself, and I don't doubt that for a second. Is there anyone else that you see as a threat to him?

Yeah, I don't know myself. I don't really think anybody else. I think Strickland is the runner-up. Okay. What about Hamzad as far as like just, it seems like he doesn't fight as as active as some of the other champions? How do you feel about that? But we've known this for years. I mean, who's surprised?

Okay. But it's one thing when you're not the champion, right? Like when you're not the champion, you just kind of go at your own pace. When you are the champion, there is some kind of, I think, expectancy that you're going to be somewhat active, right? Yeah, I believe so, but I mean, that's his decision. Yeah. We do have an important middleweight fight this weekend, Kyle Baha'alio against RDR. Who do you like in that?

How do you see it playing out? That's a very interesting part. It's a very, yeah, it's a very good fight. I don't know. I feel like Audi asked him, like, he wants to take some time and, you know, get his body right. And, you know, they had to pick some stuff in terms of his, with his cardio, and he was over-training. And that wasn't too long ago. I would have maybe liked him to take maybe just a month or two extra before getting in there.

But, you know, he knows his body and his team, obviously they know what they're doing. so and I like him I think he's an awkward guy I do believe that Kyo has a bit better striking but I do believe audio is bigger and that he has the better grappling in that fight and just curious while we're talking about matchups your old foe Israel destiny is coming back against Joe Pfeer later this month and some were surprised by the booking that you know that we didn't see Joe in his you know orbit what do you think about that fight and how do you see it playing out

Yeah, I think it's great. You know, the Sonia is at a place in Korea, I think, and I think he said it as well. You know, where he wants exciting fights, he loves this sport, it's not about titles anymore. I think that's faster. I think this is, for him now, it's the fights that get him excited and that gets the fans excited and that's going to deliver those, you know, fight of the night performances. And I think this fight is exactly that. One guy has a power advantage.

The other guy is still advantage. and it's going to be incredible to watch. I saw you were in Thailand for a bit. Have you gone there in the past, or was this part of maybe a new chapter for you? No, I've been to Thailand many times before. When they're training, when I was younger, I used to go there every year,

and then I started going to train the States and everything. And then, yeah, I mean, I want to start my year, right, do a little pre-camp in Thailand, and myself and Cameron decided that we are, You're going to head there for a couple of weeks. Okay. Is that when you suffered the small injury? Indeed, yeah.

Okay. And I would imagine at that point you're really gearing up. You're starting to get the wheels in motion. Setback, big or small, was it a tough blow to process? Yeah. I mean, it's just annoying, you know, but it's the fight game. It's just, you know, these things happen. It's, no, thank God it's not something massive that,

requires surgery or anything like that, it's just a blowback that keeps you from going 100%. It doesn't seem like the DDP business is suffering. We were looking once again. The Coolway sneakers deal with Betway, the Knox hydration, the curve aftershave, the old school LTD. I mean, like you're just swimming in sponsorships. The Still Knox old school collaboration here with the shoes. What's going on here, DDP? You're killing it over there. Yeah, I mean, it's going great. I mean, I have some great people backing me. It's incredible. You know, some great partners that backs me. And they just know that's, I mean, without them, I wouldn't be here. And, you know, they just show love and stuck with me, you know, even after loss, because they know, you know, there's something coming. I know that for a fact, and they know it. And I really appreciate all of that. The reason I bring that up is because sometimes when someone loses the belt, you know,

people start jumping off the bandwagon, stop doing deals, whatever the case is. It doesn't seem like you've experienced that in any way, shape, or form. No, no, not at all. Not at all. It's only a matter of time before I have my belt back anyway. That's the test effects. That's it. What are you thinking?

Is this year too premature given where things are at? Are you thinking 2027? What are you feeling? Well, I mean, if our champion ever fights again, that would help. But, I mean, I would like to have a belt back before the end of this year. Okay, wow. And do you think that's feasible? I think once again.

Yeah. I don't have the bout right now. So, I mean, it's not my decision to make, but I would like to have two more fights this year. But would you like for it to be against him? Like, does it have to, winning the belt back, would it be sweeter if it's against Hamzat? Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I would love, I would love to fight him for the title. Yeah, I mean, like, yeah, I want to get my win back as well. Now, if he goes up to light heavyweight, I'll get my belt back and I'll go running off to him. I'll go get him. Okay, so you need this one back? I don't need it back, but I'm getting it back.

Okay. When I say it, I mean, you want the win. You want to write the wrong. Yeah, of course. I just know. a more physical person than he is. I just, he was just better at 10% of this game than I was. He said on the Jackson podcast recently, he beats you 100 out of 100 times. Did you see that? Yeah.

Yeah, no, I saw that. I mean, that guy is pulling out heavy weights and just saying shit, so. How do you think he would do it light heavyweight? I saw a picture of him recently. He looks pretty big. that's not a very big guy people say he's so big he's not a big guy

when I got in there I was surprised to how small he was actually he's an anchor and he's tall but he's not a thick guy no okay is he stronger than your typical middle weight or same less average

no no I would say it middle weight he's an average strength wise middle weights okay his technique on the ground is very good

he has some his pressure on the ground is very good and that makes him hard That makes him watch what to do with on the ground. Have you sat down and watched the fight? Yeah. Yeah, of course.

Is that difficult for you? It was in the beginning because it's the most boring fight in the world to watch. So it's hard getting through it. But yeah, I mean, it's what needs to be done. Obviously, I didn't like seeing myself losing. I hated it. But, you know, that's how I learned. I just, that was only a learning experience and that's, of course, I watched the fight a lot, actually,

and making sure that those same mistakes don't happen again. Wow, so you've watched them more than once. Yeah, of course. Wow. Maybe like twice a week. Really? Oh, did I lose you? Did we lose them?

Yes, of course. Yeah, that's how I study fights. Wow, twice. Yeah, yeah, sorry, you froze for a second. Because there are some people that I know, you know, we've talked to you over the years. I want to erase that from my memory. I'm never watching it again. You've watched it twice a week since August?

Yeah, I mean, it took me. I would say it took me around three weeks after the fight before I actually watched it again. And then since then, I've watched it quite often to make sure that, you know, it's part of my training. It's watching my fights and knowing what I did wrong and seeing the mistakes. What's the mood that you're in when you do that? Like, are you on the treadmill? Are you doing a workout? Are you just sitting down in your living room or the gym?

just watching it and doing nothing locked in? When I do sometimes when I'm just on the cycle for an hour, I'll do it. But a lot of times when I'm doing it more technically, I'll have a pen and paper and I'll write down exactly what I see. Wow. And are you seeing a lot of new things now? Like, do you see new stuff every time you watch? Yes, the devil is in the details.

Things happen so quickly. And then you see the mistakes you make, especially at this level. It's not massive mistakes. Yeah. It's always your one foot was too far away. Your balance wasn't there. And that's the kind of stuff we need to work on in training. And that's the stuff that my coachies that I see and that's the stuff we have to work on and figure out.

Because those small mistakes, as you fix them, they make big mistakes. Are you bringing in any new training partners or coaches to, you know, have any more emphasis on grappling, on wrestling? Yes, absolutely. we will. We don't have names yet. And even if I had, I'm going to be telling you. Fair enough. Fair enough. Fair enough. But these are tweaks that you are going to make in training. Absolutely. Wow. That is, I find that fascinating that you've watched it twice a week over the past, you know, a few months or so. That's amazing. That's, that's a bit of a form of torture, no, for you? Yeah. I mean, like I said, if you're a good loser becomes a regular one. Okay. I like that.

That is good. By the way, before I let you go, right before we had you on was Rico Verhoeven, and I know about your background in kickboxing. Yeah. What kind of a chance do you give him against Alexander Usik? Yeah, I mean, I was pretty excited to see him on, and I'm very excited for this fight with him and he's going to be incredible. Listen, he's probably one of the greatest, if not the greatest kick boxer of all time. He's incredible, and people always say, especially with him, it's different from, I think, from kickboxing. boxing to go to boxing because you are only focusing on picks and enhanced.

But with MMA, your time is split between grappling, wrestling, conditioning, you know, kicks. All of the different styles makes it hard to beat someone that trains four to six hours a day just on one thing. But when it comes to him, I think he's going to do a lot better than people think. I think, but I mean, he is fighting Alexander Ussesig. So I can't predict the winner, but it is an incredible fight. I'm very excited about it.

A lot of people dismissing him saying he has no shot. No, I wouldn't do that. Okay. And in that regard, what is the message to the people saying that you won't get back there, that you don't have it in you? I mean, it's the same message as the first time I stepped in there, and the first time I said I wouldn't make it in the top 10, wouldn't make it in top five, would never beat Robert Whitaker,

would never become champion, would never beat Adersania. I mean, I mean, it's the exact same, basically. Yeah, you've been here before. You watch, as you watch, I'll do. Don't you stress about it. I love that. I love that.

Thank you, Drickis. All the best, you appreciate you coming on. I hope you heal up very quickly, and we get to see you back in there relatively soon. Really appreciate this. Thank you and all the best. Awesome. Thank you so much. All right, take care.

There he is. The great Drickis Duplese, the pride of South Africa. What was that? As you watch, I'll do. That was a great line. I'm in for the DDP

comeback tour. Curious to see how it plays out. I don't mind the Ospin fight at all. I think it makes a lot of sense. I don't understand what he was talking about when he said, I need a fight that makes sense, that means something.

I'm like, how does fighting the former champ who just held the belt not mean something? I don't know what, like... The only thing I'd say there, What's he talking about?

Does it get him closer to a Walterweight shot, right? If he's going, that doesn't make sense for me because I don't want to have a win over a middleweight that doesn't do anything for me in the welterweight title picture. I kind of get the justification, but like you, like Drickis, Drickis is a bigger name

than probably anybody else he's going to get. So why not just take that opportunity? Makes no sense. By the way, he has a history with Hamzat and a lot of people think that in his fight against Hamzad, if it was a five-round fight, that he would have won. have won. In fact, I would argue he's probably

with a win over trick is way closer to a middleweight title fight than he would be a welterweight title fight if he fought someone, I don't know, some you know, top ranked welterweight. You know what I mean? Because of that history, because of that fight against Hamza. I'm more interested in

Usban Hamza 2 than Usband versus Islam. Does that make sense? Yeah. I would agree with that. I'm not interested in either, but I... No, actually, Usband Hamza 2... is a sellable fight. And by the way, there are less big names at middleweight than Walterweight. All right, you heard it here. Ariel Hawani wants Kamar Ushman versus Hamza Shamaev. I'm in. I'm actually with you, Hoana. You can sell that fight by being like this time I get five rounds.

Yes. As opposed to like Usman and Islam doing the little like a footsy thing in the phase and we all know you're all in Kahuts. Like no, let's let's do that one. That was also Usman on short notice, upper weight class. Yes. Very, very, very close fight. Usman doesn't like me very much. Bro, I'm on your side if you want to get a middleweight title fight. I will drive that bus for you, all right? I'll drive that campaign for you. Take the DDP fight.

That makes a lot of sense. Makes no sense. No? No, that's what he's going to. That's what he said. Oh, he's going to say, Dan. No, it makes no sense. Do you like it?

DDP, Camaro Usma? Yeah. If Camar Usman is not getting a title shot at 170, and we got Prochets versus JDM, who are we giving him at 170? shop cuts out for a little bit yeah it was like Michael Morales is aiming for that title shot Ian Gary is aiming

for the title shot I like I like that fight better than Brendan Allen oh god way better right yeah much better there's you know two former champions one who's not a typical middle weight but had a nice little showing there on short notice against the beast in Hamzad like that

that is legit that's a legit that feels like a marquee fight that feels like a a great numbered event co-main or a fight-night main big time you beat dDP i'm cool with you being next i'm i'm more interested right now i would say in i would say i would be more interested in kamarae versus chamsat than strickland versus chamsat than even imovar versus chamsat it's kind of blown my mind how much more interested i am in kamro fighting for the middleweight title than i am for the welterweight title and i know i've said hey you've done nothing but it's because he's

campaigning for the Walter Wade. You had that great showing on short notice. You move up and fight the former champion and beat him. Let's go. I don't think you should get it right away. I wouldn't say he gets it right now, like straight into a title fight. But him versus DDP actually makes a hell of a lot more sense than anything he's talking about and makes a lot more sense than him saying it doesn't make sense. Figure what I'm saying. Well, that was great. Great to talk to DDP. Appreciate him very much. Great to talk to RICO as well. In a matter of moments. I do believe we are going to be joined by Georgiopoulos tracking him down. He has been very much in the news over the last couple of days. I've never spoken to him before, never met him,

never had any really real interactions with him. In fact, it was RAF that book this and then this morning we find out the news that he is, I guess, going to be competing against Armant-Sirukin on this hype Brazil submission-only grappling show in eight days, in Rio. wild is that a forged Irish stout logo down there bottom left sure is wow

by the way armine doesn't look like armine in that picture what do you mean looks a little thin he looks a little thin yeah they kind of look like brothers yeah they do anyway if I'm RAAF

that's that bullshit yeah if I'm RAF am I feeling some sort of way about this like wait you just built it now here's the thing though you did build it off a guy who's a UFC command

commodity. So like, do you have a like to stand on? Ah, you guys made the match happen. Yeah. And it, it popped off at your event. And now the rematches. And now the rematches 10 days later in high Brazil. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I would feel some sort of way. I would feel some sort of way if I were them. But, uh, what I mean, they stole all the headlines. Once again, RIF is, uh, is catching lightning in a bottle with these matchups. And, and this one, obviously, Armin has been on fire as of late and, and, and, and, and, Georgia's who's done a great job on social media with his campaign to see if anyone could take him down.

He would offer $1,000 per takedown. And it got very contentious and everyone has weighed in on it. And Marab Dolly-Shevili is there recording. And Sean O'Malley is there recording. Tim Welch is there as well. Everyone's weighing in on this. Colby Covington is weighing in on it as well. All kinds of videos, breakdowns of the stuff that was going on.

It was, it was electric. There was a lot of animosity. there were a lot of hits to the face and then the moment the fight is over Armin pops off and he gets a shot in

we have that in case you're the last person on earth who did not see it here it is here's the moment in question well I mean there were a lot of moments leading up to it but here is I do believe the very end here's yeah there it is

the match is over and there's a shot and we had him yesterday We had him on yesterday and And then it all explodes This is Marab's Zepruder of film footage It all explodes Wild stuff And so without further ado

Let us speak to One half of that equation Yesterday we got Armand's side of the story Now let's get Giorgio's side of the story He is kind enough to join us right here And now on the program There he is Hello, Giorgio, how are you?

Good, how you doing, brother? Nice to meet you. Thanks for coming on. Appreciate it. Yeah, absolutely. Big fan. Nice to meet you as well. Thank you. What is this behind you? Where are you right here with this Creators Inc. behind you? What is that? Yeah, so I'm out in L.A. right now. This is the largest OnlyFans agency in the world. Also, influencer agency. Just a big networking house, creator house. They bring in different influencers.

And we all kind of collab, make videos. If you've seen when I was doing my $1,000 series, a lot of the videos were in this backyard. And yeah, just a networking place in LA, Creators, Inc. It's kind of the hot spot to be. Okay, okay. Actually, if we can, to start before this weekend and everything that popped off, which we will, of course, get to, when did you start this $1,000 take down child? How did it all start?

And when did you start to feel like it was becoming a thing? Yeah, man. So I moved out to L.A. probably about four years ago. I was really passionate about fitness. So I actually moved out here to be a fitness influencer. I was doing fitness content for a while. And I had it wrestled.

And I started to miss wrestling a lot. And so I was like, you know what? I want to start wrestling again, but I wasn't competing. So I was like, let me bring wrestling to the internet. At that time, nobody knew I could wrestle. And so what I did was I was like, all right, how am I going to get people to wrestle me? So I decided to put a dollar amount on it. At first, it was $100.

take me down and get $100. Pretty quickly, I realized I don't think anyone's going to take me down. So I upped it to $1,000. And then once I did that, it kind of took off, you know, going from the fitness to wrestling content, my followers staggered a little bit. I lost a few followers. Then it balanced out.

And then, bro, it just blew up. I think what the reason why is, you know, because I'll do it with anyone, any size, and what people like is the size difference. So when I would go against these six to five guys, 300-pound guys. When I'm 160 pounds, you know, they expect the other guy to win. And so it's very eye-catching.

And, you know, that's, that gets views. And so how long ago do you feel like it was the turning point? Like, when did it really start to gain momentum? So the wrestling content probably took about maybe two months to gain traction. You know, I already had 100K just from fitness stuff. But I'd say the wrestling thing took two months before. really blew up and I made a name for myself. Okay. And so then you have this match for RAF a few months ago, right? And by the way, for those that don't know, you have a background in wrestling. I believe you, you wrestled at Cleveland

State and Ryder University, right? And we're a great collegiate wrestler in Ohio. Yeah, so I wrestled, I started wrestling in kindergarten. Oh, wow. And throughout high school, I wrestled at Cleveland State. I was a true freshman. I got freshman in the year there. Then I redshirted. I went to Ryder for half a semester and then I dropped out, moved back home to Ohio, coached my little brother on the high school team for a year, and then moved out to L.A. I coached my little brother his junior year. That was always a dream of mine.

And, you know, it was a really hard decision to stay or go to L.A. because I wanted to coach him as senior year. But I felt like I had to be a little bit selfish for myself and get my career started, but I'm glad that I was able to coach him his junior year. Okay. And so then you make your R-AFD. in January, that goes well. How does the Armin fight or match, I should say, how does that come together from your perspective? Yeah, so obviously I do social media. That's kind of my thing.

I wrestled Mugsy. You know, I had a nice match with him. He's another influencer. So it just kind of made sense. That was a match everybody wanted to see at first, me a Mugsy. And then after that, you know, everybody wanted to see me wrestle Armin. So I'll post on my Instagram and I'll give the people what they want, whoever they want me to wrestle is who, you know, I try and wrestle. So at first it was Mugsy, that was the number one person. Then Armand was the number one person and, you know, Raff's able to make these superstar matches happen. And I'm here to entertain.

I'm here to give the people what they want. You know, I do this for them. I do it for me because I love it, but really I'm just trying to entertain the people and give them what they want. And they wanted me to wrestle Armand. So that's, you know, I got the opportunity to do that. and, you know, that went down. And I'm assuming you were familiar with him, right?

Like, you know about MMA, UFC, you know who he was? Actually, I don't really watch it all that much. You know, after the name got brought up, I looked up who he was. And I knew the guy just from social media. I didn't know much about, like, his fighting or any of his accolades. That stuff doesn't really matter to me. I didn't even watch college wrestling growing up, all the RAF guys, as much of a wrestler as I am.

I'm just really not into all that. I don't know half the guys in RAF. You know, it's just I wrestle, I train, but I don't really watch, you know, fighting. I don't watch wrestling too much. So I wasn't totally aware of who he was, but I knew one thing. I knew that he was all over social media. His PR team's doing a great job.

I mean, this guy gained like two million followers in the last couple months. So to see that, see him everywhere. For me, you know, I was like, that's an opportunity from God to go out there, make a name for myself. This guy hasn't been beat. he's winning everything. And, you know, those are the type of opponents I'm looking for. You know, I want to wrestle relevant people. For me, I don't necessarily care of if you're an Olympic champ or not.

If you're not relevant, to me, that doesn't matter. You know, I'm a businessman at the end of the day. I want to take out big names. I want to do things with big names. I don't care how good you are at wrestling or whatnot. If you don't have a following, if you're not relevant, it doesn't matter to me. And just curious, before we get to the match, since you were doing the $1,000

take-down challenge, has anyone taken you down? Have you lost? Have you had to pay it out? Nobody has taken me down during the challenge. Okay, have they taken you down in other aspects? I mean, I've been wrestling my whole life. Of course I've been taken time before.

Okay, okay, but not while you were doing this. Correct. Okay. When you get to Arizona and Armand's there and I saw a few interactions with them, how would you describe the way you know, you were feeling about, you know, the state of things between the two of you. Yeah, dude, I mean, I'm a fighter.

I'll go against anyone. I think Armin's a cool guy, man. We were talking before the match. You know, we made some video clips. I got no bad blood with the guy. I think that he's a pretty alright guy. You know, we talk our talk. He's got his opinion.

I got my opinion. But, you know, the clips are just, it's social media. It's for the fans. They want to see those interactions. We're hyping the match. You know, it's all entertainment, it's business, this is what we do. But yeah, me and Armand talked for quite a few times before the match. He's a cool guy, you know, I'm a fan of him.

So there was no tension or animosity that you would say? I mean, I'll say that he thought he was going to win. I thought I was going to win. We had our words, but no, like, there's no, I didn't feel any tension or animosity. I thought it was completely fine. Okay. We get to the match, and obviously everyone's talking about it and exploded. and the insinuation was that you were dirty,

that you were putting your hands in his face, that you were slapping him, you were putting fingers in his eyes and whatnot. What is your response to people who said that you didn't compete cleanly? Here's one of the examples. Yeah, look, man, at the end of the day, wrestling is a physical sport, and you know what, you put me out there with any other D1 wrestler,

and I don't think those calls get called to say. You know, that clip you're shown right there. I did poke him in the eye, but I'll tell you, that was not intentional. I don't ever try to intentionally wrestle dirty. That's just not who I am. I think Armand just, he wasn't used to wrestling. So in the D1 level in wrestling,

you're collar tying, you're hand fighting. And, you know, I don't think he ever got that kind of pressure on him in a match. You know, I'm clubbing hard. I'm trying to get my underhooks. And I just, I think he didn't know how to react. And he, you know, he has a short fuse and he let it get to him. You know, that clip, I did Pokemon. the eye, but like I said, that wasn't intentional. I didn't mean to do that. I'm clubbing him hard.

I'm wrestling. I'm hand fighting. If you watch, if you watch me wrestling in these matches, you go back, watch the mugsny match. I'm clubbing hard. That's how I do. It's legal on the sport. The only reason the ref was giving him points is because he was crying like a little bitch. I mean, let's be honest. He's stone his hands up, this and that. I mean, dude, this is wrestling. What are you doing? You're supposed to be a tough UFC fighter. Wrestle me, bro. Like, and he's just crying to the ref. I mean, that ref got to be married to an Armenian the way he was the match or something because he he gave him that match. If you watched that match, I won that match. I lost off a penalty points that were BS. The ref wasn't calling penalty points for me. You know,

he full out open-handed slapped me and I didn't get a point for that multiple times he did it. And the ref never gave me a point once and he gave him a point for every time. And I was clubbing, which is legal. If you know wrestling, it's legal. If you don't know wrestling, then you may think I'm wrestling dirty. But watch my matches. I'm a physical wrestler. And if you can't handle it. Get off the mat, dude. Don't cry. He said to me yesterday, this was a quote, his game plan, meaning yours, was to just fight during the match, make hype,

and he wanted to do that because the actual wrestlers, the natural wrestlers, never do that because it's disrespectful and the referee can count you out, but this referee was just taking points from him. He punched me two times. One time he did, they said, if you do it one more time, we'll just cut you from the match, and the referee still kept waiting for him, and he's just trying to

knock me out. He knew you, you got to stop this wrestling match because you're losing, first of all, of all, he cannot beat me. Third of all, if he loses, he's got to pay me because we had a deal. And so I'll stop right there. Your response to that, basically he's insane. First off, the ref never said

that to me. He never said, you do one more time we're ending the match or whatever. That never happened. It was never my plan to wrestle dirty. I'm a physical wrestler, dude. Like, I really don't know what to say that. I came out there to wrestle. I'm a physical wrestler. And the reason it looks the way

it is, is because he was whining like a little bitch. And what about this? It's a physical sport, bro. What about the insinuation that he's saying that you knew you were losing so you were just trying to make a scene so that you can kind of get out of it? When was I losing? I was only losing because of the penalty points. Why was I trying to make a scene? I'm the only one that scored a takedown.

When was I losing other than giving up penalty points? He didn't score on me. He said yesterday that was a takedown. He's completely wrong. Look how the ref rolled it. It was one of the few calls that the ref made right. It was one point. I posted an Instagram video.

where on my on my on my Instagram where I slow moded down boom right there you see that's a step out he he doesn't get on that shot until we're out of bounds replay that watch where he comes in on we're out of bounds before he he gets to my legs watch this he's not in he's not in he's not in we're out of bounds boom I don't even touch the ground until we're completely out of bounds look at that again I don't touch the ground until we're completely out of bounds if he thinks that's a takedown he's 100% wrong and I heard him say that was a four point move not even close to the four point move. In order for it to be a four point move, he has to throw me to my back. Play that clip one more time. I want you to watch it.

Okay, okay. Throw me to my back. Once we're out of bounds, I roll to my back. I don't land on my back. We're out of bounds. I know that. And then I roll to my back. When we go out of bounds, I have a wizarded. Play it again. You can see I have the arm locked in. I have a wizard in. So if that's in the middle of the mat, we're scrambling. I have a wizard in. Watch. Look how we land. My arms and his arm, boo. We're out of bounds. I know that. So I let go. rolled in my back. It's over with. That wasn't two. If that's in the middle, I have that wizard in and we're scrambling, we're wrestling. So are you saying that if this is the streets, this is the

take-down challenge, he's not getting $1,000 in your opinion for that? If this is, if it's anywhere, he's not getting anything for that because I have the wizard. If that's in the middle of the mat and I have my arm the way he is, I'm not rolling to my back like that. I did that because we're out of bounds. I know it's not too. I'm keeping that wizard in and I'm continuing to wrestle and scramble. It wasn't near a take down. And any wrestler that watches this that knows wrestling is going to know that that's not too. But just to be clear, if this is the takedown challenge, your world, your rules, is that score to take down? Are you paying him $1,000 after that? In no sport of wrestling is that scored too? In Folkisle, Greco or freestyle?

I'm talking about in the Georgia world on the street doing the creator stuff, would that be considered a takedown? I'll repeat myself again. In no sport of wrestling is that too. That is not considered a takedown. In the roles of wrestling, and my series goes by the roles of wrestling, because it's wrestling. In the roles of wrestling, that is not too. Did he take me down?

Essentially, he took me down, but he did not score. So the whole thing is you have to score to get a takedown. For people that don't know wrestling, yeah, I guess I hit the ground, if that's what you want to say, but he didn't score points, so it's not a takedown. Is the challenge, the scoring points challenge, or the takedown challenge.

I'm just trying to get it right. A takedown is scoring points. Do you get that? I do. I do. I have a takedown. You have to score. But correct me if I'm wrong,

in your world, there's no referee there scoring points, right? It's whether or not someone can take you down. In my world, a takedown is two. If you take me to the ground

in my series, okay, let me give you an example. Okay. Somebody can take me to the ground and have one of my legs and I could be doing a split and they don't have my other leg. It's like saying,

if he has one of your legs on the ground, is that a takedown? Okay, so you say it's not a takedown. He says it is irrelevant. As far as the actual rules of the match are concerned, technically by RAF rules, regardless of how he got there, he won the match. Do you agree with that? I think they're throwing the match out. I think they disqualified him.

They didn't declare him as a winner. Chad told me, Chad and Aegee said they're talking about throwing it out. After he punched me, he didn't get his hand raised. He didn't win the match. Wasn't the punch right after the horn? Yeah, but you can get disqualified at any point through it. And Raff is saying, we'll see what Raff's decision is, but last I talked to them, they said they were going to throw it out.

So, you know, that's that. If they don't throw it out, will you pay him? Because he said you had a deal, I think, for $10,000, right? Yeah, we did have a deal for $10,000. I'm a man of my word. If they don't throw it out, I'll pay him. Do you think that you should pay him regardless of them throwing it out or not? No, if they throw it out, I don't think I should pay him

because it was on the winner of the match, and if they throw it out, then he wasn't the winner of the match. But you know, like they would throw it out because of the DQ, not because of what happened in the match. Let me ask you, if you get disqualified, do you win? No, but in the rules of the street, who won the match? Who won the match? Do you win?

But in the rules of your world, the street, who won the match? We're not on the street, though. We're on the mat, aren't we? I understand that, but as far as what happened within the allotted time of the match, who won? He did. So didn't he win the match? That's a technicality that you're talking about. The DQ is a technicality.

Yeah, if you get disqualified. Do you win if you get disqualified? That's for behavior after. I'm just asking, do you consider it regardless of what a referee or Chad Brown? Who's Chad Bronson? He's the owner of the company. He's not a referee. He's not a judge.

He's just the guy who's trying to do what's right by you and Armin. I'm just asking by the rules of wrestling. If a fighter in the UFC gets disqualified, do they win? Let me ask you this. If a fighter punches someone after the fight is over, 15 minutes are done, but he punches his opponent. This has happened before. He still wins the fight. He's still the winner.

Before I answer yours, are you going to answer mine? Yeah, I'm the one asking you the question. But go ahead. Well, I ask you a question first. I said, if a fighter gets disqualified in the UFC, does he win? before the match, during the match or after the match? When did the DQ happen? At any point, at any point,

at any point before, after, or during, if the organization throws out the match and disqualifies the fighter, does that fighter get a win on his record? If you are disqualified for something you did within the 15 or 25 minutes, no. You cannot be disqualified after a match is over, though. The match is over. Let me ask you, if the organization goes back and rolls that,

that match, a disqualification, does that fighter get a win on his record? The organization doesn't determine who wins and loses, the Athletic Commission. If you want to get technical. Okay, so if Raf throws this match out, disqualifies him. I think it's nonsense. I think that's absolute nonsense if they do that. He won the match. He won within the time allotted for a match.

They could fine him, they could suspend him, they can, cut him from Raff, but what he did was after the match was over. If he would have punched you during the fight during the match, yeah, that's a DQ. But what they're saying... Open hand slapped me during the match. Yeah, but you did stuff to him too. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, look man, Armid's a great athlete. We had a great match. It got physical. Some calls didn't go my way. The ref rolled him, him to win. If that's what you want to hear, man, the ref rolled him to win. I'm not here to argue about it. At the end of the day, he had, he had more points to me in that match and that's all that counts. So, you know, it is what it is.

Unfortunately, I got a couple penalty points taken away. In my opinion, I think I would have won that match with any other ref or if the ref would have just called fair points. He was calling it one way. But yeah, if you want to hear me say, I lost that match, sure, I lost that match. He had more points to me. You're the expert. I'm not, so I'm curious as to how you viewed it. That's why I was asking so specifically. We had Armin on the show yesterday obviously asked him about this here's what he had to say and i'd love to get your response here's arman yeah he's a bullshuter guy he was in an ambulance and then like maybe someone told him told him don't do that he started as he right away delayed that video from his ag and then he's

saying okay we are like drinking water we are getting rewarned he's like a clown he's a clown and he's insinuating that the video of you and the ambulance was pretty much made up and that you deleted it afterwards. What's your response? Yeah, so I did post it and I did delete it, but you know what that was? It's just medical dude. They pretty much forced me to take the ride and go the hospital. I didn't want to do that, but they're like, you have to go, you have to go. Like, bro, I'm a tough kid. I'm a fighter. That was the last thing I wanted to do. And you know what I did when I got there? I walked right out of the hospital. I was like, dude, fuck this. I don't need to be here. I'm not, I walked right out. And that's why you saw me post a video going back to the hotel,

drinking Pellegrino talking about the rematch. It was just like protocol or something. You think I wanted to go do that? No, it was so stupid. I was so annoyed. And then when I got there, I walked out. Okay. And any serious injuries as a result of what happened?

No, dude, I'm 100% healthy. I'm perfectly fine. I mean, yeah, I feel good. And you guys seen, I was bleeding after the match on a couple of the pictures. I want to clarify it. Not that this matters, but that wasn't even from Armand. It was from his, I don't know if it was his manager or somebody, but after that, I got, I got jumped by somebody in the midst of all of it and whoever it was. They got a nice punch because

they hit me good. But Armid, Armid's punch really didn't phase me at all. I was fine. I got up immediately. I was getting ready to attack him and we got separated. And here's another thing. I want to make this statement. Armand thinks I won't fight him. I will fight him anywhere, any time. Let's make it make sense. Let's get an organization to cover it and I'll fight him. Maybe we have to call it sparring because of his contract with the UFC, but I'm down to do that. Okay. Well, I appreciate you bringing that up because I did want to play this just for the record. Here's what he had to say about a potential fight with you. Here's Armin. RAF officials told me they're trying, they're actively working to do a rematch. Are you interested in a

rematch? No. If they want to do rematch, we just got a fight on the street, even better than. and rematch. Because I don't want to fight in the freestyle wrestling. If you want to fight, we can fight anywhere. You can come to Newport, we can fight on the sand, on the beach. Oh gosh. That would be something.

Yeah, but he never do it because he knows, like, I need one second to knock him out. So a rematch in freestyle wrestling, no interest to you. No interest. No. No at all. Yeah, okay. Go ahead. that you saw the clip you know what we're talking about what's your response he he said i'll never do

it he never invited me where's my invite where's my invite let's get an organization to cover it let's make it make sense i'm a hundred percent down i didn't get an invite to do it and as far as the freestyle thing goes of course he doesn't want to wrestle me again because he knows he's going to lose he felt my pressure the only reason he won was because of the penalty point but guess what i'm i'm supposed to go to brazil to grapple him now and you know why i'm doing that so that he agrees to the rematch. The reason I'm going to Brazil to grapple him, so what? He wants to choke me out. He wants to

squeeze me. Good shit, bro. You can choke me out. You can squeeze me tight. I don't care. The only reason I'm doing that is to get my get back in this wrestling match. Okay, so we saw this morning, we wake up to the news this morning. We see the poster, but to be honest, I didn't know if it was real or not. Can you confirm this is happening

March 11th, you versus Armin, in this grappling match, submission only? Yeah, I mean, they still have to send me the contract. I agreed to do it. They still still have a couple steps to take on their end in the contract to get over to me, but I agreed to do it when they send me the contract, if it's what we agreed on, that is happening March 11th,

I believe it is. And like I said, the reason I'm doing that is so that he wrestles me again in freestyle. Okay. And as far as the RAF organization goes with him, they told me after the match that Armand's done with RAF, unless I want to rematch him, that he's not allowed back.

Okay, if he wants to compete again, you're saying he has to compete against you in RAF. Yeah, they told me that Armand is done competing with Raff. They're not going to be working with him unless I want to take a rematch with him. And you know what? I think the fans want to see him to continue to wrestle. I think the fans want to see a rematch. So I'll take that rematch so then he can then participate in Raff again. But like I said, he doesn't want to wrestle me.

And that's why I'm doing this jiu-jitsu thing. so he agrees to wrestle me. Yeah, I'm surprised. I was surprised to see it because if I'm RAF, I'm like, man, this popped off in our league and now the quote-unquote rematch, and I know it's not the same rules, is happening somewhere else.

Did they get mad when this came up? It's not a rematch, though. It's submissions. It's not wrestling, dude. I don't do jihitsu. Like, I'm a wrestler. I've maybe done five to 10 practices of jiu-jitsu my whole life. I'm doing this to get the rematch with him.

Like, I'm going to go out there. I'm going to do what I can, but at the end of the day, like, dude's going to choke me out or whatever. Like, congratulations. What makes you think that if you do this, he will compete against you in RAF again? Because it's part of the agreement. Oh, it is. Okay, with him? I talked to his manager.

Okay, all right? It's part of the agreement, right? Yeah, it's part of the agreement. I would hope so, right? Because then you're doing it for nothing. Yeah, I just wanted to make sure. Yeah. That's the reason I said, yeah.

Okay. Now, what about this idea of you two fighting in Newport, Beach. What do you think of that? I mean, I think Newport Beach is stupid. If we can get a streamer to a streamer to cover it where we can get paid on stake or something, let's do it. But I'm a business, man. Everybody wants to see this. I'm not going to do it for free, but I will 100% fight this guy. I'm not scared of this guy. Anything I got to do to get my chance to punch this guy in the face, I'll do it, but let's make it make sense. In MMA. Yeah, you're not saying boxing or something like that, like you would be okay with fighting him at what he's great at?

100%. I don't, dude, I don't care who it is. He did me dirty. He took a cheap shot at me. One difference between me and him in the match, yeah, we're trying to kill each other, just like you are in the ring, you know, you're trying to win. But after the match, as a fighter, it should be all respect. I would never punch my opponent after the fight after the match.

I would never do something like that because that's not who I am. As a fighter, you need to respect the other after the match. and leave it there. And you know what? Quite frankly, he doesn't understand that. And that's why he doesn't have his UFC shot yet. He said basically, like, you should thank him, that you are now bigger because of him. Is that a fair thing to say? Absolutely, dude.

I'll thank the guy, yeah. Like, I'm not mad at it at all. Of course. Like, this one's super viral. Thank you for punching me. Like, yeah, great job. Like, for real. Has business been good since that incident on Saturday?

Do you feel like it's gone crazy? Business has been great, brother. Business has been great. Has this surpassed what you, like when you dreamed of moving to LA and doing all this, have you now exceeded your own expectations? No, man, I got a lot more things I'm trying to do. This is just a start. I haven't come close to exceeding my expectations, you know. This is just the beginning. It's one step out of time, man. And, you know, I just keep my faith in God. You know, this was truly, this matching itself, man, was an opportunity from God. And, you know,

I just, I'm so grateful to be able to step on the mat with an opponent like him. I'm so grateful to compete with an opponent like him. And I'm thankful for everything that has happened. I really am. I appreciate every little bit about the match and after the match. I'm taking it all in. And, you know, I'm excited for the future. Armin is a self-proclaimed hothead.

He admits it that sometimes he gets a little heated. What do you think? You're in L.A. He's nearby. What happens if you see this guy? Yeah, I mean, clearly he's a hot head, you know. You can see it. You saw after the match, but you can see in the match, you know, I broke the guy.

I got in his head. He broke. He didn't know how to react. What happens if I see him in L.A.? I mean, I don't know. I don't got no bad blood with the guy, but, you know, I don't want to fight the guy unless I'm getting paid to fight the guy because I'm a businessman. It doesn't make sense.

But yeah, if I see him in the street, if I run into him and he presses me, I mean, ultimately, if he pushes me or punches me, like, I'm not going to get punked. I'm going to fight back. Yeah. Have you ever sparred or trained in MMA? A little bit, not too much. You know, I trained Taekwondo, but I haven't really, like, professionally sparred or anything like that, no. Okay. Way back in the day, I think it was like 24. 14 or so, Daniel Cormier, who you may be familiar with from the wrestling scene, had a fight. His opponent fell out. His name was Rashad Evans. He couldn't find an opponent.

And so they called a guy named Pat Cummins, who only had like three MMA fights, but he had a history with in the wrestling scene at Colorado Springs. So the UFC signed him. And he had really no business in being in the UFC, but they felt like it was a sellable fight. And so I'm wondering if there's any part of you that thinks the UFC would be interested in this in having Georgia versus Armand II, but under UFC rules in the octagon? You know, that's a great question. Actually, that I was, before I watched your interview with Armin, I was already talking about that, wondering if that's something that would happen.

Do we have a call with Dana today or tomorrow? So we're currently pending on trying to get a phone call to see if we can make that happen. Okay. Now, as far as that goes, you know, I know Dana's look at the Paul brothers and how he didn't want it in the UFC. But at the same time, I think that Dana also doesn't want to lose business to another organization. You know, I think he's a businessman.

So, I mean, I could only hope that it's something he'll entertain, but I completely understand if it's something he doesn't want to entertain. Oh, my gosh. I feel like that would be big business right there. Yeah, of course, 100% it would be great business. Is there a meeting on the books or you're trying to track him down? Where do we stand? Yeah, I'll say, I'll say, I'll,

do this on it. Okay. But ideal for you, would it be fair to say, rematch an R-AF, same place that you were competing in last time? Yeah, if they're a man of their word and they don't run off on me, you know, I'm doing the jiu-jitsu match because that was part of the agreement. So, you know, I hope that he doesn't run away from that. What happens if things pop off in the jiu-suitzum match?

Yeah, man. that'll be interesting. Basically, we have a separate contract where, you know, we're going to make sure that doesn't happen. Okay. Me personally, I think that it would probably be a great thing if that did happen again. I think it would only promote it even more for the rematch and raft and Raff and everything. Just as a businessman, I think if we got into another brawl, I think that that makes more. money so but yeah yeah does that does that mean that you're looking for a brawl will you

try to incite a brawl no absolutely not like I said like I said before that's not who I am one thing between me and him never I'd never punch an opponent after the match during the match you know whatever sport we're in I'm trying to beat him in that sport but I that's not me that's not the type of person I am and you know hopefully he learns from his actions because man Like, this guy, this guy wants a UFC shot. And to be honest, like, I was on his side. Like, this guy is probably the best fighter in the world.

Like, I thought he deserved that title shot. But, you know, his actions, you know, he's got a short fuse. And he's got to, he's got to learn to control himself because it's just not acceptable. You're supposed to have respect for your opponents after you compete against them. And, you know, me, I would never do something like that. Obviously, his retort would be like, like, don't poke me in the eye and do all these things. That's why I lost my cool.

Yeah, man, I'm sorry I poked you in the eye, but shit happens in a wrestling match. You're going to let that get to you, bro. Like, I didn't intentionally mean to poke them in the eye, and all my clubs were legal. They weren't open hand slaps like his. It's a sport of wrestling. It's a physical sport.

And, I mean, if you ask wrestlers, bro, watch college D1 wrestling matches. Dude, he just, he's never felt pressure like that. didn't know how to hand fight. He didn't know what they expect. My goal wasn't to go out there and like, oh, let me punch this guy, let me slap this guy. Dude, I'm a physical wrestler. And at the end of the day, that's what it is. I'm not there to be a punk or a jerk or try and hurt somebody. I'm just a physical wrestler. That's the sport. That's how I've always wrestled. And that's how D1 wrestlers wrestle. I mean, it's, it's come on, man. And just curious, when you go to Brazil

next week, I know I saw you say, hey, it was just my dad and my brother who had my back. against, you know, his whole crew, are you going to come with more people this time to have your back? Dude, shout out to my dad, man. Shout out to my dad and my brothers. You know, as soon as that happened, my 60-year-old dad man was on that man in a split second, freaking push over the Armenian guys.

And then he saw I was okay at the time. Bro, it's so funny. There's like this slow-mo video on Instagram where my dad's running over to Armand. He sees I'm okay. after he pushes a guy. He's looking. He sees Armin. He's running over to Armand. He drops an elbow on him. And then he got a couple of hits. And, dude, this video is like, it's great. But also, like, my brother, too, my brother pulled the guy, the guy that jumped me. My older brother

pulled him off me, put him in a chokehold. Then he started getting hit by other guys, so he let him go. And my brother got up to fight the guys. And the guys threw up their hands. Like, it wasn't them that hit him, but we watched it all and could see who it was. But they tried to act like it wasn't him. Then my little brother's over there fighting guys for me. That's one thing about my family, bro. When one of us is fighting, there's no thought. It's straight to action. When one of us is fighting, we're all fighting. And, you know, to me, that's the most beautiful thing of the night. Not to mention, bro, my mom was out on the mat. Like, I fucking love my family, dude. That's the most beautiful moment for me that night is just

being out there with my family brawling. Like, dude, we stick together. We ride for each other. and one of us fight, we all fight, and I think that's a beautiful thing. And I'll say this, I give respect to the Armenians because I know that's the same way they are. And I think that's great. I think that's how family should be. And, you know, I know Armenian guys, Armenian guys are great guys, man. They fight for their people, and I got to respect that. Are you rolling even deeper in Rio?

Are you bringing the whole family and then some? No, man, actually, dude, my phone was blowing up this morning. So many people were saying, oh, they're going to jump you, this and that, don't go. But, dude, I'm not worried about it. I'm going to go there. I'm going to get paid. But no, I'm not going to bring my family because I don't want to get them involved in anything. If anything does go down, I don't want them to be there.

Does it give you any pause? I mean, Armin yesterday was saying Hamzaa wanted to, Hamzaa Chamaev wanted to fly down and get involved in things. Like these are some, you know, these are some scary dudes, some tough guys. Yeah, I mean, these guys These guys are legit They're badass, bro But I mean, what do you want to do To fight me?

Like, okay, I'm not afraid to get hit I'm not afraid to get choked out Like, that doesn't scare me Like, I'm not bothered by it Can you beat me up? Cool, if you can beat me up, you can beat me up Like, I mean Do you feel like there's a bullseye on you?

You know, I think that I put a target on my back With the take me now and get $1,000 bro, I go to a party I go out anyway, where and it's like people are just always trying to wrestle me. I've 100% put a target on my back. People want that thousand.

With the match with Armand, I mean, I don't know what if people want to fight me because of that or what it is. But, I mean, that's on them. I don't feel in any type of way about it really. Like I said, I don't really have bad blood with Armin. You know, I'm a fan of his. I don't mind. But if somebody wants to fight me over that, like,

okay, try and fight me. If you can beat me up, you can beat me up. But, you know, like, it is what it is. Does the challenge end if someone ever takes you down? No, man, I don't think the challenge will ever end. I got to remember where I come from and how I got to this point. And, you know, that was by to take me down and get a $1,000 challenge. And people enjoy that.

I don't think people want me to stop that. And the reason I'm doing that is to promote the sport of wrestling. I think I've done about, I think I'm probably in the top 95% of people that promote the sport of wrestling, right? There's not too many people that promote it better than me. I've brought a lot of eyeballs to wrestling and that's why Raff was interested in me. That's why they want to work with me. And it's what I love to do. I'm so blessed and grateful to be able to promote the sport I love and make it a job, dude.

I'm so grateful for my life and the opportunities I have, but to be able to do something that I love and make a living off of it, Not a lot of people have that. I'm so blessed. It seems like life is going well. I do want to ask you one thing, some people in the chat asking, they want to see you against Pat Downey. Are you interested in that? You know, Pat Downey's been a hater of mine for a long time.

He's really trying to get some attention from me. But you know what? That's just a guy that he's irrelevant. He's not relevant to me. That guy doesn't have a big enough name to get my attention. Like I told you earlier, I'm going after people with big names. I'm trying to get these superstars.

Pat Downey's a nobody. He may be good at wrestling, okay. But dude, I don't really care. I'm going after these big names. I'm trying to do it all. It would be a waste of time for me, to be honest with you. Other than Armin, is there a dream opponent for you in the either, you know, the $1,000 takedown challenge or RIF?

Who would be like the step up for you? Who would be that guy? You know, I don't really have anybody in mind right now. Some people were talking about maybe Dylan, I'm not too familiar with him. I was just told he's a jiu-jitsu guy. I don't really know too much about him. But dude, I'll let the names get brought to me and the one with the most attention is always the one I'm going to choose. That would be something as well. He does have a fall. He's quite notorious in the grappling world, in the jiu-jitsu world. Right on. Yeah. Final thing for you, any message for Armin? Anything you'd like to say to him?

Yeah, man, hey, I'm still, you never invited me to fight. You said I'm not about it. I'm 100% about it. Anything I got to do to get my lick back, to get a punch off him, excuse me, to get a punch on him. I'm down for it, brother. Let's make it make sense. Let's find an organization that'll cover it. And yeah, man, I'll say this. If I land a nice clean punch, he may be in trouble. I know he's the better fighter, but, you know, in a fight, anything could happen. and you know I'm not afraid of anything so let's find an organization let's make this fight happen and let's get to it georgio thank you appreciate it very much great to meet you and good luck next week in rio thank you brother god bless take care i appreciate you having me there he is georgio pulis who is going up against armitz ruiken apparently in uh eight days time although he did say there's a few things left there's a few things left that need to be uh addressed so let us see Let us see if they figure it out. This is a fact, I got to say, you know, I was talking about this earlier in the day actually with Pizzi.

And it's like, yeah, you know, there is some mundane stuff going on. But this shit is fun. I don't know about you guys. But I think this stuff is fun. Now, of course, Armantarukian is a UFC commodity. Armantirikian is a guy that the UFC, you know, built. We know him because of the UFC. We care about him because of the UFC.

part of his persona over the past, you know, year or so has been, hey, we want him to get a title shot, all that stuff and more. So people care about Armin because of his affiliation with UFC. The UFC could, I suppose, conceivably put a stop to all of this, and I get that. So he is no doubt a byproduct of their machine. That being said, these side quests, these fun things are fun. And he's fun. And Georgia's selling it.

And he's fun too. I do wish, if I'm R-AF, I wish that the next time these two guys touch each other, because in the art of pro wrestling, the touch, like, they kept Hogan and Andre the Giant apart for a year because everyone just wanted to see them lock up. They wanted the touch. And when you delay that touch, people want it more. And so the fact that they're doing it again eight days later in a different organization feels like the next time they meet, if in fact they do meet at RAF or any other place,

it feels like it will lose some of that luster. But I guess, you know, get paid, get paid. Unless they ramp up the stakes again. Unless this gets crazy. Like, could you imagine if these guys don't touch each other and R.A.F. books it for May. That's a mega. I mean, like, that is mega.

Can I be honest? Yeah. Attention spans are short. I think it'd be old news by then. I think people would forget. That's only two months from now. Three months from now. We will not be talking about it.

this in two or three months. We won't be talking about it in three weeks. You think so? Yeah. Well, depends how the rematch goes. Yeah. Yeah, attention spans move quick, man. All right.

I think they need to build it off. You don't think, you don't, if you're a Chad and Izzy R-A-F, you're not pissed about this? I'm telling Giorgio, who seems more like interested in the attention part than the actual competition part, make it, make it count. And let's, let's get the third one over here. That's it.com. He did say one interesting thing which was, you know, I'm not afraid of anything. Which is? He should be afraid of certain things.

There are things to be afraid of. Oh, also, he also said he's never done jiu-jitsu. Yeah. Be afraid of things, I think. That's just my. My takeaway is that the outcome is somewhat irrelevant for him. It's more about just being on the stage. Sure, sure.

No, but Armitz-Zrugian has shown that like the impulse control, is an issue. I don't know that I want to keep poking that bear, you know? No, no, 100%. Well, I'm locked in. By the way, how do we watch Hype FC? Is that even online? There's no way to find out.

And nobody knows. I can't imagine the UFC would be okay with them sparring on stake or whatever he said, kick, something like that. I cannot imagine that's going to be allowed. Is I mean, with how quickly this rematch was made, like is Armin dialing up a hundred

Campbell and he's just like, y'all good if I go wrestle at hype? I don't know. It's, I, the whole, or is it just like, ask for forgiveness later? Nah, I mean, this stuff is, like, this is one phone call and we, we sort it if we have to, if we have to, if the UFC. I was looking at Pat Downey's Instagram when you asked him about him. There's, there's, there's, there's, there seems to be real beef there on Pat Downey's side. Oh, yeah. Yeah, he does not seem to like him at all. No, no, no, no. Shout to the super chat, I believe, uh, if I'm reading correctly, that came from. Gazeef fanboy, right?

What was that, Frankie? Honor? That's the one. Connor wrote that? I saw that, and so that is a perfect segue to our superman. I'll tell you're about to start a section on Shamele Gatsia. No, no, no.

Jake from Wendy City says, welcome back, a great job in Milan. And fortunate that a false narrative has been made about the U.S. men's against women's hockey. Social media is toxic. He also wrote, but credit to Team Canada as well, looking forward to the... the next time we meet on the ice in

2008. Now it's WBC time and World Cup coming up. What a, okay, so a few things there. What a time for these sort of like international competitions. He's right. World Cup coming up in June. I love the WBC. Back in 09,

my friend Daniel and I actually went to Toronto to watch Canada U.S. I remember working on Classic Now for ESPN Classic for a production company called K2 Pictures. I I remember working in the pit over there. It was a great show.

It was basically a show, a nightly show, where we had had to compare the past to the present, all this stuff. I was a researcher. And I remember Canada against the US in the first iteration of World Baseball Classic, 2006 in Arizona. And I remember Canada winning,

and it was one of like the greatest, you know, this was like Derek Jeter and Ken Griffey Jr., like all the legends playing in the first ever WBC and somehow Canada won. I think it was like some, I think it was like 11 to 9 or something like. that? Does anyone remember this? Jordan for sure would have remembered it. Canada, USA. Two shows in and two Jordan mentions. I mean, Jordan's got good memory. 8-6, Canada.

What did I say? 11 tonight, 8-6. It was incredible. It was our version of the miracle on ice. It was the miracle on the diamond. So, amazing, amazing stuff. And I fell in love with the WBC. I'm a sucker for these international competitions. So, all to say, extremely excited about this tournament starting in a couple days and really they've done an amazing job. Like some of those scenes in Miami, like the Miami Marlins Stadium has never been more hype than when the Dominican Republic is playing or when Puerto Rico is playing. And then when Japan is playing in California or Arizona, like, it's just great. I can't wait.

I can't wait for it. I don't even know. Who's the favorite right now? Who would be the favorite? I think it's, USA. Oh, really? And then Japan behind him and then Dominican Republic as well. I remember, you know, feeling a type of way after doing the Waldo Cortez-A-Costa fight fees and being like,

oh, maybe I'll throw a wage around. Minutes 110 right now, U.S.A. Plus 330, Japan, plus 450 Dominican Republic. Yeah, there it is. Speaking of Salsa Boy. Yeah, what about that shirt? They hooked us up. They hooked us up big time.

Yeah, Coach Javier sent it. Let's see it. Look at that. Look at that. The pirate. How far we've come. How far we've come. The official Salsa Boy Nation flag.

That flies in this control. drawer. That's one of them thick box cut teas, right? That's what the boys want. Yeah, yeah. Anyway, I did want to talk about the first thing in Jake's mention there, because I do want to talk about this. I do really want to talk about. I have some thoughts on this. I thought the Canada USA gold medal hockey game was an incredible game. Obviously, I was working for CBC. I went to this amazing bar in Milan that had become the unofficial home of Team Canada. It was called Blues Canal, and it was in this really nice area. And for some reason, some way somehow Canadians flocked to this place and the place just became a hub for all things Canada. Anytime there was a big event, performance match, discipline, whatever that involved Canada.

Everyone was there. And so we went there on the Saturday, so the day before, and we checked it out. And they were all there for the men's gold medal curling match. And the owners were all wearing Canadian gear, Expos hat, people had gifted them. And so it was amazing. And so we didn't get into the, CBC had a certain allotment of tickets. We didn't get into the gold medal game.

So we went back there to film our final episode and do like a time lapse and this is how people reacted and this is what it was like. And people were distraught. It was all Canadians. There were a couple of brave Americans there, but for the most part, they were distraught.

I was upset only because our show, look, I was rooting for Canada. There's no doubt about them. But I have talked about. to America. My kids are American. I've been living in the United States for 25 years. I'm not saying I was rooting for America. There is no doubt about that. I wanted Canada to win the game. But I was not,

I didn't feel I was as upset. I was upset because our show was infinitely worse because Canada lost. But I do think that it's good for the game. I do think that it's good for hockey when the U.S. is doing well. When there's a rivalry, I think the Four Nations was amazing. I think this was amazing. I'm a fan of the Hughes

brothers. Jack plays for the Devils. He's been a great story. My cousin works for the Devils. Like, there's a lot there that was like, all right, this is good. The stuff with Johnny Goodrow was unbelievable. I thought it was so classy. And that was my take on the American team. A lot of the people that I was working with are like, oh, these guys, we don't like them, this, that, the Kachuk brothers, all that. Like, I don't find them to be as unlikable as people make them out to be. And I think that came across with how they treated the Goodro family and bringing out the Jersey and then bringing

out his kids on the ice. And so it seems like in the aftermath, like people are going insane. 26 million people watched. What a moment. It's on a Sunday morning. There's a snowstorm in the Northeast. And then all of a sudden you start to see these clips of them in the locker room with Cash Patel, with them on the phone, with the President of the United States, Donald Trump. And then I was just, I was I was blown away by how quickly people turned on them, by how quickly people tried to villainize them. And quite frankly, I don't think it was fair. I don't think it was fair. I think it was fair. I think, people have to understand that these men had just accomplished a dream. There's a, there's a, there's a, there's a, there's a, there's a letter that has been revealed that jack Hughes wrote to himself in 2019 where he was like writing a letter to his future self and to his brothers and he said maybe one day we'll represent our country and maybe one day, maybe for lucky enough, we'll win a gold medal. This is a dream for any athlete and in particular for an American hockey player, team USA had not won a gold medal since 1980, since 1980. It was that. It was that.

long 46 years since the miracle on ice, right? And so these guys are going crazy. These guys are having the time of their lives. Even if Cash Patel walks in there, who knows, no one has revealed how he even got in there. But like, you think these guys are going to be like, get out? No, they're on cloud nine. They're on like cloud 47. They're having the time of their lives. They're going crazy. They just won in overtime against their arch rival, the golden gold, the team that beat them in overtime a year ago. They're going apesh. They couldn't give a fuck. They could not care. And then all of a sudden the music stops And they put the president on the phone

And you're standing there And he makes a bad joke He makes an inappropriate joke He makes a distasteful joke He puts down the women And they're standing there And my read on it was like That was the awkward laugh

That when you're in a group Someone makes a bad joke And you're just like And that was it I didn't hear anyone say like Down with the women They suck, we hate them In fact

The theme throughout the games Was that the men wanted to be on par with the women. Those men, those NHL USA players, stayed at the athlete's village. They didn't go elsewhere. They didn't go into a hotel.

Some of the Canadian players were at Airbnb's, at hotels. These guys stayed in like the little tiny dorms on those crappy beds. And they wanted to be with the women. They supported the women. They went to the women's games.

They ate with them at the cafeteria. They did all this stuff. And then you have all these media members who probably didn't even watch the game, come out and just absolutely kill these guys. kill these guys because they laughed at this bad joke that they didn't even say. They did nothing but support the women every step of the way. And then because the president, the music stops makes a bad joke, an ill-timed, distasteful joke,

and they awkwardly laughed. That's the way I read it and digested it. They're the bad guys. They're the ones that you want to kill. They're the ones that you want to cancel. And then, and then the American players who play for Canadian teams go back to their club teams, senators, Maple Leafs, and they're being berated by the Canadian media. And I'm like, listen, you guys may be upset that Team Canada lost, but this whole approach

of making these guys into the bad guys because they stood there and laughed because they had the audacity to go to the White House, I get it, I get it. Trump makes stupid comments about the 51st state and taking over and the tariffs and all that stuff. Every single one of those guys was on Cloud 9. They were invited to the White House. this may be the only time that they ever win anything. They may never win a Stanley Cup.

They may never win a gold medal. They may never win. Austin Matthews is never coming close to anything as long as he's part of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Let's just call a spade a spade. And so they have the audacity to go to the White House. They're trying to be together as a team. They're partying in Miami, all that stuff.

And then they come back to their club teams and they're just being like berated. But you laughed. But you laughed. But you had the goal to laugh at the joke. Give me a break. These guys, if you're upset that they beat team, Canada, just say it. But this nonsense, like, oh, we should get rid of Austin Matthews because

he laughed at the joke or because he went to the White House, you're out of your minds. If anything, Austin Matthews should ask for a trait. Brady Kachuk should ask out of Ottawa. And if you follow anything about Brady Kachuk, you know that he's been a model citizen, that he loves Ottawa, that he's given back to the community, that he's been there for the community, that he's never asked to leave, that he's never asked to be on the Panthers like his brother, with his brother, like he's not that guy. And they're just like berating him for what? For beating, it was nonsense. So I'm happy you ask that question, Jake,

because I wanted to get it off my chest. I think it was pathetic. I think it was embarrassing. I think that the Canadian media needs to chill out and do better. You don't like Trump. You don't like his policies. Fine. Don't take it out on them.

They did nothing wrong. And in fact, if you followed them, you would know that they supported every single one of those women. And I love what they're doing now. And I don't know if it's PR, but they're showing up on SNL with the women. They're showing up on Fallon yesterday,

Hughes Brothers with Hillary Knight. Like, I watched all those games. They were there. And if they weren't there, they were talking about them. They were bigging them up. They were trying to give them support. Like, they're not those guys. And I thought it was pretty sad to try to make them into those guys.

Pretty sad. And honestly, like, that was an incredible sporting moment in American history. We should celebrate that. And it's just like Mike Tariko said afterwards, which I thought he said brilliantly. Like, our world is very divided. The one thing that always brings us together, no matter what, you'll be at a game, you'll high five something. someone, you'll fall in love with your seatmate that you've never met before because you've

just gone on this journey that is called sports and you're all just kind of rooting for the same thing. You know nothing about this guy. You know nothing about his politics, his religion. You don't care. You just know that this guy supports the team that you support. And that's the beauty. It's the only thing left on this planet that can bring us together. We've never been more divided as a country and as a world.

Sports is the only thing that brings us together. And just like that, we try to. ruin it. As a society, as a nation, we tried to ruin it because we let politics get involved. Silly, silly, silly, silly, pathetic. They're not those guys. And I was disappointed to see the way that they were attacked. And I hope that people get over that because I don't think it was fair. I honestly don't. What else, Frankie? What else? Trick is versus Usman going to be good. Yeah. Thank you, Peter. Or whatever your name is. What else, Frankie? What else? Ariel, any news on the GFL got to protect that? No.

Yes, as a matter of fact, I do. I just want to let you know that I've received a text message, breaking news. I got a text message from On Air Jordan just now. And he says, I do remember heartbreaking stuff. You see, he doesn't let me down. I know he was watching in 2006. What was he? 14.

On Air is he's tending to his growing family. We miss him, we love him. Obviously, Dan's doing a phenomenal job of filling in in his absence. One day, we're all going to be one big happy family. None of this revolving door stuff. event, that's not what I wanted to bring up here. I was looking at my phone. I got a text from Darren Owen, the founder of the GFL today. I don't know if that's why this gentleman is asking me. He sent me a press release. Do you want me to read it? You have to.

GFL sports and entertainment launch it. Do you want to just play the music like slowly underneath? Yeah. Launches as publicly traded MMA league introducing a new ownership model for athletes and fans. partners with dealmaker to launch $5 million equity raise and announces senior leadership and advisory appointments. Okay. They announced that their, it's public market law. Okay, what does this mean, Frank? Are you smart enough to understand this?

I'm not. I'm more concerned about this song covering up this important news. No, this is apropos. Publicly traded company, GFL. So what, can I buy stock in the GFL now? What is the OTC? What is that? I know that as the original tribal chief.

What is OTC? Is that the NASDAQ? What is that? Who's to check? Does anyone know anything about this? Over the counter? Over the counter. It says that their OTC name is GFLE.

The bar is phenomenal. Who's it? Jeffrey Pollock is announced as joining the... It says here, over-the-counter stocks are securities traded directly between parties via a broker-dealer network rather than on centralized exchanges like the NYSC or NASDA.

What do you think I was talking? Medicinal? Senior advisor to help guide the GFL strategy, governance, and growth. I don't know. I don't know. What does this all mean? Is this a thing?

True or false, guys, true or false? There will be a GFL event this year. You know, I think I asked that, right? Didn't I ask that on the prediction show? Probably. I'm setting the line at 0.5 events for 2026. Under. All right, well, there you have it.

What else, Frankie? What else? Hey, Armin, his money. Oh, yeah. What did you guys think of that? He was trying to get me on a technicality there, huh? In my opinion, if the guy won the match, what he did afterwards, not affect the result of the match. He had a point, though, about what point? If you get

DQed, then you don't win. Yeah, but you can't get DQed. You can't get disqualified from the match when the match is over. Of course you can. No, you can't. They could have doled out a disqualification there. After the match? Yes. The match is over. He competed, he competed and he completed a mission. The sporting event is over. Now, his behavior afterwards, you can punish him for, but that can't affect, like, how long is that? How long is that? process. Like, how long of a window do you get? So, like, if he's walking down the street the next day and he

punches someone to the face, can they decue him? What are we talking about? No, as the match was ending, he attacked it. But the horn sounded. He waited till the end. We've seen changes made to fight. Yeah, you can

change a fight after the, you can change a result after them. You can change a result after, but not for actions that happened after, unless it's like a drug test I'm talking about. But he's saying that he should be decued for punching him after. I think that the match happened. We know who won. We know who was the better man. He won.

Fair and Square. Anyway, something tells me he's not paying him his money. What else, Frankie? What else? If Georgia was right, how come Habib wasn't decued? Habib. I guess he's saying after the match he did something? Oh, against... Oh, Connor.

I mean, there you go. There you go. Yeah, he never got his hand raised, right? He never got his hand raised, right? He never got his hand raised because Dana told him all to leave. But he won the match. He won the fight. Did he not? Nobody's arguing again.

I think Harmon won the match. I'm just saying. Armin won the match. They could have disqualified him. I don't know their rules. Then he should pay Armin. Had he been de-kewed, like, I would not have been shocked. As the match was ending, he rained an elbow down.

I believe it was after the bell. So I think he's well within his rights. He's in the finishing sequence. No, no, it was after the bill. It was after the bell. What else, Frankie? What else? I guess God delivered him an ass kicking.

I guess God delivered him and ass kicking. Is he talking about, sometimes it's hard to understand the context here. It's because it was in the middle of the... Okay. There was a shout out to God. Someone said God delivered him. Oh, like was that for DDP? I don't know.

No, it's for Georgia. Was it for Jan? It doesn't make sense. What else? What else? Bro sounds like he's got testosterone of a soybean. Gosh. Now, who's this about?

That's for you. to decide. I think it's about me. It's all right. Okay. What else, Frankie? What else? Georgia is chill, refreshing and honest and is willing to go out of Brazil, out of his lane. Respect. USC is built on USA. It's built on men like him. Keeping up the good work. Blessed is right, sir. Shout out, Frankie. B I-I-I-T. What's B-I-A-T? Oh, B-I-T-B, maybe? Yeah, I mean, I enjoyed him. I enjoyed him. Any chance the UFC signs him? Zero. Could you imagine? Not that far off from Pat Cummins, by the way.

Remember that? Why? Pat Cummins had three fights. Yeah. Three more than that. Cap Combs had three fights. We're going from Armin. We're begging Armin to get a title shot, and then we're getting...

Sidequest. If you're going to do side... Or at the very least, do it on UFC BJJ. If we're going to make a comparison, it's CM Punk, it's not Pat Cummins. That would be the equivalent. Okay, there is. Okay. Thank you. sign them up yeah i don't i don't think that's happening in

bigger fight right now armand versus i don't want to say obviously illi whatever whatever name you're going to say it's that one that's armin versus ilia for the belt or armin versus jolk almond versus volk for the one 45 yeah yeah armand versus volk is no on that one i'll go georgia there you what no i'm substantially bigger not being serious obviously this is insane work zero chance he's in the u.c when when he was

is off-camera talking to somebody and like, when are we talking to Dana? I was thinking to myself, never. Not one time, Martin talked to him. DM? Maybe to get tickets to watch Armands fight. Yeah. Oh, what else, Frankie? What else? I'm a day one fan, but you were not respecting his answer to who was the official winner. There are no street rules

when a ref is involved. I couldn't disagree more. There's a match. The match is over. Who won the match? Don't give me the technicality of, oh, the referee now decides or Chad Bronzy. No, who won the match? If you and I play one-on-one, all right, basketball, and I beat you 11 to 1, which let's be honest, that's going to happen. And I'm talking to the figurative view, all right, the world, okay?

Who me? And then afterwards, I punch you in the balls. Did I win the basketball game or did I not? Were there rules that allowed me to disqualify you, then maybe. I don't know. If you want to know who's the better basketball player, I beat you in basketball, take it like a man and move on. I don't think there was a debate about whether Armin is a better competitor than him.

The question is, should this man pay him? Armand beat him in a wrestling match. Forget all the nonsense. That was just the wrestling. Not the takedown, right? It was just a wrestling. It was just a wrestling. Didn't they have a takedown bet?

It was all very confusing. The answer is no. Because I kind of side with Georgio because by the rules he didn't get afforded a takedown. It was just to win. But also, it was just to win. Armand doesn't need the money and should not collect them. on this. He doesn't... I love the way he was like re-racking it. Play that again. Play that again

for us. Yeah, yeah. He's producing the show. The guy's in the content business. He was killing it. I thought it was great. I thought it was great. What else, Frankie? What else? Notts Forrest Bar and Milan. Did you check it? You know what? Actually, someone reached out to me about that, but it was on my last day. What's so funny? Why did he read it like that? I don't know. Not's Forrest Bar. Did you check it?

Someone told me about it, but I did not know about it until the last day, so it was too late. but I would have. I was only from Thursday to Monday, and I left on Tuesday. So didn't have a lot of time. But if I was in, I would have Googled it and seen if I was close. I would have checked it up before. How random as well that it would be there. But in the end, I did not go.

What else, Frankie? What else? ASI just bought Dagonet. What is Dagenham? I think a football club. Let's see. Oh, is a town in East London, Least London? Well, let's type in his name.

KSI becomes shareholder in non-league Dagenham, which I feel like is like Dagenham or Degennam. And Redbridge, British Entertainer, KSai has become a shareholder. The London-based YouTuber, TV personality, whose real name has joined the National League Southside as a share. Everyone's getting in, huh? What about Wrexham, man? They're really getting close.

Could you imagine if Wrexham's in the Premier League and force isn't next year be crazy well good for KSI that's great shout out to him and true or false

we see KSI versus Jake Paul before we're all dead false you know false shit ain't happening what else Frankie all right lastly for Ariel being a solid reporter and making

Georgia admit he's taken down thus owning Armin his money so does he own the money because of the takedown or because of the win I don't understand Understand? Who's the check?

The rules of engagement in. Who is to check? Now, I've changed my mind. This should be in the UFC. Yeah, hell yeah. I would love that. Golly. What was that, frankly?

I do have a question. So he's saying normally it's $1,000 if he could take me down. But then he was saying, but because we were in a match. Who knows? No, he was saying he wasn't taken down. He said he hit the ground, but he got taken down. He didn't secure the takedown to get the point. I don't know what he's talking about four points this, one point that.

Yeah, that's wrestling. You don't know wrestling. No, a wizard? Yeah, of course. You got to do the wizard. You got to roll on your back. Oh, here's Henry Suhudo. Armand and Georgia need to run it back. This feud is trending worldwide, and it needs to be settled.

I heard about this admission grappling match, but I'd love to see Armand, the jury-compete in RIF again, too. The first one was close, but not exactly clean. All right. There you have it. That was the last one, Frankie? Well, technically another one came in. If I had a dollar for every time this guy said he's a businessman, I'd be a businessman.

Hey, listen. GDP. I did want to mention one quick thing. I've just seen this, courtesy of our good friends over at the UFC. Remember when Max was trying on those gloves before the press conference or after the press conference and everyone got excited about it?

Well, it's called Gloves for Good. UFC launches the Gloves for Good program to raise funds and awareness for athlete charities. So the UFC announced today the launch of its Gloves for Good program designed to align with athletes to create custom designed one-of-one branded gloves to raise funds and awareness for the charity of their choice. This program will be offered to athletes each year who are named the recipient of the Forrest Griffin Community Award, an accolade which

recognizes a UFC athlete for their exceptional volunteer and charity work. The program will launch in partnership with UFC BMF champion Max Holloway, who headlines this weekend, 326. And Holloway was the recipient of the award in 2021. So he's getting a chance to do it. And the gloves were designed by celebrity artist Aunt Kai, and they highlight elements of Hawaii, Max's home state with the flowers. They're beautiful gloves. Fans can enter to win the gloves by donating between $10 to $500 at Alt True, a global fundraising platform fans who donate will be entered to win the gloves and in all expenses paid trip to Holloway's next fight. How about that? Nice little thing there. That's cool. Yeah. Oh, I see. They posted

I should have sent this earlier, but I just saw it. Nice little picture here of the gloves signed by Max Holloway. Really nice, man. These are like the nicest UFC gloves I've ever seen.

With the floral, you know? Let them wear them. Yeah, why not? Make them. Let's do it. Yeah, that would be nice. Throw them on. Throw them on.

Any update on the shorts? I know everyone gets all excited about the shorts. No, we got custom shorts already for both these guys. Okay, we've seen that. It'll be their standard. Oh, yeah, can't wait.

Yeah, the floral. All right, friends. that's it tomorrow I want to let you know tomorrow is on the nose day so a lot will be covered there Arielhuwani.substack.com the place to be to send in your questions the post is already up

and so I'm looking forward to that also areaahawani.com very very close to new merch guys and I can tell you uncrown merch is coming uncrown merch is coming to arrowhawani.com Yeah that's right

and I'm excited about that we're even going to bring in some merch to the studio and give it to the guest. Remember when Habib always used to wear the MMA fighting shirt? Does anyone remember that? Of course, the little the blue one? That Esther design he came in studio

and then for like two years he would always be seen wearing the MMA fighting shirt. And we would always crack up about it. So perhaps we could get that same thing going with the uncrowned merch as well. For now though, oh my God, why is that so loud? What happened? Yo, what happened?

No, seriously, what happened? I'm trying to know. Okay. Today is Tuesday, by the way. Today is Tuesday, which means it's... Whoa, whoa, what happened there? Frank, what's going on? Frank, is everything okay?

Fixing it. It's uncrown wrestling show day. New episode dropping today. Can't wait to hear what the solomonster. Jason Solomon has to say about elimination change. chamber, Danhausen. I think Rick is driving the Danhausen bandwagon now. I think he loves him.

Danhausen. Love it. Monday Night Raw last night, the week that wasn't pro wrestling. Love when it drops. Of course, inside boxing is every Sunday and Tuesday as well. So looking forward to... What did I say? Tuesday and Thursday.

Sunday and Thursday is on Crown Wrestling Day. There's a lot going on. I also want to let you know that we're working towards all the shows. We'll soon have their own podcast feed. So everything will still be on my feed. the area of Hawaii show feed but if you're just an uncrown wrestling show fan subscribe to that one too

support what we're doing there if you're a BITB fan you'll be able to describe there the crack inside boxing has its feed as well this is all part of our effort to grow and grow and grow and grow and grow new uncrowned film dropping next week as well

so we're cranking there working on another one as we speak so life is good life is good very excited and oh by the way I want to wish everyone out there a happy forum If you're out there celebrating, have your hamintoshan, read your McGilla, do your Gregger thing. Down with Hamon. Shout out to Esther.

Back tomorrow. Same time, place, tell us, I'm out of here.