The Ariel Helwani Show - Dustin Poirier, Ilia Topuria, Kayla Harrison, Renato Moicano, Ade Oladipo, today’s news

Episode Date: October 15, 2024

UFC featherweight champion Ilia Topuria (31:51) discusses his UFC 308 title defense against Max Holloway, why the BMF belt isn't on the line, his plan for Holloway in the first 10 seconds of the bout, why he bought his own BMF belt, his viral reaction to Holloway's knockout of Justin Gaethje, why Alexander Volkanovski was a much tougher challenge than Holloway, Conor McGregor's comments about him, challenging Islam Makhachev at lightweight, and more.Renato Moicano (01:03:22) reflects on his UFC Paris win over Benoit Saint Denis, his viral shoulder injury, Paddy Pimblett, Dan Hooker, his first trip to Europe, world history, taxes, why he wanted to finish Saint Denis with a guillotine, getting beaten up by Dustin Poirier, the UFC rankings, and more.Kayla Harrison (01:32:47) reacts to her UFC 307 win over Ketlen Vieira and dishes on her back-and-forth with UFC champ Julianna Peña, Peña's callout of Amanda Nunes, why PFL executives continue to take shots, going to the hospital during her latest cut down to 135 pounds, Cris Cyborg vs. Larissa Pacheco, homeschooling her children, and more.Dustin Poirier (02:01:29) unveils his plans for the final chapter of his career and discusses why he's 95% certain he'll be able to get it done, not wanting to wait, what's keeping him around, his recent run-in with Conor McGregor, the possibility of a Justin Gaethje trilogy fight, rematching Dan Hooker, and more.Ade Oladipo (02:43:36) joins for a sneak peek of Uncrowned and DAZN's new boxing show "Ariel x Ade," plus riffs on Beterbiev vs. Bivol, Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul, the possibility of a rematch for Daniel Dubois and Anthony Joshua, the saga of Conor Benn, Kendrick Lamar vs. Drake, and more.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Erya Tawadi Show! Back in your life! On this Tuesday, October 15th, 2020. And 24, hello again everyone! I sure hope you're doing well, welcome back to our first Tuesday edition of the program. We have done Tuesday editions in the past, and yes it is pronounced choo-choo-choo-choo-choo-sday. We have done some of these in the past, they have been one-offs, they have been special editions if you will. They have been, you know, the Nate Diaz, the Francis Ngannous of the world.

But now this is a thing. This is a thing. Day one has come and gone. We are continuing to tweak. We are continuing to make changements and adjustments and things like that. Is changement a word? I'm still not sure. I don't think it is. No, no, no.

Also, my audio is a little bit different, I have to say. And that means we're fully back because it's sounding different in my ear. I don't know what that is, Frank. Good or bad? Worse, worse, I would say. Oh, okay. Yes, worse, worse, worse. There's just something like echoey in my ear at the moment.

But, you know, these are the things that you're doing when you're working through all the new adjustments, the kinks and whatnot. And so here we are on a Tuesday. This is our regular cadence. Like I said, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, you're getting the A8 show, this show, the Ariel Hawani show. Thursdays, you're getting the boys in the back led by GC and New York Rick and other guests as well. All pop in from time to time as well.

Plus on Fridays, you get the crack with Pete C. Carroll. And what a debut for him on yesterday's program. Every day on this YouTube channel, live at 1 p.m. Eastern. Also, every show goes up on our podcast feed. There's the shows right there. In addition to that, you got the watch parties. You got the post-fight shows. You've got Helwani Vision debuting on Saturday

for the Battle of the Giants pay-per-view exclusively on DAZN pay-per-view. You've got Ariel and Ade debuting next Tuesday and more on that later in today's program. It's a full slate of activity and in addition to all of that we've launched the new website uncrowned.com

Great recap as far as Monday Night Raw is concerned on the website up right now by my guy, Penn Shamrock. A great, great story on our love of all things violence by the brilliant Elliot Wurzel. We've gotten stories from Chuck Mendenhall and Ben Foulkes and Cam Hawkins and, of course, the one and only Keith Ideck. We've gotten a bunch of stuff up there already. Drake Riggs with a great debut as well yesterday on the program. Actually, he debuted a couple of days prior.

But nevertheless, my guy Darshan of everything. I mean, everything is up there. Look at this site. It's a beautiful array of things. And I'm just so thrilled. I'm so thrilled that the plane is now in the sky. I've used this analogy many a time. PZ always makes fun of me. We see the comments, we see the suggestions for tweaks,

but it was Action Bronson, actually, if I may, who back in 2019, when I first met him, told me, I listened to WFAN, or I listened to WFAN. He said, every day you come on, you got Mike and the Mad Dog, you got Joe Bonino and all the guys. There needs to be something like this for combat. And I hope he doesn't mind me saying it really warmed my heart today. He said, you're doing it. You're doing the WFAN. WFAN is a 24-hour sports radio station, which was the first of its kind, and it originated here in New York City. And he said, you're doing it. You are doing it. And it's great to have you on a Tuesday and a Wednesday and the boys on Thursday and all the stuff that's coming as well. So this

is great. I love it. I feel like I have a real nine-to-five job now, and I could come in and do my thing and talk to all of you. And you know, when I left the show yesterday, my dear mother, who was also on yesterday's program, and again, thank you to the guys in the back for putting that together. That was a highlight for me. And it was great to see my family there and some of my close friends in the business. It kind of took my breath away. I was very, I don't know. I don't know how to describe how that stuff makes me feel, but I was very, I don't know. I don't know how to describe how that stuff makes me feel, but I was very appreciative. And the question she asked me was, and I believe she's watching right now. Hello. The question she asked me was, can you do this tomorrow and then Wednesday?

And yes, of course I can do it. And I will happily do it. And I've always wanted to do it this way. So don't worry about us. Don't worry about the workload. We're figuring it out we're getting better each and every day and I'm just so happy to be here

I'm really really so happy to be here and doing this with great partners at Yahoo everything has been great so hopefully you're watching us on the new YouTube channel if the stream is good for you if we're looking a little bit better thank you to our friends at LDG for coming in today Alex, Ariel, everyone doing such great work.

Give us a thumbs up in the chat. Hit the subscribe. Hit the bell. Do all the things that the kids like to do on YouTube. Now, as far as today's program is concerned, ah, you didn't think we'd be able to top yesterday's program. Well, guess what? Doubt us once, but never again.

Okay, that's it. You get one, and now it's out the window. Today's program, super stacked once again on this Tuesday edition of the program. Back into the show, my good friend Adi Oladipo of DAZN, of TalkSport, will join us from Riyadh. He's there for the Six Kings tennis tournament, which goes down later on this week, part of Riyadh's season. But we've got to talk about Saturday. We've got to talk about some new things that have transpired since Saturday, since that event, better be a bivouac. This is the individual, by the way, who I think oh so highly of and who I'll be doing a show with every Tuesday

at 5 p.m. Eastern, 10 p.m. UK time, originating live on DAZN, on the app, on DAZN.com, on their YouTube channel. And then you can see select highlights on our YouTube channel and on uncrowned.com. There it is, Ariel and Ade, it debuts a week from today, but you're getting a mini version of the program when he joins us at around 345. Prior to that, at three o'clock, El Diamante, Dustin Poirier will join us. Can't wait for that. Always love talking to him. What a gent, what a guy he is. And just, you know, an absolute legend of the sport who continues to tease us. Uno mas, dos mas.

What's going on with Dustin Poirier? He'll join us at 3 o'clock at 2.30. One of my very favorites in the game, Kayla Harrison. She wasn't happy that I had Juliana on yesterday. Well, we give her an opportunity to I had Juliana on yesterday well we give her an opportunity to respond to Juliana on the program 2.30 she'll join us

the uncrowned queen she said it she said it herself I like it I liked where she was going I pretended like she said it in honor of us there she is

Kayla Harrison Hinata Moikano will join us at 2 o'clock. Monty Moikano. And yes, back-to-back-to-back ATT guests on the program. Moikano, Harrison, Poirier. And we'll kick things off in about 23 minutes from now

with the reigning, defending UFC featherweight champion, the one and only El Matador, Ilya Toporia, joining us live from Abu Dhabi, live from the United Arab Emirates. He'll join us to talk, of course, about his October 26 title defense against one Max Holloway, the Blessed Express. What a show. I love today's show. I'm pumped. Yesterday's show was a lot of fun. My favorite moment other than my family joining us, other than the friends, the surprise Dion Dawkins, and shout out to them Buffalo Bills for the big win. I met life commiserations, of course, to on-air Jordan, the Jets fan. They're, you know, valiant effort. They did get Devontae Adams today. So congrats.

I didn't want him anyway. Just if I'm being honest, I didn't want him. We don't need a WR1. We really don't need one of those. We do need a new kicker, though. In any event, my favorite part of yesterday's program had to have been the spontaneous reunion of sorts between one Tom Aspinall and Pete DiCaro. This is what you're getting on today's, excuse me, on this program. This is the kind of stuff that you'll get, the kind of surprises, the kind of fun. You're seeing the fighters in a different light. I don't need to tell you about what we do, but this was great. And I keep watching the clip over and over again and i keep laughing because it was uh it was just so fun in case you missed it and you can watch the whole thing on our youtube channel right now you can listen to it on our podcast feeds just type in the ariel hawani show

here is that great moment oh i guess you just messaged me a bc carol uh-huh what do you say i'm not telling you that's between me and bc but he's a top man i guess you just messaged me a pc carol uh-huh what do you say i'm not telling you that's between me and bc but he's a top man i like you very much the cheeky he's probably sitting in his chair right now peter is it peter even there he's right look at this fucking he's a part of the show now he's now on the show he's just ready he's ready to go. That was amazing. I loved everything about that. And yes, the boys are here.

All of them are here. And what a debut for Pizzi Carol. And I understand Pizzi's actually wearing the same. Is that possible? You're not wearing the same thing as you were yesterday. You're on a daily show now, Pizzi. You can't do that. No, it's actually a black t-shirt, but it's a different t-shirt.

Okay, because in the back they were telling me, like, hey, he's wearing the same thing, don't be alarmed. It's not a shot of him yesterday. It's a different, it's a different, this is a Ralph Lauren black t-shirt. Yesterday was a Zara one, I believe. Has life changed dramatically since you became a regular fixture on the program? Well, I mean, you only have to look as far as you know saturday night in dublin a-lister at the chase and status gig i mean it's all it's all like does that happen if i'm not on this show i don't think so i don't i don't think i'm getting our guy hooked

you up red carpet oh my god you're joking me i was like i was in the band for a night pick me up pit well i went to meet uh the great Milton Chase. Love him. In his hotel. Picked us up in a limo. Jumped out of the limo straight into the gig, into the green room area, on stage. He actually wanted me

to stand behind him as he was, you know, orchestrating this crowd of thousands of people. But when the lights hit, I actually got a bit of stage fright, so I just stepped off

to the left and chilled out there for the night. But amazing times. You got to be part of the band for a night. I'm actually in the band now. Oh, okay.

Were you singing? I play the triangle. Were you doing that? Have you been rehearsing? Yeah. I can't believe you know all the lyrics. That's insane. I listen to it a lot.

Wait, how many of their shows have you been to? You know what, Frank? Only you would bring that up. Only you would try to make me uncomfortable. Because PT and I both have gone. We're just waiting. That's all. You know, their shows are on very late.

Me and Frank are in the band. Their shows are on very late. I'm an old man. This one started at 1 a.m. Yeah, 1 a.m. I mean, it's tough. It's tough for me. I mean, it's football season.

That's my body clock right now. You know what I mean? Yeah, great, great, great stuff from our Bills. Are the boys there too or are they just being shy today? What's happening? Oh man, we left. We're right here, baby. Yeah. Shout out to Rick. Rick slept here last night. I might as

well at this point. I don't think I've seen anything outside the studio for the last four weeks. Man, working so hard. It's a pleasure. It's a pleasure to be in the foxhole with you guys. Everyone feel good feel good about yesterday yeah what in the books i mean just get the the one off on a good no we got that little emotional ending pizzi and tom aspen i'll have their little laugh giggle fest moment like we hit all the notes i feel like i think so too gc feel good yeah man well we don't know about that. Jeez Louise.

What do you want to say? What do you want to say? We got room for improvement. Yeah, I like that. I like that attitude. That's a good attitude. Fancy football team last night. You just got to, you know, we lost again.

Talk about room for improvement. We're on a three-game losing streak. Start the season hot. PT's already picking out his ring size. We're 3-0. Now we're 3-3. We were almost 3-3, the Bills of Buffalo, but we were able to thwart that threat. By the way, I wanted

to mention this yesterday. I failed to do so. You want to see how far we've come in a very short amount of time? This photo is me and Frank in this room three weeks ago, maybe four tops. Look how far we've come in a very, very short amount of time.

Look at us. Look at how far Frank's come. Yeah, Frank. I mean, these last four weeks he's been in the gym grinding. He's looking svelte since then. My dermatologist says it's going to clear up any day now. You can see it clearing up there, Frank. I think you look great.

You can see it in your eyes, yeah. But look at that. I mean, it's hard to imagine that we've come so far. I mean, we had no connectivity. I mean, we didn hard to imagine that we've come so far. I mean, we had no connectivity. We had no, I mean, we didn't even have this window, for goodness sakes. And look at us now. The window, I mean, people on social media are talking about that. The window has been a thing.

The window is the topic of the chat. Yeah. We got texts about the window. We did. There's polls about the window. There's discussion about whether it's real. No. You might want to review. What is a window? Okay, so it about the window. There's discussion about whether it's real. No. You might want to review.

What is a window? Okay, so it's a window. And there's actually someone in our episode yesterday who timestamped when a bird was seen flying through the window in real time. So thank you to that gentleman. I'm praying a bird smacks up into it. That would be fantastic. Is this a hard play for a window sponsorship? Is this what this is? It wouldn't for a window sponsorship is this what this is you know we're trying to get a window sponsorship i don't know i like it listen window cleaner i have something to tell you guys what if it rains tomorrow you

will see the rain if it snows you will see the snow man for now like this has to be the fifth time you're explaining to us if it if the sun is setting yeah we'll also you shall see the setting of the sun i mean it's just a door to the world what if it gets darker what if it gets if it's actually pitch black you will see the empire state building lit up like the uh like the christmas tree so it's beautiful i just thought you guys would want to know uh guys the beauty about doing a show like this every day is that you can react to news each and every day. Just like you look out a window

and you can see what's out there, you do a daily show, you can react. Is this a new gimmick? Like over-explaining simple things? I'm not sure where we're going with this. No, it's just I want people to understand because when we did the show in Vegas, they didn't understand that that was a one-off. When we did show in Vegas, they didn't understand that that was a one-off.

Got it, got it, got it. We did a part in our dust. They didn't understand what that was. That's fair. So I'm just trying to over, over, what is it, like dummy proof my statements? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Some unfortunate news came through the wire this morning. We did find out that Mike Perry, of course, who has enjoyed a renaissance in BKFC, And really, part of that renaissance is not just the way in which he is fighting, but it's also the way in which it seems he is living his life, right? His family life seems to be in order. He's a father, he's a husband. Multiple years without any controversy, any drama, any incidents of any kind. Well, we found out that unfortunately,

he was arrested on October 12th in Florida on a pair of charges, including driving under the influence. Now, I'm reading this courtesy of our longtime friends at MMA Fighting. Lake County Sheriff's Office records confirm that Perry was arrested by the Claremont Police Department on October 12th, that is Saturday morning, at 1.04 a.m. local time for driving under the influence, along with an offense of refusing to sign a citation requiring a court appearance, both second-degree misdemeanors. It was Perry's first DUI offense, according to arrest records. Perry was released on $1,500 bond later that morning and is scheduled to appear in court on October 30th. The potential penalties for a second degree misdemeanor in the state of Florida include a maximum of 60 days in jail and a fine

of up to $500. In a police report obtained by MA Fighting from the Claremont Police Department, Perry was pulled over after doing approximately 20 miles per hour over the speed limit. According to the officers calibrated speedometer, the reporting officer noted the smell of alcohol coming from the vehicle. According to the report, Perry denied consuming alcohol and was informed his speech sounded slow to which Perry responded that the officer's speech quote unquote was fast. So I spoke to his team and they told me that, you know, he's owning up to it, a mistake. He was with his wife, he was drinking a little bit too much. And, you know, he made this big mistake. And so he is going to have to deal with the repercussions and see how the whole process plays out. So a setback for him, no doubt, 100%. But they are owning up to it.

They understand what they did. They understand how serious something like this can be and how lucky they are that it didn't lead to something even worse. It's a bummer if you are a fan of Mike Perry's because he's had this incredible stretch of good things happening to him and seemed to be in a great spot and space. And so let's see if this is just a, a,

a slip up, a one-off if you will, or you know, a snowball effect of things to come. Hopefully not the latter. Hopefully he learns from this. I also did ask if he had anything planned as of yet, as far as fighting is concerned,

the, the tentative plan seems to be returned in the first quarter of 2025. There's a very interesting fight on the table for his return to BKFC. No, he has not been fired by BKFC as was suggested following his loss to Jake Paul, but that fight not quite done just yet. So stay tuned for that. In addition to that piece of news, we also did get another interesting piece of news from a guy who Mike Perry knows and from a legend of the sport, Donald Cerrone, out of the blue, and maybe not to the surprise of many, posting on social media this morning that he wants, in fact, to come back and that he is planning on coming back. He put together a very nice video showing this all off. I do believe

we have it and we can show some of it without some sound. Yeah, two fights. I retired. I told you I was going to get my hair done. I was going to go on steroids. The number 50 has been sitting in my mind for a while, 50 fights. Transcend the last two fights, take some TRT, some peptides. Now I've got a protocol for all of you people that say, oh, you get on, you get off. Well, I now come off and I have to piss clean. Fight in a few months. So watch this. And then he shows off the moves. So, I mean, fair play to you, Cowboy Cerrone, admitting that he was on TRT, he was on steroids, he did get his hair done, but now he is good to go and he is ready to go. There's Gordon Ryan in the, in the video helping him prepare as well. So Cowboy Cerrone, who, who walked away a few years

ago, now saying that he is planning a comeback, one of the all-time legends and someone who, let's be honest, would be perfect for the world of BKFC, right? I mean, it just seems like he was made for something like that. His last fight, in case you're wondering, July 2nd, 2022 against Jim Miller. And his last win was a win over Eli Quinta in May of 2019. So it has been quite a while. Obviously, he had that big fight against Conor McGregor in 2020, January of 2020. And that didn't go his way. And it ended rather quickly. Now, in addition to that, we get news from Tony Ferguson that he is not done and says that he is too young to retire. Of course, the

UFC can say thank you to both of you for your services, but we are not interested. They could 100% say that. But that did lead to some people saying, well, like, let's just have the two of them fight. Let's just have Tony Ferguson fight Donald Cerrone. And Ferguson told Demetrius Johnson, I'm not retiring. I'm too old to retire. And so that leads me to this question to you boys in the back. Rick, I'll start with you. Any interest in a Tony Ferguson, Donald Cerrone fight in the UFC octagon? At a high level, at a top level, no. But if they are going

to fight, I would like for it to be against each other because that's the lesser of all evils. But like, am I interested in either of their fights right now? Like, not particularly. Like, I feel like they've had incredibly legendary careers don't have anything left like uh left to prove rather or or anything that i need to see from

them happy if both uh were off into the sunset but at the same time if they are going to fight if they if they feel like they are not done and retirement is not in the in the cards against each other to me is a better option than what we see sometimes where they're taking fights against young prospects and what the ufc likes to do and we even see like jose aldo re-signs a contract now he's fighting um mario batista like i don't like those fights those don't make sense to me so if we are going to see them i would prefer to be against each other um but like a higher level than that like these dudes have done so much i'm good if if we don't see them again gc i mean it sounds like they want to come back,

so I don't think it's really our choice whether or not we're going to see them again. But I mean... I'm saying, are you interested? And by the way, I said too old to retire. I meant too young to retire. My apologies. You get the point. Do you have interest? No, not really. Not particularly, but sort of like Rick said, if they're going to fight, I would like to see them

fight each other. They're both well on their way age-wise and also just a losing streak so they hold actually tony ferguson's last win was over cowboy serone if i'm not mistaken neither has a win since 2019 fuck yeah so someone's probably got a win uh unless we get a draw but yeah get someone back in the win column though then you run the risk if you know one of them gets in the win column. Now they sign like a new contract. Now the title run starts. And then we're back to point A. I don't have – so Cerrone going away, it's like it's a little bit of an absence. Makes the heart grow fonder.

I don't have a strong desire to see either. But I'm also not here stumping for them to retire. I think we need to be clear because it could come off sounding wrong like they have done so much they've accomplished so much they are so legendary yeah that like there's nothing left to prove right like as fans there's nothing that we're craving like oh man i really wish cowboy fought this guy no cowboy fought everybody same thing with tony right the tony and habib story that was the part that never got resolved but outside of that nobody's like man i really wish we got Tony doing XYZ thing.

We saw it all and we enjoyed it all and we loved it all. And so I think it's a thing where it's like we want to just be clear and not people to get the wrong impressions. Like when we're saying we're not interested, it's because they have accomplished so much. Not because we are saying like they are not worthy of this status or worthy of being in this position. PT? Yeah, I think the most interesting thing about this whole situation for me is the omission of being on steroids and now I'm ready to come back. Like, that is, like, how we talk about matching these guys. It's such an interesting thing. I remember at the Olympics, a celebrated Irish runner, Rashida Adeleke, she came fourth. And one of the people who finished in the podium

had tested positive before and they missed some world championships. So the questions to this person who got a medal then at the Olympics was, how do we know that you're not on steroids now? Like in terms of, when people are taking steroids for a fight, they aren't doing it the week of the fight.

Like this is the way people take steroids. They take them months out and then they'll get aren't doing it the week of the fight. Like, this is the way people take steroids. They take them months out, and then they'll get the gains when it gets closer to the fight. What will this open up in terms of, you know, look, Juliana Pena was talking about it yesterday on the show in terms of Amanda Nunes. Like, you know, there's these theories that these fighters retiring and doing this to come back rejuvenated and have this extra leg in their career like it really changes the dynamic of retirement as far as i'm concerned in the ufc yeah i mean i don't mind i mean look at tj dillashaw i think a lot of people think he's going to come back i if you're out of the system if you're not being tested i almost applaud the honesty because i think we all assume that he's doing it. So I don't necessarily mind that. It's not illegal to take TRT if you're just a regular human being.

I don't know why he needed to say that, but I applaud the honesty. Is it insulting to say like, I'd rather just see Donald Cerrone and BKFC? Is that an insulting thing to BKFC or Donald Cerrone? That's the last thing I want to see. That is what went through my mind as soon as I saw this. I'm seeing BKFC, a guy, as we said, a great fighter, an all-time fighter. Him and Tony Ferguson would be two of the top 50 guys of all time. I'm off the top of my head here, of course.

But to have a guy like that go to BKFC to me is like, you know, take on a young challenger there. Like, what do you use a guy like Donald Cerrone for if he's going over to BKFC at this stage of his career? That'd be my feeling on that. Well, we were just talking about the earlier part in them being matched up in the UFC and all that stuff. The first thing that came to my mind was,

do we need to see it in the UFC? I would prefer to see it elsewhere, potentially. Now, when you say elsewhere, do you mean like PFL Bellator, or do you mean... Somewhere else. Somewhere where it's not the UFC. Can we just see them in a Craig Jones Invitational? Sure. Hang on, hang on, hang on.

The whole premise of him coming back is to hit all these records in the UFC. 50 a fight, I want to do this. I mean, we're actually just not listening to what the man is saying. If we're like, let's take it to BKFC. Yeah, but the UFC could just say, thanks, but no thanks. Of course.

To Rick's point earlier of like, Jose Aldo versus Mario Bautista types, if not Tony Ferguson, like, who could Cerrone potentially be fighting? And he's saying he wants two more. So now you have to find another one like this. It just becomes more complicated than the UFC. When you take it outside the UFC...

Diaz? Yeah, but that's not in the UFC. Or you're talking about Nick? It could be. That boy versus Nick Diaz? I just feel like there's more options outside the UFC, and also, like, to the point we're making about, like, okay, now you have to enter this pool

and do the testing again and all that like i don't know it's just it becomes more complicated and and that level is different so ultimately it seems like you guys aren't that into this idea i'm not clamoring no one's filming no certainly not the ferguson one is is a tough one right i mean because that like we just saw him and and none of those fights have been awfully competitive the reason he's getting finished in his most recent fights and this is not a like dream fight that we didn't get they fought like this is not one that we're like oh really wish we had this one no they literally we literally had this one it's not like a good point it's not the one that i'm going i needed to see it we saw it we literally saw it so it's again it is not about like that i don't want to ever see cowboys erroneous or tony ferguson

it's just like in this this is not what the ufc is right like we we would hope to think that the ufc is the highest level of the sport fighters fighting at their absolute best and competing for championships now i understand that the entertainment part of it has become more prominent and this is what the fans want and the UFC is feeding them as they desire. But at a certain level, do we need this? There could be other outlets.

I think the damage that they would take in BKFC, certainly I can't be the one responsible for putting them in there. They have to make that decision on their own but i wouldn't mind seeing it outside the ufc and bkfc seems fine to me i would be okay with it do you think he's okay with that do you think i don't know yeah he doesn't strike me as the type who would not be okay with any form of violence if i'm being honest like you know being honest. You know what the thing that comes to mind is in this stretch of time,

and kudos to you, PT, great interview with John Nash on last week's episode of The Crack, talking about the class action lawsuit. And since then, we've gotten a lot of these testimonials from the likes of Shane Carwin and others about the state that they're in and the limitations on their daily life and the health issues that they've now developed as a result of their fighting careers. And then you see two guys who have taken a lot of hits to the head. And you're like, if you have to come back, what is it going to look like for you in 10 years? Like, we always said this about MMA. People would compare the safety of MMA to boxing, and they

would compare the state of MMA fighters to boxers. And it's like, boxing had a 100-year head start. So there's a lot more data and examples to work with in terms of what it does to your body. And now we're starting to see MMA as a 30-year-old adult. And we're starting to see our heroes of 10, 15 years ago in this post-fighting stage. And you're starting to see the ramifications. It leaves you a little bit more uncomfortable. We were all kind of just kind of flying by being like, isn't this great? You get punched in the head a lot and there's no issues. There's no serious injuries.

There's no deaths. There's no this or that but now you're trying to see what the guys who were stars in 2010 2011 2012 are dealing with and you see this and you're like oh this is a little bit tough to swallow every every fighter thinks they have more fights left in them yeah every single one of them they all walk away somewhere like i'm so happy to retire two months later they're thinking you know what i'm getting that itch again and it's actually quite logical that is what they are that is their identity it's not just a job it's not just a nine to five job their whole identity is being a fighter um every time they get a fight they have an objective to point their life towards you'll often talk to fighters immediately after a big win and they're depressed because they don't have that beacon in the distance that they're guiding their life towards i think that's one of the things that fighters suffer most with

when they retire and i think a guy like serrani as rick mentioned earlier a guy who we know for you know his passion when it comes to this game a guy who loves being in the mix i'm not surprised at all that he wants to come back but to your point on the testimonials like i'm hearing uh brendan shob a good friend of shane carwin's talking about him today and some of the things he's saying are absolutely horrifying and very sad especially when you think that shane carwin was a qualified engineer when he was fighting in the ufc to think of where he's at now but eventually these guys need to be safe from themselves and unfortunately serroni is in that kind of wheelhouse

at the moment where maybe he does need to be saved from himself and potential damage he could take for a UFC return. All right. Well, not trying to start the show, and great stuff there from all of you. Not trying to start the show on a somewhat somber note, but these two items came up at the same time, in trying to start the show on a somewhat somber note, but these two items came up at the same time, in addition to Mike Perry. And so wanted to address them at the top. But

like I said, a lot more fun to discuss on today's program. And there's a couple other things on the back end. We'll be joined by the guys that I wanted to discuss came out last night in reference to the rankings, which I think my take on the state of the UFC rankings and what they should do with the UFC rankings, I actually think will surprise many of you. I think you will be very surprised. So we will talk about that and a lot more as today's program rolls on. We have a stretch of ATT fighters that will be joining us as well, back to back to back to back. But first, let us begin with the king of the featherweight division. Let us begin with the man who is returning to action

in his very first title defense on October the 26th. It's in Abu Dhabi. It's going down in less than two weeks time. And it's one of the most anticipated fights of the year. In fact, I believe some members of our team have said it's the one that they can't wait for the most. It's Max Holloway, the former champion at 145, going up against, like I said, the new king at 145. He is the pride of Georgia and Spain. He is El Matador. He is the one and only Ilya Teporia. There he is. pride of georgia and spain he is el matador he is the one and only ilia to poria there he is uh what a setting how are you ilia great to see you my friend very good and i want to say to

you off the top um happy let me get this right seven tiskov loba seven tiskov loba did i say Savitishkholoba? Did I say that right? No. Svet... Svet... Svetishkholoba. Svetishkholoba. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. I appreciate it. Thank you. That's a celebration in Georgia. Actually a very important day for us. So thank you very much. I appreciate it. Amazing. I totally butchered that.

I'm sorry. I tried my best. Svetishkholoba. There it is. is okay that's great the try counts thank you by the way what about this setting where are you are you in your your royal palace in uh i saw that plane that you took to get over there what is this setting where are you right now i'm here at home staying where i'm staying here in abu dhabi actually a very beautiful place it's unbelievable they're treating you well out there. Yeah, very good.

They're treating me like a king. That's right, as you deserve. I saw that plane that you took as well. Life is good for you as champion. Life is good. Life is good as a champion. It's always been very good for me, to be honest. And by the way, also, since we spoke, you welcomed a baby into the world.

Congratulations to you and your partner. How is the baby doing? How is everyone doing? Amazing. She's like a princess growing every day. It's something amazing to watch her every day. She starts doing new things day by day. So it's something

amazing. It's a gift by God. The fact that this comes right before your first title defense as UFC champion, do you feel like it gives you a little more motivation, a little more strength going into the fight? Of course. It's always a huge motivation

when you get that new life in your family, so of course it's a huge motivation when you get that new life in your family so of course it's a huge motivation for me Amazing. It is. And so what about your mindset and how you're feeling and your confidence because this is your first time fighting as champion as opposed to

being the hunter, you're now the hunted, right? They're coming to take your belt away Do you feel any different this time around? Does the preparation, the build up feel different? different no to be honest i feel the same way i always felt and in the past the preparation was the was the same always adding and new things and in my preparation but yeah it's the same thing as always cutting the weight getting ready for the fight and i can't wait to be honest. I always wanted to fight with Max, always share the afternoon with him.

And here we are. It's over 26. You had an opportunity to do this face-to-face with him around a week or so ago. How did you feel about that in the aftermath? Did you enjoy it? Did you not like it? Being there with your opponent and speaking to him, what did you feel about that in the aftermath? Did you enjoy it? Did you not like it? Being there with your opponent and speaking to him, what did you think of it? To be honest, I feel him a little bit distracted, scared. I don't know.

He doesn't seem to be the same way with me than the other opponents he had in the past. You got a cameraman following you there, huh? Yeah, I have this man. I don't know what the fuck he's doing, but... You don't know who he is? Yeah, I know who he is because we are recording the movie, so they follow me everywhere I go.

Okay, all right. Yeah, look at you. And your movie just came out. Your other one came out, right? September 19th, I think it was. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. In theaters.

In all the cinemas in Spain. Wow. We kept having the movie in all the cinemas. It went really, really good. Will it be available to us here in the states hopefully yes hopefully yes we are trying to put it in in every country so hopefully yes okay um going back to max uh just like why did you feel that way why did you feel like he didn't have the confidence as as usual i don't know. When we were, like, I was talking to him, he was all the time like, Max, do you think you're going to win? We're going to find out October 26th.

We're going to find out October 26th. Max, what's your surname? We're going to find out October 26th. Like, everything I understood from that conversation was uh we will find out what's going to happen on october 26th i already know what's going to happen on october 26th i don't need to to wait till that day did it bother you when he was talking about the way you were speaking english i i know at one point you said you know this is not my first language let's do it in spanish whatever i don't care okay i'm trying my best i was talking to his language which is the only language he he knows to he knows to speak so

if he wants to to try to do it in spanish and in german and russian Russian and Georgian, I'm able to do it, so I don't care. Fair enough. At one point you said that you believed that he didn't want to fight you, that he was trying to fight Michael Chandler. Exactly. Is that true? This is what you've heard?

Yeah, yeah. Really? He was avoiding to fight me all the time, all the time. He said something like, I said to the UFCc i want the easiest fight i want to fight with ilia topuya that's a lie a challenger never chooses fights never i'm the champion i choose who i want to fight next and i said i want to fight max holloway and they told me he's asking to to stay in the in the 155 division to fight with mike Chandler. I don't know. He asked about many, many guys.

And when they told him, no, Max, you have to fight with Ilya because he wants to fight you. So finally he had to accept it. But in the beginning, he was trying really, really hard to avoid me. And so why did you want to fight him and no one else at 145

because i fought with with walk which was one of the the biggest names in the featherweight division and now we have max holloway who fought with every champion that we had in the featherweight division so i wanted to do that and he had a uh this performance in ufc 300 against justin gaethje he he got that bmf belt so i wanna i wanna get it get it back and give it to george masvidal when when he comes back okay and because that belt was created for and because of him. So no one else in my eyes is the BMF. I don't know. Less Max Holloway. So why isn't that belt on the line?

I don't know. Ask him. I don't know. Do you think that was his decision or the UFC's decision? I don't know. I don't know, to be honest. But I don't know. Do you think that was his decision or the UFC's decision? I don't know. I don't know, to be honest. But I don't care. I don't care.

You're not bothered by it? Because it seems like you want the belt. Don't you want it? No, I don't want it. I don't give a fuck about that belt, to be honest. But he calls himself the BMF. So we already know who is the world champion. And in the first seconds of the fight, we're going to find out who is the real BMF.

Because I already challenged him in the first 10 seconds of the fight. I'm going to point the ground and we'll see what he's going to do. I will be in the middle of the octagon. So let's bang, bro. If you're ready, I was born ready. Well, so you are predicting this. You are saying first 10 seconds, you're ready i was born ready well so so you that you are predicting this you are saying first 10 seconds you're going to walk to the middle of the cage you're going to point down seconds i'm going to point the the middle of the octagon and i will

stay there i want to give the best and the most excited 10 seconds in the ufc history to the fans they deserve it and if he stays in the middle, I promise I'm going to knock him out. I'm going to take his head off. I prepare myself for that. Do you think he'll meet you? Do you think he'll meet you there? I don't know.

I don't know. We'll see. He's calling himself the BMF. So, that's one of the things we're going to find out if he's the BMF or he's a pussy

like everyone who is predicting that I'm going to lose to Max Holloway all the UFC fighters I watch the predictions of all the UFC fighters that they are predicting that he's going to beat me all the bombs fuck you everyone after I'm going to beat me. All the bombs. Fuck you, everyone. After, I'm gonna

knock him out. Don't even tell me hello if you see me around. Fuck yourself, everyone. Who's doing this? Who's saying this? Who's picking against you? I don't know. Many, many fighters. I don't even want to tell you the names because I don't want to give

importance about them fuck them all but you're you're you're taking notes i'm taking notes i'm taking taking notes they all like snakes in the grass because they see you around and then they are like they're acting like a fans but when they have to do something uh no max is going to beat him maybe they feel a little bit of envy. Do you think part of it is because Max has been around for so long and so they're paying homage to the legend and you're so confident and you're the new champ, so they're leaning towards him just out of respect as opposed to what they really think is going to happen? Does that come to mind or no?

I don't care. I just want them to watch the fight October 26th and take notes about the new generation of MMA, about the skills, about the techniques, about everything that I'm going to show them. I'm going to teach them a little bit about MMA. By the way, can we clear up the belt situation? Because he said that you bought the belt. Did you in fact buy the PMF title?

And if so, how much did it cost? I don't know. Someone from my team, he bring it to me. But I don't know if he bought it or what he did. But I think he bought it. Are you going to bring it to the fight or to the fight week? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course, of course, of course.

I'm going to bring it. It's mine. I own it to bring it. It's mine. I own it. Fair enough. I own it. Fair enough. There is that shot, and he referenced it. They put you on camera after he knocked out Justin Gaethje,

and people were saying that it looked like you didn't want him to win or that you were spooked by it. Can you tell us what you were thinking in that moment? The first thing I said, it was like, thanks to God, it happens this way because now we have a clear opponent for my next fight. So to be honest, I was really bored during the whole fight, watching two guys fighting inside the octagon

or running around during five rounds. But the last 10 seconds were really exciting for me, for the fans, for everyone. But I didn't see, to be honest, any technique behind that knockout. And he knows that. He knows that. It was like exchanging the bar and he get the knockout and he knows that he knows that it was like exchange in the bar and he get the knockout but it wasn't because he was looking for the for the knockout you weren't impressed

you were impressed by the because i thought it was a very one-sided fight in his favor like some people have called it the fight of the year i don't really think it was the fight of the year because it was so one-sided maybe the knockout of the year but you're not maybe the knockout of the year because it was so one-sided maybe the knockout of the year but you're maybe the knockout of the year because the only good thing about that fight was the last 10 seconds but how you can say that it was the fight of the of the year no fucking way that that wasn't the fight of the year no way the the talk the fight of the year was me against Volkanovski. That was the fight of the year. Or maybe this one coming up on October 26th. Yeah, maybe this one. Maybe this one. This one is going to be really, really, really fast.

So I don't know how it's going to be the fight of the year. When you say fast, do you think first round? I don't think I know that it's going to be in the first round. He's not on my level. Volkanovski, the guy who beat him three times, the guy who whooped his ass for three times, I knock him out in the second round. And what makes you think that I'm not going to knock him out in the first round?

So you think that Alex, a tougher opponent than Max? For you? For sure. For me and for everyone. Wow. For me and for everyone. Alex was a really, really tough opponent for me, and he's a tough opponent for everyone.

He didn't lose in the featherweight division for how long and max how many times uh he he get warped like in the featherweight division he got bit by carl mcgregor when you get bit by carl mcgregor shut the fuck up fuck bro forget about it when carl mcgregor beats you forget about it okay so let's talk about this i saw him in marbella and i'm sure you saw this as well he said he's more spanish than you went to marbella he's more spanish yeah i also when when i see myself in the mirror below my waist i also think sometimes i'm i'm more african than francis ningano so when you hear him say that, what do you think?

He's a fake fighter. He fakes all the time that he's going to fight. I'm fighting Mike Chandler. I'm fighting this and the greatest comeback. Fight. Why you don't fight? Fighter fights every day. What do you think is his issue with you?

He's a fake fighter. I've heard him mention you a lot, and he gets very, very fired up when talking about you. I don't know. I don't know what's going on with him, but as I told you, he's a fake fighter. He fakes the fight all the time, but I don't see him fight. He's like, I'm going gonna come back and this and that bro fight fight put your name on the table what the you're doing but he wants to be in the conversation all the time but he doesn't want to fight how's that do you think he fights again? 2025? If he fights,

he's going to try to come back and do something, but guess who he's going to pick? Dan Hooker. What do you mean by that? Fight Dan Hooker, fight... I don't know who the fuck you want but for me he's retired for me he's retired i don't want to even like talk about him a guy who is

retired it's like i feel bad but about that guy that you talk about the guy who is who's retired and he's at the same time retired. But surely, like, Ilya Tepory versus Conor McGregor, you would welcome this, right? If it's a real thing. That's never going to happen. Never?

That's never going to happen. Never. Why? How? Because I'm the world champion. He's not even in the rankings. How is that going to happen? But we can do something. If he wants,

for my next training camp, for my next fight i invite him and i don't know i invite him with dan hooker and they can do like two and a half minute one two and a half another i change them each like every round we can do that that's it That's all you're interested in. Yeah, because an official fight, that's impossible. And right now, at this point, I have much bigger fights than Conor McGregor. Conor McChicken.

He went to Marbella when I was in Abu Dhabi. What's the issue with Islam? I see you guys going back and forthhabi. What's the issue with Islam? I see you guys going back and forth as well. What's the problem there? Do you feel like it's getting too personal? No.

I don't have anything personal with him. Anything personal. Is that... I don't have any issue. The only point is that he's the world champion in the lightweight division. I want to move up to lightweight division. I want to face him in the future.

And if he's not anymore the lightweight champion because he loses his belt against someone, I don't even care about him. Okay. I wish him all the best. But I said something like I want to face him in in the octagon and all his cousins came out now when i see you on the street and when i see you around i'm gonna do this and that and oh shut the fuck up shut up you're not gonna do anything anything so shut up you think they not going to do anything. Anything. So, shut up.

You think they're trying to intimidate you? How? Because, and I know you... They're going to punch me around? You went back and forth, or you said something about Usman as well. It just seemed like they were all kind of coming at you there. That guy, they

caught him with the steroids, right, in the last year. That's why he's so nervous, because it affects a lot in the nervous system. Steroids. That's why he's so angry all the time.

Okay, so there's no issue there with Islam, and that is good to hear. I did read your tweet about Bilal Muhammad, and this... Bilal is a fake father, and he's a fake champion. What's the issue there? No finishes, no knockoutsouts no knockdowns no girlfriend no kids balal has never finished never finished any man or woman this is some kind of tweet this is because a real champion finishes fights he knocks people out he submits people if not how you call yourself a champion i don't know. A world champion. So what prompted this?

Because you're 45, he's 170. That's not something that's happening anytime soon. So why did you start this? Or why did you respond this way? Because he said something like, if you want a street fight, we're going to street fight you. If you want this... He said some bullshit. I don't remember really good,

but he said something about me that it was like, finish someone, men or women. It doesn't matter, but finish someone. In a way, though, Ilya, isn't this the dream? Everyone's coming at you. Conor McGregor's coming at you. The 170 champs. Everyone's taking shots, and they're taking shots

because you're the king of the division. Bienvenidos. Yes. Bienvenidos. Bien bienvenidos they want some lights right now because i'm shining right now i'm shining and after october 26 i'm gonna shine even more and more and more and they are scared about the shine i bring they are scared they want to take a little piece of that. We spoke after the win over Volk, and we talked about Bernabeu, and we saw the footage of you coming out there and Sergio Ramos, and it was incredible, the scenes in Georgia and in Spain.

Was it ever discussed for this fight to be at the Bernabeu? So, yeah, we had some conversations to bring the UFC in Spain, especially in the Bernabeu, but you know, sometimes it's a little bit hard to deal with the UFC because they have their points, which is really very valid, which is really valid. So we'll see. We'll see what the future is holding for us.

But I'm very sure that we're going to have a UFC in Spain in 2025. Oh, wow. Spain Arena, you think, or Football Stadium? I want to do it in the Bernabeu Stadium. I don't know. I want to do it. I want to do it in the bernabeu stadium i don't know i want to do it i want to do it because i know that it's a it's gonna be the the highest ufc gate in the history it's gonna be

the biggest event so i'm gonna try my my best and all the time when i try my best place how I want. Who would be the ideal opponent for you in that setting if you had it your way? I don't know. Before, I used to make more predictions about this, like who I want to face next, this and that. But at this point, it's like, I don't know.

I don't know. Whoever the UFC wants me to face, I will be there. The only thing I want to do is to fight in front of all my people in Spain in the Bernabeu Stadium to keep making history. So I don't care who the opponent is going opponent's gonna be that's fair what about 55 how far away do you think you are from 55 how many fights how many for i can do it after this one do you want to do it after this one like already or i i want i want to do it i want to do it i want to do it but the thing is what the ufc wants me to do, right? Because at the end of the day, I'm a fighter and that's my job and they know better than me

Who I should to fight so If they tell me that they are okay that When I move to 155 I will do it because I want to do it. It's easier for me to wake up. I feel very good that way. I already did it. I already fought at 155 in London against Joy Herbert. So I felt really good. So I want to do it once again for the world title because I don't want to do it with any different opponent. Two last things. Can I just ask you about the scene back home in Georgia

that you saw Merab receive when he won? Did you see those images? That was incredible, right? What is going on over here in Georgia? Between the soccer team, you guys had a great run in the Euro. You winning. Merab. Merab, it's unbelievable.

It's unbelievable. It's a huge motivation for the for the country i i think so and met up man he he's a great great person be beside of that he's the world champion and this and that he's a he's a great person he deserves everything that's happening to him because he's the man, trust me. He's a very, very good person, all heart. You watched that fight? I'm assuming yes, right? Of course I watched that fight.

Of course I did. He did great. Do you think, because we had Sean on yesterday. Sean believes he won the fight. Bro, Sean, I don't know. I don't know. That guy smoked so much, so much that he lost his mind. I recommend him to watch the fight again and again.

Do you imagine if O'Malley is in the position of Merab and Merab says that he won that fight what he would say so bro shut the fuck up um we'll end on max october 26 there's a lot of talk going into this fight elias you know this this renaissance the the the the comeback of max since the vogue last fight right that he's a new man and still and still there's no chances for max forget about it i the only thing i'm trying every day it's that i want him to show up because i'm gonna do the rest we're gonna we already know who is the world champion we're gonna find out that i'm the bmf also i will be there in the in

the middle of the octagon in the first 10 seconds. I want to offer the most excited first seconds in the UFC history. And I want to have the fastest knockout in the UFC history also by hand with my hands because George has it with a knee. I want to do it with the hands. So let's go. I'm'm so excited i don't have any doubts that i'm gonna knock him out so if he stays in the middle in in the first 10 seconds of the fight we're gonna see the fastest knockout in the ufc history love it ilia thank you so much max show up i can't wait we are 11 days away good luck to you my friend thank you for the time as always appreciate it and enjoy

your time out there it's great to see that they're treating you so well thank you very much ariel thank you for having me here it's a pleasure always talk to you soon there he is the king of the 145 pound division el matador ilia taporia i was thinking i was thinking of uh of connor's picture behind him right over there of max holloway that that scene that that photo that our friend cooper neil took could you imagine guys that one right there yeah that's the one a second after could you imagine instead of the end of the fifth round we're at the first 10 seconds of the fight yeah do you imagine that if you imagine you guys are doing the watch party there it is watch party there it is and don't forget, early start time, 1.45 p.m. Eastern because of the –

oh, look at the boys. Look at us. Look at the boys front and center. We look fantastic. Bro, could you imagine? If he really comes out there and does it and points to the center of the octagon in the first 10 seconds? By the way, I have no doubt he's going to do it.

And I have no doubt Max will oblige. Could you imagine if they had that moment? I'm starting to sweat right now i mean this is uh i can't wait i've said many times how how much i'm anticipating this fight if they really come out there and do it i'm gonna go crazy yo could you freaking imagine that max hallway moment is probably the craziest i've ever gone watching a ufc fight oh it's it's the moment of the year in many respects it's's the knockout of the year. I still maintain it's not the fight of the year

and that's not a knock on Max. It's that it was so one-sided. I agree with you. I actually agree with what Ilya said. It was kind of just like ho-hum for Max. That's what made

the moment so special. He had the fight in hand and he was willing to put it all on the line like that. Max blessed. Last time we had him on the show

was in studio last June. Come on. We got a few more days. I was chilling that day too. It was a great show. Snoozing in the the green room hanging out in the control room in the back showed up by himself that's just what you get with the uh with the dude from hawaii just super chill but man they're gonna lay it all on the line i can't wait there is a um there is a a a brashness and a cockiness and a confidence from Ilya that is so much fun to just watch and

witness. And you could see how he annoys people or gets on their nerves. The fighters, right? As he was talking about everyone picking against him. Because Max is beloved. Who doesn't like Max Holloway, right? So I'm not surprised. I don't know what video he's talking about, but I'm not surprised that they're picking against him because they all want him to get his comeuppance that makes it so fun it's the beloved legend the king of yesteryear going up against the new kid on the block who just happens to be so incredibly confident it's it's amazing and max is so hot right now after ufc 300 like everyone just loves him so much if he can get his belt back by giving eliot tababoria his first loss, like, I mean, you talk about babyfaces in the UFC,

Alex Barrera at the top of the list, Max Holloway will be right there with him if he gets it done. Oh my gosh. That's a great, you know, I have to say, it's a card, I don't know if it's flying under the radar, it's just because we just had UFC 307,

but I saw a photo of Robert Whitaker. Like, I had to remind myself that Robert Whitaker and Hamza Chamayev are fighting in 11 days. I mean, look at this card. It's so sick. This is a great card. First of all-

Lerone Murphy, Dan Ige is a great fight too. Lerone Murphy, Dan Ige is fantastic at featherweight. Magomed Ankhalaev versus Alexander Rakic might be the number one contender fight at 205. And an incredibly important fight for Ank-Khalaev in particular because if he slips, he's done. Never getting the title shot. He's got to win.

And dare I say he has to win in an impressive fashion because even if it's a ho-hum decision, they'll be like, nah, not good enough. And let's not forget, Rakic looked great in yuri fight up until you know he did like halfway through the second round like he was looking great through that first round so yeah man it's gonna be a really interesting card i can't wait for it whitaker hamza is just who's the favorite in that uh hamza is hamza the favorite let me get you i feel like people have just kind of lost faith in him. I think they've lost faith in him getting to the octagon, but I feel like once he gets to the octagon, it's...

I mean, he's still undefeated. No one's defeated him yet. Yeah, Hamza, minus 190 right now. And what's Rob? Plus 165. Ilya Tavoya, minus 250. Max Holloway, plus 210. Really?

Yeah. I'm surprised. Magomed Ankolev minus 360 over Alexander Rakic. Man, minus 360. No love for Rakic. Jeff Neal RDAs on this card? Jeff Neal RDAs on that card? It's a great card, man.

That's on the prelims? I think so, man. It's a great card. UFC 300. Wow. Zaid Nurmagomedov. Mike Debeck? I think so, man. It's a great card. UFC 300. Wow. It's Aiden Armagomedov. Mike DeBeck, Oral Buy. Oh, yeah.

It's a good card, dude. It's a good card. Shire Bullet. Afternoon Start. You're getting fights at 10 a.m. for the prelims. Damn, there's a lot of freaking fights on this card. I think we're getting Chris Barnett versus Kennedy. We are.

Kicking us off at 10 a.m. Cup of coffee. You can't ask for more. 6-5 versus 5-9. Beast Boys back representing not only Spain, but also Athens, Georgia. Oh, that's right. Go Dawgs. Shout out.

Chris Barnett. Yeah, I can't wait. The more we talk about it, the more excited I'm getting. All right. Well, that's 308. We have some time. For now, though, let's go back to Paris just a few weeks ago. What a scene it was as friend of the program, Mani Moikano, Hinata Moikano to be exact, went up there in enemy territory and went up against a man who a lot of people predicted at the beginning of the year would be the maybe lightweight champion or at least like one step away from being either a lightweight champion or lightweight contender that's how highly everyone thought of benoit saint-denis and we still think very highly of him

but it has been a rough year for him with the loss of course to dustin poirier and then the loss to money moicano and it was so darn impressive and equally impressive if not more was the post-fight interview in the cage it was incredible stuff from from Money Moicano. And so we wrote down, okay, when we're back, we have to have Money Moicano on. He is kind enough to join us. The money man is here. Is he there? Yes. Renato Moicano. How are you, my friend? Congratulations. Parabéns. Obrigado. Thank you. Thank you so much, Ariel. What's up, everybody? It's good to talk to you. Yes, we are here. It's a new era. And you are on fire, my friend. What a performance that was.

Honestly, when you were thinking about the fight, when you were thinking about how it would play out for you against a tough guy like that, the army guy, hostage, he deals with hostage takeovers and stuff like that. Did you think it would be that dominant for you? Did you believe that? Actually, yes, because I was so ready for the fight. And I was at the same time, I was happy to get the fight.

But he was coming off a loss for Dustin Poirier. Dustin Poirier is a legend. But I knew because he lost, people would say, now like you're saying, I don't think BSD is that good. But he is very good. But I knew my game for him would be very hard because my grappling, I think I'm the best grappler in the division, especially controlling with the jiu-jitsu and stuff.

And now with the ground and pound, it's going to be very hard to stop me. Okay, but what about the shoulder? Let's take a step back. You showed us. It's okay. What's going on? That is it. It's going to be very hard to stop me. Okay, but what about the shoulder? Let's take a step back. You showed us. It's okay. What's going on? That is it. It's sticking out.

Yeah, it's sticking out, but it's 100%, but it's not bothering me. What is that? Okay, what happened? I have an AC joint dislocation, total separation. So I tore the ligaments of the AC joint and from the back, but I'm not doing surgery. I just have to deal with some pain, but now it's much, much better. Okay, but are there limitations? That's your right arm, right?

That's your right arm? Yes. What about punching, grappling, takedowns, clinch? Are there any limitations? Not really. Mostly it's pain, you know, but I'm doing therapy and I'm putting ice. I'm doing everything that I can to be, like, to help with the injury. And it's getting way better.

So I think it's okay. I don't want to lose like six months you know doing doing surgery I have been saying that I'm 35 and I am feeling really good and I want to fight as soon as possible when did this happen three weeks before the fight and and at that point did you think you were gonna have to pull out now on the on the first day like when it happened i was so sad because i knew that was a big main event and and i thought okay uh i i fucked up my shoulder so i cannot fight so i just was thinking about one more day one more day let

me let me try one more day so every day I was doing therapy, going to the doctor. Dr. Gelby over here in Florida was helping me a lot. Dan from Force Therapy and my strength and conditioning coach, Nikolai, they were helping me every day. And I saw, like, getting better. So first day, a lot of pain. Second day, a lot of pain. I was not training for the first week. And then, like, 10 days after, I was feeling a little bit better doing drills and doing stuff.

And like a week before the fight, I had my last, I had like my fourth and my last sparring session. And I feel that's it. I'm not going to pull out. I'm beating this guy in France. It doesn't matter. Incredible. Now, have you ever been to France prior to this trip? No, first time in Europe. First time in Europe. In Europe? Yes, I've never been to France prior to this trip? No, first time in Europe.

In Europe? Yes, I've never been to Europe before. Wow. Okay, so what did you think of Paris as a place to visit, as a tourist? We'll get to the immigration and all that stuff. And like I thought that would be like, let's say, Los Angeles, L.A., right? Something like that. But the place that I was, Paris is a beautiful city, my brother. Like very, very everything is very old and the architecture and everything i was very surprised and was good because i went over that 10 days before the fight so i could go

to to the historical places into the into the places in paris and it is a great great city so so you went early so you could do some sightseeing yeah so i went to the louvre i went to all the places like the the historical places and and it it is a very nice scene uh and and did you go alone to these places or did you bring someone with you no i was with my coaches uh i bring two coaches on the on the 10 days and my other coach uh he was helping other fighters so uh he got he he went over there on monday which so sorry go ahead yes no so we went to the louvre and i did the other like i said the historical places so it was a was a very nice um i'll not say a lot of vacation because i went over there to work but it was good to come like 10 days before the fight which uh site did you like the most which

which stop the louvre i think i think was the best you know so uh go over there and see all the history i post some some some photos on my instagram the louvre and see like uh the pictures and the and the the i don't know how to say that like quadros in portuguese the the paintings uh some of paintings are older than brazil i saw paintings from like 1400s, you know, stuff very, very old. And it is what it is. Paris and France, a lot of history. And especially me, I live in Florida, you know, that is not and in Brazil is the same, like especially in Brazil, my my city so not much history everything's very new so i was really surprised with with all the the beautiful things that i saw in paris how would you i know you were cutting weight and all that but uh assuming at some point you got to eat the food

and i was actually there in paris for three weeks i was at the olympics prior to you in july i was very disappointed in the coffee i thought the coffee was uh lackluster what was your take on the food the coffee what did you take did you lackluster. What was your take on the food, the coffee? What did you take? Did you get to actually take in any of this stuff? Actually, I could not eat because I was cutting weight. So I was more doing the UFC food and stuff. So I didn't have, like, I could not eat.

No croissant even after the fact? Nothing? No. No, after the fight, the least thing that you want to do is eat, you know? Ah. Because I was so pumped with the victory, especially the way it was.

So I didn't really have the opportunity to eat on Paris. Okay. Now you win the fight. And now for me, it's become must-see TV. You on the microphone has become, I mean, they should charge just for that. I would pay pay-per-view just to hear you on the microphone after the fight.

Did you plan any, here you are talking about French history, French politics. You're talking to the crowd. You're saying all kinds of things. Was that something you planned or was it all spur of the moment, top of your head? Let me tell you something, Ariel.

Tell me. First, I wanted to do the same thing like Brian Barrow did. He was incredible. I wanted to go over there and say, fuck you, Paris. Because I knew I was going to enemy territory. And when I was talking to my coaches, they said, you have to be the bad guy for this fight. Because they love Benoit Saint-Denis.

Like you said, he was from army. Everybody's going to love him. So, okay, I'm going to talk some shit to these guys. And then Brian Battle said that, and I was doing the warm-up, and I was, man, that's not going to work because Brian Battle did. So, I have to come up with something else. And then after the win, I just said that kind of stuff, but it was not plain, you know, it was not plain. Why do you go that direction? What prompts you to talk about

that as opposed to who you want next? You use it as a platform to really wax poetic and speak on larger than fighting topics. Why do you do that? Because I'm a Christian, you know, I really do believe in Jesus Christ. And all the time I'm reading some books, right, from politics, economics, and like a lot of people, especially in school, talk about French Revolution and how that was good for the Republic and how Republic save us. And a lot of people don't know and they even say the French Revolution inspired American Revolution, but how that could be if American Revolution was 1776 and French Revolution was 1789 and even though they had the same ideals of liberalism of Republicanism that is a huge difference between French Revolution and American Revolution.

American Revolution, the founding fathers, they don't want tyranny, they don't want the monarchy charging taxes and imposing their religions, because if you remember on England and he could ate and he created he found a church like Anglican Church so they were persecuting Protestant and Baptists on England in all over Europe you know because most of Europe was Catholic at the time and like I say Henry VIII was Anglican he found his own church so they moved to the colonies, to the America, to profess their own faith, to be Protestant. And they found the 13 colonies. And everything about America I like because it was decentralized, less power to the government, more power to the people.

But one thing, they were all in common. They all believe in god so the founding fathers when they did the the the constitution and they were talking about the fundamental rights of people they say is self-evidence this is a true and belief by god that every human being is free to have private property, to have freedom, and to have the right to live the way they want. So they were Protestant. They believe in God.

In the French Revolution, they didn't believe in God. Actually, they killed more than 40,000 people, and they tried to destroy church. So I feel the same way right now. Some of these leaders nowadays, they don't like God. They don't like you to believe in God, because they want government to be their own God, with money, with central banks, with even democracy. I'm not against democracy democracy but i recommend this book called uh hans herman hope democracy the god that failed us because in this book this explain like there is nothing to gain and give power to the to the to the to this

representance because in the end of the day is a contest of popularity and the majority is not always right so that's what my my whole my whole thought on that because i was reading the book and that was the right moment being on france on paris in a main event i just wish i could finish in a guillotine. That would be even better. Yes, of course. The French guillotine. I love listening to you speak about all these things. And for me, I try to always have an open mind. So, and I'm not saying I disagree because I actually don't disagree,

but I think some people get offended when you say something, especially when it comes to religion or politics that they don't agree with. And I think that's part of the problem with our society that we don't have an open mind and that we can't have these conversations. For example, I think it's crazy that if I ask you right now, who are you voting for in the elections?

It's like, oh, no, no, no, that's personal. Why is it personal? I just, I want to learn. I want to understand why you feel this way. And I can still love you and respect you, even though we don't vote for the same person or have the same beliefs, we should all be able to respect each other. And so I say that because I wonder when you talk like this, when you speak about these things, do you get a lot of blowback?

Like, did you feel that heat? Did you feel uncomfortable in Paris when you spoke like this on the microphone? Yeah, I was. But at the same time, a lot of the French people, they feel represented about that. And somebody even say after the fight, say, hey, Moicano, I'm really happy that you say that because we don't have the first amendment like in the USA. So if somebody say like that, they could be even on the jail. We saw on England people going to the jail because hate of speech, you know, hate speech. So if you say something that the government doesn't like, they're going to put you in the jail. And of speech, you know, hate speech. So if you say something that the government doesn't like, they're going to put you in the jail. And I don't like that way. I think

people should be free. People should mind their own business. I don't care about what you do in your personal life and the government should not catch you. But my whole problem with the premise that, like you're saying, I don't care about who you vote. I think all politics are bad. I think politicians are bad. I don't like politicians. I don't like the government. That being said, I think some politicians are better than others.

Politicians that fight for your freedom and they say, I want low taxes rate. I don't want a government trying to persecute people. And if I can, I even want to talk about my sponsor, Pacific Legal Justice. They fight for people against the government. So Pacific Legal Foundation, if you want to check them out. They fight against the government. So my whole thing over here is I think you as an individual have the right to be whoever you want. And government cannot try to impose their will. They cannot limit what you want to say. So that's why I recommend everybody to read, especially the Austrian economic writers.

You know, I think it's very important you to know that freedom of speech is really important and freedom to defend yourself and private property. Of all things that matter, private property is the most important thing. And I'm not only talking about things, you know, because Ariel have your show so your show your private property you know if somebody say no you cannot say the things that you're saying or if you cannot do the things that you're doing i think that is wrong so uh so that's why i don't plan this this the these things that i say but sometimes it's just on my head because i keep talking that all the time you know and the problem is this is not my first language so yeah i don't have the same i don't have the same uh competence to speak in english but so you asking about the

pushback and stuff especially in brazil right. We're going through a lot of things in regarding to freedom of speech, because a lot of people are getting serious problems with the government because of that. And I went to Brazil last week to talk about freedom of speech in a forum, to talk about democracy. So I know some people don't like, but other people, they depend on it, you know? So that's why I keep talking about these subjects. By the way, when you're reading these books, are you reading them in Portuguese or English? No, mostly in Portuguese. My reading English is very, I get very tired very fast. This is the thing. I don't like to read, you know? I don't like to read, but I do because I want to understand. It's like training. I don't like to train anymore. You know, on the beginning, I used to love training and now I'm 35. I don't like to train, but I do either way, you know, I do because I know it's good for me.

So if I can, every day I read like two pages of a book and eventually I'm going to understand. So I go slow, but I read in Portuguese because in English is very hard for me. Did you need security after what you said on the microphone in France? Not really, not really. Some people, they even like what I say. But again, I'm not trying to of course it's good to have fans you know a good fan base but i'm not trying to get a fan base i'm just trying to win in fights and say what i want you know okay by the way how many uh what percentage of your purse was given to taxes don't even tell me about them you got this it's crazy a lot of money a lot of money and that's the other thing i

don't agree with that i think that's socialism you know if they especially because i don't live in paris so think about that if you go over there and ufc is going to paris they are generating a lot of jobs they are creating a lot of wealth so They are creating a lot of wealth. So fighters are going over there, giving their lives, giving the brain cells, trying to push for a better life, trying to push for sport, trying to talk about stuff that matters. But once the government takes what you make, you know, your hard work, and this is private property. This is the whole thing with the austrian economic books they are telling you is your money is your private property too so if if government is seizing your money they are taking your right to enjoy the the fruits of your label of your hard work and that's what they're doing you know and they are very bad to reallocate this

this money in good things i don't think government does anything good so you go for that you try to make your money and they they take a lot of money they're taking almost more than 50k that's a lot of money just paid on taxes outside outside usa and then i will have to pay taxes inside the USA, which I think I don't like taxes at all. But if we live above this law, we have to do that. But what are the incentives for me to fight in France again or to fight in Europe again? And they don't understand that, you know, because they think, no, I'm going to take this money and I'm going to put this money to help some people.

But you have to remember what I say about democracy. Democracy is a popularity contest. So they're going to get this money that they collect from taxes and they're going to put in another place not to make people's life better, but to get votes. That's the whole problem. The whole incentive of politicians with democracy is to get your money

and put in something that they're going to get votes. So I think the whole system is broke. And that's why I push everybody to understand Bitcoin, to understand economics and to, you have to be able to defend yourself, your family, and you have to have faith in God. I know this is illogical for me because I grew up like that. And most of the people that I know, this is common sense. But if you push to people to have responsibility and common sense, nowadays they call you radical. But that's my message. My main message is nobody going to save you. Government not going to save you. Don't rely and don't depend on money from the government because that is nothing that government gives to you that it doesn't take violently and brutally from somebody else.

So if you're getting something for the government, the government is is robbing another another man of his property, of his property rights to give to you. So I know that's not easy to say. I know, like the book say, nowadays democracy is like a god that nobody can contest. But I think we should think about, I don't know if laws of like a plebiscito, I don't know how to call that, but we have to bring back the republic, not the democracy. People that contribute, people that pay taxes, they can vote. Otherwise, people that receive stuff from the government are going to keep voting on the government, going to keep voting on people that give welfare,

on people that like wealth distribution. And I don't like that. I think everything that, especially in MMA, I don't get mad with Conor. I don't get mad with Khabib. I don't get mad if somebody is better than me on MMA or if he makes more money. Because in the end of the day,

you have to rely and depend only on yourself. So my message here, you have to have responsibility to defend yourself, to feed your family, and to be honest, you know, and to be honest and to be humble and to try to make your best of what you got, you know,

because nobody's equal. Nobody's equal. There is no equality. That's just a myth that government tells you so they can keep everybody down. Is Paddy Pimblitt next? I don't know. I don't know. It doesn't matter, you know.

That's the one. He wants you. You want him. It's perfect. You're both on a you. You want him. It's perfect. You're both on a streak. Why not now? Let's go. UFC is going to protect him.

That's 100%. He's not fighting Money Moikon. You don't think so? No. He said he wants it. He said he's in. I think I'm not trying to even discounting on him. I don't think he didn't accept the fight.

But think about the company, UFC. What's the point of do this matchup? Manny Moicano is going to smash Paddy Pimbley. He's going to take it down. The fight is over. And they're going to

lose a very good product. Because we cannot lie. Paddy Pimbley is a good product for the UFC. So who makes sense? Who do you think is next for you? But if they offer me the fight, of course, you know what's up. Of course.

I don't know, man. I don't know. I have been hearing about Justin Gage fighting Dan Hooker. I know I saw on the internet Dustin Poirier saying he got a fight i don't really care doesn't really matter you'd fight dustin no no no no it's your teammate yeah yeah he's my teammate and not only that what's the point of going a fight that i know i'm going to lose you know

i train with him all the time what's the point of signing the contract, a fight, a guy that beats me up in the jeans? So there is no point on that. What about you versus Hooker? I like the matchup. Turtle in the tree, I believe? The turtle in the tree,

I like the matchup, but the problem is I don't think he wants to fight. You don't think? Dan Hooker, he seems down to fight anyone. Of course not. Like McGgregor is

is is like the mermaid you have you heard about the mermaid me oh no yeah like the mermaid the like the mermaid greek ariel is the mermaid no yeah i think so so maybe it's you yeah no no who's the mermaid tell me about the mermaid. No, the mermaid that is on the Greek text, on the Greek books, I think is Iliada. That is this. When the guy is on the ship and the mermaid starts to sing, they jump on the water. And I think Dan Hooker is the same thing. So McGregor is over there. Say, McGregor, hey, Dan Hooker, I will fight you while you fight you. And Dan Hooker will forget everybody and everything and jump off the ship

and try to get the mermaid. But guess what? This mermaid is just singing, he's just lying. I think he's going to be waiting forever, like Michael Chandler. You remember last year on the show, you asked me, I don't remember if it was in that show

yes it was somebody asked me if was you would you wait for my gregor and i say no and i don't think chandelier should because the only thing that's for sure in this sport is one day i will not have uh the age and the time to fight and this is is my final moment. I'm 35. I think Dan Hooker is the same, like 30-something. So if you keep waiting for the perfect fight, you're going to draw, you know? That's not happening. Matt Grego is not fighting Dan Hooker.

Maybe they do Dan Hooker versus Gaethje, but Matt Grego is not happening. And so, okay, so I saw you're very upset about the rankings, right? They had you sixth. Dana White yesterday saw you're very upset about the rankings, right? That they had you six. Dana White yesterday says he wants to radically change the rankings. I don't know if you saw this. Do you have

an idea what they should do? I don't have any idea because I saw Dana White talking about the EI, but the whole thing is the EI, somebody's programming the EI too. So the way they program the EI is the way the EI going to do the matchups. So I think it would be best

if we do like a way that is points, you know? So if you knock the guy out or if you submit him or if it's just a decision against a ranked guy, like point- based system, you know what I mean? I think that would be better. That would be more logical.

But like I said before, I was, I was talking shit on the rankings, uh, on the internet, but just to get the hype, you know, I was not really upset about that.

I was just trying to get some clicks and to get some people to my YouTube and to, because in the end of the day, rankings, they don't matter. And we just saw that. We just saw that because, uh, who was the number eight? Yeah. Number eight fighting. And we saw Jamal Hill and we saw BSD, you know, we saw BSD. Uh, if he beat Dustin at the time, he would fight for the belt, you know, we saw BSD.

If he beat Dustin at the time, he would fight for the belt, you know? And I was saying that all the time. Everybody's talking high about BSD, but he didn't beat nobody. He's tough. He's strong. But he trains in France. He doesn't have wrestling. So I knew I would beat him. But my point over here is see how how the rankings doesn't

doesn't work really well i don't care but this is just a a message imagine if paddy pimblech beat benoît sandin the way i did first round 10-7 uh dr stoppage next week he will be number six number five yeah that's the reality i don't care about that because, like I say, I just care about stuff that I can control. I know I'm way less marketable than Paddy Pimblitt, but guess what? Fuck that. I'm making money.

I'm living my best life, and I want to fight. I want to get back to the octagon as soon as possible to take advantage because, on my mind, I am the best fighter on the lightweight division i can beat anybody i just cannot beat dustin poirier the rest i can beat everybody in this division well i think you're very marketable i think you're killing it in the cage out of the cage your youtube channel your podcast your merch everything is great you're very entertaining to watch and listen to there There it is. Get it right now over at moneymoicano.com, yeah?

Moneymoicano.com. That was my 20 wins, so we have a promotion over there. If you can, support the channel, Money Moicano channel. And it's hard. It's not easy to be a fighter, to make this way to make a living is very hard. But I'm grateful for God, for destiny, for everything that I have, and for the opportunity to be here talking to you, Ariel. You're the man. Thank you, Renato. Really appreciate it. Always a pleasure. Thanks for coming on and congrats again.

Thank you so much. There he is, Renato Moicano. What a pleasure. What a joy it is to talk to him. I enjoy him very much. He is on fire. I can't wait to see what he does next, who he gets matched up against next. Now, we continue with the ATT theme here. We add Moicano up next in about 30 minutes time, Dustin Poirier, the aforementioned Dustin Poirier, who he wants nothing to do with. I appreciate that honesty very much. He will join us. But yesterday on the program, we heard a lot about our next guest. And in the middle of the show, I did get a text from her. And I don't want to live in a world where Kayla Harrison is mad at me.

I can't live in that world. A, terrified of her. She'd snap me in half. But still, I mean, she's one of the salt of the earth human beings that I've ever come across in my life. And so I have to rectify this situation. And so episode two, here she is the great kayla harrison the uncrowned queen yes back in our lives oh my gosh how are you kayla it's great to see you are we good i mean i think you were yeah we're at it we're back at it uh are we good is everything

okay we are you i had to go with the champ. Yeah. Episode one. But like I said. You couldn't go with the uncrowned queen for your uncrowned? Did you say that for us? Honestly, did you say that for us? Probably.

I don't know if I believe you. Come on. That's the name of our whole empire. We've got the crown right there. It's good. It's a good logo. I dig it. We're building something here.

Have you heard about all this? I mean, I didn't get a congratulations. I didn't get a text. I didn't get anything. That is such bullshit, first of all. I knew I was one of the first to know, and I did congratulate you and tell you how proud I was of you for going after your dreams and sticking it to the man and doing your own thing there's nothing there's nothing quite like living life on fire in such a way where like you could fall but you could fly and yeah dude i'm so happy for you we're doing it and you're doing it you're on fire you're the the eyes are looking

good i i saw a couple black eyes yesterday in the aftermath looking fine. Yeah, I'm good. What about this trip to the – can we start here with the trip to the hospital? I got a little worried there when I heard about this. Here we go. What happened? I just want to tell you, Money Moy. Yes, the man.

Such a legend. But also, you guys were thinking of the word is siren, not mermaid. Oh. I homeschool my kids now. Wait, you do? You homeschool my kids now. Wait, you do? You homeschool them? I do, yeah. Why?

Why not? Oh, well, I don't say that in a disparaging way, but, you know, where do they get the community? Where do they get the interaction? Where do they get the socialization? So, I mean, well, we're super active in our church. So they go to a group once a week. Our church has a homeschool group that we're a part of. were super active in our church so they go to like group once a week we have our our church has a homeschool group that we're a part of they go to art classes um we just traveled for a week

after my fight we went to utah we went to um zion and bryce canyon and the grand canyon and had the time of our lives um but i just felt like really I don't work a nine to five. These kids were given to me for a reason. Why am I having them spend eight hours a day with a stranger? And, and we're going to try it and see how it goes. And it's been the best year of my life. Um, getting to spend time with them, like getting out of the rat race a little bit like we wake up we do a devotional we do all of our chores together in the barn then we go over and we do school and then i go train i mean no don't get me wrong it's the hardest year of my life yeah but it's the most rewarding by far yeah so i was gonna ask about the training what do you

do then because you're training a lot during the day, right? Yeah. So, uh, Ms. Shana comes over who's like my right-hand man. She's a, she's a stud. My mom comes to help when I get really close to the fight. Cause I'm training when I get close to the fight, you know, I'm training like three times a day. Um, including like the slow steady state cardio that is the bane of my existence. So we do school in the morning, then I'll train and I'll come home. Then we'll do more school. We'll eat together.

Then I'll train again. Then I'll come home. Then we'll hang out. Then I'll go train again. Yeah. Wow. That is a lot to handle. It is.

I mean, some people were lamenting the fact during the pandemic that their kids were home at, you know, during school hours, you're inviting this. So kudos to you. And, and I'm sure as you're gearing up and cutting weight, patience is kind of low as well, right? You're sitting there doing homework and stuff or teaching lessons, and you're freaking calorie deprived. Yeah. I mean, and I also fast, so I don't eat my first meal until 12 o'clock and we wake up at 6am every day. So like from six to 12, I'm just on coffee and God's grace.

But it is funny, you know, like we ask, I, I always want to grow and like patience is something that I've always struggled with. And so like, now I'm homeschooling my kids and I have no choice but to learn how to be patient and

self-control like with food, you know, never been a strong student of mine, have always eaten whatever I wanted. And now I'm fighting at 135 pounds and I literally cannot do that if I want to do what I want to do. So like, God doesn't test us, but he gives us opportunities to grow. And this year has been a big year for growth for me. Oh, yeah. I mean, we all remember when you first joined our show, you said you'd have to cut off a leg to make 135. Now you've done it twice. You've done it twice. Which one was harder, April or this one? The cut was, the actual cut itself was better this time like i didn't have to spend as much time and i didn't have to cut weight um friday morning it's more just like the

anticipation of it before it was like oh can i oh there's my dog hey before oh can i do it and now it's like oh i have to do it if that that makes sense. Okay. I mean, yes. So you got it out of the way, but your body knows how to do it. It's a great shot, by the way. What a stud. Good boy, he missed me. I've been gone for three weeks. But, you know, correct me if I'm wrong, you didn't have to go to the hospital the first time, right? No, I didn't.

So what happened this time? Honestly, I don't know. What did you feel I mean I just don't I hate to make excuses it's not excuse you won the fight in dominant fashion it's just like whatever I mean I just was like I had the week before the fight we went out early and the week before the fight, I, um, started having like bad cramps and I, um, had a couple instances where there was blood in my urine. And so we went to the hospital, tried to figure it out,

thought maybe it was a UTI or something, but it wasn't a UTI. It wasn't kidney stones. Um, don't, I don't know what it was. Do, do they think it was related to the weight cut

i don't think so are you worried that you are hurting your body by doing this no no you feel like it's safe it's healthy like dude we fight like i get an occasion like how healthy relative to what like yeah i think that it's a chosen commitment and a chosen sacrifice um i always tell my kids my body my choice yes amen how's the hand i know you heard it after the April fight. All good in the aftermath? Killing it. Yeah. Look at that. Yeah.

And to me, there it is, yes, to the world. Or maybe to people in particular. But to me, what was so fascinating about that fight was, I still will never forget you on Long Island, one of your first PFL fights, you win via dominant, dominant decisions, like not even close. And I'll never forget you

walking out in tears like if someone just turned on the tv they would have thought you'd lost because you were so upset that it went the distance here you go the distance against much tougher competition but to me the big story was kayla bleeds she's actually human she can actually bleed and i wanted to see how do you respond in the third round from that quote-unquote adversity and i thought you passed with flying colors. I thought that was the great story of that, of that fight. So did you have that disappointment that you went the distance that you bled that she cut you or were you proud of yourself?

Um, I mean, for sure. You never want to leave it in the judge's hands. I do believe I'm much better than the performance I put out that night. Uh, to be honest with you, I can't have my kids at my fight anymore because she hit me or the elbow. I think it was really just the elbow just kind of grazed my nose just right. Cause two black eyes cause blood to start gushingushing I didn't really get hit with much else but as soon as I started gushing blood my first thought and this is how I know I'm a mom now like through and through my first thought was oh my god I hope my kids know I'm okay and like that was all I was thinking about instead of like dude like punch her back

so my kids can't come to my fights anymore. It's too distracting for me. And yeah, I mean, I feel like I definitely, I'm capable of much more than that. And I'm also glad that it was a difficult fight because those fights are important to help us trust ourselves and have confidence when we go, when we get into uncomfortable situations. Like I'm not, I'm not a superhero. I'm human. I bleed. I have bad days. I fuck up. I fail. Shit happens, but I trust myself and I trust my training and I trust my coaches and i literally remember the second round i went back to sit down and mike goes it might be one one and like i can

hear a little bit of like edge in his voice and i just sat down and said tell me what you want me to do and he told me what he wanted me to do and i did it wow that's amazing i love the bond that you guys have by the way were your kids rattled by the blood, by the cut? They were totally fine. Yeah. Dude, I was rocking two black eyes this whole past week on our trip and people kept staring at me and I couldn't figure out why because my kids, they were just like, they don't even care.

It's me. I'm the problem. Was there any part of you that was like, man, I'm so close. Everyone believes it's me i'm the problem was there any part of you that was like man i'm so close this is everyone believes it's in a more contender fight don't slip up was there any part of you like almost fighting not to lose as opposed to fighting to win yeah i put a little bit of too much pressure on myself and that's like in that regard whereas instead of just opening up and and having fun with it i was like yeah i was kind of like don't fuck up like which i never fight good when i fight like that i fight my best i perform my best when i go out there and i just instill my will and i just think like there's no way you're ever gonna beat me i'm gonna come going to come out like I'm going to crush. And I didn't, I, I didn't do that. So, but that's a me thing. I have a lot of stuff I can work on, you know,

thankfully. Um, yeah, there's a lot of room for improvement, which I'm grateful for. I know you were in the back, um, somewhat watching the Pennington Pena fight. Cause they showed you afterwards and I'll ask you about that specific moment in a second but who do you think won that fight that's still a big topic of discussion i still have to go back and watch round one because i missed it but i had raquel winning the fight i just didn't care it's it's better for business no yeah i mean it's gonna be more exciting and more fun to like whoop her ass but she's also like dude now i have to listen to her talk for but man you guys back and forth you guys

at the press conference were magic i mean that was so good i said to her yesterday i only want one thing and i hope that you will i i i would love to have you both on at one point and do like a face-to-face thing because you guys are so good together in the in the best like to me i don't know if there's a build-up that is more intriguing and exciting for me than you two you two guys were flying there and then she they show you on the screen and she doesn't address you and you're there and i was surprised were you surprised no no why i think she's scared of me i think that i intimidate her and i don't say that like to talk shit. Listen, I know that she is a good fighter. I know that she's tough as nails. I know that she's like got an amazing like mental fortitude and willpower. But I think there's something about me that like makes her nervous. I don't know exactly what it is. I know I'm a bad bitch. So maybe that, that, I mean, that in and of itself could be enough, but dude, I said it in another interview.

I was like, she started calling out a man. First it was okay. First it was, oh, you know, if you want to fight the real fights cut to 135 pounds and then we can talk, you're not even in the right promotion. So shut shut up and then it was like okay i put my money where my mouth is and i signed up to fight in the ufc then it's like oh you were in the little leagues now you're running to the big leagues i'm like how do you run to the big leagues does that make any fucking sense then it was oh she's on steroids i know for a fact she's on steroids and then it was she's not the money fight. Amanda's the money fight.

And I want to fight. I'm like, next thing you know, she's going to be calling out Ronda Rousey. And then what does she do yesterday on your show? I was like, dude, this girl just, she's terrified. Well, speaking of my show and that comment, her being terrified, she actually spoke of this. Do you mind if I just play it in case anyone missed it? Play it. Roll it, baby. Here's Juliana Pena talking about Kayla Harrison yesterday.

Honey, I am not afraid of you. You are not some oogity-boogity person who can't be beat. I see you bleed the same blood as me. I've seen you lose in the PFL and that's when you came running over to the big leagues. You are in the big leagues now. You were playing over there in the AAAs.

You were over there in the minors. Now it's the real shit. Now is where we find out what you're freaking made of. Can you make the weight? Can you fight for 25 minutes? And I guarantee you, I will not go away. If she thinks she's just going to take me out in the first round or the second round or the third round,

like, you know, Holly Holm or Katelyn Vieira, she is sorely mistaken. And I'm just so sick of her trying to act like she's some freaking boogeyman it's like i'm not afraid of you plain and simple i am not afraid of you so there she says it multiple times she's not afraid okay you're not the boogeyman all right since i'm a contract honey listen i don't think i'm the boogie woman i don't think that i'm like greater than than anyone or that I don't bleed or that I don't struggle or like, dude, this is this is the difference, right? Like my life has been a fight. My entire existence has been a fight. And so that's why I do have respect for Juliana because when she gets in the cage, she fights like she has no quit in her. And that's the only saving grace she has in

my mind is like, you know what? She's fucking annoying. She talks a lot. She does make some decent points, but I just, for whatever reason whatever reason don't she rubs me the wrong way but she fights like she just has this in uh indomitable will she doesn't quit and i respect that because that's me i don't quit i I have been fighting since... I don't even know. Before... I don't even know when she started MMA. I think it was probably a week

before she went on the Ultimate Fighter show. But yeah, dude. I've been fighting my whole life. There's no quitting me. I am unfuckwithable. Yeah. I love this fight. I want to see it so badly.

I'm wondering, obviously you want it as well. You want to fight for the belt next. Is there any part of you that is concerned that they do Juliana Amanda next? Because I don't know if you saw like 24 hours after your fight, Amanda popped up dancing on social media. Did you see that video? I saw it. By the way, I asked Juliana this. Your thoughts on the dance moves, the video?

Good for Amanda. Living her best life. Good for her. Do you think she's trying to get the fight first or do you think she's just trying to say I'm getting the winner of this? I'm the prize at she's just trying to say i'm the winner i'm getting the winner of this i'm the prize at the end i think i think that she gets the winner okay have you been told this she's gonna fight me after i whooped juliana's ass that's what's gonna happen

it's an amazing sequence one is more personal for you peña or nunez they're not personal at all not nunez i mean former training partners former teammates no i just don't like the shit that she said about my team i don't have any personal issues with amanda at all i never did not not one not one issue with her i don't take it personally i don't like i'm att for life like but i personally don't have an issue there i have an issue like don't talk shit about my team that's it that's it like respect where you came from respect the people that pulled you out of you know the bottom she wanted to retire before she moved to att before she switched teams

dan took such good care of her like yeah i just don't respect that don't don't don't shit on the people that helped build you that's absolutely like that would be like me saying that Jimmy Pedro and Big Jim didn't help me win gold. I just can't imagine it. It doesn't make sense. Who's tougher? Tougher opponent for you? Tougher matchup? In your opinion?

Tougher puzzle? Everybody's tough until you beat them. No, but on paper, who's the tougher? Amanda. Okay. Listen, styles make fights so so realistically realistically when do you think this happens you versus juliana whenever she wants i'm ready okay because i think she was implying the opposite no i don't understand like i have to remember i'm not dealing with normal people when i speak i said i needed to take some time off like i just took a week off i went to utah with my kids we climbed mountains and repelled like we had a blast like i'm going back to the gym what do you

mean what do you mean i'm going back to the gym like time off was like a week that's what i took a week off like i had a week vacation i'm like let's fucking go march april something like that right probably anytime okay damn it and dude there's a couple you know she's like oh if she can make 135 pounds she said she's gonna make 135 pounds first of all that night that i cut weight i called hunter and i said hey are these young ladies are they on is it happening and he was like what are you talking i was like i'm i'm at the sauna right now do i need to cut another pound or not and they were both gonna fight that's the only reason i didn't cut the extra pound number two if she can make the way but she's a consummate

like make up your fucking mind am i a professional or am i not going to make the weight like make up your mind about me what else did she say what else was it come on stir the pot ariel this is the part where you know i'm not i'm just you're you're you're going through everything you've got it all you've got it all you've got it you've got it all i i did i so so i was curious um okay so juliana it's happening all that a lot of people were were mad on your behalf uh and this could be dean stirring the pot uh that your former uh promotion pfl on the day of your fight tweeted the video of larissa pacheco defeating you did you a lot of people were mad actually about this and then dana white was asked about it and he took some shots at the PFL and said,

this is what happens when you're drowning and no one cares about them and they're losers, etc. Did you see it? Were you bothered? I didn't see it until after the fight. I was asked about it the night of the fight. I tend to agree with Dana on this, where it's like, I forgot that they were having these big fights because I have not seen any promotional stuff. And for the record, I'm two in one against Larissa out of 13 rounds.

I did lose three. Um, i think she's a great fighter and that's in my past like i don't have anything i'm not gonna i'm not gonna go low i'm not gonna talk shit about them i'm not gonna air all the laundry i could air about how they handle certain things and the way they have treated fighters i'm not gonna do that because I know that the truth will come out and I have nothing to be ashamed of. I'm proud of everything I've done in my career, including that loss. It catapulted me into making big decisions and changing my life and like becoming who I am today. Every time Dawn is talking about this fight,

the Pacheco Cyborg fight, there's subtle shots taken at you. I'm sure you hear them, right? About you. I don't because I don't pay attention to that. You and Dawn seem to have had a great relationship when you were there. I really liked Dawn. What happened?

Why does it have to be this way? Why can't it be like, hey, we helped her. It was a great partnership. It was a great relationship. We wish her the best. She was one of the faces of our organization. She was someone who put us on the map. And now she wants to go climb another mountain and we wish her the best. She'll always be a PFL legend. She'll be a Hall of Famer forever. Why does it have to be she ran away? The going got tough and all this stuff. Why does it have to be that way? I mean, I don you need to ask don that yeah you know i never said anything like that about the pfl i didn't i didn't feel um i don't feel like i handled it poorly i feel like i did the best i could do and listen i made it very clear that it was not an easy decision for me to leave. Um, I grew up with that organization and had really grown,

um, grown to care about a lot of the people who work there and, um, helped build my career. So I have nothing bad to say about them. I do believe now more than ever that like, this isn't, um, these people aren't your friends this is a business through and through um and that was a good lesson for me and again like i'm doing my thing i'm staying in my lane i love my life dude my life is ariel i'm on fire it's so good like god is so good and not just because i'm like winning and making like it's just like the okay yeah he's snoring did you yeah i heard that just because like not just because i'm winning and making money but because like at my core i know that i'm in the right place

like chasing this dream climbing this mountain being mom, like staying true to myself, not, not being some like, I don't know, fake ass, whatever. Like I'm, I'm being me. And like, there's no better feeling than doing that. You know, look at you, you're doing it. We're doing it. We're doing it, baby. There's no, there's no greater feeling than like waking up every day and being yourself and like being being okay with that comfortable in your skin confident confident and just like i trust myself i know i can do this like i'm on the right path like trusting god and like trusting yourself and then just keep doing the next right thing. I love it.

By the way, could I just ask Cyborg Pacheco, you never fought Cyborg, you know Pacheco. It is happening this weekend, by the way. And if you order the pay-per-view on DAZN pay-per-view, you can watch the alternate commentary, which we will be doing from this very studio. It's a nice new thing that we're doing called Helwani Vision. So please do check it out on DAZN pay-per-view

exclusively this Saturday, October 19th. It's going to be a great time. What do you think? What do you think? Cyborg Pacheco, who do you think wins? I think Pacheco. Wow. Wow.

I mean, as long as she hasn't been sleeping in silk pajamas, you know, she's young. She's got power. She's tough. She's hungry. She's well-rounded and i i think that you know unfortunately for cyborg time waits for no man or woman and um yeah she's had a lot of fights in her career she's a legend listen i have nothing bad to say about cyborg she's a legend of the sport but i'm going to check out okay uh last thing this time next year october of 2025

are you the champion yet or about to be the champion you you think both of these fights happen in the next 365 i will be the crowned queen ah we'll still we'll still always consider you the uncrowned queen because you said it first in this new era and i believe i don't know who took it from who well we were first and then you said it and i felt you could put us on the map and that was your subtle no i know i know i know it's tough out there like you can't you can't say oh i was talking to my pal aria hawani on the dais at the press conference so that was your subtle wink wink nudge nudge to us and we felt it and we appreciated it. Okay. You're so lucky. I almost wear the cowboy hat that Ali bought me. Oh, my God.

Just so you would ask about it and I could tell you, oh, my buddy Ali bought this for me. Let me tell you something. I was telling this to the guys in the back. Last thing and I'll let you go. I was telling this to the guys in the back. When I left ESPN, I was all about Heel Wani and High Road Heel Wani is dead. Black heart. I have a full heart. I'm'm happy i want peace in life and and you tell your friend ali despite everything he's done to me

i have a seat for him right here let's shake hands let's send a message to the world the jews and muslims can come together in the mma world and outside the mma world and let's drop this nonsense. And I don't want anything from him. I don't want, I don't want any interview. I don't want any scoop. I don't want any fighter.

I'm the bigger man here. It's time for. Okay. Well, that was a dig. No, no, no.

I'm trying to, okay. I'm sorry. I'm trying to be a big person, not bigger, big person, a mature person. And I would like to extend the olive branch once and for all,

so we can all move on okay i love it i'm so proud of you thank you yes that's what the world needs more of like we need more love and acceptance and just like forgiveness and yeah we'd be in a lot better place amen And yeah, we'd be in a lot better place. Amen. Except for Juliana. I forgive her. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Let's go, girl. You're the best.

Get in gear. Get ready to wreck your body because I'm fucking coming for you. Oh, I can't wait. I cannot wait. My most anticipated fight. Thank you so much. Great to have you on. Congrats.

Enjoy homeschooling. Much love, A.H. Yeah, you too. Peace out. you on. Congrats. Enjoy homeschooling. Much love, A.H. Yeah, you too. Peace out. Peace out. There she is, Kayla Harrison. Unbelievable. I cannot wait for that fight. I cannot wait for that fight. That is tremendous theater. They are magic together. There are certain personalities that are magic together. And A.H., K.H., J.P., K-H. It's magic. It's magic. So hopefully we get that in the spring. In the spring.

I'm putting it out there. Now, we return to the ATT theme. Moicano, Harrison, and one of our favorites. Ah, we love El Diamante. Again, when we were writing down the wish list for week one, there were some people that had to be a part of it. And you see him right there, immortalized. That's the hat made famous in the MMA world by the great Dustin Poirier.

Of course, there have been others who have worn it. Marvin Hagler made it very, very famous back in the day. But when you see this now, you think of Dustin Poirier, and that's an incredible compliment. He is El Diamante. He is the pride of Lafayette, Louisiana. There he is, our guy, Warhat right there. How are you, sir? Good to see you. Good to see you, man. I see you got the little new set right there. I see the Warhat, but where the hell's the picture at? Don't do me like that. So I'm trying, I'm moving things around. Don't worry. The picture is, I have the picture. It's right over there. We're moving things around. That was a glamour shot, bro. The lighting was nice. It was just, it was a good picture, Ariel. Don't do this.

Okay, but like, this is literally above my shoulder 24-7. Like, it's right there. Every shot the war hat is there. You know that, right? All right. Salute. I appreciate it. That's for you, man.

That's only for you, not for anyone else. It's great to see you. And by the way, earlier in the day, we spoke to a teammate of yours. We've had three ATT fighters in a row here we spoke to henato moicano and we were going through people who we'd fight and he mentioned you in this list and i was like you'd fight dustin poirier and he goes listen to this he goes no no no no no no i would never agree to fight dustin poirier because i would never agree to a fight that i know i would lose i train with that guy every day i am losing to that guy and he kept repeating how much he loves you and respects

you. I misunderstood him. So I just wanted to tell you, Renato thinks you smoke him. Dude, he knows. This guy beats me up in the gym. He knows the truth. Well, it was nice to see that. And I like the guy. Hard worker.

What you see is what you get. And actually, I ran into him. I might have been working for ESPN. I ran into him in Vegas, and I told him, hey, if you need me to come out, I would love to help if you need a softball who has experience fighting the guy. This was weeks, maybe five weeks before his fight. But nah, that's my teammate, and he's been my teammate for a while. Yeah, and he's crushing it. And he just beat the guy that you beat back in March, who a lot of people thought you wouldn't beat and thought he was going to be the boogeyman at 155. What did you think of that performance? Dude, so I can't bet on the fights. But everyone around me at my gym and my buddy's gyms here in Lafayette, I'm telling you guys, bet on Moicano. He's going to beat this guy. At the money line, it was like plus, what was he, 200 to something.

I'm like, dude, this is free money. Bet this. I train with this guy all the time i fought this guy i know what's gonna happen here all right mma you never really know but i was like he's gonna win this fight and and did you honestly did you think that i don't want to say easily nothing's easy in fighting but that dominantly no dude so mcconnell's strength he's tall and and lanky but he's one of the strongest guys i've ever felt at 155 pounds wow and uh and his jiu-jitsu technique is incredible and once he and he's really good at taking your back and once he gets your back dude until the bell rings you're probably going to be stuck there has some of the best reneka chokes i've ever felt in my life um but i didn't think he was going to go in there and just demolish him the way he did

and could i just ask like uh at the beginning of of this year, I think a lot of people I know, they were predicting, all right, BSD probably end of 2024, number one contender, maybe champion if things go his way. Now he's facing two really bad losses and, you know, kind of back there in the rankings, if you will. Do you think he can turn it around? Are these the types of losses that can, you know, derail you for a long time? Your read on where he's at now towards the end of the year.

I don't know, Ariel. I don't know his mindset personally. But I believe, like, anybody can turn anything around and reach their goals if they're committed enough, determined enough. Take the lumps and learn and grow. He can do anything. and reach their goals if they're committed enough determined enough uh take the lumps and learn and grow he can do anything he's still young great athlete blood and guts fighter he has the ingredients to be whatever he wants to be it's just his mindset what he's going to do with that and take how he's going to come back from these losses that's all on him only he knows that so that's fighting them yeah. Yeah. Amen. All right. So, you know, it's funny. The last time we spoke, it was right after the Islam fight. And you were very much on the fence about your future.

You never quite retired in the ring or in the cage, but very much on the fence. I said to you, I hope respectfully, that I don't believe you are done, that I think that you are going to come back. Since then, it's been a constant stream of Uno Mas and fight news coming, tweets and Instagram stories and all this stuff. And so can we at least officially say you are going to fight again? The idea of you retiring is dead for now. We'll fight again. It's just how this thing unfolds is going to, we'll see when I do retire. It could be Uno Mas,

could be Dos Mas. I had a good meeting at the UFC headquarters. I was out there with Celsius at a trade show and, uh, I had a good meeting. So I could come back. And then, so my goal is to get a fight,

get an event here in Louisiana, whether that's Lafayette, Louisiana, New Orleans, I want to lay the gloves down where I started fighting. That's my, my goal. Um, you know, just opponent availability, what makes sense then these guys behind the scenes, people don't understand this. These, these shows are booked a year in advance. You know, like I think a few months ago we were speaking about it and he was already booked his pay-per-views all the way through August or something like that.

So it's hard to just throw things together last second. It takes a lot of planning. There's a lot of moving parts with these big UFC events. But my goal is to take my gloves off in Louisiana and retire home. When you said that, by the way, I literally got like a rush of chills down my spine. Because you've invited us along the journey, because of Fightville, because we know how much Louisiana means to you, that would be one of the great scenes

in the history of the sport. How confident, to your point, it's tough to plan these things out. How confident are you that this could happen? They were supposed to do that New Orleans show a few years back with DC. It didn't work out. How confident are you

that they can actually get it done this time? I fought on that one. Yeah, that was maybe 15 or 2016 at the Saludi King Center where the Pelicans play. I fought on that card. that was uh maybe 15 or 2016 at the smoothie king center where the pelicans play i fought on that card that's the last time they came here uh i'm i'm about 95 percent oh wow sure that we get this done it's just for me on my part is do i fight before that because the longer i'm away from the sport the you know i just feel removed and i'm not with everything not training every single day i might train three times a week. I'm always staying in shape, but just technique and fundamentals and

things you have to be on the mats every day. I don't want to wait, you know, until summer or end of next year, if they, before they can come back to Louisiana is what I'm trying to say. So maybe I need a fight before then just to stay in the mix, stay fresh so I can retire how I want to be on top. What are you leaning towards? Like just waiting for that one and done or two more? I don't want to. It might be dos mas because I don't want to wait a year.

I don't know when the exact date of Louisiana, if it comes together, when that would be. But that's my goal. If we can do it sooner, it would be Uno Mas. Yeah, yeah. That would be the perfect scenario, right? One last one in Louisiana and you say goodbye. The question is, because it's not happening anytime soon. No, waiting.

I don't want to be on the shelf. Yeah. I don't want to be on the shelf for that long. Because also, I'm not asking. Nowadays, everybody in the UFC is dangerous. I'm not asking for like a favorable fight. I want the hardest guys I can get. You know, I was asking for Gaethje, asking for Hooker, you know, so I want hard fights. I'm not trying to

not get beat up. I want to fight. It's just the availability and the timeframe. We'll see. How is your body though? Could, you know, that could dictate the timeline as well. How's your body feeling? I'm, I'm, I'm healed up, man. I did therapy, a bunch of therapy sessions on my knee. My ribs healed up on their own. It took a while. My nose, I can't breathe, but everything else is good.

Damn. And so the note, like how, yeah, I hear it. How difficult is that just day-to-day life or when you get punched? No, the punching is's the way it is now with the cartilage destroyed and the bones broken the punching is great i don't even my eyes don't get watery nothing happens but uh it's the breathing it's the sleeping the training you know i'm in five round fights a lot i need to be able to breathe good i can't be out there with my

mouth wide open uh it's a lot of things but but as you know, I would have been on this show yesterday. I was in a national Tennessee at Vanderbilt going to have a complete reconstruction of my nose. And at pre-op, they, they like pulled the plug on it. Say, Hey, if you're going to fight again, we can't do the surgery because it's probably going to get messed up. They have to rebuild it. And with the bone grafts and stuff they have to do to keep my septum from collapsing my nose is going to be more rigid so any shot to the face straight on hard is going to mess it up and they said a second surgery would be a nightmare for the surgeons so they really recommend me to wait off on it and so i just flew back home wow and and yes

uh you did tell me that i didn't know if you wanted that out there so you know thank you for sharing but um i'm just curious like you fly all out there so you know thank you for sharing but um i'm just curious like you fly all the way you think you're gonna get your nose fixed you think you're gonna start to be able to breathe again and you're literally at pre-op and they say no sorry mentally is that a tough thing to overcome it was kind of a relief honestly dude because my my wife flew out there too that sucks so we had just a couple of days of dead time in Nashville. We got to go see some stuff. But I thought I was having surgery. Mentally, it was a relief because I was like, oh, I'm not, you know, because they had to break it in a few different spots and remove a lot of my septum.

So I didn't have to have surgery. That's a good part. But the breathing is the bad part. Just curious about the timeline. If you would have had the surgery, when could you have returned? And did that kind of fit into the UNO versus Dos Mas plans? getting my face squeezed on and grappling and getting hit again. And then I would have to do a camp from there. So I would think like the first quarter of next year was a, was a possibility if things made sense. Okay. But now that's all out the window. Yeah. So now I can fight whenever, you know, Speaking of your wife, you did tell us she wanted you to retire.

She was asking you to retire. How did you, to retire. How did you cross that bridge with her? I think she's been with me from the jump, as people know who follow this story or follow my life. But she just wants me to be happy. She doesn't want me to leave everything I have in the octagon. But she also wants me to walk away. I deserve to walk away, she thinks, from the sport. Trying to see the right word for this uh content yeah content with everything you know was that something i mean you're you're you're a grown man i'm sure she respects your wishes but like was that something that you had to sit down and not not not like pitch her on it but like

explain to her where you're coming from or is it just a thing like hey you know you're having coffee i'm coming back that's it we move on i mean it was definitely a few different conversations over the last few months um but at during one of these conversations she just like took a breath and said here we go again let's go like so she she's in she's in can i ask about the mental side of things like you getting to the place where you're on the fence in June in Newark to now like you're talking about one or two. What was that journey like? How did you get to the point where you're like, okay, I am not done? Healing up, taking a step away from the sport, letting things unfold, getting back in the gym slowly. You know, emotions.

And I've been fighting a long time. Emotions and everything, especially fighting a long time emotions and everything especially after a big fight like that and another fall you know another another loss when i was trying to accomplish everything i set out to do it just really hurts so emotionally you know sometimes i jump the gun and also in the back of my head i know i'm close to the end but also i know on the double-edged sword also i know i can beat these guys so just when it is enough enough uh i wanted two more okay uh correct me if i'm recalling incorrectly uh you you did tell me after the fight that if you would have won you would have retired right if you would

have won the belt you would have retired right so 100 100 you would have won the belt, you would have retired, right? So- 100%, 100%. Now that you're not in the title chase, so to speak, what is the motivation to keep fighting? Is it just to go out on a win? Like, you know, you fought Dan Hooker, you fought Justin Gaethje. Like, what is keeping you around ultimately? So I think the real answer to that is just to be completely content like i would love to

lay my gloves down at home and never fight again finish here in front of my louisiana friends and family that people have been supporting me since i was 17 years old through fighting um and to go out on top to show like I'm leaving, but I still have it. That's like important to me too. Like I'm not getting squeezed out. Anything could happen. I could lose two more. And then I'm one of those guys who got squeezed out of the sport.

I want to beat these guys, tough fights, and walk away on top. Like this guy left when he was still on top of his game. That's important to me. That's how I want my story to be. If the timing doesn't work out for whatever reason and you can't finish in louisiana how much will that upset you it would suck because that's that's what i really want and i need to get back on the phone and sit down with dana and hunter and figure out exactly what time frame we're looking at and what matchups

make sense uh if i do have to take another one you know uh but i'm pretty confident frame we're looking at and what matchups make sense uh if i do have to take another one you know uh but i'm pretty confident that we're gonna get it done and that's something special to me like being the reason an event comes back to louisiana and fighting in front of my people here and putting on a war that that's what i want could ask if you could lay out dos mas who are the guys you're fighting who do you beat first and then who do you beat in louisiana dude it changes from week to week month to month this landscape of fighting is so crazy me and gates are one and one i would love to do the last fight with him in louisiana our first fight was in his backyard. Our second fight was in neutral

ground. The third one, let's do it in my backyard. That would be sick. You versus Hooker would be sick too. That first fight was incredible. Yeah, for sure, man. You versus Diaz is still the one I want to see. I don't know if... I feel like we're...

I'll do that one. I'll do that one in Louisiana. That would be incredible. Get Diaz in the UFC. I'll'll meet him at 170 were you and connor both at like the same convention or something i saw a video where someone said dustin's right over there did you see each other in vegas no so dude that was crazy i had just finished my my signing for celsius and i'm partners with the uh seltzer called Hop Water. So I was walking over to their booth to meet some people. And Connor was behind me, apparently. And my agent was walking behind me and he grabs me. So Connor might have saw the back of my head.

I don't know. I didn't see him. He grabs my shoulders and says, hey, go this way to the right, to the right. So we start walking to the right. I'm like, the booth is right there. We start walking to the right. And then once we get clear of everybody he's like dude we almost had a big problem and that's that's what that was what do you think would have happened if you

saw each other what do you think happens i don't know bro we just have such a long history he said some foul things you ever watch family guy yeah yeah you know when peter and the chicken run into each other tell me about it they freaking go on this crazy fight they're falling down hills they're fighting for an hour you know that's what would have happened you think so you think you guys would have fought yeah for sure because of what he said about your family yeah and just every just everything we have over the past however many years since our first fight. But after the second fight, it was so cordial. Yeah, but it's not anymore.

Okay. Do you think you would have ignited that or him or just like the two of you just seeing each other would have combust? Yeah, just the both of us i believe both of us he said he said afterwards that's what i told once uh my guy walked us walked us away and told me what just happened and why we had to make that short right i was like uh dude for sure if we'd have made that's what i told him if we'd have made eye contact if our eyes would have met it would have been it would have been bad, probably. Wow. Does he factor into these plans at all?

Dude, I don't know if he's ever going to fight again. Do you? I think he does. I really do. Honestly. Do you? We'll see. We'll see. I don't know. I don't know. I was kind of like thinking for sure he was at the beginning of his his return against chandler then it kept getting dragged drug on and i don't know him versus hooker who wins that's a fun fight man that's a fun fight either guy i think uh whoever lands the the biggest clean shot first wins were you surprised that's a coin toss were

you surprised chandler moved on and and took the olivera fight in new york no i'm not surprised dude because he's not he's still very physically fit but he's not a young man in the sport anymore he can't wait two three years and then it get pushed back again and keep waiting you know he's at like it's fight or move on and uh he made i think he made the right decision who do you think wins that one chandler and olivera i think if uh it depends what mindset olivera's in if it's the same guy who i fought and the same guy mentally who chandler fought when he was on that run olivera wins wow do you think he's that same guy it looked like it when he fought armin you know he was in it to the end he was fighting hard if he goes in with that same mindset i think he can win you're you're one of the uh the guys i love talking um about fighting and what it does to you and just like from a

broader perspective. And over the last week or so, I don't know if you've seen this online, we've seen some testimonials from MMA legends about what their life is like post-fighting. There's one with Shane Carwin that Brendan Schaub spoke about. I don't know if you've seen any of this. And I'm just wondering when you're factoring your last two fights in your, you know, the last chapter, are these things that worry you when you're seeing legends talk about this stuff, about the state that they're in and how they can't do certain things? Does this concern you? Does this worry you? Does this factor into your decision making? With the Shane Carlin thing, he's talking about more like financial stuff right uh he's he was

talking all about like his body and his mind and and stuff that you know cte and things like that yeah head trauma definitely worries me um but i think i saw a thing him saying he can't like afford his mortgage or rent or something like that i'm not worried about that no i'm not talking about finances i'm talking about just you know the fighter uh the game can eat you and spit you up right i'm just i know you've talked about wanting to be with your daughter wanting to be able to live a long healthy life and so i'm wondering if that has come into to play here as you're you know making these these calls yeah 100 it has ariel this ain't good for you especially the way

i fight um nobody rides for free in this game we're giving up something we're giving up something every time every camp nobody rides for free but uh it's just like an agreement you come to with yourself like at the end of this when i look back in the life i've lived and the life i've provided for my family starting from the jump would i have done it again for sure for sure so it's just acceptance and deals you make with yourself like whatever you do for a living i'm sure at the end of it something's going on you know it's just this is just what i do what about your boy uh chris duncan getting the guillotine a couple weeks ago you saw that dude man hey he's a beast bro he's so big and strong for 155 and his grappling is underrated man one of the best head and arm choke stars choke transitions that i've ever felt you teach him that

i definitely jumped the ghillie on him i know know that much. Could you imagine, by the way, you jumping the ghillie in, in, in freaking Louisiana and that that's like, now we need Fightful too. Like that's legit movie shit. Right. But since I've been talking about retirement and this is the end, uh, they've actually reached out to me a few different filming companies and they want to do something on the retirement and like the last walk and stuff like that so maybe we'll do something but the guillotine is always always i know you're into darts the guillotine is the red bullseye man oh my gosh

that's amazing are you is it is it going to be with the same crew that did fight for or a new crew a different crew i'm not 100 sure yet so the same crew reached out to me but also I have a different crew um I'm just kind of saying you know because like for me this stuff is serious like opening my life and letting somebody into my home and letting somebody into my gyms and what I'm going through it's just like it's a big deal I try to block off that energy that's why I don't even like doing all that embedded stuff or the countdown shows I hate all that stuff because like I know they're trying to work and do their jobs and get the content, but I'm trying to work myself.

I have another man who's trying to hurt me in a few weeks or months. And I just don't like the energy vampires, like people pulling away from me and when I'm focused and in the zone. No, I totally understand that. Plus, I mean, it's different when you're 16, 17, 18, and you don't have a daughter and you're not married.

I know you were with your soon-to-be wife and all that, but like, it's a totally different spot in your life. different when you're 16 17 18 and you don't have a daughter and you're not married i know i know you were with your soon-to-be wife and all that but like it's a totally different spot in your life you probably were inviting the cameras back then you wanted the attention you wanted to become famous now you're like leave me alone for sure 100 dude that's that's that's what it is yeah it's i don't want any distractions at all like when i'm in the zone in camp or fight week you know is this uh that's why a lot of these embedded guys like on the big fight fights i'm like not answering the phone not going where i say i'm gonna go i'm like dropping smoke screens oh man uh i'm sure they

get it i sure they understand because you're always very accessible or you try to be by the way is this bmf tournament? Is this a real thing? I spoke to Dana a few days ago when I was in Vegas. He didn't understand that I was talking about a one-night tournament. He thought it was going to be a few months. He doesn't think any athletic commission would sanction a one-night tournament. Wait, you want to do two fights in a night? Yeah.

That's Christmas then. That's a good time. That's what that is. Okay, so did he say no to one night tournament? Which, by the way, there are some athletic commissions in the States, maybe not the top ones that would agree to it because we've seen it, but is he open

to it over a couple of shows? Is he open to like it over a couple of shows is he open to this idea it seemed it it seemed like he was like he was on kind of laughing and smiling on board with that like that's i never thought about that that's a great idea we were talking but i was like no no no in one night and he says like uh nobody's gonna approve that uh what do you what do you make of the fact that the belt isn't on the line when max fight fights next week well he's only oh i guess he's the third guy to on the line when Max fights next week? Well, he's only... I guess he's the third guy to have the BMF belt. Because Masvidal was still the BMF

champion in fighting, and it wasn't on the line. I don't know. That doesn't make a whole lot of sense for me. It kind of should be, in a way, but maybe it's not the same weight class. I don't know. BMF shouldn't really matter when it comes to weight classes ilia got his own belt did you see that he uh he somehow got one and that seems to have irked some people yeah i saw max saying

his is earned not bought or something yeah you definitely earned it yes max definitely earned it dude who do you think wins that i'm such a big fan of max i don't know it's hard to ever bet or pick against max just because he's been around so long and he's fought everybody and he's so good but ilia's a handful man i mean i'm excited about this fight card i'm working for espn for that fight nice so i'm pumped to see unfold. I'm a fan of both guys. Are you going to start doing more of the TV stuff? Is that part of the transition? I'd like to, Ariel.

I enjoy it. I get butterflies and live TV is a whole different thing. We can film and edit stuff and mess up and it can come out perfect. Live TV, when they're talking in your ear and you have to piggyback off the next person next to you, you can't be lost for words. You have to be on point. That stuff excites me. What do you like better? That thing where it's like this dance and you only have X amount or

doing like a podcast, a longer form thing? Are you interested in that? I had a couple offers to start a podcast. It just seems like too much work, you know? Yeah, it just seems like a lot of every week filming for so long talking about what's going on. I could definitely do it. And I have a lot to long talking about what's going on. I could definitely do it. And I have a lot to say about everything that's going on. I just don't want to be sitting in front of a camera and working with the editing crew and doing all that. I got a lot of other stuff I'm juggling. Okay.

Five years from now, what's your main thing? You're done fighting. You're a successful guy. You've made your name. What do you think will be your main day-to-day thing that you're doing? I'd love to be working in some way with ESPN or some kind of fight media because I would love to be around the sport. I love this sport.

I would love to be around it and still be in people's eyes talking about what's going on. But I have a few businesses here in louisiana i'm gonna be busy with with business stuff for sure man i saw uh mark zuckerberg rocking a shirt did you see that yeah that's he actually sent me a picture of him when he bought it that's incredible where did he buy that from your from your store from paris yeah from a louis Louisiana grown store. That's nuts. Are you boys with Zuck? Have you trained with him? No, I've never trained with him. My buddy Johnny Ebelin actually went out to maybe Tahoe or

something and trained with him for a week. We'll message every now and then, but he's never asked about training. Yes. That was not Zuck, but we do have a photo of Zuck rocking your stuff. And that's a pretty, I mean, like that's one of the most, I don't know, powerful people in the world, in America, just rocking one of your shirts, which is incredible. Are you going to Saudi Arabia for, no, not, yes, Saudi Arabia this weekend. Are you going to Saudi Arabia for Johnny Eblen? No, all of the coaches, my boxing coach,

all the coaches are already out there with him. I wasn't with him during this training camp, so won't be there i'll be watching feeling good looking good his you know the first fight was tough but he won yeah everything i hear the kids only getting better man he's young in the sport and he's been good for a long time and i've been waiting for people to realize how good he is and i think he's going to continue to do that yeah um all right well i'm very happy to hear all this you're back um like you never left you never actually officially left you did a lot of people are asking me in our chat here i'm back you're back baby i'm back like anderson yes remember that remember that promo i back i back trust me i back when he came back uh after the weidman fight they're asking, you did post on your story, fight news coming soon.

Is there something to share or? There's some things verbally we spoke about that are looking promising, but I can't share yet. Okay, so we're close to something here. Like there is something imminent. You're not just playing. We're close, we're close. Wow.

Can you tell us like timeframe? First quarter next year. Dang. So it is, it's probably going to be Dos Mas then. It's looking that way. Wow. Like I said,

I haven't signed anything, but we're just kind of weighing out options and talking about timeframe. You like it? You like what's being presented to you? I love the chaos. So if a crazy fight is presented, I gotta do it. Okay. Alright. We'll leave it at that. Stay tuned.

Thank you so much, man. I don't take these chats for granted. I always look forward to them. And this first week for us wouldn't be the same without you. So great to catch up again and looking forward to all this news. And glad, most importantly, to hear that your body's feeling good and that you're ready to go. Thanks, man. And I'm glad to have you back during the week. I was missing out, man. I love hearing these stories and the way you interview these guys. So keep it up, Ariel.

I appreciate it. Thank you so much, Dustin. All the best. Talk to you soon. There he is. The man, Dustin Poirier. Love the chats. What a guy. And I screwed up, by the way. I had, at one point, I believe, paused my stream, and so I looked down, and there was an Ilya. I would never question. Do you guys, I would never, but there was a picture of Ilya when I looked down,

but then I, now the Zuck picture came up. So we did have the Zuck picture, right? We had it. Who, me? Yeah, that's me. You're just down? No, that's not that. I looked down, and it was Ilya, and I'm like, wait like wait a second he was probably confused he's like no i probably he probably saw the zuck picture right yeah he saw the zuck picture man yeah why don't you why don't you leave the production to us no i just you you do your yapping and then you know you're talking to these guys i look down we'll deal with the we'll deal with the production by the way no that's that's well played.

Zuck's got a different look these days, right? The hair, the chain, the oversized shirts. Yeah, he's got the skibbity riz. He does have the skibbity riz. He's got the hair. The chains are definitely new. Rate the fit. Rate the fit for us. Which one?

Well, me and Zuck share the same shirt. If it's the Don't Be Silly, Jump the Ghillie one. Oh, is that? Yeah. Wait, did he mention that guy What are you wearing This is Goku Is that pristine

No Going back to Zuck Zuck's got the hair He's got the glasses He's got the chain Rated for us I mean I think he looks great all that money we're gonna go with those sunglasses those fine words are those sunglasses or i feel like they're high

tech stuff so be the blockers i'm gonna rate the fit at 10 though because i have the exact same shirt zuck and i are gonna start the he doesn't know this yet but we're we're going to start the mma hall of fame and wait for you to dive back into the dms with old zuck listen he doesn't know this yet but we will be the ones to bring the mma hall of fame the independent mixed martial arts hall of fame we will bring it to light when are you guys going to go roll i'm not interested in that he'll smoke me you seen zuck zuck without his shirt He's got like an 8 pack I'd love to have Zuck on the show One day to talk about all of this What do you think? Yeah that's what I'm saying Can we book it? Yeah get back in the DMs

I think he'll come on Can you ask our booker To book it? Yeah I'll get on it right now I'll dial him up Hey Ariel can you get Zuck on the show? Okay thanks Alright hey man i just wanted to circle back here we reach out to the booker he's on it okay thank you oh we do have

some uh breaking news courtesy of noted football fanatic eric jackman ctsy ctsy you just sent me Eric Jackman? CTSY? CTSY. You just sent me a Slack. When did you send this? Oh, at 2.58. 30 minutes ago. You're just on it today, huh? Bro, I'm locked in here. Dialed.

What you got? Tell us. What's the brand? You sent me a Slack. The Buffalo Bills have traded for Amari Cooper. Wow. Wow, we got a font. Wow, we got a font. Not to be confused with Amani Tumor?

No, definitely not to be confused with him at all. Do we like this deal? Murray Cooper's nasty. Better than Devante Adams? Can you hit it? I don't know if he's better than Devante Adams. Who the F is we? He's nice.

I need one of those. Who the fuck is we? Yeah, that's right. Ah, I should have played that for freaking Dustin. He said that on our show, right? Yes. There's just like so much vitriol. I feel like just listening to the guy that...

Because he was talking about Chandler saying like, you know... That was one of the all-timers for us. You just got here, bro. So good. Yeah. He's magic. Wow, this is exciting.

This is good for us, right? And Mario Cooper's a legend. Who is us? Who are you talking to? Us. We all were... Come on, bro. You wouldn't be happy for me

if the Bills won the Super Bowl? Yeah. I'd be happy for you, but... We're not Bills fans, though. I'm not on this. me if the Bills won the Super Bowl? I'd be happy for you. We're not Bills fans, though. I signed the one-year contract back in 2022. It didn't work out. Here's the difference. I'd be happy for you, but if they didn't win, I wouldn't be as sad as you. So that's not us.

We're not in that like that. When the Cavs won, I was happy for you. You should be. But were you sad when they haven't won? It's nice to know if you're happy or not. I don't a wr1 is he a wr1 i don't think so he used to be better than we have better than okay yes it's an upgrade that's that's that that i can grant all right all right what do we give up i don't know man jordan on air jordan this. Hold on. I actually just found out about this. All right.

Well. A third and a sixth. A third and a sixth. A third and a sixth round pick. Okay. How do we feel about that? How do you feel? Stop saying we.

Stop saying us. You. Well, I don't know. I'm looking at you guys. You guys are the one in fantasy football leagues and whatnot. I'm just. Listen. Pete's E?

Where's Pete's E? I feel like if you just say his name, he appears. He did that yesterday. Is he going to appear? No. He's not here. By the way, I was going to tweet this yesterday, but then I was too nervous about losing to the fucking Jets again at MetLife. It is an unwatchable product.

It is an unwatchable. Explain. I mean, it was every single play, flag, flag, flag, holding. There were a lot of flags. Roughing the passer. One of the worst roughing the passer calls that I've ever seen. You're saying the NFL period is an unwatchable product? It is an unwatchable product.

Wow. The stops, the starts, the amount of flags. Every time there's a pass. There's only one person whose opinion I want on this. I was going to say, you sound like a proper football fan right now. Listen, I don't know. Was that a drop or was that actually easy? Okay.

We've got him. I'm here. I'm here. What do you think of him saying the most popular sport in the country and like one of the most watched? An unwatchable product. I actually might go to college football now because I heard it's better. Here's the thing.

Correct me if I'm wrong. Every time there's a pass down the field and it gets broken up, are you not waiting three, two, one for the flag, the yellow flag thing? Every time. Every single time. You hold your breath. Last night was bad. Last night was bad. Last night was unwatchable.

And it was my team. It was very, very bad. It was unwatchable. It was like, please end this. This is not fun. There's nothing fun about this. Look, you should be happy. Look, you're dragging yourself down now.

You've got a massive, massive get here in Am amari cooper a lot younger than davante adams a lot more treading the tires i'd say he's been having a horrible year there at the browns to sean so i mean him josh allen i think it's a fantastic combination can you imagine how good amari cooper feels knowing that Josh Allen will be throwing on the ball and not that Deshaun Watson, an absolute joke and a cod of a quarterback. A cod. Wow. I feel like

we is you and Pete Z and Pete Z just stepped up big there. That was huge. There you go. Back to back thousand yard seasons going into this year. You know what I mean? It's looking good. I mean, who is this kid, Coleman? I mean, he's mean so slow i could have sprinted this way this is what you need this is great back to the symporia because i think we're losing all our viewers as we go on what do you got okay so he's back right he's back he said definitively i will fight again that was

his quote you know what was i will fight again and rick here said uh as soon as he started talking about louisiana we have to be there that was rick's quote on it we have to be in new orleans if that fight actually happens okay so weigh-ins on bourbon street yeah press conference oh wow i mean it'd be it'd be it'll be a scene and a party and i love the idea of the documentary if he's into it and all this stuff by the way he has to do it with michael tucker and yeah and the dudes michael tucker made the first one but who does he fight because he mentioned diaz in louisiana is but but that's as good as we get but we're skipping a fight right because yeah he said he's got to do one more right so it's two we got two who's the first one against i like like Gaethje. I like Hooker.

Love both of those. No problem with those. Love them. Is there... No, not Conor. No, no, no, no, no. Okay, Taroukian, Gaethje. Well, Hooker's going to be on the shelf for three years now waiting to fight Conor McGregor. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Taroukian, Oliveira. No. Oliveira, like, that's not horrible, but i like gaethje and hooker much better olivera there's one i want but it'll never happen okay but neil who's that max come on i've said it you know which fight yeah the what colby covington would be amazing i want it so so by the way he said i like the chaos and then people in the chat i saw a shout out to the chat give us a thumbs up if you're in the chat give us a sub give us a like when you say that people drop in a million thumbs i love it i love it i see it it's fun give us a thumbs up i've been in the chat i saw a shout out to the chat give us a thumbs up if you're in the chat give us a sub give us a like when you say that people drop in a million thumbs i love it i love it i see it it's fun give us a thumbs up i've been in the chat all day you know dropping emojis and whatnot

okay so so people thought he was referencing colby i don't think he was i think he was just saying chaos i don't know too he's been i mean he drops bars every time he comes on what do you say today he was like uh you know not the way i fight uh no one rides for free talking about like taking damage i mean the guy just just he just is chock full of him i love that i love so maybe he was uh you know dropping a hint at it's a good point i think it's i think it's gaethje i think it's hooker it's you know there's a there's a ATT guys that you can rule out Obviously Moicano Obviously Mateus Gamrot

Max is at 45 Benil that was talked about Didn't really do much for him Chandler again, let's see what happens here But I feel like it's one of those two guys Let's say Max loses to Ilya Dvorak, do you think he would be willing to go back Up to 155 and do a BMF fight

With Dustin I like that Yeah, it's not bad to Ilya Taboria? Do you think he would be willing to go back up to 155 and do a BMF fight with Dustin? I like that. Yeah, it's not bad. I like Rick's shout as well. Colby, if he does it, that's the one. That's the one. If he does it,

but I feel like he's pretty vehement on not wanting to do it. Dustin only got two left. I want one of them to just be pure animosity. If he finishes one against Colby and then finishes with Diaz in Louisiana, headlining, pay-per-view. If I'm Colby and I know Dustin is doing two more

and one of them is going to be that last Louisiana fight, I'm just saying I'll go to enemy territory. I'm preceding that. UFC, call him up. I'll fight him. territory. I'm like preceding that UFC, call them up. I'll, I'll fight him. Give me that guy. I'd much rather see Colby and Dustin than Colby V. Ian.

You know, a lot of people are getting hype behind that for a while. I didn't like the idea that fight Dustin V. Colby, I think is, is really tasty. If they can make it happen. That would be amazing too.

It would all be amazing. I heard that, uh, there was a, what was the, the was the story out there, Brady and Ian? Yeah, actually it was GC who told me that that was a load of bollocks. So GC, take it away. Those are my sources say it's a load of bollocks. Okay.

There it is. There it is. I can't delve any further. No, no, don't, don't. You have to protect your sources, GC. Reach out to him. All I got, one word in response. Is that true?

Bollocks. And that was to Brady, right? That you reached out to? Who said it? My sources. My sources said that. So remember, I broke Sean O'Malley, Piotr Jan back in the day.

Did you really? Danny Rubinstein hit me with the scoop. Oh, that's right. No big deal right No big deal No big deal Newsbreaker added it to the Twitter profile Giving out what Source was there New Twitter picture

New Twitter picture you got I saw Yeah yeah updated everything Updated the bot Yeah I felt it was time to kick it off You seem upset Not at all I was the one pushing for it

You had producer of MMA Hour there for like six months after we left Well we've only been gone for like two and a half months, but yeah. No, guys, look, we've, since yesterday, we've now had nine guests on the program. And some would say, who's who? In particular in the world of MMA. You know, I tried to tell you, everyone's like, ah, is it going to be MMA? Is it going to be this? Are you going to talk football?

I guarantee you that the three minutes that we talked about football here, NFL that is, people are going to complain about. But, you know, everyone, text in, in, in, in, right away. It's like nothing, like nothing, like water, like water off a duck's back. It was like butter, hot knife butter, you know, like boom. Is the hot knife butter mechanical like that? I don't know, but it was just like. Tomorrow, Demetrius Johnson.

First interview since his retirement on the program. Chris Eubank Jr. on the program tomorrow. Craig Jones on the program. Easy, butter. Week one, toughest guest to book. Toughest guest by far. Multiple texts, multiple asks,

changing of times, multiple WhatsApp groups. Toughest test to book is an extended member of the Uncrowned family. So much so, not just extended, a co-host.

This time next week, an official co-host. Arlan Ade's show debuts October 22nd on DAZN, DAZN.com, the DAZN app. And yet, for some bizarre reason, it was so hard to book him. I don't know why.

People say he's a diva. They call him diva. I don't subscribe to that. And yet, the experience of trying to get him on the program was so difficult. I wonder if there is some truth to those statements. And so let us go to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and see if he has any explanation for that. I mean, wow, look at this look right here. This is crystal clear. Wow. I

take it all back. It was all worth it. Holy shit. It's like you're in the room. It's like you're in the freaking room here. It's too late to take it back. You can't just diss me and call me diva Oladipo. No, no, no. I said some people said it. I said some people said it. You're the one that started this tagline and now all of a sudden people run with it. Someone hashtagged me Diva Oladipo. Where have they got this nonsense from? It's you. It's your mouth.

Why was it so hard? Why was it so hard? I'm a busy man. I'm out here covering the boxing. I'm doing the tennis this weekend. I sat down with Rafael Nadal. I sit down with ronaldo i mean what can i tell you wow look at you mr i squeezed you in thank you thank you thank you

wow look at you from the boxing to the six kings huh what is this six kings we were talking about yesterday i was trying to get the explanation from connor who's a big tennis guy what exactly is this well basically six of the best tennis players in the world that will come together. They're going to win a bunch of money and they're going to play in an exhibition. I say exhibition, it's a tournament, right? With the money that's involved. And I can't really tell you the amount because it's all hush hush, but it's a lot of money, right? I mean, to get Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal over here, you know, it's going to cost a lot. They got Alcaraz over here as well. They got Yannick Sinner, the current world number one. So they've got six of the best and they're going to go toe to toe

um over three days wow and the arena sold out you're in a soda you can't get a ticket so um it's going to be good stuff uh same arena that the fight was at no no no smaller one it's a good venue it's a smaller one i mean that arena you ain't selling out that arena that arena is a joke isn't it's massive it's massive. It's like 30,000. I mean, these are big names. I mean, they're big names, but that arena's like a stadium. It's a football stadium. All right.

Maybe you could do it. Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras. You named some names. Are they involved? I mean, I don't know andre must be 50 i'm sure he could still i'm sure he could still you know serve and hit a ball but he's 50 and i you know funny thing is about pete it's interesting you mention him because i mean since nadal jokovic and federer right and because they've become so big i think we all forget about pistol beats empress yeah when i grew up he was a legend of the game um 14 time grand slam winner i've been doing my research wow um there you go i'm ready

i'm not playing area i'm ready for this i love it faa is he there who was faa we try to trick you felix uh you know the canadian lad felix he's not here no no no he's not here you know you know I'm talking about right yeah I do I think Felix I've heard of he tried to trick me trying to make me fall down here I'm my first hurdle uh bronze bronze uh he made it to the bronze medal match of the mixed doubles in the olympic games no he's not here no he's not here fair enough fair enough uh so it's Holger and um Daniel Medvedev so um so it's Djokovic, Nadal, Alkares, and Rune, who's the only one not to win a Grand Slam,

but is super talented, very, very young. And Daniel Medvedev, who won the 2021 US Open. Incredible. Look at that knowledge. I love it. I love it. Well, I can't wait. I'll be watching.

And I was watching you on Saturday. Great stuff, as always. You are the man. You are the face and voice of DAZN Boxing. If you ask me, they always put out the graphic. You're front and center. All the respect right there. You're the man. And here we are two days later. Well, actually three

days later and people still talking about what transpired. And so let me ask you, I know you've weighed in. Your YouTube channel is fantastic. Adeola Depot, just put it in there. You'll get right to it. Better be a Bivol, I believe. Correct me if I'm wrong. You have scored it for Dimitri Bivol, yes? This is correct, but I will say this. I am the biggest Bivol fan. I do have a Bivol signed

jacket in my house. It's framed. So if the rounds are close, I probably am going to swing to Bivol and I'm just going to put my hands up. But I did have it Bivel 7-5, but it was super close. I'm not like Eddie Hearn. I'm not going crazy about the 1-16, 1-12. I can kind of see that as well. Oh, wow. Crazy close by.

It's what you like, right? I mean, do you like the aggression of Betabiev? Or do you like the kind of hit and miss and not get hit of Bivel? I prefer the hit and not get hit of Bivel. But it's what you like it's very subjective so most people have actually said that i've heard uh all right it's objective it's uh you know maybe bivouac wins by two rounds but like 116 112 was absurd it's out of the question you actually say you could see a path to it eight 8-4 isn't as crazy as you like. You know what it was, yeah?

There was a couple of rounds in there where Bivol just like outboxed Betebea for like the first two minutes. So automatically you give that round to Bivol, right? Because he'd done the better and the most work for two minutes. But then all of a sudden, Betebea had a minute which was just crazy.

And I'm like, okay, one second. Do the judges remember the first two minutes or do they remember the last minute? And unfortunately, a lot of these judges will remember the last minute. They see Bivel's head getting knocked back and they see him not running around, but they almost see him on the back foot. And I feel like you might swing that to Bivel. That's what I, that's why I can understand a one 16, one 12. I personally had at seven, five Bivel, but I can see a few different score, 1-12. I personally had it 7-5 Bivol,

but I can see a few different scorecards here. Okay, I agree with you. I had 7-5 Bivol, enjoyed it very much, thought it lived up to the hype, was very surprised afterwards. I watched on the zone, but after I like to consume all the content, Tim Bradley on ESPN said he was disappointed,

said it didn't live up to the hype, didn't think that it was as great as we thought it was going to be. What do you think? Tim Bradley. I sometimes wonder if it's water that's next to them ringside or is it Bacardi or vodka? Because obviously it will look the same. He actually wasn't ringside. He was in a studio in Vegas or something like that. Even more reason then for them to have drinks flowing through the night. It's it was fantastic it was not everything's going to be bloods and guts it's not going to work out like that this was so technical this had so much fantastic tension you didn't know what was going to happen it kind of ebbed

and flowed it swayed and then at the end of the night we still didn't really know the right man won what more do you i mean sometimes i feel like some of these and it's normally american fight fans they won about 10 knockdowns like well it's good it's gotta be to the death and this wasn't that this was two very highly skilled fighters that have known each other since they were kids and yes a couple of the rounds were you know you know seeing each other having a look but then they went to war bivel even stood his ground and tried to have a fight with the monster. I mean, what more can you ask for? And Betebeev, I mean, that guy's the scariest fighter, I think, since Sergei Kovalev. I thought it was really good. I thought the energy in the arena, which is all the time being criticized by some, I thought that was really good as well. I think it was fantastic and so good. I think we're going

to see it not just once, but maybe even twice. I think it was so good i think we're going to see it not just once but maybe even twice i think wow so good okay so um everyone wants to see it again there's no bigger fight in the light heavyweight division um our guy keith idek uncrowned.com i don't know if you've seen the new website where where we're doing a lot of stuff obviously in the world of combat sports it's kind of a big deal i don't know if you have checked it out yet you're very busy over there but do check it out because he has said turkey al-shaykh has to make it happen i asked someone who's very close to this fight and i said is there a rematch clause he said turkey is the rematch clause and so if he wants it we're getting it and i saw the picture with the two of them the three of them obviously turkey in the middle do you think we are getting it i'm surprised you've

not just reached out to turkey i mean you have his number i mean you could just call him you just don't pretend like you don't either don't pretend like you don't either. Don't pretend like you don't either. He doesn't, he doesn't answer my calls. No, it has to happen, right? It has to happen. I mean, look, I feel sorry for the others. There's Joshua Boatsy was ringside. I mean, he's in a position where he should be fighting the winner. You've got Devin Morrell versus David Benavidez. The winner of that really should have a chance, but I don't care about those guys right now. I mean, these guys are so clear. Number one and two, number three is in the distance. And I want to see number one versus number two again. I mean, I've waited nearly three years for this fight. It delivered. I'd like to see it again.

Um, better be, if couldn't have been a hundred percent fit by the time the second fight rolls around, these knees should be okay. And if you're Bivol, I mean, you would have gone into that fight with a bit of, you know, a bit of apprehension. Now, though, you know you can compete and the gas tank can go 12 against that monster. So I think the second fight is as intriguing as the first fight. So I think you've got to do it again. Okay. We're going to bounce around here. And this, by the way, is a preview, if you will, our second preview of our show that actually officially debuts on October 22nd.

Seven days from today on DAZN, on the app, on.com, and then clips will be everywhere. And I can't wait every Tuesday at 5 p.m. Eastern, 10 p.m. over in the UK and Ireland. Now I'm starting to see this stuff about, we were there in Wembley, Daniel Dubois, AJ2. I love AJ, I know you do as well. I have no interest. I have no interest. It should be Dubois versus the winner of Fury Usyk 2 or Usyk Fury 2 that should be the fight what do

you think about all this talk yeah that that's that should be the fight you know me I'm a big AJ fanboy that's what they call me yes and if anyone was going to sell you the AJ Dubois rematch it was going to be me and if I'm'm not selling it, we have a problem. Because I can't say it's very difficult for me to sell it because AJ probably won about 30 seconds of that fight. Maybe less, some might say. So unlike the fight we were just talking about, which was so close and controversial, okay, do that again. When the fight plays out the way AJ Dubois played out, I don't see why you would rush to do it again. I guess the only counter to that is AJ,

every time he's lost a fight, he's gone straight back in there with the same person. Andy Ruiz went straight back in there and won his belts back. Alexander Usyk went straight in there and did okay. Didn't win, but did okay. So some would say that's what AJ's got to do.

And I almost feel like if I'm AJ and I want to continue in the sport, the only route really is through Daniel Dubois. I don't know about any other fight. I'm trying to think of names off the top of my head. Is he going to fight Abakoli? No. Is it going to be a Parker rematch?

No. Do I have any real interest? Oh, God. I have no interest. It's a car crash. I was sold on that fight five years ago yeah four years ago three years ago what about fury even up until last year you know what it is about the fury thing the fury fight for uk fight fans would have been the biggest thing we've ever seen it would have been

on the sides of london buses they would have been on every news channel on planet earth it isn't that anymore so i feel like i'm getting a watered down version because i wanted it to be number one versus number two at worst number one versus number three if fury loses i mean what is it number three versus number eight or nine it just doesn't have the same thing for me i know this works in mma but in boxing i just feel like we've missed the boat on these big fights. And that's the problem. I almost wish Turkey came along three years ago, and we definitely would have got AJ Fury and AJ Wilder.

I feel like we've missed it. I want to see AJ at his best against Fury. But isn't something better than nothing? Isn't a little bit of a scene of two giants coming together, like isn't that better than never getting it? Yeah, I guess. I mean, some people have compared it to amir khan kelbrook you know it happened manny and floyd is the best example yeah but floyd was still

pound for pound number one manny came off the floyd fight and fought timothy bradley and destroyed him talking of timothy bradley so they're still very very good um i don't know where aj is i mean i kind of did some mythical rankings myself Okay where's AJ where's AJ I don't think AJ is a top 7 heavyweight anymore So I don't know If I'm that interested Would I still watch it yes I'll probably still work on it

So let me not kick it to the curb that quick But it's not what I wanted I wanted to see AJ at his best versus Fury This isn't it By the way speaking of your rankings I saw your rankings recently. Absurd. The heavyweight rankings?

Absurd. You had Dubois over Fury. Yeah. Absurd. Absurd. What do you mean? Wait, one second. One second. One second.

Don't invite me on and then destroy me like this. Absurd. I had him on. Also, wait, I am very much of what have you done for me lately? It's almost like the Jon Jones thing, by the the way you lose to the number one pound for pound you lose to the

number one pound for pound best number one one second and before that he lost to your friend that you was on the show yes i mean yesterday in ghanu probably yeah yeah yeah yeah did he not really and before that he fought a guy called dillian white yeah so and then i got a look at what dubois has done recently dubois beat up unbeaten hergovich he's beaten aj in front of 90 plus thousand he beat up jor-el miller and he went to poland and gave usik a good fight i'm sorry that's better than what fury's done wow that's better i'm not i'm not saying he's a better fighter i'm just saying his last two-year run is better than tyson fury's last two-year run and that's why i have him above tyson fury so you bring up john jones because the big discussion is it's what have you done year run is better than Tyson Fury's last two year run. And that's why I have him above Tyson Fury.

So you bring up Jon Jones because the big discussion is it's what have you done for me lately? It's not a it's not a lifetime achievement award. It can't be that can it? It can't be a lifetime achievement. Whatever it is, then Jon Jones will stay number one forever. No, I get that. It has to be a what have you done for me lately? And I love Tyson Fury. I think Tyson Fury actually beats Daniel Dubois. But in a ranking system, what have you done for me lately? What Daniel Dubois has done in the last 12 months has been fantastic.

And he's been underdog in all of those fights. Everyone's wrote him off to the point where they've sold the opponent he's fighting to fight next. Hergovich is going to fight AJ when he beats Dubois. Jarrell Miller is going to fight AJ when he beats Dubois. AJ is going to fight Fury when he beats Dubois. And Dubois has gone that. fight AJ when he beats Dubois. AJ is going to fight Fury when he beats Dubois. And Dubois is like on that. He's ripped up the script and thrown it in our faces. That has to be number two.

How was that received on your YouTube channel when you said that? Badly. Yeah, very bad. So most agreed with my stance. I had to block a few people. Wow. Yeah, they do it.

The Fury fans are very, you know, I love the Fury fans. Almost a bit like the fury fans are very you know i love the fury fans almost a bit like the aj fans i mean they're very loyal they're very very loyal and they came for me and i decided to block some channels mute some people they found me on instagram i had to block them there as well that was all right it is it's what i'm ready to go to war with anyone on this i'm just not ready to have sort of fights and social media that's fair by the way uh i was so interested in the topic when i was over in london last month of why do you know why do some fans like aj more than fury and how aj is is received and vice versa fury more than aj all that what's it been like a month later a little less than a month later with dubois like has he taken the the the the crown so

to speak do you feel like he's a bigger deal is he on talk shows is he being celebrated or has it not really materialized no nothing why is that is that on him or is that yeah it's on him isn't it it's on him he doesn't really want to do anything and i've spoken to frank warren about this and he doesn't want to talk he's very much i just want to fight that's it I want to fight and I want to go on holiday and enjoy my life in Brazil that's all he seems to be doing at the moment and I get it some people aren't built like that some people don't want the limelight they almost look at it as a job and I do my job I get paid and then I disappear and I think Daniel Dubois a bit like that look he's not gonna talk like AJ or Fury is he's just not that guy um and I'm sure you have characters like that in. Look, he's not going to talk like AJ or Fury. He's just not that guy.

And I'm sure you have characters like that in MMA as well. He's just not that guy. But he has got a lot of respect from sort of the hardcore boxing fans. It's not really spilled over. I don't think to the casual boxing fans, but the hardcore boxing fans, I mean, we respect them a lot, but in terms of seeing him on the jonathan ross chat show or graham norton and that's never gonna happen like can you imagine that can you imagine that you're too far i like he'd come in like his best he'd rock up there you know man a few words but he's come a long way he's he's gotten better the thing is yeah i really appreciate him now. He's a simple man. I did an interview with him. He's a simple man who just wants to fight.

And I think the sport needs that. Imagine it was just all sport, was just the same characters. It would actually be quite boring. I like the fact that you've got some characters that like to talk. You've got some characters like Bivol and Betebeev who don't like talking, especially Betebeev.

And you've got some characters like Derek Chisora that flip over the tables i like the fact it's all different characters if they were all like aj it would be boring if they're all like fury it'd be boring you need a few daniel deborah sprinkled in the middle amen i do agree with that um they can't all be the same i i um i think that for the most part as we approach approach the one-year anniversary of the first Riyadh season card, October 28th last year, Francis versus Tyson Fury, we are approaching it. It's crazy what has happened. It's been a lot of, as we say here in America, home runs. Like it's been stack cards, fun nights.

We saw that on Saturday. If I can nitpick about something to come, I'm disappointed Joseph Parker isn't on the December 21st card. We're talking heavyweights right now. Is that a miss? And who should Big Joseph be fighting? Because you can make the case that Joseph should be,

if Daniel Dubois is going to be fighting someone next, it should be Joseph Parker, not AJ, right? Agreed. And I still think he has a chance of fighting Daniel Dubois as well. I really do. I don't think it's in stone that AJ takes this rematch, but I personally think AJ shouldn't. And I think there'll be people in

AJ's camps and no, let's wait until we see what happens with Fury and Usyk. And by that time, they would have had to have made up a mind as to who Daniel Dubois is going to fight. Frank Warren definitely wants him to fight in February. So if I'm Joseph Parker, although this is very disappointing right now, I just sit and wait for a little while. I sit and wait to see what could happen because it could be a life-changing moment. But yeah, look, I want to see Joseph Parker fight as well. I love him. I think he's almost a bit like Dubois. He's had this incredible last 12-month run. Incredible. And I think he needs to be rewarded, as does the likes of Martin Bercouli and Xili Zhang and Kaby El. There's a few

heavyweights that I thought were going to be on this card. I thought, you know, I actually thought it was going to be an all heavyweight card. I mean, that's what it should be. Should have been an all heavyweight card, but that we can't be too greedy. I mean, as you say, Riyadh season has given us a lot in the last 12 months, so I'm not going to be too upset about this one. Um, so yeah, it's, it's a bit disappointing, but let's be honest ariel the last four months have been crazy like crazy so it is what it is as as the face of uk boxing as the voice thank you of uk boxing how would you feel if a eubank versus ben fight happens outside of the uk

let it happen you know what it is you know what what I want? Yeah, you know what? At this point, I've just had enough. I haven't said it. Honestly, I'm not even trying to skip the conversation about Eubank Ben. I think I heard you say you're going to get Eubank

on tomorrow or something. I've just had enough. This fight was supposed to happen two years ago. Yeah. So, I mean, and all the buildup was six months

before the fight was supposed to happen. So it's two and a half years of talking Connor Ben and Chris Eubank Jr. and they've not had a fight. I mean, on Saturday was the closest we've ever seen him to actually getting face-to-face. And I'm just tired of it.

I just want them to fight. I think enough with the Connor Ben should be banned for life nonsense. Oh, gosh. Because I can bring up a hundred boxers who failed tests that people go and support. And you've got the little idiots at home and they could be batting for life. I don't get this. You know, he's taking so many eggs.

Why is he being held to a certain standard that others aren't being held to? In MMA, that would mean if we are going to play by those rules, that would mean the likes of, oh, I don't know, Anderson Silva, John Jones. That would mean Canelo. That would mean so many guys would have never been able to fight so many fights after infractions, whether it was knowingly or unknowingly, an infraction is an infraction. And this guy, we are dragging this on. I've talked to the top commissioners in America, who I think are the smartest people when it comes to sanctioning fights and fighters, who have said, yes, of course he can fight here.

No problem. Bring him here. And yet in Britain, I feel like there's some, I don't know, there's an ax to grind. There's some history there. I don't know if it's his father. I don't know. What is it? Why is he being held to this different center? And oh, by the way, if it happens in Riyadh, doesn't the British boxing border control sanction those fights? How could they do that? How will they allow it and not allow it in the UK? I don't understand this. And I know this is a question perhaps for an Eddie Hearn, but it is very confusing on this side of the table.

Yeah, well, Eddie Hearn, and I think even Coda Ben have said that we will get some sort of ruling on this like in coming days, but they've been saying that for a few weeks. So I think there must be a conversation that's happening in the next two or three weeks. And surely, I mean, surely it's just a case of,

okay, guys, look, this has been two years. Let's just all move on from it and slap me on the wrist and I move on, right? I mean, surely that's the case. As to why sort of he's still being vilified, I think maybe it's just a case of everyone else that seems to have tested positive for something almost runs and hides for

six months and you don't hear from them connor ben has fought back and fought back and fought back and he's gone on social media and he's attacked people and he's probably done dealt with it the wrong way but when you still speak to connor ben i mean connor ben is still adamant he did nothing wrong and that's his firm stance since day dot. And I think some people almost want him to say, okay, look, I messed up. Can I swear on this channel? Sure, go crazy. Oh, lovely. I fucked up.

Yeah. People want him to do that. Apologies for the language. Put that up there. Put the apology. And he hasn't done that. So it's a strange one. I think it's been done now.

Like, let's all move on from it. I know some people said, oh, but he's had a couple of fights. He's not move on from it. I know some people said, oh, but he's had a couple of fights. He's not really had a ban or anything. Well, yeah, he's had two fights in America, but I think we should all move on. And I think British fight fans will be upset if the fight was to happen in Riyadh.

And I would slightly be upset as well. I do think it's the fight that I want to see in the UK. It's a fight that does a stadium in the UK. Maybe not Wembley, but maybe a Tottenham Hotspur stadium, 60,000 or so. Crazy. And I just feel like with the history of the dads, you've almost got to have that fight in the UK.

There's some fights for me that are non-negotiables. It's got to be in the UK, and I think this is one of them. But it doesn't seem like it's happening in the UK, right? Yeah, it doesn't look like it. I do think that there's probably going to be a re-ed season event, I think around March.

And if it is, I wouldn't be shocked if it's headlined by those two. By the way, what weight? Middle weight. That's a big problem as well, by the way. It's just ridiculous. It's a big problem. Like, Conor Bennett is a welterweight.

I know he's had his last two fights at 154, but I saw the opponents. He was small. Like, they were even too big for him. And, you know, the last time Chris and Connor were going to fight, Chris was going to come down to 157 pounds. He ain't doing that this time.

There is no compromise. He's going to say, look, you want to fight me? You come to one 60. And I just, I don't know how Chris, sorry,

how Connor is going to do at one 60. But if the fight happens, it's definitely a middleweight fight, which just, it doesn't make sense. But I mean, boxing doesn't make sense sometimes. So it is what it is. Let's stick with the UK boxing theme. I'm fascinated by what's happening with Ben Whitaker. A lot of people, including yourself, very high on him, silver medalist. What a showman, the walkout, Crystal Palace. I loved it. The fight wasn't great. Now this one against Liam Cameron, not great as well. And then the finish was straight out of WWE,

Royal Rumble, 1994, Lex Luger, Bret Hart. They both fall over the ropes almost the exact same way. It was crazy. And he can't continue. And then this stuff comes out with Liam where he was mistreated and he feels like he was being disregarded.

He signs with Queensbury, it seems. So smart move by Frank Warren. And then we see the footage or we hear about these reports of ben hitting someone's phone he's frustrated people are attacking him what do you make of what has happened to ben whitaker since saturday yeah we are seeing ben whitaker to coin a wwe phrase he's turned hill uh has he has he he's that he must have i mean the the smack in the phone out of someone's hand i, Ben's the kind of person you go up to and you take photos with him. You do all those kind of stuff. He's doing all sorts, Ben, right now.

So I don't know, man. You know what it is about Ben? I'm the biggest Ben Whittaker fan on planet Earth. I think he's sensational. But I did say, I did a video on my YouTube channel saying, the amount you talk, you've got to deliver. I'm all for people talking, but if you're going to talk that amount of smack,

you've got to go in the ring and do some stuff. And, you know, he admitted it the last time he fought that guy, Ezra Aranyeka at Selhaz Park. I asked him to score it, and he actually said, I'll give myself a D. And I said, okay, that means we're going to see something a lot better this weekend. He's like, absolutely.

I'm going to destroy him, and then I'm going to go to the changing room, and I'm going to eat some food. And that's not what happened. So, you know, there's going to be some flack, but there's always going to be flack when you talk about smack. You like that, innit? You like that.

Put that on a shirt. Put that on a shirt. Thank you, thank you, thank you. So, look, I mean, he's going to get a lot of flack. The British fight fans really dislike him. They dislike anyone that does a bit of showboating The British fight fans really dislike him. They dislike anyone that does a bit of showboating. They would have disliked

Prince Nassim Hamed. They would have disliked Muhammad Ali. But the difference is those guys obviously delivered. So you then start to like them. Ben Whittaker's got a long road back. But I still am in

the Ben Whittaker fan club. I think he can still become one of the best fighters on planet Earth. So I haven't decided to get rid of him yet. But he's very close. He's on the exit door. He needs to come and do some good stuff they have to run it back though right they have to they have to i mean they have to you know i think what a lot of fight fans

have been noticed as well i don't know if you've seen it but he was initially trained by sugar hill steward obviously the trainer of tyson fury the last two fights it hasn't been sugar hill in the corner sugar hill's not been his trainer and the last two fights, it hasn't been Sugar Hill in the corner. Sugar Hill's not been his trainer. And the last two fights have been his worst performances. So maybe there is a case of, okay, let's get Sugar back and let's figure this thing out. Because what you don't want to do is just build all

this superstar presence he's built. I mean, he's got 3 million Instagram followers, and then it just kind of drops down like a lead balloon. I think you need to kind of work on your team, work on just, I don't know, having that balance between all the social media and all the brands and all this new attention and still being Ben Whittaker, the boxer.

There needs to be a balance there. And I think maybe he's ticked it in the wrong way, maybe. I don't think he looked for a way out, but that voice will get even louder. Those dissenters will get louder if they don't do it next. If they don't do it next and it's like, oh, you felt this guy's strength, you got worried, you looked for a way out

and now you don't want to run it back. So they need to squash all that talk, run it back. What do you think happened then? I don't freaking know, man. What do you think happened? Because I've watched it so many times and I honestly have no idea if, I don't freaking know, man. What do you think happened? Because I've watched it so many times. And I honestly have no idea.

I don't know if Liam's pushing him out. I don't know if Ben's holding onto him and pushing. It's the strangest thing I've ever seen in my life. I have no idea who's at fault here. It was a sprained ankle as well. And you know when I heard about it being a sprained ankle? I wanted it to be more. I wanted it to be a torn Achilles.

Or his ankle's broken. A sprained ankle i wanted it to be more i wanted it to be a torn achilles or you know his ankles broken a sprained ankle just it's not enough is it it needed to be more it's hard to fight with a sprained ankle you know the issue is about this by the way is that i saw a comment section below and it said david hay fought with a torn Achilles against Tony Bellion. I was like, oh. Everyone's pain threshold is different. Everyone. I can't fight. So who am I to talk? But sprained ankles a bit, I don't know.

All I will say is that the Brits are on him right now. Oh, yeah. But you'd rather have a situation where they either like you or hate you. You don't want a situation where they're just indifferent and don't tune in. They're going to tune in next time because they want to see him get chinned. And that's not a bad thing. They love Fabio Wardley right now.

What a knockout. Vicious, terrifying. Fraser Clark's head was indented. His jaw was misplaced. That was vicious, vicious stuff. I saw your co-host also, your colleague, friend of mine, longtime friend, Gareth A. Davies said he saw him at the airport.

The job was wired shut. Scary stuff, man. Yeah, that's definitely a case of you don't play boxing, right? I know we sort of throw that phrase around a lot, but that was scary, like being ringside and seeing that. And then, so Chris Mannnix if you watched sort of the show chris mannix had done all the interviews prior to that so i was just sitting ringside obviously because i was hosting the show and they said adi you're doing the interview so i didn't

know i was going to actually go and do the interview it kind of makes sense i guess an all british heavyweight title fight get the brit in there so when i went in there i tried to just you know make a beeline to have a look at fr Fraser in the corner and you could see the dent and he was still out. And it kind of frightened me. It frightened, obviously I know the dangers of the sport. I've covered it and watched it for years, but seeing that up close and seeing the punch, which was basically a free punch. He had landed one and Fraser was kind of already out. And then he had free reign to land another one. And Fabio Ward, everyone knows in the boxing scene that he hits as hard as anyone.

So look, I don't know what happens with Fraser. Fraser's 33 years of age. It's difficult to come back from that, I think. But I guess in the heavyweight division, you can go on and on and on until you're 40. So hopefully it's just a case of him taking a long time out um he'll physically and mentally because it was a very important fight for him and we'll see what happens with fraser but yeah that's um that was an image that's going to stay with me for a long time because it's not just the

indentation it's the way his jaw kind of slops to one side as well and it's um that that was scary to see yeah um last time i saw something somewhat reminiscent of that was michael venom page the need a cyborg's head cyborg's head was there and it indented right there uh this i remember the x-ray vision uh it was awful awful um jaya patai i know you're a big fan big win for him most expected it um and and we see what happens next month with cbs if he wins obviously that's the fight to make and one more if i may on re-ed season i i would love to see sky nichols wait wait is that is that is that all about yeah that's it that's it about jay just jay just gets a sentence he gets a sentence well my my my

friend pt carroll called the cruiserweight division in boxing, he said it's the women's featherweight division of MMA. He said it's a throwaway division. Could you believe that? Could you believe that? So I was just trying to stick with that theme. Is that inaccurate? Yeah, I get what he means, actually. I actually, I disagreed.

I don't think that's fair. Usyk came from cruiserweight, Vander Holyfield, many others back in the day. That's not fair. Jai is really good. He's top 10 pound for pound. No, Jai is fantastic. And he's on his way to being in that top 10. I think the issue is it's almost a division that's not cared about in America.

So no one cares about it. If we had a brash, loud American, then maybe people would be more interested. But he is number one in that division by a country mile. And I feel like I needed to see that performance on Saturday to kind of reaffirm that in my brain because he wasn't that great in the last couple of rounds against Marius Bredis. But he is so violent and scary and so good.

I wish he was like, he's 6'1". I wish he was like U6, 6'3". Because I feel like he could go up to heavyweight and, I don't know, compete in the land of the giants. But yeah, he's so good. Very special fighter. There was a photo of him sparring with Robert Whitaker, who looks to be in fantastic shape, going up to fight Hamzat in about 11 days. I would love to see that in person. But I wanted to ask about Sky Nicholson and Amanda Serrano. Let's just hope that Hamzat makes it. Ah, we were talking about this earlier. Let's just hope that Hamzat makes it there, right? Because Hamzatms that yeah hams that is what i thought perera was gonna be wow you know

you know i honestly i'm not joking you know when hams that three years ago when we first sort of laid eyes on him oh yeah and he was talking about i'm going to smash everyone and he started picking up people up and throwing them to the ground i was like oh my terrifying i thought this terrifying yeah i thought okay he's gonna be welterweight middleweight and maybe even put on a bit of size and garb and do some damage at light heavyweight. And all of a sudden, it was nothing. Nothing.

Honestly, he's exactly what I thought Pereira was going to be. And look, there's still a chance. Whittaker, obviously, as you know, fantastic. Looks in good condition, as you say. But this isn't going to be easy. If this fight was made three years ago, I'd have said, oh, Hamza, yes, because he's this guy that smashes everyone. Now, I'm not quite sure. I'm not sure. See, this is what going to be easy. If this fight was made three years ago, and I said, oh, Hamza, yes, because he's this guy that smashes everyone.

Now I'm not quite sure. I'm not sure. See, this is what I love about you. Everyone tries to paint you as just being the boxing guy, but you're so much more than that. Your MMA knowledge on par with your boxing knowledge. See, I say this, and yet you continue to say that I can't compete with your boxing knowledge,

which is fine. I'm humble. I could take it. Our show, which again, premieres a week from today, October 22nd on DAZN, the Ireland Addae show. It's a great graphic that they put together. The whole package. Is it still that?

Is it still that? Yeah, it's still that. No, that train has left the station. We could go in a million different directions. Obviously, it's a boxing heavy show. But if we want to talk, you know, if we want to talk Forest Liverpool, we could talk Forest Liverpool. I'm still not quite done with that one.

If we want to talk a little tennis, we could talk a little. If we want to talk MMA, we could talk a little MMA. So I just want to let everyone know that we can go, we're very versatile, me and you. We can go anywhere. Yeah, anywhere. Dude, we could go, dude, we could go darts. We could go darts.

You want to talk Michael Van Guren? We could talk MVG. You know, you want to talk Lutler? We could talk Lutler. want to talk Lula? We could talk Lula. Look at you. Look at you. Sky Serrano. Sky Serrano.

Michael Smith. Bully boy. Sky Serrano. What do you think? Can it happen? Will it happen? No. It won't happen?

No. No, I don't know. I don't think it'll happen at all. No, no, no. Sometimes I think with boxers, you get the old guard just not wanting to fight the new guard yeah whatever reason it's just a case of serrano's probably thinking do you know how long it's taken me to get into this position and do you think i'm just going to give you the opportunity um so i think serrano's in a situation where she's only going to now fight her fellow old guard and we see it a lot it happens and i'm more interested in sky nicholson versus

alicia baumgardner love that fight yeah because i look at alicia and i'm not interested in Sky Nicholson versus Alicia Baumgartner. Love that fight. Yeah, because I look at Alicia and I'm not saying Alicia is as good as Amanda, but Alicia is so aggressive and I just want to see someone put it on Sky. Like someone that can actually really box to her level, but is quite aggressive and ferocious in the ring. And I still think that that person is Alicia Baumgartner. Leave Serrano to do what she's doing with Katie Taylor.

Serrano is the old guard. Let her just go off into the sunset. Let this nude guard swing it out. And I think a boxer like Sky versus a boxer puncher like Alicia is, I think, the fight to make next. All right. So you mentioned that fight. It is exactly one month from today. AT&T Stadium, Arlington, Texas.

Of course, the chief chief support if you will or the co-main event to jake paul mike tyson they dropped the promo this morning okay so that was the question as we stand here sitting here exactly 31 days from that fight your level of interest slash excitement for the much talked about mike tyson jake paul clash my interest for j4 mike tyson yeah come on oh god you know what let me tell you something yeah yeah and i i have none there's zero zero zero you're gonna watch is there you're gonna watch i watch the highlights no you're gonna watch you're gonna stay up you know it is because i i love jake paul i love jake paul i love everything he's doing mvp i think it's I watched the highlights. Nah, you're going to watch. You're going to stay up. You know what it is? I feel bad because I love Jake Paul. I love Jake Paul.

I love everything he's doing. MVP. I think it's fantastic. I think the way much he's helped boxers like Serrano become – Serrano is always the household name, but for her to get the check that warrants the name that she's built up over the years. So I love everything he's doing. I just don't like this fight.

I saw a picture of Mike in a wheelchair seven months ago. Mike's 58, Ariel. He's 58 years old and Mike doesn't live like a nun. Mike's not living like Bernard Hopkins, is he? Let's be honest, he's not. Mike tricked us all four years ago when he fought Roy Jones Jr. Remember those clips that were coming out and those little 30-second clips? And I was like, oh my God, Mike's back.

This is sensational. And then when he fought, he didn't move. I was like, one second. So that was four years my god Mike's back this is sensational and then when he fought he didn't move I was like one second so that was four years ago what's it going to be like now Mike at best has got 30 seconds in him at best and I just don't want to see Jake hurt Mike because Mike's all about hero but you think Jake can hurt him of course he can absolutely Jake you know say what you want about Jake yeah Jake can box Jake can box he's big and he can absolutely jake you know say what you want about jake yeah jake can box jake can box he's big and he can punch he's young he's healthy and does live the life like i've seen jake hit bag and jake hits jake jake's taking this sport really serious that's why i don't even class jake as a youtube boxer anymore he's taking it serious now jake's beyond that so jake can hurt mike a lot i mean say let's just for argument's sake say

say mike was a 58 year old that did live the life and was super healthy i would still think jake could hurt him let alone a guy that was in a wheelchair seven months ago but it was that was that a fake image was that ai did that not happen i don't know did you not see that wheelchair i don't know if it was seven months ago i think that's two years ago or something but yes he did why did the fight get caught also yes yes yes yeah no he had an ulcer and he had an issue and it was a health issue and i think that i think that i think there were people who were willing to disregard the age before all that and then i think a lot of people once that happened said like nah this fight shouldn't happen that's a fair thing i think that's a very fair thing that people were saying i don't know

how people were willing to disregard the age as though that means nothing i mean like how old was anderson when anderson fought jake i believe off top my head 47 i believe 47 but that was still anderson that i mean a few a few months prior or a year prior beat Julio Cesar Chavez. So I gave him a bligh on that one. I thought, okay, Anderson's still in great shape. Yeah, Anderson still can fight. That's the limit though. A 58-year-old is almost bullying.

It's ridiculous. I'm not happy with it. I want Jake to fight people his own age, his own weight, his own level. I mean, that's what I i would and there are plenty of those guys out there like why do you have to pick on mike i don't get it leave mike alone that might just do his weed factory and entertain us with podcasts well you have you have revealed that and i appreciate and respect it can i make a revelation and then i'll let you go and by the way i do have to say a lot oh wait you're wait, you're working on it. You're working on the event, aren't you?

No, no. I mean, no, that's old news. I do want to say a lot of great people have worked very hard from a technological perspective on our new show and whatnot. I have to give the MVP of the day award to our good friend Mason over at DAZN for what he's done for you over here. You've never looked and sounded better. I don't know if you can get him on retainer. I mean, you look fantastic right now. The lighting, the quality. He's got a light here. Nah. He's got a light right there. Mason Kelly, the man.

I mean, he has crushed it. So shout out to him. I don't know if you can hear me right now, but well done. He's right there. He's literally right in front of us. He can hear you. Okay, all right. Here's my revelation before we go and and this

is going to be one of the hottest takes that i've ever had and very controversial and i understand that and i'm willing to put myself out there and throw myself into the fire oh god every hour especially leading up to the show i've been listening to the same song over and over to get myself pumped up hyped up and i love. And I'm so into it. And I can't stop singing and humming it. I'm in the thick of it. Everybody knows. I'm into it, grows.

You know that song? No. From the pen to the ring to the sand, the crown, the final point. You know that? KSI's new song, Thick of It. I love it He's getting a lot of flack

You haven't seen all the hate that he's gotten He loves it He's gotten so much hate And I think he's smashed it Top 100 Billboard Is that it? He's killing it Never before

When you say top 100 Are you saying it's when you say that number top 100 yeah are you saying it's like 99 or you said i think 86 is what i saw and i don't think he ever debuted at at a number that high he's killing it no i'm not by the way this is not a gag i actually think it's a great song people have made videos i saw all the youtubers shitting on him jake shitting on him everyone should i think he has hit a home run here i think this is true you know what i like about ksi ksi jj jj jj between us we know him right i just like that he's he just tries things doesn't he like he is a he's a proper like i will try and do this and i don't care about

the reaction like he's clearly not a rapper or a singer but he's giving it a good go and he's done okay i've not heard the song you haven't heard it like it no that's your boy i wouldn't went yeah wow yeah but some music some i would download it i'll give him my one listen to it after this listen to it after this and let me know i'm in the thick of it everybody knows some of this what is it is it what Wait, is it a rap song? Wait, is it? It's a little poppy. It's a little poppy. I don't do pop songs.

I don't do pop songs. Give it a chance. I'm more like Neo Soul. I like a little hip hop. I'm Tupac. I'm Kendrick. I'm very much that. Of course you're Kendrick.

That's me. You know I'm Team Kendrick. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course. You want him at the Super Bowl. Oh, yeah, obviously Drake. Listen, I don't jump off the bandwagon. I don Team Kendrick. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course, you want him at the Super Bowl. Oh, yeah, obviously Drake. Listen, I don't jump off the bandwagon. I don't jump off.

I don't believe these allegations. That's my guy. He's a fellow tribe member. He's a fellow Canadian. I can't believe. By the way, I've never said this. I can't believe Kendrick is playing at the Super Bowl. I can't believe.

What? One song that is now overplayed and you get a Super Bowl spot? Is that what it takes? One second, one second, one second. Are you saying Kendrick's, wait, are you saying Kendrick's career is about one song? It's pretty much that.

It's all I hear. Is that what you're saying? I'm at little kids' birthday parties. Are you doing this, Ariel? Ariel, you're better than this. Little 12-year-olds are singing, dun, dun, dun. Great song,

but the song is completely overplayed and has become corporatized. It's so good. And there's little kids saying, A minor. And I'm like, you don't even know what you're saying do you think he plays that at the super bowl probably it's his claim to fame wow it's his claim to fame but that's embarrassing for me aria yeah no and you're saying it like even without blinking

how many bangers banger for banger how many bangers drake oh no no no look it depends what you mean see drake's drake is party songs and i give him that i someone did play me drake's hit list the other day and i was like i forgot some of the songs yeah but you know what it is kendrick songs are more i'm at home chilling i've got a little glass of something that's my kind of music yeah i don't go to clubs when was the last time you went to a club ariel that's that has nothing to do with anything oh no when was the last time i went to a club? Talib Kweli, Common, did it better. They did it better. Yeah, he's in that realm.

that's right. Listen, I know my stuff when it comes to hip hop. I know we could talk all day long about it. And here's the thing, it shocks me

that the Super Bowl would have him as the halftime. He's fine. It should be Lil Wayne. It should be Lil Wayne. I agree. To go to his area and not use Lil Wayne's, it's a disgrace.

Can I ask you this? If he didn't have the feud, if he didn't have the feud, would he be playing the Super Bowl? Probably not. Yeah. But the feud was so big, it took over the world. I'm just saying. So you go with what's popular. Every person that's played.

Oh, one second. Everyone that's played the Super Bowl halftime,'s because of their popularity yes or no you have a popularity off another man's back popping popularity are you trying to tell me that kendrick wasn't popular before the drake beef that's exactly what i'm trying to tell you you know i like ariel we can do everything on the show we can go anywhere we can go anywhere we can go anywhere but we are out of time this has been a pleasure uh great stuff on saturday no no no five more minutes i've been told and then i get paid double yeah somehow you got him to shoot you so well we were going to do a zoom interview like everyone else and and you got this fantastic i said no no zoom no zoom uh october 22nd the zone finally we get

to do this i mean i feel like we just did it, but we get to do it again and we'll have guests join us. And then when we're on location, like we were back in September in London, we could do it together as well. It's going to be a grand old time. Enjoy the tennis out there. Well done to you over the weekend. And we'll talk to you next week.

Thank you, my man. Appreciate it. There he is. Ade Oladipo of the Ariel and Ade show. And of course of DAZriel and ade show and of course of the zone and talk sport um i could feel i could feel the hate radiating from the control room when i was getting into the kendrick and uh i just really don't know how you go from like talking about ksi song is a masterpiece and then you're like kendrick lamar one hit wonder yeah yeah i mean i'm in the thick of it everybody knows you guys have heard it

you have you guys heard it yeah you've only played it for us every minute on the minute i still have not do your kids like it you know my kids have been in montreal because it was my grandmother's no sorry my wife's grandmother's 100th birthday they're coming home today i'm gonna ask them um i'm gonna play it for them if they haven't heard it they're usually up to speed on the hip-hop these days it's crazy they're telling me about things like they told me about this guy i i honestly think it would be weird if you had to introduce your kids to the ksi song instead of vice versa they're more into like kaisenat and uh and those guys less the side men by the way did you see john cena show up on the kaisen at you didn't see this no i'm not is kaisen out is like um he's like a hardcore he's like a youtuber

yeah he's kind of like i show speed kick i feel like you're hardcore youtubing you're tracking these more than more than the rest of us because of the kids these days yeah yeah there's just no chance i'm sitting there watching John Cena pull up on a... What is that noise, by the way? Do you guys hear that wish-washing sound? Yeah, that is Rick breathing into his microphone. Jeez Louise, Rick. It's absolutely not. I didn't even take a breath.

What is happening? He's disgusted. He's absolutely disgusted. That was absolutely not even me. I will play it back for you sure but it wasn't me you can play back the sound it wasn't me grabbed your microphone huffed and puffed yeah we're just as you hit the me ariel and peter the three little pigs over here ariel's rick's about to blow our house down i don't know what to do at this point like uh gaslighted all over the place

like we're talking about the ingest, the key pro. I mean, this is, this is on it. Anyway, remember, remember where you are. Like,

remember the stations. Just remember. What happened now? I just got tired of hearing. Oh my God. He just turned them off. You can't do that. That's too much power to give the Frank.

Anyway, you guys got to see this clip. I will share it with you. If you want. John Cena enters his basement and now is on the stream with kai and at one point i'm sure someone out there in the chat give me a thumbs up if you've seen this uh legit legit listen listen john cena legit goes on like a three minute diatribe about life and about enjoying life and about appreciating life and about the meaning of life it's actually beautiful and kaisenot is just completely disregarding everything that he's saying he's looking at the stream he's checking himself out you could tell when someone's paying

attention and not when they're taking it in and not he is not taking in a word of what john cena is saying and it's it's very sad it's very deflating because it's like yo man you're so big see him good one thank you i mean he's what he's how old is guys not 20 no no he freaks out he freaks out johnson it's a great thing he like jumps into his his basement he like barrels in and he's like john cena you can't see me he goes nuts and then john starts to they eat a big mac i think kai has a big mac oh the chicken big mac yeah it just came out just dropped big stuff then he just kind of tuned it out huh he was he just totally tuned it out he's young you know young success tough i just want to hear um okay a couple things and then we'll go great stuff all day all the guests were fantastic want to give a shout out we didn't

get a chance to do this uh yesterday but over the weekend, completely flying under the radar here in the United States, a promotion in Europe known as Octagon with a K, 60,000 people, Petey, 60,000 people at the, what is it, the Deutsche Bank Stadium,

I believe it was, in Germany. Am I correct? It was in Germany, all right. That's for sure. Yeah. And 59,000 before splitting hairs, let's be honest you know i mean 60 000 don't be getting ahead of yourself um but it is the fifth largest attended event in the history of mmi i believe um they've obviously got well as

far as i'm concerned there's a rivalry going here for control of Central Eastern Europe between them and KSW. KSW, of course, in 2017 had that 57,000-odd people in the National Stadium in Warsaw, I believe it was, for their Coliseum event. I think you'll remember. So this is going one up on that, according to their numbers, 59,000. Octagon have been around for about eight years i think they're about 2015 2016 and they have this amazing presence in that part of the world eastern central europe and i mean this is a nod to how big they are um i can remember back at the coliseum event i was celebrating that like saying this is astronomical whatSW managed to do, and there's all these detractors

like how much are they selling the tickets for? It doesn't matter. If you can get that many people in an arena to watch MMA, it's a massive win. I do feel like we're slightly out of the loop as well in the UK and Ireland, which was the same with KSW for a very long time, but Octagon are making a conscious effort

to kind of get that side of things involved. Like Sam Creasy is a well established to kind of get that side of things involved like sam creef sam creasy is a well-established uk fighter he's one of the champions now with will flurry on that event like they're doing a lot to try and embrace the uk and irish market even last year they had a reality tv show with patty hoolan and brad pickett as the coaches on an ultimate fighter kind of thing like they are making an, but this is far beyond an effort. This is a home run, massive success to them. And it looked absolutely fantastic.

Yeah, it's huge. It's actually Deutsche Bank Park in Frankfurt. I said stadium. Sorry, it's okay. I mean, good on them. That's a pretty big deal. I don't know if there are many fights that can draw 60,000 here in the United States.

We talked about this after the, uh, AJ Dubois card. Uh, so that is a, that is a huge, huge accomplishment. Well done to them.

Uh, talked about this with Hinata Moikano. Dana White yesterday gets on social media and says, it's time to change the rankings once and for all, it is time to change the rankings. He was very upset that Khalil Roundtree after the incredible performance against Alex Pera was not moved up. He did not go up from 8 to, I don't know, 5, 4, 3, 2.

Here's what Dana White said yesterday on social media. All right, here we go. I know it's reversed. Can't see it on here. But the moron strike again. Khalil Rountree fights that badass fight against Pereira. And the morons rank him number eight. Keep him at number eight. Literally this week, I have a meeting to try to fix the rankings

and get all these know nothing, do nothing motherfuckers out of it. So hopefully this week I get this fixed. Have a great day, everybody. And here are said panel members that he's talking about now. They no longer actually write the names of the people. He now, or they now on UFC.com slash rankings at the very bottom, at the very bottom of the page, they put the outlets, okay? They put the outlets of the people

that he is so mad about, where they work, where they represent, or who they are representing when they're taking part. So the UFC came out, and keep this up here for a minute, the UFC came out with these rankings a year into their deal with Fox. It was actually a Fox thing because Fox felt when they're doing these cards, six versus three, four versus eight meant something to the casual fan as opposed to Dan Hooker versus Bobby Green. So they wanted rankings. So first it was 10. Then, you know, the cards got a little more watered down. So they wanted 15. So they could say 13 versus 11 and 15 versus 10, et cetera. So they started these rankings and Dana White never wanted rankings, never wanted rankings,

but they kept it and it became a nice promotional tool. The rankings were always independent of the UFC. So we were told where it's the media is going to take part. Now they invited all of us to take part. A lot of people, including myself said, we don't feel comfortable because we don't want to have a say in how matchups are being put together. So I just didn't feel like it was something that I wanted to be a part of. I think rankings are great. They're important. They mean something. But ultimately, in this day and age of the UFC, they don't mean much. Witness the fact that Khalil Rountree, number eight, got a title shot over people who are a higher rank than him. So what does it mean? What's the point, ultimately, if they don't lead to the best fighting the best and title

fights? These are where these people that he's talking about are coming from. K-O-H-N Honolulu, that's a local Honolulu station. MMA Oddsbreaker, CFMU 93.3. I have no idea where that is. Burstprac.se, Fight News, Fight Network, which no longer really covers MMA from a news perspective, Gazeta Esportiva, Cherokee Scout, Burbank Leader, MMA Weekly, KIOZ 105.3, another random radio station, Vladusport.com, Wrestling Observer, Top Turtle Podcast, My MMA News, MMA Fight Radio, Boxeo Mundial, Kimura.se, MMA Soldier, MMA Nyut, Blood and Sweat, Insight Fighting Radio. Now, I'm not trying to disparage any of these names. I'm not trying to put these people down or these outlets down. This is not top tier MMA outlets. It's just not.

You're not seeing the biggest names in MMA media. I hope that's not an insult to anyone. And then who are the people? I have actually joked in the past that they're not real people, that it's actually, you know, it's bots. That know, it's bots. That's what I've said. Now, I know that that is weird now because they're talking about AI and all this stuff.

They're talking about like actually putting it to the computers to do it. Here's what I would say. Yes, thank you. It's about time. They instituted these, I think in 2013, 11 years ago. I would say to Dana White, thank you. Please get rid of them. Please do away with them. Once and for all, end the charade. End the charade that these are real. End the charade

that you guys even listen to them. End the charade that there's actual people from credible outlets that cover MMA on a daily basis because that's what it should be. It shouldn't be the guy who likes MMA, who works at the radio station that maybe talks about MMA once a year when Conor McGregor fights or is in the news. End the charade, wipe it all out. It's embarrassing that it's even a part of the UFC, that this is even used sometimes to dictate matchups.

It shouldn't be. We shouldn't have a say. And make your own, make your own. I would actually be more interested in who the UFC thinks is in the top five in the light heavyweight division. And I would be more interested to on Tuesday morning, wake up and be like, oh, okay. They have now Khalil at three after that performance. You book the fights anyways, you ignore the rankings anyways, you do whatever you want anyways. So let us know what you're thinking. You let us know what you're thinking by making the fights anyways. You ignore the rankings anyways. You do whatever you want anyways. So let us know what you're thinking. You let us know what you're thinking by making the fights. Get us in there a little closer. Let us see how the sausage is made. You make the rankings.

I want to know what Sean Shelby and Mick Maynard think. That is more interesting to me than this fakakta make-believe ranking system that you guys have in place that you don't even pay attention to begin with. So why are you getting mad about it? Why is it thrown in our face? Why do we even have to talk about it as a talking point? If you think that Benoit Saint-Denis is on the level of Dustin Poirier, let us know.

Book that and tell us that it's actually five versus four. It's actually six versus nine, whatever it is. Do away with it. Kill it. Make the official UFC rankings. Let us know what you think. And then ultimately, the whole thing makes more sense because you're booking the fights anyway, and you're ignoring the rankings. If the rankings were a real thing that you actually respected, Khalil Rountree doesn't get a title shot. But they aren't a real thing, and you don't

respect them. So just do away with them. Get rid of them. Go ahead. I am giving you the green light. I'm empowering you to do away with them, move on, rid yourself of this stress and of this talking point. And I don't know if it's fun to have the media as a punching bag, but I don't even know if these people cover MMA anymore. I mean, honestly, some of them, I'm quite certain don't. The Fight Network doesn't cover MMA like that. It's a channel that just airs like fights and impact wrestling and maybe the odd, Invicta of course, but like there's no one there covering it.

There's no journalists there anymore. Do away with it, be done with it, create the official UFC rankings. And that's actually interesting fodder. That's interesting content that I would be interested in actually consuming. Does anyone disagree with me? Well, CFMU, that's a campus community radio station.

It's like Master University in Hamilton, Ontario. Wow, okay. Well, I take it all back. Shout out to the Top Turtle podcast. You'd think the Iron Turtle would get a little bit more love. Can you look up the Top Turtle podcast right now? When's the last time they put out an episode? No no this week they okay my bad they got a shout out to top turtle let's not disparage i'm not trying to disparage but i know for a fact this fight

network doesn't cover news and stuff like that there it is wait is top turtle moicano no no no but maybe that's uh how dan hooker got so high in the ranking oh yeah they got sponsorships and everything okay okay the point, Daniel Pineda. I don't want to make... This is not about them. I'm not disparaging, but it can't be this way anymore. It can't. I agree with you.

They ignore the rankings anyway. So why does it matter? That's why. There's your answer, Rick. What are they getting mad about if they ignore the rankings? Yeah, but who cares? Like, other than Dana White, who cares? Right. Don't you think it's... My thing is only dana white cares nobody else just gave the number eight ranked guy a title

shot why can't he just do it again don't you think it would be more interesting if we looked up and said like oh wow they got ian gary at number four now great i don't i don't know if i love that just because like if i'm a fighter right now i know that the ufc is deciding that, right? If I'm Hinato Moikano, I don't want them to go, oh, I actually think you're number four versus number three. That could create

some dicey situations. I like Hinato's suggestion. Two points. Just two points. Eh, it gets complicated. What's complicated about that? Don't you just feel like if the UFC came, like...

That's the least complicated. If you win, you get three points. If if you win by knockout you get six points let's see where you're at that's it who cares it's it's super simple baby well yeah not that well i think bellator had rankings and they just did themselves right for a minute there they were just like there was a panel for that maybe i'm wrong there was a panel maybe there was they asked me to be on it and i said i understand the thought behind this i said no too i mean to the point ariel was talking about you know who's on it to the the the most respected outlets would not do it right because there's a potential conflict there they they don't necessarily want to participate in something that's done by the promotion if there was an

independent body who was not the UFC that was doing a ranking and panelists were asked to vote, I imagine they'd have better turnout in terms of the top names participating. Maybe not. Maybe they don't want to be involved in that anyway. But because the UFC runs it or because Bellator runs it, obviously that creates some potential conflict.

I just don't... I don't think anybody cares about this other than Dana White. I truly don't., I don't think anybody cares about this other than Dana White. I truly don't. I do think it's, I think it's harder to get rid of it now that they've established it. You know, we were happy before this had occurred,

right? We were all going to say, why do we need rankings? The problem is introducing them and taking them away. With like a new generation of fans getting used to this model, I think it's just confusing to some degree. You mentioned at the start there, Ariel Dana, talking about AI doing the rankings there.

I think it was last month or so. Just out of interest, I opened up some chat GBT here and I got them to rank the UFC's 205 division. Do it, do it. Ilhan Atifi was number 10. And guess what? What? Who's number one?

Khalil Rountree was not in the rankings. Ah! What the fuck is that? Yes. Well, you know, you just want to... That's a good spot. I'm sure there's... Somebody said data

so you can scrap the AI version because that's not going to go over well. Yeah. I get sure there's more sophisticated. Somebody said data so he can scrap the AI version because that's not going to go over well. Yeah. I get the intent. Look, there are, there's an ambition here

that I can understand and respect, right? To have an independent body vote for it, right? Unless I'm mistaken and again, it's hard because we don't really know

who the people are on this panel. If the UFC is not influencing that vote, then it is technically an independent ranking, right? Like the people who are participating are not encouraged or changed or forced to submit a certain order. And so therefore that ranking is a ranking of the

people. Now, do people disagree with the rankings provided by these people? Yes. But what I would argue is if we had the heaviest hitters in MMA ranking this, you would end up with nearly exactly the same list or a list that is slightly different and people would still disagree with it. There is no consensus on this. This is why these debates exist. This is why pound for pound and goad

and all these stupid conversations that everybody has get so heated and go back and forth is because this is subjective and not that type of thing. And so I don't know if they get any better like i think the rankings are fine and they're just you don't think it'd be interesting if the ufc came out with their own rankings i do i think that'd be interesting because then they're showing their cards right they're saying this is what we think but i don't think that would be good for business if the ufc says to fighter five we value you more than fighter eight,

that's kind of not going to do it. It's not so much a value thing like, hey, Moicano, you just beat up Benoit Saint-Denis. We now think you're four. All right, cool. That's value. You don't think they can manipulate this though? You don't think they manipulate that

if they have an event coming up? Yeah, well then it's another complication. Why this charade? The charade that this is actually a real thing. It's all just a charade. It could be a real thing. Just do points based. Just do points based.

To the point you made, which is a completely valid one, they don't go by rankings anyway, right? They're not going number one fights number two. Number one always fights number two or number two always fights number. So do points. You'll have a ranking system. You have the numbers next to the name. Nothing goes away. And you just decide who you want to get title shots, just like you were doing before.

Take it out of everybody's hands. Just do points. I think points is tricky, man. I understand. I understand what you're saying. I hate points by finishes, first round knockouts, submissions. Some mathematician come up with the system. I hate points. I hate points when people suggest them for scoring.

It's just too complicated. It reminds me of Olympic boxing. It's the opposite. It's the easiest possible solution. Factoring humans into the equation to go, I like this win more than this win. Or how about this? It's the exact complication you don't need. How about this, I like this win more than this win is the exact complication you don't need.

How about this? Just get rid of them. No ranking. Sure. That's tough, though. Yeah, they're not going to do that. The UFC was just fine. It's a good way to self-fight. It legitimizes the sport in a way for people who don't care about these rankings, and that's 99.999% of everybody.

You don't know who these guys are, but oh, it's two top 15 lightweights battling it out. Nothing is more broken than anything else. It's completely broken, but by design. There is no way to fix this if you're going to introduce people voting for this panel. You're always going to come up with bad results.

That's just how this goes. Let me on the panel. And by the way, we are lucky enough to have is going to come up with bad results. That's just how this goes. Let me on the panel. Thank you for your interest. I'll hop on. And by the way, we are lucky enough to have a member of our team manning the YouTube channel who was a part of the UFC

when they launched this endeavor back in the day, the great Ant Evans, and he tells us that Yahoo, ESPN, MMA Fighting, MMA Junkie all refused week one to be a part of the UFC rankings, most citing conflict of interest. UFC have cited independent rankings in a congressional hearing, quote unquote independent. They are well aware, they're open to all sorts of bad optics and accusations doing their own. All right, so

they're not going to do their own. I think they should do their own. Because to me, ultimately, we're doing the fights, We're picking the matchups. We're deciding who gets bonuses, who gets opportunities to advance their career or not. End the charade and just wipe this notion away that this is a real thing that they even care about because they don't and they don't adhere to it or listen to it or respect it or honor it. So what's the point? Now, the beauty of this program is that we come back on Wednesday, and we can talk about this type of stuff on Wednesday because Wednesday is still on the Nose Day. Yes, it's still the same old format, if you will, on Wednesday.

And after this program, I'll put the post up on the Substack page, ariahawani.substack.com, where you can send the questions, the comments, like always, and we'll have a grand old time with that. And we have a counter, right? We have a little thing. It's just going to be like the old days. It's going to be great. Now, this is the problem with announcing guests

before the show, and I get excited. One of the guests that I mentioned, Craig Jones, now tells me he can't do tomorrow. We'll get him on next week. No big deal. Demetrius will be joining us and I'm very excited. Where is he? He's right here. Actually Demetrius

is in a couple spots. He's right there too. What the fuck is that? No that's not him. He's there. Yeah. He's somewhere. This has been a great day but it's time to go. You guys good? Everyone else out there? Yeah we're good. Yeah, I'm good, man.

It's been a few hours. I saw you put in the chat. What did you put in the chat there, GC? You put something. KSI's song is a masterpiece, but Kendrick only has one good song. I didn't even know you were on YouTube. Is this your YouTube feed, channel?

I had to create an account. Oh, wow. Yeah. Zero subscribers. Zero videos. Just to put that comment in it's just me it's a comment on the youtube chat uh shout out to the chat hey guys how about you trying to hang me there with ade and then he agreed with me that was you were absolutely bull i actually kind of agree with him. Oh, shit. That is money. Shout out to the chat.

Alex Weber is there, old friend. Who we got? Who we got in the chat? Can we get a Luciana comeback too? Interesting. It's hard to cut a deal with her. She's a tough get. One of the subscriber badges coming from Kevi.

Let's see about that. Give us a thumbs up if you're liking the show. Give us a thumbs up in the chat. Give us a double tap. Give us a subscribe. Give us a thumbs up if you're liking the show. Give us a thumbs up in the chat. Give us a double tap. Give us a subscribe. Give us a notification thingy. Shout out to the chat. Much love to the chat. Salute to the chat. Give us a notification. Yeah. As my guy

CP the franchise says, salute to the chat and salute to all the polls that we're seeing on the chat. Ant's going crazy with the polls. We need to call him Poll Ant or Ant Poll or something like that. You're really going on a droid

run with the old nicknames, aren't you? Who the fuck is we? We won't do it. Time to go, guys. Thank you very much. Much love to you all. You can hit the music, Frank, and subscribe. Also, the pod feed is up and running i'm still getting people being i don't know where to find you how how many more times

can i explain ariel hawani show on youtube easy uncrowned.com written word easy social feeds instagram uncrowned uncrowned combat on twitter uncrowned combat on tiktok uncrowned combat on facebook or actually it might be uncrowned on facebook now right because of meta am i right Uncrowned. Uncrowned Combat on Twitter. Uncrowned Combat on TikTok. Uncrowned Combat on Facebook. Or actually, it might be Uncrowned on Facebook now. Right? Because of meta? Am I right or wrong on that? I think you're right.

Anyway, just write in Uncrowned and it'll all come up. And then pod feeds. Spotify, Apple, Iron Hawani Show. This show will be on here later tonight. Tomorrow. Same time and place, 1 p.m. Eastern. Thursday, boys in the back, live at 1 p.m. Eastern Thursday boys in the back live at 1 p.m. Eastern on this channel a crack 1 p.m. Eastern on Friday all those shows one fee we're not we're not we're not splitting it all up we're not

getting crazy okay one feed and we come back and we do it again we do it again 69 million views on this channel already is that is that true it's a dangerous thing when you start reading the comments isn't it ah shout out to the chat salute to the chat thumbs up to the chat oh i see the likes yeah i see the hearts they're flowing they're flowing frank.25. I'm not sure what that means. I'll take it. But get it on the ticket. Great show. Great day. Loved it. Thank you, Ilya Teporya, Dustin

Poirier, Kayla Harrison, and of course, the great Ade Oladipo. Thanks to all of them. Thanks to all of you. Back on Wednesday, same time and place. Until then, I say, Peace. I'm out. place. Until then, I say, peace. Amen.