The Ariel Helwani Show - Dustin Poirier, Jorge Masvidal, Waldo Cortes-Acosta, weekend recap, more

Episode Date: January 19, 2026

Ariel Helwani starts the show on a somber note, reflecting on the Buffalo Bills’ season coming to an end, before reacting to a busy weekend that included major reveals from Zuffa Boxing, Paramount��s promotional efforts for UFC 324, Dana White’s recent apathy, Arman Tsarukyan’s world tour, Alex Pereira and Jon Jones exchanging callouts, and more (12:25).Jorge Masvidal returns to talk about rumors of him potentially facing Conor McGregor, wanting to fight on the White House card, not calling in a favor with President Trump to get on the card, and his response to Max Holloway’s stance on the BMF title (1:04:21).Waldo Cortes-Acosta is back, previewing his UFC 324 fight against Derrick Lewis, revealing he wanted to fight Lewis for a long time, looking back at his baseball career, and more (1:35:07).Dustin Poirier is our final guest of the day, joining on his birthday to discuss the birth of his son Kingston, life in retirement, still missing fighting, continuing to seek broadcast opportunities, his breakdown of the UFC 324 main event and Conor McGregor’s potential return, filming the "Road House" sequel, and more (2:00:37).Ariel covers more news and notes, including Conor McGregor talking about his contract status, Alexandre Pantoja being back in the gym, Nick Diaz and Sean Strickland crossing paths in Vegas, and more (2:00:37).Finally, Ariel answers your Super Chats (3:31:59).

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the on this Monday, January 19-20. And 26, hello again, everyone. I sure hope you're doing well. It is great to be back on a frigid and snowy Monday in New York City. If you live in the United States, you are probably not working today in observance. of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Happy Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day to one and all. May we continue to strive to uphold his dream.

May we continue to strive to uphold his values and ethics. May we continue to try to make this world a better place for not only ourselves, but the next generation, our kids and their children as well. May we continue to work together to live in peace and harmony. And so if you are in the United States of America and you are off today, hopefully you're having a lovely day off. Perhaps you're able to watch us live. Sometimes you're working. It's 1 o'clock in the afternoon or 10 a.m. when we're live in the United States.

So hopefully you're sitting back and relaxing and enjoying a little combat sports talk. I also want to wish you a very happy UFC 324 flight week. Yes, it is finally here. Your long international nightmare is over. It's been, well, it will be six weeks between UFC events, which is the longest stretch in quite some time. And I'm not talking about the pandemic era because that was weird for everyone. So it's a very long stretch.

And I want to remind, where I want to inform, I want to educate the younger audience out there, the newer fans, if you will, that this feeling that you're feeling, this longing, this foaming at the mouth feeling for UFC, this wanting. the UFC to be back in your life, this used to be the norm. This used to be what it was like to be a UFC fan. Not that long ago, probably

15 or so years ago, pre-Fox era, Spike TV era, and I'm not going to sit here and advocate for less events. I get it. It's fun. Listen, as a guy who covers the sport, it gives us more to talk about

when there are events. Even when there are apex events or metapex events, I should say. The more fights, the more there is to talk about, because there's a controversy here, there's a big win there, there's a knockout here, there's an announcement there,

there's stuff to talk about. But this feeling that you are no doubt feeling, which is, oh my God, I can't wait for Saturday night, I can't wait to watch some fights, is what it used to be like to be a fan. This longing, this, you know, like six weeks in between fights, more time to think about the fights, better cards, deeper cards.

This card on Saturday, despite the fact that it has lost some fights. some because the original plan was Ilya versus Patty. Imagine we were getting Ilya versus Patty in five days. Imagine that. Imagine we were getting Kayla versus Amanda Nunes in five days. We are not getting either of those fights, but it's still a tremendous fight card. It's still very deep, top to bottom. This feeling is what it used to be like because it used to be six to eight weeks in between fight cards. And so I always felt like that was very healthy. I always used to say, you know, back of the day when I was trying to convert my friends into UFC fans, I would say, hey, come on, there's a UFC event tonight. I'll order the pay-per-view. And then over time, it became, hey, come on over so-and-so is fighting. Because it used to be UFC is on, and then it's like, well, who's fighting? I'll skip that one. I'll watch next week. It's a slippery slope. And as a result of having less cards, you have deeper cards. But that's not going to happen. It will never happen.

If anything, there's a greater chance over time that we're getting more cards than less cards. And by the way, in the early Fox days, we were sometimes getting two cards a day. We were sometimes getting a card like in Asia and then a card in Brazil. That was a wild time. And thank God, they scaled back on that a little bit. But here we are, six weeks off. I think it's been great. I think it has renewed enthusiasm.

I think people are very excited, especially because it's the new era. I thought it was very smart to not go head to head with the NFL these last two weeks because there were games on the Saturday night, why go head to head with the NFL? There's plenty of dates to come. And if you look at the first couple of months, there's an off week on February 14th, but it's week after week after week after week. And it's pretty good cards so far, pretty good main events. We're already deep into March and soon we'll find out about Miami in early April. So it has been good. I think it has been good. And I think there's a lot of enthusiasm and excitement surrounding the new era. And we shall get into that and more. But I would be remiss. I would be remiss off the top.

But I promise. I promise. I will not talk about the NFL probably until September. All right, I promise. But I would be remiss since I've talked a lot about my Buffalo bills and the Chachkeshese aren't going anywhere. If I don't at least say that, yeah, I am heartbroken. This one will stick with me for a very long time.

I can't believe that they lost. I can't believe that they lost for multiple reasons. I can't believe how many times they shot themselves in the foot on Saturday. I was livid afterwards. It's a very hard one to process because I believe and I'm not trying to throw shade I'm not trying to take any shots.

I have no animus towards Broncos fans. I said this before. I said it after. I like the Broncos fans in my life. But we were the better team in my opinion. We didn't play like the better team. But I think we were the better team and despite the five turnovers

I thought we were going to win and I thought we could have one and should have one. But you turn over the ball five times bad things are going to happen and I'm not even going to get. get into the referees. I'm not going to get into the fact that Brandon Cook's actually caught that ball and it shouldn't have been an interception. I'm not going to get into the fact that he was actually

held multiple times in the end zone and that should have been a pass interference. I'm going to get into the fact that there were two pass interference called in overtime and plus 50 yards of penalties gifted to the Broncos. I don't think either of them were past interferences. We should have won that game, stopped them in overtime, come back, felt like they were playing a little bit too conservatively. And quite honestly, like I said, it's it's the mistakes that will live with me. It's the mistakes that have caused me not to go to bed. It's it's the James Cook fumble. It's not kneeling at the end of the first half. I'll never understand that one for as long as I live. There are no timeouts. Why are you not kneeling? Nothing good is going to happen.

Even if you, even if you go 20 yards, the time is going to run out. Nothing is going to happen. You're at a field goal range. It's the fumble at the beginning of the second half. It's the interception going to Curtis Samuel. And then the last interception, I'm not going to blame on Josh. And I will never blame any of this on Josh because we're not even a playoff team without Josh Allen. But of course you start nitpicking. It's missing Dawson Knox. It's missing Khalil Shakir. Uncharacteristic throws. Uncharacteristic misses. I believe he was hurt. Who knows? I can't believe they're not going to the AFC championship. I can't believe it's another missed opportunity. I can't believe that in the past seven years,

we have had arguably the best team and we cannot get over that hump. Two AFC championship losses, four in the divisional round, and it's one heartbreaking loss after the next. They somehow don't know how to lose normally. It always has to be the most heartbreaking gut-wrenching losses. And there are people, perhaps G. Perhaps G.C. is one of them that will tell you that I enjoy this misery. Trust me, I don't enjoy this misery.

I do not enjoy it. I wonder who I pissed off up there to choose the Knicks and the Builds. and the Expos who left and then the Blue Jays. What did I do to deserve all this? I will never understand. But as I told my kids, better to love and lose, never to lose at all or love at all,

whatever the hell the saying is. And now on this Monday, we don't have a head coach. And I was campaigning for this. I thought they should have gotten rid of the GM. Can't believe Brandon Bean has been promoted. I think McDermott took them as far as they could possibly go. And they're going to have to find a great thing.

head coach, you cannot screw this up. You've got the best quarterback in the league. You've got the rainy defending MVP for at least a couple more weeks. You cannot screw this up. New stadium, new era, and mark my words, my friends. Mark my words. Because I am forever proud to be a Bill's fan, and I will never ever turn my back on them despite how much pain they have caused me, especially in the last six years. Mark my words. Next year, February 14th, 2007, Inglewood, California, Super Bowl 61 will be played. The latest that the Super Bowl will ever be played. Day before President's Day,

National Holiday, Valentine's Day. A million and one broken hearts will finally be healed. Mark my words. They will make it happen. It is happening. We're going to get a great wide receiver or two. We're going to improve the defense. Josh will be healthy.

James Cook won't fumble the ball anymore. We'll have a new voice, a new leader, as far as head coach is concerned. February 14th, 2027. Mark my words. Spencer, you will make this clip next year, February 14th, 2027.

We are going to the Super Bowl. I believe it in my soul. Josh Allen will hoist that trophy and I will never give up on them. But I swear to know if Drake May makes it to the Super Bowl before fucking Josh Allen, it will kill my soul.

It makes it so much more hard to digest. It makes it so much harder to digest. Drake fucking May. And by the way, Patriots fans, I saw all your tweets. You're all laughing at me. I get it.

You deserve it. You know what? You deserve it. I deserve it. You know what? I threw shade. Go ahead. Go ahead.

I take you back. You don't deserve it. I don't understand how you actually are in this position, how you get so lucky time after time after time. You're playing Jared Stidham in the conference championship game. Are you kidding me? What?

But Drake May is probably going to go to the Super Bowl. And I'm so happy I'll be in Italy sleeping and not watching the Super Bowl for the first time in my sports loving life. I will not watch that. I didn't watch a second yesterday and I cannot watch. a second of this Sunday or, you know, three weeks from now, whenever the hell it is. It's a cruel, cruel world, but our fate will turn, and I feel it's coming in about 13 months. All right, is that good enough for you? Because I saw you guys in the chat. Oh, bring that same.

I'm not complaining about the refs. We shot ourselves in the foot, the turnovers. I can't believe they didn't yield the ball. We should have won. Congrats to Chuck. I texted him. Congrats to my friends who are Broncos fans. It sucks. There you go. There are the tears and enjoy if you're a Seahawks, Rams or Patriots or Broncos fan. Can't believe he broke his ankle. Holy shit. That's crazy. Second of the last play of the game, he kneels the ball and breaks his ankle. Bowenix, that is. It's a crazy world. But I will forever be a Bill's fan. I'll forever support the team and we will have our moment. I believe in my soul. We will have our moment. All right. Today's program. Today's program. It's a great show. Three great guests.

Back into the show, the birthday boy, Dustin Porier is going to join us. 19th, 1989, Dustin L. Diamante Porre was born. He is 37 today and he's kind enough to join us on his birthday. What a mensch. Prior to that, we're going to be joined by Waldo Cortez-A Costa. You know, another great thing about so much time off, you can talk to so many of the fighters on the, on the card. So Waldo's going to join us. Two fighters on the card are going to join us tomorrow. So a lot of 324 talk to come. And prior to that, Jorge Mosvado, who's been in the news as of late, White House card, Cona McGregor, we spoke to him in December that wasn't really on the radar, but now all of a sudden it seems to be on the radar.

We'll talk to him about all of that and more. So that is today's program. UFC 324 coming up. So a lot of 324 talk, but then other news as well as we enter the 2026 campaign for the ultimate fighting championship. 2026 campaign for the UFC is big. It's also huge for TKO, for the TKO group. It's a WrestleMania.

season. And a big story obviously has been about their third pillar, which is Zoufa Boxing. And we all know that Zufa Boxing is going to premiere January 23rd that this Friday on Paramount Plus. And a lot has been said about the lack of promotion and what exactly is this thing and the Ali Act and the belt and all that stuff. And there they were on Friday evening, on Friday evening dropping a whole bunch of news surrounding Zufa Boxing. Now, if you work in the world of PR or even in journalism, you know that if you've got something in your back pocket that is quote unquote bad news, you drop that on a Friday evening. You want the bad news to be dropped on a Friday evening because you kind of want it to like, you know, not get noticed as people head

into the weekend. But they dropped good news. They dropped a whole bunch of exciting news pertaining to Zuba boxing. I thought it was a very good night for them. I just don't know how many people saw it and I don't understand why they didn't do it earlier in their day or on Thursday. Perhaps there were some signatures to be had. First things first, though, they dropped this promo, which we could play for you video-wise, not audio-wise, because the Rolling Stones are voicing this thing. And it's Max Kellerman talking to us about how boxing is the purest form of sport out there and how there's been great fighters and great fights, but yet it fell short over the years. And here he is waxing poetic about the likes of Jack Johnson and Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier

and all the greats from yesteryear. Jake Lamata and Rocky Marciano and all these guys. As you see the ominous figure holding the belt walking through, you know, the hallways of Summerina. What's the song again, Frank? Oh, Desino, you've got the shine away. He's not the shadow. It's a Rolling Stones tune, isn't it? Yes, sir. What is it called? What is it called? What is it called?

What is it called? What does it go? On to Jenna. Anyway, you don't know what it's called? I figured you were the music aficionado. Oh, wow, that's shocking. Anyway, I thought it was a great promo, but there you go. Give me shelter.

Give me shelter. There it is. There's a few Easter eggs in this promo. So this promo drops, and I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa. All right, first of all, great to see a promo. Second of all, they're, you know, they're positioning that man, Dana White, as the main character,

as the MPC, as the kids say. No, that's incorrect. That's incorrect. The NPC would be the non-playable character. That's right. Yeah, as the main character. And perhaps some would argue the MPC as well. But there's a few Easter eggs.

In addition to all of that. Number one, number one, wearing a tie? Dana White wearing a tie? I usually see, like, you'll see him wear a tie if he's like being celebrated at like some sort of charity dinner

he's rocking the tie with the half smile thingy, the smirk. But a tie for like a video like that, I don't know if they're going with old school HBO, you know, they did the bow tie thing for Canella.

I don't know what, but that was a surprise. That was a surprise. The second one, he's holding the belt. So you see him holding the Zufa boxing belt. There it is.

There's a glimpse of it. There's the screen grab, if you will. How many sides, but one, two, three, four, five. wait one eight

wow okay maybe a sign I see six yeah I see one two three there's the two on the ends two four six I see six eight I see six two no I think it flattens out in the dark spots I think it's eight it looks like an octagon okay all right well there it is

a knot I did think it was very very interesting that you had like for the past 20 plus years and people thought I was wrong shade doing this but no like listen to any Dana White interview listen to Joe Rogan on Sports Center debating Lou Debella, listen to anything they have said. Their MO over the past 20 plus years is that boxing is a limited form of combat sports. You could only use two weapons. In MMA, in our sport, it is the

purest form because you can use any weapon. You can use these things, but you can use these as well. You can use knees, kicks, anything you want. And now to have someone under their umbrella, led by Dana himself telling you this is the purest form of sport, this is the ultimate sport, if you will, runs counter to everything they've been telling us for the past 20 years. Of course, they don't expect a stickler like me to sit here and be like, wait a second. In 2007, when you debated Lou DeBella on the 6 p.m. Sports Center after UFC 71, you, Joe Rogan, said it was the purest form of sport. And now you're telling us in 2026 that actually the other thing, the Queensberry fighting,

is the purest form of sport. It's all very contradictory. They're not expecting that. But that smacked me in the face as well. Another Easter egg in there was the number one cruiserweight in the world, Mr. Jayapathia, just sort of appearing. There he is. Jaya Pataya, the number one cruiserweight in most people's eyes,

29 and 0, 23 knockouts, who's a must watch, like one of the most exciting fighters in the sport, has now signed with Zoufa boxing. And this was surprising to me because we had heard Dana White say time and again that they are only looking for like those sort of diamonds in the rough, those unproven up and coming prospects that they could build up and then pass off the turkey. That's what he said. He compared it to the container series. Jaya Pataya is not that guy. He's not the Unified champ. That's Zerto Ramirez. And Zerto's scheduled to fight David Benavides's Cinco de Mio weekend in Las Vegas. And so I saw some like hipster boxing people online being like, how could Jai be the number one

cruiser rate in the world if Zerto is the unified champ. Oh yeah? Like have you watched both of them fight? Since when, since when does the guy who has two thirds or half of the belt, since when does that guy get the distinction of being the best over the guy who's actually the best? Because Jai is the best. If Jai fought Zerto, in my opinion, he'd win. But what's weird about it is not only are they signing a guy who's in most people's eyes the number one cruise rate in the world, his first words about the signing is that he wants to go for undisputed and unified, which again, runs counter to everything that they have been saying over the past few months, which is we don't care about those belts, because the only way that you could be undisputed or unified is if you're fighting for the

WBC, the WBO, the IBF, if you're fighting for just the ZUFA belt, then that's it. Like, let's go for, his first words should have been, let's go for the Zufa belt. Anyway, here's what he said. Here's what I'm talking about. What's up everyone. It's job atopataya. Simon was good for boxing now. So pump for the future.

Exciting times, man. Let's get these big fights over the line unification. Undisputed soon. Let's go. And so perhaps early on, they're actually going to, look, they're saying a lot of things right now. Ultimately, you have Dana White, Nick Khan, the UFC, the WWE, their production teams, Mark Shapiro, Ari Emanuel, like, these guys are not going to fail. And so I can sit here and, you know,

dissect every single move and a lot of them are contradictory right now him talking about unified and undisputed them signing Jayopataya we're going to come out with a splash

and you know this is your first card Callum Walsh headlining and a bunch of other people that aren't exactly household names they did release the card

we could show it we have the graphic like a lot of these it's at the apex for goodness sakes this doesn't exactly you know mesh with everything

that has been said over the past six months. It's still all going to work out in the end because they've got the platform, they've got the money, they've got the backing, they've got the All-Stars leading the charge. But like we have to be honest, a lot of it is very, very confusing and contradictory. I don't think anyone saw this coming. I saw some people saying this was a big win over Eddie Hearn.

Jai's last fight wasn't a matchroom fight. Now maybe Eddie wanted to have him back at some point and maybe he said, thanks, but no thanks, and I'm going to go here. and maybe that's why his last fight wasn't a matchroom fight. He is linked to Tasman fighters over in Australia

and they even tweeted about it so it remains to be seen like is this a co-promotion which again would run counter to everything they've been saying as well because they don't want to work with others. Who knows? There's a lot of questions surrounding all this

and I think it's going to be a very, very fun story to follow but it's a great signing. Not only is it a great signing because he's the best cruise rate in the world but MMA and UFC and fighting is so popular. popular in Australia, now you've got a guy that you can maybe use to put on big events over there.

And why is it so popular in Australia? It's so popular in Australia because of the likes of Alex Volkinovsky, and you see the synergy here with this video. You have Alex welcoming Jai to the TKO family. How good is that, as he would say. What's happening, Jay up at Tyrae? Make congratulations with the TKO group, how good is that? Zufur Boxing. I've always been a big fan of your work. Great box. I cannot wait to watch. you do your thing. You have a good one, my man. You know, what's up, Valk? Appreciate the message, man. You know, I've been a fair of yours for a long time doing big things for our country. And I'm proud of you, bro. Um, cook up a storm soon on the cooking shall away. Hey. Shout out to cooking with Vogue. By the way, in case you're wondering why

you're just seeing me here, I like to break the fourth wall. I like to break the fourth wall and let you know that we had a little technical issue. But shout out to Andy. Shout out to Andy and Tyler, who is here as well, who really made things happen to get the show even on air. So it's a challenging day on a holiday, but we made it happen. But there are a few little wrinkles

and bells and whistles that are a little bit different. And I'm not going to get into the technicalities because quite frankly, I don't really understand them. But one of the things that I was informed of was the fact that, well, basically, like, we can't really get the camera input source,

something or other, Rick and Connors. What do you mean? Camera. We can hear them just fine, but we can't necessarily see them. No, what do you mean about that? We're right here. Okay.

Honestly, this is best case scenario. Here we are. I'm lounging, man. I got my feet kicked up. Are you even dressed right now? Do you have pants on? No, we also. We have these spotlights in our faces and now I'm wondering why we even have these in

our faces. Yeah, why? This is incredible. This is amazing. And so they are here. Rest assured they are here. We're here. It's so good.

How did you have your face painted? Yeah, I think it was Kids Day here. It was the Yahoo! Office Party Day. It's comforting knowing that you are here, but it's almost like you're so far, you're close yet far. You know what I mean? We can run over there if we have to. It feels like a little lonely. No, no, we're right here, bro.

The pick of Yukon, where is that from? Me? Yeah. This is somewhere on like some snowy day. It was a Carlos Prochette. fight day. It's so good. So they are here.

I promise you they are here. And this is the best that we can do. And quite frankly, it's a pretty damn good. I think it's an upgrade. Yeah. I think it's great. Also,

you say it's lonely. Like, the office is also completely empty because it's a federal holiday. So, like, it really is kind of lonely. It actually reminds me of like a normal day at Vox. You know?

A December 2021 day for sure. Oh, hell yeah. Oh, my God. Those were some lonely days. But it's good that you guys are. And Frank, is there, Jordan's there, Andy's there.

We're all here. Everyone's here, man. No proof of that. We could have all left and gone home. You literally could be on via Zoom. Right? Who's to check? Who's to check? Who's to check? It really does work in so many different scenarios. It really does work. Anyway,

so that's some Zufa boxing news. I was watching the Bill's game on Saturday. I don't know if you guys know this. And, you know, I was trying to lock in. And there I am hearing Jim Nance talk about the undefeated Patty Pimbley. And I'm so locked in, I'm like, did Jim Nance just call Patty Pimbleau undefeated? That's weird. And then I saw Ben Folks tweet about it, and I was like, oh, wait, he did.

Could have sworn this UFC ad on CBS just described Patty Pimbleau as, quote, unquote, undefeated, but no, they can't be right. I must have eaten a bad chicken wing and started hallucinating it. No, no, no, we all heard it. And so I guess they're going with if you're undefeated in the UFC, then you're undefeated? Who's to check, right? How do you guys feel about this, by the way?

Is that fair? Like, can they get away with that? Because he's not undefeated. And is this something only we would care about or maybe I would care about? Because when I heard it, I think it was at some point where the tide was turning against the bill so I was especially triggered.

I'm like, no, facts matter. Records matter. We have to get this factually correct, guys. He is not undefeated. Now, if you say undefeated in the UFC, you know, then, all right, fine, that is valid. But I did want to call a friend who knows Jim Nance and tell him, well, listen.

Back in 2022, there was this guy named Jared Gordon who actually beat Patty Pumblin. It was very controversial. Douglas Crosby flew from Connecticut to Las Vegas. He gave him a hometown discount, but it felt like too much work. So what do you guys think? Is that wrong? Is that unfair?

Tapology, I mean, you know, says what it says what? That he's undefeated? Yeah, you know. No, no, but he's not undefeated. He's undefeated in the UFC. No, the history is whatever we make it. I think it's a marketing ploy. I know.

He's undefeated in the UFC, but he has three losses on his record. They don't usually do that, though. Like, I've never heard them call someone who's just undefeating the UFC undefeated, unless I missed it. Yeah, I think it's a little bit cheap.

Like, if I was watching with one of my friends and he was just like, oh, this guy's undefeated. I would be like, no, he isn't. Yeah. Are you guys feeling the buzz? Are you feeling it now? Seeing a couple promos, seeing it all over.

It was crazy seeing promos on CBS. I know. And then Jim Nance doing a read for it. Wild. Wild. Like, that's the thing. at this point of the game ABC ESPN wouldn't have

I know they had a playoff game yesterday I do believe it was yeah but usually like you weren't getting promos during the NFL playoffs because at this juncture historically ABC ESPN hasn't had playoff games certainly not in the ESPN

UFC era so to see like a massive game like that have any kind of UFC mention is wild they're posting stuff on the new social media account the Paramount UFC crew you guys didn't like this one

why is crew in the name I don't know why is it UFC Paramount crew is it trying to be cool it ain't working it's failing miserable that ain't working I will say their effort is is good though like I'm seeing a lot of activity from that account they're doing the right things

they've it's hard to take anything you're saying seriously every time I go to that picture why this is this is the most serious I've ever been look at that face the scalel What's wrong with the you guys were going crazy about that Photoshop?

What's wrong with it? What's the problem there? It's just shit. You mean? Like, it's just dudes on a mountain. What is the story we're trying to convey here? I don't mind it. It's the Paramount Mountain.

What are you guys talking about? This is like... It's the Paramount Mountain, dude. What's the story? Great, it's the Paramount Man. The debut on Paramount. They reached the Paramount. Song looks like he's fucking like, just like, it looks like maybe these guys were there and

then they photoshopped him in, even though they're all photoshopped in somehow. Minds think of like. I've started doodling on some notepads, my own little artist series, artist series posters. I put the Paramount Mountain in the background as well. You're doing that now too? Oh yeah, bro. I'm going to get an artist series poster one day. I think Connor made this poster and that's why he's... I think it's ironic. It's not a poster. It's just a social graphic. Is it ironic? He's defending it because he made it. Is it ironic? Are they trying to make it look sort of... Shit? Yeah. If you actually look at it, they like took a still of the animation because the stars are just like blurting. Oh my God. Good spot, Jordan. Oh, that's incredible. That's fucking great.

I didn't realize that. Yes. The stars are coming. Yeah. Oh, that's about good action. GC 100% made this. There's no way. He's defending this.

Holy shit. I didn't even notice that. That's unbelievable. All right, this or the actual UFC 324? What is it? This is probably better. I haven't seen it yet, but I promise you it's two faces and some sort of like blueish hue or something. Yeah.

Well, the good news is, as we talked about a little bit on Thursday, they did add Kate Scott to the broadcast. Very curious to see how that plays out historically not an MMA personality, but very good at boxing. Incredibly good, incredibly knowledge when it comes to boxing. interestingly not a part of Zufa boxing it seems just UFC which would be a layup perhaps excuse me perhaps has something to do with her dezone obligations but love to see it

consummate pro super talented super professional super well researched like just everything you want in a host her Bispang Cruz Weidman the usual's cage side feels like they're going big and I like the fact that Paramount is doing this. I like the fact that CBS is saying, like, we want one of our own. Fox did that with

Menafee and Glazer. ESPN would do it from time to time as well. Michael Leaves. But usually they kind of kept it, right? Didn't they keep it like separate? No one really crossed over other than Yves. Did anyone ever cross over in terms of like the big time host? Like you never had John Butcher Gross talking about the UFC or anything like that. The most like equivalent I could think of is we had like ESPN talent like voicing video package. Tony Collins. And we could speak to it. But we had like things like that.

But I don't think there was ever anybody other than Eves who really like got on a UFC program. Yeah. I mean, and this is the biggest one that they can get. She is the face of their Champions League coverage. She's the host of Champions League with Terry Henri and Micah Richards and Jamie Carragher. She does an incredible job. And I'm really excited to see how she does UFC because she's so synonymous with boxing. So this is going to be a lot of fun.

Obviously, did the Netflix cards as well as PBC back in the day, DeZone, and on and on it goes. So if you're unfamiliar with her, I think she's going to be a great addition. And I'm very, very excited. A horrible subtraction to the card was obviously the Kayla Harrison News, which we also talked about on Friday. Feel awful for her. Still no real update. Nothing really new as far as Kayla and Amanda and their future plans. are concerned. Nothing really new at all. She did post that video where she's crying and, you know,

she's got, uh, she's got the neck brace on. Sean, oh no, she sounds awful. She kind of sounds like me right now. She's very sad. But here's Sean O'Malley very happy about being the Komen event. You see the news? Kail Harrison's out. Comeyne. Comeyne? Me? You? I'm the comment. You're going to see 324. So he's pumped. It's a great card, by the way,

despite the fact that Ilya's not on it. And no Kayla versus Amanda. Gaecchi Pimblit, O'Malley, Sonia Dong, Cortez, Dirk-Lewis, Natalia Silva, Rosnami Eunice, Arnold Allen, John Silva. That's an amazing five-pack of main card fights.

And by the way, everything's going to be on Paramount Plus. So I would imagine you're just going to be able to sit on the stream and it'll go through the entire card. Umar and Margre Mard and Margre Mardemadov versus Davis of Figurado is flying under the radar. This is a main event

of a fight night. This is sometimes a co-main event of a pay-per-view. Atiba Gautier must see TV for me, one of my prospects of the year candidates. He's going up against Andre Puleev. Modest's Bukkowskis is on a great run, going up against

Akita Krillov. Perez versus Johnson. Alex Perez versus Charles Johnson. we spoke to Charles last week. That's a big fight at 125. Michael Johnson against Alex Hernandez. Hernandez enjoying a renaissance in his career. Josh Hokit on there as well against Denzel Freeman. Ricky Terseos, always fun.

And Adam Fuget versus Ty Miller. It's a very, very good card. And it lost its co-main event. And the biggest star on the card isn't fighting. And that's the guy that they wanted to fight on the card, which is Ilyde Poria. So I think that we are getting a very solid offering for the Paramount debut.

Obviously having Kayla on would have made it so much better. We talked last week about Israel-Desanya, you know, making his own promos and other fighters now having to make their own promos because it feels like the UFC just isn't promoting these events for whatever reason. It's like they used to with creativity and imagination. What about John Silva? Did you guys see this promo from John Silva who's going up against Arnold Allen? Look at this. Look at his back.

What is that? Is that a new tattoo? Imagine he got a new tattoo with blood dripping from his back. I don't think that's a new tattoo, but it looks freaking sick. Perhaps a call back to the Diego Lopez fight where he was bleeding. You guys see this? This is amazing stuff from Johnson. Look at this.

Look at this. He made this on his own. Extremely high quality production here. Love it. I mean, we're seeing more and more. You played the Izzy one last week. I picked the Imov won our awards. Like, the fighters are creating the most interesting promos for these fights.

now. There's his wife who's by his side. It's great. I love this. And what a fight, man. Again, another fight. John Silva versus Arnold Allen is a massive fight at 145 pounds with massive implications for the division. Oh, the baby. Beautiful. How great is this? You know, it's all coming together for me now. First he's alone, then it's his

wife, then it's the baby, right guys? Oh, that's tremendous. Lord John Silva, and now he's alone once again. And the blood is good. Rebirth. Oh. Oh. That's good stuff.

No. Listen, I'm deprived. No, this is really a promo. This is a sick promo. Oh. On the end. Wait, why do I hear myself say tremendous? Frankie's, I think he's already going back to get a drop.

Dana White did a whole bunch of media a couple weeks ago in New York, and the interviews are still trickling out. and there's one that he did with Complex, which was a relatively short interview, but a couple of good nuggets in there. The interviewer asked him about the, I had some sort of cracker before the show,

and there's a thing stuck in my throat, and I can't get it out, and it's very annoying. Have you guys noticed that there's something stuck in my throat? Yeah, man, yeah. Is there anything I can bring you to? A little bread? Soda water.

Would that help? Have no good. Well, something to knock it down, you know? You think you've, you think you've, You think you fought through it. And then it just... It's tough fighting through it, too. It's tough fighting through it, you know, we're professionals around here.

Let's get up and do some jumping jump in a tough few days for me. By the way, losing Boba Shett on Friday was the beginning of my horrible weekend. Lost him, it's just a lot, you know, it's a lot to handle. But I'm here. I'm showing up on a holiday for all of you. So I hope you appreciate it. Take good care of him, flushing. I had to take down my bobb shed toy and put it in the back.

It's over there in the corner. Anyway, Dana White did this interview and he was asked about the Diego Lopez-Alice Volcanovsky fight. And I'm just wondering if I'm a Paramount executive and I'm listening to this, and I'm sure they're not listening to it, and I'm sure they ultimately don't care. But when you hear the guy who you just paid $7.7 billion for seven years to have the UFC and Paramount, excuse me, and Zufa boxing, like when you hear that guy say this in response to a hotly debated, somewhat polarizing fight booking.

I really do wonder, if you are listening, if you are listening, what you're thinking. Take a listen. You got Volk Lopez, too. Some people, I guess, maybe were questioning why there was a rematch when the first fight felt a little decisive on Volk's behalf.

Yeah, if you don't like it, don't watch it. What's the process going into, like, this needs to be a rematch or this shouldn't be? I don't know if the process. was there needs to be a rematch, it was just a fight that made sense. We get in that room and we start putting shit together and, you know, should be a good fight. Okay, so I can understand if you're a new fan and you're listening to that and you're looking at that and you're saying like, wow, this is disinterested, disconnected Dana White. If you don't care to watch it.

But to be honest, he has been saying this for a very long time. He has been saying this for a very long time. He has often said when it comes to a hotly debated fight card, he has said two things. He has said, you can't judge it before it happens, which is usually the go-to line. But he has also said in the past, in fairness, if you don't like it, don't watch it. I just worry now in the new era, if that's the mentality, if his demeanor there is sitting there being like, you know, if you don't like it, don't watch it, we're in for some trouble. if there's no more pressure on the UFC to put on the best fights because he says that's the fight that made sense no it's not the fight that made sense like it quite literally made no sense because

there were two guys on nine fight winning streaks and and one guy who just come off an incredible knockout a knockout of the year winner in my opinion at least it doesn't make sense but if you just say like look man really like this guy he had a great win we're giving him another crack you know them's the breaks. We think it's going to be the best fight possible for both. We think it's going to be great for the division. It's going to be great for everyone in attendance at home. You know, like something. But that's like, yeah. I can't tell you how much it bothers me to see someone in that position of power. And like we're in the business of caring. We need to care. We need to care. As media we need to care. As fans who devote our time and money, I know that.

it's cheaper now, but it's still a subscription and that you're hoping to get the best product possible. To be that apathetic about it is grading. I think the apathy is a symptom of the same kind of thing that goes back to the Patty Pimbled undefeated thing. It's just Dana White is giving you history and his version of events is the version.

UFC is going to give you whatever they give you and there's not enough people that are going to say, wait a minute, is that actually true? That it doesn't matter to them. It requires no effort. on their part, they can just continue to do it. Patty Pitmot's undefeated. This was the fight everybody wanted, and we just move on.

Because there's not enough people that are going to go, wait a minute, actually. Again, I'll say the same thing that I said last week. We used to see a different side. Even one that we get annoyed at that question, you know? I don't give a fuck. There's a, just shrugs the shoulders and moves on. Crazy. It's just crazy that we've reached that point.

And there has to be people who are high up who say like, that's weird. Of course, no one's going to say anything. No one's going to say a thing. But there has to be people who see that and be like, not the best answer. We could have come up with something a little bit better than that. I'm not going to harp on this ad nauseum. But we start this era with that type of attitude, that type of apathy. And it is, at least to me, very grating.

Now, Ilya came out of the woodwork over the weekend. And all of a sudden, sort of like Connor McGregor a few years ago, where he would do like the Ask Notorious, hashtag Ask Notorious tweets. He came out and started just answering tweets left and right, a few that we wanted to spotlight. Here he is quote tweeting a UFC tweet talking about him, winning in their eyes, the knockout of the year award, his knockout of Charles Olvera in June.

And he quote tweets it with, wait, I didn't read it. the award for the best knockout of the year in 2026 will also be mine. So a prediction and a bit of a spoiler, foreshadowing that he is going to come back. Then someone asks him and shout out to this fella, Reuser, razor? Anyway, he fell off hard. His words. Hi, bro, when do you think you'll fight again?

So nonchalant, right? And he gets the scoop. April June. which, you know, is like three months, but still, good news coming back, second quarter of 2026. Another question, Armin? The winner between Patty and Justin. Well, all right. Yeah, I mean, when it is an interim title fight, the winner should fight the undisputed champion.

Another question, actually more of a statement, Islam will submit you. Not even in his dreams he writes, he's bad even at dreaming. So there you have it. Some clues from Ilya himself. To be honest, Armatruchin doesn't seem to be bothered. And by the way, there is no heat whatsoever between Patty and Justin. Like, I feel zero heat. I love the card.

Patty's being positioned as the star. He's undefeated. Zero heat between him. Like there's more heat between, you know, all these other guys. Armin, Ilya, Patty, Armin, Patty, I mean, like, it's the worst case scenario as far as matchup and heat. Armid doesn't seem to be bothered. The food eating tour continues. He's in L.A. now.

He's loving life over there. Here he is. What is this? Just a massive burger. Almost dirty. It is. Nice pants. What do we got there?

Is that an Irves burger? Look at that. What is that? You guys know what that is? I don't know, but it looks great. Is it a chicken sandwich? It was definitely a burger. Looks like Easy Street burger.

Yeah, it looks like Easy Street. Thanks for that. Easy Street. He's also eating in his car, looking like he's enjoying life over there. What's happening here? Why is the camera angle filming him getting filmed? And it looks like they're at a red light or something. Yeah, what's up, guys?

Are we, okay, honest question. Is there, what's that, Frank? He said brown's up all the way. Thank you. Are we, is he playing a dangerous game? Or not yet? Tell me more. Is he...

The man with the unicorn on the head is inquiring. I'd like to hear more. Please tell me more. I'm grilling a hole in you right now. He's looking very suspicious. Is he playing a dangerous game? Is he getting close... Are we getting close to jumping the shark?

Yes. Or not yet, not yet. No. This is the American tour. Okay, I know. It is, it is... By the way, I don't... I saw someone saying, like,

whoever is Armin's manager deserves a raise for all the shit that he's doing. I don't even know if... his management's doing it. I think it's just like coming to him. Or maybe it's his boy Armin that he brought in here. Armin and Armin are teaming up for some magic. Now he's cooking in some like in some kitchen. Look at this video. I don't know what this is. First he slapped ground beef on the grill.

How is he finding himself in all these situations? Then we add the peppers and onion. And then we slap the turkey bacon on the grill. And no, Andy tells me that this guy's name is Aki and he's popular. And then we go add the hash brown. You don't know about the Aki way? You know this? Oh, come on, man.

Content creating. After my brother chop it up, now we're gonna season it up. When the traps ready, we hit it with cheese. Chop cheese. Chop cheese. Once the cheese is melted, now we put it to the garlic bread. We add the bacon. Hey, that's on howlop.

And then we're going to hit it with some spinach and tomatoes. Okay. Then we add the chips. And then we're going to head it with the hash browns. Okay, okay. Last and final, we hit it with the sauce. What kind of sauce? See it?

And now we're going to stack it up. Oh, that's a lot. Now we're gonna put on top of the paper. Why's he have to tell us every move? This is the Aki Way. Okay. Is he in LA legend? Isn't he in New York? This is a New York thing. Oh, this is when he was in New York.

Oh, M.G. Yo, I got to admit. See, the Yankees have on? Yeah, yeah. Never, never, never. Oh, wow. Now we serve it to the champ. Here you go.

Try it. Oh, people's jam. On Crown. There's something about the hair with the eating that just kind of... Seriously, good one? Never a hair out of place. place. One out of ten cities, honest, don't say whatever you think is right. Nine.

Wow. She! So it's collabs galore for Mr. Armatruchin. Even last night, here he is collabing with the Laker Star, Dalton Connect. Look at this. Hey, this guy's everywhere. By the way, I maintain that picture looks Photoshop. There's something about Connect's skin color and Arm...

Like, it seems like... You know what it looks like? It looks like the Paramount poster. It looks like he was just placed in that. It looks very legitimate. He's like 12 inches taller. He's just too tall. Stadium lighting.

What part specifically? I want you to hone in. Please don't go to the three shot. What part? Hold on. I have a question for you. What part of this? What part of this?

Why does it look like Armands holding a dart in his hand? No, I think it's glasses. Oh, gosh. He was wearing sunglasses. Yeah, he was wearing some. Oh, there it is. There it is. Tell me more.

He was on some other video. with this guy named Matan who admittedly I'd never heard of but apparently he's very popular you guys know about him too I guess I don't know about all the cool stuff I don't know about Clinton kid I don't know what that means

there was an award show and he gave like a little thing he gave Bill Clinton an award no no no no it was like a Hollywood show I forget he won he like went up and accepted some award at like a streaming or a video game thing and he either thanked Bill Clinton

or like brought up the monocola Winsky stuff He did anti-comedy. He's just a troll. He's just like a... What is this anti-comedy you keep speaking of, Rick? It's like, instead of trying to be funny, you're trying to be awkward in an effort to be funny. By not being comedic, you are being comedic. Yeah.

Oh! It's... It's... I'm glad you were able to figure it out. That actually... That sounded like me, by the way. That is you, bro. You mean the stuff.

that Zach Alfenakis did like 17 years ago. Yeah, and Tim and Eric and all kinds of other. Ali G. No, Ali G is actually trying to be very funny. The way that he got famous was in December of 2022, the Game of the Year award for Eldon Ring. He snuck up on stage and accepted the award. And he said, real quick, I want to thank everybody and say that, I think I want to nominate this award to my Reformed Orthodox Rabbi, Bill Clinton.

Thank you, everybody. Wow. And walked off. Okay, okay. Well, here's Armin on his program. And I have to admit, never saw it, never saw his show and never saw any of his videos. But I did, I did laugh. I thought it was pretty funny.

Take a look. Okay, next one. You have some good questions or no? Arm is actually the funniest here. I don't understand them. You got to write something simple. Yeah, yeah. Some simple questions.

Okay, let's see. Who is the better wrestler? You or the Undertaker? Who's The Undertaker? Is the guy that special move the choke slam the music goes off and then he appears No me me I'm the sure he's one of the greatest of all time rest I'm sure So you think he would beat him he's a little bit older now but I'm saying when he was young when he was I'll beat everybody He's much bigger than you though he's like six eight no problem 250 300 pounds

I'm 200 pounds it's okay but he's huge she's like he's a huge guy No no I got better thing technique Because of technique I can beat everybody. What about you versus him and his brother? Versus who? The Undertaker and his brother. I don't know him. He's Bigto? Yeah, his brother Kane.

He's the guy with the bald head. He also comes out of the floor. Okay. Do you think you could beat both of them? I can beat everybody, brother. You seem bored by the questions. It seems like you don't really understand them. You think they're stupid? Because I tried to make them really strong. No, but I don't know these guys. That's why...

The Undertaker? You don't know nuclear... bomb or the undertaker? I don't know anybody. Okay, let's see. Let's see, maybe I can ask you something better then. Maybe this guy can answer. He's not even able to speak.

He's an idiot. No, no, he's not an idiot. Talk. So, I actually think Armin's the funniest part of that clip. Do you think he knows about the schick? No. You don't think anyone told them?

He just showed up on this stream that happens to have a million subs on YouTube? I think it would be difficult to explain to to Armin Soruki on what's about to happen. Yeah, but I think he's putting it together. Yeah. The kid on the right is like obviously trolling. Armand's actually funny.

Like his interactions are funny. I don't know. Well, that's what makes this brand of humor funny is because you allow the other person to kind of like be funny when you're not being funny. Like he's pretending to ask him these legitimate questions, but there's no punchline. There's no like switch to a joke. So it allows Armin to be like, here's the joke. This is funny. The best part about-

Anti-comedy is what some people refer to it. Yeah, no, I've heard. I've actually never heard that. You're all right by fine. You know, other than like two minutes ago for the first time. I maintain that all of this has been a blessing for Armantruchian. I maintain that he's now becoming the second most popular lightweight in the world behind Elia. More than Patty at this point.

People love this guy. He just kind of gets it. And the UFC, more so than any other sporting organization, looks at this stuff. Who is most enamored with influencers and the inner. internet and all this. It's Dana White. And so surely he has to be seeing this popularity in these collabs and all this fun stuff that he's doing. And I think it would actually endear Armin Moore to Dana rather than sitting there firing off a few tweets complaining, doing the stuff that maybe he was doing in the past. So I think this is brilliant. He is

using his time very wisely, in my opinion. He's also doing grappling matches of all kinds. He's doing side quests. Paul Hughes wants in on the side quests. Paul Hughes, said that he was offered Wait, so Marab says that he was offered a grappling match against Armin in December to replace Sharra bullet he was ready to accept it

which would have been crazy because that would have been probably like a week or two after his loss to Pierre Jan. Paul Hughes says he was offered it. I accepted and then they went ghost. Armand, let's run it, name the date. I wonder,

UFC seems to be okay with the guys doing side quests but do you think they would be okay with an Armin versus Paul Hughes? Because it does feel like the closest you could get to PFL versus UFC, and I feel like that might be a bridge too far. Totally agree. It would be very bad if Paul Hughes beats Armand Syrucian, and then the

PFL goes, look what we got. So I think that would be the line that they don't cross. I feel like they would be okay with UFC on UFC, or as we saw him fighting a guy who's not fighting anytime soon, you know, a guy like Lance Palmer, but this is a guy very much in his prime, probably number two best lightweight in the PFL. And in a grappling, match, you have to favor Armand Sarukian, but still, as you say, if he wins, it's a bad look for the UFC. And it will give another promotion and a chance to promote PFL versus UFC superfight. I know they can't use the IP and whatnot, but still, I would be surprised if they allowed

that to happen. Very surprised. Armin said on the show last week, what do he say? He said, I want just to get you to win because I don't think Patty Pimble will fight me. Well, if Ilya is to be believed, if Ilya is to be believed, he is for fighting the winner of Justin versus Patty, which means Armand's either sitting for a very long time or he's going to have to fight someone else.

Patty, for his part, is saying in his media tour that he would like to fight Armin, he would like to shut him up, he has no problem fighting Armat Shrukin. Here's what he had to say. He's an amazing fighter, though. How do you think you match up against him if you guys are to be matched up in the future? I hope I eventually fight Armin

because I want to shut him up. He's a little idiot. I'd love to beat him up. everyone thinks there's grappling is unbelievable I don't think it's that good at all

you know if you can't submit you out of bullet who's a striker who can't grapple then I don't think your grappling that good as all

before he fought I thought that I'm a may be a tougher fight for me stylistically than Ilya but after watching that fight he's not Ilya's a much tougher fight

and so there you have it Patty says he would fight him shout to our friends over in Australia at main event TV for that. The Alex Pereira versus John Jones saga continues, my friends, and it has ramped up a little bit over the past few days because Alex Perra was seen next to a tire which had John Jones's name on it. Would you believe it? I'm here in the tire shop, Shama. Oh, whoa, whoa, Alex Jones, UFC. Uh-oh. Oh,

Oh, that was Alex's voice if you're just listening to this. John Jones caught wind of this, and here was his response. I've beat a lot of legends from your country, my friend. I know you'd love to avenge the boys, but boy, would you be a good one to add to my list? Be careful what you wish for. Tramma. And so again, the question is, if they are not going to fight at the White House, if Dana White does not want to put John Jones at the White House,

they do this on another card, card in July, card in, I don't know, May, something like that, and would John Jones be okay with it? I have a feeling that the UFC would want to do it. I think they would be totally okay with it. They want big fights,

they want big, you know, promotions. But no one has asked John this question, and to the best of my knowledge, no one has really asked Dana White that specific question. Is it White House or bust? Or is it, you know, is it possible that they can do this fight on another card? Dana White was asked about the fight in that complex interview.

Here's what he had to say. I saw recently, too, that Joe Rogan was saying that you should just have Alex fight John Jones at the White House. Is that something you feel like? At 205? I mean, yeah, I guess. Yeah, I mean, that would be a fight. But can I count on John Jones? Yeah.

Can't have John Jones doing something bad or pulling out of the fucking White House fight. So there you go. it's still surrounded and centered around the White House. But they want to fight each other. There's no doubt about it. They want to fight each other. They're playing footsie. They're doing all the things that you should do to build up interest in the fight.

Pereira's not talking about Ulberg or, you know, Yeri Prakaska. And Jones is really not talking about anyone else. He's not talking about Aspinall or anyone. I mean, a little bit of D.C., but that's just to promote the reality show. And so I say, just try to convince them if you really do want to fight each other, who cares. I was talking to a fighter, by the way, who told me, off the record, I don't want to fight on the White House card because they were talking about a big fight for him. And I asked, why? Why don't you want to fight on the White House card? Too much, there's going to be too much stuff. There's going on. Too many distractions, too many hurdles, too much security. This is still a fight. This is not like a pro wrestling match. This is still the biggest fight of my life. It's a title fight. I don't need that. I'm going to be nervous as is.

I'm going to be locked in as is. I don't need to do all of that. And so I don't think everyone is going to have that mentality, but I understand it. And it's the first time, to be honest, that someone has said that to me. And I know that these two want to fight on the White House card, but I don't think it's the worst thing in the world

not to fight on the White House card either. It's going to be seen by a lot of people. Like, I get it. I 100% get it. But I can understand if you're someone fighting for the belt, challenging for the belt being like, you know what, not the worst thing. I'd rather fight in an arena

and keep it as normal as possible. It was an interesting perspective. It was an interesting perspective. I hope the UFC tries to make this happen. Aspinall has his dance card full. He's got his thing with gun that has to be figured out. John doesn't want to fight Aspinall. Pereira right now isn't talking about Aspinall,

although I do think he would be down to fight him. This is the fight to make for both guys. And Ulberg v. Yeri is a great fight. And it's a fine fight for the 205 pound division. Anyway, Alex Pereira back home in Brazil. Look at this reception, look at this reaction back home in the streets. Look at this. I mean, they're lining the streets to show this guy love.

Look how beautiful this is. I mean, imagine this type of homecoming. And then he starts handing out things to the people. Look at this. Incredible. Here he is. handing out boxes to the people. Great t-shirt, by the way.

Beautiful stuff here from Alex Pera. Great for the community. Superhero. Role model. Love to see it. That was great. What a guy that Alex Pera. True or false guys.

Does Alex Pera versus John Jones happen in the year 2026? True. It does. Yeah. Do you see? I'll say true reluctantly. You'll say true reluctantly? Like almost like you wanted.

to happen like you're being cautiously optimistic. Yeah, it wanted to happen. It would be incredible, but it will feel like a letdown if not at this point. Like you have another opportunity to do a, this would be the third potential mega fight that John Jones is saying, I'll do it. Now, you know, I know there were issues with Francis and I know there were issues with Aspinol, but they did come to the table with the money. Here would be the third one that people would go crazy over, right, Gaga over, Alex Perez

versus John Jones at, what, heavyweight? it'd be fun if they did it like at a 225 catchweight or something like funky like that although I doubt it would happen you have three opportunities to do like a generational legacy type fight for john jones oh it'd be incredible it would be amazing i would love to see it absolutely love to see it um all right do we ever first guess yet okay Oh, yeah, my laptop's working. Oh, cool, man. We're good.

I mean, how am I supposed to have this conversation with you, Frank? All right, coming up, Dustin Porier, the birthday boy, going to join us at 3 o'clock. Waldo Cortez-A Costa going to join us. Jorge Mazvedal going to join us. Is he going to be fighting on the White House card? By the way, speaking of the White House card, Marab Doelisheelie did an interview saying, it sounds like no Russians are going to be on the White House card because, well, I'm not really quite sure,

but he was talking about a potential fight against Pejorian and he said it sounds like no Russians. Here's the clip. He's speaking, I do believe, in Georgian, so I can translate it for you. The only thing the UFC told me is that I'm next for the belt. They said there will be a trilogy between me and Jan. And they also told me that

Our fight will not happen at the White House on Trump's birthday in June because he is Russian and that's impossible. So I could see that being a thing. And if that's the case, you can rule that one out. Now, we'll see how many title fights will be on that card. Dana White, earlier this week, or I should say last week, or I should say two weeks ago, was in New York doing interviews for Complex. And he was asked about the Connor McGregor versus Michael Chandler card, or fight, I should say.

He was asked about the Michael Chandler versus Connor McGregor fight, which we all thought would be on the White House card. Here's what he said, which set off a whole bunch of alarms regarding this fight. January 23rd is Zufa boxing. January 24th is the first UFC, and then after that card we'll start working on the White House fight. I know there's all the talk of Michael Chandler and in Connor. Do you see it like that as a realistic thing happening? No, I mean, that was a couple years ago. Yeah, so that's nothing you'd entertain for the White House?

No. And so very dismissive. I've reached out to the particulars. I have not heard anything back. And since then, the rumor has continued to swell that they're looking towards Connor McGregor versus Jorge Mosvidal, a fight that we've been talking about for about six years. You remember, Connor McGregor, it was six years ago this week. He beats Donald Serroney

Who's sitting there in the front row The BMF champ Jorge Mazvedal Are we gonna get it six plus years later? Let's talk to the man himself Mr. Gamebred is here The one and only Jorge Madvidal There he is. What's up, Jorge, how are you?

Your intro's again sick. Get it? We've always been sick. We've always been sick. They're getting better, I should say. I appreciate that. I appreciate it. By the way, shout out to you. Shout out to death row MM. When am I going to get the invite

to death throw in a may your new podcast. Dude, you're a superstar now, man. I can't even get you to come on my show. I've been trying to, for years, and I'm going to blast you in front of your audiences. For years, I've been trying to get Ariel to come to one of my bare-knuckle shows, and he always tells me the same thing, which is great marketing for me.

Anyways, oh, those things are too bloody, bro. I would never, man. That's so crazy for me. Dude, one day you're going to have to pull your big board pants on and come to my show, Ariel. Come on. And I'm off in your bag every time, and he still says, no.

That's really crazy, brother. I don't know what's going on, man. How much money? he's getting on the other side. But I'm going to bring you out to the Dominican Republic, April 10th, heavyweight tournament. Oh, okay. Tournament. So I was just going to ask you about that because I haven't heard much from Gamebred,

Bear Knuckle on my face. So what's going on? Well, we're grinding, you know, recouping some of that work we did, that hard work, moving forward, getting investments, and now I'm good. We're going to run a little tournament. April 10th, 16 heavyweights. We got about five heavy weights fighting. The names will be coming out soon.

We'll be dropping them names soon, but we're coming with some heat for heavyweight and lightway. We got about four the bouts confirmed already in lightweight. Card will have a total of 12 fighters. Maybe I think total of like 8x UFC fighters on the card, a couple of PFL champions. Everything is going to be coming out soon. I'm just teasing it here. but April 10th, we're back. Like, and Lored from Dominion Republic.

Wow, the DR. I love the Dominican Republic. You say the word. After this, send me a cash app. I'm just going to send it to you. Wow. Like open-ended, no matter how many zeros? Nah, it's a lot, bro.

My company, we're on the way up, man. What are you trying to stop me before I get there, brother? No, I would never do that. Give me one name, one name. Who's like the biggest name on there? I give you one. I got to give them all to you for that. Just a hint, a hint.

I promise you this, this tournament will have, the heavyweight tournament will have a couple heavyweights that you've heard of. Okay. Well-known heavyweights. Ex-champions, you know, high-end competitors. We've got about 16 of them on the car. I mean, 16 of them on the tournament. And is it a one-night tournament?

No, no, no, no. Okay. So it's going to spread through 2026. The first of them will be April 10th, then Dominican Republic. Then we'll be coming back to Miami, May 1st for another 6th. series of the tournaments. We'll have another four heavy weights competing on that card, and that'll be in Miami, Florida. Okay. And this is bare-knuckle MMMA, right? A knuckle MMMA, brother. Yes. And so why the delay in between events recently? What were you doing? What have you secured that?

Fundraising, this and that, different things, you know? The company, game for fighting championships, kind of took its own turn. Like this, I had to reclaim. that wheel for game break fighting championships and steered the right way you know it was it was getting a little bit corporate so some partners had to had to be rearranged in this and that you know we're in a good we're in a good space now you know i'm all about the fighters i'm all about putting the best fight shows possible 2026 i'm finally back it's taking a little bit of time but i'm here we're going to be rocking around for a while how many events i can use the fighters to make to make money we're projected to have six events 2026 okay and is it just going to be bare-knuckle MMMA

I don't need Bernoucle I don't know nothing else, bro. Where's he going to air? We're working on that. We're working on that. We've got a couple options right now on the table but we haven't locked in one definite yet. So at the end of the day,

we want to also get the most eyeballs. So it's not just who offers a big bag to put it on the streaming platform for like, you know, a couple times a year. It's more like where are we going to get the max values for us, eyeballs and cash flow. Of course. So that's still up for grab.

Maybe after the, because every time I do something with you, The money comes calling, brother. So maybe after this, let's go. You're going to call me, Hey, I need 36 shows a year. That would be good.

Now, you like that? Like, you want to do this? You enjoy doing it? It's fun for you? This whole time that I wasn't throwing on shows, I haven't stopped, whether I'm with investors and meetings, or I'm looking at venues,

or I'm talking to production groups to get everything done right. Like, I haven't stopped in this one bit. I haven't had a show, but everything's been going on in the back end for some time now. So it's just a matter of time before we take off. And, you know, all these shows are expensive, man. And it takes, it takes funding, man. It takes a lot of money to get these things running. So it's been a little bit of time to fundraise, get everything right. And I just didn't want to

come back for one show. I have enough funds now to cover me for the next two years. So I keep these fighters active as well, which is another big thing for me. Okay. You did tweet that you have something coming up that's big. You hinted at this, right? You put this out there. And so, When you mentioned that, were you referring to this or were you referring to your own fighting career? Because we spoke to you in December and you did hint at White House card and one more fighting all that stuff. And so you've got two lives here. You've got the promoter businessman and the fighter who still got some juice left in. And what were you referring to there?

The combo platter. Okay. The poop-poo platter. The one, two. Dude, come on. We can't mess you out. So talk to me. The White House card is for me everything, you know.

It's like I want to be in this card very bad. And there's more speculation going. We're talking to UFC. Ali's talking to Dana. Ali's talking to hunters. I don't know what's going to happen, brother. I just leave it all in God's hands. I pray to God.

I get on this card because this is a White House. I know a lot of other fighters that took their stance that they don't want to be fighting this stat. For me, it's like, man, I'm just some Latin dude from Miami. They can fight really good. I'm in the White House showcasing my seat. skills, showing the world that, you know, especially those Latin people, we ain't just what they make us out to be, you know, we're a lot better than what they give us. And now I get to perform

my skill trait at this place, which is responsible for this great nation. It's crazy to be an insane on it from myself personally in a lot of different ways, because I do feel without a doubt there's a lot of haters out there and they can all get sniked. This is the greatest country in the fucking world. And there's no better other way than the show of myself as well as putting my fucking own skills on the line going out and entertaining everybody on that White House and just bringing more prestige to the White House, you know. So for me, it's an amazing honor in so many aspects. I say, my dad is pumped about that. You know, my family, my kids are just the potential to doing that. So whether it's, you know, the fucking leprechaun or King Kong, it don't fucking matter who I

fight in the White House. I just want to fight in the White House. That's it. From the backyard to the White House. And then to get me out of that shit is going to be another problem because I already know all the secrets are I didn't even know where I'm staying there for like a week fuck out my face bro come get me motherfucker I'm not going no give me a room Trump I don't know where but I'm partying that I'm gonna throw the rowdy's party they ever had in the White House too brother

I don't give a fuck what Bill Kent says or Obama I'm gonna throw the rowdyest party in that bitch anybody ever seen after the fight crazy man they're building a ballroom so I feel like they have the capacity I'm gonna shut that shit down but the trajectory going from the backyards of Miami to the White House is

an insane story arc and career arc. Let me ask you bluntly. I don't think you get any more polar opposite. I don't think you get any more. From where I started in a backyard where people were showing up, armed, betting money, all types of activities are going on that's not fighting. And like the most polar opposite of that in the White House, you know, it's a crazy journey and I can only thank God for it.

So I'm because of God that I've been able to do. So it's not because I'm the smartest, fastest, or prettiest, but some say I am, or it's because of God Almighty. So let me ask you bluntly. Are you in talks to fight Connor McGregor on the White House card? Let me ask you that. Bluntly. Is this true?

Because, look, Jorge, I just played the clip. Dana... I know I see the clip. Brother, I tell you this much. My boy Ali is putting in the FaceTime. And I don't mean on the Apple to Apple, I mean, he's putting in the face time. You know, he's... He's relatively neighbors with Hunter and Dana.

So he's down there on the face time. He's getting in their face, you know. And it's not looking bad right now. Wow. I'm not, I can't say too much more, but it's not looking bad right now. They're talking. Dialogue has been open. There's communication there.

And we'll keep that communication going. And then that was before everyone wanted. What's going to happen now because? So you know what I've always said about this card, Jorge? I have always said that at some point, point, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, who is a fight fan, it has been said, we'll start to weigh in on the card. I want this guy. I like this guy. You know, we know he's buds with Bo Nickel. He obviously loves Connor. He loves you as well. So I have always felt like it was inevitable

that people that he likes and that support him were going to be featured on this card. And so it makes a lot of sense that not only would you be featured on the card, but featured in a massive fight in everyone's eyes will be the biggest fight on the card. I don't care how many belts are on this card. And so do you think that he is involved in that way? Do you think he is pushing for this? Do you know that he is pushing for this as well? I don't know yet. I haven't called the Trump card yet.

I do know the president, but I don't want to have to like twist it on too much. We did talk about two, three weeks ago. And then he called me also when I was in New York for the fights, that was pretty crazy. You know, he told me some crazy stuff. And I was like, man, this is the greatest dude ever that ever lived in the presidency. So, and I threw it out to real quick,

well, Mr. President, while I have your attention, can I, may I? And if, you know, you got some time, I want to tell you, I want to get on that car, brother, keep me in mind. He said, got you master at all. And that's it, you know, so there's a chance, too, as well that Trump would just say something, you know? And I don't really want to have to, like, come on, Mr. Trump or nothing, because when it comes time to ask that one favor, it makes sure it's a big-ass favor. Or, but not. It's wild that we're talking about this, Jorge, because as you remember, Six years ago this week,

Connor beats Seroni, you're sitting in the front row with the belt. You remember that. I know the pandemic hit a few, you know, a few months later, and then Connor comes back a year later and fights Porre.

But from your perspective, why did that fight never happen? Why was it not you versus Connor in January of 2021 when he fought Porier in Abu Dhabi? Why did that fight not happen? Because it did seem at that point like you guys were kind of moving in that direction.

I think, you know, Dana White said it best, you know, back then. Not only was I burning some premium jet fuel, but I was too much man for Carter. Too big. What is he going to do? I'll strike me. I think I would have been like a bad, bad style from him.

They probably wanted Egypt fights from at that time, someone where he could get his air beneath his cells because it wasn't going to be mean. And I still think to this day, Connor knows it. He don't like that fight. You're talking about everybody else for me because he knows I'll snip his ass, quick. that little lucky left shit he does ain't gonna work with me a premium striker brother

I'm gonna see that shit a mile away and slap him the face you know so I don't think President Brandon ever would have been good I'm gonna beat the fucking dog shit out of straight up stand-up style Are you surprised

None of that grappling I'm just gonna get in your face knee your ribs elbow your fucking face It's gonna be a fight man Are you surprised Jorge that he's moving on Dana White is from the Chandler fight because it's been like two and a half years

in the making they were supposed to fight two summers ago? Like, are you surprised that he was that dismissive of it in that interview? I mean, challenge is a big name in the sport.

It was a huge name and stuff. So I don't, I don't know, I don't know how close it was to begin with, to being on the White House card. If that was all speculation

from the start or at one point the UFC did want that fight, I don't know all these things, you know. It's just, I know that they have a very in-depth team that they have a guy

that counts comments when if somebody gets a picture. They have another guy that's looking at just an algorithm. They're having an in-depth team of who's going to make the most, the biggest noise possible. And I'm sure they're running through that team and they're going to decide, you know. If you ask me,

obviously it should be me. Fucking duh. Well, we've heard from John Jones and John has said, you know, I only want to find out on the White House card if I come back against Alex Prayer, etc. Are you the same way with Connor? Like, is that the only one you want for that card? It's Connor

White House or bust? No, no, I told you already Fucking Irish con man or King Kong, bro. You don't fucking matter. Whoever's in between. They need me to go up the heavy way. Fuck it. I'm going to heavy.

You need me to get down 1.45? I chop a limb off from fucking the White House, though. Let's go. Don't matter who it is. But obviously, you know, that's the biggest one, right? Like that would be at the top of the wish list if there was a wish list. I wouldn't mind it. I definitely would be against me.

I just, I'm kind of like, I know this fucking little leprepon, he's going to fight me. He knows what he's not going to fight me. He wouldn't even mention my name because he knows I'll pick the dog breaks out. Okay, so then let me ask you, is there any part of you because you want to be on this card so badly? And there has been this thing that has been said recently, like, O'Connor's not going to fight, he's not going to show up, which I think is a little unfair to him. He's only pulled out of one UFC fight and it was the last one, but historically he's been very reliable. Do you feel he's unreliable?

and you feel like, hey, I don't want to sign up for a fight against them because I want to be on this card. Now I don't want to be left without an opponent come June 14th. I don't think that would have in a White House card. I think it would be, you know, Conner would be signing an ass up and then he would, you know, pull out with a pinky toe injury, and then they would find me somebody else, and I would still find the White House card,

or if not they got a problem. If you don't, if you don't find me somebody find the White House card, whoever the matchmaker, he's got a problem with me for life, brother, because this is the White House. So I don't see that as a problem. I don't care. If it's Connor that I'm getting ready for, and then he pulls that at some point,

and then it's somebody else cool. If it's calling the whole way through and that's who I end up fighting that's cool, too. As long as I'm in the White House card area. Okay, okay. Do you watch American football, Jorge? Are you a football fan? I don't watch it much, but the University of Miami.

Yes. If I don't watch football too much, I'll explain it or a lot of sports. Let's say a titty, a city. And they bring in whoever plays in the city from, you know, from everywhere else but that actual city. So I don't really, you know, get behind it. When it comes to the U, we got like eight dudes that are from here, from Miami, Florida, born and raised, go up through the circuit, the Miami Day football circuit.

So now we actually get to see our city's best players put their skills on the test against the best in the world. So I'll definitely be watching the U game. but I usually don't watch so much football unless my boy Dionne Dawkins or David and Drew because those are the only guys I watch really play like that because they just happen to me like my brother, so that's why I watch them, but I don't really watch football or basketball or baseball or baseball or hockey.

Just combat, brother. I'm a combat nerd. The reason that I asked that. And by the way, shout out to the U. They're playing tonight in the national championship game. Good luck to them. Shout to Dion Dawkins as well, my boy from the Buffalo Hills. He's my boy.

He don't even know you like that. He's my boy. He's like so my boy. it's nuts, it's nuts. But anyway, the reason I asked this was, it's a 100-yard field, right? It's a 100-yard field. So, like, let's say you start at, like, the 10, and you have to go all the way here to score a touchdown,

and then you're on the opposing team's 10. Like, if the White House card was a football field, and say, like, Jorge versus Connor was the end zone, and there's a guy with the ball, let's say it's Dana White, how far down the field are you? Like, how close to scoring the touchdown? You know what I mean? Like, I'm trying to use that analogy.

Do you see what I'm saying? Like, are you at the 10-yard line here? Are you in the red zone? Are you at the 20? Are you about to enter the red zone? Are you on the goal line? Are you inches away? Like, how would you describe where you're at on the proverbial field?

You see what I'm saying, right? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think, what, you know, we're at the free throw line? Listen to me, we're there. I'm going to say we're right. The ball's right in the middle.

It's not negative. Okay. It's like right in the middle. The game's, you know, it's starting with momentum. Okay. Okay. Okay. Recently, did it pick up recently?

Yeah, very recent. Wow, wow, wow. This is something. Then everybody else picked the bond in very recent. Yeah. 170? It's low-hanging fruit. Some of the two biggest paper view draws, not throwing down, what the fuck's going on?

170? 170, 205. I don't get fucked. What about 155? Probably not. But if I had to, yeah. Yeah. You know?

Which probably be something Conner's weird. I should probably come over. Probably not. I'm older now. I don't want to have to hit that way. I don't even think I can do it. Realistically,

170 is the lowest I can do it. Okay. By the way, if there's like three title fights on this card, but you're also on this card against Connor, should that fight, even though it's not a title fight, be the main event because of who's involved?

Leave that up to the matchmakers and the fans. I obviously, I'm a big, in that sense, like a traditionist where if there's a title fight, obviously they're fighting at the highest level. They should always main event or something like that. I believe in my heart, but there's special circumstances and stuff. And I'm not the one putting this card together, leave that for the people that they will, you know? But, you know, sometimes the biggest name goes at the top, sometimes it's a title fight.

Yeah, sometimes. Sometimes, yeah, sometimes the guy fighting for a championship is like the opening of the card. Wherever they put me, there's always they put me in there. I get the beat fucking someone's ass. It's a leprechaun. He'll get his ass whoop to it. Whoever the fuck it is. I really want the leprechaun, but it really doesn't matter.

Would this be your retirement fight, win or lose? Probably not at this point, right? Because then after that, my phone's going to be ringing. Everybody's going to be calling. And I don't know, Ariel, I don't know what I might do. I might go radio silent or I might start picking up the phone. phone calls. You know, you told us in December when you came on the live show, which was great, that, you know, you got the call about Anderson Silva and that was in the boxing match,

and then he went out and knocked out Tyron Woodley. Did that make you want to fight him? Like, before all this Connor stuff came up, because now obviously this is the biggest thing, but seeing what Anderson did, that... You know, originally when they offered me, Anderson, I was like, man, I love Anderson. I'm not trying to fight Anderson. But as the money kept going up, I was like, I love Anderson, but I love the money more. So definitely like to fight. I mean, I feel he's one of the best middleweights that ever walk the planet. Best fighters, period.

He's done so much spectacular things in MMA. In boxing, he doesn't have that sharpness, I think, where maybe in boxing I could make it a good fight. It's just not MMA. Okay. But boxing, I would definitely like to get in their way. with silver. It made sense. You know, as long as, the thing is that the deal

wasn't bad that they were off of him. But it was sure notice. It was like three weeks. And it was in my hometown of Miami, Florida. So if you come to Miami, Florida, you want me to be part of that card? That comes with a theme, brother, you know? Yeah. That's it, one, too. Man, we had such a good time with Kayla there that night.

Now she's out. She's out. I feel so bad for her. What do you think of that? I talked to her. She was in a hospital bed with like a massive neck brace on. Yeah. Like, I just get so much inspiration from this individual.

It's crazy. I'm so glad that I've met her. I could honestly say that. I've learned so much how to deal with tribulation, how to deal with adversity. I'm just like, what would Kayla do type shit? Because, dude, she was, like, forcing a smile on the face. She's like, I'll be back in no time. You know, like, she had this brace on, so she's getting, like, talk well.

She's like, I'll be back in no time. You know, I'll be training. She already had it planned out what she's going to do when she's going to start training this and that. Just it's, it's almost like scary. Like she's consumed by this. It's not her with a neck price. Just got surgery or nothing.

Like, you know, it's your neck. If something goes wrong, you're stuck like this for life. You know, things will change up. And when someone's that driven, that possessing, you know, brother, I tell you nothing. When you're meant to be a fighter, you meant to be a fighter, can't. Nothing's scary. individuals like that

she is locked in like this ain't shit I'm taking this off in no time go right back to it it's amazing to see you know hopefully she gets on that card now now can you imagine her versus Amanda on that card crazy no

you don't want to do that to people man why you think it's too soon you think it's too soon no I'll be the craziest shit on the card that would be nuts you know man and Kate on the card will be the biggest fucking thing that'll be massive especially now it's only going to add more to the fuel. I think this helps

out of Amanda, though, right? And she has more time to prepare. She's got at least four or five months extra to prepare for the gas tank, the timing, everything. So I definitely feel this helps Amanda a lot more. I want to quickly read you a quote from Max Hallway. We'll let you go in a couple seconds here, Jorge. Great to talk to you as always

and excited about the return of Barrenuckle Gamebred Barrenuckle MMA in April. April 10th. April 10th in Dominican Republic. Dominican. Dominicana. And you can see it. Okay.

Santo Domingo. Oh, Santa Domingo. It's nice. I just want to read this quote to you. This is from Max Holloway on his... You deny my offer. I'm a blast it on social media just so you know, so everybody can see that you're being petty.

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

It's fun to me. What do you make of that? Him saying that it was a laughing stock before because not many people held that belt. You were the one that put it on the map. I mean, I love Max as a fighter. That's his opinion. That's his opinion.

You know, I think he's one of the best fighters to do it. He's a dog when he goes in there. But whether it have been neat or Nate fighting Max, it wasn't going to be like his best night either, I think, you know. So I don't think of how, in laughing stock and what? In one way, because the skill level is obviously there, you know. I mean, I would love it. the fight max just on a stylistic matchup i think he's a great stand-fiter i just think i'm better

so i don't know what what uh what he means by laughing sock but you know you take offense to that me yeah i guess because i competed for first but at the same time i don't take offense to me he's held both belts so he he could say that because he had one bell and he's like i don't need that other belt you know whatever yeah but now now he fought for the Bellin, loves the Bellin. That's the one that he'd be rated the most around town, so it's just it's funny. Okay. By the way, did you go to Turkey recently?

I heard, yeah. It doesn't look like you did. You got all your hair. What's the problem? I got the extensions, cut. Oh. No, I'm playing, right? All the extensions I got is on the fucking thing, boy. You're crazy. Did you go to Russia recently with Jones and Romero and Hasbula?

Oh, no. They didn't. You know, Russia didn't have my visa. wait is this not this is from the reality show well i'm no this yeah it was in continuance to the reality show and i applied for the visa and like russia denied me and imagine they deny my oh damn why it's a lot of women going around bro if russia's denying your visa what i don't know canada deny me too some time ago man that's why i'm from my ami brother what could i say so that's crazy you can't go to russia canada but you can't go to russia canada but you can fight at the White House?

What a world. This country in the fucking world. Against Connor, is it happening? True or false? June 14th, it's you versus Connor at the White House. If Connor has a suicide wish, it's happening.

Man. Is there a part of you that would feel bad for Michael Chandler because he's been waiting on this for so long? I don't feel bad for nobody in this point. I was actually with Michael Chandler like two, three days ago. I love to do this fucking hilarious. very good energy, very focused, very driven on what he's going to get done and accomplish, you know. And I've known him since his first day when he got to American Top Team.

I actually was one of the first guys to train with him, J.P. Reese, and my boy Woodley all came down from the zoo. And I was like the first week that he was here, I was there training every session with this guy, you know? And I saw him through his whole career, a Bellator, when he beat Eddie, everything. I got nothing but respect for Chandler. But when it comes to this fighting, shit, I don't feel bad for nobody, really. Okay. If they would have done it to me, it's none. If it would have been roles reversed, it wouldn't be nothing against Chandler.

And he wouldn't feel bad for me. And I wouldn't feel any type of way from him because it's out of our hands these decisions, you know. Okay. It's not like I stole the fight from anybody. It's just, you know, it might be a chance for me to make some extra income, boy. Like, motherfucker. One last one. And then I'm announcing, and they get me, and this is why they're scared to put me in the

motherfucking White House because I'm announcing my presidency running 20, 2060 on the motherfucking White House lawn. There's going to be more Latinos than anything in 202026. I'm not even, this is a fucking stat, Ariel. This is like the sun is going to rise them all. It's going to be true. 202026 is going to be more me than you. So you better be careful, brother, because I'm running for presidency then.

2060 or 2026? No, 20. You said 26 and a zero. Okay. 20, 20, 60. 20. I feel you. I feel you.

I feel you. I don't doubt it. Bo not fighting YOL last week because of the weight. Right call, wrong call. Both my good friends, man. And from a fan, I really enjoy both of them watching them just purely wrestling. I really, really enjoyed Joel's time wrestling, creative and explosive and crazy.

And then Bose, like, another creative dude that's very, very explosive, crazy from everywhere. I was really looking forward to that match. I wish, you know, what would have been the bump up to 197, I think? Yeah. And Bowles are national champion in 197. I want to say two times. So I don't know why it didn't happen.

I also see Bowles pointing, man, I got down the way and you didn't. That's bullshit. You know, you weakened me. You say that the way a million things could be running through Bow's mind. But me as a fan, obviously, I would have liked to have seen him, wrestle no matter what. But I also got to take into consideration. It's not fair to bow. If somebody misses weight and you made that weight

and you got to cut some weight, it sucks. Hopefully it's made in the future. I still want to see that match. Okay. Last one. Last one, okay? What's the message to Connor McGregor? He's watching right now. He'll see this, no doubt. What's the message? Maw-fuck, if you're watching this, brother, you know, it's either two things you do. Either turn off that TV or you seriously take a deep breath and go, do I want to fucking prepare to get myself

in the cage with this fucking animal is going to try to kill me? You already know the answer to that, motherfucker. You stay your ass home, fucking eating egg whites and all that shit. This fighting shit is different, man. On that note, I'm out, Eric. You're the bat.

Thank you for having me on. April 10th, don't forget, heavyweight tournament, lightweight tournament, Dominican Republic. Soon I have the details where we're going to be broadcasting. Peace and love. There he is.

16 man bracket No glove I hope he didn't Frank you think he's Frank you just you just faded out Jorge Mosvedol Yeah well I have a director In my ears say take him out take him out

Like he's some sort of Andy you just faded him out Listen he touched the camera I thought he was leaving I was like you know what Let's do the thing This reminds me This reminds me of the

He threatened corporate Jake Back in the day Oh he has He's not gonna like this He's not gonna like this this is the infamous pancakes with the syrup and then he pressed the button do you remember what happened Jordan

were you there that day? I don't think I was he pressed the hang up face time and then the FaceTime thing opened up and all the numbers got exposed I wasn't there for that one I was there for others you were there for others that one killed that was the first time

I'll never forget DeRon Wend being like did you post my number online I'm like what what what a time anyway let's see how this turns out have the calls into all the particulars. Nothing at the moment.

Nothing at the moment. So let's see. One person did call me back, but we were doing the show so I couldn't get to it. All right, we turn our attention to UFC 324. By the way,

let you know top of the hour the great Dustin Pori, one of the greatest of all time. Maybe he'll have a say or two on that particular fight. He'll join us, okay? And more news and notes back end of that plus your super chats.

But one of the most anticipated fights on this fight card, this Paramount Plus debut card, which we are five days away from now features two hard-hitting heavyweights, one of which, who's about to join us in a matter of seconds, had a dream like 2025. He went four-in-one, fought five times, four plus one is five, and has become somewhat of a darling in the heavyweight division. His name is Waldo Cortez-Aosta. We had him late last year, and he hinted at this fight. In fact, I think it was a day later

that the UFC officially announced it. He's kind enough to join us right here now to talk about this fight also joined by his coach Javier Torres who is here as well. Hello guys, how are you? Waldo, great to see you again. Happy, great to have you on. By the way, by the way, how about this, Waldo? How about this? I wanted to show you something that we got on the streets.

On the streets. We got this on the streets, Waldo. Look at this. Dan, dan, dan, dan, that. Look at this. Nice t-shirt. Wait, way, way. Hey, wow.

Wow. What about that? Who's got that? Look at that. You have one of these, Waldo. You have one of these? Yeah, my number and my last name. That's your number, right, when you played for the Red?

Yeah, my number, three the two and my last name, yeah. Incredible. How about that? That's one of one right there, right? Yeah, this is one of one. Amazing. I love it. That's awesome.

Yes, we're going to represent this on the show in the studio. Thank you for coming on. So, Waldo, when you got the word that you're fighting Derek Lewis, hard-hitting Black Beast, Derek Lewis, I know when you were on the show, you hinted at it, but when it became official, what was your reaction? Oh, I reacted great. You know, and I'm the person that I wanted a fight for a long time before,

and now I mean low in the ranking, the USC put me in the table and said, hey, I wanted a fight. I wanted a long time ago. You put on me right now. I won it anyway, no matter what. Why did you want that fight? You've been asking for a long time. You really want Jerry Lewis for a very, very long.

Okay. Now USC's hit. There he is taken. And I'll get your opinion as his coach, Javier, in a moment. But Waldo, let me ask you, why did you want this fight? You know, under-ranking 14, one year and a half ago, I'm wanting one match with him because, you know, and it's one of those of my favorite fighter before,

when me started like, I started fighting at MMA. And I see that possible, that time, possibly, that me fight with him. I asked him for him, for that reason. For me,

I be a fan, for me being like the power they have in the hand, the show that he makes it, and I like him a lot for that reason I won if I went. That's a personal already. How do you feel about the fight coach? I feel good. You know what I mean? I think Waddle matched very good the style and I think his cardio, stylistics, his chin, he's still chin and they've been proven, you know, but it's not about

who has a hard machine and stay there in the middle bank. It's about this to be smarted. And I think Wadler's going to prove that on Saturday. We got a good game plan and I think we're going to come victorious. I see knock out on the second round. That's my time. Wow. I see Wando, TKO in the second round, KO and the second round. Do you agree with that, Waldo? Do you think it's different, Waldo?

Do you agree with your coach, or do you think it happens earlier, later, a different way? I think it'll be early. Because of what, me getting fired in there, like me being hot in there, I don't want to stop punching. I want to punch it to put a hand down on the floor. Sometimes when we see people kind of stand and trade with Derek,

It doesn't go well for them. And so are we going to see more of your game here? Are we going to see some grappling? Are we going to see some takedowns? Do you have to mix it up in order to keep him guessing? Yes. You got it right. I think that's the thing.

I tell people when I tell Waldo say, be a martial artist. And he started proving that, you know, showing his wrestling, his defense of the takedown, his kicks and everything. Like, he don't come for a martial arts. He comes from a baseball. I guess you know that.

So he started learning and getting involved in the USC. He just ran in the USC for like four or five years. You know what I mean? And he's growing and learning. But I think the most important in Waldo right now is Korea did. He believed in itself so much. And his head, his mindset is there right. I think his mindset is right.

And it's going to be there right on Saturday. And we're coming for the finish. I think Waldo is going to do a great job by mixing things up martial arts, being a great martial artist, you know what I mean? Waldo, you did a press conference with Derek recently and you got to face off with him. What did you feel from him? What did you see from him in that face off? I feel head nervous.

Really? Yeah, I feel head nervous. The eyes is not like, stay like that. It's like a move a little bit. Really? Yeah, when the person is, emotionated with the... Emotionate. But I eat a person, the IV, stay there.

I told him, you wanted me, you hover me now. That's what he's talking. You said that to him? Yeah, face to face. And did he say anything back to you? No, I never said nothing. He said like, well, hey, like that. Okay.

So not much is being said about the fact that he's 40 now. You're 34. You know, historically heavyweights do a little bit better, older, but 40 is 40 and he's been in a lot of fights. Waldo, do you think that Derek is past his prime? Do you think that his best days are behind him? Yeah, I haven't passed the prime, but I know the person that's too much.

I have the person that be like, no, I'd be take care because, you know, like, Dary Lewis have a very strong hand. There's a lot of experience and everything. And I know I'm the person that take care so much. I know I don't He doesn't

He doesn't He does He got a lot He's trying to say He got a lot of experience He don't try to subestimate He's Dary Lewis He's not his prime

But you cannot subestimate Dary Lewis I'm ready for Whatever Derr Lewis Bring it to the table Yeah I'm just prepared for everything That's what he says

Do you think he's past His prime coach I believe yes I think there was Five years ago With more than yours Right now He liked the Monifights

You know It's a tricky He's a tricky Derr Lewis, he's going to put a lot of tricks. I've been doing it. Like when I do Pat, I try to hit Guantan and the Knots or put him in the eye. I try to show him in the other things. I try to show on things the Redireur does. You know, and he's the way he's been fighting 10 years ago still do it today.

You know, the way he threw his hands and show emotions. But yes, I believe he passed his prime. There was five years ago. It was a little different. Now I believe it's Wilder Pram. I think we'll be a different story at Saturday night. Okay.

So Waldo, based on what you've seen from him, do you think he does those tricks and fights? Do you think he's dirty like that, that he'll do some things to get you off your game, poking in the eye, hitting below the belt, putting his head in your face and all that? Right now, I know, I maybe haven't talked like that for the big fanning and comforting.

But you know, as the USC now is too much worried about that, but put the eyes or punching the balls something like that. But I can't expect everything, you know, in the fight. And be careful for anything later, but that's what it is. What do you think, Coach? I'm trying to say what Waldo said too, and I think we'll leave it too. I said now with all the eye poking and I was going to be related to the eye poke last time.

Yeah. I think USC is going to be more precacious and the referees about the eye poking in all the stuff situation. He might be tried to do some other tricks, maybe like grab him. maybe like grab me inside love or chores or something like you don't see it too much. He might be tried some different stuff. He will. You know what I mean? I just got to be prepared for everything.

I believe I had to be prepared for everything and everything that they was going to bring it to the table. I think I got to get this guy right for that. And I believe Saturday is going to be a good outcome for Waldo. I just got to be ready. We've got to be ready. You know what I mean? No, no play his game too. or like, you know, what he did it to the last guy,

I think that the iPod can bring it to the punches. You've got to be waiting for the simulations of their loose. He does things like this. Don't play his game and be ready to live on our hand race. So this is, you have fought seven times in Las Vegas, Waldo. This will be your eighth time. But never at T-Mobile. It's, you know, usually at the apex, things like that.

What does it feel like for you to be on a card like this at T-Mobile arena? Paramount Plus debut, a numbered event. Does it feel bigger for you? No, I feel bigger, yeah. I familiar, too, for the only chosen than we have it before. You know, the last fight, the mid-fighting in Qatar,

I fighting in the big cloud like that. There's no different, but the fighting in the team over arena is amazing for me because, you know, the team of arena is going like a lot probably Latinos and everything. More than Vegas, it'll be amazing in that.

You're the favorite doing it. I don't think he wanted to remember that, but he told me before, I think was the first contender of USC, he said, I always want to fight in a team model. He said that as a comment to me one time, and now we hear,

but he told me that's a comment and I think was content to say, and it would be a dream come true fighting the team of the team. He made a comment, four or five years, he was a contender fight, and now we hear.

two years. Yeah, that's a cool thing. Amazing. Yeah. Mention end, and now we're here. Yeah, and you're the favorite going into this fight, and it seems like Derek Luce is a little bit annoyed that he's the underdog. Are you surprised that you're the favorite? No, I'm not surprised.

For that, Russell, what you say earlier, the prime, Hanover, 40, I have a 34, and look at what I'm doing in last year. five time, I win four times. It'll be my six-five on the 11-month. For 11-month, it'll be my six-five. And I have more activity in the title more than him. He said in an interview recently, and I heard the same,

that originally the UFC was considering doing Derek Lewis versus Rico Verhoeven, the glory heavyweight champion. Did you hear this as well? And if so, how did it end up based on what? you know being you versus Derek Lewis? No. Well, they never had the orphaned as the other guys, but the elephant of Derrick by the way. Yeah.

No, because what I heard was it was supposed to be, they were considering doing Derek versus Rico, and then they didn't do the deal with Rico, so then Waldo got the fight. And so I was wondering if he heard that. And perhaps if he beats Derek, does he want to fight Rico Verhoeven? That's a big name, former Glory kickboxing heavyweight champion. No, I know. You never heard that, but in one point, you know what I mean, we can pick and choose. I think we have to fight anybody.

That's what we are at the top fight in the award. I think we have to prepare for, you know, a king boxer or best wrestler or the best this. You know what I mean? This is the MMA. I think it's not just king boxing. Yes, I think we, if they're offering him after that, why not? You know what I mean? Big fight, bigger thing, bigger everything.

let's go for it. You know what I mean? We're not afraid of nobody. And, of course, while they're not afraid of nobody, they tell you right now. Yeah. But, yeah.

I know he said no. I know he said no. I know he said no. I know that's not. The ranking. I fight him with a number 14, 13, and fighting with number eight now. I know, no way about it is.

I want to fight. That's it. Sure. You want to fight. You don't bet that who it is. And we learned that last year because you fought five times. And so I'm wondering, do you want that same type of schedule this year? Do you want to fight four or five times in 2026?

Yeah, yeah, for sure. I want to that schedule. And they want me tell you early, in 12 months, I still fighting. It's my six-fight. Yeah. On the 11 months, I'm my six-fight. Incredible, especially as a big guy, as a heavyweight. Do you feel any sort of pressure to beat what you did last year?

Last year was a great year for you, a breakout year for you, four and one. Do you feel like, okay, now I'm getting a lot of attention. Now I have to do something even greater. Do you feel that pressure? I'm afraid, but I need to be, I need to be normal because I need to be pressure on me. My pressure on me as like a coming here, training every day. This is my pressure. But me is still training hard and everything.

I don't care of the other thing, you know. I'm being ready for anything. But me fighting four, five, six, seven times, there's no worry because I do it last year. Amazing job. And this year, thank God I have a six fighting and rolled. That's good for me. Amara.

Were you disappointed you didn't get the fight in December? Because I remember when we spoke in November, you said there were two fight cards left. You wanted to get on one of them. And they put you on this one, but it wasn't that December where you disappointed you couldn't get that six fight Yeah, a little bit a little bit a little bit a little bit a little bit a little bit uh a little bit The right away USC putting me in the in the in the January 24 for this five coming up and they I said okay

And they have and they my code told me okay anywhere you'll be fighting six time under the one year yeah you don't need to be like well out it's a record to I said it's being the record. Yeah. And Javier, you've been keeping busy too. You've been fighting as well. Yeah. I'm a different coach. I leave by the example.

I tell my guys, training, fighting with these guys competing, doing everything. You know, I've been doing it for a long time, but a couple, when I took a break, no break, but all my guys ended up,

there was no more fights in December. I was going to, I said, I'm going to fight. Boom, and I start fighting again. You fight the three times. I tried to do this time. The last five I offered,

even, it's on my Instagram, my Facebook, I was in, money to anybody to find me and knock me out. Nobody wanted to fight me. Because I was fighting

almost every week, cutting weight every week and different weight classes. Hey, I tried to show these guys, everything is possible. Nowadays, fight is a difference.

These guys are mentality. The grind is different. You know what I mean? So I try to show my guys, you don't need all these, you don't need all these. You need two, Honest, do both and go and fight and win fight.

That's what you need. You need nothing else. And these guys, they prove it, you know, and I just want to be a good example for my guys. Be one of the best coaches. I can be, I'm a best human being. I learned from the best, you know what I mean? Sean Tonkins is who was my coach. Sean Tonkis will one of the great Canadian coaches and one of the best coaches, great person.

And I try to be sure I do the same thing to show to my guys. and people that mean around me, they know that. You know, I started fighting in 2008. I got a lot of experience, you know, Sean Tonkeys, and right now, too, I mean, super active. I got a big man coming up. I got Javier Ray's fighting in USC, too, as well, the only Colombian fighter in the USC. I got a lot of going on right now, too, boom, boom. Eddie Brown will texting me and competing for him much first, the Jiu-Jitsu grappling.

I do everything, man. I fight, compete, train, coach. clean dishes, clean toilets. I'm a hazard, I'm a Mexican. We came to work. You know, I mean, I'm blessed to be in the United States and bless for America. Yeah, well, kudos to you. Much respect and shout out to the great, the late great Sean Tompkins, one of the greatest

MMA coaches of all time. So it's great to see his coaching tree being successful and thriving. And so for you, Waldo, this time next year, how do you, How do you expect 2026 to play out for you? How do you feel like it's going to play out and where do you think you are going to be in a year from now? Oh, I see my year being well. As if I think I'll see you, see me like a target shop

or give me a corti-blade or one of those number three or two. But I see it in like in between the May or July, fighting for the title. Wow. Major. That's soon. Yeah. White House, baby.

What's that? I said the White House. It's that you're in. Okay. The White House. So what do you think is going to happen? You don't think Tom Aspinall's going to come back? I don't know what's it happened when he said in one of those videos like a one

month, a month was a couple of weeks ago. Yeah. He said he had a, suppose he almost have a surgery in the eyes. know, Envi Hall a long time. Like, you know, in February, March, April, and not be active for the got a fire still. And I don't know, was the USC we want to do with that. I don't know, maybe USC make it one interim title or I don't know.

It's a common. I think it's a good time for Thomas Bland. You didn't know what by June, July when he won and fly for the title. I just wish Stanton is supposed to be getting a surgery this couple of week. this couple of weeks I saw something yeah yeah yeah he's getting surgery his eye that's supposed to be I don't know so recovery eye this that time

maybe June is a good time but it made me maybe got a time for the fighting two three times before that that that's incredible yeah no I I can see that happening as far as the amount of fights we'll see what happens with the belt I did see you practicing a little bit of BP batting practice are you are you

considering a return to MLB a little baseball and fighting? I saw this from you. That day, my friend told me, oh, coming with me and training a little bit. Like,

you remember your team what you do before. Yeah, I'm, I'm a little, out of the time. At a shape. And the black.

Baseball shape. For the pitching, like that, is, I'm still dead. Yeah, because you were, you were a pitcher,

not a batter, right? I didn't do it both because, before the movie pitcher, I play outfielder. Oh, wow. Yeah, and one of those

goals, when me had a strikeout, commented to the scout, oh, I can pitch, too. But the guy gave me like a 10 or 15 bowl, like a 12, like the ball. And they tried like 94, 95. And they said, oh, I love you.

You like a pitcher like that. What was your pitch? What was your, like, signature pitch. My best pitch? Yeah. Oh, the fastball. Fastball. Yeah, I love it.

I love it. Like Pedro Martinez. Yes. Yeah, Pedro Martinez, the curveball. Oh, curveball, right, right, right. That's right. I just meant like a great Dominican pitcher. Yes.

Yeah, yeah, I know, I know. One Maritian. My own guy, he also. Maritian, Bartolo, Colon. Bartolo. The only guy he was actually invited to go play and do that thing. Yeah. He was with the Chicago Cubs.

Wow. These years. Wow. He's a catcher. He's also three in OMMA. He's doing the dairy boxing on the Terry and then he's fighting for LFA at the 13 year. Okay. But Waldo, because Wado, he's fallen on Wando, boosted.

But he was a cashier with like, five, six years, no Cinco? Like, five, six with the Chicago Cubs. He's still a baby in Estella, but he looked like a mini Waldo. Five, cableway two or five. Three fights on the 54 step or three knockouts. Wow. He's doing the dairy boxing debut on the story. He's a killer too.

For all the one steps. So you've got the pipeline of all the baseball players turned fighters. I like it. They hit really hard. They start coming. Yes. They start coming with me. I know.

A lot of people players here in Arizona. Asking me, why are you training? I want to go over there and everything. Because I, you know, it's a tall guy. Sure, sure. He said, coming to my gym. I was training to you and everything. I see like a tour already last week coming to the gym.

Maybe hopefully have it coming more. Amazing. I love it. I want to have the baby team entire here fighting in the USA. Why not? It seems to be working. Love this fight. Love this opportunity for you, Waldo.

Good luck to you. Looking forward to it. I wish you guys all the best. travels to Las Vegas and good luck to you on Saturday. Thank you, Javier. Thank you, Waldo. All the best of you guys. And we have this for you in the studio, my friend. Yes, I love it. All the best to you guys. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thanks. There they are. Javier Taurus head coach for one, Waldo Cortez Acosta, massive fight for Cortez Acosta, who is ranked five, Derek Lewis, who is ranked eighth at the moment. And if you look at the

guys above WCA, you've got Curtis Blades, Sergey Pavlovich, Alex Volkov, I was going to say Volkov, and Seril Gun, and then Tom Aspinol. There is a world where he wins a couple in a row, and the cookie crumbles a certain way. I mean, if Tom beats Seril Gan, he's got wins over Blades, Pavlovich, Volkov. Like, there's a world that he's fighting Tom Aspinol in the not too distant future if Tom gets by one Seril Gan, which is a crazy. thing. By the way, shout out to GC. G.C. made this. How'd you get this? Did you make it or did you get it? I had a guy from the Dominican Republic ship. That's not a Cincinnati red shirt. That is a Dominican Summer League red shirt. Wow. Which is who he played for. Is it really? Yeah,

DSO. 2010. Yeah. Dominican Summer League Reds. Yes. 52. Big Cortez out there. By the way, I'm sure down there in the Dominican Summer League, they're, you know, they're, they're, they're ripping a few heaters. you know? Yeah, I think so. I think you can smoke while you played on it. In the old days, in the dugout, just rip them. The managers, who was it? Billy Martin, you just sit there smoking heaters in the dugout.

That's when men were men. That's when baseball was baseball, right? Yeah, for sure, man. Yeah. By the way, former teammate of Waldo Cortez-A Costa is ex-Yanky player and current Padre Wandi Peralta. Did you know that? He was on that legendary 2010 Dominican Summer League.

Yeah. Number 45, Wani Peralta. Wait. Oh, yeah, he's 52. Is that true, by the way? I swear to God, I'm looking at the roster right now. Number 52, Waldo Cortez. What position?

No Acosta yet. Wow. They were both pitchers. Did you get married and put the Acosta? I think that must have been what happened, yeah. Yeah, yeah. All right, did Andy say we have our next guest? Okay.

What about, is Rick there? No. are we doing that? Okay, but it was supposed to be at the The man's fan of Okay, okay All right, so that's Waldo Cortez-A Costa Shout out to him

34 going up against Derek Lewis Massive fight this Saturday on the UFC 324 fight card It's on Paramount Plus It's the debut, it's the new era It's been six weeks without UFC events Everyone's foaming at the mouth and, you know, it allowed us to take a step back and look at other stories. It allowed us to take a step back and talk to some people who weren't exactly active.

And I was like, you know what? We haven't talked to Dustin Pori in quite some time. In fact, the last time we spoke to him was the Monday after his retirement fight. The last time we spoke to him was the Monday after that fight in New Orleans. What a moment that was. In fact, I said that that fight week, I said that that whole story. and even the way which it panned out and even the way at which it ended on the Monday

with Dustin being on the show and showing us the best dad ever belt that his daughter gave to him to me was my feel-good moment of the year and I know it was much more than a moment it was more of like a feel-good week if you will and so I felt like you know what let's check in with the man

it's been about six months or so and he's had a very busy last few days but wanted to have him on and as always, kind enough to join us. So let us go to Louisiana and say hello to the one and only Dustin Poy. There he is. From the Silly Goose Fitness Club, my guy Dustin.

You better believe it. How are you, sir? Good, brother. What's up? How are you doing? I'm doing great. And I will say, I will say you did text me when I asked you to come on. You said, I'll come on, no problem. Didn't even think twice.

But you said, I want to let you know, it's my birthday today. And so what did you say? I better have a freaking cake. I said I was going to charge you overtime. You said you better have a cake. And so without further ado, here is the cake for the great Dustin Porier. Yeah!

There it is. Look at that. It almost fell as we predicted. It says, can you read it? Happy birthday, Dustin. You see that? It's beautiful. Thank you.

Thank you. Can we blow it together? Let's blow it together, like virtually. Here we go. Actually, I feel like I shouldn't blow it. It's bad luck. Can you just do a blow and then I'll... You ready?

Yes. Love it. Boom. Dustin, you're the man. You know, I actually thought of hitting up your wonderful wife and timing this, and she would walk in with a cake as well. But I was like, you know what, maybe she has other plans for you. But I just wanted to let you know. I'm a man of my word.

You say you want a cake. We bring you a cake. Let's go, man. I appreciate you. Happy birthday. Any big plans? Dude, I've been just being a dad this morning working on my car. I might go to top golf later.

I don't know. Okay. I saw you being a dad this weekend. You were at the cheer competition. How was that? It was good. My daughter's team won Nationals' first place, the Madigra National Championship in New Orleans. Is that a big deal?

Yeah, they won last year in Pensacola Nationals. But this was like the first big tournament of this cheer season. Okay. And do you like being cheer dad? Do you enjoy that? No, it's a lot, man. It's a lot. And this stuff is all over

We gotta go to Atlanta We gotta go to Houston Last year we went to Pensacola To Texas Like it's crazy man Wow I don't know It's fun

I just love seeing how much she loved it As long as she loves this stuff It makes me happy Okay yeah So now it's about the family It's about the kids And of course You recently welcomed

A new member to the family How's everyone feeling How's everyone doing Now being a What is it A boy dad now Now you're a boy dad right Yeah man

Yeah Yeah, no, it's great. Baby's good, mom's good. He's about to be two months on Tuesday coming up, so it's flying by, man. It doesn't feel like eight weeks already. Shout out to Kingston. Where does the name come from? I love it.

Me and my wife were just, when we heard the name, and we're like, if we have a son a good name of Kingston, and now I got a little King Kong in the house eating all the milk. I love it. What is it like rewinding the tape, so to speak? Like your daughter is what, like eight, nine at this point? Yeah, she's nine. dude, she'll be 10 in August. It's a, I forgot how much work it is. You know, nine years, you forget, you forget the sleepless nights. And I'm the guy, I pull the first, I pull the night

ship. So me and my wife swap out like 3, 3.30 a.m. Wow. So sleep's been crazy. Yeah. Wow. So what are you doing to pass the time? Binging landman, trying to find documentaries. Just watching TV, really. Wow. Even the low guy, trying to put him to sleep, wakes up, feed him again, watch, watch TV until three. So that's the thing. You know, sometimes I've noticed you've been posting stuff like late at night. Is that when your mind starts? Up to 3.30. Yeah. So is that, is that like why you're up and why your mind is maybe wandering? You're reflecting. You're thinking about the life and career that you've had. Yeah, you know, it's late at night. Nobody's up. It's just me and a little man. He can't talk. So I'm just

sitting there watching TV feeding him. You know, just we have a lot of time to think in the quiet. So I'm up. Like I said, sometimes it's 3.30 or 4 a.m., bro. Right, right, right. Yes, it is tough, but I'm glad that you are experiencing it once again, and you get to be a father of a young boy. How would you describe Dustin? The last time we spoke on this program was the Monday after. How would you describe the last six or so months,

life after fighting, if you will, settling into this new life? Well, still processing, bro. It's different. But I'm still super busy. You know, every day, every week, I'm freaking have something to do. but life's good, it's just weird. It feels weird being a civilian, man. Do you feel like you miss it more than you do?

Do you feel like you miss it as much, less? How would you describe your relationship with the sport? No, I still miss it. I miss it. I miss it. I miss it. Do you ever think twice about the decision? I feel like some days I'm like, I can beat these guys, you know? And then some days I'm like, I made the right decision. So it's back and forth.

It's like a constant tug-a-war. in my head that I'm some days I make, I think, wake up thinking, this is, I'm doing exactly what I'm supposed to do. This is where I'm supposed to be. Some days I wake up and like, man, I wish I had a fight to look forward to. And you could easily have a fight to look forward to, right? Like you can easily make that call and they would welcome you back with open arms. Have you ever been close to making that call? No, I've never been close. No. How can I? Man, I retired. And like you were just saying before I came on, the New Orleans thing was so special. it can never be done again like that.

But every day I'm battling, battling myself about wanting to fight. But you say how could you be close, or how could you come back? You know, everyone does it in fighting. It's more, look at Tyson Fury. He's retired and I'm retired five, six times now. So it's more the norm to come back

than it is to stick to the retirement. Yeah, but I never wanted to be one of those guys. Like when I laid him down, I wanted to be done. Yeah. you do see that a lot in fighting. Everybody's battling the same thing I'm battling. They wake up every day and like, oh, I've been doing this my whole life, something's missing.

Just trying to find out what feels that void, man. Do you talk to other retired fighters and ask them what it was like in those early days? Do you draw upon experiences of others? No, I haven't really talked to a whole lot of people. I might have told you last time I was on. I think a couple months ago, Eddie Alvarez reached out and told me if ever want to talk, You know, he's been through it. If I ever want to talk about anything, he's all ears.

So it's nice to see people reaching out, but I haven't spoke to anybody really about it. Me and Mike Brown, like, in conversation, talk about it. You posted something recently about, like, working on getting sober. You posted this on social media. You just kind of posted about, like, working on getting better. And then someone asked you what you were referring to. And then you wrote, Getting Sober. You know what I'm talking about, right?

Yeah, yeah, when I was in New York. Yeah. What were you referring to there? What could you tell us about that? Just I had retired and have so much time on my hands and I'm always battling something in my mind. It's like I've always drank alcohol, you know, growing up and but celebratory like on vacation, get together, things like that. But like I was retired and I'm sitting at home and I can have a drink every day now. I don't have to wake up and run miles.

I don't have to wake up and go to the gym or be somewhere. Like it's, it was just, I wanted to pull back from drinking. Like, I'm not going to be sober my whole life. And I had, you know, for New Year's, I drank champagne. It's like, I just wanted to take a step back because that can get ugly quick. You know, we've seen it before. I've seen it before. It's just whenever you, hands are full every day trying to be the best at something. And then boom, it's gone. You're retired. You have a lot of time on your hands? And it could get, you know, I'm just trying to be smart. And have you been successful in doing that? Yeah, I did like 40 days up until New Year's. Wow. So it's like gaps. I'll go sober for a while and then, you know, just so it doesn't get out of control, bro. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, for sure.

Because initially when you read that, you're like, okay, how big, you know, when you hear that word sober, you think how big of a deal is this? How big of a hurdle is this? Yeah, no. Dude, I'm still going to drink bud lights and enjoy my life and drink some champagne on my birthday and stuff like that. But it's just had to take a step back because I found myself, I was like, I love whiskey. I love drinking bourbon. So if I don't have to wake up and be at the gym or I don't have a date circle of a fight, it's like I could drink a couple glasses of whiskey every night.

I just want to stay ahead of it and stay healthy mentally and physically. But it wasn't like a problem, but people kind of took it that way. Yeah. When somebody says, hey, I'm pulling back. I'm going to go in a little sober stint. It's not like I have a problem or anything. It's just like I need a before it becomes a problem. Yeah, no.

I know 100% understand and glad we clarified that. Have you been able to watch? I know you're an MMA fan, a combat fan, really boxing as well and everything in between. Did you take a break from watching the stuff as well or nothing's changed? No, no, nothing's changed. I watch everything. You know, sometimes people retire and they're like, you know what? I just need a break from all of this.

No, bro, I love it. I love it. Can't get enough. Man, it's amazing. I see the enthusiasm and I see the way you talk about. about like the internal struggle. I'm not advocating for you to come back, but I'm just going to say

I wouldn't be surprised if you like really thought about it strongly at some point. I don't know, man. I'm, uh, yeah, it's a balancing act. I'm trying to keep everything balance in my mind, but I want to every day, so we'll see. We'll see.

I don't know, I'm peptide, papy, man. I don't think I can pass a drug test. How is that going, by the way? I've seen some shots of you. You're looking swole, my friend. Yeah, man, I'm lifting probably five, six days a week. I built a gym at my house and just trying to be healthy, you know? Yeah.

How much you weigh? Last time I checked, that was 187. Okay. But that was probably like a week ago. And like what? Which is a lot heavier than I used to walk around. Yeah, I was just going to ask, like in between fights, how big would you get? Low 80s.

Like if I go vacation with my family every year, I would come back from vacation like 83. three or so, that's pretty heavy for me. Yeah, but it doesn't look like there's much fat on that body, if I'm being honest. Easy, Ariel. I'm just saying, I'm just saying you're looking good. I'm giving you props. I'm saying you're looking good. I'm putting into work, man. Me and my boy Kyle, dude, we lift five, six days a week.

Wow. At the silly goose. I was always scared. At the silly goose fitness club. We're not taking applications. Look, I worked out my whole life, but I was always conscious of putting on weight, couldn't eat too many calories, sitting lift too heavy. you know because making 55 was never easy

but now that I don't have to make weight you know I can eat all the carbs and calories I want I can lift heavy so I'm just trying to see where my body balances out at okay um you had mentioned um you know when we spoke I think it was that you were like oh you know I hope I get to do more TV stuff and there's the new era and whatnot and I saw the round table that you guys did and it was great and you look very comfortable and like you belong are you going to do more now in the Paramount Plus era

I'm hoping, man. I'm open to it. I'm working the Houston card, and I am working the Holloway versus Charles fight as a desk analyst. Okay. Those are only two big ones I have coming up, but I'm hoping to get more and more, get better at this. This is something I want to do. Okay, so you're in the mix, though. They haven't said, like, thanks.

I talked to Paramount. I tossed my name in the hat. I said, hey, anytime you guys need me, I want the reps. Let's do it. So we'll see. Can I ask, how do you feel about the new era? We're about to start it. That was part of the reason why I wanted to have you on.

There's a lightweight fight at the top of the bill. Just the whole new era, you know, no pay-per-view, earlier fight card. All the little changes, all the new bells and whistles. How do you feel about it? It's exciting. You know, I want to see if the look is going to change. If the open, like if the graphics and the things are going to be different, it might feel new and refreshed. But I'm just on the business side of it, I don't know how they're going to restructure.

You know, obviously I'm retired, so I'm out of the conversation. talking about numbers and money, but I just don't know how they're going to reconstit. Redo everybody's contract who gets these pay-per-view points. If there's no pay-per-view, I just don't know what's going on with the whole pay structure.

Yeah, just yesterday, Connor McGregor said, like, my contract is null in void because it was based off a pay-per-view, and now I don't get pay-per-view anymore, so we need to talk. And I even asked Alex Volcanowski about it last week, and he's like, yeah, I'm still waiting to and he's fighting in, you know, less than two weeks.

So that's kind of a big thing. Yeah, I was wondering if they're going to do, like, if you're on a number card, which would have been a pay-per-view, or is the co-main event and the main event going to get like a bonus? Or does it go by viewers? I just don't, I haven't heard anything, and I've been asking everybody. I don't know if they figured it out just yet, which is a little bit surprised because I thought they would by now, but maybe...

Unless they redid Justin's contract, there's no way. he's going to fight Patty on what would be a pay-per-view and not get something extra. You know, did they redo the whole contract or are they going to get a backdoor bonus? Like something has to make up for the missing pay-per-view. How do you feel about them going with Patty versus Justin and not Patty versus Armin? Huh. Dude, I don't really, anytime they announce fights and stuff like that, I'm never surprised anymore. Sometimes I'm like, I didn't see that coming, but I'm not blown away by these announcements.

because we never know, man. The last few years, we've seen crazy things happen. But it's a fun fight. You know, I'm leaning towards Justin, but we'll see. Wow. Okay. You're one of the few that I've heard say that. Can you tell us why?

I just think he's been in those 25-minute fights. He's been in dog fights before. I think Patty's going to have a tough time stopping him on the feet, and I don't think Patty's going to be able to get him down. So he's going to have to fight with him. Unless Patty can stay super disciplined for 25 minutes, stay at distance, pick his shots. Justin's just a bigger puncher

and he'll put himself in harm's way to land one of those shots and it's tough to stay away from it for 25 minutes Are you in the camp of like you're still waiting and seeing on Patty or has he turned you into a believer? I mean he's definitely a legit fighter he's a good fighter

but I haven't seen him beat if he beats Justin I'm a believer then it wasn't the Chandler fight that didn't put you over what number of loss was that for Chandler in a row? Yeah it was A tough period for him, but I thought he just kind of looked stronger. He, I don't know, he looked more complete.

I was very impressed with the performance. Yeah, I think Chandler might have showed him for a paycheck. I don't know. Okay, okay. And so how do you see it playing out? Do you think that Gachie can knock him out? Yeah, I think Justin stops him. Wow, wow, wow, wow, okay.

I believe he's the dog going into the fight. He is. I saw that, yeah. Wow. And now you can do whatever you want as far as the betting is concerned, right? dude of course do you partake every now and then i'm definitely going to partake in now one wow you're going to go justin via stoppage yeah what is that gc do you know what that is i'm asking our uh our betting expert he'll tell me um but that's got to be plus money big time

yeah i mean straight up uh he's plus money so if you profit it's gonna be a bigger odds do you think that the ufc wants patty to win probably yeah probably probably because Justin's talking about retirement and Patty's still young and they can continue to build him. There's a bunch of fights we haven't seen with Patty. So it's more marketable if Patty wins. Gichi inside the distance, by the way, plus 400. Hey, that's good. Take it to the bank?

Take it to the bank. Are you one of those like Anthony Pettus type betters who's like dropping like 10,000, 20,000? And you're doing that type of thing? Nah, man. It's crazy. I got kids to feed. I'm not doing that. Yeah, that's crazy. That's great. What's the biggest bet you've ever done?

Probably 5,000 a couple times. On who? I lost 5,000 when Fury fought Usset. Which one? The first or second? First, first. Okay. A couple of football games, I bet 5,000. Like 5K's my limit. And that's a lot. You know, I don't do that often. Yeah, that is a lot. You thought Fury was going to be Ucic, the first time? Yeah, yeah.

Did you think he want? I think I put a couple thousand for the first counter-bin fight, too, with a you make yeah I was with you that day we were doing the draft picks yeah man yeah

actually you texted me that you said that you could come on the show like seconds after or minutes after the bill's loss and I was very depressed and your text made me feel a little bit better yeah I do what I can man I do what I can

I know you did that on purpose right you felt my sadness yeah man I know you're Bill's guy did you see the game yeah bro was it a interception or was it a catch? Dude, I thought, first of all, I don't think he had, did he have possession?

His knee was down. It's a dead ball, I thought. I can't believe they didn't go back and look at that, man. You and I both. Wait, so you thought it should have just been like a dead play, like knee down. That's it, or do you thought it was supposed to be a catch? I thought it was a dead play. If he's down, he didn't have possession, then it's a dead ball.

I don't think, that was ugly, bro. How could they not review that? And I had pollulate the bills in Seattle. So they really got me. Oh, gosh. Now I feel especially bad. Yo, they'll take like 15 minutes to review, you know, a third down in September. But this one, they were like, yeah, keep it moving, no problem.

They call that a catch. We're kicking a 20-yard field goal and going to the AFC championship. I don't understand it. Unbelievable, bro. And then the coach gets fired today. I was watching in a hotel room. I was with my daughter in New Orleans. I was watching a hotel room.

But, yeah. And they couldn't, you know, they couldn't challenge it. It was under, it was in O.T. You can't challenge an O.T. Ah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so, bro, that's ugly, man. Ugly. And then two pass interferences?

Brutal. Yeah, it was a weird game. I'm still depressed. Anyway, ATT teammate Kayla Harrison with the neck injury. Very sad. That was my most anticipated fight on the card. What do you think? Do you think she could come back?

It's a scary thing when it's a neck injury. And I'm hearing, she's hoping White House, but that's still, like, that's in five months. I don't know, she's superhuman, so I'm not doubting her. But what was your take on the injury? I mean, it sucks. It sucks for her. It sucks for Amanda, for the sport, the fans.

I was looking forward to that as well. I shot her a message and told her keep her head up. You know, I know Mike Brown has had a neck surgery. I've had other friends who've had neck surgeries and continue to fight, so she's definitely going to come back if that's where her mind's at, if she wants to. But it's no fun, you know. A lot of my buddies do have, like, even when they come back and they're fully healed, I hear I'm talking about, you know, complaining about their neck.

And if they wrestle too hard, they hurt, you know, it's, it sucks. It sucks. It sucks because in mixed martial arts, you use your neck for everything for wrestling, jujitsu, you're grappling. It's, it's probably going to be for the rest of her career. She's going to have some kind of problem with it. Yeah. Do you like her chances in that fight?

Yeah. That's a coin tolls to me, man. Because if Amanda can stop to take it. You know, in the middle, later rounds, I think even though Kayla's dedicating herself to evolving and being well-rounded in the sport, Amanda's just a big puncher for that weight class for the women's division and has, you know, years on Kayla with stand-up. So Kayla needs to take down. Yeah. And now with the neck, I mean, you never know. It was someone with her style, right?

you hope that she could come back. I was wondering if they would have Amanda fight on this card against someone else. Just to have her, just to have the marquee name on the card, the story of the goat, so to speak, coming back. What would you do if you were in her spot? Her exact shoes.

Do you fight someone else just to get the, you know, the comeback fight out of the way? She's only coming out of retirement because it's such a big fight. Yeah. Like the two best women ever. Who else is out there that would kind of fill those shoes? there's really nobody in the division that would be like a super fight, you know.

It's still a payday though, right? Like you're so close to fighting again, it's still the payday. If she's going to guarantee that like Kayla's going to be back for the White House or, you know, be back for a certain time and take one just to get her feet, you know, just to get warmed up and fill those lights and feel the pressure of a fight night again. Maybe, I don't know what they're going to do, man. But did she want to come back? Was she always, like, itching to come back and make a return?

Or was this just the one that pulled her out of retirement? Only Amanda can really answer that. Right. Speaking of the White House card, are you surprised that Dana White is saying he's moving on from the Chandler-Connor fight? And now it seems like there's a lot of momentum behind Connor versus Jorge Masvedal. It's such for Chandler, man. If you've been waiting years chasing this fight, and that's the money, that's the big fight,

you know? We still can see it. I don't know what's going to happen. I was surprised when I saw Dana. say that. I was like, damn, I thought that was a short thing. Yes, me too. I feel bad for him. I know you've had your history with him, but that kind of sucks, no?

Dude, honest. What's that? I said, I know you've had your history with him, but I feel bad for him, and I'm wondering how you feel like he's been waiting so patiently for this payday. Yeah, then they did the ultimate fighter and all that. Yeah. It sucks.

It sucks for him, man, because so many months or years have been wasted waiting for this fight, and he's not a young man. Right. I mean, he's a young man, but in fighting, that's some big gears. Which fight are you most more interested in? If Connor's on that card, is it Connor Chandler or Connor Jorge? Connor Mazadol.

How come? Because I think Masadol is slicker on the feet. He can make things happening there. I think Chandler fight is a great matchup for Connor. Just the styles, I think it's a layup. It really is. Wow. And you think Connor has more trouble with Mazvedal?

Yeah, Mazvedo. Connor's a striker, man. Masridal is slicker on the feet. He can, you know, for the most part, roll the punches and get in the pocket with Connor a lot better than Chandler will. Chandler's just huge explosive movements that I think Connor's going to time him

and hurt him and put him away. That's the way I see the fight playing out in my head. I think George can be slick and move and groove with Connor in there. And George is big and long, you know? Yeah. So if you're the UFC, don't you want to have Connor fight Chandler? You probably want Connor to get the win, right? Yeah, that's what I thought.

I was like this is, you know, like I said, a layup. I thought it was perfect for Connor and his comeback. And for them to get the ball rolling, to get the momentum with such a big star like that. Who do you think is the best lightweight in the world right now? Right now, Islam, if he can come back down. The reason I ask that question is, I think there are some people who would say Armin,

excluding Islam, considering he's a welterweight now champion. Some would say Armin, someone would say Ilya. And I was wondering where you fell on that one. I would go Islam and then Ilya. Okay, so Islam, if you're considering him a lightweight, of course he was the champion, and then Ilya and then Armin. Yeah. Do you think Armand beats Elia? I don't think so.

Oh, really? Wow. Okay. You think you think Ilya wins? Yeah. You think Ilya beats Patty Justin? Yes. Okay. Wow, wow, wow, wow. I just had Jorge on earlier in the day, and I read him a quote from Max where he said like, you know, the BMF belt until I came around was a laughing stock belt. No one really took it seriously, and I kind of legitimized it. That's his words. I'm paraphrasing. Jorge didn't love that quote, and I'm wondering if, you know, you fought for it twice, if you agreed with the sentiment,

or did you think that was a little too harsh? It's a little too harsh. I think it's, no, it's legit, bro. It's like a, for the most exciting fight, there was like a people's choice belt. Who do you want to see fight? What fight can't you wait for? Who's must watch TV? That's what it is. is. Oh. Do we lose you? Okay, we lost you there for a second. So you said people's choice fight, must watch TV.

It's just like the fight fans fight. Yeah. The fighters, fighters. Like, that's like, it's a real belt. It's not the undisputed belt of a weight division, but it's like the People's Choice Awards. That's what it is. Do you think that Max beats Charles?

I do. Wow. I do. Okay. I love that story that you told in that roundtable. of your wife telling you not to engage with the point down. That's incredible. Can I ask, when did she say that to you?

Did she say it in the back before the fight? No, she told me a bunch of times throughout camp. During fight week, she told me a bunch of times. Did you think about her in the moment? No, I didn't think about her. But I knew, dude, I was getting beat up in the pocket by Max, so I had to clinch with them slow things down. I knew there was only a few seconds left.

but uh nah man you don't have time to think about that stuff when you're in a firefight sure do you think about that week a lot every now and then i'll think about it it was a great week man it really was besides me losing a decision to max yeah like i like i've said over and over again that it was great it was it was such a good week have my team there family there new orleans supporting me yeah just coming back to my home state and and fighting my retirement fight was special man it's very special i mean no one gets that uh As we've said, no one gets that. So it's amazing.

I do wonder how you feel when people like me say, it was so great, it was so great, but ultimately you're a competitor. You did want to win. And so, like, the end didn't go as you planned, but even the aftermath was great. Does it annoy you when people talk about like, oh, congrats, it was so great when you actually wanted the result as well?

A little bit, a little bit. But I just like, anytime somebody brings it up or talks about it, I just say how great it was, you know? Right. It wasn't the result, but just going through Fight Week and fighting a guy like Max, you know, Max is a man, dude, and that's just the way it was supposed to go. That's my story, man. By the way, what about the boxing? Because shortly after you talked a little bit about the boxing on social media with Nate and whatnot, when you said retirement, just to be clear,

does the boxing count, or does it just MMA that we were talking about? You know, I would never, I would never, like, being retired, pursue a boxing career. But if things aligned and there was an opportunity for one fight, like against a Nate, to box or something, I would definitely do it. If I could. You know, I still have four or five fights left on my UFC contract. I don't know what date

that expires. It does expire eventually, but, you know, it's probably years and years and years. Okay. What about, you know, we've seen RAF recently, there's the grappling events and whatnot. Maybe that's an opportunity to scratch an edge. Me, I actually got offered

to go to Armenia and grapple with Armin. Oh. The company, the company he grapples for reached out to me maybe two, three weeks ago. It's just, man, I don't want to travel all the way to Armenia. Yeah. Did the idea of competing interest you? Yeah, just something to look forward to something to prep for.

You know, that's what interests me. What about the RAF? I'm not a wrestler, man. No, okay. Yeah, you know, put the singlet on, have a little fun. I'm good. I'm good. And Arm is an ATT guy.

Would you have an issue with that? No, I mean, we've never really trained that much. And if I would have done it, I would have, I'm not going to go to American top team to prepare for a grappling match, you know, fly out there and do like a grappling camp. My buddies here, I have a bunch of black belts around me here. If it's just a grappling match, I can do that here in Louisiana. Okay. And just a couple other things I wanted to ask you about.

I remember when we spoke, you said, you know, now that I'm not, what means so much to you, a good fight foundation. Shout out to you for everything you've done with them and your wife as well and the whole team. You said, now that I'm not in the limelight, you did wonder, like, will I be able to generate as much? How is that going? Do you still feel like you're able to reach out? I think you still have that reach. I mean, I see you on all these commercials. It's amazing. The Bud Light stuff and all that, Samsung. So I'm just wondering, do you feel like you're still able to make the impact that you're hoping to in the community? As of right now, we're doing everything we wanted to. I mean, the Thanksgiving drive went great.

Christmas went great. So it's just on to the next thing. I won't really know until we try to do another big goal and start crowdfunding for whatever goal we do next and we'll see. Because a lot of these fight kits would pay for whatever goal we set up for that particular fight or that time of year. And then we might have some rollover funds after that's met that goes into the next goal. So it's just when that starts running out with no. fight kits to auction off. I don't know how it's going to continue, but I think it'll

continue, man. Yeah, and I feel like other fighters, you know, like Max donated his gloves, and I know Habib helped out, you can draw upon that, right? And there's fans of those guys that can put their stuff up and people would flock to that. Sure, yeah. What I'd like to do, man, is continue with other fighters. Like, if they want to raise money for something, maybe we can match it with a good fight and do something in their hometown because they're on the streets and on the ground there, they know what's going on and where we could help. So I can do it for my community, but other fighters can do it for their community as well. And if anybody is interested in that, dude, reach out, shoot me a message.

Hell yeah. How did the roadhouse opportunity come about? A buddy of mine named Steve, who I met with Eve Edwards a long time ago, when Steve just got out of college, She was a wrestler. He used to go down to Austin and help Eve wrestle. And then I hadn't seen him in years. I met him through Eve. And then he started doing these films as a stunt coordinator and fight choreograph. And he's worked on some big, big projects.

And then I guess he was working on a roadhouse. And he called me up. And he said, hey, we have an opportunity if you want to come do it. And it just, it made sense. Did you enjoy it? Yeah, man, I really did, bro. It was refreshing. I've never really been around an actor like Jake Gyllenhaal, that big of a star, and like how down to earth he was was refreshing to me.

Are there any, without giving way too much any sort of ties to your history with Connor? Is that part of the involvement? No, no, no. No, no. They actually, they wanted me to stay for like a couple weeks and have a bigger, maybe more scenes in the movie. But I could only give them three days, man. I've been so busy. Okay. So I'm in like a

A group scene and then a fight scene So I don't have as much as many parts as I would have if I would have stayed for as long as they wanted me So when you say you've been so busy like what's the main Life thing other than being a dad of course And a husband what's the main thing that's occupying your time? Sponsorships Appearances business business things I always have something man Which is good which is good

Okay Okay. And by the way, I did see Connor wishing you like congratulations when you posted about your son. So would you say the beef has been squashed? All is good? Fuck no, man. Fuck Connor. Oh, okay. That was a, I thought that was a nice message. No. No. Okay. Fair enough. Fair enough. But I like a couple of the messages on, like I saw someone, like you told someone to divorce their wife because she was. Oh, she was.

My wife says you're overrated Yeah, yeah Help her pack, bro Help her pack up And then someone else clapped at your hot sauce Did I fire back? Yeah, you said

Who the F is buying Destinporia And you wrote your mother Oh, that's just a good clap That is a good That's just good clean fun That's just good clean fun I mean I feel like this is like

Late night when you're sitting there Like you can just kind of You know you can throw bombs Yeah, I can fire some shots back I can return fire when it's late at night and I'm, you know, I got nothing going on. I have time to tweet back. You ever, you ever, like, pull up one of your old fights, like the Glory WEC days?

I mean, I have before, but it's been a while. Okay. When's the, when's the doc coming out? Any word on that? This year, man, I don't know if it's going to be mid. I don't have an exact date. Okay. But Michael Tucker and his wife, Petro, are working on everything.

We wrap filming for Thanksgiving. Okay. So that was a long process, and there's a bunch of stuff that, you know, that's captured on there from hours and hours of footage that's unreleased from the first documentary. We're going to tie it into this, you know, so it's going to be, it's going to be really cool to see this all put together. Love it. And last thing, I feel like you've got something with Silly Goose Fitness Club.

Are we going to like... You're like that? I'm about to start a franchiseing this. Are you going to do... I was going to say, I feel like you could sell merch and stuff. I feel like people would love that. I got to... I made some silly goose shirts.

I sell them at Parrish Inc. The same place I sell my shirt's a local company. I got them to make me some designs. Okay. It was fitness club. Man, so you've got your hands and everything. This is great. This is wonderful.

All right. Well, it's great to catch up with you, man. And I know it's your birthday, so I don't want to take up too much of your time. And I especially appreciate you doing this on your birthday. I hope everything is going well. Happy New Year to you and your family. I know it's a little late, but a lot has happened. And enjoy the fights this weekend.

Can I get like one hot, like other than Justin? and one other than Justin, one like one DP lock other than Justin, is there one that comes to mine? Dude, a prop, I'm telling you bet Justin's like K-O. A prop, that's, I mean, that's as tough as it gets. Sugar, sugar against song? Man, uh, who's tough one? Song.

Waldo Derek? Derek. Umar Davison. I don't know. I have to look into that one. I'd have to, I'd have to. Okay, one last one. John Silva, Arnold Allen.

Man. That's a tough one too. John's over. Okay, all right, all right. This is great. This is great. Much love, Dustin. Thank you so much again.

Happy birthday. Hope it's a happy, healthy, successful birthday. You know, a lot of people pay me $100 on cameo for these messages. You're getting it for free, so I feel like it's like a great thing for you. I want to go back to this interview and record it so I can happen. Much love to you and the family. Thanks for doing this.

I appreciate it very much, my man. Thank you, man. Thanks for having me. There he is. The great Dustin Porier. What a guy. Well done to him, 37 years young. coming on the birthday. By the way, we just ended the interview at 337. Is that not crazy or what?

No? People pay top dollar for those birthdays. Wait, what's 337? He just turned 37 and we ended the interview at 37. Poetic. I feel like that's something. What do you think about that one? I T.D. Justin Gaichi? Yeah. What do you think? I forgot about this. Tell me more about what you think. You look like a bookie in that shot. This is what Dustin's going to see standing over him if Patty ends up winning. Where's the money dust? I kind of feel like, I feel like this is the new look of the show right here. Made me do this.

Every day we just get another wacky picture. It's so great. Wow, is this great? Can't get it up. And if Pizzi, we're supposed to be here and shout out to Pizzi. And of course, Pizzi is not here. Has to be the black and white, right, with the football? The football, yeah.

it's got to be. Oh my God. Yeah, that would be. We'll do a four bucks tomorrow. By the way, hold on that, but we'll figure it out. Hopefully not,

but maybe. Who the fuck is we? Ah, fuck. Should have played that for him, Frankie. We should have played that for him. I'm tired of relying on the rest of the team. Yeah.

When you were like, how about Connor McGregor, that was nice? When you, if you had said, you know, can we be friends or something? Then we would have played that.

Go, go. head fray? Fuck no man, fuck on her. Oh, there's a little hit there there's a little hit but it's pretty good.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, oh my God. And then he just stared me down. Yeah. Congrats, bro. No, why can we meet friends? Why can we be friends?

No, I understand. It got very personal, so I understand that 100%. I also felt like he was like trying to hold back a smile about Mike Chandler waiting for years. Can I be honest?

I don't think he was holding it back. I feel like I saw a full-fledged smile. He didn't just like straight up, you know, full teeth like ring, but we know the rivalry also. Fuck no, man, fuck Connor. Fuck no, man, fuck Connor. Are we just going to keep going? Did you, did the buddy get, like, did he didn't realize, he didn't realize it went over

the air. Oh, no. He just put that on air, but he looked down at the board, put his hand up to his mouth and said, oh, no. It's okay, Frank. It's okay. It's been a tough day for all of us here. Dustin's cake was good.

Did you guys try it? Yeah, it was good. You know what I keep thinking about? What's that? G.C. has been fancying himself a baker these days. And so last week it was a tremendous cook, baker, chef. Chef, that's what we're going with. I actually saw John Anick tell a story.

Who was it? They got the knockout. He was on with the barstool guys. Oh, Nasrot. Parents own a bakery and then he got knocked out. And then who, oh, Quill and Sal Kiel. Yeah. And now he got like a tattoo of like a baker on his,

foot. Yeah. It's crazy. Anyway, you've been fancying yourself a baker. So last week it was the salty-ish. We were going with chef, by the way. Chef. Yeah, chef, because it's not always going to be baked goods.

It just happens to be baked goods for the first two weeks. Got it. So you really fancy yourself a baker these days. And so last week you went with the cook. No, I'm kidding. Chef cookie, cook, maybe? Chef's good. Baker, chef cook.

What's the difference? Chef's going to be top. Baker would be in the middle and then cook on the bottom. It almost feels like we're doing like some sort of like interrogation where your face can't be revealed, you know? Yeah. Tomorrow we'll do blurcles and the voice changers. It's very frustrating. In fact, it was nice to just see your presence in here for a second.

Also, you did explain this at the top of the show, but for people coming in, I keep seeing in the chat, why are they not being shown? Okay. Well, I didn't feel like I had to do it. We're in witness protection right now. Speaking of cook and chef, this picture also works perfectly. POV, you're a stove top while on. Like frying some eggs over it. Yeah.

Memorial Day weekend. Oh, okay, that. I thought you meant like, you know, manning the grill on the back. No, no, no. We are in a kitchen smoking. Breaking the rules. Some, the executive chef is just like, hey, no smoking in it. I think my picture is from the same scene, too.

I don't even want to explain it to people. It's better this way. Anyway, you're fancying yourself a chef, cook baker. Last week, it was the cookies. This week, it's toffee? Sticky toffee pudding. In honor of Liverpool, Everton Toffey's, right? Now, just the UK in general, Arnold Allen and Patty Pembley.

Man. And some members of the team have had it. I wanted to save it as my pot of gold end of the rainbow. I'm very excited. I've been thinking about it. Are you going STP over Dustin's B-Day cake? And I thought about that. I'm always craving sugar after the show because I'm so hungry.

Well, you got plenty of options. Yeah, no, there are definitely not plenty of options. I was surprised. On Air Jordan gave him like, what was it, a six? I was surprised. He said a seven. I think I said a four.

Oh, wow. Look, man, I'm just starting out. The whole goal is just to get better at cooking. I thought you did a great job. Shut up. I think you were all right. By the way, I went, I just want to know, before, you guys all agree that was a catch, right?

Broncos? No. You know what? Turn off his mic. I truly, I don't know how to feel on it. Every different angle I see is like, oh, that was definitely a catch. And then I'm like, I, it was a pick.

In real time, I was like, that's a pick for sure. When I started seeing the replays, I was like, you know what, maybe that was a catch. I just wish they could be consistent with it. 100% man. Onward and upward. Next year. There was a moment in that game.

I actually want to go back to it. Oh, no. In the group chat. You know what I'm saying, right? Oh, there it is. It just gave me chills. 8 o'clock. 8 o'clock.

tweets get that leg warm praetor no text not tweet sorry text 803 all caps he's down he's down that's a fucking catch f the NFL stupid shit I think I think

I have a stance that that was a catch to me I was I was legit like speechless in my in my crib I was like holy shit I can't I can't hold that play third in like I think 17 Shakir with the what was it with the with the looking ladder to freaking

I was going nuts Ray Davis I was I can't believe they pulled that one out and then I thought that's it it might be well here's okay the the texts are great eff in hell swarmed yes here we go Josh Alex Pere the old line out of the way and then Connor says squeaky fucking bump time boys holy hell I mean if it's squeaky bump time for you guys you know what I was experiencing. That's when they picked up the two, they converted on third down twice in a row. Like when they got the second one,

I was like, holy shit, this is so stressful right now. God, I can't believe it. Don't relive this. I can't stop thinking about it, though.

That's the thing. I just can't. Next year. We talked about it beforehand. It just simply comes down to five turnovers. You can't be negative four in the turnover differential and win the game. But you know what's crazy?

Even with the five, they were that close. It was that close. That's the thing. And then you come up, by the way, how do they know he broke his ankle and had his surgery scheduled in record time? Like he literally walks up to the thing and he's like, yeah, Bo Nix suffered a broken ankle and his surgery is scheduled for Tuesday and it happened on the, like, how did they know

all of that that quickly? I didn't even see that until the following morning. Oh, wow. I was like, wait, what? Yeah, didn't see that he broke the ankle. 20 minutes later, they have all this information. I'm like, what? I mean, they just have such incredible medical teams and access that they can just have it.

It's ready to go. Do you guys agree with the firing? Can't stop thinking about that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You're not getting it done. You need someone that's going to get you over the home. It's about time, right? Eh.

No. Ah, come on. You can't be a Harbaugh hater and be a McDermott lover. I can. Bean staying? I'm not a McDermott lover. I'm a, they didn't surround Josh with the weapons that he needs. So then Bean has to go.

Or B should have been the one to go. I'd be more amenable to that, yes. I think McDermott's a good coach. It's a good coach, but if you look at the stats of how good they have been, he didn't do anything in that game that's going to get you over the hump. Look at the end of that first half. He should not have called a play, just take a knee and go to half. That was.

Does Joe Brady call the plays? That's the difference. Joe Brady is the offensive coordinator. Who the hell knows? I mean, the one thing that was weird in the post game, he insinuated like, hey, we went for it. If nothing's there, just throw it out of bounds. And so I don't know if he was throwing shade a little bit towards Josh.

And you kind of like overanalyze these things. But I wonder if like a QB scramble was the call there, especially running around like this. Can I ask you guys a question? Serious question. I'm going to say no, it wasn't by the. What is intentional grounding in the NFL? Because I feel like Bo Nix did it like 10 times and they don't call it once.

Nah. Like when you just throw it to the ground, isn't that intentional grounding? Yeah, it depends on where you are. if he's outside the pocket and if there's a receiver in the area, like, it's not. Can't get over.

Intentional grounding is the least of my concerns. What's a fucking catch? What is a catch in the NFL? It is impossible to determine that. Who, me? Also, make it 15 yards for passing interference. Oh. Instead of spot of the spot fell.

Okay. 15 yards. It just changes too much, right? You know what's so annoying about watching the NFL in 2026? Look, if somebody has a guaranteed touchdown and you just tackle them and then they only get 15 yards, it's never going to work. 15 yards. No, no, I can't do that.

You know what? I don't hate that. How does that make sense? It changes too much. If a wide receiver is running a fly pattern and they're on the two yard line and you just dump them because they're going to catch a touchdown, they only get 15 yards for that. No way. That's silly.

It works in college. Is that what the rule is in college? Yes, of course. It's sensical. It changes too much. I couldn't agree. And then like on the flip side of that, what if you get a bullshit call that shouldn't have been called? And then they jump from the 45 to the goal line.

100%. Nah. Did you guys agree with the pass-inters? I thought the one that they didn't call was much more pass interference. On Cooks? Yeah, than the one that they did. The one on the bills? The one that like stopped the bills from scoring.

No, like one play before they called pass-interners. Oh. The second one was like he did get there early. Trey White. legend he almost freaking knocked the referee out you know there's no time that you should be he knew the game was over at that way he got his money's but he was like the season's over it might as well get out my words out

what were you going to say on air during uh nothing i just thought you know he got his money's way i'm looking no you're saying before i thought i'm trying to find this i mean like the past interference you know was past interference it was a pick i actually thought you suck you know what you Honestly, one of the touchdown catches by the Broncos, me and someone else I was watching with, the ball looked like it juggled and... Oh yeah, I remember that one, too.

Review it. Yeah, the cat... What's a catch? Which one? The conchos won in, like, the left corner end zone? Yeah, yeah, right by the front pile. He got both feet in. That was a touchdown.

No, but it looked like when he hit the ground, the ball moved a little bit. He got two feet in, flew like 10 yards. Bills are on a generational run, an incredible run, and not making the Super Bowl once. you got to go. You just got to go. And by the way, I love him. Absolutely. I quoted Sean McDermott in my draft pick, Humble and Hungry.

I love the guy and he turned around the franchise. But we got to get over the hump. It's like Dwayne Casey and the Raptors, Tony Dungey and the B.Ox. John Fox and the Broncos. You got to do it. You got to do it. Tough call. Don't agree with the B&1.

It's tough, man. But you know what? I came to the conclusion. February 14, 22, we're all going to be there. February 14, 20, 2. 27, SoFi Stadium, a million and one broken hearts healed on Valentine's Day. That's the mantra, Buffalo. That's the mantra, Bill's Mafia.

This time next year, we'll be getting ready for it. And I can't, I can't. I'm not trying to be that hater. Credit words do, you guys got a few lucky bounces, but I swear to God if the Patriots somehow pull this out, and they could very well pull this out, I will truly believe that the football gods don't exist. They don't exist.

I don't know what exists, but it ain't football gods, because it's just not right. It's cruel that Drake May is going to make the Super Bowl before Josh Allen. It is cruel that it pans out this way when we had to play the Chiefs and their Hall of Fame quarterback four times in the last five years. It's not right. It's not right. I'm sorry.

By the way, any Pat's fan will tell you deep down, this is insane, and it's not fair. I know you're all having a great time and laughing and being a bunch of assholes like you usually are. But let's be honest. No one likes you. No one's happy with you. And please don't clip this off because I don't want them all done. on me because it's annoying.

But they've been pulling up that last one and it was really annoying. It was really annoying. This one's going to for sure not get clipped. No, it's not. It's not. But I hate you all. I don't know who I hate more. You or the Dodgers fans.

Did you hear from Chuck at all, by the way? Chuck and I spoke, yeah. And it was very nice and it was very cordial. Can I tell you what was the worst thing? Did he think it was a catch? I don't know. I didn't even ask. I wrote congrats and that was it.

And I'll be honest, I wrote congrats right away because I wanted to be the big man. he double-tap liked it and I was like I feel like I deserved a little bit more than that's heartbreak and then like four hours later I got a long Chuck-esque I would imagine he's celebrating but for the four I mean like him

the first thing that Chuck should be doing after they went I reached out first and sending that message for sure can I tell you what though a minute after the game a minute after the game my sons scrawny

twerp friend I'm going to say a name or no no he's saying his name text me text me what yes first first he texts my son ha ha ha ha by the way kids a jets fan

and we always talk about kids a jet fan 13 year old twirp kid's a jet's fan we always talks back I like the kid a lot we talked about text a ha ha ha to my son my son sends him he showed me He sends him a middle finger emoji.

All right. And he says, don't text my dad. Kid writes back too late. Ha, ha, ha, ha. So I'm not involved in any of this. I didn't look at anything. I went outside for a walk. I look at my phone and this torp kid sends me a meme of like,

life cycle of a Bills fan. Yeah. And this is where you are, like high expectations, da, da, da, da, da, da. And this is where you are. And like, and I was like, this fucking. kid, I swear, I was gonna write him something. And then I came in and I was gonna like tell my son, if I ever see that kid in this house, but I was like, calm down, calm down, calm down. And luckily, I never said anything. And then the kid writes back, he goes, I'm just joking, sorry about the

laws. And I was like, no, too late, too late. So I asked my son, did you say something to him? And he's like, yeah, I told him, he better not text you or he's never going to be allowed to come over. I was like, well, he did text me. And he's like, yeah, I think he feels bad now. I'm like, too late. You don't do that. You can't do that as a Jets fan. You can't. I agree with you. Where were you at in the life cycle of a Bills fan?

Oh, it was fucking awful. You know what was the worst thing about it? Not so much the timing. The worst thing about it was how accurate it was. Yeah, you're getting dunked on by a kid. No matter what developed there, he's going to come to your house and you're going to be very mad. And I'm going to have to dunk him in the toilet. Yes.

You're going to have to nudge him in with you. The Buffalo Bills cycle. It starts with offseason of questions It then goes to get blown out in an early season game It then goes to put it all together and win AFCEs Didn't happen this year Then it says get fans hopes up And then it says lose heartbreaking playoff game

And the circle is you are here Yeah I was like bro I mean it's a good meme The worst part is I may never see it That's the problem Can I just say very mature of you not to respond to the taxes I was, I'm actually,

I heard it out on the World Wide Web. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I actually, I thought him a twerp 18 times. I actually, man, 30 years younger than you. I wish you did text them back

because now you're going to be pent up the first time you see him is the first time. Nah, you've had to blow off the steam. No, no, this kid's going to walk into the house and Hwani's going to choke slam him through the table.

I had another Broncos fan of my life, right? I really am sorry. Love your bills and Josh Allen. I hate to see my friends hurt. Unfortunately, they were, they were their own worst enemy. Okay, so I'm like, all right, this is actually nice. And then he ends it with, this is not Chuck, by the way.

Hopefully we can take this momentum to the chip, exclamation point. I was like, fuck. I don't give a shit about your chip. Does no one just like stay quiet? Just leave me alone. I don't hope, by the way, this is at 816. That whole exchange we had was at 803 with the catch. This is within 10 minutes of the game being over.

All right. You say, like your word you may never see. it. We have to remain hopeful. I saw a tweet that was like my 78 year old dad, like watch the field goal go through and he took his bill's hat off and he was like, I'm starting to think I may never see it and walked out of the room. It kills me. You got more of a runway. You got more of a runway. We just got to stay hopeful. It actually makes me cry. It kills me to hear that. No, I know everyone says it, but no one deserves it more than those people, maybe as much, but no one deserves it more than the people of Buffalo and Western New York and Bill's fans.

Like they have suffered. If anything, they have suffered more because it's one thing to just be perennially bad, like the Browns or Lions historically, but they suffer. They don't know how to lose normally. Look at the last six years. It's one heartbreaker after the next and gut-wrenching. Like, it's not just like, oh, we didn't show. It's not like Seahawks Niners, right?

Seahawks Niners was never in question. It was always Seahawks. And it's not like Texans and Patriots yesterday. it's gut-wrenching. And then this one hurts the most because the field is so wide open. You're telling me we can't beat the Patriots at home? We just did it.

Four weeks ago. You're telling me we can't beat the Rams or the Seahawks? Come on, Sam Darnold. You kidding me? Sam Darnold's going to make the Super Bowl before Josh Allen, 2018 quarterback. Okay, which is worse? These gut-wrenching, heartbreaking losses

in, like, divisional and AFC chip rounds or, like, the four Super Bowls, but, like, three of a round. were blowouts. Yeah. So when I was a kid, that's when I fell in love with the team and I cried after the last three.

The first one is how I fell in love with them. And maybe this is apropos. I fell in love with them via heartbreak and so maybe I'm just deserving of the heartbreak. But when you're a kid, when you're 12, I told my son this who's exactly my age, my middle son, Walter, exactly my age when I watched them lose the fourth Super Bowl.

And by the end of the fourth Super Bowl, the whole country had Bill's malaise. You know how like everyone kind of feels bad for the bills and like is like, man, I don't even like the bills and I'm sad for you. Like even like Tyreek Hill is is saying like you guys got screwed I feel for you, right? And he's a bill's nemesis. Ravens players are tweeting about it. By the end, the country hated the bills because they felt like they were ruining the Super Bowl

because the last three were blowouts. And so it was kind of like, man, like this is the definition of insanity. Same thing over and over again. and we are not changing anything to change the result. And so by the end, you're 12 years old and you're like, all right, like, this probably needs to change and something needs to happen and it's just not working. And you also feel like they're just going to retool and get back in there like in two years, three years, because it was so inevitable every year. Now it hurts me more. I really think that I really think that these, I react so differently now than I did as a kid because I feel like my end is near.

hopefully 30, 40 years, but like now you're actually starting to look at it. Like, I may actually never see. I've invested so much time and effort and energy into these two particular teams. And they just always find ways to break my heart. And I thought what you were going to ask was, is it better to lose like this than to be the Browns or the Jets? You know what I mean? Like to just be irrelevant.

And ultimately, I think this is better because there's so many, like last week I was flying high, right? Like, I don't get that. The bills were the last. team to not make the playoffs in the 21st century. The bills made the playoffs in the 1999 season. Music City Miracle was in 2000. They didn't make the playoffs again until 2017. They were the last NFL team to not make the playoffs in the 21st century. Those years sucked. Those were awful years. And so ultimately I'll always take this, but to have someone as good as Josh Allen, to see him

crying up there and all that stuff, it's just, it's heartbreaking. And to know how much it means to the people of Buffalo who don't have much to cheer for. Sabres are doing well this year, but they're just such good, kind heart of people. It is, it's just very hard. It's really hard. And I was talking to a friend of mine yesterday at their house and they're like, sorry about the football game. They know nothing about football, don't care. And you feel like an idiot trying, like no one died. I get that. But it just means so much. My whole day was about that game. I get my Bruce Smith jersey on. I'm praying. I have my rituals. My whole day was about that game. My whole week was about that game. And it just felt like it was all going our way till it wasn't.

and it was self-inflicted. And our greatest nemesis is now just getting an open path into the Super Bowl. We won five AFCEs since Brady retired, and we didn't make the playoffs once. We were never the one seed. And ultimately, I think that's the greatest indictment on McDermott. Never the one seed, didn't get to the Super Bowl, AFCEs champions five times, thoroughly out-coaching the big games. I had to make the change.

All right. some more news and notes. We're talking about Connor McGregor. Let's talk about Connor McGregor. Yesterday, Conna McGregor was on a Roblox stream. What's going on over here? What's happening here? He's doing Roblox streams with the son?

What is going on? Is it like a... Do you guys think he's getting paid for this? Yeah, probably. My kids play Roblox. It's really just my daughter now. It's Roblox and Minecraft. Yeah. And he's now on the stream with his son, Connor Jr. Yep.

But he's dropped. Yeah. He's dropping nuggets on there. He's dropping news on there. Sure is. He's talking about the state of his contract. I alluded to this with Dustin. And actually, we didn't really talk about it last week, but I was really surprised when I asked Alex Wokinovsky last week. Like, why, how are they going to offset the paper viewpoints? What are they doing? How is this going to work? At that point, we're three weeks away from his fight. At this point, we're less than two weeks away. And he said essentially, like, I'm still waiting to hear. Remember all that talk when they announced the news in office?

August, the Paramount News like, hey, we got this. I can't wait to find out. What are the bonuses going to be? Is the entry, like, we're not hearing much. And trust me, I'm asking people, and they're not hearing much either. Anyway, here's Connor telling someone on the Roblox stream that in his opinion, his contract, which he has two fights left on, is null and void because they got rid of the pay-per-view and there's no more pay-per-view.

And so he is waiting to hear how they're going to fix it. Fascinating stuff. Take a listen. But I'm warming up now for the White House fights. Are you going to see the president? I'm going to be at it, yeah, for sure. What is that? The White House card is going to be.

We're going to go to negotiations with the ultimate fighting championship in February. And I'm pretty interested to go. They've actually got a new deal with Paramount. It's worth $7.7 billion. So the company is Forex as profit. And my contract essentially is void right now because there's no more pay-per-view. Whereas my contract was based on paper-view sales. I'm the highest-generating paper-few fighter of all time.

That's aura. The pay-per-view system is done. I'm due a new contract. So we're going to negotiations in February and I'm very interested to see how it goes. And what am I doing for it? I'm focusing on what I can control. I'm in the gym.

I'm living in the gym. Focusing on my health, focusing on my rest. Listen to my coaches, following the game plan. External noise is nonexistent to me. I don't absorb it. You know, you might be aware of it, but you don't let it seep in. Yeah.

My internal dialogue, dialogue strong. Here, you know, I'm showing the kids, shown my team What it takes, you've got to live it You've got to live and breathe it Can I tell you what I hate most about this new era that we're living in? Here's Connor Gregor dropping actual intel, right? Like actual information And he's dropped and he's actually like opening up

Like this is gold right here And all you hear in the background is Are you going to be the president? Also, that's aura That's aura The click clacking of the controller While someone's playing Roblox That's aura

Yo, huge W, bro. Oh, God. It's crazy. Like, you're getting these guys on these streams and these, like, 24-hour things, and they're dropping all this stuff, and the people involved have no idea what to do with it. They have no idea what to do with it. This is going to blow your mind, but I don't think that kid's, like, an interviewer. No, I know, but it's like, ah, these guys want to share this stuff.

They're talking. Like, okay, so what Connor is saying is actually very, very interesting. Is the contract null and void? Now, UFC definitely Who's to check? Yeah, yeah, we're gonna We're gonna sort this out, we're gonna sort this out Hope nobody ever asks and just move on Is the contract null-in-void?

I don't think it's non-in-voy but he does bring up a good point Ultimately they're gonna figure it out I suspect they'll figure it out But it's the first time I've heard someone Of his stature Obviously he's a non-champion but he He gets those points Because he was the biggest pay-per-view

Generator of all time say, nah, maybe it's not like, it's not as easy as just adding things, right? It's not just an addendum to the contract. We have to figure out this whole thing. I, do we,

it's the first time that we see a potential obstacle with getting him on that card. Because what if he's like, no, this doesn't make sense. Then they say, thank you for your service, Connor McGregor. 100%, yeah. move on to the next guy.

100%. John Jones, that bat phone's ready. Oh, John Jones, Alex Pereira. You guys really want a fight, huh? You're not asking about pay-per-view? All right. Done. But they did it off from 30 mil.

What Connor gonna get? His last fight was five years ago this July. Isn't that crazy? That is nuts. That is nuts. That doesn't feel like five years ago. Man. I'm curious to see what happens here.

He said that in that stream or another stream, which is crazy that we're getting this stuff of Roblox streams. What is this world that we live in now? He said that he was planning on speaking to them in February. So this is consistent with what Dana White has said. He said, let's get the Zufa boxing debut out of the way, the UFC, you know, relaunch out of the way.

And then in February, once those cards are over and all that stuff is rolling, we'll start to think about the White House card. And so, by the way, it's rapidly approaching. We're five months, less than five months away from that card. We're already up to the April pay-per-view. It's not that far away. There's an April, there's a May, and then there's a June.

Or whatever you want to call it. PLE. What are we calling it? Number to event. Number to the N.E. No, it doesn't work. If it had a third, it has to be something to replace PPV. Can't keep doing this.

It's almost like any time you talk to someone about Twitter, you're like Twitter, I mean X. It's hard to, you know. What is it these days? what is it called? You know, it's like there's always that thing going on. Yeah, I mean, that's a good example. People still call it Twitter, so let's just still call it pay-per-view. Okay, I'm cool with that. Connor McGregor, though, in between Roblox sessions, he apparently ran into Sean Penn in Ireland. Did you guys see this?

Listen, I'm we tripping? Or is Sean Penn driving an Irish bus, folks? That's Sean Penn, yeah? Shutty! Nah That's That's Sean Penn folks He's driving on a Irish bus Fair play, don't

The Woking Man's the rail here now, Shoney I'm not even going to actually go there Shoney Shoney! Shoney! Now, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, choy. Sonny!

Yep, yeah, boy, yeah, man. It's not Hollywood, but it's Ireland. Yup. Yeah, for a second I thought that music was playing in his car. Oh, no. I thought it was in the clip.

I think it's playing in the cars and not. No, that's the edit. Oh, damn, damn, damn, right. Um, The working man's out of here, Johnny. Yeah, yeah,

yeah, yeah, yeah. How bizarre, if you're that bus driver, if you're Sean Penn? You're like, what? How bizarre must it be if you either, A,

don't know Connor, to just be like, yo, what is that guy freaking out about? Or even weirder, do know Connor McGregor and like, why is Connor McGregor freaking out

while I'm driving this bus? Shout out to Sean Penn. Yeah, no, shout out. Yep, you boy. one of the all-time greats. Let's get some inspirational footage, shall we?

Here is the great Alex Pantosia, who has seemingly recovered fully from his shoulder injury. I'm just kidding. It wasn't a shoulder injury. It was an elbow. Look at this guy. Why do I feel like the Alex Pantosia, like montage of him doing the comeback

is going to hit real hard? Look at this. The guy's a freaking beast. That thing was completely displaced. He's looking kind of jack too. I wonder what they're going to do. There was some talk of Tyra versus Josh Van. Do they do that and have him fight the winner?

Do they go straight to Alex Pantosha? He looks great. Very happy to see that he avoided surgery and wishing him the best. Obviously wishing the best to Anthony Joshua. Great to see him do a little bit of training, move around, get out there, seemingly healthy, a little bare knuckle. Mitt hitting. I think he was in the UAE.

I saw him with Usbandar Magamatov. E.J. looking great as always. Can't imagine what life has been like, but he's looking fit, he's looking healthy. There he is. The beloved Anthony Joshua also saw him with Eddie Hearn. Eddie's saying, great to catch up with Anthony Joshua today. His resilience and strength is inspiring.

The loss is heavy, and he will take his time to get back. on track but said he was truly grateful for all the support and the love shown for Lats and Sinha. Those are his two friends who tragically passed away at the end of last year. Some good news if you are a Canelo Alvarez fan. Here he is with his advisor, Richard Schaefer, Turkey Al-Shake, Dr. Rakan of the Riyadhesei. They're over in Saudi Arabia and Canela Alvarez and Turkey announcing that he will be back in September, a Mexican Independence Day weekend, in a Mexico versus the World Card taking place in Saudi Arabia.

Take a listen. The Jam, wait for us in September, 12th September, big, big, big fight. And this will be the first card for Canello promotion. it will be name of Mexico against the world all the fighters from the team of Canelo against the world and the champion in the main event in world title and it will be surprised in Saudi Arabia in shah

okay thank you so there you have it world title interesting big card I saw some people opining that it's Chris Eubank Jr but that would not be a world title fight so let's see what they have up their sleeve. I thought it would have been a great PR move. You have Mexico versus the world. Canelo promotions, as he said, first card.

You do that in Mexico, you give back just like they did Connor Ben versus Chris Eubank over in London twice. But it sounds like they're going to be doing it in Riyadh. What about this IVB? Have you guys heard about this IVB? They came out gangbusters saying that they're hoping to draw 140,000 people from for a boxing event in San Francisco on July 11th. They made an announcement. I'm going to read this from the San Francisco Chronicle.

San Francisco will stage an attempt to break boxing's all-time record for attendance. At a match in July, Mayor Daniel Lurie and promotional company, I Visit Boxing, announced at Civic Center on Friday. They held a press conference for this. The event, a part of IVB's iconic series, scheduled for July 11th, will take place. at Civic Center Plaza in what promoters are calling the largest open air boxing event ever. The fight will be free to the public in hopes of drawing around 140,000 spectators who will also be streamed on YouTube. I've been poking around at this, and I don't know if it's going to be free to the public.

To be honest, I think it actually will, how do you recoup the money if it's free? Number one, it will be on YouTube pay-per-view, and I'm unclear as to whether or not they have a deal with YouTube, like the NFL has a deal with YouTube, or if they're just putting it on YouTube, like we put our thing on YouTube. Like, we put this show on YouTube. We don't have a deal with YouTube. Everyone could put something on YouTube. People put prelims. They put main cards. Logan Paul fought KSI on YouTube. That wasn't a YouTube deal per se. It's just you're picking that platform and, you know, you're charging a pay. I don't know. The fight card has yet to be announced, but a source told the chronicle that the promoters are targeting a headliner between

heavyweight's Alexander Usick and Deontay Wilder. IVB will be trying to break the record said in 1941 when Tony Zale fought Billy Prior in front of 135,000 and 132 spectators in Milwaukee, a number IVB CEO Ed Pereira cited several times on Friday. Usik Wilder would be the first heavyweight boxing match in San Francisco since Rocky Marciano knocked out Don Cockle at Kieser Stadium in 1955. This is fascinating stuff. They're coming out and announcing we're going to draw 140,000 people. We're going to do it in San Francisco.

Usually it's the fight that's the draw. So people aren't just going to turn up 140,000 of them to just see any boxing match. So you have to give people a reason to go there and watch this. I'm skeptical, to be honest, because I don't think boxing is that popular here in America. And I don't know, even if it's Usik versus Wilder. Do you guys think that Usik versus Wilder can draw 140,000? and people in San Francisco, they have no connection to San Francisco. If it truly was free, maybe there's an outside chance, but still probably not.

There's no local draw there. Like, if this was happening in Alabama, then I think a lot of people would watch Deonté Wilder fight, Ussick. If it was happening in Poland or Ukraine, I think a lot of people would watch Ussick. To be honest, if they happen in London, Ussk's very popular there as well. In San Francisco, they have no ties. And if you are giving it away for free, which I doubt, how are you going to recoup that money. What's this YouTube deal about? I saw a lot of people do interviews with Ed Pereira,

the founder of this IVB, and I felt like they were kind of not asking the right questions, to be honest. And so I'll tell you this. Tomorrow on the show, Ed Pereira is going to join us to talk about this more, because I'm fascinated by the story. Every outlet covered it. Everyone's talking about it. Here's the BBC, like major, they got major outlets to talk about this and report on it. But IVB coming out of nowhere, they say, according to the BBC, BBC, their plan is to stage 24 boxing cards across the next 12 months beginning in March and will announce its first show in early February. Let's see.

So he'll be on the show tomorrow to talk about this. That's Ed Pereira, the founder of IBB, which I'll be honest, was not familiar with before all of this because I don't think they've hosted anything yet. And I'm curious about these grandiose plans to draw 140,000 people in San Francisco of all. places. Not exactly a hotbed these days for boxing. There was that Devin Haney fight against Regis Pro Gray there a couple of years ago, but not a lot of big fights happening there these days. What about KSW over the weekend? We did have LFA on Friday on Vice. They had their debut. Look good. Anyone

tune in? Okay. We had LFA on Friday. We had KSW on Saturday. We had Octagon on Saturday as well. So if you were a fan of like a little bit of this, a little bit of that, you had plenty to get excited about over on the KSW card there was a fight involving Eric Rojeck and Shimon Bahor you know what I'm gonna my guy gave me yeah I screwed that up so my guy gave me a voice note I'm just gonna play the voice note how about that why wait and his upon Eric is Josek Jemone Bayer Beyer pretty close sort of anyway this fight happen at the Radome, or in Radome, Poland, excuse me, Bayer, one in OMPL, 1 in Risen, almost 40 professional MMA fights.

Eric Rojak, former glory fighter, beat Badrari by headkick knockout, switched to MMA. All his MMA fights have been under the KSW banner, trains with the likes of Alster Overeem. His lone loss was against the Great Phil DeFries. Eric's supporters, this is important, are also fans, aka Ultras, Hooligans, hoolies of the Legia Warsaw football team, one of the most successful teams in Poland.

And so Eric comes out to a song called San of Warsaw, an old famous song about Warsaw used by the Legia Warsaw fans before transitioning to his patent-in bazooka techno song. And it's an amazing. amazing scene. Take a look, take a listen to this because this is what, could we remember this in

11 to 12 months because this will be no doubt a contender for a walk out of the year. Okay, so we can't play all the music, but you can see the production value. This is some drone business right here, right? Like this in itself is cool. Okay, okay. Dron, drone, drone. Look at that arena, by the way I mean, these crowds are wild over in Eastern Europe. This is in Poland like I just said. They're droning it up.

This is cool in its own right. I like the fact that they use the drone to show like, yo, we're packing this arena out. Yo, speaking of packing, look at all these dues without shirts on. And first I think that they think that's the fighter. Then I think they think that's the fighter. There's a couple of, and they're like, okay, let's just reset.

We're going to go around. And now we've got the steady cam, as they say. Is this a Eddie? I don't know. Maybe it's the jib. It's on a jib probably. Yeah, yeah. Listen, I'm trying to get technical with you guys. And here he comes. Lads, lads, lads, lads, lads, lads, everyone's shirtless. Look at these dudes. And now here comes the fight.

Here's Wozscheck. With the knee, K.O. Beautiful stuff. Do you think those guys were plants, or do you think they all took their shirts off in unison? It was required to take a shirt off before you could get into the venue. I think on the chair, I probably had a sign that said, like, if you're going to be here, you must remove your shirt. You're looking skeptical of them over there.

Yeah, for sure. Would you, if you somehow bought tickets and you ended up in that section? And they're like, take off your shirt? Are you going like, you know what? Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I'm in there. Oh, my God. What a scene?

What are you doing? I'm fucking your role. You got to roll. I don't want to be with the ultras, with the hooligans wearing my shirt. I'm fucking doing that shit. I'm going, and then I'm putting it back on. I wonder if they sat like that for the entire cart, or do you think they took it off right before he walked out?

I have no idea about the staging of the shirtless dudes on the walkout. We'll never know. Can someone look into that for me? What about Nick Diaz? Nick Diaz, guys, he is appearing more and more stuff. I want to give a shout out to what's the name of the Yves? outlet. It's called Fight Back MMA? Yeah, Fight Back MMA, hosted by the very sane and normal Jake Shields. But he's getting some good content about his friend, keeping him relevant. Here's Nick Diaz and

Sean Strickland meeting up at Extreme Couture, a real meeting of the minds. Check it out. I live here. I live here. Call no shit, bro. You're on it more often. Crazy. I gotta get a rule with you dude. Fucking legend over here, guys, crazy. What are you fighting him? You fighting? That's never, 21st. That's fucking legend, guys, crazy.

Shit, how old are you now? I'm not that old, bro. I'm not that mask, bro. All these guys, hey, all these guys, the brothers, bro, every time, like, you talk to them, they're always, like, ready, like, to, like, they're always ready to scrap, like, I'm attacking you, bro. How old you? I don't know.

No, bro. Well, the more of the story is, dude, when I was a kid, I used to watch it, bro. I'd be in my fucking boxer shorts in the living room, watch you scrap, dog. He was like, yeah. Yeah, now it's dope, dude. Now I watch you.

Yeah, I appreciate it. You think Nick is enjoying this? I can't tell. Yeah, for sure. It's so weird. But he's getting the third degree from Sean Strickland. It's so weird that, like, at first it starts with, like, this love, and then he's like,

Yo man, chill out. But you could see Nick tensing up there. Yeah. I think Sean was very caught off guard by Nick not wanting to say his age. Oh, really? You think that was it? Yeah. When he's like, how old are you?

He's thinking Diaz is just going to be like, yeah, I'm 38, 39, whatever he is. And then when he doesn't, he's like, all right, let's explore this. And that's when Nick completely shuts down. What a guy. Speaking of Nick, he's teaching people grappling over there at the extreme, which is great. and he did a little breakdown of the JDM versus Islam fight, fascinating stuff. This is like currently what's happening. You watch this fight with Islam and the fucking Australian.

And the poor guy who's like, I don't have to start for him. Could he learn to get up, yeah? Yeah, I'm going to say like, damn. You know that South African guy. But I'm like, you didn't learn how to like, you know what I mean, go back and systematically understand why a black belt is putting, is passing your guard or? because you can't tell me I wouldn't pass the guard because if that was me I'm not fucking Islam

I'll pass your guard and tap you out you know Islam's not going to pass your guard and tap you out he's going to stay there and keep control from there but why are you being controlled from there that's the question let's be real like this guy who had zero losses

he did not fucking understand that and I had to watch this round for five fucking rounds title fight title fight against the two best fighters in the world okay I had to watch five fucking round and this guy didn't didn't execute like leverage no the knees the leverage to put the knee in you break that you systematically break that and then you put this arm under for three fucking rounds

I'll watch this guy not not understand that he has there you have it the legend nick dyes weighing in imagine he becomes like an actual coach at extreme couture that would be wild cornering fighters getting involved imparting his wisdom on the younger generation. I love it. And it's great to see him doing well and healthy and active in there. It's wonderful to see. So thank you to Fight Back MMA for that great footage. Great to see Darren Stewart in good spirits. He did post recently that he needed a new hip. I think he generated a GoFundMe account to generate some money. But then it seems like the UFC stepped in and helped him out. Here he is post-surgery. Thank you.

the UFC. Guys, I did it man. I did it. All that whining to you lot. I did it. I'm here now recovery. Are you seven? Having some rice and peas.

Kind of. We're imagining. It's only bread. But I'm saying thank you everyone. And again, big thank the UFC. Thank you. Could that know about you. done without you. Yeah, I'm

having done it Stuart, but if you saw me before the surgery, I was crying, I was Darren the Crybaby Stewart. It was mad, but... You've done it, baby, you've done it. We did it. And yeah, I'm just here recovering now. Once I get a bit better, I'm staying overnight, and I will go live. But for now, man, I'm going to say, again, thank you to USC, man. Thank you to my friend and we do a girl for me.

friend them would be a go-fum me page thank you for donations and uh just thank you man pure thank you until i recover pure thank you so there you have it darren stewer wishing him a speedy recovery and uh great to see credit words do it's great to see uh he spoke up he got help and hopefully more things like that can happen because there is a toll and there is a toll and there is a reality after fighting that a lot of these fighters are being faced with. Another bit of news, Muhammad Usman, testing positive. And let me get the actual details, as they say in the business. Maybe, did I not get a press release for this? He used to get him. You never sent one. He was issued a doping suspension by the Drug-Free Sport International.

They've yet to catch like a really big name, which is interesting. Oh, here's the statement on the UFC's website. Combat Sports Anti-Doping announced today that Mohamed Usman of Coral Springs, Florida has accepted a two-year and six-month period of ineligibility for violations of the UFC anti-doping policy. He tested positive for the presence of testosterone. and prohibited at all time substance in the class of anabolic agents at a competition sample collected on September 8th, 2025. He was removed from his schedule about in Rio in October due to the positive test.

Usman ultimately admitted to CSAD of the use of testosterone leading up to the Rio event as well as the previous use of testosterone and the prohibited at all times peptide, B-P.P. C-157 earlier in 2025. While Usman ultimately took responsibility for the above details, he did not do so in a timely fashion and not until C-S-A-D confronted him with the evidence that they had

independently collected during a detailed investigation anyway, he went on social media and he reacted to this. I wanted to address my suspension. During my recovery, I made a mistake while trying to heal and I take full responsibility for it. this time has allowed me to get my health back,

focus on my family, and gain a deeper appreciation for life. I have breath in my lungs, life, and I'm truly blessed. I'm taking things one day at a time, and staying committed to growth and doing things the right way. I'm grateful to the UFC Rashad, Ali, and Brian,

and all my coaches for their continued support, we move forward. So there you have it. Muhammad Usman out for about two years. Some fight news, some fight news, my friends, before we wrap this bad boy up. up the UFC announcing that on March 14th, the blazing hot Kevin Vacheos, did I get that right? Vaheos.

Why do I get this? Vachshahos. Thank you, Frank. We'll be going up against Josh Emmett, so he doesn't get the Cub Swanson fight, but this feels like a very nice sort of litmus test fight for young Kevin. And oh, by the way, Josh has been in this position before, right? Like it feels like he's often put in this position. we all remember the Iliot Toporia fight not that long ago. He's been in this position before you get, I don't want to call him a gatekeeper.

I don't like that term. I call it litmus test. It's a litmus test fight. It's going down at the apex. And I think this is an appropriate fight for Kevin. I like it. I like it a lot. He even tweeted about it, kind of laughing at people's reactions.

Me, we want 42-year-old legend Cub Swanson. Fans and journalists. RR. UFC. Here is 41-year-old legend Josh Emmett. Me, happy. He's kind of right, although one's a lot more active

than the others, right? A slew of March 28th fights have been announced. That's for the Seattle Washington card, headline by Israel Desaenae versus B. Joe Pfeiffer. They're all very fun. In the heavyweight division, we have Marcyne Taibura

going up against Walter Walker, number 10 versus number 14. I thought we're going to get rid of the rankings or fixed them. It doesn't seem like that's happening. Thought maybe New Era that might happen. Anyway, that's a fun one for Walter, who's on that heel-hook run. We have Casey O'Neill returning.

King Casey is back. Long overdue, one of our favorites, the legend. Going up against Gabriella Fernandez, loved this fight for her. Mansour Abdul Malik, back as well against Yusri Belgarui. Mansoor of Dill Malik, one of the names that I thought would be a prospect of the year, a breakout fight of the year, contender, and the pride of Seattle, the pride of Washington, the one and only Michael Kiesa. In a potential retirement fight back home, who knows, against Carlston Harris. So I like that. I like that very much.

A nice four pack of fights added to that March 28th card at the Climate Pledge Arena, home of the Seattle Cres. And also I did see that Gable Stevenson has his next fight. Gable Stiefsen is returning to action on the 19th of February for Mexico Fight League. I saw them report that the rising stud and in perhaps his last fight before going to the UFC. It's always fun when you get these early fights like D.C. did a whole bunch of them all over the world. I remember that one that he did over in Australia. He talked about falling asleep in the locker room. Gable fighting on Mexico Fight League 3.

He's taking on Budo Cento, a heavyweight champion, Hugo Lezama, on the 19th of February. And them's all the news, my friend. My friends, we went through a litany of news, and I hope you feel caught up. I like doing that on Mondays. And shout out to the team for compiling everything. Shout out to Saladin Parnas as well. I had a big win over in KSW this past weekend. And he appears to be someone who I can see getting an opportunity in the UFC,

or at least the UFC being very excited and interested. And I know they have been flirting in the past, but he is a very, very good fighter fighting over in KSW. Do we have, Frankie, any super chat? Superchats. Set in for the bills. Humble and Hungry, happy 14. Wow, wow, wow.

Okay, so, 014 is months. humble and hungry seems to be a bit of a shot at Coach McDermott who will always have a lot of love for tremendous nine seasons but yes you are right very sad very sad very sad very sad very sad did I mention that I won't be watching any football until September or so maybe August and preseason but I'm not I can't even watch tonight can't even watch tonight it hurts too bad

you guys gonna watch the national championship I know GC will sure can't do it can't do it I wish I could One of the greatest stories in the history of sport. I know, I know. I can't do it. I can't do it. It hurts too much. Can I say it hurts?

I don't want to say it hurts to see other people happy. But that's what it means. I don't want anyone to be happy right now. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I don't mean like. I remember Frank said like his usual like, Wahoo or something.

Whatever corny thing he says in the text. And then you're like, no, you're too happy right now, Frank. I said it's not time for that. Well, it was also, what I was saying didn't even deserve a woo-hoo. What was it? Do you want any acknowledgement when you send messages? No, I like the acknowledgments. Okay, so that's all that was, was an acknowledgement.

It felt a little, it felt like, we're still in mourning. How long is the morning period, though? It's at least a week. A week? All right. Yeah, it's at least the week. One second, I just want to confirm what he was saying, you who to. KSW stuff.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was excited. Yeah. Bad Bunny was going to do it. Josh was going to come out. gonna be great. It was gonna be great. Anyway, and what else, Frankie?

What else? Drake May greater than Alan, Pat's all the way. You had to read that one for two bucks. This fucking loser paid two dollars to have you say that Drake May is better than Alan, which is an awful take. Like, no sane-minded person actually believes this.

And you know, can I just say something about Drake May? He actually seems like a really good guy. You know, his wife does the baking. She does the baking, right? Everyone's talking about her baking on... A big baker. Yeah. he seems like a nice guy

I don't want to hate on the guy but no I I I'm salty what do you want me to do I'm salty I'm salty giving you the I'm letting you off the leash he's free reign hate on him it's so annoying it's so

it's how do you they got the chargers all right this guy doesn't have a hand freaking Herbert it's not even that good of a quarterback for being 100% honor okay now you're going too far he doesn't have a hand

and then they get the freaking Texans. CJ Stratt doesn't know to throw the football anymore all of a sudden got high off his own supply Mark for his own gimmick and now they're getting

Jared Stidham Our only hope are the Rams After having the most Cupcake schedule in NFL history Our only hope are the Rams Seahawks You really think the Seahawks could do it? Yeah

I think the Seahawks are better than the Rams They're the best team remaining You think Sam Donald could do it? Absolutely You're getting too caught up in the names man he had an unbelievable season The Vikings last year took them to the playoffs and now he's done the same with the Seahawks.

The Seahawks are the best team left. They're fucking nasty. I'm not a Scheidenfreude kind of guy or whatever, it's Schadenfreude. But like, it can't. You agree with me, right guys? You agree with me. The name is messing with you. The starting career.

No, no, no. You agree that it's just the Pact should not be able to do this. How do they keep getting away with it? But you agree that Drake May cannot make it to the Super Bowl, or at least win a Super Bowl before Josh Allen, right? Do we agree on that? Yes, they were asked, they get a new coach, they draft a quarterback, it's a success story,

and now they're on the verge of going to another Super Bowl. It's just, it's horrible. It's actually driving me crazy. If it was like Jags versus Texan, and I'd be like, yeah, whatever. But this makes it all that much worse. We're in shambles now. You're putting them in a Super Bowl that they're not in yet. Let's slow the horses down.

Don't sleep on Stenham, bro. Auburn legend. Auburn legend. I love you, sitem. I'll do anything for you. I'll put you up here. I'll do anything for you. Please Save us. You went from rooting

against to now rooting for. You know, that's the worst thing because I'm usually the type of guy that holds the grudge. You be my team, I want the worst for you. Now, I'm bronchowing it up. You get to team up with Chuck at least now, though. Instead of being on the opposite side, you get to... I know, I know, but I kind of But you're not going to watch anyway, so it doesn't... I'm not going to watch.

I'm not going to watch. What I say about Jared Stittam? Tell me. Gunslinger. Does he have the... Does he have the Cajonis? By the way, by the way, he's a former patriot, right? So this is a bit of a revenge game for him. Don't sleep. Don't sleep on Stidham, baby.

What a story that would be. This guy would be on. He's been waiting. He's been standing by. Also, can I just say as well? It kind of annoys me that like if that scenario plays out, they're going to make the Super Bowl. Why?

You want to really, what's your issue with the Broncos part? I don't like the Broncos. We smoked them last year in the playoffs. They're not a good team. They're fraud. They're not a real number one seed. I was with you on all the Patriots hate.

This is where he lost my turn. I'm down with the Seahawks. My very good friend, Jason Takerman's a diehard Seahawks fan. They'll be great. They're going to win. I'll be happy for them. I don't want the Rams either. They all suck.

Seahawks are going to win, really? I guess Cial's all right. Although they annoyed me against the Js. Who would you be okay with? The Buffalo Bills! That's who I'll be okay with. Well, that ain't happening. Not this year.

Jared Stidham. Career stats. 1400 yards. 8 TDs, eight picks. Hell yeah. He sounds like a competent. How's that? Is that good? Is that bad? I can't tell. No, that's ass.

Okay. No, come on. Game manager. He's good. 1,400 yards, 8 touchdowns, and 8 picks. Yeah, it's not good. What's the last time you played? It looks like the last time he threw an NFL pass was 2023. 2020? Yeah, zero attempts in 2024 and 2025. He's taking reps and practice, I'll tell you that.

All I'm saying is... This is your home... John Payton. It was a bit of a smirk on that face when he was like, You know? Stidham's going to have to step up. Yeah, let me tell you, I know something.

Champagne got out-coached by the now-fired Sean McDermott, all right? My parting words. Yes. Don't sleep on Stidham. I thought it was going to be gunslinger, period. Well, you beat me to punch, you can't see me. I had my hand about to drop. Gunslinger.

If only we had pizza here to weigh in on this. Let the man rip on Sunday. You think so? He's just going to go out there, like the old gunslinger, like an old... It's going one or two ways. He's either throwing it. for 3.50 and 4 touchdowns and the Broncos are going to the promised land, or he's going to throw for 87 yards and three interceptions.

That's what's going to happen. There's no in between on how it goes for him. God, what a nightmare. What an absolute nightmare. I'm down with the Seahawks. Give me Darnold, baby. Sure, whatever. Just end it. Can we just end it? I'm seeing ghosts out there. Ghost of what? Isn't that Donald? In his jet stays?

Oh, God. Oh, that's right. Against the Pats. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then he had monos. seen ghosts out there. Shout out to the mono, man. Patriots on verge of the Super Bowl. The bills and shambles.

Bro, let me tell you something. New rule, new rule. If you're paying $2 to roast me, you don't make the cut, Frank, all right? You don't make the cut. That's a new rule. You got to at least pay $10 to roast me. They give you the $2.

No. You can't. No. What is next? Washington counts. What is next? 99 cents. They're going to tell me that my team sucks that we'll never win.

And we'll thank them kindly for the 90s. Swedish crone. No. I swear to God, if there's another one like that, I'm gonna break this fucking computer over your head. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. Wait, who's head? No, no, that guy's head.

I know that guy 24-inch dubs. He's a punk. He's a loyal listener. Yeah, yeah. And we appreciate you, too. Go to the other stream, bro. We don't want you here. You know that one?

Out. Doing the Dana White? No, I'm doing this one. Who does that? There's a meme where the guy goes, who does that? I don't know that meme. James Tehuno?

No. I've had that one in the holster where the guy's pointing and goes, N-k-s-se's been sitting on it. God. And you know how happy Dane is. He's dying to text me right now. He's just dying to rub it in. That's fucking illegal.

Yeah, it is illegal. I bet you're cheating. I bet all of you are cheating. What else, Frankie? What else? Spending my birthday trimming and listening to the show live. What's everyone's go-to birthday dinner? Okay, well, happy birthday to you, January 19th.

Can I tell you... I'm just... losing it right now, but can I just be honest? Can I break the fourth wall? Is it inappropriate to say that I heard birthday and trimming in the same thing and I was thinking of something else? I don't get the birthday part. I don't know what you were thinking. Yeah, birthday trimming. Yeah, birthday suit. Oh, yeah, okay. Well, when you were doing the candles with Dustin, you're like, come on, come on, let's blow it together. Come on, let's blow it this thing. Frank already has a clip. Hey, hit that drop. Is it bad juju if I blow it? Virtually blow it. Virtually blow it for.

me. Come on, Dustin. Go ahead. Come on. No, you blow first. Birthday dinner? I don't know. You go out with your family. I'm big on one thing for birth. I'm not a big. I like celebrating other people's birthday. I don't like, but I'm big on one thing for yourself. I do think everyone should blow out a candle on their birthday. Yeah. I don't know why, but there should be some sort of like, I don't like, I don't like, no, I don't do it. No, it's your day, you know? Is it the significance of the candy?

Can't? Like, why that? I just think everyone should end their birthday or have at some moment a moment where you're like, thankful, grateful, maybe a hope for the future, whatever it is, that ritual. Got it. I like that ritual. I like that ritual. My go-to-birthday dinner is Wegman's next door. Hell yeah.

Shout out. What else, Frankie? What else? Sad to see Jai leave. I hope I could still watch us fights on DeZone. God willing, he will become a disputed and move up to the heavyweight. Why did you put the emphasis on he? Why did you skip the last name?

Yeah. Because it skipped screens. Come on, guys. Oh, yeah. Well, shout out to Sammy. I have bad news for Sammy. I don't think you'll be seeing him on DeZone. Now that he struck this deal, you'll probably be seeing him on Paramount Plus, which is great, which is great.

It's a bigger platform, that's for sure. But I don't know. Where does Sammy live? He lives somewhere overseas. He's in Sweden. Yeah. So I don't know if they have it there. Got out Sammy.

Anyway, he is tremendous. Not a prospect. And I'm curious how he's going to become undisputed or unified, fighting for the Zufa belt. But let's see, it's a very, very interesting time. What else, Frankie? What else? Ariel, any update on having Longneck in studio? Hmm. Who is Longneck again?

That's what he goes by Longneck. Who's that? He's like a social media guy. Oh, did we talk about this already? He's a longneck. I don't know. I don't think so. Daddy Longneck?

I don't know. You know who this is? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh. He's just a super scrawny kid with a really long neck. Okay, so when you write the super chat as like any update, that sounds like it's something that's been in the works. I think they asked in another super chat previously. Got it, got it, got it.

No, no update, no update at the moment. No update at the moment. What else, Frankie? What else? With Kate Scott on the UFC now, how do you think, who do you think are the MMA personality equivalence of Henry, Jamie, and Big Meets? So he's talking about Thierry-Henri, Jamie Carragher and Micah Richards. That's the studio team for the Champions League coverage on Paramount Plus. Well, I'm not quite sure if Bisping, Cruz, and Wydenman are the same.

I mean, D.C. is kind of Micah Richards-esque. I would say maybe Bisping would be Carragor-esque. But Carragher, like, is known to kind of shoot and will be very critical, even of Liverpool. Bispings, you know, you know, he's a bit of a BLB these days. He's like the opposite of a shooter. It just reminded me of that clip after being the Jags where Josh said shooters shoot. Anyway, Dominic Cruz is good though. He's a little terrierie-esque. I've never seen that trio together on a fight night. So who knows? There's a whole bunch of guys. I'm just curious to see how she does, how she, you know, you got to distribute, you got to be a point guard. You You know, it's a very, very, very tough job,

especially when it's not your forte, but I have no doubt. She is a true, true pro, and I'm curious to see how she does. What else, Frankie? What else? Armand is the king of side quest. My dad doesn't watch UFC but knows who he is because he hangs out with a YouTuber who gambles on slots. Okay, can I tell you this? Can I tell you this, guys? I swear, my kids know nothing about the UFC.

Like, they may know who Alex Pereira and Connor and Paul Cost is because they were here that day. Okay? My son, Walter, who's 11, says, I've been seeing a lot of Armand Sarukian lately. I was like, wow, it got to you. And I said, who did you see him with? He said he saw him with Aden Ross, and he said he saw him with, oh, neon. You know that he did like a whole thing with neon?

I was like, wow. So this is really working. For that age demo, yeah, 100%. Wow. There's an artist on Instagram named Deem Archive. It has nothing to do with any. fighting has 1.8 million followers and yesterday he like posted one of his illustrations and it's arm and sirukian in it for out of nowhere I have no idea why he's in it and it got

240,000 like he's become like a cult like figure in the sport how do you deny that guy title shot I'm not saying for Saturday but like how does he not you know we get in the war room these are the fights that people want if you don't like it go fuck yourself amen that's how well said it's well said what else Frankie what else did you see that Brendan Shab agreed with your take about Usman knowing exactly what he was doing with Joshua on that call? You should have Big Brown on soon.

I think you two would get along great these days. What's all the chatter back then? They forget. Oh, I did not see that. I have no animosity towards Brendan. We had our thing. I'm not holding on to grudges. I think that's silly.

Do you guys think we should have Brandon Shab on? I'm not trying to make this into like, I mean, he could say no, but I haven't really thought of that to be honest. But I have seen his stuff lately pop up and I do think he's doing a good job and he's, I feel like he's very consistent and he's, you know, he's well researched and on point these days. So I don't know. If the audience is interested, I'm happy to reach out. I'm not holding any grudge. I like to have people on the program that can offer things that are, you know, well researched that are, you know, in the know.

and I think that he is that and I think that he has kind of like steadied the ship so to speak so I'm not against it should I put it in the chat I think we know the answer to do this put on Reddit chat what do you say

P of Chang's on the birthday yeah Frank it's very 2021 of you all right we've all moved on we've all moved on I mean the freaking And what was he? The wartime CEO?

He's like, he's like full on chill now, a guy. I mean, he's like, oh, geez. I mean,

these days are completely different. I think you were the wartime season, by the way. So what was, what was, he was the CEO? He was just a CEO. I mean,

he's like, he's full on. I mean, it's a good opportunity, but like, let's, like, I mean,

2021 version. What is he saying about this? So how do you like fit all that stuff into one day? I mean, it's just, it's just so unbelievable. But what else, Frankie? What else?

Thoughts on virtual Ortiz suing Golden Boy? Wow, what a story this is. This is an incredible story. I mean, Oscar's really dropping the ball on this one, and I had heard that DeZone is like, if you don't get this fight done,

if you don't get it over the line, and I'm talking about the Boots-Ortiz fight, we're moving on from you. And if that's the case, holy crap, that's a lot of pressure to make a fight. And I kind of feel like they need to figure this out. So, Golden Boy,

doesn't have a TV deal. Top rank doesn't have a TV deal. What the hell has happened to American boxing? I mean, the only ones right now that have a TV deal are Zufa boxing, of course. We'll see how many of it will be on linear. MVP's out there. Is MVP the number two American promotion in the sport? Top break hasn't had a show since mid-July. How is that possible? It really is crazy. It's wild. It's madness. Did you guys happen to see the TNA AMC debut? I did not. Anyone locked in? I noticed I asked the group and no one responded. I didn't even remember you asking. That's how not locked in on TNA. It was not good. It wasn't good. It was actually like universally crapped on. What was not good about it? There was a lot of talking, not a lot of wrestling.

There were some vignettes. They brought out some like maybe C to D list celebrities. celebrities. Who are we talking? Perez Hilton. Holy shit. That's not real. You didn't actually just say Perez Hilton. Perez Hilton was like in a thing.

Yeah, he was in a thing. Oh, man. That's crazy, right? Some AMC celebs. It was a couple of surprises. AJ Stiles opened the show, which surprised. Wait, what? Yeah.

He's not with WWE anymore? No, he is, but he's a TNA. He's like probably the most famous person to graduate from there. Oh, he didn't wrestle. He just presented. Open the show and what he said was like, I'm not going to be here for long. I'm not going to talk for long because we've got some wrestling to get to.

And there were only three matches on the broadcast. So everyone was like there wasn't a lot of wrestling. That's cool though. Fans had to like that, no. But they were like, you're opening the show with a guy who's not even on your roster. Yeah.

You know, like everyone was tuning in for the beginning. I don't know what the ratings were, but like that guy's not even a part of your thing. He's a WWE promo basically, yeah. You know what I mean? He's a WVW. Guy.

Yeah. A couple of previous guests on our show, Sonia DeVille Daria showed up Elena Black showed up but no one really liked it no one really liked it everyone actually kind of

the reality is they'll get three months beyond this and everything will be like the big everybody wants to make that big splash but like three months from now they'll be in their heart of their schedule and they'll just keep trucking and everything will be fine

as long as they keep the quality of the product up what else Frankie what else any legal minds on your radar to come on to explain some of the recent news, UFC contracts, Ali Act Status, Dana's February 4th, scheduled testimony, etc. It's not a bad shout. Are there any legal, I mean, Eric McGracken has been on, and he's a lawyer in Vancouver. Do you guys want that?

I'm open to all fun guests who are knowledgeable who can add to the program. So let's see. It's not a bad shout. What else, Frankie? What else? When the number one unbiased combat sports outlet hits five hundred, 100,000 subs. Will you grow your hair out for six months? Could be the lucky charm your team needs. Worst case, New York, Rick, Barber comes to clean it up after. Let me tell you something.

If I go like nine days without a haircut, I feel like my head is on fire. Like, I feel like it's so thick on my head. So six months sounds like a nightmare. There was a period when I was in school, I went a year and a half without a haircut. And I don't know how that was more because I was sort of like finding myself, you know? Um, you. Nevertheless, nevertheless, I don't think I can do that. And if it really comes down to me getting a haircut, I'm not really sure that I can, I'm not really sure I can actually do it. If someone told me right now, like, don't cut your hair for six months,

and I guarantee the bills will win the Super Bowl, okay, yeah, fine, I would do it. But I don't think that it will matter. So what's the point? What else, Frankie? What else? You think Charles will stand and bang against Max? Hmm. Yes.

Two degree yes. I think he is who he is at this point. I mean, obviously he, you know, he played with fire. It wasn't a very fast fight against Ilya, but I think that's just kind of the fighter that he is, obviously great jiu-jitsu, and I can see him trying about Max as good jihitsu as well, but I can see this being, I think there's sort of a mentality when you're fighting for the BMF that, like, you have to fight a certain way.

So that would be my guess, yes, that would be my guess. What else, Frankie? What else? And then lastly, Ariel, another year, another heartbreaking loss. This one was worse for me as my ankle is broken. I truly thought this was the year, but also the NFL slash football gods didn't want it to happen. McDermott being fired had to happen, and Bean has to nail the draft and free agency. Okay, keep that up for a second. So first of all, shout out to Jason.

Hopefully he's doing better and making a speedy recovery. And I feel you're paying my man. I broke my ankle in 04, and it was tough. But you will get back on your feet, no doubt. Bean staying on and getting promoted is a shock. to me. I'm not going to lie, because I do think that he failed in his quest to put the right pieces around Josh and was kind of smug about it. At the beginning of the year, I heard when he was on WGR, which has been much, I mean, it's been incredible. WGR is the local Buffalo Bills radio station.

I listen to it all the time, and this morning was like, must listen as they were reacting to it all. And he was kind of smug about the wide receivers. And look how that panned out. I do believe that some of those mistakes that are being blamed on Josh Allen are not mistakes if he has top-tier receivers at his disposal. Like what about what about the Seahawks that dude, uh, Shahid, Rashid Shahid, is that his name? Who took it to the house? Like that guy, they got him at the, at the deadline. Like, well, we couldn't get anyone. Couldn't get a single weapon for him? Anyway, your lips to God's ears will be all right. As long as we got this guy. As long as we have number 17, I don't care what anyone says.

And you know what? I love the fact that people are trying to blame this on him and pin this on him. I love that. He's going to come out like a demon next year. New stadium. We'll exercise all the demons. And then we'll heal every broken heart on the 14th of February, 2027. We'll take the show out there. Bills make the Super Bowl.

I want to take the show out there. I want to do Radio Row. I've never been to a Super Bowl in my life. Has to be. It must be. And what else, Frankie? That's it, my man. Yeah.

Tomorrow on the program, Ed Pereira of IVB boxing. A Tiba Gautier, who is fighting on the card on Saturday, UFC 324, so we're covering it from all angles for you. We'll be on the card. Rose Nomi Yunus

will be on the card. Big fight for her against Natalia Silva. Looking forward to that one very much. And Rose, I think Rose might be like the longest tenured fighter on that card. Isn't that incredible? Time goes fast, so slowly. And the great Dominic Cruz, who I just mentioned, who's one of the best analysts in the game, who I've enjoyed talking to very much over the years.

Actually, the anniversary of his win over T.J. Dill Show was just a couple of days ago. He's going to be a part of the broadcast. And he has a new podcast out as well. where he's interviewing previous opponents and just other minds in the sport, the likes of Herb Dean, Uriah Fabor, T.J. Dillusha, I think he talked about doing it with Cody Garbrand as well.

He will join us. So a nice four pack of guests. Looking forward to that. On the nose this week will be on Wednesday. So stay tuned for that, working on that program. Tell you more about that as well. Are the Knicks winning yet?

Or actually, I think they're playing at five, right? On Air Jordan. Nick's Maverick. We've got to get going. Okay, we've got to get going. Yep. minutes away, thunder beating the calves, tremendous, tremendous, tremendous. No, you know, no, I mean, calves are actually doing pretty well now, right?

They're evening out a little bit. Yeah. The East is all bunched up. You think I'll see you guys tomorrow? What do you mean by that? Like, your actual face. Oh, visually to check. Yeah. No, I like this better. Yeah. Because like you can really be doing anything right now, right? We are. We're doing anything and everything. All right. Frankie, you know what? I can't even press that. Look at the skyline, by the way. There's no smile. It's looking nice.

Yeah, it is looking nice. You know what? Almost 5 o'clock and we're still bright out. Well, not bright, but, you know, a little bit of light. Brighter. Brighter. Ah, yes. What a time.

What a time. Hi, I'm too. Frankie, I did want to ask, how is your lovely wife doing? She is a proud product of the 716. How is she handling the loss? Better than I? She's pretty upset. She was really upset with Tony Romo.

Oh, don't get me started on that time. Oh, I don't know, Jim. What do you think, Frank? Everyone's morning. You know, at home, there's morning. I come here, there's morning. It's just a lot of morning, right? Yeah.

Did you help her feel better? Did you, like, I don't know, rubber. She made a really good chicken wing good. That was before. Yeah. Yeah. There's really no consoling her at this point. just so consoling you. I just have to wait it out next season.

Yeah. It's good. Frank, did you make her feel better? Yeah, she made dip. Good. Very good. What are the people saying back home, Frankie? Are they all very sad as well? Yeah, it's kind of gotten to the point where they just don't talk about it. Right. Because it's, what do you say? Yeah. Oh, I see my friend Travis Clayton has been signed. That's fine 12. Okay. Well, anyway, that's, that's, that's, That's it for the NFL talk, so your dreams have been realized, your prayers have been answered.

Thank you very much, Justin Porier, Jorge Mazvedel, Mazvedel, Waldo Cortez Acosta, and Habier Torres. Thanks to all of you. Thanks to all of them. Happy MLK Junior Day. Back tomorrow, say, time.