The Ariel Helwani Show - Eddie Hearn, Rich Franklin, Aleksandre Topuria, Megan Anderson, On The Nose, more

Episode Date: February 12, 2025

Ariel Helwani answers all your latest On The Nose questions about Dana White's stance on free speech, whether UFC fans being priced out at live events,  romantic gestures for Valentine's Day, and more (08:16).UFC analyst Megan Anderson discusses Eric Nicksick's viral comments about Sean Strickland, Zhang Weili's win over Tatiana Suarez, Manon Fiorot potentially getting skipped in favor of a Valentina Shevchenko superfight and more (33:37).UFC legend and ONE Championship executive Rich Franklin discusses the latest ONE news, his MMA legacy, whether he'd entertain a comeback with GFL, getting grounded knees to the head legalized in North America and more (01:02:28).Matchroom's Eddie Hearn discusses Anthony Joshua's next move, Jake Paul's drama with Canelo Alvarez, the upcoming Feb. 22 super-card, whether Tank Davis vs. Shakur Stevenson happens in 2025 and more (01:33:46).Aleksandre Topuria discusses his successful UFC 312 debut, what it's like being the brother of UFC champion Ilia Topuria, his MMA journey, whether GC actually looks like Guram and more (02:08:28).Ariel picks back up with all your On The Nose questions about whether Jon Jones vs. Tom Aspinall will happen, the ongoing Drake and Kendrick Lamar feud, fights thats belong in the UFC Hall of Fame, the lightweight GOAT,  and more (02:36:02).

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Erya Hawaii Show! Back in your life on this Wednesday, February 12, 2000. And 24, hello again everyone. I sure hope you're doing well. It is great to be here on a pretty cold Wednesday in New York City. A wet Wednesday, if I'm being honest. There was a bit of a, I don't want to say a snowstorm, but it was quite a lot for a few hours last night. And then you get to the city and it's just slushy and wet and dreary but uh some people like this sort of thing like my wife grew up skiing and enjoying the winter activities i say you know get me to 95 degree weather get me to 95 degree weather all year round 365 i'm in a

delightful mood and in fact studio, we have finally figured it out. I don't know what's been done, but Aljo needs to come back because it is toasty in here. So toasty. I'm sweating already and I love it. I love everything about it. I feel like I'm on a beach in Saint-Tropez.

Have you ever been to Saint-Tropez, Frank? I haven't. Yeah, it's fantastic. It feels nice in there though, huh? Yeah. Does it still feel like last year? Because when you gave the announcement for the show, he said it was 2024, and I'm just a little confused. What did I say at the beginning of the show? 2024.

Fucking hell. Did I say 2024? Yeah, I didn't believe it, and I went and listened to it again. I'm like, hey, you know what? Like two minutes ago. It's only February, yeah. Wow. Old habits die hard. Why didn't you tell me? Should I have done it right then and there?

You were waiting to dunk on me? No, it's not a dunk, man. I just want to make sure you're feeling all right. I felt like you were waiting to dunk on me. You had it ready to go. You had the freaking graphic ready to go. There I am, feeling good. Nice intro, good energy. Let's keep up the energy. Can we re-rack it?

We can. All right. Well, we have, and I'm not going to, we have a great show. Another great show. It's been a fantastic week here on the program. Monday was great. Post-pay-per-view Monday. Yesterday was phenomenal.

Tremendous stuff from Eric Nixick and KSI, among others. Today, another Super Stack lineup. And we love Wednesdays around these parts. Why? Because we get to answer questions. I took a little peek at the questions. Very good ones. Very, very interesting ones. And juicy ones as well.

Like a big fat hamburger. Now, back into the show, we shall answer those questions. We'll also do that front end of the show and the place to send all these questions, arielhawani.substack.com. That is the place. Prior to the back end questions,

we'll be joined by Alexandre Topuria. Yes, the older brother of one Ilya Topuria. You may have heard of him. He was victorious in his UFC debut this past Saturday night in Sydney. It was a unique one because he doesn't have as many fights as Ilya.

He's the older brother, but there he is with the famous last name, and he's fighting a guy named Colby Thickness. What a name, by the way. One of the all-time great names in the history of the sport who was being cornered by Alex Volkanovsky. So there's Volk in Colby's corner, and there's Ilya in Alexandre's corner, and there was all kinds of drama. But in the end, great fight. He wins the fight. He's now won and owned the UFC, and he's able to go well on his way. And it's a phenomenal story because, like I said, he hasn't fought as much as Ilya, and in fact was supposed to make his debut last year, around this time, February of last year, and said, no, once he found out that his brother was going to be fighting for the belt, he said, no, I want to delay things. I want to focus on my brother, my younger brother. Amazing stuff. So I'm looking forward to talking to him. He'll

join us at about three o'clock at 2.30. Eddie Hearn is going to join us. He has a big, big weekend coming up in Manchester. Jack Catterall against Arnold Barbosa Jr. for the interim WBO lightweight title. It might become the actual title. And these things are weird in boxing. The titles are a bit of a mess. They make these mandatories. They strip this guy. They make this interim fight.

Then the guy who's the interim champion then becomes the actual champion. It's all very confusing. If there was a way to clean it all up and funnel it, it'll never happen. There's all these different sanctioning bodies and they all want their fights and there's the fees and all this stuff. So it's probably a little too late.

But Turkey is doing his part and I can see a day where he tries to make the ring title as the official belt, if you will. So let's see. In any event, it doesn't take away from the fact that it's a phenomenal fight going down at the Co-op Live. And there's a lot going on in the world of boxing, of course. So we'll hit him with a ton of different questions from around the world of the sweet science. Prior to that, we're going to be joined by an executive over at One Championship. You may have heard of him, Rich Ace Franklin, one of the all-time greats, a former UFC middleweight

champion. In fact, on Saturday or Sunday, Drikus Duplessis, the current UFC middleweight champion, tied Rich Franklin for most wins in UFC middleweight title fights. I believe that was his, well, that would be one, two, three. Maybe there's one more, or perhaps I'm screwing that up now. Now that I think about it, it doesn't really make sense if I'm being 100% honest with you. Just looking at my notes here. Drikus Duplessis leveled Rich Franklin for most UFC middleweight title victories. Both are joined fourth with three.

Okay, yeah, so that was his third. They're tied for four. Excuse me. So I did kind of get it right. In any event, a lot going on in the world of One Championship, and it's been a while since I talked to Rich Franklin. Again, one of the all-time greats. This felt like a great great week and they've got some big things going on over at one championship so we'll check in with the ace man himself the former math teacher turned ufc champion and in about 24 minutes time we'll be joined by the great megan anderson who of course was once a UFC title contender, who was once an Invicta FC champion,

who actually, I do believe, competed in the last UFC women's featherweight title fight. That was against Amanda Nunes way back in the day. And so I wanted to check in with her about the comings and goings of women's MMA because this was a big week with Zhang Wei Li defeating Tatiana Suarez. And are we going to get that big fight against Valentina Shevchenko at 125 pounds?

And what's going on with Invicta? They had a show last week. They just re-signed with CBS Sports. So there's a lot to talk to Megan about. Unfortunately, she's a Kansas City Chiefs fan, and my commiserations to her. I'll be very quick to extend said commiserations at the beginning of the interview. And this is a big Wednesday Because the show You know the show has come to uncrown The Ariel Helwani show Yada yada It's been about four months

Four months and two days Since our first episode Every Wednesday we do on the nose Every Wednesday I sort of like Hint at the fact that Oh it would be great to get a An intro song Something to distinguish on the nose.

Who, me? No one quite picked up what I was putting down, if you get what I'm saying. But a good friend of mine out in NorCal, a brilliant, brilliant mind, a supremely talented individual, one day last week just said, here you go. I noticed that you keep asking for some sort of music, some sort of jingle, some sort of song regarding On The Nose. Well, I whipped something up for you. So Frank, we do have some breaking news. We finally got a jingle back. And so without further ado. yes gotta respect the sustain yo it kind of goes long there it's great how did you cut that off no still playing somewhere wait a second wait a second i'm gonna i'm gonna i'm gonna i want to start i want to i want to start my clock here and I want you to play it again.

I want to see how long that is. I mean, it's 11 seconds. No, no, no. I want to know how long that part is, not the whole thing. Oh, the sustain on the chord. Okay, here we go. In three. So when I say one, then you play, not when three, two, play.

It's three, two, one, play. Ready? Uh-huh. Three, two, one. It's time for all the noise. Might have gone a bit early there, but it's still going, still going, still going, still going, still going, still going, still going. I mean, that's a solid seven seconds. Maybe a little bit early, six seconds.

A little humbucker on the guitar. You know, it's got a lot of sustain. What is that, a humbucker? What is this? It's a pickup, the pickup. Okay. Known what kind of what kind of guitar do you think he was using with that one uh maybe a les paul from gibson yeah those usually come stock with i thought the same and do you think there's a reverb on that or what it was definitely reverb there's always reverb okay all right all right uh well it's fantastic and uh I don't want to let the cat out of the bag too soon,

but there is a second part to that when we rejoin on the nose, right, on the back end? Don't play it. Now, you know what would be nice? I'll just, you know, there's no ulterior motive here, but maybe some sort of animation would be nice, you know? I think that could really complete the package what do you think yeah i think that would be great okay all right um anyway let's get some questions here

okay let's not waste any time uh you'll recall that uh yesterday on the program i did kind of sneak one in early uh we asked a question uh to new york rick that was posed from kyle grant and it was a tough one. And we asked him to sleep on it for 24 hours. And so here we are 24 hours later. To refresh your memory, the question was, Rick, would you rather never work a combat sports-related job again

or join Brendan Schaub's podcasting team? And so without further ado, Rick, your response. Yeah, I had some time to think about this. Thank you. And even my father this morning texted me. He's like, man, you're in a tough spot. I hope you make the right call. And the announcement is I'm joining Brendan Schaub's team.

Wow. That's just how that goes. Well, it's not really an announcement per se. It's just what you wish. Oh, no, this is actually happening. Oh, okay. All right. Congratulations, man. When's your last not really an announcement per se. It's just what you wish. Oh, no, this is actually happening. Oh, okay. All right. Congratulations, man.

When's your last day? Right now. I'm leaving. Okay. And it's simple. It's quite simple. I love this. I love this too much.

I could never not consume combat sports. Yeah, I grew up, basketball was always my number one and is still very high on my list. But at a certain point, just the other sports fell away. And I could not live a life without combat sports. I enjoy it way too much. By the way, why do you sound a little nasally? Are you under the weather? What's going on over there?

I just picked up some habits lately. Wow. He seems a little sick. He's sick. Oh, he's sick. Full stop. Frank also sick. Frank's sick. Everyone comes in sick. He's sick Full stop Frank's sick He's not sick, nobody's sick

So now, DC, are you saying Would you prefer they don't come in if they're sick? I don't know There's a certain level of commitment that I appreciate Do we want the commitment? Where does the commitment end? Connor earlier was like, I have ten toes on the ground Every day

Right, because I don't get sick. It's just the best thing about Rick is that he refuses to acknowledge what he's sick. It is weird, right? I would actually argue that's the worst thing about him. Yeah, maybe it is. Not the best thing about him. I said on his tombstone we're going to write, we told you you were sick. Yeah.

I have never been sick in my life. I don't know what it feels like. Have you ever taken a Tylenol? Yeah, of course. Okay, so then headaches are real. Headaches? No, no. Fevers are real.

Yeah. Stomach bugs are real. Maybe. The sniffles that he has. The sore throats are real. I've not encountered them. The fact that I've gotten sick from him is real. I need to see the empirical evidence.

I have not seen them. I have not experienced them. My boy was hurting after the watch party on Saturday. During the watch party. Oh, man. That must have been awful. Like 1 a.m. Oh, yeah. It was tough. 1 a.m go cough on a peach. My boy was hurting after the watch party on Saturday. During the watch party. Oh, man. That must have been awful. Like, 1 a.m.? Oh, yeah.

It was tough. 1 a.m. Well, I mean... The 3 a.m. drive back was quite a bit worse, actually. Oh, my gosh. I can't wait for the fighter and the Rick.

We were all hugging each other goodbye because we were like, this might be the last time we see Rick. Well, the fighter and the Rick sounds fantastic. By the way, I will say,

I do have to say, I know that question was a little bit tongue-in-cheek and all that. I said this at the time that we did that GFL draft, and I stand by it and I mean it, truly. Brendan Schaub has become a decent broadcaster in that spot. He was the shining example. He was the best one, I thought. He was the best one by a country mile.

So shout out to Brendan. Doing big things. Underneath that question, and I agree wholeheartedly, underneath that question, Sucker Free writes, don't use the sink, meow. Yeah, I've heard about those stories. In any event, we continue. Mr. Mystery Bowls writes, bonjour, Ariel et l'équipage. This week is Valentine's Day,

so I want to hear from everyone currently available. What is the most romantic thing you did for your significant other? Specific flowers and music playing in the background get extra points. Have a lovely one. Wishing the team gets us in the mood for love, melt our hearts,

and hopefully gives us some ideas. Hmm. Rick, why don't you go first? You like the most uh romantic one of the i do uh i feel like i'm the least because i can't think of anything i mean my wife and i are you guys big valentine's day no my wife's birthday was three days ago and i didn't even say happy birthday or get her anything. Jesus. That's weird. What? That is freaking weird. That's horrible. She's probably like, please, Rick, just admit you're sick.

That is a little weird. Not even sick in the head. You didn't even acknowledge it? No, I mean, the kids, you know, I'm with the kids and the kids are like, happy birthday, You don't say it? You don't like just say it? So the kids in front of you are like, happy birthday, mommy. And you're just standing there with your hands in your pockets.

No, just like. Even worse, it was Sunday after that watch party, and everybody is downstairs giving her cake and singing happy birthday, and I was upstairs sleeping. Weird. I'm not going to lie. I don't know how you guys do the watch parties with the kids, man. They go to bed at some point. In fact, the next day I got up for a 9 a.m. birthday party

for my daughter. That's insane. But then, yeah, like I'm not, my wife and I are not big on that. We have been together

for a long time and so a lot of that has kind of gone by the wayside. Magic's died. It's not the, it's just the, it's impractical

and as most can probably assume by now, I am a very practical man. No, no, for sure. Practicality. You're a meat and potatoes guy. Meat and am a very practical man. No, no, for sure. Practicality. You're a meat and potatoes guy. Meat and potatoes, what needs to be done, efficiency. So I'm probably the wrong person to ask.

I do think, I consider myself a romantic, and I do think that it is a little overblown. Like, well, you don't need to tell me when to go out for dinner or something like that. In the early days, though, you do put, you know, much more effort into this thing. Like I do recall cooking a whole, I cooked a whole meal. There was salmon involved. There was rice. And this was a big deal for me because it pretty much ends with eggs for me typically.

So I really put a lot of effort. I went to the grocery store. This is pre-marriage. Now I'll be the one to like book the the the dinner reservation but this year it falls on a friday and uh we don't go out on friday nights and so then i booked it on thursday and then i was like oh yeah you know uh tomorrow going on like yeah do we really want to go out it's kind of crappy out so you know it's like one of those wow yeah wow yeah no no spark between either of these no it's it's not it's not the know, it's like one of those. Wow. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. There's no spark between either of these.

No, it's not that no spark. It's just every day is a spark. And I was, I get a lot, we get a lot of guilt from our kids when they leave. Oh, you're leaving? Like, we're very close. Where did they learn that from? Yeah, no, I don't know. That is weird.

I do love the, I put in a ton of effort. I went to the grocery store. I went to the grocery store. But like, I didn't order it That is weird. I do love the, I put in a ton of effort. I went to the grocery store. I went to the grocery store. I didn't order it. I seasoned it myself. I remember feeling like this was a big deal. This was a major milestone. Well, is Valentine's Day a big deal for you? Yeah, I enjoy Valentine's Day. Just a couple of years ago, I went to Sasebune. Invited me. Not a cheap ticket. Who could forget? Not a cheap ticket. Did a little sake on the subway there. It was an S's night.

Sake on the subway to Sasebune. Wow. And then it was an amazing experience. Any plans this year? No. No. No. I feel like we're all living vicariously through you at this point.

Wait, why? Why? Well, because you're out and ready to mingle. It's a fun life. That requires a vicarious living. Are you all right? It's all very... I'm going to probably be spending Valentine's Day with my wife.

Okay, Frank. Connor, if you get lonely, you can come over. Wow, Jesus. I was trying to big him up. I was trying to give him some props. No bigging up needed. No bigging up needed here all right fine fair fair actually excuse me sue me uh frank okay since you're such a romantic what

do you got uh we're probably just gonna hang out we need to play some board games or something why do you say it like that no i'm literally just asking yeah we probably will play some board games drink some wine maybe a maybe a good movie um i put an asterisk here because if she's watching i'm not necessarily agreeing to all of this yet. We'll effort it and see what we can come up with. So you feel like because society has told you that February 14th is a day to do something with

some romance involved, that you need to do this, right? You can't view it like that. You are a sheep to society. You can't view it like that. Just like decorating your desk. It's just nice. This is a great day, great excuse to celebrate the love you share with your... I agree. There's love 365 days a year, right?

You guys keep saying this, but I'm not so sure. One day you just turn it up just a little bit more. You know, like Pee Pee said, he rids himself of body hair. I think that's great. You know, like, just do something extra. Go that extra mile. I agree. I think that's a very nice sentiment.

And I actually do it. If I'm being 100% honest, I do it. You know, a little flower here, a gift here. This year, I actually, I don't know how you guys feel about it, but I saw an ad on Instagram, and it was for all these new pots, caraway pots and pans. Oh, my shit. Yo.

You got a book there? I'm stocked up. No, no, no. That's a great call, dude. Yo, yo. Le Creusade used to be my go to 12 piece ceramic I went for the white ones Because it matches the kitchen

And it arrived last week I thought it was going to take longer It's non-toxic Non-toxic non-stick You would have thought And there's no chance my wife is listening to this, you would have thought I pissed in her hat. Oh, you see, she goes,

You don't buy, you have to ask me, you know, what are you doing? What? You don't need this. Carroway? Yeah, yeah. That's great, Brent. That's like a $600 set. It says non-toxic.

Non-toxic non-stick. And by the way, it costs a pretty penny. It's a pretty penny. I got the navy blue set. So don't tell me about romance, all right? You should have bought her a microwave. I was going to say, there's nothing more romantic than I spent a lot of money on these items for you to do stuff for me. You make food for me.

You should have got a vacuum. Here's the cookbook Nicole gave me. All these other things that she could do around the house. Wow. It was between that or a proper compost that I didn't think of. The city will provide a can of worms. Here's some pans and a cookbook the woman at work gave me. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. You know what? You want to get her an apron for Christmas? Yeah, an apron. We could get her a vacuum. I mean, just do the whole thing. Let me tell you something. Here's a honey to do list.

Susie homemaker set. It's so weird. She's actually refused to use it. So I'm like, look at these eggs. They're sliding. You're using it. It's sliding. Airway is unbelievable. Airway'm like, look at these eggs. They're sliding. You're using it. Airway is unbelievable.

It's literally sliding. Have you used the baking sheet yet? You opened her presents and started using it. I got a cutting board. I got a strainer thing. I was like, you got this for you. I was actually pretty excited. What about the white? All those colors, you went with the white. Yeah, there's a lot of colors. Because there's a lot of white in our kitchen, so I thought it would be nice. It's just going to look dirty that you're going to have to clean it up.

No, if I'm being honest, it looks fantastic. I'm telling you, these are high-quality shit, man. I broke the bank for them. I was super pumped. That's a Caraway, man. I have the one. This edition of On the Nose brought to you by Caraway nonstick pans. Anyway, happy Valentine's Day

to everyone out there. God bless you. Peace and love. Lots of romantic ideas. Buy some cookware. Kits Corner. Hey, Ariel. Don't you find it funny that Dana has all of a sudden become the voice for free speech when his own press conferences have only in-house media? The same four or five guys, every event, the same four or five guys all show up to slap events as well.

I guess he's down for free speech, but only when it serves his purpose. Don't forget, if you hate Bryce Mitchell, you can always watch him get his ass kicked right here in the UFC. Now, I understand what you're saying, Kits Corner, but these aren't in-house media. They just so happen to be the ones who go to all these events. So I think that's a little tough on them. They don't work for the UFC. But yes, it is typically, especially for the north american events the same voices the same people but they're the ones who that's not a knock on them they go to the events um i think the point you're trying to make is he is the staunchest supporter of free speech and of the what is it the third amendment the fourth amendment which the Fourth Amendment, which one?

Can I say it again, Warren? No, I was asking, it was a joke, First Amendment. He's the staunchest supporter of the First Amendment, which also includes freedom of press, and yet he is also the staunchest suppressor of press. He is not a big fan of media or criticism from the media or anything of that sort. I take that back. He likes media, but I just think he doesn't like criticism. Or he doesn't like anyone weighing in on his business. Now, he's a businessman. He's built this. He has every right to be annoyed when someone criticizes him or things like that. But, you know, they've done things that most sports leagues don't do. And there are systems

in place to stop this from happening. But again, this isn't the NBA. This isn't the NFL. It's a league owned by an entity. And so they can do whatever they want. Last week, he did an interview with Forbes where he talked about very soon the media row is going to go away and they're going to put them up top. They're going to put them in the, you know, in the suites. And then in the front will just be influencers. I don't know why you can't have both,

but I saw some people reacting to that. I'm actually shocked that that hasn't happened yet. The UFC, even compared to boxing, gives the media really good seats. It's like right in the front there, you know, there's essentially, well, the octagon is eight-sided, but there's like, let's say it's in a box. The media gets one of those sides, front row, usually three rows, sometimes four if it's a massive event, and then they'll put some other ones in auxiliary up top. I wouldn't be surprised. Like WWE doesn't give three rows to media.

That's a lot. By the way, these days with the amount of, you know, with the amount of tickets they're selling and for the price that they're selling them at, that's a lot of real estate that they're giving up to the media. And so I wouldn't be surprised if they do that sooner rather than later. And what's the media going to do if they do that sooner rather than later and and what's the media going to do if they do that there's no there's no association in place there's no there's no nothing we you know we tried with the mma ja uh it didn't get off the ground there was i mean shocking infighting and jealousy and unprofessionalism and just total absurdities

going on behind the scenes there. We tried. We tried our asses off. And it just didn't get off the ground. And I don't know if it'll ever get off the ground, to be honest, in association. And even if it does get off the ground, why does the UFC have to recognize it? They don't. And so if the UFC announced today that the media is going to go up into the rafters and those three, four rows are going to be populated by ticket buyers or influencers, whatever, nothing's going to happen. And by the

way, they could do that. Like I said, WWE, when they do have media, they put them up top. They put them up top. And boxing, I've been to boxing events, like the media is kind of far back. And we've seen it in the NBA. The media used to be lower down and now they're higher up. So this is inevitable. And I was not surprised.

I'm actually surprised that it's taken this long for it to come out. And I think, like I said, I think it's going to happen in no time. And so, yes, to your point, kids corner, there is an irony there. But, you know, there's a lot of irony in a lot of the things he says. Kevin from Ottawa, no question this week, just writing to say I hope you all come to Montreal

for a pre-UFC 315 show. I don't plan on attending UFC 315 because I assume the ticket prices will be outrageous. But I drive up from Ottawa to attend a live show with you all. I DMed Eric about this on Twitter, trying to get the hype going. Kevin. Can't confirm. He did DM me. Let's see.

Let's see. Let's see how it works out. This raises an interesting question. Are the real fans of this sport going to be priced out at a certain point because the UFC is too hot? No. No. It's like Super Bowl, right? Like, the Super Bowl costs an insane amount of money. Yeah, I'd say real fans get priced out of the Super Bowl

every year. Yeah, but they still watch. Oh, no. I'm not talking about watching. I'm talking about attending. I feel like this is coming because I think the UFC is just so hot right now. Any city they go to, they can charge an arm and a leg. And I'm not saying that as

a negative. I'm not trying to say that as a detraction. They should maximize the ticket prices because that's their business. But I do wonder if the fans that are in attendance... And let's say you're a dad and your kids are like

18, 19 or 17 and 18. To pay for like three tickets... It's a lot. I mean, we might be there already. Yeah. I hear all the time, like, you know, I speak to people in my neighborhood and stuff like that.

Like, nobody can go to the MSG card because of how expensive it is every year. Yeah. But I gotta be honest with you. Going once is great. Two, three, four, five,

like it's, it's a better experience on TV. You end up watching the screen. The energy is great. The atmosphere is great, but I'm telling you the TV experience is just as fun in my opinion. Maybe I'm, I don't know.

Maybe I'm, i'm spoiled because i've been to a gazillion but uh the the tv experience to me is just as fun with the commentary and all that stuff uh this from matt moe sup ariel when on air jordan speaks on the show why does it sound like he's in outer space and when handy andy speaks why does it sound like she's underwater i'm surprised frank hasn't said anything about the poor audio. Can we please get them both better mics? To Jordan slash Andy, go order one now and expense it to Ariel. We want to hear your beautiful, clear voices. Appreciate you all.

Yeah, Frank. Frank literally just walked out. Frank left. He's so mad about this question. Is he literally not there? No, he left. He's coming back in. He just left.

I can't believe that they would ask this. Frank. Putting his headphones on. Oh, my God. What the fuck is fuck is that yeah i hadn't even sat down yet and dropped that what's going on do i have to reread this question i heard why does it sound like jordan yeah why why is jordan andy's microphone yeah outer space and why does andy sound like she's underwater to be honest every time i speak i think that they're off air because it sounds so bad. Yeah, these are good points. So to be honest, they're speaking through an intercom system that we use for communication and like walkie-talkies.

We decided the easiest way to get them on air was to take that input from the intercom system and put it on air. But with the caveat that it's not going to sound great. Okay, so is it not going to improve is that what you're saying if i'm reading between the lines here it sounds like you want to make that improve and we can certainly i'm always looking to improve for example you know would it be nice to have like a stinger of a graphic animation motion graphic type thing for on the nose yeah it would be nice uh you know for example uh you know i looked down at the

youtube chat for a second i'm like oh is everything going well oh everyone's saying the audio sucks like what uh you know what am i supposed to i think there was confusion in the chat because they got on and they were like it's 2024 what the hell oh that was it love it um anyway yes i think we should always try to level up. But is the audio okay? Because I'm seeing complaints. Yeah, we have verified that there was a hit on YouTube. We put a pinned chat recommending to everyone to refresh their page.

It looks like things have kind of settled down now. But for future reference, if anyone's listening now, if you do come across an issue where you can't hear, please try to refresh your browser. So I don't see a pinned chat when I'm looking. We took it down, but it felt like if the problem's resolved, no reason to...

So it was sort of like you pinned a chat for a couple of minutes and then it's gone. Correct. A lot of work going on behind the scenes here. No, I understand. Efforting and whatnot. Can we get one more? Do we have a calendar up there for you? A calendar. Oh, yes, yes, yes.

Good one, good one. Curly Fries. Ariel, I love and respect you. I respect that you are loyal to Drake, but I cannot accept this Kendrick slander. You said that the only reason why he got to the Super Bowl is because of the rap battle. Facts.

But why wouldn't he? None of the last four performers had released music in years and still got the headline the super bowl yeah because they were like legendary i mean hall of fame icons oh but he was so intellectual you know it was just like if you look at it if you watch it in three-quarter speed he's actually it's like subliminal messagery and then i don't know if you guys saw when they did the American flag, like it actually was supposed to be swastikas, I was told,

which I don't know why that would be something to celebrate, but it was so brilliant. It was just like, it was just like on a different level. Did you guys catch that? I did. Oh, it's great stuff. Why would the NFL go with some random artists that haven't released music in years over the biggest story in music of 2024? Shuzy have you heard of him i mean he's he's released a lot of music i saw a bunch of videos where this guy he's like a hardcore fan he's like is he gonna say it is he gonna say it no he's not gonna say it is he gonna say it oh he said it oh my god he said i mean do you guys realize how dumb you look and sound it's pathetic You know they announced who's doing it next year, right?

Is it Bad Bunny? Yeah. That would be brilliant. Anyway, he says, additionally, you imply that people only started listening to Kendrick after the rap battle. I mean, a lot of them did. Trust me, I go to bar mitzvahs and 12-year-olds are singing to it. Say Drake, which is furthest from the truth, he says. His recent album was fifth consecutive number one album.

Sure, his debut album didn't reach number one, packed at number two. It was on Billboard charts for over 12 years. He not only won five Grammys in the other week, he also has 20 Grammys, four times more than Drake. Yeah, because there's a bias, Canadian bias. Not to mention, Kendrick sells out arenas and stadiums worldwide. Yeah, and so does Drake.

If you don't like him, that's fine. The least you can do is acknowledge that he didn't need this feud to be relevant. I didn't say he needed this feud to be relevant. I said if he didn't have this feud, he wouldn't have performed at the Super Bowl. And everyone, by the way, the biggest Kendrick stans back there, they all agree. Does anyone disagree with me? If that feud didn would he have would he have performed at the super bowl no all right that's my point but the thing is it was like it was so next level it was so you know what i mean it was really like a kubrick film yeah it was it was like a wes anderson film

maybe higher brow than that yeah it would be low level. Wow, really? You don't like Wes Anderson? Shout out to Astroworld. More like Citizen Kane style. Astroworld. Yo, Astroworld is Travis Scott. Astro... What was it? World. No, no, no.

I just like Royal Tenenbaums. Oh, Asteroid City. Asteroid City. Oh, that movie sucked. Yeah. Have you seen Royal Tenenbaums? No city asteroid city oh that sucked yeah have you seen have you seen royal tenenbaums no that's oh my god i can't i can't i saw i saw astrid city and i i don't blame him for now having a weird taste in his mouth yeah frank fell asleep he's like sorry that was the first i literally turned to my wife during the movie because we went with him and i was like this sucks that this is his first wes anderson i was like is this what all the movies are like no yeah exactly so good so good well um let's talk to our our first guest of the day we'll put a pin in the questions many more to come we're just scratching the surface with our new music uh i do i do believe it was it was a a night of mixed feelings for our uh first

guest because i think she's on this you know pro kendrick train but i also think she's on this, you know, pro Kendrick train, but I also think she's a Chiefs fan. So anyway, commiserations to Megan Anderson, the birthday girl who's kind enough to join us. Is that accurate, Megan? First of all, birthday yesterday? Happy birthday? Yes, it was. Thank you very much. It was. Big 35. I'm now officially in my mid-30s. Oh, my dear. Apparently, i'm getting old according to the internet no no you're not i'm 42 it gets better trust me you hit the big 4-0 uh it's fantastic life is tremendous uh sorry about the chiefs commiserations

yes okay so i was obviously upset because i lived in kansas city for nine years so obviously i went for the chiefs but there's a part of me that was wasn't really upset because i lived in Kansas City for nine years. So obviously I went for the Chiefs. But there's a part of me that wasn't really upset. So I'm like, we've had so much success over the last, like, you know, seven years since Patrick has kind of been a starter. So I'm not really sad. But then there's also storylines like Saquon getting, you know, finally getting his first Super Bowl.

Stuff like that. Or Jordan Bailata, who is Australian, he's like one of the offensive linemen for the Eagles, like him getting a Super Bowl. So I kind of liked that for them as well. So while I was upset about the Chiefs because that's my team, I'm also not mad at it either. And it's just a game at the end of the day.

That is true. By the way, I'm impressed with your knowledge. Well done. I try. I actually keep up with NFL. Yeah, like I don't really post about it much that is true by the way i'm impressed with your knowledge well done i try are you actually i actually keep up with nfl yeah like i don't really post about it much because i feel like anytime i post anything sporting related i i just get lots of negativity like oh you're a band i for so long i got you're a bandwagon cheese fan i'm like i was here before before Patrick Mahomes started for the Chiefs.

In fact, I think we even have photographic evidence of you wearing, I think that's an Alex Smith jersey. That's right. Is that not Alex Smith or is that someone else? No, that's a personalized jersey that the Chiefs gave me. And it has my name on the back. The 11 is my number. And so I got to pick one up.

But I know that that's an Alex Smith jersey who Patrick took he patrick took over from alex yes so as a quarterback yeah well what you should have said was of course it's an alex smith jersey i was there before patrick came in i'm an og fan uh i hate the chiefs with every you know fiber i do know we have a bit of a rivalry with the bills that is for sure why my producer uh at espn um he is a mass yes ben riegel massive bills fan and we have a very fun rivalry because you guys always beat us during the season but we always beat you during the playoffs when it matters so i'm like you can beat us during the season as long as we can win during the playoffs like i don't care so that's that's... Of course.

And I do care. I would like to reverse it. One of these days we shall reverse it. By the way, you love Kendrick. You're one of those. Look, I do enjoy Kendrick. I've liked Kendrick before this whole beef. And yes, I definitely think that if anything, Kendrick and 50 Cent, I think over this past year have really shown us like hating and being petty and holding a grudge like can take you places.

Yeah. And I found that kind of aspect of it very entertaining. I'm not a Kendrick fan because I'm a very loyal person. So I stand with my Canadian brother, Drake. And I think that all of this, I don't know, all of this talk about him being so intellectual and him, you know, doing such an incredible job is all hogwash. It's just everyone trying to sound cool and jump on the, you know, the cool train, if you will. I'm not one of those. I'm happy to stay on Drake Island, if you will. Actually, that might not have been the best in any event.

Let us move on. Let us move on. Let us move on. I could see Frank's head just exploding after that comment. Megan, I wanted to have you on to talk about a whole host of things. But the first one that I wanted to ask you about was women's MMA was very much in focus this past weekend with Zhang Weili doing what she did. I was in awe of her performance. I was in awe of what she did. She was the underdog going into this fight against Tatiana Suarez. And it seemed like a lot of people thought it would just be the Suarez coronation, right? She would go in there, she would take her down, she would dominate her. And thus the title reign that we've been expecting for five, six years was going to commence. Were you blown away by what Zhang Weili did? I actually picked Zhang Weili to win that fight beforehand.

Like we, you know, we make our, we kind of like make predictions on our ESPN show every week. And I i had picked her to win and this was one of those fights where i hated seeing one of them lose because i've been a huge tatiana suarez fan since before she got injured she had to take all that time away like i was wanting her to get her shot at the title back then now that she's back like for me it really came down to i think the time away has hindered tatiana too much i don't think she fights as much as she should i i really feel like she should have had maybe one potentially two more before getting that shot but i also understand like i watched um i watched your take on it and i do agree with a lot of the points that you made

like you know who else was there um zhang weili like asking for tatiana suarez because like you're saying like she's the boogie woman in this division okay like bet i'll i'll fight her give her to me but zhang weili like one of the things that i that i thought was going to be the x factor was her cardio and how well-rounded she is i felt like she had the skills and the ability to defensively handle the wrestling of Tatiana Suarez. And so for Suarez, a lot of her fights primarily end in stoppages. Very rarely have we seen her go the distance. And this is a 25 minutes fight. So we haven't seen her over five rounds before. If she's not able to put her opponent away early on in the fight, what does

her cardio look like? What does her striking look like? Is she able to be as dominant in the wrestling? And I believe that Zhang Weili is so well-rounded. She's such a triple threat. She's got the striking. She's got the wrestling, both offensive and defensively. You know, she took Suarez down, which I think, you know, is the first time Suarez has ever given up takedown in her entire career.

And, you know, she's got the grappling as well. Like she is so well-rounded. She's such a threat everywhere. And the thing that disappointed me the most about this fight is I was upset at how little a coverage that this fight was getting because like this is such a great fight for the division. And it really showcased how amazing Zhang Weili really is. Couldn't agree more.

My question is, I believe now that she is undisputed number one pound-for-pound women's fighter in the world. Do you agree with that? Yeah, she's number one on my list. Yeah, I think there's no doubt about it whatsoever and I would love to see her fight Valentina Shevchenko next. Now, I'm torn on this one because I really do think Manon Fioro has done enough to warrant that shot

and she beat Erin Blanchfield back in March of last year she's been waiting patiently because they did the Grasso fight in September Grasso Shevchenko for the belt and so how would you like to see this all play out because I could imagine that you too would want to see this Zhang versus Shevchenko fight yeah I would definitely love to see this all play out? Because I could imagine that you too would want to see this Zhang versus Shevchenko fight. Yeah, I would definitely love to see that fight. But I do feel like considering Shevchenko, Grasso kind of stole the flyweight division for so long, I think it is owed to the division that we get somebody else in there.

And I agree with you. Manon Fior deserves a shot. Like she's done everything that they've asked her. You know, she's beat all the people that they wanted, like Rose, Aaron Blanchfield. like she's beating former champions or you know the the up-and-comers that are like everyone's touting them to be like the next champion like she's done everything like what more do you want her to do she's earned that shot but then zhang weili has also earned that right too considering yeah she's got multiple title

defenses now like who else is there really right now in the strawweight division for her to fight Zhang Weili has also earned that right too, considering she's got multiple title defenses now. Who else is there really right now in the strawweight division for her to fight? I wouldn't mind seeing, since Zhang Weili just fought, doing Shevchenko-Fior, and then kind of mid-year, and then the end of the year, we do the winner of Manon-Fior and Valentina Shevchenko versus Zhang Weili. I wouldn't mind seeing that play out. I couldn't agree more.

But then what happens if Manon wins? It doesn't have the same juice, right? You're kind of risking it. Yeah, you could risk it. But then also, how convincing does she win it, right? Is it close? Is it very one-sided? I think there's a lot of variables that can play into that.

But then also, you know, look at Israel Adesanya. You know, he lost the belt to Alex, got a rematch, and then the second time he lost the belt, he didn't get that rematch. So maybe something similar would happen with Valentina if she was to drop to Manon Fior but I think I don't know there's a lot of variables in this scenario but I definitely think Fior shouldn't be out of this discussion because she's done everything that they've asked of her like she's deserving of the shot she's pretty much been on the shelf for almost a year

now waiting for this because you know she said she was the she was the next in line she's like okay well when is this gonna happen yeah it's not fair i i i want to see that fight so badly but i don't want to see it at her expense just for fun zhang weili versus valentina shevchenko who do you like in that how do you see it playing out i love that fight like ah i i i love valentina she scares the crap out of me but she's so adorable because she's a beast when she gets in the cage i am like i'm so impressed every time i watch zhang weili fight she is incredible like offensive defensively very rarely like look at the takedown defense just in that last fight against Tatiana Suarez like her balance is exceptional like she is so hard to take down you know and maybe going up the size

could play a bit of a factor but I truly feel like she has the strength she's got the power she's so well-rounded that she could be very competitive against Valentina Shevchenko. And I probably might even lean towards Zhang Weili in that one. Yes. It feels like a pick-em fight for me. It's 50-50. I really don't know how it plays out, but I would love, love, love to see it. I really would. And so let's see how it all plays out. I agree with you. She's the number one pound for pound fighter in the world. And right now, I think, do you agree with this sentiment as well? Like, I think for the last year or so, maybe year and a half, people were kind of down on women's MMA. But there are some really big fights on the horizon.

Kayla Harrison against Julianna Pena and then the winner of that fight. Does that person fight Amanda Nunes who's returning? This potential super fight. Like, I feel like business is about to pick up. Like, we're on the upswing here. And it became like a thing to kind of crap on women's mma for some reason the last couple years and now i feel like there's some big fights coming up do you agree with that no i agree and i think maybe a part of that is because you know we see these men's divisions like the champions defending

you know somewhat regularly whereas these women's divisions it's maybe once really only like once a year like jean-marie defended her about once last year um valentina ship chenco grasso was what once last year um so it's just like they're not being defended as regularly as the men so there's no hype around these divisions. Whereas I feel like if we start getting more hype, we start getting more title defenses, you know, because that age of like Amanda defending both belts or like, you know, Jessica Andrade, Ioana Young, Jay Check, Rose Namajunas, like, and then Zhang Weili coming in and then the belt switching hands,

like almost every other fight, like it was was being defended two, three times a year. It was so exciting because there was so much going on. So I think if we can get back to that, we can create a lot more hype and a lot more interest in these divisions. Do you think we will ever see featherweight as an active division again? In the UFC? No. Even in the sport? It's not't i don't it's not really a thing in pfl anymore um i don't know i just belator's gone um i mean in victor and victor we have a uh a we're kind of having research into the featherweight division we got we got

a lot of almost every card now we have a featherweight fight and and shannon's doing a really good job of building that division back up because there is, you know, there is a demand for that. A lot of women can't make 135 and a lot of the women that we're speaking to, they're just like, I can't make 135. Like, so, you know, 145 is it for me. And so Shannon's doing a really good job of building that division back up, which I think is great because obviously I'm a little bit biased. It's my division. So I love to see them kind of getting some love. Well, I love to see the success of Invicta. And I love the fact that Invicta is still thriving and still surviving.

And I would call Shannon Knapp, the founder of Invicta, a survivor because she has been through so much in this sport, right? So many ups and downs. And it seemed like at one point people were ready to say goodbye to Invicta and the UFC took all the talent away. And she's still there. And last week we saw that they renewed their deal with CBS Sports, which I think is tremendous. There was a show last week in Atlanta as well.

How would you describe the current state of Invicta? The health status, if you will, of Invicta? I think Invicta is on the up. It is doing so well. And what I love is if you didn't watch, if you didn't watch him Victor last week, I think you sorely missed out because that entire card was insane. Like I, I highly suggest going, if you want to go and watch, um, Leah, uh,

Victoria Leonardo versus Hila Nascimento. That was an insane fight. Even like the main event, like every single fight was a barn burner from start to finish. They were slugging it out um for the entire 15 minutes of every fight so yeah no business is definitely booming in Invicta and I'm very excited that I get to play a very small part and kind of highlight these athletes and these women because they are incredible athletes. And what I really love is that we have a lot of these women coming through that might only have one or two or three pro fights, I said, but they've had such an extensive amateur

career. And a big part of that is due to the IMMF Federation. They've gone and some of them have like 20 to 30 odd fights as an amateur. So when they're coming over to the pro rankings, like they're going in there and they're making decisions like seasoned veterans, and they look phenomenal when they step in there. So that's what I really love is Shannon, you know, she gets, she's able to understand, you know,

not just matchmaking, but she builds these athletes and she can see the talent. She brings them in and she builds them and she builds stars. And know like you said you know the ufc also see they try to take our athletes all the time yeah but um yeah no and a lot of them what i find is and by speaking to them and stuff like that is they want invicta to be their home for their careers because they see the value in shannon noticing them taking a chance on them, wanting to build their careers. They don't want to throw them into the deep end and kind of force them to sink or swim to build somebody else's career. Like Shannon legitimately cares about every single one of her athletes and building all of them, you know,

at the level that they are not, you know, forcing them into a matchup that they're not ready for. Back to 312, what did you make of Sean Strickland? Bit of a bizarre performance. We had his coach, Eric Nixick, head coach on the program yesterday, and he was quite brutally honest about him. What did you make of what we saw out there? Yeah, I was a... My thing with Sean is like what's gotten him to this point

is not what... Has done really well right however when you look at a lot of his interviews and what he said about the first drickers fight right he didn't think he lost that fight he didn't think he did anything wrong he thought he'd done everything he needed to do to get the win and when you have that mentality there is a chance that you can then go into a rematch thinking, all I need to do is the same thing and we're going to get a different result. But isn't that the definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result. And I think

that's what happened with Sean Strickland is he felt like all he had to do was the same thing. But when you look at Drikus Duplessis, he is improving. He is getting better. He is changing every single time he gets in there and you when you're at this level of the sport like you can't be complacent like that you can't expect the things that got you there to always work because the blueprint's been laid you know when you have a rematch too you have the beauty of understanding your opponent's range their timing their power their speed like you have all that data point and and it would be remiss of you as a competitor to not go away and make adjustments to come in with a different game plan or to make adjustments

to counter some of the things that, you know, maybe Drikus did well in that first round. But yeah, I was, when I watched that fight, I was a little, I wasn't surprised that that was the direction that Sean went, but from a athletic, like, competitor standpoint, I mean, I agree with his coach a little bit. I don't know if I agree with his coach being very vocal about it. I feel like that should have been a conversation had behind the scenes but then we also don't know the relationship that that they have you know what i mean it could be something where like sean doesn't really take too much offense to that right you know what i mean would

you be bothered oh yeah okay i feel like most fighters would be bothered. If my coach went out there and said that stuff. Now, if he had come to me and had a conversation with me first, that's a different story. But if this is the first time Sean's hearing it was via your show or something like that, I'm sure most people will probably feel a type of way about it. I think they did speak. I understand what you're saying. I think Sean is a type of way about it. I think they did speak. And I do think Sean, I understand what you're saying. I think Sean is a bit of a different cat. And he strikes me as the kind of guy who likes that brutally honest approach. But who am I, you know, who knows

with Sean these days? You see in the corner the way Eric speaks to him every time they went in between rounds, like he was telling him this is too predictable. Like he doesn't sugarcoat anything. And that's one thing I really respect about Eric. He knows, it seems like he speaks to different fighters in different ways because he knows what they're going to respond to. He doesn't speak to Francis that way or a Casey O'Neill that way. But with Sean,

it seems like he could be, or Danny gay, he could be like super brutal and directed him. And, and it didn't work on Saturday clearly, but it seems like they have that kind of relationship um when you were talking about your your analysis of zhang weili versus tatiana suarez i couldn't help but think of drichas versus hamzat and and we had dean

thomas on the show on monday and he said that he thinks that as he put it hamzat is a front runner and and by that he means survive the first or second round against them take him into into the championship rounds. Drikus is going to win this fight. And he thinks Drikus is going to win this fight. Do you see the same type of outcome? That's a great question. Because I thought that Rob Whitaker was going to be able to pull comes out into the championship, right? Because that was a five round co-main event. I thought he was going to be able to pull him into the championship rounds and look what happened in that fight. That's the thing with Hamzat

is I don't think he fights as consistently to really get a true data point of where he is at because it's almost like a year between he fights. He's making improvements. We see him in the gym. He's getting better and better. We just don't get to see that in a competitive standpoint.

But I do agree for the most part. Like Hamzat is a guy, like look at the fights that he's gone the distance, right? He has slowed a little bit in that third round. And, you know, if we're pushing this to round four or five, that could be the X factor. And Drikus is a guy like he is always in it. He is never out of a fight, no matter whether he's up, whether he's down, he finds ways to win. And he is physically very strong, very athletic. He's massive for the division.

And I think that could pose. And his awkward, unorthodox style, like a lot of people, like I hear a lot of people just like, oh, like I don't like Drakus' style. And like, you don't have to like his style, but you have to respect his style because he might not have the most accurate striking like an Israel Adestanya, right? Or he might not have, like, textbook wrestling like a DC

or his judicia might be not as technical as, like, a Jacare Souza or something like that, right? However, he pieces it together and he understands the game of MMA he makes it work for him and what I love about Drikus is um he's not shy in like calling his opponents out like like Sean was just like look I'm you know just stand and trade with me and Drikus is like no I was like this is MMA this is like you can you can stand and box if that's what you want that's great for me because now I know that that's all you're going to do I said but I'm going to implement my game whether that includes wrestling it includes

grappling like he's going to incorporate all of it that's where I feel like Magomed and Koliath because you know how he kind of said the same thing against Alex Pereira he's like I'm going to stand I'm going to stand with you I'm look, I understand that there is a part of you that wants to beat Alex at his own game. However, it would be remiss of you when we're talking about becoming a UFC world champion that if there is a aspect of your game that you think or you believe that you are superior in, it would be stupid of you think or you believe that you are superior in, it would be stupid of you not to lean into that.

100%. That's what I love about Drikus. He's not shy in being like, you can do whatever you want. I'm going to do what I want. And that could be me taking you down. It could be me striking with you. It's up to you to find out. There were eight Australians on this card i believe by

my count uh for one jimmy crew was in the uh the draw overall how do you feel about the current state of australian mma obviously you know i would say probably vulcan rob are the faces of it if you will but there's there's it seems like this train of of youngsters coming up what do you think yeah i'm really excited about the state of MMA in Australia. I feel like we've had a lot of people get contracts over the last year through the Contender Series. And a couple of them had their debuts like Quillen Skilkild or Selkild. I forget how to pronounce his last name name but he was the first fighter that i got the round one knockout um tom nolan he's had a couple fights he i'm really excited about him um jonathan mccaleb he fought there was a bit of a transhasman like rivalry there because he

fought kevin juse who trains over at city heat boxing new zealand so even though like for the most part new zealand australia we kind of support each other. Sometimes we have to have a bit of a rivalry. But no, I definitely think, you know, we have a really good young kind of group coming in. And I feel like Steve Erceg and people like Steve Erceg and Jack de la Melena have kind of led that kind of second wave coming in. Yes. And we just found out about Erceg fighting Brandon Moreno in Mexico. That's a tough draw. I love Steve Erceg fighting Brandon Moreno in Mexico. That's a tough draw. I love Steve Erceg.

He's a great guy, and I like the video that he posted earlier today of him on the bike with the helmet. He just is self-deprecating, which is nice. How do you feel about his chances going into that one? I mean, the thing about Steve is, like, is it a tough bounce- back fight after his last one against kai cara friends yes yeah however like i don't steve's a guy like he's not gonna make the same mistake he's gonna go away and the beauty about steve is he's so young in this not just a sport

but in the division like he's only had a couple fights and look at look at what he did in his fight for the championship against alexander pantoja like he looked he he was one mistake away of potentially being the new champion yep so i think he'll learn from these lessons he'll go away and you know brandon verena looked amazing in his comeback fight so i think it's going to be exciting. And they're both, I feel like they're both very similar, long, lengthy strikers, good wrestling, good defensive wrestling, good grappling games. So I think it's going to be very high pace, probably go the distance from initial thoughts. But yeah, I'm really excited about that one and i mean i love that australians are getting the opportunity to main event cars you know it puts us on the map even more so and

you mentioned jack della do you do fancy his chances against the former champ i i hate that i love both yeah yeah but um i mean this is it's kind of one of those ones for Leon. It's like, okay, I'm going to beat this guy. He's kind of on a streak right now. He's trying to get into that title contention talks. So for Leon, I need to put my stamp that I'm still at the top of the division. And for Jack, it's like he needs to make his name. If he wins this, there's a good chance that he could be next in line

after Bilal versus rakmanov so this is a as a must win for both these guys for very different reasons uh by the way one last one um it seems like every time you do an interview someone asks you about coming back and you did that uh that happened recently and then you had you addressed it but you did mention influencer boxing which I had not seen you mention. Is this of interest? It's kind of more of just like I just – if an opportunity comes up that is financially like appealing to me, I'm not opposed to it. But like I don't really have – I don't have a desire to compete. Like I just want to do it for fun. Like I'm not trying to be a pro boxer.

I'm not trying to – it pro boxer i'm not trying to it's so funny because like i very rarely get on like mma twitter like apart from like i post whatever i i need to like about the fight or promote like invicta or something like that and then i kind of get off it because anytime i kind of do anything like this i'm like heaven forbid i answer a question that i've been asked yeah and they post that response and like everyone loses their minds. I'm like, I'm so sorry. But no, I mean, it's something that I potentially would be interested in, but it's not something that I'm looking to do because I love what I'm doing. I love the broadcasting side. I feel like I'm in a very privileged position that I get to still speak and be involved in this industry and in the, you know, in this sport that gave me so much. So that's what I'm mainly focused on.

And if something happens to come up, like, I mean, it's a, I'm definitely down to have a conversation, but it's not something that I'm actively looking for. And even then I'm like, I had like, I've had so many surgeries on my nose to get it fixed because it's been broken so many times. I'm like, I don't even want to risk potentially getting that broken again. Because like, I like breathing properly. So I kind of don't want to mess that one up. I would take it as a compliment. People keep asking you, people keep reacting. It's because they want to see you compete. So I know it's annoying and you've been asked it a million different ways and a million different times, but I would take it as a compliment. That means you're missed and that you are beloved. So keep up the great work. It's always great to get your

insight. Always great to have you on the show. And again, happy birthday. Hope it's a great upcoming year, a happy, healthy, and successful upcoming year for you. Thank you very much. And thanks for having me on. And I'm sure we will battle it out between the Chiefs and the Bills at some point towards the end of this year again. I sort of look forward to it. I'm not sure. Thank you, Megan. All the best. There she is. Megan Anderson, kind enough to join us, does tremendous work for ESPN and also tremendous work for Invicta, among other places as well. Great to get her insight. So very excited to say hello to our next guest. It's been a while since I've talked to him. He's one of the all-time greats, truly a legend of the sport, dare I say a pioneer in his own right,

former UFC middleweight champion, now working for the past 12 or so years as a VP over at one championship, doing a lot of work, especially here in the United States to, uh, to break some barriers, to, uh, to get over some hurdles, uh, as far as one championship is concerned, they have a couple of big shows coming up, uh, in the next few weeks and a, and a big year ahead. And so wanted to, uh, pick the brain of ACE, Rich Franklin, the legend himself. It's been a while. Like I said, let's say hello to the one and only Rich Franklin right here. And now, Rich, how are you?

Good to talk to you again. I'm doing great. It's good to see you again, man. It's good to talk to you. How have you been? Oh, I've been great. I've been really great. And it's great to see you still doing your thing for one in the sport.

I can't believe it's been about 12 years since you joined one, right? Yeah, it has. Sometimes when I think about how long I've been retired, I'm kind of scratching my head like, yeah, I am that old. Yeah, no, no. I think you're, are you close to 50? I just turned 50.

I just turned 50. Oh my God. You look fantastic. I hope I look as good at 50. You look fantastic. Listen, I appreciate that. I've done a good job of taking care of myself. A lot of it is nutrition, working out, sleep, and managing stress and all those kinds of things.

But, yeah, when you hit 50, you're kind of now part of the older club. Yeah. You don't have that card just yet, right? I don't have the AARP card or anything like that. But I did go to my nephew's football game in the fall. He's playing a high school football game and they were, my, my friends were joking. They're like, Hey, can't you get like the senior citizens discount now when we were walking into the schools? Like, ouch guys, come on, man. Yeah. Um, I remember there was a time where you were

living in, in Asia, Southeast Asia, working for one, but now you're back home in the United States. And I think, correct me if I'm wrong, a lot of your efforts have been focused on U.S. expansion, commission, things of that nature. Can you bring us up to speed on what you're doing for them here? Yeah, I've been with one almost 12 years now. And initially I was, I'm living in Cincinnati again. I was working from Cincinnati, just, you know, traveling to and from, which is an actual long commute, 34 hour flight door to door. Wherever you fly in Southeast Asia, by the time you... I have a double connect from Cincinnati and it's long layovers. I did that for the first several years, worked for the company. Then I moved down there for about five years. Then it was COVID and many things that happened that I could

get into the history of things. Basically, it was one championship's time to start making a press into the US. So I came back to the United States at that point in time, living back in Cincinnati and working for the company at that point. And I handled several things for the company. I'm kind of like the mortar that goes in between the bricks of a wall, so to speak. If they need me to do something, I'll do it. But I do a little bit on the commentary side. But my main function, my main focus here in the US is spreading one championship, going from state to state, working with the athletic commissions, explaining the differences between the global rule set and unified rule set to these commissions, and then getting approval from state to state so that we

can do events here. So how many States currently recognize your global rule set? I want to say six or seven that recognize the rule set. And I've had headway with several others. And so some of the big differences are obviously knees to a grounded opponent, the way the fights are scored, right? It's not round by round. It's on the whole, the weigh-ins are a little bit different. Do you find yourself surprised at either how much pushback you get from the commissions, or are you starting to see that the athletic commissions here in the United States are open to the intricacies that make one championship different than the major promotions here in the States? Yeah, they're actually quite open to it. Obviously, the elephant in the room when I'm speaking to an athletic commission is the

knees of the head of a grounded opponent from a competitive perspective. And I have a small presentation that I do on that and the number of finishes that we actually have within the organization where a combination involves a knee to the head of a grounded opponent, which is less than 1.5% of our fights that finish that way. And there's been impact studies with different strikes and things like that, but that's typically the competitive sticking point. But when you start getting into things, you realize that scoring a fight differently is different than the way that a commission is typically used to handling things.

And then our weigh-in process really is quite different because we're keeping our athletes hydrated. So the way that the commissions think here in the U.S. with these weigh-in windows and whatnot, we've realized in one championship that the flexibility is needed because our athletes are trying to maintain hydration when they're making weight. So we don't allow our athletes to compete dehydrated. You can miss weight and you can negotiate a catch weight, but if you're dehydrated, if you fall below or above the specific gravity, however you want to look at it, you can't compete in a dehydrated state. So we have to give them time to rehydrate and make weight, which typically can take more time than, say, that typical one-hour window where they can go back and sit in the sauna and dehydrate themselves more to make the weight. So it's a slightly trickier process, but those, those are typically the discussion points when, when you go in. Why do you think your scoring system is better than the one typically used here in America? I hate the 10 point must system. It's a boxing model that I know I don't think works for MMA. And, uh, and it kind of surprises me that we're still using it,

but I don't see any end in sight. You guys don't use the 10-point must system. Why is your model better? I mean, you can think of, just to explain it in basic terms to the listeners, you can think of the whole fight as a 10-point must. And one fighter gets a 10 and another fighter gets a 9. Now, I'm saying that because we don't actually score. We don't give 10s or 9s.

So I wouldn't want that to be some sort of clickbait or anything like that. But in essence, we just take the entire match and we score it. We have a scoring rubric with, with different categories. For example, damage is a category, but even within the damage category, you have a superficial damage, internal damage, uh, as well as cumulative damage. These damages are scored differently. Obviously, if I throw a punch and catch you in the face and cut you, that's a superficial damage until I've thrown several punches and continue cutting you, and then the damage becomes more cumulative. Even within the damage category, we have the scoring rubric. Within that, the main reason why I like our scoring system in the Global rule set is because you can't do things like steal a round.

You'll never hear the commentators, like when I'm commentating, you never say like, oh, you know, red corner won the first round because you can't win the first round. I could say at the end of five minutes, if the fight was stopped here, who would I have ahead on my scorecard perhaps, but I can't, you know, shoot a takedown in the last 30 seconds of a round and score the round because when the second round starts, it's basically minute six of the fight. And so the action just picks right back up essentially where it left off from a scoring perspective. So if I land a takedown at the end of a first or at the end of any round for that matter, I'm going to get scored for my takedown. And then from there, there's ground control points if I can improve my position or do some damage on the ground with some striking. But beyond that, it's just the score for the takedown. And then as a judge, I would be moving on to what's the next thing that ends up happening.

So even if it happens at the end of a round, it's not like it caps that round out. Plus, I've seen plenty of fights. We've all seen plenty of fights where somebody, you know, loses, ekes out and loses the first two rounds. And then in the third round, particularly, they just dominate the other side. And it's like, well, you lost two rounds to one in a 10, nine, 10, nine, but then one that last round, 10, nine, or maybe even possibly a 10, eight, if you, you scored a knockdown or something like that, where you can get these kinds of controversial decisions. And it just happens less when you don't have to worry about that entire first 10 minutes of the fight being like it's just one block.

Like you're just scoring everything and then looking at what cumulatively happens at the end of the match as well, and it all comes together, if that makes sense. Yeah. No, it does make sense. And I recognize that this question may be best for Chachri, the founder of One Championship, but I'll ask you since you're here. If that makes sense. And there was a period maybe two, three, four years ago where, you know, a DJ is being signed, an Eddie Alvarez is being signed, a Sage Northcutt is being signed, and we're not seeing those signings as much as far as the MMA stars are concerned. Would it be fair to say that one is moving a little bit further away from just being an MMA organization or perhaps from being as much of an MMA organization and we'll start to focus more on the grappling and the Muay Thai? For sure. When this concept was introduced, I remember the first time that we were going to put a Muay Thai match on one of our cards. I personally, I wasn't a fan. And I just remember thinking, nobody goes to a football game to watch an inning of baseball. Why would somebody come to an MMA event to watch a Muay Thai match? But then when I saw our first event with a Muay Thai match, it was, it was quite entertaining. And I didn't even

want to admit that it was entertaining. I'm like, ah, I still don't like it. I'm a purist. If that's actually the irony in that being a mixed martial artist, so to speak. And then we had the next event or two with some Muay Thai matches and some kickboxing matches. And you see the level of striking that's that are in these arts and it's a much the level of striking that are in these arts, and it's a much higher level of striking than it is in MMA. I've actually worked with some of these guys down in Thailand or Southeast Asia or wherever, and it's just a completely different level. And it's very entertaining, particularly our Muay Thai product to watch those fights in the four ounce MMA gloves is a very entertaining, striking product.

As this has developed, we've definitely moved away from being just solely an MMA promotion to a martial arts promotion. We've even had our submission grappling matches that we put on our cards, boxing matches that we put on our cards. We've even had some traditional arts like a sea lot match and things like that when we're in a specific country where it's applicable or um you know that is the sport of the of the country so to speak so yeah we are we are definitely moving in that direction and that that is or have moved in that direction and that is the business model and with it has come come some challenges as well for sure how many events do you expect to have in 2025 here in America?

In the U.S., we're planning on two. We had made the announcement that we were going to do two in the U.S. One of the dates that we were kicking around for our initial event was May. That was just one of the dates that we kicked around. We kind of had this matrix of events and venues and things that are available, but we won't be doing an event in May. We'll be making an announcement on our first event that will be later on in the year, coming up here in probably the next couple weeks. Okay. But it'll still be two. And have you guys mentioned or announced where the events will take place? Not yet. We haven't made any announcement yet. Two is the plan at this point. Okay. You have a big one coming up next Thursday, February 20th in Qatar, 1-171. And then in March, going to Saitama Super Arena, which is tremendous.

I mean, one of the most legendary venues in the history of combat sports. Why should people watch 1-171? There's a couple of interesting names. Roberta Soldich jumps off the page. Cade Rutolo, who we've had on the program before as well, is an absolute stud. Give us the pitch. Why should people watch this on Thursday? Well, listen to me.

You already mentioned Soldich, and we're not even at the top of the card there. I'm excited for him to come back. Obviously, he's had a rough start in the organization. You know, he was injured, and he's come back from some injuries, and so now he's finally back on the card. I like the matchup between him and Doggie.

I think that's going to be a fun fight to watch for sure. But I'm looking forward to, I mean, there's several fights I'm looking forward to on this card. Haggerty, I'm looking forward to him. But the main event between Jared Brooks and Joshua Paccio is going to be a fun one to watch. They have some unfinished business. Brooks won that first match, and then there was the rematch between the two of them. And the first one went to a decision, but the one had that dq where brooks had ended up dumping uh pasho i don't believe he i don't believe he did it intentionally i know brooks it just is one of those things he was turning in to throw pasho landed on his head so that one ended in a dq that's that's another uh rule variation is you know in one championship if you pick an athlete up it is your job to make

sure even if you're not spiking but to make sure they don't land on their head or neck. So yeah, I'm excited about this card. We got good kickboxing matchup. We have some interesting MMA matches on the card in Qatar. That one will be starting at 9 a.m. Eastern in the United States. So it'll be early for our West Coast fans out there, but you can catch that one on our watch.onefc.com and then our YouTube channel as well. And also, I do believe on that card, Bibiano Fernandez is having his retirement fight. Yeah, he is, as a matter of fact. And that's against Kevin Bellingham. That'll be a fun one to watch as well.

I think that one will be entertaining from bell to bell. There's some good matchups top to bottom on this card. I mean, truly, you know, the card, even with Cade Rotolo making another appearance in the mixed martial arts division, not at grappling, that one's going to be a fun one to watch as well. So I just, I think this, this card is definitely going to start just right out of the gate, pretty hot. And in a month in Saitama Super Arena in March, in March, I'm not a huge kickboxing guy, but I know who Rod Tang is. He's the face of kickboxing as far as I'm concerned. There's the poster right there against three-division K-1 champion Takeru Sagawa. That to me is like a dream match, right?

It's a match that kickboxing fans have been talking about for years. Yeah, this is one that, like you said, kickboxing fans have been talking about for years. Yeah, this is one that, like you said, kickboxing fans have been talking about for years. And it's been some time in the making, like getting this thing to line up correctly so that we could get this matched on. And it's being done in Japan. And so, you know, Rod Tang's obviously coming into hostile territory on this one. So that one's going to be fun to watch. Man, listen, Ariel, if you're not a kickboxing fan, like watch this match between these two guys because this one would be a fun one to watch for sure rata is always always entertaining to watch also have known on that card john

lineker in his kickboxing debut which is uh kind of fun and different as well like lineker man he's just he's just tearing it up he's he's tough to stop i i tell people that that guy he hits so hard that when he throws punches at your guard, you're afraid to counter just for the sheer fact of something sneaking through, particularly with these four-ounce gloves. Well, if that one's in kickboxing, it'll be the bigger gloves, but he's difficult to deal with from a standing perspective. We're not even talking about the fact that he's got great takedowns for MMA, but just in the stand-up arts alone, I really enjoy watching Lineker compete in the stand-up matches. I think, going back to Cade for a moment, he's one of the most interesting and brightest young prospects in this sport.

His transition from the grappling world to MMA has been great to watch. His brother, unfortunately, suffered this serious injury and has had to pause things. Is there any word on when he might come back, Ty? Yeah, actually, Ty will be coming back on May 2nd, Friday, May 2nd. He'll be in our One Fight Night 31 on Prime Video, and that'll just be a grappling match. He's not competing in MMA yet. I know that there's this anticipation for Ty to come into MMA because Cade has even said, like, Ty will probably be better than me in mixed martial arts, but he'll be taking on Dante Leon for the welterweight BJJ World Championship there. So you should be excited about that.

He's a fellow Canadian. Yes, yes. I like this. I like this. I like that he's coming back, and I want to see him. Not that I don't want to see him compete in grappling, but I want to see how he stacks up with his brother because I've been super impressed with his brother.

I know it's been early days, but thus far, I mean, he has, are you requesting a matchup between Ty and Cade? No, no, absolutely.

I, I, far be from, I'm not, I'm not going down. No, Ken Shamrock, French Shamrock,

Frank Shamrock route here. Uh, they seem to be, they're just impressive young men. I like their vibe. I like their demeanor and obviously their skills are incredible. Yeah. When you're not hung out, I hung out with these guys during fight week a couple of times, uh, young men i like their vibe i like their demeanor and obviously their skills are incredible yeah when you know i've hung out i've hung out with these guys during fight week a couple times

uh because you just cross paths yeah we have things going on and and they just they have a good energy about them the way that the way that they're training even before the matches and and it's just it's uh it's interesting to see the approach that they take on bjj as well coming from like that older generation of training BJJ, it was interesting even in the last event that we had when Marcel Garcia competed against Imanari and seeing just the generational difference and the mindset of how Cade and Ty, the Rotolos,

how they approach their jiu-jitsu. It's quite interesting. I've actually learned a lot just watching them. Interesting as well that we're talking to you this week because, uh, there was a UFC middleweight title fight. That's a division that you helped put on the map, uh, many moons ago. It, uh, it went down on Saturday and Drikus Duplessis, uh, actually tied you, uh, he tied your mark for title defenses. So he's now, uh, at three tied with you number four all time i'm wondering do you do you watch those fights especially when it's your division when it's your belt uh on display and and if so what do you think of drick is well first of all you could have said a couple moons ago

okay fair enough on my bad my bad my bad my bad my bad i'll catch the highlights you got you have to realize working for another organization i do a a lot, a lot of film, uh, watch and particularly when I'm doing commentary, it takes, it takes a lot of time to prep for commentary, particularly when you're in an analyst, because I don't want to go out there and start talking about game plans and whatnot. And particularly with my history in the sport and not sound like I know what I'm talking about. So it does take quite a bit of preparation for that. But, no, I did catch the highlights of the match. And, I mean, he looked good. Strickland looked good at the beginning of the match.

He was doing – like, Strickland is impressive because he's so difficult to touch. And Duplessis was having trouble in those first couple rounds, but then he started frustrating and was able to get a couple takedowns, landing his kicks. And he just – it was just like as the fight went on, it was just like a wood chipper that's eventually kind of grinding down the wood. And it was a good performance by him. So, listen, I'm one of those guys that records if my records are broken, I'm supposed to be forgotten about decades from now. It's the impact that I had on the sport. And like you said, I helped put that middleweight division on the map. And so kudos to these guys

that are breaking records and whatnot. He's a fun guy to watch for sure. By the way, that bums me out. You shouldn't be forgotten. You should be remembered and celebrated. You should be in the front row when the middleweight title is being defended. That was your weight class.

I don't want to see that. You know, all that I care about is that my impact is, like, people can forget that my impact was there. And whatever that impact is, if I have an impact on your life personally, because I'm a good human being, or the impact that I had on the middleweight division for a sport like MMA, it'll be there forever. And whether or not people mention my name, like, I don't know what I did. But when I'm dead and gone, I'm not, like like these things that happened here. I'm not even going to care about them because I'm no longer here. I'll be chilling in heaven watching it. This reminds me of a question Mike Tyson answered before his fight against Jake Paul, when a young reporter, like literally like a 12 year old asked

him, but like what you want your legacy to be. And he's like, what the hell is legacy? Legacy is nothing. One day I'm going to be dead and that's it. So why do people talk so much about legacy? Sounds like you kind of feel the same way. I'm not, I listened to his interview when he said that, and I'm not negative like that about it. It's awesome to have an amazing legacy. I just don't, I don't want to be caught up on, on being remembered is as if that's the most important thing to me. If I can make an impact on someone's life, just from a different kind of legacy, side note on this, but I had a podcast for a while and I had a gentleman on my podcast. His name was Kevin Hines. He was a Golden Gate Bridge survivor of attempted suicide. And he said that day, he said, when I was on my way out to jump off the Golden

Gate Bridge, if just one person in this world would have stopped and asked me, like, hey, how's your day going? He said I would have told him everything. I would have told him exactly what I was planning on doing and I wouldn't have committed suicide. And nobody stopped him and said anything. So being able to be in the present moment and have impact on people, and if that's through the sports world, through a performance. And I've had people tell me, like, they were watching a middleweight title that I fought when they were battling cancer or soldiers that were in the Middle East or whatever. And I could be there during a time when like a warrior fell next to them and they heard an interview that I did, or it's just someone I'm passing on the street. Like that's going to be my legacy. It's

the impact that I have on whether it's this industry or the people around me. And if people don't speak my name a hundred years from now, it doesn't matter. Those, those little ripple effects, they'll, they'll turn into waves and that's what I care about. So it's not this, like I heard that interview from Mike and it was this negative connotation to him. Not that way about it. Okay. And I respect that wholeheartedly. Um, when was, by the way, the last time you went to a UFC event? Oh, um, probably sometime around the last time I fought, it would be 2012 ish, 2013, maybe somewhere in that, that, that timeframe. No, no. Like any particular reason why, you know, sometimes we'll see like legends sitting around or going to events, any particular reason why? Oh, no, there's no, I mean, other than the fact

that I particularly, I'll give you an example. In 2023, I made 11 trips to Southeast Asia in 10 months. That's a 34 hour trek each way. So essentially a day and a half of travel. When you do that, I mean, and you're flip-flopping your entire body, and then you come back and you un-flip-flop it. And when you do that 11 times in 10 months, it will wear on you. So your desire to travel and say, yeah, I'd love to get on a plane and go do this thing really begins to diminish. And so between that and being at events for one championship, that's the primary reason why. I have a good relationship with UFC. Dana and I have talked several times since I've retired and, you know, obviously they

inducted me in the hall of fame as well. And so, you know, there was a time when I was headed out to Las Vegas for some other business and I reached out to Dana and said, Hey, you got time for lunch. And he happened to be out of town. So we didn't, but nonetheless, like no bad blood or anything like that. I just, uh, I get, I get somewhat, and this is maybe more on me. Like this week we found out about Dominic Cruz retiring. Right. And, and there's, there's an era of guys and he was maybe a little bit before you when he really like came into his own, but I have such great affinity for your era. And, uh, I don't, and there's so new fans, and I think that's great.

I don't want to be like the old crusty guy being like, it was better back in 2010. But I want people to know who Rich Franklin was and who David Loiseau was, one of my favorite fighters of all time. I kind of secretly didn't like you because you beat Loiseau. He's from my hometown.

And I was like, damn it, that would have been awesome to have a Montrealer win a belt. Later, it happened not too long after in GSP. But the point is, how many of these new fans know about those fights and those moments and Charles McCarthy and Nate Quarry and all this stuff? And I think it's important because I think in other sports, by the way, the NBA, Major League Baseball, NFL, they do a great job of pumping all that old stuff when it's the Super Bowl or when

it's the All-Star Game. And I think it's very important. And maybe that's on me in this chair to keep talking about these fights and these fighters. Yeah. I want you guys to be remembered. I'll sit here and I can complain too. You know, like back in my day when we trained, we used to walk uphill to the gym both ways in snow. And these young kids nowadays, they just have it so easy. Like I could be that guy if I wanted to, you know, but no i i'll say this i had a buddy that that uh sent me a text the other day and said hey they're doing a they did something on the the middleweights in the ufc on saturday i think it was or whatever and he was like you want to come over and watch this and i was like no i don't i don't want to

watch myself on tv with you but uh but so they they still do put these things out um i sometimes i wonder why i'm not in the video game though like that's kind of yeah puzzling to me but uh but so they they still do put these things out um i sometimes i wonder why i'm not in the video game though like that's kind of yeah puzzling to me but uh but no it's like yeah i i don't i don't feel like i've i've been forgotten it's just that's uh that's the way that the younger the younger generation is you're always going to focus on the guys that are kind of that time by the way there's this new uh organization gfl that's signing uh a lot of guys from your era did they reach out to you as well? No, not yet they haven't.

If they're going to. Are you interested? You know, I mean, look, I'm 50 in that window. If I was interested, that window is closing pretty quickly. You know, I could be under the right circumstances, the right kind of money, the right kind of opponent.

I could be, I could be definitely talked into, to a match, uh, for the right decimal place as well. But, um, but I wouldn't, I'm not hungry. Like I was when I'm 25, I could, I could probably get my body through another camp or two, but I'm not like that, that grind when you're 25, 30 years old, like you just, you don't have it at this age, like you just, you don't have it at this age like you did then. So, but it would be fun, the camaraderie of being in a camp and focusing on that target or that goal.

It's, I enjoy doing that. I, that approach that I took to fighting is the same kind of approach that I take to my job, to whether I'm commentating or if I'm, you know, going to speak to a commission. If I go into a commission meeting and, you meeting and they're not receptive to my talk, then I go out and I'm kind of like, man, it's like losing a fight. What did I do wrong? Let me go analyze the tape, so to speak. And so I have that kind of mindset, so it's still applicable to a fight career.

Your role reminds me a lot of Mark Ratner's role, especially when he came over to the UFC because he was tasked by Lorenzo and Dana to try to get them approved, get the sport approved by all these commissions. Have you ever, you know, those moments there where you're like ready to go, you're ready to win someone over and it maybe doesn't work your way.

I'm wondering if you have any kind of relationship with Mark and, because I'm sure he's been in those spots as well, kind of a unique spot to be in to try to convince these old guards about how to deal with that, how to deal with the questions. Yeah. Keep in mind when, when the UFC was going through all that, I was, I was still competing for the organization. So I was helping as an athlete at that, at that time, there were plenty of times where I spoke to the associated press and I did quite a bit of media work because of, you know, we were at that

time, MMA was trying to break the mold of being the, um, the, like the barroom brawlers or whatever. Right. And I was a high school math teacher. So I was exactly what the UFC needed. I spoke well in front of the media. I could communicate good talking points about safety or whatever it was that I, that I wanted to talk about. And so, you know, that, like I was part of that process. And I feel like it's just like life comes back full circle because I'm doing a similar thing. Because at that time, when you think about the mindset of MMA, I remember when I told my dad that I was going to quit teaching in 2002, quit my teaching job. And the thought of earning a living in MMA was just mind-blowing

to somebody because the sport just wasn't established. The idea of being able to punch somebody on the ground in 2002 was so foreign to the Western mind because it's even embedded in many of our movies. You watch an old cowboy movie, and when somebody gets knocked down, the cowboy's like, get back up, boy, type of thing. They continue fighting from the feet. We had to overcome those hurdles back then. Now, there's a similar mindset. The unified rule set is embedded into this culture now. The thought of, for example, needing somebody on the ground is very foreign to many people. It looks brutal, but the thought of, for example, kneeing somebody on the ground is very foreign to many people. And it looks brutal, but the reality is I'll tell a commission when I'm in the room.

And I know more than anybody. You can go watch my Anderson Silva one fight and see me get kneed in the face. And you can't convince me that if I'm on the ground kneeing you in the head that I can generate more power than I can in an optimal standing position where I have you bent over, plumb clench the back of my neck and pulling my face in the opposing direction that the knee is coming so that it just multiplies the velocity impact on my nose. Like it just, it's impossible because if I'm kneeing you on the ground, I still have to maintain control and hold you down. So I'm limited with the amount of force that I can use. Man, I love the way you break that down. I remember vividly, I think you did. I remember seeing you, I believe it was Fox News. This is like in your prime and the whole thing was like

math teacher turned MMA fighter. And as someone who like, it would always be a celebration, a victory for the sport when one of you guys crossed over to the quote unquote mainstream. And so I remember those days vividly when you were, you were kind of the guy that you were the one that they trotted out to all these shows. Yeah. There was a time where we, like I was on the O'Reilly factor once and a couple other major shows like that that were on like MSNBC. They did exposés when I fought in Germany and, and, you know, we opened up many new markets, especially internationally, but even here in the U S and in different States, uh, you know, we opened up, for example, the Ohio market, me being from Ohio, tremendously helped. So, you know, we were constantly preaching the good gospel of MMA. So, you know, I'm doing the

same thing now and talking about the safety within the organization, the track record that we have, you know, and one of the things I point out just concerning knees on the ground, for example, is that within our organization, if you look at all the fights that have ended with a combination that involved the knee to the head of a grounded opponent, the person who lost, they've never had anything more than a standard 30 or 60 day suspension just for safety precautions. We've never had any other major injury. And you can't say that about legal techniques, like a kick to the head of a standing opponent in MMA for an organization for that matter. So just kind of speaks volumes of what our perception is versus what reality actually

is on these issues. Great to catch up, Rich. Thank you so much for coming on. Really appreciate it. Keep up the great work with ONE. Looking forward to the event next Thursday. And then, of course, in a month's time in Japan, you're doing great stuff over there, and I'm happy to see you so involved. really appreciate the time appreciate appreciate you ariel glad to

see you're doing well and god bless you my friend thank you same to you there he is the legendary rich ace franklin the former middleweight champion uh won 171 in qatar on the 20th of february uh is a great show he laid it out and And then March 23rd, 1172 at Saitama Super Arena. Been there once. Freaking love that place. It was unbelievable. That's in Japan, Saitama, Japan. There's a Friday Fights, 97,

this Friday. So if you want to watch it with your Valentine, perhaps, that'd be fun. And then on there's another one on the 7th of March In Bangkok So there's a ton to like As far as

One championship is concerned Two events Coming up In the year 2025 But this one on Thursday Of next week Perhaps we could do a A boys in the back watch party

For it You know A little Thursday action Yeah why not Jared Brooks title fight Soldich really needs to get on track here a boys in the back watch party for it. You know, a little Thursday action. Yeah, why not? Jared Brooks title fight. Soldich really needs to get on track here. Cade Rutolo, the retirement fight for one.

Bibiano Fernandez. That's pretty stacked. John Lineker on the 23rd of March. Adrian Lee. Also on that card, Adriano Moraes. Yeah, we'll have it on. Rod Tang. You guys going to do a watch party? Yeah. we'll have it on. Rod Tang. You guys gonna do a watch party? Yeah. I freaking love it.

I love it. You wanna join? Thursday's not my day. That's your day. Next Thursday. Next Thursday. Are we off on Thursday? No, we're not. Yeah, February 20th. Yeah, well, I would be off. I don't know. That's a little weird. Do we have off for President's Day? No, absolutely not. We got a show. We never sleep. Just like our next guest, the guy

where, I mean, could you imagine his employees asking him if he had President's Day off? They don't take off bank holidays. They don't take off, what is it, the Jubilee. They're always working each and every weekend. There's another show, and there's a big one this coming Saturday on DAZN. It's at the Co-op Live Arena. You'll recall that we had both Jack Catterall and arnold barbosa right here on the program we did a face-to-face and then they one-upped us and did a live face-to-face with the two of them hosted by the man himself eddie hearn who is kind enough to join us

at this point in time i do believe he is in uh manchester is he ready to go do we have him okay let's go to him where is mr eddie hearn yes there he is hello eddie how are you hello i'm not in manchester yet i'll be there in the morning sorry good afternoon to you eric uh it's great to see you it's great to see you thanks so much for the time and i like that innovation differences you did the face-to-face live audience is this a sign of you guys changing those boring i've told you the press conferences are no good i know we've said it for you know a year or so haven't we that we just try and switch it up i think sometimes the traditional press conference i think every fight needs a

press conference but you know in the build-up maybe try some different stuff me in the middle these two guys just trying to extract a little bit of beef and narrative and conversation and just understanding about the two combatants, understanding about the fight, understanding what's on the line and what they think. Yeah, it was good. It went well. I had a great live crowd as well.

And, of course, now we get to the crunch time. We've just finished the public workout in manchester and then tomorrow the press conference right out of the way and a really good fight between these two a very very important fight for the 140 pound division i have long said eddie that i think you're the best promoter in combat sports i'm not just saying because you're here i'm not trying to glaze you as the kids like to say but i do feel like there's someone coming right behind you hot on your heels and that is Mr. Sam Jones. Had him on my DAZN show yesterday.

I mean, this guy, I know he's a manager, but he is phenomenal. The gift of gab is tremendous. I feel like he's coming for your spot. I think he's going to be a promoter in the next five years. And do you agree and are you worried about his presence? I'm definitely not worried, but I do think that he is a very good talker and, you know, he speaks with passion. I think a lot of the time, you know, we are salesmen, I'm a marketeer, but really my ability to speak comes off my passion for boxing and my passion for the events and my

excitement around the events. And Sam is a guy who has bundlesles of energy for boxing very good manager as well and obviously a big weekend for him so yeah i think you know being a promoter does you know you do require more than just the gift of the gap but certainly it helps and you know you need to be able to hold a floor you need to be able to tell the story and and i think it's a bit of a dying breed so if mr. Jones wants to come and take over from me in a couple of years, I'm more than happy. I'll just swindle off somewhere and, you know, chill out. If Jack wins on Saturday, what are the chances we see Jack versus Teofimo Lopez this year? I mean, you know, this fight's for the WBO interim world title.

There is a chance that the winner of this fight becomes champion. You know, there's all kinds of talks about Teofimo Lopez and Richardson Hitchens and Alcatraz and, you know, all this kind of wild stuff. The reality is all the business will take place next week in Riyadh. That is, you know, his

excellency doesn't really do a lot of deals not face-to-face. So next week is going to be a week of very little sleep, a tremendous fight card, and a lot of fights and a lot of deals getting made as well. And I think if we're going to make Tiafemo against Richardson Hitchens in a unification, that fight will get made next week.

And if we're going to do Jack Cattrall, that fight may get next week. He has to beat Barboza first. It's a very good fight, but the winner of this fight on Saturday will be in a golden position for 140 pounds. What do you make of this Alcatraz stuff? He said it last week to ESPN, now you see The Ring talk about it, I believe earlier today,

saying that they're targeting Tiofimo Lopez. Is that a real thing? Could that actually happen? Yeah, I mean, what I've done really well, considering my, say, weaknesses, I've done really well keeping my mouth shut around his excellence, his plans, because normally I just spill the beans on everything. But this stuff is probably three months old, if I'm honest.

You know, the first time that we discussed this was around the Furiusic fight, you know, back in December. He showed me his plans of the kind of places that he would like to stage major fight cards. And I'm just sitting there, you know, you know like yeah it's really difficult to explain you know you're sitting there in his we could call it house other people may call it a state um and you know you're just looking at these screens going you know and then all of a sudden it's not just like we can do Alcatraz like this mad professor. It's we could do Alcatraz and here's how it would look. And here's who we've spoken to. And this would happen. And this would happen.

It's like I can't tell you the levels around the madness. And when he first tells me this, I'm thinking he's just like and then like many things he does, you start to actually look at the people behind it, who are involved with it. You know, the research and development has gone into the concept and it can work. You know, it's going to create a huge amount of noise as is the, you know,

the May card with, with Haney and Garcia in Times Square or whatever it ended up being. So it's, it's wild times. And next week we will be flat out trying to make the most of a wonderful situation for boxing that is just seeing so many doors open for the sport and so many opportunities for fighters. And, you know, we're here for it in a small way, a big way,

or whatever way you want. I want to ask you about that card in a moment, but going back to you being a big way, or whatever way you want. I want to ask you about that card in a moment, but going back to you being a newsbreaker, last week it was all like, per Eddie Hearn, Jake Paul versus Canal Alvarez is done. You were the guy who broke the news. It was unbelievable. And obviously we know what happened. Can I get, now that it's done, because if I'm being honest, you know, I like to go on YouTube and you do like eight interviews a day, it seems, with all these different outlets, but you haven't really done one. I can't find one. I looked everywhere because maybe you're not in Manchester yet about the aftermath of all of this. And so the way it all kind of played out

with Canelo siding with Turkey and Jake not getting the fight and the four-fight deal and then doing the Cinco de Mayo fight in Riyadh, what is your take on how all this kind of shaked out? Yeah. I mean, firstly, all I said in the interview was I've heard that that fight is a group. And by the looks of things, it was, you know, in a sense of moving forward and speaking to potential stakeholders and broadcasters. So I don't know, I mean, it's a wild turn of events, and I guess we'll never know the exact truth. But from the outside, it looks like Jake and Canelo were negotiating for a fight with a broadcaster. Originally, the plan was for Canelo Alvarez

to fight Terence Crawford in September. And, you know, my opinion, maybe His Excellency didn't want to stage a fight like Crawford against Canelo Alvarez after Canelo against Jake Paul. So maybe they had a conversation and said, look, you know, I don't want to do that. And one of the problems with this is Canelo had to fight in May. He wasn't going to wait until September. So probably in Canelo's head, he's going, Jake Paul in May, Crawford in September.

Sweet. What a great year. You know, cash the check. But maybe the Crawford fight disappeared. And then, you know, his excellency said, look, we'll give you the fight in May. And sort of mapped out a schedule. And whether it's

two four fights whatever it is and you know I think that what his excellency does very well is he does map out that roadmap for a fighter that you work with so it's not just like oh you know you'll fight in May it's you'll fight in May and if you win that, you'll go on and fight in October, November against this guy and then if you win that, and it's it's kind of like fantasy boxing, where you know, it's like, you know, Tia Fimo fights Hitchens and then if the winner moves up

they fight Boots and then, you know Haney fights you know, in May and Garcia fights, if they win, they fight each other and it's just like and i think fighters like that they like a plan mapped out for them and clearly canelo alvarez liked the plan that was mapped out for them knowing canelo like you do do you think he was sincere in his interest to fight jake or do you believe the other theory that was thrown out is that he just used

jake to get a better deal from turkey. I don't want to stir anything up. I have to be honest. I think Canelo Alvarez was very much interested in buying Jake Hall because he's all about the deal. And not being funny, if you've achieved everything that Canelo Alvarez has achieved, he's got more legacy than you can eat. You're going to get a hundred million dollars

or there or thereabouts to fight Jake Paul. I mean, why wouldn't he? And I don't know how deep it was. I don't know what was signed, you know, MIRs, you know, like whatever, but ultimately it fell through. But I, I would, you know, by the sound of things, that fight was on the brink. Earlier today, Alexander Usyk was doing media and he said he has two fights left. And he said that he's interested in fighting the winner of Daniel Dubois versus Joseph Parker. And then

there's one fight left um i know you don't rep him but obviously you you you have a very uh famous heavyweight uh in your stable among others what would you you know if it is in fact dubois versus parker what do you think the last one is going to be because i also know that you've talked about jio pataya moving up to heavyweight to fight him yeah look who's six done it all? Undisputed at Cruiserweight, undisputed at heavyweight. He's going to want a lot of money to fight. And I'm not sure

what that fight looks like, delivering the kind of money that he may need to fight again. You know, the Dubois Parker winner, of course, provides another undisputed fight. I love the Jai Appatai fight,

especially if he can become undisputed at Cruiserweight because the story is fantastic. I don't know. I kind of feel like Usyk's completed boxing. Really? And I don't think... Usyk's a little bit different animal to Canelo. I mean, they all love money. Who doesn't?

But he's a little bit different in my opinion. I don't think Usyk's sitting there now saying, I'm just fighting for money. Give me the money, I'll fight anyone. I think he cares about the roadmap and he cares about his legacy. What a way to bow out.

By all accounts, he's not going to. It's difficult to do that when you put in two back-to-back great performances. Actually, not two. Probably five or seven, eight, nine, ten great performances. So he's not really showing any signs of old age or deterioration. So I think the next step will be interesting. Listen, everyone's ruling out and writing off Joseph Parker.

He's got a great shot in the fight. Couldn't agree more. And I actually think he may pull off the upset. I think he's a slight underdog going into that fight. Speaking of the heavyweight division, you're always asked about AJ and rightfully so. And it feels like we've gotten spoiled at this point because we get all the fights that we want.

All the super fights are being made, except for the one that we've been talking about for the last five, six, seven years, and that's AJ versus Fury. Have you and the team officially moved on from Fury? And I don't think AJ is the type of guy who's going to wait for anyone per se. And so I'm just wondering, I saw the Martin Bacoli thing, you've already refuted it. Wilder, you've refuted it. So are you guys moving on at this point? Yeah. I mean, now when I say we refuted it the media or twitter or whatever it was reported that the baccali fight was signed and agreed and the wilder fight was signed agreed

we've not had one conversation yet regarding anthony's next opponent those conversations will probably begin after next week or in riad um and we don't rule anybody out i mean really when you talk about tyson fury he would need to come out of retirement in the next couple of weeks to fight AJ next, because AJ's looking to fight himself twice this year, first one in the summer, June, whenever that's going to be, and then again at the end of the year.

So if Fury doesn't come out of retirement soon, of course that fight's not going to happen next. Is it Bercouli? Is it Wilder? Is it Dubois Parker winner? Is it Kaviel Zhang winner? I mean, it honestly could be anyone. He's just, you know, the mojo's back.

He's back in camp. And he will be watching the Riyadh fight, the World Heavyweight Championship. In his mind, he wants to fight Daniel Dubois. Don't forget, he's a fighter you know you never get a fighter to look at the Dubois rematch and go

oh I won't be taking that they want they always want to avenge defeat and it comes with a world heavyweight championship so

the Wilder fight I get it was definitely not a fight that we ever considered after his defeat if he comes back with a win in March

or whenever he fights maybe Bacoli in Africa I think is an incredible event you know we're well placed AJ is still you know to the

disappointment of many people AJ is still the money of the heavyweight division and we can really fight whoever we want but AJ will do what he's always done in his career which is continue to take the biggest of the heavyweight division. And we can really fight whoever we want. But AJ will do what he's always done in his career, which is continue to take the biggest of challenges.

True or false, AJ versus Fury happens in 2025? False. False. Damn it. I thought you were going to hit us with a true. I know. I just, I don't know. I mean, maybe it's for good.

You know, the problem is with Tyson is if he doesn't stay in a gym, if he doesn't keep ticking over, like all of a sudden, you know how the year goes. It's about to turn into March. March becomes June. June becomes September. The year's over for a fighter. And I don't think AJ is going to be fighting.

I mean, how many fights has AJ got two three it's around that kind of number okay so I'll hit you with this one true or false Katie Taylor Amanda Serrano three happens in 2025 true oh yeah

well that's exciting I'm not going to go into it too much because that's my big mouth but you know I've actually been having some pleasant conversations with Nikisa and and uh MVP about a number of stuff but you know around this fight you know it just makes so much sense and you know the opportunity bouncing off the platform and the numbers that it did last time, there is a very good chance that we see that fight next. I think fight fans deserve it.

I think Amanda Serrano deserves it. She's given us two epic fights against Katie Taylor. Both fights were razor thin decisions. Katie deserves everything. So the talks continue. We'll have to see. But I'm confident you see that next. The state of this lawsuit between you and Jake, where does that stand?

Ongoing. But the more you talk, the better things get. Okay. So perhaps a resolution in sight? I'd always prefer a resolution. You know, you have to protect your name and you have to protect your company, especially when it's a family business that's been built over 40 years. But also at the same time, you know, we would always rather move forward with people than have, you know, roadblocks into doing potential fights and business. The one thing I'll always say about MVP

and Mattroom and Mekesa and Jake is despite that issue, we have continued to do business, and we've continued to provide opportunities for our fighters, particularly Katie and Amanda. In a boxing scenario, that lawsuit, that issue could have actually meant you don't even talk, let alone make a fight. So, you know, I think that's, you know, that's a real plus point of the work that we do. And fair play to them as well. You know, they've always kept the business cordial.

And we've done good business together. And hopefully we can make another epic fight amanda and katie could fight 10 times yeah every fight will be a fight that you can attend though no but they are approaching the end there's no doubt but the quality is exactly the same there are reports that the nfl is gonna uh stage stage a game next year at Croke Park. And I've seen some people say like, Eddie and Mattroom deserve an apology. They deserve an explanation. How could they pick the NFL over Katie Taylor? When you see this, what is your reaction? delta of the nfl versus a katie taylor event but the boxing has always been punished by the i don't even say middle and upper class because it's not it's you know it's the governor and it continues to be punished not just in ireland but in england and britain because they don't understand the sport and they don't understand what the sport does not just in the community but the

reach that it has you know people just look down their nose at boxing and they continue to do it at that level you know at government level and you know they look at at an NFL event and they think, right, why don't we spend 15 times more to bring an American sport to Dublin rather than one of our greatest ever athletes in an event that will go down as the greatest event in the history of Irish sport or boxing. But I get it as well. You're talking about the It does drive, you know, huge tourism to the region. And everything is, there's a mathematical equation behind every government decision like that. But the reality is no one ever fights for boxing. You know, and that's the same here. No one's out there in the government.

Actually, there is an MP, Chris Webb, shout out to him, who's taking the conversation to Parliament and will be there soon to back that up, to say, I think we need to look at this sport and actually what it does for the community and how it can tackle, you know, the negative mindset of the next generation, which is causing our country a huge amount of problems with gang crime and knife crime and violence. And, you know, they just don't get it. And sometimes, you know, people will look down their nose at the sport and clearly they fancied the old American NFL instead of one of their own. I did hear the GAA say that she's not going to fight there in 2025 and accused you of, quote, megaphone diplomacy. Did you hear this? Yeah, I mean,

they're actually probably just not happy that I spoke out and told the truth. And the truth is, to hire Crowe Park, they want twice as much money than to hire Wembley Stadium, the national stadium in London.

When, as well, it's for one of their own, they're absolute heroes. So we were never asking for funding or for government help. We were just asking the stadium to have a price point alongside the national stadium in London,

the Wembley Stadium, where we've staged many, many a fight. But you can't have conversations with these people because they just, they don't want boxing. They look down their nose at the sport. As I said, we don't want boxing at Croke Park. Really? Okay. Well, you're talking about the greatest ever, in my opinion, Irish athlete, sportswoman, who deserves this more than anyone,

one of the purest souls, who epitomizes the spirit of her country. But it's okay. We can do an NFL event instead. I'll ask you just a couple more and let you go. I love going around the horn with you here. We had Sandy Ryan and Michaela Mayer on the program last week. Tremendous stuff.

And I'm still trying to figure out the mystery behind the paint. Sandy's your fighter. This is going down March 29th. Who did this? She wants to move on. But come on, this is like straight out of a movie. A can of paint being thrown at your fighter as she's walking out. Who, in your opinion, did this to her?

I can't. I'm not going to point fingers, but let's just make one thing clear. Absolutely no one is randomly targeting Sandy Ryan at her hotel before she leaves to go to Madison Square Garden. Like, obviously there is a strategy behind this attack. I have no idea where it came from, but it's in a circle. It's not just some bloke who's just sitting in Queens and went, oh, you know what?

I'm going to go to the hotel and pull up in the car strategically as she falls out because someone's phoned me from the hotel to let me know she's coming out, jump out of the car, put the hazard lights on, sling paint all over her, and then get back in and speed off. But this is a targeted attack. And listen, it's not really, but it is life. Bullshit happens. But people are nasty. People are evil.

And unfortunately, on the biggest night of her career, they won. And they didn't just win in the ring. They won by putting this champion off her gun and making sure it was absolutely impossible to be 100% in that fight. I'll be honest with you, if I was there, I would have probably said, don't fight. But she wanted to fight. And I believe her trainers even said, don't fight but she wanted to fight and I believe her trainers even

said, look, you don't have to fight right now you know, she's standing on the pavement in New York, she's got paint all over she has to go upstairs she has to get in the shower, she has to scrub the paint off her body get changed again and go back to the arena and put her gloves

on and wraps on to fight. And the reality is people have scuffed. People are disgusted because what they can't have is happiness for anybody. She has worked her whole life to become world champion. She got the opportunity to fight at Madison Square Garden, headline of Madison Square Garden. And people couldn't even let her do her job. Right?

So now, and by the way, the fight was tremendous. Amazing. Now, I'm so happy that she gets another buy at the charity. Las Vegas, headline. And thank you to Top Rank because, you know, there was no rematch calls. So we took that chance. It was a great opportunity last time. It wasn't fair because there is no way she could have been 100%.

So I'm a big believer in karma. And whatever happened that night, God will repay us with what we deserve. And that will be a thrilling fight. And I believe Sandy Ryan will win that championship back. And when she does, it will be sweet. Respect to both. Two tremendous fighters.

But something went down that night that is completely wrong and just not fair. Straight out of pro wrestling. Never seen anything like that before. Speaking, this weekend is a great weekend of boxing. Not only your show on Saturday, there's a Golden Boy show later in the evening on Saturday night. But the top-ranked card here in New York is phenomenal. And Keyshawn Davis is at the top of the bill.

And I would love to see Keyshawn versus Andy Cruz because they have a great history. Is there any chance of this happening? I see him moving up the ranks in the IBF rankings, but I'd love to see that fight. Can we see that this year if he wins? Keyshawn's a great fighter. He's a great personality as well.

He'll beat Baranchich handily on Saturday. When you look at the lightweight division, you know, the king of the lightweight division, in my opinion, is Shakur Stevenson, right? The fight with him and Gervonta Davis is one of the great, great fights that has to happen in 2025. He also has to get past Floyd Schofield next week,

but all being well, that's the fight we should make. Keyshawn and Shakur will never fight each other. They're very close. When I look at the options at 135, tell me a better fight, tell me a greater narrative, tell me a better build-up, tell me a greater fight of history than Keyshawn

against Andy Cruz. Because Keyshawn is a competitor and Keyshawn is a competitor. And Keyshawn knows that they boxed four times in the amateurs. And Keyshawn could not lace Andy Cruz's boots. Right? Now, everyone says that the amateurs are the amateurs. And the pros are granted.

Still boxing. That is a brilliant, brilliant fight between two tremendous young fighters. And all we've got to do is just keep getting Andy up the rankings, hopefully into a mandatory position for a world title. But I believe, normally you'd duck Andy Bruce, right? I think Keyshawn's got more of that than that. I think Keyshawn will got more of Adam than that. I think Keyshawn will want to fight Andy Cruz because otherwise Andy Cruz will call Keyshawn Davis his son for the rest of his career. That was tremendous.

By the way, another true or false, Tank Shakur. You really think that happens in 2025? It is. On this area, right? Shakur, I was with him last night in London as far as, I love this kid. I think he's one of the greatest fighters

of our generation. He's got 28, three-division world champion already. He's not even got out first gear. Javonta Davis, amazing fighter. So exciting. Big draw.

That's the fight. Who else can chip onto Davis Fire that's for the king that's for supremacy at 135 pounds now you've got Keyshawn Davis in the mix

now you've got Andy Cruz in the mix it's an amazing division but Shakur against Tank is one of the great American fights oh yeah

and I believe I believe our man wins wholeheartedly so yes let's get through Floyd's Go Field next week. Zapata in the summer, tank at the end of the year. That's the year we want for Shukla. Okay. By the way, your guy, Dimitri Bivol,

getting another crack next week against Artur Beterbiev. I see some people saying if Bivol wins, you got to do the trilogy. I say hogwash. We've seen it twice. It was great. I want Benavidez versus the winner of that fight. What do you prefer? If yourivol wins, you've got to do the trilogy. I say hogwash. We've seen it twice. It was great. I want Benavidez versus the winner of that fight. What do you prefer?

If your guy wins. As long as we get the win. It's going to be a very tough fight again. Two amazing fighters. If Bivol comes through, maybe Canelo steps up at some point and fights him for the Undisputed at 175. Benavidez against Bivol, great fight. Benavidez, I like the fact that Benavidez took on Morel because Morel's a serious fighter and he has no name value. So that's what I'm saying.

Like, Andy Cruz, like, you have to have the balls to fight these people. You have to make that call. You have to pull the trigger because everyone else will go, why would you fight David Morel? He's really good, but he's just not a draw. Well, Benavidez did it and he deserves credit

and he deserves respect for that. But, yeah, huge fight for Bivol. We've got Madweek next week. You know, we've got Bivol against Betabier. We've got Madrimov against Virgil Ortiz,

which is just an unbelievable fight. You know, we've got Shakur against Floyd Schofield and we've got Callum Smith against Blancy in an all-British. I mean, it's just like this. Honestly, I mean, Manchester this Saturday is a great club, great night of boxing. Next week, you've never seen anything like it.

And you may never see anything like it again, honestly. Great times for boxing. Yes. Boxing's red hot. Now, I saw your comment, Ariel, where you said, you know, right now when you talk about boxing and MMA, where's the narrative? You know, where are the big events? Who's talking about what? Boxing's just gone like that.

I got killed for that one, Eddie. It's true. But you know what? I know it's crazy. The hype has been around MMA, around UFC. And it continues to be, by the way. It's an amazing business, an amazing product. But you cannot deny, right now, boxing is hotter. And it continues to be, by the way. It's an amazing business, an amazing product. But you cannot deny, right now,

boxing is hotter and everybody's talking about it and we're getting all the big fights, all the big cards, all the promoters are trying harder than ever to try and bridge the gap

between themselves and Riyadh season, which is very difficult to do. But it's just an amazing time for boxing. What was fascinating about that was how many, quote unquote,

like old boxing heads were coming in. Ah, it was better in the 70s, it was better in the 80s. Lou DiBella, I love you, but why are you so negative about the sport that made you into who you are today? It wasn't MMA fans that were mad at me. Listen, live in the moment.

Let's just be thankful for what we got. Amazing times. Two last quick ones. By the way, speaking of that amazing time that we're in, you think your friends at TKO are really getting into it? Are they finally going to do it? You think so? Yeah.

Good. Another amazing shot now for boxing. Bring them on, right? Bring them on. They're going to get rid of the Aliak too. Listen, don't matter. We're up for it. We're in it.

We're game for the fight. We're up for working with everybody. And life is good. And last one, be honest. When they announced, and you probably knew long before, who am I kidding? But when you found out that Frank and company were coming over to the app, right? He slagged you off when you made the deal with DAZN, right? What is this, some app?

No, our fights are on broadcast TV. Did you send him a cheeky text? Did you make a... You don't have to. You don't have to say anything. You just have to know that many years ago, we made the move to the app.

Dead Zone. Yes. That is now the place of global destination for boxing. That every promoter in the world is begging to be a part of. And guess who went on there first? What? Mortimeria,

top rank, PBC, whoever. Come on board. This is the ultimate offering for fight fans. And I'm very proud of everything the zone has done. Well done. Good luck this weekend.

Looking forward to it very much. Good luck next week. Always a pleasure, Eddie. Thank you. We're dubbing this now. They told me on our chat here, I said around the horn. That's an American term.

I don't know if you're familiar with it. Around the horn. Are you familiar with this term? Not particularly. Sounds interesting. When you say you're going around the horn with someone, it's like you're hitting a bunch of different topics it's a baseball term you throw the ball around the hern around the hern around the horn with you old chap

around the hern i love it see what you did there amazing thank you eddie appreciate it cheers there he is eddie hern joining us uh great to have him on always. Is that not a term over in the UK? Around the horn? No? Nah. Okay. But around the hern is the new term. Yeah. What's this?

Speaking of Keyshawn Davis, do we have this? Yeah, we do. This is a tweet. Keyshawn Davis, he's fighting Dennis Branczyk, who is the champ. And 11 years, I do believe, his senior, proud Ukrainian fighter. He just posted this. What's going on in New York? All kinds of shenanigans. First, Sandy Ryan gets a paint can thrown her way. Dennis Branczyk and his team sent

this to my room. I never thought bro was racist, but this fight just got a little more personal. Here's a snack for all those what does that say? High jumps? Stay energized. Business warm. Because his name is businessman. They gave him bananas? And other... And watermelon?

Come on. Legit from his team? How does he know? Also, is that his room number on there? What's going on in New York? I mean, can we calm down here for a second? Jeez Louise. Great face-off, which we will show you after our last interview of the day. There's a lot of heat between those two. If you're in the New York area, go to the theater this weekend. That's the theater right next door to MSG. Abdullah Mason, one of the best prospects in the sport. Jared Anderson coming back.

Vito Milniecki on the card as well. Nico Ali Walsh on the card. I might be forgetting someone as well, but the main event is a great one. I'm actually unavailable. I would love to go to this card, but unfortunately I shall be forgetting someone as well, but the main event is a great one. I'm actually unavailable. I would love to go to this card, but unfortunately, I shall be watching on ESPN Plus and not in person. Now, one of the big stories this past weekend in Australia was the UFC debut of Ilya Teporia's brother.

Yes, his older brother, Alexandre Teporia, finally coming over to the UFC, and we've been waiting quite some time for this. He was supposed to debut last year. He put that plan on hold to be there for his brother as he was en route to capturing the featherweight title, but then we finally got the debut on Saturday evening, Sunday in Australia. He was successful, and he is well on his way now. He's kind enough to join us from all the way over in Spain. Let us say hello to El Conquistador himself, Alexandre Tortoria. How are you, my friend? Good to see you.

And thanks for coming on the show. Thank you. Thank you. Congratulations on your debut. Has it sunk in? You're officially a UFC fighter as well. It feels good, man. There was a lot of talk, obviously, a lot of talk obviously a lot of attention a lot of

buzz because of your last name uh let's not kid ourselves and so i'm wondering how did you not put that pressure on your shoulders because you are not your brother he has his life his career you have your own but of course because of your name, there was so much attention on you. Yes. Yes, like you said, because of my last name. So, but I think I handle it very good. And the reason is, I think it's the hard work, for sure. I work hard, so I just concentrate in the hard work. I had a tunnel vision and just had focus in my opponent. So, yes, I think I handled it very good.

What did you think when they booked you against one of Volkanovski's guys? And now all of a sudden, it's not just the last name, it's the history with your brother and Volkanovski. It's like, ugh, enough. You know, they're really leaning into this. Colby Thickness, great young man as well,

but it seemed like there was a lot there for a debut. Did you kind of wish that it was against someone else? Absolutely not, Ariel. Who was my opponent? Colby. Colby, yes. Like you said, Colby was my opponent. So I, before, to me, it wasn't some new scenario having Volkanovski in front of me.

The last time we had him as an opponent, we got the job done, thanks God. And right now, he wasn't my opponent. He was just in his corner so when inside the cage i knew that the fight day i will have colby and and the cage so why i will waste my focus on in alexandria volkanovski you know so it absolutely doesn't mean nothing to me. And I think you can feel the calm and my fight style. Yeah, when you see, I was absolutely good.

So concentrated and Kobe, nothing. And the rivalry, like the story of the rivalry with Aleksandr Volkanovski, it was just for you guys. I get it.

One thing I do want to give you credit about is I always noticed, especially after the fight, all the media that you did, you always were giving a lot of love to Colby and saying that you hope that he sticks around and gets a contract. You were very, very complimentary of him, which showed, I think, a lot of class on your part.

So well done. He's a great great guy he's a great fighter he gets a lot of heart you know and i wish that he get the opportunity to fight like i said like i said before i don't know and if anything gonna change uh because I'm talking and asking for that you know but I would love to see him inside the biggest octagon in the world and because because he put put it all you know when they call him and they ask him for the fight he says okay let's go let's fight in the biggest lockdown in the world two weeks uh to preparation for the preparation so uh you know he he gave us a very good fight i think you enjoy guys he don't step back you know he was all the time looking for win the fight it wasn't his night but i think this guy deserved at least one opportunity you know give him one fight if he did good and give him contract for more fights sure um can Can I ask, you know, it's very unique

to see someone debut when their last fight was almost two years prior. And so considering that, how do you feel about how you looked out there and how you fought? You know, I didn't fight two years, but two years, but was i was very comfortable i didn't was um how can i say i didn't feel inside the cage uncomfortable you know as i didn't feel that in any moment that

i don't have experience some experience or or like that. I feel very good. Like I fight one month before. And this is because a lot of training with high-level guys. And like I said, hard work. And for sure, it's very important. Not just hard work, but work smart. Is it true that you were supposed to debut last February, not just hard work, but work smart, you know? Is it true that you were supposed to debut last February,

but then once you found out that your brother was going to fight for the belt, you said that you wanted to focus all of your attention on him and you delayed the debut? That I supposed to debut in UFC before Ilya's fight? No, in February of last year when he was getting ready to fight, the same month that he fought Volkanovski. I've read this, but I wanted to ask you if that was true. And then you said you didn't want to fight that month because you wanted to focus on your brother fighting for the belt.

Is that true? No, the story was a little bit different. Okay. I had, they booked my fight in november okay so i put my fight on the side to have a camp with ilya to concentrate and put all the concentration in okay yeah that was the thing so i put my fight on the side. We concentrated on him 100%. Then he fight. And for sure, my plans was to have some fights before I get UFC contract.

And actually, they booked me a fight in November. But when UFC calls Ilya to fight with Volkanovski, we had a talk and we take decision to put on the side my fight and let's have 100% of concentration in Ilya's fight to do everything good to get the job done, which we was, and what we was working so much years, you know, and finally we have the opportunity. So let's do the things good. Let's take the belt. And after that, we can concentrate on ourselves too.

So thanks, God. We take the belt and but my plans was still fight outside the UFC so get maybe two fights three fights and after that uh do my UFC debut but for some reasons, for sure, Ilya becomes UFC champion. Ilya take the decision to talk with UFC and to push for the UFC contract. So finally, they decided to send me a UFC contract. And for sure, when I have UFC contract in my hands, I had a talk with me, know like right now what can I do like keep fighting outside the UFC or go directly in the deep waters you know

and prove myself with the best guys in the world so if I have level I will stay there and if not they're gonna kick me out so yes I take the decision and i signed the usc contract and yes here we are thanks god and i make my usc debut everything is and everything is good now that's a very impressive thing for an older brother to do i know i know you you love

your brother and you look out for him and you want to see him succeed but to to delay your own dreams and plans to focus on him, I don't know how many people would do that. So you deserve a lot of credit for that. That was my dream too. So I don't consider it like I put my dreams on the side because to see him become ufc world champion and the best guy the best fighter in the world it was my dream too you know so long time i my little brother like this this is

crazy and if i have to do it one more time, I will do it without any problem. You know, it's like, it's all fight. You know, it's all dream. You did an interview after your fight with Full Sand MMA, and you talked about your loss in 2015, your one loss. And you alluded to some stuff that I would love to ask you about, like almost like you were dealing with some demons or something that kind of made you wonder if you were going to keep fighting and whatnot. Can I ask you what exactly you were referring to there?

Because it was just one loss, everything worked out, you got back on track. What were you experiencing after that fight? Like in that moment, there's a lot of things you know it was like i say one thing but there's a lot of details that it's a little bit difficult to explain and maybe a little bit i don't know if i want to do it you know like i understand cameras and and talk about but yes like you said i have to fight with my demons you know and and take the correct decision to stay focused and and sport and my career and finally i take the decision now i'm good but in that moment yeah what can i say i don't want i i didn't was so concentrated so I lose a little bit of concentration about

the sport, you know, and yeah, for sure, like I said, I'm Georgian, sometimes I go a little bit crazy, you know, and yeah, so it's better for me to be concentrated in sport. And yes. When you say go crazy, what do you mean by that? It's like, yes, everything about, you know, when you're moving the street, like go crazy, what it means. Take bad decisions and don't do uh like yes i don't want to talk you know like

yeah because there is like nothing good to say i understand um what what you when you think about the streets what you think about bad things yes Yeah, bad things. Things that you don't have to do. Yes. Can I ask you this? I've heard both you and your brother talk about, you know, the upbringing was tough in Georgia, right? And your family moved to Spain and everything worked out. To see how far your family has come and where the Teporia family name is now,

like your brother is world-renowned, you're on your way, you're in the UFC. To see what you guys have survived as a family and to do what you're trying to do for your your loved ones as well uh is that sometimes hard to process because i understand you know when you were younger it wasn't very easy back home in georgia yes so first of all, I feel very proud about my fathers. We followed their steps. They gave us some principles in life. And I think looking at what they did in this life makes us who we are today you know our guys who we are workers you know we just work and to do everything for for sure become bigger and bigger ourselves to help everyone and every close people family and you know so what can i say i feel very proud about proud about them and I still learn from them. And when I look everything back, I feel blessed, you know, because, you know, hard times make hard men. So I'm very grateful and thanks God that we have to pass everything you know to

become who we are today so yes what can I say very proud about them it's a it's a wonderful story by the way which football club do you do support you know truly no football no football I like some of guys you know like players but if you ask me which club Toporius club

I love that I like your shoes as well you had custom shoes on Fight Week very impressive who made those but which one you're oh okay okay okay yes they they they sent me a packet with this and there's another one too truly i don't know his name i don't know his name but but thank you very much, man. I like that shoes.

He just made it for you as a gift. Yes, yes. It's a gift. It's a gift. Very good guy. Thank you very much. I think he's from Australia. And if I have a chance to post his name, I will do it.

So thank you very much. I appreciate that. Very cool. Cool. I love it. I have another one. He sent that one, and he sent another one in white with Georgian and Spain flag. Wow. I think his name is Ciccio Customs.

C-I-C-C-I-O Customs. Let's go. Yes. Thank you very much. And by the way, it was great to see all the support that you had from, you know, obviously your team, your brother, Murab. Did you know, by the way, that Guram, he works on our show. He's here.

He's on our show. Yes, look. Where is he? Guram. What's up, brother? Look at this guy. This is Guram right here No Isn't it exactly him

Let's go Goram is a little bit prettier Brother Damn It looks exactly like Goram Come on look at that It's amazing You have something

Similar but yes He's the Georgian Viking man Where are you from I'm actually from Georgia But the state In the United States of America. So I'm also from Georgia. All right, I'll take this. I'm the ugly Guram.

I'll take this. Oh, no, no. That's good. You're good, too. That's amazing. What about this Henry Cejudo, by the way? Do you see this guy? He said you were fighting without intensity,

and then he changed his opinion. Did you see his tweets? This is him on the night. He said, the biggest favorite favorite on the card and he fought with no intensity i wasn't too impressed with alexandre he spelled your name wrong to poria in his 312 debut but then a couple days later he writes alexandre to poria was dominant in his ufc debut showcasing his striking ability and landing this impressive suplex to close out the round just like his brother ilia did in his debut so what's up with henry he's changing his uh his opinions on you wow truly i didn't see this you know this is the first time i see actually today i he puts on video he follow i follow and and social media instagram and know, it doesn't make me feel bad

if somebody don't like something about it. This is fight game, you know. This is the, like, I think, essential. It's the word. Yeah, yeah. Essential fight game, you know, to have different opinions. You know, so when we talk about the emotions i think this is the very important part to have control about this world uh fight world and fan base which have the fight game. Because there's always different options, opinions, sorry.

And you have to respect that. If yesterday he didn't like it and he saw another time the fight and he said, okay, now I think I like it, good. So finally he likes it. So I'm happy for that. But if he doesn't like it, I'm happy for that too. When do you want to return? So maybe I don't have like any date, Ariel. I don't have any date. But I think maybe in summer.

Okay. Not Miami. Too soon Miami, yeah? Miami too soon. Let's say like that. I supposed to fight in 2024, like four times. They tell me like different places. I'm talking about the management it was like oh

maybe you're gonna fight here be prepared maybe you're gonna fight there be prepared and for some reasons it doesn't happen you know so I was all the time in the preparation and this little bit like you know when you are all the time and

yeah yeah hard intensity and trainings and cutting and this little bit like, you know, when you are all the time and yeah, yeah. Heart intensity and trainings and cutting the weight all the time, because the truth is that I, I'm, let's say big bent on weight, you know, when I'm out outside from the camp. Yes. I'm, I think I'm a little bit bigger than you think, guys. Yeah. What do you walk around at? So maybe in kilos, let's say,

when I don't control the weight all the time and when I take the lifts, when I'm lifting, yes, when I'm lifting, maybe like 76 and a little bit more, maybe sometimes. 76 is 167 pounds, so 30 pounds or so. Do you think there's going to be a day Ilya moves to 55, you move to 45? I think I have to do that in the future. Okay. Only when he moves up or will you go sooner?

No, it doesn the future. Okay. Only when he moves up or will you go sooner? No, it doesn't matter. Okay. Maybe I will see. Maybe the next one. Yes. Maybe the next one. I don't think so. Okay.

Now I will fight. I will keep fighting in 135. Right now I can. Right now, listen, right now I can right now listen right now I come back and I don't get so crazy you know before I do crazy styles I eat a lot you know

after the fights but right now I don't know maybe because I've become UFC fighter you know get a little bit like different point when you are UFC fighter you become yeah get a little bit like different point when you are a uc fighter you you become like more professional like when yes yeah when you play in champion leagues you know yes yes yes do you have a preference who who the next opponent is to say somebody some name i don't know. Maybe Andy Cejudo.

I like it. I like it. He's got a fight coming up in two weeks, but after that, no problem. You're ready for the Cejudos. You're ready for those guys, in your opinion? Yeah, yes, Ariel. I think that I'm ready.

If you ask me, yes. I love it. I love it. And I like the fact that, you know, you're taking your time. You're not trying to do anything crazy, but that you want to fight these top guys. Why not, right? For sure. I'm here for that.

Are you? Yes. Why I'm here if not? For sure. That's the goal to fight with the best guys in the world you know that's the goal not let's not even talk about the belt yeah the intensity about fighting with the best guys in the world and prove yourself and and i think that's that's what get what makes me feel like the reason why I want to fight, you know. Not the belt.

Let's put, okay, the belt is good for sure because with the belt comes a lot of things, you know. If we talk about economic part, you know. But fighting with the best guys in the world, with the top guys, that's the real essential of fight game. Well, brilliant stuff. And by the way, afterwards, tremendous dancing as well. I saw you and Marab getting down after the fight.

Very nice. Yeah, you know, when you meet with Marab, you always dance. There you are. Look at this, when you meet with Merab, you always dance. There you are. Look at this, look at this. Merab, on the spot. You have to dance. Yeah, you were ready to go.

Let's go. Ready to go. Anytime, anywhere. Amazing. Well, congratulations. Well done. Congratulations to you and your family on all the success. And now we are looking forward to your journey in the UFC. Great to have you on. I know it's late over there in Spain, so thank you

so much for the time and for doing this late. Thank you very much. Thank you, man. Thank you. Okay. We'll talk to you soon. There he is. El Conquistador. Alexandre Toporia, the older brother of one Ilya Toporia, well on his way now. And quite the dancer as well. Have we ever seen Ilya do the dance? I don't know well Have we ever seen Ilya do the dance? I don't know if we've ever seen Ilya do the dance And what about that Guram side by side there? He wasn't quite sure, huh? He cooked my ass

I wasn't happy about that GC My mom said that Guram is the ugly Connor Burks Yes That's a fact That's what a mom should say By the way, you tweeted that photo It was Izzy Alex Pereira

And Gorham in the middle I had to take a I did a double take And then I thought that you just put Gorham in there It's a real photo right It's a real photo and there was actually a couple people That commented and were like Oh that's so dope man

Thinking it was you Did you actually think that I was Do we have the photo there i mean this is uncanny this is unbelievable it's just the beard is a little bigger it's a little thicker but otherwise when i first shaved my head and i had like the beard much more grown out uh it was it really was uncanny so you asked me before the show like if we could ever link up so it looks like he owns a gym much more grown out. It really was uncanny. It's unbelievable. So you asked me before the show if we could ever link up. So it looks like he owns a gym in Sweden.

So I think that's where he resides. I said before the show. It's all the stars, right? We need some kind of fight, feast, link up. You and him eating Georgian food. I was going to say Georgian food with Garam would be a dream. I feel like it has to be Georgian country food and Georgian state.

I do have to say it's hilarious that he was just like, he asked me where I'm from, and it's like, oh, I'm from Georgia. I got to be honest with you. You guys got boys in the back tomorrow? Yes. Yeah, Rick ain't coming. I mean, what is this? What is going on with the voice, Rick?

What is happening? You're so sick. This is crazy. He's been coughing left and right. What's wrong? You need to get some sleep. Actually, I sneezed about 30 minutes ago. The flu has... Rick, you're sounding increasingly worse. What is happening? You're going to Nick's game tonight. You're cooked.

You're cooked. If you're going to Madison Square Garden tonight, wear a mask, wear gloves. I don't want you near my nicks. This is the problem with working with... Brunson's out for a week for sure. This is the problem with working with soft hypochondria. Everything is a problem. Just weakness.

Just such weakness. He's just going to turn his head and just vomit and be like, What? It's just a little stomach bug. You sound horrible. This is out of love. This is out of love. I could not feel better.

I feel like a million bucks. This is like the Curb Your Enthusiasm where he has to sink the Tylenol into his drink. Feel completely fine. I could not feel better. Yeah, no, this is concerning, at least for you know you tomorrow are you are you prepared to do it solo if need be oh yeah for sure okay all right i'll bring on cheesy call me in tag me i'll bring on pizza it's so it's so pathetic uh we'll do uh we'll do boys in the crack you're on fire when they had around the hern you had in the Crack? Alright, so the funniest part is

I actually didn't have Around the Hearn. Frank did, and then I was like, put it in the chat. And he just shook his head. I was like, alright. Oh, wow. I didn't hear what you said. Okay, well, great job, Frank. Look, I give credit where credit's due. We all remember at the beginning of this

era, Frank was like, yep, I thought of the name Boys in the Crack. That was all me. I was like, okay, I thought of the name Boys in the Back. That was all me. I was like, okay, Frank, you can take it. I mean, what did you bring to the table? Boys in the Crack? That's great. That was great. Is that true, by the way?

Did he come up with it? No. I came up with it, gave it to him, and he was like, man, that's a really great name. And then there we are three months later. He's like, yeah, I thought of that. That's all you got to do is just claim it's yours. And by the way, I mean, if we're being honest, didn't I used to refer to you guys as the boys in the back? Yeah, that's where the name comes from.

Okay, so it's my idea. No, no, no. No, no, no. I think you said the GC and Rick show. I think you said G and then parentheses R-I and then C show. I was like, this is a mess. This is an abomination. You used to say it generally as a wrestling term. You're saying, this is a mess. This is an abomination. You used to say it generally

as a wrestling term. You're saying the boys in the back, you were just lobbing it out there generally. It didn't apply to me and GC specifically. I used to refer to the guys in the back. Let's go to the boys in the back. You were just doing the wrestling. You wouldn't even enunciate the words.

You were like, Mr. Pro Wrestler over here. We have branded it. By the way, you know who says that the most? Chael says that the most. He always talks about the boys in the back. So did Chael come up with it? See, this is the thing.

You're right. It is a wrestling term, just like kayfabe is a term. Just like breaking the fourth wall is a term. That needs to be the next show. No. We even have a fourth wall? We got to start with the fourth wall. That's Frank and Jordan breaking before

Frank and Jordan just arguing about great show forget fight technical details who came up with fight fees that was all I'm like I saw the opportunity I'm like you know what I'll pass it is about to let's get to some more questions shall we? Make it quick.

Yeah. I thought about that. Damn it. Can you do that again? Let's get to more. That's better than the opening stinger. That's fantastic. Oh, really?

PC, did you hear the opener? We have a new theme song. That was the best one. The face melter. That's great. This is the opener. Play it, Frank. That was the best one. The face melter. That's great. This is the opener. Play it, Frank. I didn't hear it.

And then when we rejoin, we play... Oh, and look how long it goes. It's not done yet. And then when we rejoin, we say, okay, let's get back to the questions. This is great.

Frank, what are we eating man that's amazing that's great oh wouldn't you know it more drake questions ariel this is from curly fries i love and respect you i respect that you are loyal to drake but i cannot accept this kendrick slander oh i read this one already oh you know why i screwed that up because the next question is about uh drake as well geez louise jamrock juddy hey a Ariel, regarding the Kendrick Drake feud, you said that you will always be loyal to your guy Drake. I find it similar to the McGregor situation where you stay loyal to him and continue to joke about his antics. I don't think I joke about his antics, but fine. And how quote unquote great he is when he shows up for BKFC. I don't think I say that as well, but nevertheless, my question is,

if Drake is indeed found guilty or more evidence surfaces regarding his unusual behavior with underage girls, would you still support him? No. Jesus. I've said that as well. These questions, man. Absurd. It's a matter of separating the art from the artist,

just like enjoying McGregor's rights without denouncing or but denouncing his actions and his character. Don't forget that Drake does have guys in OVO and on his payroll that have been found guilty of heinous acts, including harassment of minors. Yeah. Drake has not been found guilty of anything. It's been said in music music videos and how many times

have i said in all honesty if any of this is true i'm done if any by the way just like i ain't listening to kanye west music right now or allowing my kids to get yeezys because the dude is selling t-shirts with swastikas on them on his website yes i, I do draw the line, but as far as I'm concerned, Drake hasn't. Can I just be honest with you guys? It's all a bit of a bit. I don't really care. You're all taking it a little too seriously. It's not that serious.

Kendrick's great. I like his song. It's not enough. It's not enough. This is all just a bit? I have no idea what that song is. This is so high level. That's the bit. Rick, can you explain to them?

The bit is so high level. That's what I'm saying. It's like Kendrick Lamar. Rick knows there are people who go on social media and they go like, oh, it's just so high level. It's so intellectual. You have to watch it 10 times. It's like, oh, it's just so high level. It's so intellectual. It's just, you have to watch it 10 times.

It's like, fuck off. In their defense, the bar is pretty low. So many layers. I had to watch an 11. I had to watch an 11. Picking up the phone as if you're doing the selfie video. The halftime show was just so intellectual. What do you want?

What do you want? Metallica next year? No, fuck off. It's not about that. It just was a meh performance, okay? Like, we could keep it real here. It was meh. What's funny is...

You just don't understand. You don't get it, man. Did you be watching? It was high. It was just... It was high level. What's funny is... You only hit me 16th watch.

That's when it all came true. It was me all the nuance. It's funny because there's so many people who have said the same thing as you, but now you're kind of the poster boy for it. You have taken this on. It doesn't matter how many times you have to the same thing as you, but now you're kind of the poster boy for it. You have taken this on. It doesn't matter how many times you have to watch it, Pete. It helps if you mute it. Once you finally understand it, you get it.

I think I'll never stop fully understanding it. That's a good point, Frank. If you watch it muted. And then you get commentary on Serena Williams and all this stuff. It's like a David Lynch film. Yeah, it's not that deep. If you start Dark Side of the Moon at the same time that it comes out, it's really good. It's not that David Lynch film. Yeah, it's not that deep. If you start Dark Side of the Moon at the same time it comes out, it's brilliant. It's not that deep, guys.

But then people will be like, we just heard that concert and stuff. White Whale, Holy Grail. Sub, can we get UFC Countdown-inspired show ahead of the massive GC versus Brady-Avron bike battle? I want to see some training. Hear what the coaches are saying. And get the feel for whose head is in the game. Is GC soaking his feet in gasoline? Swimming with rocks? Is Brady getting that

gorgeous bod inked with more panty-watering tats? Golly. I should do a more sparse pre-review. This is fanfic. We need the answers. Also get the promotion going. GC deserves some pay-per-view points. Are we going to get this?

Are we going to get something? Yeah, yeah, yeah. There will be an official promo, some sort of embedded type-esque series ready, but we need a date. We need a date. No contracts have been signed. Nothing has been locked up. The kid's due tomorrow, right?

Yeah, due tomorrow. Kid's supposed to come tomorrow. Is that February 13th? That's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he has until tomorrow and then the excuses to start not making sense. Once he has the kid, then the excuses can really

start. Yeah, we'll give him some like a two, three week grace period. I've been training them. Yeah, two or three. I've been in there. I've been in the gym. Someone asked me, was I at work last week? You know, it was like Sean Brady's in on this. Is he sponsored by them as well? And I was like, no, man, this is serious. This is a blood war.

Don't ever. Have you been lifting a PT? You're looking sculpted yourself. Yeah, it's because I'm going to do the back shave tomorrow on Friday. You've got to get it ripped. Are you doing that on camera? It's none of space. Your shoulders look gigantic right now. Don't worry about it.

Don't worry about it. I'm on steroids. Okay, yeah. Because he's not in a control room with someone who's sick. He gets to look. Yeah, healthy. I don't think Rick sounds bad. I don't think Rick sounds that bad, man. Yeah, no shit. I'm fine.

That's the thing. You got a little bit of brown on your nose there, Pete. You sound great, boss. Sounds like he's got the subs. Big Money asks, Hey, what up, Ariel and gang? While studying the downfall of the Kansas City Chiefs and their Strickland-esque Super Bowl performance, you nailed it. I couldn't help but think if they had just listened to the GFL

Protect Your Neck theme song for pregame warm-ups and in the locker room during the overrated halftime show on repeat, would all of this have gone down differently? Also, for New York Rick, would you rather get DDP versus Hamzat or Eubank versus Ben in 2025? Oh, wow. They're holding my feet. By the way, did you ask this?

Who asked this? What was the name of the person? Big Money. Big Money. I don't know. That was a little too Ariel-coded. Eubank-Ben, but Hamzat-DDP right under. Eubank-Ben.

You can't waver. None. Nate Fadaber. Hello, Ben. You can't waver. None. Nate Fadaber. Hello, Ariel. On Monday's show, you said, I quote, hip hop is my favorite kind of music. I'm not one of those people. The one a couple of years ago with Eminem and Dre

and all that stuff, that was incredible. Two things. Kendrick Lamar was one of the featured artists of the 2022 Super Bowl halftime that you said you liked. Again, I've never – I like Kendrick. It's all – I'm just – I'm mocking you losers. That's what I'm doing. And by the way, he ain't one – there was no way he was one of the featured artists.

Are you kidding me? He was. He wasn't. He was a part of it. He wasn't a feature. It was Eminem and Dre and all those guys. He was a bit player at best. He was a bit player at best.

At best. Anyway, by saying Kendrick Lamar is a Johnny come lately, you do in fact sound like one of those people. Which people are you talking about? Insert, it's tough soundbite here. Be good, do good, God bless it, go Bills. You ain't a Bills fan if you're writing this type of nonsense. Wow.

All right? You want to talk about hip hop? We could talk about hip hop. What do you got? All right? You want to talk about the 90s? I'll talk about the 90s when hip-hop was at its best. Shout out.

A question for GC from Mr. Clean. I noticed when you did a recent episode of Fight Feast, I think it was the Armenian one, the chef was right beside you when you were reviewing some of the dishes. I was wondering if you find it harder to give an honest review if the chef is right beside you. Yeah.

I mean, it has to be a little bit more difficult. The guy just was killing it back in the kitchen, sweat all on his brow, and then he plops it down right in front of you. It's tough to be like, yeah, this is ass, man. Two follow-ups on that particular one? I did notice, it seemed incredible, but he did have a lot of hair.

Were there any questions about it? No, I didn't find any hair. No, no, I didn't say, but hairnet. No, no, no, there's no hairnet necessary. Okay. I wish, like, we should have done, like, a deep dive one on that, because we had, like, we were there for four hours, and we had, like, two hours of footage,

and obviously we chopped it down to, like, ten minutes. It was an experience, to say the least. Well, you can, you know, you can churn out more content. The other one I wanted to ask about was he brought out these lamb burgers that he said he whipped up that had, correct me if I'm wrong, it had feta cheese in it, and it also had mint in it. Mint mayonnaise. Mint mayonnaise. Legit good? So legit.

That might have been the best thing we ate while we were there. If I went back there, it's strictly fine. You've never had mint with pork chops or something? I don't eat pork, bro. Yeah, I don't eat lamb. I've had it with lamb already. When you said mint, I had the same opinion you did, Ariel. I was like, I don't know about that.

Yeah. Then I ate it, and I'm like, I know all about this now. All right. This is making me so hungry now. Jesus. Ryder. What's up, Ireland boys? For each of you guys, will you be watching the upcoming season of Tough?

No. Come on, man. Yeah, did you see DC got the yellow jersey? So those are sick. Yeah, sick. He has Julius Creed of WWE fame on his team. Who else? He had Bob Cook there.

He had... Yesa. Oh, yeah, Michael Yesa. Who's on TV? Sorry, you all watch this. No, no, I didn't watch shit. I ain't watching shit. By the way, that's tough colon Helwani sloppy second

Damn, bro. Like you're not gonna support your boys. No, fuck that. They what do they what do they do for me? They left me in the dust those guys I brought them to ESPN literally both of them I brought to ESPN they left me in the dust stab me in the back. He's got John Wood. Oh Oh, this is DC. This is yeah, we're talking about DC right Yeah who does Chael have Oh I don't know Those yellow jerseys are fire Did Chael post a picture Of his crew

Like DC did Who knows Anyway By the way We have a nice comment From Ariel Hawani On DC's Instagram post Where he revealed his coaches

Yes yes Sorry I couldn't make it Got you next time big dog So Yes yes yes yes Wasn't Chael saying He was going to bring you in Do you have like mental

Tips to everybody It's Chael It he was going to bring you in? Do you have mental tips for everybody? It's Chael, it's DC It's Frank It's who else? Are we team Chael or are we team DC? They're all the Paul Bearers Who else? There's someone else. Who else is there?

I don't know. The Bills, he said The Bills, the Knicks No, not the Knicks, right? Because we still want the courtside We still want the courtside, that's right I'll be there tonight, watching them Knicks No, not quite. I, right? Because we still want the courtside. We still want the courtside. That's right. I'll be there tonight watching them Knicks. Courtside? Shut up. No, not quite.

I don't got it like that. This guy is saying he's going to be on Team Chill. Anyway, this is from James. Hola, Ariel. I read a report that the main event of WrestleMania Night 1 could be CM Punk versus Roman Re Reigns vs. Seth Rollins. I don't want to see no triple threat. I don't want to see no triple threat.

I'm not a big fan of triple threat main events. And I don't know. It will be an insane match, but do you think CM Punk finally main events WrestleMania should be in a random triple threat? No. Wouldn't he have won Rumble if that was the case? Well, no. So Jey Uso. And I don't like Jey Uso against Gunther. I'm sorry, Bubba Ray. threat no i wouldn't even win rumble if that was the case right uh well no uh so so jay uso and i don't like jay uso against gunther i'm sorry bubba ray i don't like that either you win the rumble you go for the biggest title so they you know it's like they turned a great moment and then they

they kind of they kind of said oh yeah we're gonna go the predictable route like the the the way to go is he wins the rumble, he goes for Cody's belt. And now he's going to go for the secondary title. And the winner of the Chamber is going to get the Cody belt match. And they're going to main event night two. Not feeling it. I had high hopes for this one after WrestleMania 40. With The Rock involved and Roman and this and that.

And I think it will work out. I kind of feel like it should be Punk versus Reigns with the Paul Heyman story. But something missing. I did see Ricky Starks make his NXT debut. Anyone see that? People are going crazy over that. I missed it, man.

Next time. Yeah. Anyway, we move on. Matt Moe, what's up, Ariel? Who is at fault in your recent collision with a high school girl? And is your car insurance going up? Golly, Matt. I mean, you really know.

Thanks for asking. I was wondering, but I didn't want to ask. Don't say anything that your lawyer wouldn't suggest you. No, it was completely her fault. And look, she's a high school kid. Win or learn. Win or learn. These things happen.

Insurance is doing great. I currently have a rental car, a Ford Expedition. Nice. It's a big car. Wow, it's like a boat. That's a big yoke, yeah. Yeah. Did you slap her on the back?

You were like, hey, get over here, kid. Win or learn, kid. I remember my first kid. It's like, yeah, sure, we're on the side of the highway, and you're shaking, and you're nervous, and I have to talk to your mom, god knows where on the phone and my kids are wondering what the hell happened and i said listen you know these things happen them's the breaks win or learn all right well the breaks is what she had a problem with so win or learn in this

case did you win no no one won it was it was a lose-lose she was a fan of the show and she's like ariel what are you doing Well can I tell you like legit This is a shoot She said the mom said we have to call the cops And I wanted to get to my kids soccer game That's why Well that was it There's nothing more to say

That's why we fled the scene That's why you moved back to the soft side Nah there was no soft side And I said like we could just exchange information and all good. He's like, no, we got to call the cops. I'm like, golly. That's why I ran the red light and blamed it on the TV. So I call 911, and I kid you not.

Oh, what's your name? What happened? And I said, Ariel Helwine. He's like, oh, Ariel, big fan. I was like, ah. You're kidding. Yeah, I swear. Another fender bender, Helwani, huh?

It's a weird thing, man. It's a weird thing. I had to get like an Amex business card. Yeah. And you got to tell like a lot of information about that. And the guy, like, we're past like social security number address this and that and he's like by the way i have to ask are you the guy who interviews the wrestlers and i'm like come on really just gave this guy your whole entire life and he's like yeah i know that oh

love the punk interview yeah i think that was one of the security questions they ask everybody okay there's got to be like a you probably have to be qualified for some kind of like service where you're allowed to give different names or somebody does it on your behalf how could you do it i don't know i don't know how that would work but there has to be there's no way somebody is like signing up for credit cards for tom cruise or some shit and it's just like oh tom cruise yeah good point yeah there's just no way there has to be a different get into the illuminati i don't know how you're not in there yet We need to get in and figure out First I need to get Nick's courtside ticket

You travel under a different name? Yeah absolutely Wow I'm not going to tell you what the name is We can guess Yeah for sure This is incredible Matt Chiwiwi's Hello Ariel and Cruz.

So the Israel versus Kelvin fight, UFC Hall of Fame induction kind of caught me a little bit off guard. So I was wondering if you can think of any historic UFC fights that have yet to be inducted or should be inducted into the Hall of Fame. Interested to hear your thoughts. I have a couple that come to mind. Velasquez, Dos Santos 3, UFC 166. Ronda Rousey versus Holly Holm, 193. I don't know if they're ever gonna induct that one I maintain Carlos Condit versus Robbie Lawler should be in

the Hall of Fame UFC 195 yeah absolutely is Robbie Robbie Rory's in the Hall of Fame that was last year I think right because Roy didn't show up that was it yep is Chael Anderson 117 in the Hall of Fame? Yes. That was also. Has to be.

Yeah. That was, no, that might have been last year and that other one might have been two years ago, but that just recently went. Gustafson against Jones. That was, I think, the first one, actually. I think that's in, yeah. Oh, first one ever, huh?

They did Hua Henderson as well, didn't they? They did Hua Henderson. It's a lot of like modern era fights. You know what I mean? So what are you suggesting? No, I'm just saying like, can I get a, can I get a, like a Hoist Gracie versus Ken Shamrock? Okay.

So you're talking like really go back. But it's. Check Congo, Pat Barry should be in there, man. That was wild. Scott Smith versus Pete Sell. Remember that one? Oh yes. That was the bit. Yeah. Yeah. Remember he wild. Scott Smith versus Pete Sell. Remember that one? Oh, yes. That was the bit. Yeah, yeah. Remember he hit

the body shot and then he came and he went bang. I know, but it was more just that ending. Okay, can I throw another one? Matt Serra, GSP1. I mean, that was legendary. Is it too one-sided? I feel like none of these fights are that. They're not just the best finishes. It's

back and forth. Diego and Gilbert Melendez? Yes. That was an incredible fight. I mean, there's probably like a ton of Guido fights that you could put in there. There were some really sick ones back in the day. By the way, GC, you went into

the vault and you watched some old BJ Penn. Jealous. What do you think? Je that what's the uh what's the verdict uh yeah it was great it was great to go back and watch i mean the broadcast like just seeing it so old school they're talking about 11 coming weighing in at 11 stones uh you still got rogan on there though you still got bruce buffer uh herb dean was the referee and some of some of them it's just crazy how far the sport has come since these. Yeah, I mean, BJ was a killer. He is stoic in there.

The elbow that he lands in the Stevenson fight, the blood is just insane. And then he hits the licking of the gloves at the end of it. The flying knee where he calls the own fight. I think that was the shirk fight where he calls the fight yeah it's great i mean it's it's awesome that like these really old fights you can just type in it in on youtube and you can get the entire fight just like that this is a really good stopping point i suggest we stop here on the bj pen cut like this is the perfect place to end yeah look at the old topology we don't need to look at anything else we don't

need to look into his instagram his personal personal life, the rest of the fights. This is perfect. Let's right here. I mean, the flying knee in the shark fight is insane. Did you hear his entrance music, GC? Because that's a big part.

Nah, they all start with like the tail of the tape and them like standing in the cage. So good. By the way, okay, so now that you've seen some,

I know you didn't live through it per se, but this take that he's the greatest lightweight. I don't know. I don't know. Like, I don't, I didn't live through it. Like, I don't know how good all of his opposition was. I don't know, like, all of these.

I don't think he was the greatest lightweight. I think he may have been the best at his peak. I do not think he was the greatest lightweight. Okay, who have been the best at his peak i do not think he was the greatest lightweight okay who who's uh islam at this point i think now you're pandering now yeah all these people who's more motivated than me to be like bj penn was the greatest i don't think he was the greatest if you ask me at his peak could he have competed with any of these guys and maybe he was the best at his peak relative i think important to go relative to competition right because people are going to go ah if he stepped in there with islam or if he stepped in there with habib they'll take him down like nothing and

they'll just you know they'll do what gsp did it's not really like fair across the eras the games have evolved it's it's quite different it'll be hard to compare across eras and make that matchup if you ask relative to his competition, BJ was as far ahead as those guys were at the time at lightweight, certainly. And I think that's a very fair argument. But greatness is measured by accolades, is measured by career in summation. He did real damage to his

greatness, to his resume at the end of his career. I would say Islam right now. I would say Islam right now is the greatest. Last two things on it was, I loved the custom shorts, the BJP and the black belt shorts, and then also, in the Stevenson fight, Shirk was on the call

with Joe Rogan, talking about it, and the fight ends, and it's just like, alright, you're next, man, what do you think? And he gives this whole breakdown, which obviously would never happen now. They used to do that a lot more often. They used to have a guest commentator come in there, and they never do that, which I kind of, I dig that when appropriate.

I dig that. Let's go to Ryder. What's up, Ariel and the boys? For each of you guys, what percentage would you give on the following fights slash fighters stepping back in the octagon at any point? Conor McGregor, Jon Jones, Jones versus Aspinall, Masvidal, Nate Diaz. I don't know. I mean, Jones is going to fight again. Jones versus Aspinall, Masvidal, Nate Diaz. I don't know. I mean, Jones is going to fight again.

Jones versus Aspinall. PT has an article. Is it out yet on that? Yeah, I think it came out today. On Uncrowned, PT has an article regarding Jones versus Aspinall. Let me see if I can. Oh, here it is. Here's the headline.

Yep, it's up here right now over on uncrowned.com, your home for all things combat sports. Is it time to start worrying about Jon Jones versus Tom Aspinall? This is the headline, PT. Is it? That is the headline. I think it is, yeah, 100%.

I think at this stage, yes. We haven't heard anything with regard to it happening. The talk was guaranteed. It's now we're trying to make it happen um as far as i know there's been no word in wigan so far we haven't heard anything from jones either um look i think we all like it's amazing how quickly we've kind of changed our thoughts on this because even even like the last few shows of 2024 we were quite i think we're quite confident you know we're like i think it's gonna happen and then yes i think during the week you polled us and only gc fair play gc was uh keeping the optimism i really hope it happens i think it's a brilliant fight i agree with diana white it's the biggest fight they can

make so i really hope they pay the man whatever he wants to make it happen i mean this is a company that's worth billions to say they can't give a fighter well you know joe rogan put out the number 30 million that's been thrown around it's a similar number to what we heard before when it came to unganu i i think what the lad said keeps ringing true in my head like this is a great precedent to set you know become john jones and we'll give you that 30 million. That was GC and Rick. I think it needs to happen. I think if it's the only fight that makes sense in the heavyweight division, I saw someone posting today that there's only 30 fighters in the heavyweight division,

but really nothing makes sense unless this is resolved. I think we've said this already, like Jones steep, a being the great example, but every other heavyweight fight that's on in the UFC now doesn't make sense because we don't understand what's happening with the belt. And John Jones, you know,

he acts surprised when people were, he said, he said at one point in the lead of the steep a fight, he was like, I understand you guys want to see me challenged. Like, yeah, like that's sport.

That's, that's being a champion. That's what it's all about. So I think Tom's a rightful guy. They can't let Jones fight someone else. They shouldn't be trying to get Tom to fight anyone else. Fingers and toes crossed that we get it. Well, go read that.

And I love to see you writing opinion pieces over on Uncrowned. So keep it up, Pete. You're the man. We all love you so very much. Also for New York Rick from Ryder, I can't wait for in two years when Jake Paul defeats Canelo. Thank you guys. This is from Tayshaun. 888-8888. Gentlemen,

in December of 2022, Darren Till fought Drikus Duplessis. Pretend for a moment that Darren wins that fight, which he nearly did at the end of the first slash second round. This instantly sets up the Izzy fight Darren referred to in his recent rant. In that hypothetical fight, we get the depleted Israel

who fought Strickland in September of 2023 and Darren Gorilla walks away with his belt. A true sliding doors moment, as they say. What a shame. We're making a lot of assumptions there. That's fine. That's fun. P.S. Horrendous.

Kendrick halftime take TV off was written specifically when the Super Bowl contract was signed. Put the TV off. Put the TV off. We don't care. Yeah, we don't care. The man is playing chess. Oh, for fuck's sake with this chess.

It's a nuance, Ari. You won't get it. While the rest of the game plays checkers. Put some respect on his name. Did your head get cold and all this flies right above it? It's ridiculous. The best part of, my favorite part of any like, you wouldn't get it. It's too. My favorite part of any you wouldn't get it, it's too heady explanation

is when you go, explain it to me and it's like two sentences and it's the most obvious thing that's ever been stated. You wouldn't get it. Tell me what it is and then they're like, well it says game over it does this and you're like, oh that's not that heady. I understood that pretty clearly. He looked down the barrel.

He looked down the... Oh wow. You see that Drake's number one song on Apple Music right now is his feature on Poetic He looked down the barrel. He looked down the... Oh, wow. What about his dreams, though? You see that Drake's number one song on Apple Music right now is his feature on Poetic Justice by Kendrick Lamar. What does that even mean? His number one most listened to song right now is his feature on a Kendrick Lamar song.

Yeah, no. Poetic Justice. Aaron, good afternoon, Mr. Helwani. Since Not Like Us is truly not for you, there's more questions about this than anything MMA related. You have to become the poster boy. You are the one defender. What would you say is your favorite and the greatest rap diss track of all time?

I've said it before. It's Hit Em Up. The underrated one is The Bitch In You by Common towards Ice Cube. For Pete, see if you don't mind, if you could recommend the lads any place to holiday in Ireland, where would you send them? Imagine Helwani Hawaiian Ballymun. Have a good one. I mean,

you don't want to be going there, Ballymun. You'd have to get Owen Ruddy over there to start you out. Ah, Owen. Honestly. When I'm recommending people to go to Ireland,

they say go and do the World Atlantic Way, go to Kerry, go to Cork, go to Galway. Belfast is hopping at the moment dublin's not really repping like it used to that's my homeland it hurts me to say that but honestly when people ask me i send them everywhere but dublin at the moment um beautiful country lots

to see dublin's great as well but if you're coming for a week don't stay in dublin for a week that is crazy like it's a small country you can get from north to south in about five hours. Beautiful place, but definitely get out of Dublin. And if you're coming for a week, inquire about hiring Pete Seed to be your tour guide, because he will tell you about everything. That yellow door was painted in 1676

by the British. We now spit on that door as we walk by. The Wild Atlantic Way is a 1500 mile road up the Western coast of Ireland. Bro, I was driving two weeks and we went, me and Elaine were going to meet her brother. Her brother.

And I was driving two weeks. I hadn't drove that long. I was in this little tiny car and that was my first drive up along the world. Atlantic way. It was fucking terrifying. At one stage, a guy is driving towards me in a bus with a can of beer in his hands. Just like, get the fuck out of the way.

And I was like, what the fuck is going on? There's sheep jumping out onto the road. It's fucking crazy. Let's say the road in Ireland. Yeah. Yeah. They, they also filmed the latest star wars films there where luke skywalker lives the skelligs it's one of the most insane pieces of landscape you'll ever see in your life when i

was only there a few years ago with alliance da and i just i couldn't stop looking at it just google it there skellig island it's absolutely magnificent looking and there's shit like that everywhere around there this is from justin ariel i'm a massive fan of the show Love the show massive fan of yours But all caps Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl halftime show Was the best in recent years This is from Sucker Free What it do Ariel and crew

GC has indeed said Sean Stricton Just like Ariel I come with receipts 2025 February 7th episode Of Boys in the Back Sean Strickland. Just like Ariel, I come with receipts. 2025, February 7th episode of Boys in the Back. If you scrub to nine minutes and 42 seconds on Spotify, you'll hear GC call him Strickland when they discuss the DDP Strickland fight

that occurred last weekend. Not sure what the timestamp is on other platforms. I'm sure ads affect it. Anyways, you guys are awesome. And thank you for letting me sit at the cool kids table every week. We can all misspeak though. I'm listening to it right now., you guys are awesome, and thank you for letting me sit at the cool kids table every week. We can all misspeak, though. I'm listening to it right now.

Can you play it for us? No, I can't. Why? It's coming through my headphones. That's crazy talk. What do you mean you can't? Are you actually listening? I'm going to play it right now.

Yeah, that's what I say. Stricton. Oh. What if he's been developing a speech impression? Wait, you just said Stricton. Yeah. That's what he said. Sean Strickton.

Okay, so this is... So now you're effing with him. I like it. This is my type. This is my type of trolling right here. They don't get it. What do you mean trolling? Former middleweight champion Sean Strickton.

What's his name? I don't think I get it anymore. Yeah, I don't think I get it either. He's playing 40... There's nothing to get. He's saying the fucking name. I don't think I get it anymore. Yeah, I don't think I get it either. He's playing 40 checks. There's nothing to get. He's saying the fucking name. I don't understand. Is this the Mandala effect?

By the way, this is a good one from Tyler. It's very long, but it is something that we talked about. I'm just going to recap it. Tyler is asking me if I'm going to be watching any of the Four Nations face-off tournament this week. On Air Jordan asked me about this, and I have to recap it. Tyler is asking me if I'm going to be watching any of the Four Nations face-off tournament this week. And on-air, Jordan asked me about this, and I have to be honest. He's loving it. He hasn't shut up about it.

I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts. It's called 32 Thoughts. It's a Sportsnet podcast. The great Elliot Friedman is on it. And they had a whole preview of it, and I listened to it this morning. Yo, I'm all in. I love the Four Nations. Do you understand what the Four Nations is? So they've abolished

They've abolished The All-Star Game Which is a very In what? In what? In hockey sorry Okay And instead of doing

The All-Star Game Which has run its course In both hockey Football and basketball For various reasons They have divided The best players In the league

Into Canada USA Finland And Sweden And there's There's two, the TD Garden in Boston, the Bell Center in Montreal, round-robin tournament, two games tonight, and then Thursday, and I think Saturday and Tuesday, I may have that wrong.

And they're going to decide who's the top nation of these four extremely good hockey teams. I'm trying to get me into the hockey. Ben Foulkes is trying to get me in. I'm going to go with this. But here's the thing, who's the top nation of these four extremely good hockey. I'm going to get me into the hockey. Ben Foulkes is trying to get me in. I'm going to go with this. But here's the thing. Here's the thing.

Like they were talking about it. So it's a great hockey podcast. If you're a hockey fan, I highly recommend listening to it. And they were talking about the practices there in Montreal. They're like, these guys are treating this like it's the Olympics. Like they're not treating this like it it's you know, and I say the Olympics because that's as far as hockey is concerned, that would probably be

the highest. There is a World Cup of Hockey which isn't treated quite the same as the World Cup of soccer slash football. And he said all the players are all in. They were going hard as hell. This isn't an all-star game. I didn't realize, I thought it was, when I was talking to Jordan about it yesterday,

I thought it was like one night round robin on Saturday going up against the NBA all-star game. I didn't realize it's like this, like a week and a half tournament. This is brilliant. And by the way, sets the table brilliantly for the Olympics, which will feature the NHL players next winter, next February in Milan.

So I think this is innovative stuff. I hate what the NBA did to the All-Star game. They ruined the All-Star game. What is this nonsense? Team Shaq versus Team Kenny versus Team Charles. No, get out of here with this. This is crap. And by the way, the NBA could easily do a nation's thing like this.

Look at the success of the Olympics. And there's a great doc coming out on Netflix on February 18th where they followed, I think it was Canada, USA, Serbia, and France. If they could do something like that, that'd be amazing. So this is in lieu of the All-Star game? Yes. I love it. I actually love it. It's great. It's great.

This is an alternate sports weekend. We got Apex 102. We got the Four Nations Face-Off. We got the Daytona 500. NBA All-Star. NBA All-Star. Six Nations Rugby. Four Nations face-off. We got the Daytona 500. NBA All-Star. NBA All-Star. Six Nations Rugby. Six Nations Rugby.

It's an alternate sports weekend. I love it. I love it. Yo, I wonder, like, are there, I'm sure there's odds, right? Oh, yeah. I'm looking at it right now. Futures. USA plus 150. Canada plus 150.

This is a win it all. Sweden plus 450. Finland plus 1,000. And just an inside scoop right now in the IIHF World Rankings. Canada 1, Finland 3, USA 6, Sweden 7. Oh, yeah. Finland is the bet. Finland's the bet.

That's what you said. Finland's the bet. Oh, Finland plus 1,000. Are you into this, Pete Z? I'm into it. I'm going to get in. What time are we talking here, though? Because I was like, the NFL's over. I'm going to go to bed on time. I can tell you right now, Pete Z. I'm into it. I'm going to get in. What time are we talking here, though? Because I was like, the NFL's over.

I'm going to go to bed on time. I can tell you right now, Pete Z. 8 p.m. Tonight at 8 p.m. Eastern. So that's... Yeah, Sweden, Canada at 8.10 p.m. Finland, USA tomorrow at 8.10 p.m. Saturday, Sweden, Finland.

Saturday, Canada, USA at 8.10. Wow. Wow. As we're crescendoing into Ishmael Bonfim versus Nazeem Sadikov. We'll also be getting Canada versus USA. It's just like a round robin. There's no

actual tournament format. It's just whoever wins the most points. No, but then there's a final. Wow. There's an absolute final. There's an absolute final. I have it right here. I'm looking at a great newsletter. absolute final. There's an absolute final. I think it's I have it right here. I'm looking at the a great newsletter.

It's so crazy. This just came in my inbox. CBC's The Buzzer. And it's all about the four nations. And it says that the what's the format? Each team's first two games are in Montreal before the tournament shifts to Boston for the remainder.

And oh, here it is. Here it is. The final is Thursday. Thursday in Boston, February 20th. So today it's Canada-Sweden at 8 in Montreal, then USA-Finland. By the way, I love the fact that Montreal is getting this. This is great. And then February 15th, Finland-Sweden in Montreal, and then USA-Canada at 8 in Montreal.

And then on Monday, it's blah, blah, blah. Okay, it's more games. Those are in Boston and then on monday it's blah blah okay it's more games those are in boston and the championship game oh there's actually there's no rugby six nations this week in pt oh wow oh is it i'm not a big rugby fan yeah and ireland's winning right now the number one in the standings don't support the the three colors i do yeah my dad and my brother are really into it but every time i go to the pub to watch it with him i jinx the team so i no longer go uh just a couple more questions here and then we'll get to

super chat so get them in uh just uh in the next five or so minutes jm hey ariel and crew big fan of the show i have a ufc conspiracy theory involving you ariel that i wanted to see if y'all thought had legs this is for the boys as well all right here we go i think dana white was ultimately behind you getting the brock lesnar scoop that you announced during ufc 199 i think it was a setup so that he can have you as his ultimate media foe he seems like someone that may do that i think he's wanted a narrative of him Against the MMA media And he knew you were the best So he went after you to create this narrative

What do you think? You've been rumbled, mate They know now Well first of all, I gotta say This happened nine freaking years ago I actually did an interview Last week with Bo Nickel on his podcast Go check it out

Nickels and Dimes. And he asked me, do I regret it? Bo went for the jugular on these questions, and I said, of course I don't regret it, because I did nothing wrong. I did nothing unethical. I wasn't wrong. I did, you know, we all

go crazy when Shams gets these stories of, you know, Luca getting traded. No one cries that he ruined the big surprise, that he ruined the big reveal. I was not told about any plans. And I'll be honest with everyone, had anyone told me about any plans, I probably wouldn't have done it because, you know, many times I've heard about plans and stopped down. I knew that they were going to announce RDA versus Conor during an NFL playoff game. And I stopped down. I knew that they were going to announce RDA versus Connor during an NFL playoff game, and I stopped down. I didn't pursue that anymore, and that's just one example.

So I didn't know anything. I was just, you know, I just got a big scoop. I verified it with two to three different people. I believe it's three, definitely two, and I reported it because it was right. That being said, all the years that we've talked about this, I've never heard this theory. It's a good theory.

I don't believe it for a second. Just given who told me and who I verified it with, I don't think they were playing 4D chess. This wasn't Kendrick Lamar, all right? They weren't doing that type of thing. Now, they did believe that I was listening in on their conversations, Lamar. All right. They weren't doing that type of thing. Now they, they, they did, they did believe

that I was listening in on their conversations, that I was listening to the, uh, the conference calls. They would check people's cell records. They would close doors and say, give me your phone. Like it got that crazy. And, and it's, it's almost unfathomable. And I think people don't believe me when I say how crazy it got, but it did get that crazy. There was that kind of paranoia over what? Over what? Over fight announcements. How stupid. But no, all to say, I don't think. It's a solid conspiracy theory.

I will give you that, but I do not think that this actually happened. Jason Hagholm. Hi, Ariel. Hope all is well with you. I've been a fan of your work But as an aspiring broadcaster I was wondering if you can give some insight into how you prepare For your interviews I love your interviews in the fight game but

Last year your interviews with the Canadian Olympians Both before and during the Olympics Were something that stuck with me and I'm trying to work on my Interview skills right now, all the best Go Bills and Forrest Thank you Jason, Jason's a great friend Of the program and a great broadcaster as well and journalist. I appreciate that. That was a great challenge. I've always said

the Olympic stuff was the most challenging assignment of my career, but also the most refreshing and rewarding. And so there's two different things that you're asking about. First, it was I did these sit downs in Montreal in December, the Olympics were in July and August. And so I knew that I was going to speak to eight different athletes. And I was able to prep a little bit, because I'll be 1000% honest, I'm not a connoisseur, when it comes to weightlifting, or gymnastics, or swimming, things of that nature. And so I was able to prep. And then, you know, you have some basic knowledge, and then you just kind of let the conversation flow. And these conversations were probably like

15 minutes, pretty light work for me. Where it got really tricky was 18 straight days of shows in Paris, and having to react to things in real time. And then in addition to that, it was like, hey, you know, this girl is coming in 20 minutes who just wants silver in fencing and you have to do a 20 minute sit down with her. And I've never heard of this person before. And I know nothing about their backstory. I have no connection to them. And so I'll tell you what I did when it came to those moments. And there were a lot of them. It was the same thing I'll do, you know, leading up to a show and someone that I've never talked to before, but I had to condense it. You go on Google News, you try to read a bunch of articles

and you try to read articles that don't just, you know, react and write about the moment, but have some backstory. And then you go on YouTube and then you type in so-and-so interview and you try to find interviews from five, six years ago, and you try to find interviews from two, three months ago. And so then if you could pick up a nugget or two from five, six years ago and draw on that, A, you're telling the person that you've done your research, they appreciate the fact, there was one gymnast that I referenced something that he said about the last Olympics in 2021. And I could tell that he appreciated that because they all kind of knew that I wasn't a connoisseur, but I was doing the work, I was doing the research. And then there was this fencer who was fascinating.

And I stumbled upon an article that said that she was a distant relative of Vincent Van Gogh and that she failed her driver's license a few times, which I did as well, that she used to hand out candy at a pharmacy on Easter and dress up as a bunny. And so I would try to get these like little nuggets about them and their backstory because I can't ask them questions on fencing technique or swimming technique or gymnastics technique, but I wanted to have like a real kind of fun and personal

conversation with them. And so it was intense. Like I got the men's four by 100 gold medal winning Canadian relay team showing up in 30 minutes. We didn't know that they were going to show up and I got to sit down and talk to these guys about what they just accomplished. And by the way, these interviews were happening at Canada house. Each country has their own house and the Canada house was open to the public and we would do the interviews there.

So every time you would have someone like a summer Macintosh or an Andre DeGrasse show up wearing their medal, it would draw a big crowd. And all of a sudden, I have a studio audience watching the interview. And you don't have the same confidence. You don't have the same encyclopedia in your brain. Like if the conversation with Eddie Hearn or Alexander Tapuria goes in a different direction, like I have knowledge in my brain that I could draw upon. I didn't have that. So that's why it's challenging. That's why it's rewarding. That's why I really, really enjoyed it. But the main point is, on a larger scale, do the work, be confident, and try to think of it less as an interview and more as a conversation. And if you make the guest feel comfortable and you're able to have moments where they

forget that they're on camera and they forget that they're being interviewed and you could draw upon just a couple of nuggets and listen and ask follow-ups and expand on those nuggets, for me, there's no greater thrill than those eureka moments. And I think they'll appreciate it and it'll make for a good conversation. You don't have to cram everything into 15 minutes and you don't have to go through the resume and go through the technique. You just have to have a nice flowing conversation. And, you know, that's what I was attempting to do. And it was so much fun. I really did. I look back on that time. There was so much going on. I mean, we're there, we're

trying, we're coming up with uncrowned logos. I was hardly sleeping. I couldn't sleep. There was so much happening. But I remember as I was leaving, I told the people that I worked with two things. I said, I've never said this before, but my meter is at zero. I have nothing left. I need to go away. And I don't have anything left in me. And then the other thing was, I said to them, it was amazing living in a moment where I knew that I was already nostalgic about that moment. I knew living in that moment that in 30, 40, 50 years, God willing, I would think back on that moment with fondness.

And it's wild to live in a moment where you are already nostalgic about the moment because you have such appreciation for it. And I mean, I think about it now and is one of the best experiences of my life to do that. And I still can't believe I got to do it. And who knows, perhaps I will get to do it again. Just a couple other ones here. Miguel from Mexico, would you believe he asks, objectively, do you think Drake is a better all-around artist than Kendrick?

Yes, of course. Irish Lad. Do you see any up-and-coming journalists that could finally break your stranglehold on the MMA Journalist of the Year Award? Absolutely. There are a ton of them. I tell them to bring it. Yes, go ahead. stranglehold on the MMA Journalist of the Year award? Absolutely. There are a ton of them. What? I tell them to bring it.

Is he? Yes, go ahead. Oh, sorry. I thought he was talking to me. I was like, what awards did the boy win? Sorry. He hails you as Irish Lad. Or his nickname, his screen name was Irish Lad.

Felix. Hello, Ariel and the boy that is back. I'm enjoying the show from Belgium. Best known for waffles, chocolate, and the great Matt Sells. Yes. I mean, what a season this young man is having. The goalkeeper for your Nottingham Forest. An absolute brick wall he is.

In your opinion, would you prefer Sells over Courtois for the Belgian national team? Wow. You know what? I didn't think about that. Thibaut Courtois. What a legend he is. But yes, I mean, I remember when Sells was picked up, I think it was last transfer

window, they had Matt Turner, and they brought in the little-known Matt Sells, who I do believe had a stint with Newcastle United, and everyone was like, what? And look at him now. He's classy. He's brilliant. And so yes, I do hope that he gets it, and I will support that decision. Do you have any perspective on whether the UFC's

upcoming rights deal will have an impact in Belgium as well as well i have to admit i do not uh everyone's deal is different and maybe there's a day that they'll have a deal like wwe on netflix where it's all you know one platform but right now i know pt do you know where the ufc airs in belgium i don't haven't been to belgium in my life, but I'll look into it. Thank you. Joe Linton, so many good questions this week.

Love the show, listen every day. My question for Ariel, of the three main topics at Uncrowned, MMA, boxing, wrestling, it feels as though you get less wrestling

guests than boxing or MMA. Is there a reason for that? Not a complaint as such. I love the show regardless, but I really enjoyed the short Bubba Ray talk yesterday and the Joe Hendry one a week ago. Are you still scarred by the infamous Sasha Banks interview? Peace and love, fellas. Up the mags. That's a very astute observation, Joe.

When it comes to these moments, i turn to new york rick as one should i mean it's just it's like you know do we talk about it or not is the question no we don't but now you've made it a whole to do and well i i was asked the question what do you want me to do i know but the dramatic pause i know. Now we're having a discourse. I want to talk about it. I want to talk about it. Spill the tea. Spill the tea. Come on, Ray. No, no, come on. We don't air. We don't air.

This is awkward. We look forward to having many, many, many, many more wrestling guests. I enjoy those chats very much. I enjoy them as well. Bubba Ray Dudley was great. Hope to have him in studio. More wrestling to come. Not my style, Rick. I'm sorry.

I was asked a question. I have to answer it. I am. I am. No, I listen. You guys ask me the questions. I don't shy away from the questions. Since we have come back and done this show the

aria hawani show dating back to october uh we have not had a single guest from uh wwe on the program obviously bubba ray was yesterday but that was booked through a and e uh at first i was just kind of blindly asking for guests because that's what i did in the past and that's the way the process works it's a little bit different than with the UFC fighters because they all have to go through WWE. And we have not had one. And I have asked repeatedly why that is. I don't get a straight answer.

And I'll be honest with you guys, I'm extremely frustrated. It feels to me, and again, I may regret saying this, but I can't, I can't, I was asked the question, I got to answer it. It feels like we are being put in timeout or blackballed or persona non grata. I have my theories as to what may be happening. Is it a TKO thing? Is it not? Y'all know about my relationship with Nick from back in the day. I am, I am baffled by all of this. And what I'm baffled by is that I

continue to shoot straight and say, what's going on? Let me know. Just tell me. If it's not going to happen, then I'll stop asking. But as recently as today, I asked for someone. And as recently as last week and the week prior and the week prior. And all I get is either we'll look into it. Not right now.

No answer. Run around. And so, yes, Joe Linton is very astute. And I was wondering when someone would bring this up. And that's why I laugh when I see the Twitter folks say that I'm a WWE shill and whatnot. I can't get a call back. I can't get a text back.

I can't get a guest on the show. And then I'm told, oh, not right now. But then I see these guests on other shows. And that's fine. We don't go through PR people. We don't have to go through PR people. We've done just fine without getting the handouts. Like every UFC pay-per-view,

all these guys are offered up to people. They don't realize how we have to scratch and claw to get an Izzy. Izzy does a media day. I have to scratch and fucking claw and beg for 20 minutes. And when he comes on, he's fantastic, but it's never been given to me on a silver platter. And that's why I laugh when I see these other people think that it is., but it's never been given to me on a silver platter. And that's why I laugh when I see these other people think that it is. You think it's easy booking fucking 12 guests

a week, back to back to back, without any help from anyone? Without any help from anyone. And by the way, I'm not asking for any sort of sympathy whatsoever. This job is a charmed life. I don't work in a construction site or anything like that. But I will say, surprised and extremely disappointed and dare I say, just kind of like baffled, baffled by all of this. So I'm not being told what's up. I'm being given the runaround. And yes, we haven't had a single guest. And that's very, it's very hurtful. It's very disappointing. I don't understand what's going on. I have my theories, and I think you could all probably guess what

the theory is. And if that's at play, then so be it. That's going to be the case. I have had to deal with it on that side of the fence, and now I have to deal with it on this side of the fence. But I'll be honest with you, I was going to take the show to Vegas. I was going to take the show to WrestleMania. I ain't doing that anymore. Why?

Clearly, we're not welcome. Clearly, I'm not welcome. And that's disappointing, but that's the way the cookie crumbles and that's the way the career has gone. And so we'll eat the shit sandwich and we'll continue to get good interviews and we'll continue to get good things. And I don't know what the problem is. And you can't say that I'm being, you know, you can't say that I'm being, you know, paranoid or anything like that. It's very clear. I'm not getting anything. You said it. Thank you, Joe. Thank you. Because I've been dying to talk about this. And I keep asking every week, as recently as today, I asked for Ricky Starks today. What do you think happened? I asked for Elimination Chamber people today.

What do you think happened? So to all the people that were happy that, you know, or maybe all the people that hated the fact that we had too many WWE guests or wrestling guests on the program, you win. Clearly you win because it ain't happening. We'll get the odd one here or there and everyone's welcome. I would love to have them back on. I don't understand what happened. And I would love to have TNA people on and AEW people on and Ring of Honor people on and New Japan people on and on and on and on it goes. But for some reason, with this promotion right now, we're persona non grata. I have no idea why. Again, I have my theories. I'm bummed that it's happened this way. And I

wish someone would just be upfront and tell me, hey, we can't for X, Y, and Z. So that wasn't the plan. And luckily, this doesn't affect anyone else, just like it doesn't seem to affect anyone else over at Uncrowned with the UFC stuff and all that. And I'm happy that's the case. But we'll do our thing. We'll continue to strive and thrive and hopefully succeed. And we'll cover it with no ill intentions and with no bias whatsoever, just like we were covering AEW and WWE back then as well. But it just goes to show, you think you know, you have no idea. You have no idea.

And these Twitter people, and I bet the Twitter people will be like, ah, ha, ha, look at this loser. Look at this guy right here. He was a shill. And I was not, was never a shill, am not a shill, will not be a shill. And the notion that I would shill for a company that is owned by a company that is trying to ruin my career time and again

is lunacy, but I don't expect anything other than lunacy from lunatics. So there's the story, and I'm sorry for having to bring it up, but you asked, Joe. Oof. Can we end on a good one? I think so.

Yeah, okay. When's the next in-person show? Perhaps International Fight Week? That would be fun. Would you guys want to do that? Absolutely. Yeah, hell yeah. Yeah.

Super chats. Let's do them. La. Hell yeah. Yeah. Super chats. Let's do them. La Mancha MMA writes, What's Ariel and Crew's favorite satire movie? How would y'all feel about an MMA satire website and or social account?

What's a satire movie? Give me an example. Like a mockumentary kind of thing? I actually don't know, so I'm trying to look this up now. What is a satire movie? Give me an example. Like a mockumentary kind of thing? I actually don't know, so I'm trying to look this up now. What is a satire movie? My favorite satire movie, and maybe this will help, is Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. So it's like a kind of like a... So like deconstructing the medium to a certain degree?

It's just like not to be taken at face value. Like scary movies. It's kind of a black comedy. That's like a parody, though, scary movie. So Dr. Strangelove would be taken at face value. Like scary movie. It's kind of a black comedy. That's like a parody though. Scary movie. Huh. So Dr. Strangelove would be an example of that. Or a lot of the Coen films are kind of satirical.

Borat? Oh, love Borat. I like Borat much more than, what's the other one? What's the guy? Bruno? Bruno. Yeah, I like Borat much more than Bruno. A lot of dicks. If there I like Borat much more than Bruno. There's a lot of dicks.

If there was like a Spinal Tap type movie. Oh, what about Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure? Shout out Spinal Tap. Spinal Tap, yeah. Spinal Tap, like that's what I said at the start. That's a satire, right? Yeah, I'm down with Spinal Tap. Turn up to 11, baby.

Yeah. I mean, I'm seeing a list here on Wikipedia and I'm still not quite sure the through line here. Movie 43. Fight Club? Wasn't really the fun one we thought it would be, is it, Ariel? No. Okay, what else? What else?

All right. Oh, Cabin in the Woods. BS and Hugh, hey, Ariel and team, heard anything about Islam versus Charles? And if not, who was rumored for the next shot? I haven't heard anything, but I suspect, and if you kind of, how it goes and how the cookie is going to crumble, I wouldn't be surprised if it's the International Fight Week fight.

But I haven't heard anything. Benjamin Turk asked GC, you said you like Valentine's Day but hate February? Weird. God, yes, I hate February. Who are the February defenders? Have you been outside in New York City lately? Snow everywhere, ice everywhere, freezing, it's dark early. What's it like?

I do enjoy Valentine's Day, though, you know? I will say this. I used to hate February. I used to despise February. Hate it. But then my son was born in February, and so I don't want to poo-poo his birthday month. And also, as far as sports are concerned, February's a pretty good month, all things considered.

I like February better than January, if only because it's one step closer to the spring. But you got the Super Bowl, you got the All-Star Games, Olympics every four years. We're getting closer to March Madness. Shout out to St. John's. Always loved St. John's. I just think... Not at St. John's. Always loved St. John's. I just think...

Not at St. John's. Yeah, I mean, New York City's team. Syracuse, though? We live in New York. Anyway, I like... I don't like February as far as the weather is concerned and all that. But I will say, it's got some things going for it. Birthdays, couldn't care less about.

Thanks. Sports. Don't tell Walter. I mean, or Frank's wife. Couldn't care less about the birthdays. I don't sit here being like, July is the greatest month because I was born then. Sports?

I mean, it's just like January. Short month. Short month. Yeah, it's a short month. Why do we even need to have it? Make it shorter. Make it zero days. Let's go back to 11 months.

It's the month we use to recalculate. You talk about the sports calendar. You talk about the sports calendar. You're like, oh, Olympics every four years. You get the Super Bowl and you get All-Star weekend. That is just like the bottom of the barrel. March, you get March Madness. January, you get an entire month of NFL playoffs.

You get the college football national championship. April, don't even get me started. I mean, it's a subpar sports month terrible weather month the only point that i do agree with of yours you're one step closer to the spring which is great connor um who hurt you in february yeah what's that do you i mean i just walk around i walked to the gym this morning through through a block of ice i was slipping and sliding the whole way there i was like who likes this month who where are the defenders? I never really think

about the months like that and how much I like them. This is interesting. It was almost like we had a whole boys in the bag bit about this. Thanks for watching, Pete. I appreciate it.

The main difference is just like, there's a stark difference between February and June. Like there's, I mean, everything. Pete, see, this is where you

grilled GC about last week's episode of The Crack. Oh, yeah. I can't even remember what happened in last week's episode of The Crack. Oh, yeah. I can't even remember what happened last week's episode of The Crack, but I know it was a banger. This is an interesting thing. Earlier in the show, On Air Jordan noticed that our chat summary AI

wanted to weigh in on the conversation we were having at the time, and it just said, and the quality may vary, viewers are reacting with shock and amusement to Rick's behavior. They are discussing the potential impact on his marriage and his overall reputation. Wow. I'm surprised they didn't mention his health at all. But, again, quality may vary.

Credit to them for spelling Rick correctly, too. That's crazy. Maybe it did. Yeah, how did it spell Rick correctly? Maybe because they wrote, like, Rick and people in the chat. I'm starting to feel a bit on it. That's pretty great. What else, Frank?

What else? Sucks for you guys. Slido asks, GC, how's the training camp going, GC? Bet in the house. Yeah, you should feel good on that, Slido. I'm still waiting on a contract, still waiting on a date, but I mean, I stay ready. I was on the bike this morning, assault bike, hit a quick three miles, sub nine minutes on that. So averaging out sub three

minute miles i'm feeling good i'm feeling ready i'm feeling lean uh and yeah whenever we get contracts signed is when we'll really lock in and batten down the hatches and head into the barracks uh and really get ready to go great what else what else mcgavin wanted to say rick is right real fans are getting priced out. My tickets for 266, three rows up from the floor were 500 a seat. Same seats at 313 are now 950 a seat for a weaker card. Sad to

see. Bring back good crowds. 2025. That's a shame. I think it's only going more that way. How are they breaking records in Australia? They broke a record in Australia for 312. They've done 55,000 seaters over there

and they're breaking it with 18,000 seats. So that'll speak to the ticket prices. Are you excited for Happy Gilmore 2, Ariel? Oh yeah. Can't wait.

When's that coming out? I think soon. Really? There's actually a lot of wrestlers in that. Is it coming out this year? I want to see it. Yeah, I think so.

This year, definitely. Yeah, 2025. Doesn't say wrestlers in that um is it coming out this year i want to say i think so this year definitely yeah 2025 doesn't say when when it's going to come out but i think it's a straight to netflix yeah yeah it is it is no no chase writes to helwani and pt it's been three months since 309 please please please tell me that either of you guys are hearing there's movement on jones versus um in their defense pt they wrote this before we talked about your i was just gonna say it's okay Tell me that either of you guys are hearing there's movement on Jones versus Aspinall. In their defense, VT, they wrote this before we talked about your article. I was just going to say. It's okay. Go to the article.

Spell my name wrong. It's okay. Jonah Friedman says, is the Apex going to look different? Renovation done? No. No, we already had UFC Apex 101, and it didn't look any different. They are renovating, but they're adding to it. They're not changing the –

This guy doesn't watch the Apex. And by the way, what is that currency next to the six? We've seen that one before. I think that's the crowns, right? No, no, that's sex. By the way, can people change... Can they make it six whatever just so that it ends up being 12 cents? I think it's based on your local and what your credit card is.

I don't know about that. It's based off of where they're from. I don't know about that. I think they're actually gaming the system here. Your 12 cent comment ain't making it here anymore. We're going to have everyone do a 2FA moving forward. Slido wanted to add his 2 cents that our next segment

should be called Cranking the Jermith Wall. Not bad. I have to admit it's pretty clever. Yeah yeah that is i like that i'll say i'm trying to send a super chat right now i can't change it from usd all right all right fine fine jake from windy city however says for combat sports which is the best venue in vegas t-mobile mandala bay or mgm grand i always enjoyed going to mandala when ufc used to go there mgm mandalay t-mobile that's's the ranking. MGM's the businessman. Well, there's no fights at Luxor.

There are, I promise. MGM. Come on, Frank. I broke him. I broke him. Frank's in the buffet line throwing hands. That was good. Well done, Frank.

MGM is so great. It's in the hotel, and so is Mandalay, but Mandalay's a little bit off-strip, so it's a bit of a schlep to get there. MGM's right great. It's in the hotel, and so is Mandalay, but Mandalay is a little bit off-strip, so it's a bit of a schlep to get there. MGM's right in the middle, historic, intimate. I always loved the Mandalay media room. That was a great, great... So MGM is cool.

The media room is upstairs, but the Mandalay one was right next to the fight. It's literally around the corner from the arena. Very quaint, very intimate, very fun. T-Mobile is missing that je ne sais quoi. It doesn't have it. It doesn't quite have it, in my opinion. Central, but MGM, pound for pound, number one.

Jason Hagelm. Oh, our guy. Ariel, with the Buffalo Bills being rumored to play a game in Ireland next year, will this make Petey a Bills fan? We've already discussed it. It's an assignment. He must attend. He must be there.

If they're playing the Steelers, of course they're going to be up for the Bills, for Christ's sake. Bills would be in the top teams anyway. I'm going to bet Ravens and Bills for next year put a hundo on each. To win the Super. Yeah. Good man. Thank you. Thank the Super. Yeah. Good man.

Thank you. Thank you for your support. Jason Carney. He had 50% support. Yeah. Will we see Rico versus Francis in the PFL? Not much left in glory for Rico. No. I don't think Rico's doing MMA.

Beals the Bub wants to ask, Pete, do you listen to kneecap? I've watched their film. I haven't really got into it. But, yeah, they're really popular i mean it's going crazy i'm hearing different people talking about them all the time i haven't uh it's really cool that they're they're making speaking irish cool again like i'm hearing all types of kids are asking their teachers that they want to spend more time speaking irish so

that's really cool that hasn't happened in my lifetime where someone makes our native tongue popular again so fair play to the boys i think a simple no would suffice jesus good shout out there frank so alone city for some reason is asking no eric today how in the world did we ever get through an episode of no executive producer wow frank had to step up big time to save the show. Mitch. Wow. Hey, he is gone. Yeah, where is he? I don't know. Gone!

He said he wasn't feeling well. The illness finally took him. Is that true? Yeah. All right. 24 and Skulls. He's just keeled over, barfing. Paris Tonight ruled was better than NBC.

Hell yeah. What does that even mean? I think it's Paris Tonight. Paris Tonight was the show that I did. Thanks for watching. Peachy's a big fan of all the stuff we do. For sure. Hey, he's back.

Where'd you go, Rick? He had a doctor's appointment. Huh? Oh, we just went to you and you were not there. Lastly. Fascinating, that one. Joey Schultz wants to say, call back to, oh, is it not Joey? Yeah, Joey.

I'm sorry. Call back to last week's. Did I, Frank? I guess not. What did I say? I don't know. I thought you said Joey. Oh, wow. All right. Call back to last week's... I guess not. What did I say? I don't know. I thought you said Joey. Oh, wow.

All right. Callback to last week's Pound for Pound mustache rankings. People really wanted to get their opinion on this. Honorable mention, Yosemite Sam, Lanny McDonald, snidely whiplash of Rocky and Bo Winkle fame. Lanny McDonald. Who is Lanny McDonald? Former Calgary Flames superstar.

Great stash. Yo, the stash was phenomenal. Pretty sure he didn't wear a helmet as well. That's a great stash. That's a nice stash. Oh, man. This is one of those times where I wish we had like a Rogan production where we can show it. Because you guys reacting like that isn't great for the audience.

It's coming. But trust me. Trust me. It's a great stash. No helmet as well, right? No, I wore a helmet. He did? Yeah.

Lanny? I know Craig McTavish did him, but I thought Lanny did. Yeah, that was Craig McTavish, not Lanny McDonald. Look at this stash. Come on! Holy shit, man. That was savage. A freaking legend. By the way, that was pretty quick.

Well done. Give us some credit back here, man. Yeah. Give us some credit back here. Well, no. Now I'm actually going to expect this type of- We didn't even have a producer for a short amount of time. Wish we had the Rogan setup.

Do you want a Frank Desart wall? Yes. Have you ever watched the Rogan thing? Jamie, can we? Yeah. Google that. Can we get a... It's not instantaneous.

Okay. Nor is it high quality. This is high quality. And now I know instantaneous. What else, Frank? What else? That was the end of the bucket. Okay, just a couple more here because I feel like I left some people hanging.

Brandon, I think it's great that you go on other podcasts, but are you getting sick and tired of getting asked about your beef with Dana White? Sometimes, but honestly, I just expect it. Ariel from Big B, I would have never known, followed, or watched several fighters fight until you introduced them on your show, for instance I never heard of Patty until he appeared on your show, I was hooked after the first interview with him in the recent MMA Hour

era, I was on the hype train, I watched all his fights until you guys had your differences, I've had several similar cases when I became a fan right after getting to know them here, I think that doesn't get highlighted enough another fighter I would have never watched or known was Tatiana Suarez. Had she not been on your show, you mentioned last week that

she won't be on the show due to her new management. What was the conversation like? It was, hey, how's it going? Sorry, whose number is this? It's Ariel. And then she disappeared. It was very weird. I'm baffled why

Fighter would not want to come on I don't know P.S. the Bo Nickel interview this week was tremendous Yeah he did a great job It was a lot of fun H. Stella Cruz How crazy is it that Turkey told Coppinger To his face I lied to you and told you

Wrong information which Coppinger then told Everyone regarding Canelo Paul Turkey talk Yeah that was wild stuff And then he did give him a, which Coppinger then told everyone regarding Canelo-Paul Turkey talk. Yeah, that was wild stuff. And then he did give him a compliment, and Coppinger was like, yeah, cool, thanks, thanks, thanks. But, I mean, God bless. That was, I don't know if I would feel the same way, but, I mean, the whole point of journalism is to check,

you know, is to verify things. So you always have to have two sources. And he was reporting information regarding Jake and Canelo that has nothing to do with Turkey. And then all of a sudden had to try to, you know, fix it by saying in an 11th hour, last minute, no, there was no 11th hour, but you were fed that information and it was wrong. And then you were fed the right information, and you clearly didn't check on the first information. That ain't good journalism. Adam, Shalom Ariel, with UFC 315 returning to the beautiful city of Montreal, will the first roadshow of the uncrowned era be live from the birthplace of Helwani himself?

I wonder how that would do. I've never felt like people really cared in Montreal because it's a big French-speaking audience, and I don't do the show in French, so I wonder how that would do I've never felt like People really Cared in Montreal Because it's a big French speaking audience And I don't I don't do the show In French So I wonder P.S.

Who knew Jake Paul Was Jewish You gotta invite him For Shabbos dinner one day Did you guys see that Jake Paul Putting on tefillin Unbelievable

Even said Did he say he was Bar mitzvahed No I don't think so But yeah Is he Jewish He said his mom's Jewish Yeah I thought he did say In the caption that he was Maybe I. But yeah. Is he Jewish? He said his mom's Jewish, yeah.

I thought he did say in the caption that he was. Maybe I made that up. No, he did say that. He said, yes, I'm Jewish. No, the bar mitzvahed part. I thought I... Oh, I don't think so.

Maybe I made that up. Am Yisrael Chai, bring them home now. Amen, Adam. Amen. Okay, two more. Wow, this is a weird one. I mean, just read this first line from Andy Koufax.

Gentlemen, consider me Andy Revere, feverishly screaming from atop majestic steed, however not to warn of a red coat invasion, but instead to declare a code red concerning a forgotten Hawaiian soldier. I mean, I'm reading this on the fly here. How am I supposed to discern what this is? He's talking about BJ Penn. No, he's talking about Max Holloway. Oh, what the hell?

Forgotten. The guy was just like in conversations for... He fought for the belt. Yeah, I don't know what he's talking about, but I'm skipping the question. He put a lot of literary effort into that. Yeah, he put some real effort into that he's just like skip you lost me I mean I don't know

how we feel about this one but I'll ask it anyway Payne hey crew in honor of Valentine's Day is Whaley number one in the pound for pound most adorable fighter rankings I get what he's saying there he's saying like she does like cutesy things you know she does the hard and stuff like I don't know who is the like who's like the most like feel goody type

i mean she's pretty high she's pretty high i like the most shout out to stamp yeah stamp's a good one too wow did frank just reference stamp fair text yeah this is the second time today i was thinking about that too. Frank loves Sam, man. Wow. And just calling her Stamp is impressive. Yeah, just one name her. Andy isn't here, but I'd like to throw Paul Hughes in for her. If she was here, she'd say Paul Hughes. You know what it is?

It's always the people who just have the good vibes. The smile is always on. It's that type of deal. He's the big news. Yeah. Is there anyone else? Merab is pretty Merab's pretty good

No He What what? The noises I don't get it You don't agree? He's just He's like a little more

Savage You know what I'm saying? Alright fine Hanging out on like Windowsills On buildings I know but like He's a wild man He has I find he has like a lovable demeanor to him.

He's like, what is his name? Donnie from the Wild Thornsberries. Yeah, Donnie from the Wild Thornsberry. That's, that's, that's. Yeah, I agree. Tom Aspinall. I mean, I know Jones thinks he's an asshole, but everyone. Too big to be cute.

Tom's a happy-go-lucky. I like Tom. The way he's like, John, I like you, but I want to fight you. You know? He's too big to be cute. Too big to be cute. Tom's a happy-go-lucky. I like Tom. The way he's like, John, I like ya, but I wanna fight ya, you know? He's too big to be cute. Too big to be cute. He's fucking huge. Too big to be cute. Okay. This is the one. Pound for pound, number

one. Okay. The former Joanne Calderwood, a.k.a. Joanne Wood. Ah, yes. Right? Absolutely. Come on. I mean, she would say things like a wee bit and stuff like i mean like you can't beat that and she has the tiny like door voice yeah she's that was the one yeah uh all right that's a good note to end on thank you everyone for your questions uh do we have like a a final stinger like do we have like a a back end or do, we do. You did send one. Oh, let's hear it.

Oh, no. I want like a it's time for on the nose, but like that's it for on the nose. No?

You got a tiny jingle and a couple camera changes back at the MMA hour and now it's like we want an intro, we want a it's like we want an intro, we want a middling, we want an outro, we want 3D graphics, we want live performances.

Yeah, do it instantaneously and with no delays and highly professional quality and everything just happens like that, snap of a finger. Frank, just cut out Ariel singing that little jingle and use that. No, can I hear the transitional one real quick? Yeah, that was good.

That one ends quickly. And how does the first one go? Oh, wow. Let's see how long it goes. Sustain, baby. That is some sustain right there. I go off the right there i go off the screen i go off the screen amazing well thank you to our friend up in norcal for that thanks all of you for the questions and super chats boys in the back tomorrow deep dive into the jared cannonier gregory rodriguez super

fight anything else coming tomorrow gents yeah we Yeah, we're going to play matchmaker. We're going to look at the calendar. There's been some events announced for the UFC, see what else we can kind of cook up for the announced fights that the UFC is putting on. And yeah, as you said, super preview. And then obviously got to keep it Valentine's Day themed for pound for pound list.

Thinking matches made in heaven. The best duos, the best combos, the best matches that we can think of. for pound for pound list thinking matches made in heaven. The best, the best duos, the best combos, the best matches that we can think of. Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match. Find me a find, catch me a catch. Can we play that while you guys do this? Yeah, only if it's you doing it. We're going to play that while we do it.

You like that song, Pete? So you ever see that movie, Fiddler on the Roof? It's a classic. A lot of bollocks being shown. My dad used to watch it over and over. We used to listen to the soundtrack. We used to listen to the soundtrack. We used to listen to the soundtrack.

It's actually one of my favorite fucking songs. That's right. That's right. I appreciate you saying that. I mean, you share a birthday with my dad, so clearly not. We're all July. It's fucking crazy. How are we picking the best month of the fucking year?

Especially in the World Cup, it's on. The Saturday. It's the Saturday of the calendar. I like that. I don't know what that means, but fair enough. I'm going to visit my nephew now. He had successful ACL surgery this morning. Let's go.

So I want to send our best to Big Jared out there on the path back. I mean, some of the greats have had ACL surgery, right? Tom Aspon, look at him. He became a better fighter as a result. So the same will happen to him.

I want to thank everyone who joined us today. Eddie Hearn, Rich Franklin, Alexandre Topuria, and the great Megan Anderson as well. Thanks to you. Thanks to the back authors

of St. Pius XVI. Peace and supporters. Peace out.