The Ariel Helwani Show - Eric Bischoff, Dave Allen, Paulie Malignaggi, Costello van Steenis x Johnny Eblen Faceoff, Karate Combat President Asim Zaidi, On The Nose, news & notes

Episode Date: May 6, 2026

Ariel Helwani begins the show by honoring media mogul and WCW owner Ted Turner, who passed away Wednesday (10:02). Eric Bischoff joins to celebrate Turner, talking about his impact on the wrestling industry, stories from their time running WCW together, fallout from the Time Warner merger, and more (17:59). Ariel and The Boys in the Back discuss UFC 328, including Khamzat Chimaev releasing sparring footage with Sean Strickland, new trash talk from both sides, and Strickland’s brewing feud with Josh Hokit, then touch on Ciryl Gane’s recent comments about Tom Aspinall, Alex Pereira and Ilia Topuria flying to see President Trump at the White House, and more (38:25). Heavyweight boxer Dave Allen previews his upcoming bout against Filip Hrgovic, also speaking about his love of American sitcoms, getting into the management game, Conor Benn leaving Matchroom, Zuffa Boxing’s entry into the sport, and more (57:57). Johnny Eblen joins to discuss his training sessions with Sean Strickland, before PFL middleweight champion Costello van Steenis joins for their virtual face-to-face, ramping up the intensity before their massive rematch in July (1:35:29). Karate Combat President Asim Zaidi addresses recent criticism the promotion has received, giving details about the brawls involving the Pitbull brothers, Winged C pretending to be blind and walking onto the mat, Larissa Pacheco being matched against an inexperienced fighter, fighters claiming the promotion didn’t pay them, and more (2:04:50). Paulie Malignaggi is back ahead of his next bare-knuckle bout, discussing damage he suffered in his last fight, the Ali Revival Act and the recent Senate committee hearing on the bill, the state of the sport of boxing, and more (2:32:19). The Boys in the Back and Petesy Carroll join Ariel to react to the White House main and co-main event fighters visiting President Trump, Sean Strickland’s media day comments, and more (3:04:43). After answering your On The Nose questions (3:27:14), the show ends with your Super Chats (4:05:45).

Welcome to the Erz Wednesday, May 6th,000. And 26, hello again, everyone. Actually, I hope you're doing well. It is great to be here on a somewhat foggy, dreary Wednesday in New York City. But that's not the mood in here, my friends. That's not the mood over there. Over there's the control room. Right over there, hop, skip, and a jump.

There's a lot to be excited about. There's a lot going on here. I keep saying this because it is true. Got a show today. Super jam-packed. Late edition guests that is going to be talked about in a second here. So stay tuned for that. Live show on Friday.

More on that in the moment. Watch party, post-show Saturday. Of course. I mean, how can I forget? BITB on Thursday. Crack on Friday. Watch party and post-show Saturday. Live show Friday.

I'm not really doing this in order very well. You get the point. Sunday. I'll be going to LA to do the face-to-faces for Gina, Rhonda, Francis, and Philippe, and Nate and Mike. That's going to be interesting. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, doing our shows from L.A. in addition to that press conference, Wayans Friday, more information about Saturday's event and what it all means for me. Netflix next week.

This is a crazy stretch. This is a crazy stretch. yesterday was a crazy show yesterday was a very interesting show interesting guess I said on Twitter afterwards because I'm grateful for the experience

and I was thinking about it a lot I love the without sounding pretentious because I feel like sometimes it does sound pretentious I love the art of interviewing I love the challenge I love this job

I love being able to talk to fighters and very important people athletes and I recognize the fact that for or five days before a fight. Some people like it. Some people don't. Some people like doing interviews. Some people don't. Some people like doing interviews before. Some people like doing them after. Some people like doing them three weeks out. Some people just hate doing them. Everyone's different.

I saw an interview with Frank Warren today. He was on Talk Sport. And he was asked about Daniel Dubois and these interviews where it seems like he doesn't want to talk. He's out of the mood this week. and he told the story of Wembley Stadium two years ago. He beats Anthony Joshua, and he wanted to go home. He didn't want to go to the post-fight press conference. And that's his moment. Like now all the pressure is gone. Now you can revel. You can ask everyone to bow down at your feet and tell you how great you are.

This is your chance. This is your moment. He did not want to be bothered. He wanted to go home. So if you are feeling that way about interviews after the greatest moment of your career, arguably, you're not going to feel great heading into a very, very important fight on Saturday against the champion and a chance to kind of get back on track and get gold and all this stuff. And so I have no animosity, no ill will, I'm not upset at all about what transpired.

And as I said on Twitter, rightly or wrongly in some people's eyes, because I saw people debating under the tweet, this one's on me. This one's on me. I had to do a better job of making the interview more interesting. This guy right here, Roy McDonald, I always bring this up when people would talk about, ah, Roy's such a bad interview. And I say, no, if you think as an interviewer that Rory is a bad interview,

then I think that's on you. Because Rory's actually a fascinating guy, as is Daniel. I know he's not verbose and loquacious and, you know, wanting to get into deep thoughts and all that stuff. I know that. But I've talked to him before,

and we've had pleasant experiences. all of them were face to face, and so that could be a bit of a difference. But look, I screwed up with the timing. Press conference, the day, that threw him off. He didn't seem to like that. He didn't like the questions all over twisting. I mean, it's a quote that his coach said,

maybe he didn't know about that. I don't know. But that one's on me. It's no one else's fault, but mine, in my opinion. It's my job to try to, if an interview goes off the rails, it's my job to get it back on the rails or at least try to salvage it. We've had interviews here.

Pauli Malinaji's going to join us today and there was an interview that he had on this show not that long ago where he was getting very contentious. I could have said, peace out. I wanted to try to salvage it and in the end, it ended up being a great interview and he's back today. So my go-to is to never just be like, goodbye.

And I just feel like I could have handled that one better. I feel like I could have done a better job of getting him to enjoy the interview. And so I felt some sort of way about that yesterday. And so I'll apologize to him and apologize to his team and appreciate the opportunity to talk to him and hope that there will be other opportunities to do so.

And if not, fan will watch the fight on Saturday. And I think it's going to be a cracker, as they say. And that's that. Everyone has their take and everyone's weighing in on me and the other interviews and all this stuff is what it is. I am sorry. I think I could have done better and I will strive to do better

on today's program. That's the good thing about doing a show like this. You get another crack at it. It's like being a baseball player. Bad game yesterday, back at it today. And today we have a loaded show. I do want to let you know that back into the show

we'll be doing on the nose. It was supposed to be front end, had to change things. So back into the show, we'll be doing on the nose. Arielhuwani. com is where you can leave your questions and comments and we will get to them, get to as many as possible,

back end of the show. Prior to that, we'll be joined by the aforementioned Polly Malinagi, who does have a BKB world title fight, not this Saturday, next Saturday, May 16th. And this is a fascinating one because, you know, we had him on prior to the last BKB fight, and he suffered a pretty gnarly eye injury in that fight, and I kind of thought,

considering everything he had been through in his career and life, that was it for Polly. Apparently not. Apparently he's back at it, and he's fighting for the belt. So we'll talk to Polly about that. He's in the UK. That fight happening at the AOL Arena on May 16th.

So stay tuned for that. Assim Zaidi, who's the president of karate combat, is going to join us at 3 o'clock. Obviously, we were critical of karate combat on Monday, some of the shenanigans, some of the stuff, the wing seat thing, the pit bull brothers. We're going to talk to him about all that more. He's going to clear the air.

Eric, give us his side of it all. Let's see what he has to say. That will be at 3 o'clock. At 2.30, we're going to be joined by Johnny Eblen, the former Bellator middleweight champion, and Costello Van Steinas, the current PFL middleweight champion. You may recall in July of last year, these two fought each other. And last second, incredible victory. my sub of the year, my comeback of the year,

Costel Vancinus beat Johnny Eblen to become the inaugural PFL middleweight champion. Since then, they have both won fights. Obviously, we just saw Johnny and Costello fight over the last month or so, both looking very good. Well, the PFL just announced that on July 18th at the Moody Center in Austin, Texas, they are running it back for that PFL middleweight title.

We'll have them on at 2.30 to talk about that fight, their history, their rivalry, whatever you want to call it. Johnny, by the way, a part of the Sean Strickland team, so we'll also get a few questions in regarding that fight this weekend. Another middleweight title fight that's obviously of great importance here and not here, but in this vicinity in New Jersey, across the river. Newark, to be exact. So we'll get his thoughts on all of that and more. That'll be at 30 at 2 o'clock. Doncaster's finest. Dave Allen's going to join us. The White Rino, one of my favorite characters in combat sports.

His social media is great. His insight is great. His interviews are great. We've had him on once before. It was on the Adé show on DeZone. Now we get him on our show. I think he was on that show. He might have been on my show.

He's only been on once in this setting. Very, very funny guy. And I think you guys are going to enjoy his demeanor if you're unfamiliar with the way Dave Allen likes to roll. And just added to the lineup at 1.30. the great Eric Bischoff is going to join us. Why on this Wednesday? Because we found out earlier this morning that the legendary, the pioneer, the trailblazer,

Ted Turner passed away. Ted Turner, the founder of CNN, that's one of the many things that he was so integral in launching and successful in, and of course in the world of combat sports, he also founded WCW. And without him really putting his,

his time and efforts and his resources into WCW, you could make a very strong case that the pro wrestling business isn't what it is today because he lit a fire under WWF. He was revolutionary, obviously teaming up with Rick Flair and signing the likes of Hulk Hogan and saying he wanted to go head to head on TNT on Monday nights against WWF. There was a whole thing there. Vince Fier's Ted Turner.

He was a massive, massive player in the world of pro wrestling. And so obviously there's a million things that you can talk about as it pertains to Ted Turner, a real champion of journalism as well, founding, launching CNN, but also a former owner of the Atlanta Braves, Atlanta Hawks, Atlanta Thrashers, great salesman as well. And when I say salesman, I don't mean salesman like he sells things. I should probably say sailor? Is that the correct term? Probably.

Anyway, our very own G.C. The G stands for Georgia. obviously has a great affinity for one Ted Turner, who is not originally from the state of Georgia, born in Ohio, but really I think is most connected to the state of Georgia and Atlanta, to be exact, has some great memories. G.C., when you found out about this news this morning, what was your reaction? Yeah, I mean, my parents actually texted me because, like you said, he wasn't born in Georgia, but, like, the mark that he left on Atlanta is, you know, inconceivable when you look back on everything

he was able to accomplish. Growing up, field trips to the CNN Center, obviously he started that, this incredible building in downtown Atlanta, going to Braves games my entire life growing up. I mean, obviously it's Truest Park now, but back then it was Turner Field and it was nicknamed the Ted, owning the Braves, owning the Hawks, owning the Thrashers. Anytime you would drive into downtown Atlanta from where I lived, you would have to pass TNT, TBS, Turner Broadcasting. He was just synonymous with Atlanta and he made a massive impact there. And a lot of being positive, like in the sporting world especially and just broadcasting. I mean, I was watching, I think it was the NHL playoffs recently on TNT with someone, and they go to the two box where they're interviewing, and they're like, oh, I didn't realize that TNT was in Atlanta. It's like, yeah, man, that's all because of Ted Turner. Like, all those shows inside the NBA, it was outside of Atlanta. It was a massive thing for the economy as well. I knew a lot of people growing up who worked at Turner broadcasting, whether it be TNT, TBS. So yeah, I mean, a legend, a legend of the game of broadcasting,

of sport, of Atlanta history, he was an incredible figure for sure. Can't wait to talk to Eric Bischoff about him. Who better than Eric Bischoff, who tells stories in the past of being in Ted's office and saying, like, we're going to go after WWF. So, you know, Eric was the guy who was tasked with that, that charge, if you will. And so getting the opportunity to pick his brain and to reminisce and pay homage to the great Ted Turner, who passed away at his home near Tallahassee, Florida on Wednesday morning, according to reports, the New York Times reporting this among many other outlets, including CNN,

some great tributes of him. These 24-hour cable news networks that are, you know, standard right now, like it didn't happen. He started that. He had a quote that I'm reading here in an article on rollingstone.com, quote, I worked until 7 o'clock, and when I got home, the news was over. So I missed television news completely, and I figured there were lots of people like me. And so that was the genesis, the inspiration behind trying to launch CNN, CNN, TBS TNT Turner Classic movies. Obviously, WCW, among many other things, he was diagnosed with Louis Body dementia in 2018, recovered from a mild case of pneumonia in 2025, and earlier this morning passed away at the age of 87. So we'll get a chance to pay homage to Mr. Ted Turner himself, World Series champion at 1.30 with Eric Bischoff. I'm looking forward to that very much. Is the gang

all here. Is everyone here? Ah, yes. You know, I was looking at a lot of Dave Allen interviews today. PT, anyone ever tell you look kind of like the white rhino? Well, that would be a massive compliment because I think he's one of the most handsome men of professional. He's a good looking guy. The white rhino? Yes. Yes. Thank you. You got to grow out there. He's got to go to you. Can we show him how he looks now? The TikTok picture that you showed me. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Pizzi, I think you're underestimating Dave Allen, by the way. Look at this. Wow, look at that facial hair, man. He is a dream boat.

He's a dream boat. You think I'm taking the piss? No, I genuinely love Dave. I don't know. I'm not taking the piss. This is a very big problem. Do you think I'm taking the piss? Not your taking the piss.

About what? Do you think I'm mocking you right now? No. Okay. How could you? I'm a 10 out of 10. He's a 10 out of 10. Can I say whatever's happening on the face right now is unbelievable.

Like, it's really coming together. Please don't abort this, because there have been times where you've aborted it, you've gotten a little bit, you know, I don't know, you've gotten a little caught under the collar. Don't abort this. This is, this is something, there's something happening here. I just want to let you know. It's been happening for a long time. I've been growing this face for 38 years. No, no, no, this is different. We've never seen this look before. No, it's a new one, but you know what I mean? I'm like David Poe. I'm just constantly reinventing myself. Yeah, no, no, 100%. I do want to let you guys know, some breaking news. Oh, no. Okay. Some breaking news that a couple of changes to our live show on Friday. So as you guys know, we're doing a live show on Friday at City Winery in New York City on the west side of Manhattan, 8.30 p.m. start time, 8.30 p.m. start time. 8 o'clock doors open.

And we're very excited about this. There we are. Live from New York. It's me. The boys in the back. Frank. Andy, Jordan, Pizzi from, you know, our Irish HQ. Calling in.

He'll be standing by. I did tell you earlier in the week, Kevin Holland and Derek Lewis will be joining us. Well, there's a first for everything because they now have scheduled conflicts, both of them. But have no fear. There will be other guests and probably more, because now I'm overcompensating. I don't want to make the same mistake and announce beforehand. Just follow the socials and you'll know. but at the very least two very relevant fighters who, well, one just had a huge win,

another has a huge fight coming up within the month and possibly two others. There's a very good chance we have three to four guests. You know I always come through. You know I always feel bad. I do feel bad if there are any Derek Lewis and Kevin Holland fans who bought tickets. I sincerely, sincerely, sincerely, sincerely, sincerely apologize. And we will make that up to you. And hopefully the lineup will, you know, will suffice.

So stand by, stand by. Maybe we'll have some names to announce later in the show, but at the very least, in the next 24 hours max, I will let you know what is going on. What is the crack as far as all of that is concerned? So, again, limited tickets available. It's in the chat. Link is in the chat. Also on my Twitter. I've posted it on Instagram as well.

I'd love for you guys to join us wherever you may be. and if you're in town to watch the UFC on Saturday, it's just a hop skip from the New Jersey, Newark region. We're on the west side, go through the tunnel, you're right there. It's going to be great. So stay tuned for that. And again, apologies if you're a Holland or Lewis fan out of my control. But we make it up to you.

As they say, card subject to change. That's the usual line at the very, very bottom of a bout card. So top of the program, we talked about. The passing of the legendary, the pioneer, the trailblazer, Ted Turner. Great thoughts from GC, an Atlanta boy on what he meant to the community. When I heard about the news coming in today, there was one man that came to mind that, of course, is our good friend Eric Bischoff, who was side by side with Ted during those very, very, very infamous and famous Monday Night Wars.

And I'm so very grateful and thankful and appreciative that he's given us a few minutes of his time here today to pay homage to the great Ted Turner and reflect. on his impact, not only on the business, not only on wrestling, but just everything that he was able to do in the world of sport, cable news, et cetera. And so he is kind enough to join us right here. And now let's not waste any time and say hello to Eric. Hello, Eric, thank you so much for doing this. Really appreciate it. And our condolences to you, I know he was a good friend and someone who meant a lot to you in your professional and personal life. So I'm so very sorry to hear about this news and wanted to extend that off the top. Well, thank you very much, Ariel. He was indeed

a great guy. And, you know, I don't want to make it. Because I didn't know. I wasn't close to Ted. We weren't like, you know, didn't go out and have steak dinner together or anything like that. But I did have a chance through working with him to get to know who he was and and watching how he operated.

And when you think about, look, he changed my life. He changed the lives of my children. None of us would be where we are today. I would not be involved with real American freestyle, were it not for the opportunities that Ted Turner provided to me. And I'm just one guy. Think about all of the people that worked at Turner Broadcasting, the thousands of people who just like me got opportunities and got to grow and got to pursue their careers because

of the entrepreneurial groundbreaking vision that Ted Turner had when it came to the media landscape. He was the media version of Elon Musk in his time. Incredible words. And thank you for that off the top. Can I ask, do you remember the first time you were in his presence, the first time you met him? I do. It was very, it was a group setting. You know, Ted was very good. You know, he maintained a great rapport with employees, not just with executives, but with employees. It was not unusual to see Ted down on the food court, you know, slapping people on the back and saying hello and, you know, talking with him about their day while he's eating a hot dog for lunch. That was Ted Turner. Ted Turner parked about six or eight rows down the parking deck. For me, we had a signed

parking. Ted Turner drove a Ford escort to work. Wow. Wow. He didn't have a driver. He didn't have a big, beautiful car. He drove a four-door dark blue escort. You know, I mean, that's who Ted was. And that's who we related to. in many ways. But I think I met him, you know, at a corporate event the first couple of times. And then, you know, later on at a Christmas party, once I kind of worked my way up the food chain a little bit, got invited to things that I didn't previously get invited to. And then, of course, started working with him more closely and communicating more closely once Nitro became a thing. Why do he care so much about wrestling? Why did it mean so much to him?

Great question. If you go back and read about Ted's beginning, you know, he inherited his business from his father who had challenges. And it was primarily a billboard company. And Ted had a vision for a television superstation. And really, Ted leveraged the success he was able to create through his father's business, the outdoor sign business, created enough money somehow to build this thing called a super station, which was just a vision in his head at the time. and Ted, first of all, he had limited funding.

And pro wrestling, to this day, compared to traditional programming, is relatively inexpensive programming, even more so back then, right? So, number one, Ted could afford it. Number two, it fit into that middle America mentality and relationship that Ted had. He grew up in the South. He knew there were a lot of people that culturally just like pro wrestling. just like they loved Andy Mayberry, and they loved the Atlanta Braves. And those three programs really became the three pillars,

if you go back and look at it, at the superstation, which went on to become, you know, Turner Network Television. I threw out a theory at the beginning of the show, and I said, if not for Ted Turner, who I think revolutionized pro wrestling, perhaps WWF slash WWE isn't around because I feel like he lit that fire under Vince and Company

because he came, Rising Tide, saw boats. And as a result, they were sort of skirting by. They were floundering a little bit. And that forced them to, you know, pick up their act a little bit. Is that a fair theory in your opinion? Arrell, you're the first person that has ever expressed that perspective. And yes, it's true, but it's more true than you think. Okay. Absolutely true. Your statement was absolutely true in in terms of putting pressure on Vince McMahon and forcing him to change. But what we really changed with Nitro was the format. People look at the bells and the whistles and oh, he gave away finishes and he did this. And all that is true. But when Ted said to me,

Eric, go compete. I had no idea how to do it. I literally sat down and made a list of all the things that they do, I'm going to do as many of them as differently as I can. And it started out at the very top, live TV, weekly, not occasionally, weekly. And that was the first format change that I made. In addition to a lot of other things that were all geared towards an 18 to 49 year old demo that Vince was completely ignoring. Vince's product, his format, if you will, the formula, the recipe, call it whatever you want, but it's the formula that makes things work. Vince's formula prior to Nitro was teen and preteen. That's his business model then.

If you go back and look at all of his key revenue sources, all of the licensing, merchandising, all of it was geared towards teens and preteens. Remember the cartoons and all the other things? That's exactly why. I didn't want to go after that same audience. I went after a different underserved audience. the 18 to 49 year old men. That change, going live, targeting 18 to 49 year old men as opposed to teen and preteens,

which was Vince's business model from day one, that is what changed the industry. Had Nitro not come along, had I not gone weekly, had I not shifted the focus and changed the creative to address the 18 to 49 year old demo, Vince would have been stuck in the mud doing what he'd always done and he wouldn't be in business today. that you and I agree on. 100%. Why do you think he had the desire to go head to head with Vince?

Like there had been other TV wrestling properties that were fine, not going ahead, kind of leaving him alone. Why did you think he wanted to do that? Because Ted was a fighter. Just like Vince McMahon is a fighter. Ted is a fighter.

He was a fighter. It's like I don't want to, he was tired of being number two. You know, we were on, and that's one of the things. I'll never forget, my favorite conversation. I went in for a meeting with Ted Turner, my very first formal meeting, one-on-one with Ted. Well, Harvey Schiller was there to support me, but it was me pitching Ted

an idea to do business with Rupert Murdoch's Star Network in China. I had an international television deal, an offer on the table that would have put WCW into a profit position for the first time since Ted bought the org or created the organization in 1988, right? So I'm excited. I get to do what no one else has been able to do. Find a way to make WCW profitable. So I spent a week or two getting ready for this pitch. I go in, I sit down. I'm so excited. I'm pretty confident my sales ability. And I'm pitching Ted Turner and I get about two minutes into my pitch. I didn't even wind up. I was barely loose. And Ted said, ah, I'm What's it going to take to be competitive with WWF?

I was not prepared for that. He's not like, I'm going to BS Ted Turner, right? I just like, oh, he said, go back to boxing, you know, tuck your chin, put your hands up, look out over your knuckles and look for a way out, right? And, you know, my wheels are spinning and finally. I said, well, Ted, I just, it's like, I can't BS Ted Turner. So I said, well, Ted, Monday night, Ross, Monday night in prime time, our A show is Saturday evening, 605 Eastern, 305 Pacific,

kind of hard to compete. Just like that, Ted said, looked over to Scott Sasseh, who had come into the meeting. And back then, Scott Sassel was the heir apparent to Ted for the turn of broadcasting. Young guy, really great guy, super creative. And he looked over at Scott and said, Scott, give Eric two hours every night, head-to-head with Monday Night Raw. Wow.

That's what I said. I went, wow, what? And that's when I went into my office, locked myself in a room and said, okay, how the hell am I going to do this? Ah, we're going to go live. We're going to go 18 to 49. We're going to do more reality-based storylines. We're going to quit doing as much of the kiddie stuff. Two years later, hey, it's the attitude era.

Yeah. You know what I mean? That first show was in September. I remember it was Labor Day weekend, right, the Monday after or maybe actually Labor Day. that meeting that you're talking about, how many months prior to September was that? Just curious, like, what kind of a runway did you get? I had that meeting was probably in May. Okay.

Oh, yeah. It sounded like I had a lot of time. Yeah. How invested was he in the day-to-day? Like, was he checking in with you? Was he talking about ratings? Was he asking you about storylines or was he hands off? Absolutely hands-off.

never heard from Chad or anybody else for that matter. I mean, I have to admit there was a window of time. And I don't think this will ever exist again in a corporate environment, to be honest, because things have just culturally, corporately have changed so much. But they said, Eric, here's your spending limitations. Like if I wrote a check for more than a million dollars, like if it was a million dollars even, I could write it and not have to ask permission. If it was a million and one dollars, I got to run it off.

up the flypole. Other than that limitation, I was just off doing my thing. They let me run my business. I was managing it well. It didn't require a lot of interference and they left me alone. Now, the exception to that was Tuesday afternoons, generally about 430 or 5 o'clock Eastern Nielsen ratings would come out. They would come out and we'd all get them at the same time on our computers, corporate computers, boom, everybody gets them, including Ted, at exactly the same time. I'm guessing not 15 minutes went by on Tuesday afternoons once that email hit that I did not get a call from Ted Turner personally. Wow.

And he was giddy. He wasn't like an executive, like the CEO of Turner broadcasting. He was like, yo, Eric, get it again. This is crazy. I mean, it was like talking to one of my college buddies. He was, that's who Ted was. Wow. Can't imagine what that phone call felt like for you, right?

I mean, to get that from him on a weekly basis? It was awesome. You know, it went on for, I think, the first year or year and a half. I mean, it wasn't just like he did it once or twice. And, okay, check that box, don't need to do that anymore. He would call me every Tuesday. And sometimes, you know, really animated, like it was a really lopsided rating. He's a very competitive guy.

Was he bothered by the skits and stuff that WWF was doing, the billionaire Ted stuff? It's the opposite. I'll tell you a really quick story. I don't want to eat up your whole show. Oh, this is great. Thank you. When those billionaire Ted skits hit, right, somebody in my office made sure that I had them right away because they were afraid, oh, my gosh. You know, Ted's going to lose his mind or whatever.

I don't know what they were thinking about. But they made sure I got the tapes of those right away. So, of course, I looked at it. I didn't know Ted well enough to know, but I kind of thought he's got a pretty good personality. He doesn't really take himself too seriously. I mean, some of the stuff I heard him say giving speeches on his racing boats and things like, and he's not a really sensitive guy. So, but maybe I should go ask Harvey Schiller, you know, before I send them over to Ted,

just to make sure Ted was aware, because that would be the right thing to do. But I said, I'm going to go ask Harvey first. just in case, right? Because I wasn't sure. Harvey looked at him and he just chuckled and goes, follow me. Walked me over to Ted's office. Didn't call, didn't, you know, just walks over, got in. He knew Ted was there, walked in, plugged him in, and Ted busted out laughing.

Wow. He thought they were funny as hell. But Ted also knew he got under Vince's skin. Vince was famous for no selling. anybody that's worked with Vince for more than five minutes knows what I'm saying. He was like, no matter how bad it is, don't sell it. He was selling like a bitch.

So Ted knew that. And Ted just knew he got to him. And he thought it was funny. You know, it just, and it was. He didn't take it seriously. To the best your knowledge, did they ever speak at any point? Did they ever have a conversation, Vince and Ted? I don't know for sure.

I would imagine they did at some point early on because they had a relationship long before I got there briefly. So I'm sure they did at some point. And I'm also sure that there was letters gone back and forth even while I was there. But to the extent I don't know how much conversation or communication they had. Do you have any recollection of him showing up to an event, backstage front row.

Did he ever did he ever come to a local one? Oh yeah. He came to center stage. He brought Jane Fonda. I mean, think about how weird that. Yes, yes.

I remember them at Braves games. Yeah, they came to WCW. Wow. Set right front row at center stage, you know, where they have indie shows now. Yeah.

It's great. But he's been, oh, Jane would get all dressed up. She looked like a million bucks and Ted looked like Ted, and they'd sit there right in the front row. And they wouldn't just show up and sit through a match.

they'd like sit through a show. Right, right, right. And interact with people. It was fun. And there were paper views that he was part of and things like that. But yeah, Ted loved to associate with wrestling whenever he could. There's a famous photo that we showed of the contract signing, Hogan, Flair. He's in the middle.

One of the times that he was sort of used as a quote-to-quote character. This one right here, correct me from wrong, you were a part of the company at this point? Oh, yeah. I was a year executive producer, but I was the one that brought in Hogan and set this up. Yeah. What you recall? Do you remember anything about this day? Oh, yeah.

I was standing right behind the camera that we used for that shot. Yeah, just watching an old thing go down. I set it up. Three like, you know, larger than life figures in the room together. I thought it was a great move to have Ted as the sort of the man there, right? Like the figurehead overseeing the contract signing. I felt like that was a big turning point for the company. I was curious, you know, I know he sold TNT and Turner Broadcasting and all this stuff mid-90s.

When WCW was on his deathbed and you were obviously, you know, rumored to maybe come in there as the last minute buyer and whatnot. Was there ever any talk, hey, let's ask Ted if he wants to buy it back? Was there any talk of him buying it solo just to resurrect it? Did that ever come up in the late 90s, early 2000s? No, I think, you know, that whole merger, and it's a completely, it's a, completely, it's a, it's a, hour episode of itself. But that merger essentially neutered Ted Turner within his own company. Okay. He was nothing more than a figurehead. And he didn't realize it until it was over. I mean, that's how, that's the way that merger went down. It was sad. And at that point,

you know, I think Ted was pretty disconnected from anything entrepreneurial at that point. He was probably pretty overwhelmed with the merger and tried to come out of it as whole as he could. But it was such, and that merger, it's gone down, I think, and probably still is one of the one of the most disastrous corporate mergers in merger history. Yeah. The AOL Time Warner Turner. And it didn't just affect WCW. Obviously affected us, but it affected a lot of other companies.

You know, you look at, you know, look at CNN. And CNN is a punchline. CNN is an infomercial channel. It's horrible what's happened to CNN because of leadership post Ted Turner. That's a shame because CNN was the leader in global 24-hour news coverage, and now it's like I said, it's a punchline.

Would it be fair to say that he shaped the way that you lead, seeing him as the every man driving that Ford Escort, being in the cafeteria, did that have that sort of profound impact on you as you became a leader? It definitely had an impact on me. In fact, even then, it did. I was one of the only executives.

I was a president of a division of Turner Broadcasting, and I would show up wearing jeans, cowboy boots, and ride my Harley to work and parked six spaces down from Ted. Wow. And I had my shoulders in the beard, and I would see Ted in the morning. It was like no big deal. I didn't have to wear a blue suit, a white shirt,

red tie with wingtip shoes. That's what everybody else had to do. Ted kind of not gave me permission, but gave me the room to just be myself. And I think I probably overdid that a little bit. You know, I was immature in many respects, business-wise. But I looked at Ted as somebody that did it his own way. I know that sounds cliche, but he really, really, really did. I'll let you go in a second.

Just curious, he impacted so many forms of business, entertainment, obviously news, sport. et cetera, for this audience, for the wrestling fan, how do you think Ted Turner should be remembered? I hope he's remembered as one of the great media moguls and entrepreneurs of our lifetimes. Yeah, and I hope that the organizations, you know, AEW tonight, obviously Tony has talked about, you know, the impact of being a fan growing up, watching WCW Nightshu.

They're on Turner networks now, right? They're on TNT and TBS. I hope they pay homage to him tonight. Hope WW does that as well. I think that would be very classy on their part. This has been incredible. Thank you for doing this on such short notice. I'd be remiss, though, Eric, before I let you go,

congratulations on RAF. It's been a minute since we talked about RAF. You know we talk about the product a lot on this program. Had chat on recently. I've had a number of your athletes. It's really been amazing. And I'll be honest, didn't expect you guys to have so much success so early on.

So kudos to you and the team on what you have going. I know you have May 30th coming up, June 13th as well. tremendous stuff. It is. It is fascinating, Ariel. And obviously, we appreciate your support. It's a combination of a lot of things, but we truly feel blessed. And as optimistic as I can be, we're three years ahead of where I hoped optimistically

it could be when this thing started. So it's an exciting ride. And thank you for being a part of it. Incredible. Thank you, Eric. All the best. Really appreciate you doing this. And again, condolences to you and anyone who knew Ted Turner.

Thank you, Ariel. There he is. The great Eric Bischoff, who worked so very closely with Ted Turner in those early days. And obviously, as he just described, Ted's willingness and desire to go head to head with WWF really sparked a change, a revolution, if you will, in the wrestling business. So what a treat to be able to pick his brain a little bit for some 20 minutes there and ask him about the late great Ted Turner, who earlier this morning passed away at the age of 87. Dave Allen's still to come. Costel Van Stenis, Johnny Eblin, Assim Zaidi, Palmy Malanaji.

It's a jam-pack show. Let's talk a little UFC 328 fellas. There's a lot of news and notes to get to in the next 20 or so minutes. So we don't have to get to all of them in this 20-minute block. And of course, we have on the nose coming up back end of the program. But what about Hamza Shemayev dropping some. sparring footage. Now, before we play it, I do recognize

the location. That's definitely extreme couture, which obviously Sean Strickland is a part of. The year was not stated. But it's interesting, nevertheless, because they're about to fight each other. We know about their

training sessions, but we had never quite seen them trained together. So let's kind of watch this together, and I'll be honest with all of you. I did not watch it in full. I kind of wanted to watch it the air so I don't really know who looks good, who looks bad. Do we have the footage? There it is. Hamsa Shamaev here. Sean Strickland in the red trunks, Shamiyev in the black, a little herky jerky there. Feels like a

relatively friendly spar. Not a lot of punches thrown off the bat. There's a fake shot there, a little level change, nice little jab. Okay, oh, all right, this something there. Yeah. Okay. And that was it, yeah? Yeah, that's it. Perhaps much ado about nothing?

Well, I think the reason he put this out was because Sean Strickland had said, the narrative that Sean Strickland is painting about the sparring session is like, or the time that they trained together is like, Hamza didn't really want to go with me because he wanted to just bully little guys. Yeah. Just wanted to bully guys who are not on his level. And so Hamzat's like, well, here's me with you. am I bullying

you know am I bullying lesser men than myself or am I trying to get it in with you? I think that's kind of the point Hamza's trying to make by releasing this. Certainly did not have any like

takeaway from it like oh my God look at how great Hamzaa looked or even look at how great Sean looked it just to me was you know a light kind of go for both of them but I think the point

that Hamza's trying to make is like you say I'm after you know the guppies but I was here with you are you a shark or not. Okay, I get that. There is sort of like an unwritten rule, right? You don't show that stuff. And I sort of feel, do you feel like a rule was broken there? No. Yeah. It's not showing him like, it's icing him and sparring or tapping him out or anything like that. I think Sean Strickland just keeps going back to their time. They train together and the poor ethics

that Hamzaa Chama have had within the room. And it's just, Hamzaa being like, here I am sparring with you. And I don't feel like it crosses the line because of the fact that the sparring has become such a topic of it. You know, like it's, it is just engulfing this fight in terms of their different versions of how this all went. Yeah. I saw it and I was like, oh shit, is this, is this Bisping Rockhold? And I know no footage of that ever came out, but you remember Bisping once saying, I think on Spike TV, right? On MMA uncensored saying I'm the unofficial strike force middleweight champion because of our. sparring sessions. It's not quite that.

We've seen this, there's been versions of this, right? Gilbert Burns and Camaro Usman was one that came to mind for me where they kept talking about I'm hearing man, in the room, Gilbert Burns, like he was putting it on Camaro and Camaro being like, yeah, but did footage

did we ever see, I don't think we ever saw the footage. Yeah, right, right, right, right. Did we see, I think we saw TJ and Cody, right? We saw something from them together unless I'm mistaken, I believe something did end up coming out of that one. Didn't we see footage with Ian Gary and Shavkat? Yeah.

Actually, that one's a good one similar to this, right? It was just like a little bit of moving around. Yeah. Yeah. Still cool. Still interesting. Hamzad had a...

He's got some low-key bangers. LK? No, no LK, first of all. Second of all, what are we referring to specifically? He seems unbothered. He is unbothered and he's got some zingers. He was asked about the security. So everyone was making a big to-do about the security.

at the media day yesterday. I'm curious if they're going to do another media day today, because they had this impromptu media day yesterday. And I know they do the sit downs. Again, I know they do the partner sit downs, but this was a larger thing. And Humsat was asked about the increased security. They had them separate times, very far apart, et cetera, et cetera.

He was asked about the increased security. This is what he had to say. Hamsat, I think a lot of people are hoping for a show before the show. They're hoping for some drama. They're hoping for you guys to go back and forth. Is that going to happen or do you think this is going to be an actual very calm week? Other things are that possible to happen because they don't let me see this guy, man. So I don't know what is he.

I've been in three days in the lobby and the guy says he's going to shoot me. So let's go, do that. I would be happy to die. What do you think of the increased security this week? What? The increased security? Dan White said the increased, there's more security this week. It's not for me, for his safety.

Come on, that's a good line. It's not for me, it's for his safety regarding the security. That's a good line. So I might be downplaying how easy going he's thinking. He's just like, yeah, I'd love to get shot. Yeah. Sure, I'm happy to death. There's a terrifying nature to his delivery.

The calm, Hamza is scary. He seems a little bit too happy. He seems like happy-go-lucky about it. Do you think that heavy is the head that wears the crown? Do you think that he wants to lose? Homsat? No, I'm just, I'm both. Title, Hamza Tchamayev implies he wants to lose.

No, but I think there will be people who will die. There will be people who look at this and go like, is he softened, right? Is Hamzat different than he was previously, I think is a question, right? Coming off that last performance, I think there will be people who will go, you know, where's that ferocious guy, right? And if he has another performance where he controls Sean Strickland, I do think there will be people who go, what happened to the Hamzat that I remember? What happens to that uncaged animal?

So I don't know. I think he is incredibly confident in his skills to get it done this weekend. I think he's getting paid a ton of money. There's another clip where he's just like, yeah, man, shout out to Strickland. You know, I'm getting paid a shit ton of money for this fight. So I think he's getting a massive pay to. I think he, in his mind, he knows he's going to win. And he's just kind of like, all right, I'll see him Saturday.

It's all good. Can I also just say, I think a large part of why Sean is speaking this way is to get under his skin, get in his head, right? Mentally break him. There has to be a reverse to that as well. If you are saying all these outlandish things and trying to get under your opponent's skin and his response is this, his demeanor is this, that has to kind of mess you up too, I would imagine, because then you're going to keep trying and trying. Like, I expect tomorrow at the press conference to him go full throttle, Sean Strickland, and I expect him to try to throw everything at Hamza to sort of get him to snap. I think he wants him to snap. I think he wants to get under his skin to

point where he loses control. And if he's not giving in, that's got to be a bit rattling, I would think. To us, regular people, if I'm trying to get you upset and you are unbothered, that will then piss me off and annoy me. You know what I mean? Yeah, so if I'm Sean trying to get under skin, that's what this is all about. Like, he wants to get under his skin, he wants to get in his head, he wants to mess him up. And if he is unsuccessful in doing so to the point where like, Humzad is just smiling and smirking and just like flicking off the trash talk. I don't know, man. Like, Hamza's fascinating.

He's not even like, yo, fuck him, man. I don't care what he has to say. He's just kind of like laughing it all off. Yeah. Just sort of just like, yeah, all good, man. It's all good. Well, Sean Strickland seemed to have drawn the ire of Josh Hokit. And perhaps he started it because he was asked about Hokit and he wasn't too complimentary

of it all. and then Hokit was tweeting a whole bunch of stuff towards Sean Strickland, which is sort of like, I don't know if it's like two heels going at each other, but like who's the baby face in this arrangement? Anyway, here's a little more from Sean Strickland on Josh Hokit yesterday.

You know, again, I respect him for doing it, but it's like, to me it's too much. It's like it's such a fabricated, like, you know, it's like it's so fake and fabricated. I just, I'll see a clip and I just shut off right away. And it's not that I like Josh I've trained with him, I've met him personally Like he's actually a really nice guy

But like to go in and interviewing people on street It's like you're just like You know, you're like the You're like an old influencer dude You're like fucking what mid-30s And you're trying to be a fucking influencer Like stop dude like just shut the fuck up Be yourself, go train

Or don't man I guess I guess what you do is working you're on the White House card You know Are you saying nobody wants to be the old guy at the club? Yeah it's like dude you're like you're like How was you like mid-30? Hey, how old's Josh? But let's just say like, let's say mid-30s, dude,

and you're like, and you're walking around like you're fucking 18 years old trying to get a YouTube start. Like, what are you doing, dude? There's a whole bunch of tweets in response to this from Josh Hokit a whole bunch of tweets. Gully.

Hey, he's coming after Pereira here too. I'm trying to find the, He says, let's fight. I'll show you the difference between me and Jake Paul. He says Sean Strickland complaining about a persona is like a circus clown complaining about too many balloons. You're just mad because my WWE skit has better ratings than your personality. Yes, yes, yes, yes. It doesn't seem to be taken too kindly to it.

No, no. But this is the art of selling yourself, right? You have to have many different feuds going on at the same time. Yeah, I mean, Sean Strickland continuously says, like, oh, it's so cringe. I can't even watch it. But I like Josh Oket. And it's like, you need to stop that man. You're a grown-ice man.

Or not. Keep doing it. Yeah. Okay, I will say. There's part I identify with in terms of or sympathize with him is he said, I know Josh Hokit. He's a nice guy. I like him. The character he's doing is lame.

I can understand that. If you're somebody who knew Josh, knows Josh Hokit personally or had trained with him in the past and he's the regular guy and then you see him doing this to be like, this ain't for me. I get that. I'm down for that. Yeah, I understand where Strickland's coming from. As somebody who I have long said, right? Kobe Covington playing a character. Josh Hokit, very clearly, playing a character.

I don't think Sean Strickland's playing much of a character. He's doing the pro wrestling. He's normally at a 7 or 8, he's turning it up to 12. You know, he's just boosting it. I believe Sean Strickland to be the genuine article, even if he does lean into it, right, and trolls and leans into his worst instincts at times. So I get, I don't think there's like any hypocrisy.

I saw some people being like, that's rich, you know, like it's like, I don't put them in the same category, actually. I think Sean Strickland is something different. Okay, one more from Mr. Sean Strickland. This is on not actually disliking Hamza Tcha Myev. If you're confused, so am I. Let's watch it together. Like, what is Chimai that's what we know?

The guy goes, his family leaves this, like, horrible fucking place where they murder people and put people in jail. goes to Sweden. He goes back to said horrible place. He starts sucking off a dictator. This is history as we know it, you guys. I'm not lying here. He goes back to this horrible fucking place, starts

sucking off a dictator. The dictator says, hey, you know what? I want my kid to tap you out. Here's a G-Wagon. I want this. I want that. Chima now has to flee to another country. He flees to another country. So it's like, somewhere do I dislike him? I just kind of look at you as a fucking dog.

You know? I don't want this. Okay, it actually does sound like he doesn't. It was a step of another dog, a rat. Oh, God. Cockeridge. Okay. Oh, a rat. On Air Jordan wrote on not disliking Hamza, but it sounds like he doesn't really like him very much.

Listen, that was from yesterday. Oh, okay. A good friend Josh cut that. I just am reading the description. All right. Well, it sounds like he doesn't like him very much. No, no. This is not my fault.

But nevertheless, they don't like each other. More media to come today, press conference tomorrow. Stay tuned. Now, speaking of people who don't like. each other. Surreal Gunn has popped up. He hasn't done much media since the Tom Aspinall fight. Like, I haven't heard him really say anything about the Tom Aspinall fight, to the best my knowledge. Well, he did speak to French media yesterday on some of the things that Tom has said about him since their fight in October. Of course, he's preparing for the Alex Prairie fight. Here's Surreal Gun speaking to, I believe, RMC Sport.

Let's do this one together because I think it's in French, right? Here we go. Surreal Gun, Bon Gamins. The man going up against. his criminal's communication agency that I hope helps him. Today he signed with someone for his communication because I thought it was a disaster. Sometimes it's better not to say anything. These things happen. You don't need to overdo it, exaggerate it.

The guy was like, ah, ah, ah, acting like he can't drive anymore. He had said so many things that spent so much time trying to accuse me of who knows what. It just didn't make any sense anymore. Even his own fans must be like, wow, man, that's enough. Relax. Like, these things have. happen. We've got your back. We should calm down a bit. But yeah, that was his communication.

I wasn't affected at all by it. Social media is secondary. And that's that. So he's kind of saying, like, yo, he was embellishing and he didn't seem to like it very much. So let's go. We'll be seeing more from Suril Gan in the buildup. I think he's going to be in town because everyone's in town for the press conference on Friday for the White House card and doing a whole bunch of media. You've seen Ilyath-Duporia do media. You've seen Alex Pereira do media. In fact, today I saw a photo of the two of them on a PJ headed off to, I believe, the White House. It says, in the caption, on our way to meet the president. Now, we all agreed, looking at this photo of Ilii-Tepore and Alex Perey together, that it's a sad state of affairs because I think

we all thought initially this was fake, right? We all thought this was AI. I was like scrolling Twitter and I just came across and I was just like someone AIed this. It looks, what about it looks AIed? I don't know if it's like the lighting or it's just because everything we see is a eyed when it comes to news.

But talk about a picture. Oh, amazing. On the PJ. Who's in the back there? Is there someone of known? The aura in this pick. PJ with two of the biggest stars in the UFC right now.

Going to be the president. Right. Do you think they're the only one's going to beat the president, or do you think some of the other fighters? Do you think Steve Garcia and Diego Lopez are going as well? Stevie G. He'll be there for sure. Yeah. All right.

For sure. Well, that's pretty cool. A busy stretch for Alex Pereira. Alex Pereira was at Yankee Stadium yesterday. I thought the photo of him wearing the Yankee pinstripes with the thing on top. What's that thing on top, Jordan? What's the thing on top called? Like the iconic, like that stuff at the very, very top.

What do they call that? They call that something. You're talking about like the facade up there? Yeah, the facade. I like that. Look at Alex owning the Yankee iconic hat. Oh, there he is. You know, the pinstripes make everyone look good.

Is that the first pitch right there? Bit of a knuckleer over there from Alex, huh? This guy throwing first pitch at Yankees game, then hopping on the PJ with Elliott the Portia to go meet the president. Yo, what about the fact that he's doing the standing, the national anthem next to Aaron Boone right there? Did you see that? He's standing next to the manager.

I didn't know that the ceremonial first pitcher gets to stand next to the manager. I know you watch Gupfeld every night. You see him? Yeah. You see it Teporea on it? I saw Teporea. Yeah. I thought it was a good appearance.

They were throwing some zingers at him. Did you see that? Yeah. Asking him about politics. It is funny. In Arlington, Texas, for sure. It is funny. Ilya trying to make it very clear that he wants nothing to do with the politics attached to all

of this, and they put them on Fox News on a show like that, which is very political, right? But of the clips that I saw, I didn't watch the whole thing, but of the clips that I saw, I thought he handled himself quite well. A lot of talk about the promos for all of this, Dana White, weighing in on the use of AI for that White House promo. Here's what he had to say about it. Do you use AI at all at UFC? How do you get to integrate it?

So the White House promo that we just did is AI. That's cool. Yeah, the whole promo is AI. Even my voice isn't my real voice. Wow. Yeah. My guys put together the whole promo for the White House without one guy going into the sound booth

filming or anything. The only thing that's real in the spot is the fight footage. Do you think that's going to be the future of... It already is. It's not the future. It's now. It's already happening. there it is

wow that's cool no it isn't no it is not it's happening he says it was such gusto like he's like revealing to all of us that it is happening

even his voice had to be AI no one got in a booth no one filmed anything it was just one engineer with a computer just typing it up in this day and age

that's cool everyone has microphones you could do that in your car that seems too much right the VO Look, man, it ain't the future. It's right now.

The worst part about it is like, the promo kind of sucks. You know, like, when Paul Heyman was sitting here and he showed us that AI, like, okay, you know, fair play, that was pretty cool. The promo actually sucks. Like, their heads are like, whizz. I love when Dana gets on these podcasts. First of all, he says that he doesn't do podcasts, and now he's on every podcast on this on. I'm not familiar with this podcast. Are you guys familiar with it?

This one that he was on? Yeah. I love when he gets on these podcasts, and then he starts, like, waxing poetic on all these sort of, like, civilization things. He talked about family and all this stuff. And I was like, he's a fight promoter. Like, why are we turning to him to give us insight into the world of technology and society and politics? In any event, there you have it. Much more to come.

Loaded day. We're just getting started, impromptu appearance by one Eric Bischoff. Now we have the opportunity to speak to one of my favorites in the world of combat sports. a couple of weeks ago on the on the nose segment. Someone asked me, hey, can you guys have Dave Allen on the show because he is that damn entertaining? And you know what? We've had him on once before.

And I agree. He is that damn entertaining. He's one of my absolute favorites. He's killing it on TikTok these days. Killing it on YouTube. We spoke to him about that in the past. Just has a sort of laissez-faire, authentic approach to things. The every man, if you will.

And he's returning to action on the 16th of May. That's not this Saturday next Saturday. in his beloved Doncaster at the Echo Power Stadium. He says it's not a stadium more of a local ground, but it's in the name. It's the Echo Power Stadium going up against Philip Hergevich, arguably the biggest fight of his career, and he's kind enough to join us right here now

to talk about it all. Is the white rhino there? Hello, Dave. How are you? Hello, man, very well. How are you? It's nice to speak to you. It's nice to have you on again. First, I'd love to give you props on the facial hair. I'm loving it these days. Yeah, you know, my mates.

said to me, I was getting my hair cut, I got, like, the, the barber left this on and this on, and my mate said, it looks good that. And I said, oh, really? Then I left it. And then I went downstairs, and he said, I was only joking. Yeah, I've kept it ever since. Yeah, so I quite like it. I think it's a good look. It's a little Zoro-esque, you know, Zorro? Yeah, not personally. Sure. Yeah, yeah, I know of him. Yeah, yeah, the guy with the sword and whatnot. Also, if you don't mind me saying, it feels like your face is very, you know, very slim, like it feels like you're quite swelled right now. Yeah, I've lost a lot of weight, yeah.

My last fight, I was morbidly obese at Christmas, and then by the time the fight came around, I got down to just being severely overweight, and then the Hergavich fight came about, and I just thought, you know what, if I don't get in good shape, I'll get beaten a couple of rounds, and we don't want that, so I've got into good shape and hopefully give myself the best chance,

and I'm a big underdog, but the least I can do is give myself a chance. What's been the difference? How have you been able to keep the weight off? The difference. Interesting question. Nutrition, I've just been told, is one. Yeah, just, you know, keeping out the fridge, really. You know, I'm a peek of me.

You know what I mean? Like, I'm always peeking in cupboards and not always looking for something. And I've just done less of that, really. I'm greedy to guy, me. If I see it, I'll eat it. So, you know, out of sight, out of mind to say over it. I don't know to say that in America, but out of sight, out of mind. Yes, no, that's a big one.

So do you mind if I ask, how much do you weigh right now? In pounds or kilos or stones. Do you know them all? I know all of them, yeah. Let's go pounds first. 251 pounds. Okay, kilos? 114.6.

Stone? 17, 13. Golly. How do you know that so quick? Like, you look at all of them? To be honest, tequila one I made up, but the other two I know for the definite.

I wouldn't know. Like, if you didn't tell me that, I would have no idea. I used to watch, have you ever watched the film? If you can, Willey and out of Caprio. Tremendous. What a film.

So I can say anything, but if I say it with real conviction and belief, you will believe what I say. So that's what I did there. Yeah, no, you nailed it. Thank you for that. And by the way, congratulations on the TikTok. you're flying over there.

I see the numbers. Well, basically, what can I say on this? Can I say anything I want on here? Whatever you want. Yeah, whatever you want. Basically, I've got loads of followers. When I urinate, I do it in my sink at home.

I go. I'll do it everywhere, every sink, really. Nine out of ten sinks. I will urinate in the sink because I've got a bad aim. Sometimes, sometimes it goes behind me. I try and wean the toilet. It ends up behind me. It's weird.

Don't go over my head, they go around my legs. So, honestly, Yeah, it's mad. In the morning, you should see it everywhere. And my missus just started having to go with me. I've been wearing the sink on and off since I was about 15. But, yeah, people do it. People do it.

People do it? People say they don't. But everyone does it. Do you know what I mean? It's easy. The sink, you can, like, the mirror is banging in line with the sink. You know, you can just rest yourself upon the sink. You know, it's a hundred percent accuracy thing going off.

And you don't have to wash your hands even because you're not actually touching anything. Jay, so you're actually urinating in the sink? Are you in the sink? Straight in it as well. Stop. How tall are you? How tall are you? How tall are you that you could do that?

Pretty tall. Six, three and a half. You can tell. You know what? If it misses, it annoying me, I'll sometimes I'll just, I'll put the plug in and leave it there. What plug? What do you talk? Oh, wait, like the, ah.

The plug, yeah. So sometimes I'll go in there, go, David! And I'll go, well. It's a good one that line it. And she'll go, it's not that funny, actually. We've got kids. But I tend to try and not do it with the bathroom and the kids used. How many years you've been married?

I've not known that long, actually. I've known her a little bit longer than she. Well, she got pregnant pretty fast, and then we've just been together forever since. How long is that? Five years. You have to ask someone? No, no, I'm just thinking. I'm thinking.

God bless her for me. staying with you. I don't know if I could do that if my if my partner was peeing in the sink. Yeah. If I weren't rich, mate, she'd be long gone, trust me. So. So she's sticking with you, you're saying just for the money? I reckon so at this stage, yeah.

Sure, she loves that. Yeah, yeah, I have to keep. And I've seen your place. I've seen your place. I saw you and Carl Frotch sitting outside your palatial estate. At some house you got there. Yeah, it's a nice house, but I'm from Doncaster. You know, the house price is there. I bought an house

My first house was worth, I'll translate it to dollars for you and the viewers. I reckon my first property I bought was worth about $90,000. Wow. Which is pretty cheap. $90,000. So what would that be in pounds? About $76,000. I don't even know if you're right, but I'll take it.

Yeah, they're online again. Yeah, there you go. And, yeah, it's about that. And basically, it's three bedrooms, got a bathroom. I'm looking to rent it out at the minute actually. It's got three bedroom, three bedrooms, a bathroom. It's about half a mile from the train station, 600 yards from Seafish who was sponsored me for this fight.

Shout out of Seafish. And, yeah, it's going really well. Did this come as a result of the win over Johnny Fisher? No, I bought this house eight and a half years. You want to be Knit Webb. Oh, wow. I'll tell you an interesting story that I've only told about six times. So a lot of people watching this, we've heard it before.

Okay, perfect. So I watch Tony. Yoker, June 23rd, 2018, I got a right good adiding, and I were knackered. And a few week after, I thought, you know what, I'm going to retire. I have one more fight, a four-rounder and retire. I then saw

that NIT Web Joe Joyce fell through. Messies Eddie Hearnan said, I will box Nip Webb at the O2 on the Dillian Y, Joseph Parker undercard. He said, sound, I'll give you 20 grand. I said, oh, I said, can you give me a little bit more? He said, no, but if you're being

NIT Webb, which you won't, I'd give you an extra 30,000 pound bonus, I said sound. And then I went to knock him out and bought my first house with the money. Wow. Unbelievable. I love that. Because the reason I asked about the Johnny Fisher fight was I remember Eddie saying he loves being able to show up at your house. And now you've got this great house.

And he was implying that life has changed since that fight or those fights. And that's one of the great perks of his job to see a fighter kind of grow up and evolve. But you say this didn't come from the Johnny fight. No, no. My first two houses I bought were before the Fisher Fight. Eddie's never been to my house, by the way. He's not been to my house yet. When he comes to Doncaster next week, he can come and have luck if he wants. But it won't be as nice as I don't, I won't imagine. But yeah, no, the Johnny Fisher fight, I was skimped before Fish or won, I was proper skinned.

You know, I had a few properties and that, but I was a mad gambler, and I spent a lot of money on a lot of mad shit in my time. I'll pretty skimp before, Fisher 1, but after Fisher 1, things have really turned around for me. You'd never guess looking at me, but yeah, I see it. Biggest, biggest bet you've ever won? Biggest bet I've ever won. Yeah. I always thought a lucky 63, right?

So you have six selections. You have six singles. You have a number of doubles, trebles, four-folders cumuliers, five-folds cum laudeurs. I won't have six-holder cumulative, and I once had six winners. And I reckon I would have put 183 pound, and I probably got about 15,000. pound back. Okay, that's not bad. So not on sports or anything like that, right?

It was horse racing, yeah, it was horse racing. Oh, that's horse racing. Okay, I didn't know the lingo. I'm a big horse racing fan, yeah. I'm a horse racing enthusiast. Did you watch the Kentucky Derby? I don't watch American horse racing because they run on dirt and that. It's not really for me.

I like to see them around grass. Oh, interesting. Why? In the UK, it's on grass? Mainly grass. There's some more weather meetings and polytrack, but I like to see them run on grass. What's the difference? I'm not really sure.

I just think it's aesthetically more pleasing to watch a nice horse run on a bit of grass. Okay. Would you like one day to own a horse? You know what? I used to think that, but then I realized I'm not that rich. I've got mates that own horses

and it's just a money pit really. You know, I just, and if I owned a horse, like there's syndicates and that, it's good fun, but I want to be the main man. I want to call, I want to call the horse like Dave Allen.

Do you know what I mean? I want the horse to be just Dave Allen. Hell yeah. You know, so it wins. I'm winning. It's just Dave Allen. And basically, I'm not rich enough. Do you like when people like me call you an every man and say that that's part of your appeal,

that's why people like you? Do you like that? I don't really, it doesn't give me any emotion really when you say it. Do you take that as a compliment? I don't really take it at all, to be honest. It's not really, what do you mean by it? I'm just an average person. I think that's exactly it.

I think the reason why so many people like you is because you're, you come across as just the average person, but you're a fighter and you do amazing things that the average person can't do. So we see a little bit of ourselves in you, but then you do amazing things on the grandest of stages. I think, like, I'm like the human Homer Simpson in lots of ways. Yeah. I mean, he bought someone every way out of one.

Remember, Drederick Tatum, I'm in him, didn't he? Yeah. You know, Homer Simpson, like the snowplow business, I've had a few businesses, you know, I've, I'm like Homer Simpson. I'm like a T-Total Homer Simpson. And the more I think about it, the more Simpson episodes I've watched, I've done a lot of that stuff in myself.

I've done a lot of that. I used to play bowling quite a lot as well. Oh, wow. Is that your favorite show? The Simpsons. Yeah. No, probably in the top 12. Okay.

But I like my wife and kids. Remember my wife and kids? Yeah, yeah. Michael Kyle. I'm probably like a mix of Michael Kyle. And Homer Simpson. Michael Kyle, who's that? The dad.

The dad. Damon Waynes played him. In 2001-2005, it lasted four series, I believe, four, maybe five series. And he got the chop, I'm not sure why. Wait, Damon Waynes was on The Simpsons? No, he was on my wife and kids. Oh, wait. You've not followed me at all that, I don't know.

I thought you were talking about your wife and kids. You remember my wife and kids from the story earlier in the interview? No, no, no. No, different wife and kids. Michael Kyle's wife and kids actually. Yeah, not my wife, but his name and Wayans. Yes, yeah, I thought you were saying your kids' names

are Michael and Kyle. How old are you now? I'm 43. Do you remember the Wayne brothers? Of course. Keenan. Do you remember one-on-one? Legendary.

Do you remember one-on-one, the TV program? Yeah, yeah. Like, Flex Washington. Do you remember? I don't remember those. No, I don't remember those details, but I remember the show. Yeah, remember King. and Kel? Of course.

Sister, sister. Sister, yeah. How old are you? Remember? Of course. Saved by the bell. Saved by the bell. Saturday mornings? Did you get it Saturday morning?

Moisha. Moesha. Moesha. Yeah, yeah, keep going. Taina. Taina. Boy Meets World? No, no, we didn't get that in England.

I never made it. Never made it. What about the bill? Ever watch the bill? No. No. It's an English show. Step by step?

No. In living color? No. What? What about different strokes? Legendary. You kidding me? What about?

Family matters. Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Of course. Who didn't like that? So on a Friday night, right, when I was a kid, tell me. My mom and dad used to look in their bedroom. You had the kitchen TV, right?

Take it in their bedroom. Six o'clock Simpson. This is BBC 2, by the way, in the early 2000. Yep. So go Simpson's, Simpsonsonsons, Fresh Prince. Emmerdale Corr, EastEnders Corr, 6 till 9 As you roll the pole is all around the bed and that

So watching telly 6 till 9, mad times What'd you think about that? Because it was very like American culture represented in that So did you think America was some like faraway place? What, fresh prints? Fresh Prince. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I was about 7 years old watching it I didn't really get any of it, didn't really understand it Sure. But I was really glad they used to put like the audience laughing in there I used to really help me, you know, really help me laugh at the right times, I think. Yeah, the laugh track. Yeah, used to really help me find, yeah.

So without that, I'd have probably been a bit lost. But, um, so I used to watch all the American stuff. Keenan and Kell was my favorite. I used to love Keenning and Kell. Um, I used to watch a bit of Scooby-Doo. Um, Scooby-Doo. Of course. You kidding me?

Is that American? Of course, yeah. Finish. In West Philadelphia. Born and raised. And a playground. I went to spend it. It's too.

That's not so cool. I won a couple of guys. It was no good. It was a new hood. I know all of it. I got a one little fight and my mom got scared. She said, yeah,

and said, you're going to say, Uncle in Bel Air. Look at this guy. I told him about somewhere right and I yelled to the co-go home, smote that one. But what was your favorite program as a kid?

Seinfeld. So, okay, okay, wait, I take it back. Wait, what? What?

You've never seen Seinfeld? I've seen it, but I like everybody loves Raymond. Nah. Nah, that was bullocks. No. No way. First favorite show for me, Dave, the Wonder Years.

Please tell me you saw The Wonder Years. I'm not saying that now. The Wonder Years? You got to watch it. What was it about? Okay, it was about a family growing up in Middle America. Well, I was more, I think it was Middle America. 60s, 60s, 70s.

Oh, really? Yeah. Woodstock, coming of age, teenagers, adolescents, a great narrator. Do you know Daniel Stern? Have you seen Home Alone? No. I've never seen Home Alone. No.

I refuse to watch things that everyone likes. I don't want to be like everyone else. Fresh Prince. Yeah, fresh Prince. What's my favorite line out of a US sitcom? Ever? I'm going to say, what'd you talk about Willis? No way.

That is actually it as well. What's you talk about Willis? Remember that? You were like Gary Coleman? What did you talk about Willis? Was that really the answer? Yeah, I swear. I don't know if I believe you.

What did you talk about Willis? I'm about to do that to you. Unbound. We're like... That's crazy. Yeah, that is. You know, can I just say? Different strokes.

That's different strokes. Yeah, yeah. Well, yeah. Madden with Gary Coleman. Legend. He was in Fresh Prince, one episode. He showed up? He was in there one time, yeah, about 993.

Savies three episodes seven, I think. Stop. Now, I'm lying again. I know you are. Dave, yesterday, yesterday I had a bit of a mare with Daniel Dubois, so this is... Seen it, yeah, seen it. Yeah. What do you think?

Yeah. What of Daniel? Honestly, I take it on the chin. I say it was my fault. He's harder than me. We're both in Manchester as well, so I'm not saying nothing. Yeah. Do you know what?

Like, I like him. I'm a Dubois fan, actually. As am I? As am I? I hope he wins Saturday. Do you think he wins? I do, actually. I think he wins, yeah.

I always think against him. I be overworlded every time, though. I've never picked him to win one fight. He's an interesting one, right? Because Hooney, he was, like, losing every minute of that fight. And I thought the Parker... You know what I'm with right now? I'm with a few heavyweight sensations, actually.

In the room? I'm with Patrick. You know Pat Brown? Of course. I love Pat Brown. You're kidding me? How do you know him? Do you know him through me?

Is it through me that you know him? Not at all. Really? Tremendous beard. Tremendous beard. Olympian, represented Team G. I have said on this show multiple times, he's must see TV because he hits like a Mac truck.

He comes in there and you feel the shots. You feel the shots. I know Pat Brown, of course. He's there. He's here right now. Do you want to see him? I'd say hello. I don't want to take away from your time, but please send him my best.

Come over here. I'll just say it. Uh-oh. He's over here. He's going to try and be a comedian as well. Hello, Pat. Hello. See, tremendous beard, as I said.

Oh, thank you. You're doing great things. Cheers. Appreciate it. Sorry about him as well. No, no. this is one of the best interviews of my career right here. It's the perfect response to the Daniel.

I've got more guests. Do you want to see another heavyweight sensation? Who's it? Who's it? Leo Atang. Oh, also another legend, another up-and-com. Bring it over. You've got the whole...

19 years of age. World amateur champion. I went to the Olympics, but he didn't medal. Let's get a medalist in. Yeah, let's get them in. The whole matchroom stable here. Hello, Leo. How are you? Oh, you're blurred out.

Oh, you can't see you. Hey Leo, how, wow, man, what a fresh face. He looks like, he looks like, you know who Leo looks like? He looks like the older brother in different strokes. Uh, I don't know why, it's all right, that's all right. No? Did you know, a bit of information that not, that people in the UK know, he is actually my nephew. Wow.

Yeah. My sister. Yeah. No, wait, really? Mom. Yeah, true story. I don't believe this. Leo, what's it like hanging with the white?

Rhino. It's good. You know, my uncle, he's always been there for me, and he's always, like, guiding me through my career and stuff and giving me good advice and so that he's giving me opportunities to speak to yourself. It's good. You like the stash?

What? You like his stash? Who stash? Yeah, yeah. You like it? I love it. Yeah. Are you guys in Doncaster now?

We're in Manchester. Joe Hayden's here. Scott Hamilton. Shout out. Scott Hammondon. it all possible. My life advisor makes it all happen. Nothing happens without him. We love Scotty here.

Thank you. Thank you. What is Don Cappelley? Conwell Silver Champion, trained and managed by yours truly. You manage people too? Train and manage. 15 fighters. Oh my gosh. Is this... Yeah. Are you, okay, on a scale of 1 to 10,

one being a really bad manager, 10 being Sam Jones, where are you as far as managers concerned? Probably that a 4. I'll say a 4. Yeah, but, do you know what, I'm a better training of the manager. I'm not very good with money, me, you know, like I feel bad taking money off people. It's not great for a manager, really. But I love boxing me.

I couldn't be without it. And when I'm not fighting myself, you know, I train fighters. I genuinely train six professional boxes. I manage 15. I'm always involved in boxing. I'm always boxing. I'm watching it, doing it, training it, managing it. I just, it's a bit of an obsession, really.

I love the fact that you are so self-deprecating, but also so very successful at the same time. You make it out to seem like you're, you know, struggling to get by, but you're smashing it. You're the most famous person to ever come out of Doncaster. Lewis Tomlinson, I went to school with him. He was in one direction, so probably number two, actually. Never heard of him. He's not on my show. Oh, fair enough.

We're not talking about. Do you know what I mean? Like, I'm not really great at anything, but if I'm doing something, if I say I'm doing something, I want to do something, I will. do it. I will always do it no matter what it is. You know, like I've been, I've been writ off a thousand times in my life for a thousand different things, but I always come out on top. Even when I lose,

I win. I refuse to lose for long. You know what's interesting? I might lose, but then I'll win anyway. What's interesting about that is, I thought for you the Mahmouda fight was the culmination, right? You come off the Johnny Fisher. It was the beginning. It was the beginning.

This fight's bigger. This fight's bigger. I said to Frank smith before matmaud of you i said look if i lose to matmanov i promise you i'll be back i'll be back bigger and better and if i lose to hergiewicz i'll be back bigger and better it could be like i could be like 47 i'll still be going i'll still be going to 47 i'm not stopping i'll probably hopefully will stop way before then but the every man if i if i want to do something i will do it it's like that catch if you can film sure yeah i just i'm i want to succeed you know i wasted so many years in my life just like pissing it away messing about doing this that and the other and now i just

want to succeed i just want a nice life i want to i want to be successful i want people around me to be successful i just want nice things i want to do well and with boxing maybe it'll be boxing maybe it won't but as long as i'm happy my kids are happy we're all happy as long as i'm surrounded by happiness i'm happy do you have regrets i've got loads of regrets what's your biggest Lodium. Biggest regret? Fuh. I think she's married now.

I couldn't really say. I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. Who is that? Your high school sweetheart? No, do you know what?

I didn't start puberty until really late, to be fair. So I weren't, do you know what I mean? Like, not really, no, at school. I weren't really, weren't massively into women at school.

Okay. Yeah, it was a bit later on in life. My biggest regret, probably um i always say to the boys i always say to leo otang all the time my nephew you only regret the things you don't do yeah i don't regret things i've done and got wrong never because at least i've tried and went for it but i say to there all the time you regret everything you do not do so make sure why you've got the chance do what you can i love that you're actually looking at him you're looking at the two youngsters over there pat brown pat brown i will do that pat 32 pat

it looks for it he looks older than me yeah but I said to the other saying all the time do it just do it attack the day seize the day go and do it

if you want to do it go and do it and if you get it wrong get it wrong but go and do it and if you don't do it you'll regret it I don't regret anything I've done

I've done loads of things wrong got loads of things wrong I've lost eight professional fights you know I've done loads of mad things in my time I don't regret him because they're the man I am today and some people are say Well, yeah, that's a shame.

But I'm the man I am today, and I'm quite happy with it. I love that. By the way, also love when you're on TV, when you're doing punditry. I've seen you talk sport, some DeZone stuff. You're great at this. You know why? Because you don't mince words. You tell it like it is.

That's what the people want. A few people who fell out of me, you know, because with the honesty. I've had a few people, not my friend anymore. Like who? Who got sensitive? No. A few people. A few people.

Who's telling you no back there. Scotty? Leo, Leo, a tan. Leo. A few people. You know, Connor Ben, Connor Ben didn't like a few things I had to say about his fight with because you bank.

Yeah. You know, we have a good relationship. Probably don't have a good relationship anymore, you know. But I have to speak the truth and people have to understand. It never comes from a personal place. I've boxed so badly at times. I've had some fights, yeah, where if I was a fight, And I would say, wow, Dave Allen's terrible.

I've had some shockers. And that's okay. It happens. It's boxing, and sometimes you box well. Sometimes you box not so well. I box not so well more than I box well, and that's okay. But if I'm being paid to give my opinion on the TV, whether you're a superstar or whether you're an absolute plum,

if you're no good, I will tell you you're no good, because the people at home aren't stupid. They know what they're watching. I have to speak my truth. It's never personal. There's only about seven box in the world. I know personally to have an opinion on Pat, I'll give you a personal opinion on Pat. I want on here.

I know, I know Leo a tank. I know a few boxes. I know him well. But the rest of them, I don't know him. So sometimes I can say like, well, I think that was a great performance. They're hearing. Like, I think that I don't like him. But that's not the case.

I do my job, and I will always speak the truth. And some people don't like the truth. And that is what it is. But I can give it out. I can take it as well. Were you surprised Connor left Eddie? Um, not really. Why not really?

Doggy, dog world out there, isn't it? Like, boxers go here, there, and everywhere. Like Ben Whitaker was with boxing, I was with Eddie Ayn. You know, Connoe Ben was with Eddie, and I was with Zuffer boxing. But it was a little different, was it not? I mean, like, Eddie, I really feel like took a lot of bullets for him and helped him out in his darkest hour. You know what? I, um, he's boxing. You know, it's, uh, um,

Yeah, I don't have any sympathy. It's the game, you know, and yeah, yeah. I mean, I have team match them, obviously, but realistically, boxing is a dog's game and there's not many people really have got you back in this game and you've got to do what you're going to do. So I wouldn't do it and match them through and through, obviously, back to Boxing the Queensbury Show. So, yeah. How do you feel about Zoofa boxing?

I don't really know anything about it really I can't see I don't think Zufu gonna come off a media anytime soon or over Why not? Because I'm 34 I've lost eight times So yeah

I can't see it But I think the more The more promotional companies In boxing the better More the better You know there's more competition That means more money And opportunity for the boxers

So I'm all for more promotional companies I'm more for it to be honest Yeah I'm many like I said I manage a lot of boxes Do more opportunity for them boxers the better. So I'm more for it, me.

I'm more for competition because when you've got a monopolization at the top, they can do shit on you from any direction in the one because you're the only one. There's six, seven different commercial companies. You better pay the money as you want to go somewhere else like we've just seen recently. Can I ask you? And I'll let you go in a moment, but I'm really enjoying this. I'll let you go a couple minutes.

When you're old and gray, Dave, you're sitting, you're having a cup of tea, your grandchildren are running around, your children are there, your missus there. What's the night you're going to think back on? What was the happiest moment of your career? What's the night where it all kind of felt like... Yeah. Where it all came together for you.

What's that special night? Probably not had it yet, really. I love that. Probably not had it yet. I think, you know, when I'm headlined the O2 Arena. I think we discussed this last time. I had outlined the O2 Arena. So I was 27 at the time.

And I was mad at the time. I'm mad as a box of frogs. Honestly, we were... What do you mean by mad? Like crazy? Just like, yeah, just I could go missing. Before the Lucas Brown, five week before I rolled up in an house for a week, no one knew where I was, I went missing for a week,

didn't train for a week, just went missing, a lot of myself in my mate's house. Why? Just having a bit of a mad time. I shaved all my air off. The poster for the Lucas Brownfire were terrible, so bold. But, and then I went to London to the capital headland, the biggest union in the country.

I'm from up north, like where I'm from, I'm trying to work in American terms. Where would I be from? What's Donnie in America? Hmm. Midwest? What's a bit of a like a bit of a mad place in America that's a bit like, you know, bit of a...

Is it like middle America, would you say? Like, like not too flashy, right? Obviously, it's not London. Yeah, not very flashy. A way away from the capital. Like a really unfashionable place. What would that be? Like a working class town?

Yeah. Maybe like an Iowa, something like that? So I'm from Iowa. I'm 27-year-old from Iowa. You know, who's mad as a box of frogs. And I go to Madison Square Garden and I headline it. That's what happened. I was so proud that I actually managed to do that

because what happened to kids like me from where I'm from. To do that, it was massive. That probably even if I beat Hergiewicz, I don't think I've beat that because I was so proud of myself that I could do that. But the real big night, I don't think it's happened yet. And I think, you know when I retire from boxing? I just think I can be so much better at something else.

For me, I feel like boxing is my springboard to being successful at something else, you know. Boxing is going to give me an opportunity for something else. Boxing isn't my thing, I don't think. I don't think boxing is my thing. Headlined all these things all over the world and not having good fights and whatever else, but I don't think boxing is my thing.

What do you think is your thing? I'm not sure I've not found it yet but I don't think boxing boxing is not what I was I think I believe we're all sent here for a reason you know we're all in we all have the capabilities of superstardom and really doing something special

with our lives and I don't think boxing is that for me I really don't I think it's something else and I'm not found it yet maybe it's TikTok no maybe it's motivational speaking Probably not

No Probably not No I won't feel like this tomorrow So I'm not Yeah I'm not

What's the one looking for What's the word I'm not Consistent enough Sure I'm motivated today But I won't be motivated Tomorrow possibly

You're an absolute beauty of a human being I must say Do you mind me saying that Yeah Something good's gonna happen I'm gonna succeed I succeed

I succeed in boxing a little bit But I used When I was a kid My mum used to say to me that I was going to really be somebody someday and really do something amazing. I'd say you are. You're doing just that. Not yet.

It's going to be bigger than boxing for me. Going to be bigger than boxing. Boxing is not big enough for what I want. I want to do something. I don't know. I want to do something bigger than boxing. Boxing isn't going to define me. I've literally defined me since I was a kid since I was 16, nothing but boxing.

It took over my life. I want to be bigger. I want something bigger than boxing. I want something, but I don't know what it is yet, but I want to, I want to, I want to, I want to do something that's going to really, yeah, I want to do something more. I don't know what it is yet. Politics, perhaps? Well, me and Pat and Lee are going to release a single this Christmas, so maybe that will,

okay, maybe that'll be the one. Maybe that was the one, maybe I'll be a, maybe I'll be on the Billboard top 40 one day. Maybe I'll go into films. Well, for now, though, you're headlining at your local football ground. Yeah, it's not bad. It's not bad is it. I can't complain. I shouldn't complain.

I'm pretty selfish, really. But I just want more, you know. Do you ever feel like you need more? 100%. Yeah. I want more. I just want more out of life. I don't know what it is yet.

It's like an itch. I've got an itch. I don't know what it is. I need to do something. I want to do something more. That's not for me. I want to do something. I don't know what it is yet.

All right. Well, you're searching for it. And for now, you're proving to be an inspiration for a lot of people. So May 16th at the local ground, the Echo Power Stadium, but you say it's not a stadium. Not a stadiums, a football ground. Stadium's from here, Wembley, you know, Spurs Ground,

Old Trafford. No. It's only football ground. It's only football ground. Tremendous. I used to go there as a kid. I used to go there as a bonfire night for a firework display and to go on Dodgums and that.

So I'm going back there now as to headline, to headline the biggest sporting event that my city's ever had. And I have great pride over it. But when you don't win the big one, it's like, I'm so waiting for that night that Chris Jericho at Vengeance 2001 night that was what I'm waiting for

I want to win the big one Speaking to my soul with that reference right there You know I did a I did a school project I was in Syracuse University And I did a school I had to give a speech I was taking speech communication And my speech my final essay

Not an essay It was like a speech But it was like the final one Was on why the class should watch Vengeance 2001 Because Chris Jericho was trying to become the first undisputed champion that was my my did you think going into that he would win that not no it was him stone cold triple h right it was like all the big dogs it was i believe

the semi-finals were jericho rock and galostin i believe yeah it's crazy triple h won the title of jericho at resslemia in year 18 and he perigreece seffinim macam just before he beat jericho and then triple h lost the title to hulk hoag and at backlash who then lost it to undertaker at judgment day and AAA Triple H beat Jericho Hell and the South judgment day 2002

and that was where I brought Lesner made his pay-per-view debut against the Hardy Boys in a handicapped match maybe Paul Heyman was involved

okay this is this is incredible I wish we had 30 more minutes and that is all true that is all true I'm not even though any question you want about wrestling

I'm your man why are you telling me this at the very end mate I was in the fourth to last row WrestleMania 18 at the Skydome in Toronto for that event

with my mates what opened WrestleMania 18 what match Okay, okay, okay. There was an awful feud between Bookerty and Christian about the shampoo. Do you remember that? That was Edge and Bookerty.

Golly. I don't know what opened it. I don't know what opened it. I reckon it was Christian and Al Snow, you know. A bit of an obscure one, but I feel like it was Christian and Al Snow. Next day, by the way, Dave, I drove to Montreal. I was at the Bell Center for the Raw after WrestleMania 18, in which Brock Lester debuted, and who did he slam?

Who did he kill? Spite Dudley three times. It was meant to be five, but Spider-Duddly said, I can't take it no more, and that's the only do three. And who had the incredible ovation at that raw? Who had like the 15-minute ovation? Oh, not Hulk Hogan. Of course it was Hulk Hogan.

Of course, he came out in the red and yellow. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We had Matt Hardy in studio last week, and he was telling us about that backlash match you just referenced. Yeah, I can, yeah. Well, you have to come back and talk wrestling. Yeah, I like that. I love wrestling.

It's a bit shite right now, is it not? I'm not watched it for 24 years. Okay. From 99 to 2002, but you know what? I didn't watch the other day, actually. I never seen it either. So some guy in the ring, he's beating up, Cody Rhodes. John Sina comes running out, yeah?

Yeah, yeah. I thought, this is good. The rock comes out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The rock, rock bottoms John Sina. The Shield music plays. Yeah. Seth Rowling gets in the ring, yeah?

And then, Ding, Undertaker. Couldn't believe. I never seen it before. Oh, that was WrestleMania two years ago, Philadelphia. I was there. I never seen it. It was probably the best five minutes of wrestling I've ever seen in my life. Crazy.

Actually, the glass was supposed to shatter. Stone Cold was supposed to come out instead of the Undertaker, but they couldn't come to terms with them. And so they had Undertaker do. It was still a pretty cool moment. I think Undertaker was better, though, because he's like the daddy of WrestleMania. He was. He like, makes sure there's no wrongdoing going off at the WrestleMania.

locker room leader. And that's who you are right now. Dave, you're an absolute peach. This has... Thank you very much. Dave, this has restored my faith in my ability to have conversation on air

after yesterday's mayor with Daniel Dubois. So thank you for this. You've done a lot for me today. To be honest, I don't want to make you feel bad, but I could have a conversation without chair over there, to be honest. Well, whatever it is, you've boosted my confidence. Take it easy on the sinks, all right?

Maybe no more peeing in the sink, just for the... I'm about to go do it right now. Okay, all right. Thank you very much. Thank you. What a guy. Dave Allen, the white rhino, holy smokes, one of the all-time best. I told you guys, if you were unfamiliar with Dave Allen's world.

I wish I had 30 more minutes to talk to Dave Allen about pro wrestling. That was unbelievable. Did you see the way in which he just, I forgot to ask him about the Luke Littler thing. Fucking out. We were rolling right there. He just, he rattled off. Look at this. Look at this poster, by the way.

Dave versus Goliath. Even the posters a little bit Dave versus the life He's some kind of pissed that Dave Allen Holy smokes What are you going to name your horse? Dave Allen Oh my God

That was amazing That was unbelievable Okay Let's go to Johnny Eblen We've been keeping him waiting He's got a big announcement It was just actually announced An hour and a half or so ago

But we want to talk to him About everything going on in his life So here he is The former Beltor Midway champion He'll be fighting for the PEOPLE NFL middleweight title in July in Austin that was announced earlier today. Let's go to the man himself, Johnny Eblen, who's been patiently wait. Hello, Johnny. How are you?

Good. How are you, Ariel? Great to talk to you. Are you in beautiful New Jersey? I am. I'm here for Sean. Going to get the UFC belt back to the U.S. And, you know, I'm looking forward to him having a great showing this Saturday. We're going to be joined in a few minutes by your opponent in July, Costello Van Cis. but I wanted to have you on before, just to ask you a few questions about this experience

because, Johnny, we were watching that media day that he had last week, Sean Strickland, and the best part was you in the corner sort of laughing at everything, just looking at your facial reactions. What are you thinking while Sean is saying some of the things that he's saying? I mean, a lot of it's true, you know,

and it's just things that you think that you don't say, and he's the guy that's a little unfiltered, and he'll say it. And, you know, he's just, he's an unfiltered cat, man, and it's funny to be around. And he's no different in person. So it's just him showing his true colors and is just having fun. How did this, you know, this link up between you and him come about? We first linked up when I went out to Vegas to get ready for Gayguard for my first title fight. And, you know, Sean, I knew was a good fit for that fight. So I was

like, yeah, I'll go out to extreme. Also, my manager, Brian Butler, has a good relationship with Eric Nixick. So we were supposed to link up, but the first day I get in, Nick Sick's not there. So essentially, Sean hits me up on Instagram, and he's like, hey, dude, come in and train. I was like, all right, next thing you know, I'm just, me and Sean are just training every day. And like, we're not even doing the team practices. We're going to the P.I. And we're just getting rounds in. And, you know, ever since then, we've always trained, always great rounds with them in. How many weeks have you been with him in the buildup to this fight? I got out there two weeks ago, trained with them, and then I went home for a couple days, and I came out for

for Fight Week. He's walking in the hotel right now. Oh, gosh. Does he just like hold court and talk to everyone? Was that his voice booming throughout the lobby? Yeah. I can hear his voice. I can actually hear his voice. Yeah, he just got back. We're in like the second floor, but he just walked in. Yeah, man, we're ready for him to get his title back.

How would you describe training with him? Because I see some of that footage. He's relentless. Obviously, we know him as a fighter, but even him hitting Mitz, it hurts, it pops, the sound. There's just like a stiffness to him. How would you describe it?

Very similar, man. He's a tough grinder, man. He can fight. He's very skilled, very hard to hit. hit, he can wrestle, he can strike. He has very underrated grappling. You know, straight grappling goes with him and are not easy and they're not fun.

I think he's going to show at this fight and I'm excited to be there and support him. I understand they have you guys very far apart, your team and the Hamza team, right? Like no run-ins, no issues, no drama, nothing like that. Yeah, a lot of security. We're at a different hotel. I actually kind of like it. not being at the same hotel as all other fighters is kind of more chill, relaxed,

gets some more alone time, I would say, and you go down to the lobby, it's not full of fighters, not full of fans. Sure. It's nice. Do you get the sense that this is personal for Sean? I don't know. I don't know if it's personal.

It's more so there's just a little beef that started a while back and then it gets built up because people take sound bites, and the next thing, you know, it's just a clash of, you know, I guess, culture. Yeah. You know, that's the main thing. But I think truly, you know, it's all going to get settled on Saturday. And nothing's crazy is going to happen before that.

I really don't think so. You don't think so that? I was wondering about that. You didn't think that anything would pop off? I don't think so. But, I mean, I'm here for Sean. And if something does, you know, who's back I have. Yeah, yeah.

You know, but that's just the type of dude I am. But I don't think anything's going to happen. You know, both the guys want to make money. Both the guys want to fight on Saturday. It'd be kind of stupid to do anything before that. You know, I think they both understand that. They're not idiots. When he's on camera saying, like, I hope the UFC doesn't sign this guy

because he's that damn good, like propping you up like that, giving you that shine. What does that feel like? You know, it feels good, man. He's truly one of my good friends. and just goes to show you. He's a great guy, and he gives props when it's due. And same to him, man. I think he's one of the best fighters in the world,

and I think he's going to prove it Saturday, and I'm excited to be a part of this whole journey. And, you know, it just truly shows you that he's a good dude. You know, I think the media kind of skews him to be some, like, I mean, don't get me wrong. He's a little crazy, but I'm a little crazy, too, and that's why me and him bond. But I just feel like, you know, he gets a bad rap sometimes.

All right. Well, enough about Sean Strickland. Let's reset here very quickly because they did announce earlier today that on the 18th of July at the Moody Center in Austin, Texas, it's going to be the highly anticipated rematch for the PFL middleweight title. In my opinion, the most anticipated title fight in this very short PFL title era once they moved away from the tournaments. because you recall last July in South Africa, Johnny Eblen was on route to winning that inaugural belt, and then with just seconds remaining in what I called the submission and comeback of the year, Costel Van Stenis, won the belt,

defeated Johnny, shocking moment. Since then, got the moment in Madrid last month in March, getting a big victory there over Fabian Edwards. We saw Johnny Eblen the following week in Pittsburgh, getting a big win as well. And so now here they are going toe to toe. in July, and here they are today on the program to help us preview that fight. So let us say hello to Costello Van Sienis, the PFL middleweight champion and Johnny Eblin, who was just

with us for the last few minutes. We just spoke to Johnny, so I'll say hello to you, Costello. Thank you for joining us. Appreciate it very much. Hey, what's the best? Thank you for having me, Ariel. Thank you for having me. What is it like being with your former and future opponent here? Is this the first time you get a chance to speak to him since South Africa? Yeah, yeah, through the phone, yeah, we actually have. And it actually feels quite good. We already knew it was going to be sooner or later.

And here we are one year after. I'm going to do it again. Do it again. Johnny, was there any doubt in your mind about this fight happening? Because I know you were upset that you didn't get the immediate rematch, where you worried that it wouldn't happen after the win in Pittsburgh. No doubt in my mind. But, you know, there's always that little chance that something can happen,

just like the last fight. You know, I was winning the whole fight. and made a mistake in the very end. And that's what makes this sport so exciting. You know, something that I was certain about. I was going to win that fight. And I make one mistake, last second, boom, he wins. And, you know, I was a little worried.

I was a little worried that, you know, he might have not got out there with Edwards, you know. But he got the little elbows on the head and got the finish. And I was very happy. And I did my job. And I made a statement in Pittsburgh. I made this rematch happen. I'm going to get that fucking belt back. And he knows it.

Nah, you're not. You're not going to... Yeah, you know, you know, bro, you spent the cage with me, 25 minutes, you know how good I am. You know I fucking... Yeah, I know. And you know when I come in tactically and I beat you up, you know what's going to happen.

You know what's going to happen. In Austin, Texas, in America, I'm going to keep that belt in America and you know it. Okay. With all respect, I know how good you are. And yes, you are one of the best in the world. And so am I. And guess what?

I need to knock you out too. times in 25 minutes. You didn't knock me out. No, you didn't. You never even phased me, bro. You never even fazed me. I got tired. I got tired of beating you up because you sandbagged me.

I got tired from beating you up because you sandbagged me. Literally, you told the ref I'm resting. You remember this moment. I was on top of you whaling on you, bro. And you said the ref was like, hey, you got to do something. You looked up at him. You were like, I'm resting. And I was like, this motherfucker's resting in a middle of a fight.

This is crazy. You sandbag me. And now I know. Now I know. So now that I know this is. information, fucking put it on you. Fucking put it on you for 25 minutes. I'm going to take my time beating your ass and you know it.

That's why your arms are crossing your lean back, brother. You know what's going to happen. You know exactly what's going to happen. I'm going to take that belt back. You fucking know it. Now you're sitting there with your arms crossed. Yeah, okay, John. You're a little defensive.

You know, you know what's going to happen, brother. You know what's going to happen. Don't worry. Don't worry. I'm getting that belt back. Everybody knows I'm still the chair. Everybody knows. Costell

Where's your belt? If you still check, where's the belt? I got belts, bro. I got more belts than you do. And I'm going to get that belt.

No, don't worry. Where's the belt I took off? It's going to be in my hands after, it's going to be in my hands after, uh, what? When's the fight?

July 18th. July 18th. That's going to be around my waist and you know it. That's why you're so worried. That's why you're so worried. Don't worry. Costel, can I ask you about that,

that moment there that he's talking about. Did that really happen in your, in your point of view? Did you say that to the referee? Yeah, yeah, I did. I did say to the referee that I was resting while he was punching me because actually it was resting. Well, yeah, of course, we're fighting for 25 minutes.

And when I get the chance to rest, I get the chance to rest. And that's what I actually did. So. You sandbags. It doesn't really matter. Only a coward sandbags. Only a coward sandbags. You know what cowards don't do?

They fight the whole 25 minutes. But okay, okay, if that was your game plan to get your ass beat for three rounds and then start coming back, that's crazy. That is not a true man. Like, a true man doesn't go into a fight thinking that way. That's crazy. But now that I know that about you, I'm going to fight you a little different,

and I'm going to fuck you up for 25 minutes. Oh, oh, interesting, bro. Good. Sounds good. We're going to see. I wanted to give him a chance to respond there, but I think the connection was a little bit shaky. Yeah, I think something's going on.

I don't know. No, no, your end is great. Costello's is back, though. I could see his eyes blinking. Can I ask you, Costello, was this the fight that you wanted after the Fabian fight? Because there was talk after the first fight that you guys should rematch right away. I thought so as well, but I understood because Fabian won the tournament. Was this the fight that you wanted after the Fabian fight in Madrid? Yeah, 100%. 100%. This was the fight I wanted after the fight in Madrid. It was actually after the last fight that Ablin and Eiffel, it was either Eblen or Fabian. So I got Fabian, and then after Fabian, it was Eblin. There was no doubt it was evident. He had a good performance against Brian Battle, and I believe that he, because he's been undefeated for 16 fights

until I came into his life, so he's definitely, yeah, the next in line. Johnny, I heard you talk about the elbows in the Fabian fight, but I think you called them Little Elbows or something like that. Were you not impressed? They were like little tiny elbows. I don't know. They were a little weird.

They were questionable. They're questionable, but you know what? I was happy that he won, because he's buttered his last biscuit. I'm fucking coming after you, Castello. I'm getting that belt back. Okay. You're laughing this off.

I feel an intensity from Johnny. He's laughing. He has his arm crossed. He's feeling a little defensive. He knows what's going to happen, bro. He's just worried about it. He's thinking about it. I live in his head rent-free, brother.

He knows it. Yeah. Okay. Any truth to that, Costello? Does he get under your skin? No, not at all. Yeah. I just see an unsecured man, grown-up man,

shouting on the side of the phone. Insecure man. Yeah, I'm with my arms crossed. But what am I going to do? I'm in Europe. I mean, you could, you could, you know, banter back, you know, talk a little shit. But I guess, I don't know. Maybe you're not witty enough or some shit.

I don't know, bro. Maybe you need to start hanging out with some witty, funny guys. Maybe that'll help you. Maybe that'll make you more marketable. The only reason you're big is because you fought me. You know that, right? Bro, yeah. You even told me that after the fight.

You even told me that after that fight. You said, I was a nobody. Thank you for the opportunity. You literally told me that. You remember this. Yeah, you remember this. You told me that after the fight. I'm going to say to myself that I was a nobody.

You know, like an hour before I was saying to myself, I'm the best in the role. I'm going to prove it by choking you out. Okay. All right. If that moment never happened, whatever. All right. You can lie to yourself. You can lie to me.

It's all good. It's all good. Okay. Okay, Johnny. Okay. Johnny, considering the people that you have fought as champion in Belator and as you were coming up. Where would you rank Costello?

Was he the toughest opponent that you fought? Definitely not the toughest, but he's good. He's a good fighter. I don't think he's the toughest. How come? Because I was beating the fucking shit out of him, and he sandbagged me. But now that I know that about him,

I'm going to adapt my style a little bit. I'll make sure I'm going to beat him up for 25 minutes. And if it's not for 25 minutes, I'm going to finish you. I know for a fact. That's what's going to happen. How many finishers do you have when you're CV? I don't know.

I think I have 50% finish. It doesn't matter, bro. I'm getting better. That doesn't matter. What do you mean? My last fight was a finish. What the fuck are you talking about? You're getting older.

You're not getting better. I'm getting older. Okay. Actually, you know what? I'm getting younger. The way I live my life, I'm getting younger. Maybe you're getting older. But not me, motherfucker.

I'm different. Me and you are built different. You're built a sandbag. I'm built to fucking crush people. Yeah, that's why I put you to sleep. Yeah, because I got tired from beating your ass, bro. And also, you know what? You know what? You'd probably fucking tap. I'm a fucking man. I don't tap. I'll fucking die for this shit.

But you'll quit. You already know you'd quit. If I get a rear naked choke on you, you're tapping. If I break your arm, you're tapping. I ain't doing shit. I'll die for this shit. That's what makes me and you different, brother. I'm a true warrior. You're fucking, I don't know what the fuck you are. You're just a big jacked fucking Spanish dude. Are you Spanish or what are you? Are you Asian or some shit? What are you? Off Asian, bro. You're half Asian? Are we both? We're both half Asian. Wow. That's what I said to you after five.

What do you mix with, though? What do you mix with, though? What, what do you mix with? What, what, what, what Asian are you? What kind of Asian are you? Philippino. I don't know, I'm trying to get to know you a little bit. Is that weird? Well, yeah, it is actually here through what is this.

That's weird. End of date. Fuck. Why? Okay. All right. You know what I tell me. No, no.

He said Filipino. He said Filipino. Oh, you're Filipino. No, okay. And you're half Korean. I didn't know that about you. I'm Korean, yeah, yeah. Okay.

I'll give you some props there. At least you're half, you know, half Asian like me. See? I like that. We found something. We can bond on that. We got something. We got something.

You've got a match. You've got a match. A common ground. I like this. So for you, Costello, would you say Johnny was the toughest opponent you faced in your career so far? Yeah, definitely. Definitely. Yeah, it was the toughest opponent I faced.

But I faced a lot of tough opponents, and he was one of the, toughest opponent. One of the toughest opponents are faced. Okay. But not the. I believe I had a lot of top opponents in my early career as well. So I wouldn't say he was the toughest, but he was one of the toughest.

Did anything surprise you about Johnny when you were in there with him last July? It was actually stronger than I thought. That's it. Okay. I don't look strong, but I'm strong as fuck, bro. Just wait. Just wait when I time it just right. And that's strength just stays there the whole time and relentless.

You'll feel it. Yeah. Okay. Did anything surprise you about Costello, Johnny? The sandbagging. And when you say sandbagging for the... You know, whenever you're like on a team sport or like in a wrestling, like for me, it was wrestling, you have to do like sprints back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.

And then like the last sprint, they're like, all right, this, the one who wins this is done with the sprints. Okay. It's like the guy that sandbag that like, you know, he doesn't really do go very hard the first few sprints. And then like the one that counts, he like really sprints and wins so he doesn't have to sprint anymore. That's a sandbagger. Okay. And you're saying that that's what he did in your fight. Yeah, 1,000 percent.

But like as a man, I couldn't let somebody just beat me up for three rounds and sandbag just to come back at the end. Like that, to me, that's just like a coward's way out. But I mean, it is what it is. if that was like your actual strategy or that's just i don't know i don't know how that came about but now i know and now i know to take my time pace myself and yeah it's all different was that your actual strategy costello yeah my strategy was being sign-bagging or whatever johnny evlin calls it uh no my strategy was to finish him it doesn't matter in what kind of round the first second third okay it was either intentional or you're just you're

just that bad. Come on. Well, I'm that bad to knock you out. You didn't knock me out. Well, I fucking choked you out. You were sleeping in my arms. Yeah, because I got exhausted from beating your ass. How does that feel sleeping in the man's arms?

Well, thousands, millions of people watching. That was a little weird. Why would you want, that was a little way? So you want me to sleep in your arms? I don't know. That's a little questionable. That's very questionable. That's very good.

We don't have common ground on that. We don't have common ground on that. You lost me at there, bro. You lost me there. Are you going to say something like Cosmot said he wants to taste some dudes meat? Are you going to say that next or what? What the fuck? That's what he said.

Chimaier said that. Well, let me ask you, Costello. This man, Johnny, has been training with Sean Strickland as of late. That's got to elevate his game, right? One of the best middleweights in the world. What do you make of them training together before this title fight this weekend? No, you can tell his press talking is they're kind of look-alike. that's the only thing that I think that he's getting better at.

They sound alike. They don't look alike, but all right. He's bald. I'm not bald. You know, I'm just being myself, brother. There ain't, it's just, this is who I've been. Okay. Okay.

Never saw you like that then. You never seem like that. Every fight I talk a little shit. Last one, you know what? Last one with you, you were being respectful. So I was like, all right, you know what? Me and Carlson. But now fuck that shit.

I shouldn't, I shouldn't, I shouldn't have changed anything. I should have just stayed the same. How much does this loss bother you, Johnny? How much have you been thinking about it and fixating over it since July? Nah, dude, that shit's long gone. I don't give a fuck about it. It's more so just, I want to get back in there and I want to fight again. You know, I want to get the belt back.

But I do feel a fire here. Like, I do sense, you know, a sense of motivation from you. Yeah, because this is the biggest fight. the PFL can make and somebody's got to fucking promote it. I'm going to promote it. And I won for 24 minutes and everybody fucking knows it. He knows it. The fans know it. That's why this is the

biggest rematch you can make in the PFL. Dude, in in fighting. You know, this is, this, people are questioning if they want to see our fight or if they want to go see the UFC in Oklahoma City. You know, that's good. I literally, this is how it feels

to me in my head. I never lost the fight in that he's just holding the belt for me. You just, you know, keeping it nice shining it. Costel, what do you think of that? Well, he did lose the fight. It was sleeping on the fucking canvas. What does he mean? He doesn't feel like he lost the fight. How long was you

in the doctor, in the hospital for, an hospital in the fucking... I didn't go to the hospital. I walked, you know what I did? I walked back to my Airbnb, and I fucking sat there and I was like, you know what? I'm going to get the shit back. He's going to keep it for me. He's going to keep it nice and shiny, keep it clean.

And then once the time's ready, I'm taking that belt back. How long did you stay in there? Stay in where? I went to my Airbnb after. How long did you stay in the nursery room? The nursery room? I mean the doctor the doctor clearance?

Not that long. Yeah, the doctor clearance. Yeah, I had a stitch on my head. I had a stitch on my head. I had a stitch on my head. What? What? It's after a fight, dude.

What are you talking about? Well, how did you get stitches on your face and he was like getting stitched? Because you threw, okay, so I was on top of you, mulling you, and you threw a little elbow. That's how you cut me. I remember the moment. You know that's how it happened, too. Costello, considering this talk from Johnny and considering the fact that he was winning that fight going into the final moments. The Ariel even knows it.

Ariel knows I was winning. No, no. And I don't think. Sorry to tell you out. No, no. And I don't think Costello would disagree. Yeah. Yeah.

These are just the facts. If the fight would have gone the distance, Johnny would have won that belt. the reason I bring this up is do you feel like you have something to prove in this fight to not only Johnny but to everyone else that you are the better fighter that you can beat him for the 25 minutes or however long this fight goes

and not have it play out that way do you view the fight this way the challenge if you will I don't have to prove I don't have the feeling that I have to prove anybody but I do want to prove Johnny Edlin that I am the better fighter

and that it wasn't a fluke Because between him and I, this shit was not a fluke. And he'll probably, after when this was all over, he'll say, oh, yeah. Well, he knows, he knows that it wasn't a fluke. I don't know why he's like convincing himself that it was a fluke and saying that he was beating me for 24 minutes because that's bullshit. It was. I was.

I was actually beating you first, second, third, the fourth, you came back a little bit. The fifth I was winning. And then I made a mistake. I made one mistake. And that's what makes this, that's what makes the fight game so. amazing. That's what makes this rematch amazing. Wasn't it going to be split decision? I don't think so.

What you mean you don't think so? I had the first three rounds. And the fifth round, what are you talking about? It wouldn't have been a split decision. It was going to go to split decision, Johnny. I don't think so. Okay. Who cares anyway?

Who cares? It doesn't matter. Everybody knows I was winning the fight. Like, what's... Like, come on. Do you know you have to prove to yourself that you can beat me? You know you have to prove to everybody that you can beat me. You know you have to prove to everybody that you can win.

that you can beat me. Everybody knows I'm the better fighter. I did beat you. Because I made a mistake. That's the whole point. I'm the better fighter. I made a mistake you won. Do you not understand that?

Do I need to sit down and read it out for you? Because that's what I'm doing right now. Man, you're Asian. You're supposed to be smart. Come on. Fuck. What one's you smart then? I mean, I'm pretty smart.

I'm smart with my money. I'm smart. My wife's smart. So like me and her back and forth, you know, that's why I can joke around and make little jokes here and there. But apparently you just sit there with your arms across and sit back and look all defensive. It's kind of weird, but whatever. But anyway, without that mistake, no one would give a fuck about you. You know that.

You wouldn't be champ and no one would care. So there's that. Here I am. Being a champ. Yeah, because I made a mistake. Yep. That's called fighting, my friend. Yep, and you know it. That's the point. That's why this rematch is so big.

Fuck. But enjoy it while it lasts, buddy. Last thing, Johnny. Trust me, I am enjoying it. Yeah, but it's not going to last for very long, brother. Just know that. You'll see it will. You'll see it will.

Yeah, it's not. How does it end, Johnny? What's your prediction? I'm whooping his ass and not letting the sandbagging take effect. You think you finish him? I think so. I can finish him on the feet or in the grappling. I know what he does now.

I know the little like tricks he does. I watched it back. There's only minor things I have to fix, and I'm fucking him up, man. No doubt in my mind. Final word to the champ, Costello. How do you think it ends? I'll see it ending by me knocking him out.

And this time, not in the last 10 seconds. Why didn't you do it the first time then? The prediction is for this upcoming fight. What are you on about? Yeah, but why couldn't you do it the first time? Now, all of a sudden, you can knock me out? Well, that's like me asking you, why didn't you finish me in the first time? I was trying to, and you were resting, and you were just sitting there like a little, like, just trying to survive.

Guess what, Johnny? You was trying to and you didn't, because I put you to sleep in the fifth round. Because I made a mistake. That's called fighting. We're going in circles here. We're going in circles. I will say that I was really looking forward to this fight third. 30 minutes ago, I am very much looking forward to this fight.

There you go. There you go. Everybody's going to want to watch this fight. There it is. Great poster there. NFL fans, they're going to fucking tune into this one. I'm going to get that bell back. Van Stenis, Eblen to Saturday, July 18th from the Moody Center in beautiful Austin, Texas. There's the info right over there. There's the poster. It's a great one. Gentlemen, thank you so very much. Costello, I appreciate your time very much over there in Europe. And Johnny is well on a busy fight week. Thank you guys. Good luck in training and good luck on July 18th.

Thank you, Ariel. See you later. Take care, guys. Take care. Johnny Eblen, Costello Van Steenis, joining us. You know, sometimes the virtual face-offs, if you want to call them that, face-to-face, whatever you want to say,

sometimes they don't work because of connections and internet issues. But this time, I think it was a pretty damn good one. We did find the scorecard. Two judges, had it 10, 10, 10 for Johnny, 109 for Costello.

So Johnny was winning that fight regardless of how the fifth round went. And then the other judge did have it 10-10, 10-10, and then... 239-37s Johnny's way, 138-38-38. I could have said it that way. Would have been much easier. 10-9-10. I don't know why I read it that way. But yes.

And I guess what did most people say? I mean, he was winning the vast majority of the fifth, too, right? Until the very, very end. Costello needed a finish. He needed to finish. Johnny won the first three rounds. There was nothing he was going to be able to do. Well, to his point, to Costel's point, he was saying,

if I would have won the fifth, it would have ended up being a split decision, but it still would have been. Yeah, it would have been a split decision loss. Yeah, as opposed to he would have lost. So it's not much to hang your hat on, but I guess his. Oh, yes, he would have lost still. Split decision, yes, yes, but it doesn't really matter at this point. It doesn't.

I'm excited. Great job. Sean Strickland rubbing off on Johnny a little bit. Woo, he brought it. Yeah. I know I love you. He was like happy go lucky and then CBS joined and it was fire. It was.

Again, another parallel to the main event from this Saturday. Very calm, cool. Costello not letting it get to him. Johnny trying to rile him up. You could even feel Johnny trying to like test the threshold, right? Like playing with him. Seeing what he's willing to give back. Then he gets into the moment where he's like,

oh, we're both a half Asian. and he's like trying to connect to them. It was fun though. That was a good one. That was a good one. What about Sean Strickland? Does that count? Like, can we put Sean Strickland in the title?

Yeah. No. Yeah, no, no, no, line up. Felt like a bit of a cameo there. All right, we'll put cameo by. We'll put cameo. I saw it like a blob for 0.5 seconds. It was 100% him.

He was wearing the same. You can hear him is the same. He was wearing a white t-shirt and cheese. He's hooked onto his belt loop. The same dude. We're wearing the same thing. Great stuff. Great stuff. All right. Is our next guest ready or not quite yet? Okay. Still to come, Pauli Maanaji, so a lot of personalities on today's program. Stay tuned for that. Also on the nose. So stay tuned for that. But for now, let us go to the man who has been on this program before talking about all things karate combat. Goched, you know, we spoke about karate combat and their interesting weekend on Monday and wanted to give their president, Assim Zaid, an opportunity to talk about some of the

of the things that transpired over the weekend for the promotion. And so he is kind of to join us, the man they call President Awesome. There he is. How are you, sir? Good to see you. Nice to see you, too. It's been two years. It's been a long time.

I hate to come back for these reasons, but it's an honor to be back for sure. Well, we do appreciate it. By the way, where are you right now? And is that your child? Yes. This was a suggestion from you. You know, I remember you gave me some life advice. Yes.

You said, don't wait. Don't wait. Wow. So I have a beautiful little daughter. Amazing. With the love of my life and it's just changed my life forever just like you told me. So I'm just so happy about that. And definitely melt your heart having a little girl.

Did you name her Ariel in honor of me? I should have. I should have. Her name is Sahara. That's an even better name. So well done. Well done. And congratulations to both you and your wife.

So we do have a lot to talk about. How would you describe this? this past weekend for you and the promotion? Oh, it was absolute madness, you know? I mean, in every single way, because you're talking about with the brawling, essentially there was three street fights and then a blind man walking into the pit, which was madness. I think more than anything, as long as people understand that this is not something coordinated,

it's just a part of combat sports, besides the blind dude jumping in. But the street fights, you know, there's been a history of brawls happening throughout combat sports. It kind of reminded me back of the shootbox era. Like, I've never had the Pit Bulls come to my show. And, you know, I've gotten very comfortable with not having security around the Florida Commission. And, you know, taking the main event, co-main event to do a special face off somewhere without security. I've gotten very comfortable doing that after almost 30 shows now.

And it was just a very different vibe this time around. And again, it reminds me back in the day, if anyone was watching Pride with the shootbox team, they were the best team ever. and I used to love all the crazy antics they did. As a promoter, you don't like it so much, you know. And I got to make some serious adjustments to make sure I'm prepared for next time. Okay, so let's talk about the Pipple Brothers brawl because I think there were some people who weren't sure if it was real or not or if they were set up.

What happened there from your POV? So essentially in the face-off on Ocean Drive, we did a special face-off in front of Scarface's Hotel. So that's where the famous movie scene Where Scarface was getting chained sawed And you can see Scarface's car in the back It's very historical in Miami We had these guys face off

Pitbull brother clinched him Clinched Shazave tried to take him down a little bit And the other brother jumped in with the one two Ended up taking a hook, a check hook Here you see the coach pretending to break it up And then hits him from behind So it was a three versus one type of situation You can see I'm sort of trying to be the shield

Standing in front And it was just very, very unnecessary you know um there was no shoving or anything prior to him getting clinched um so the bear hug was a bit much but at least no one got hurt so it wasn't a good thing but in the end of days like okay no one got cut i got to meet with both parties shazab's like okay there'll be more eyes on the fight people brothers too they're like no problem you know at least we're about to get a lot of views and people are going to tune in on saturday night um and that was it it was done um the next day two of Shazab's friends.

They came with water guns. We're calling it the water gun gate. So they came in with the water guns. And from like 15 feet away, they're spraying, you know, the water and it's sprinkled on top of their breakfast table. And man, these guys, they're, you know, they're no bullshit team, the Pitbull Brothers, you know, and I respect that. So they chase these guys outside.

And while they're throwing combinations, these two guys are still spraying the water. By the two athletes, it's CJ Brant. He's eight and two. He was an MMA fighter, and Austin Spivey, he fights for BKB. He had just fought the week prior in a fight of the night contest against Roberta Duran Jr. So they sprayed these guys with water guns, got chased outside, and while combinations are being thrown at them, they're still pumping and shooting water. This angle is very important.

As you notice, there's no camera crew waiting outside. That's very important because there's sort of like this thing, oh, was there a camera crew waiting outside with body cams? As you can see, there's nobody waiting outside. One person out there with a white shirt. He's a UFC fighter. Chris Alvigrez is filming on his phone. And then finally, I guess this is 30 seconds in. Another guy goes with his phone.

And you can see the fighters on the left. So there's no camera crew wasn't coordinated. There was no karate combat office in a random hotel. It was the Florida Commission. And as this fight continues, I walk outside finally with the Florida Commission with the heads of commission. And they're just with the arms crossed watching, taking notes of who's brawling, who's fighting, who seems to be the aggressors. And on the spot, you know, they verbally suspended. three athletes with two Pitbull Brothers, Diego Brando,

and they're looking to the agitators from the Watergate with the Super Sokers. So, I mean, it's just madness because, and I'm happy you bring that up, people have implied that you guys kind of set this up, right, to create a moment. What is your response to that? Yeah, you know, the Pitbull Brothers accuses of that, and I think it caught on, and there's sort of like this Mandela effect now where people think they saw a camera crew outside. But when you watch the video, you see that there's nothing of the sorts.

You know, so it was very unfortunate. I still love the Pipple brothers. I don't think that they actually believe it was a setup. I think it was just a way to turn the comments on their side a little bit because they were getting a lot of hate from the first issue, right? When they went three versus one on Chauzeb, he was alone on Ocean Drive. He trusts them and came alone and it didn't work out. So I don't really think they believe that.

I want a good relationship with them. We invested to fly their whole family out to Miami. We brought, we got all of them hotel rooms. good care of them. So I know they're going to be suspended, so we can't do it in Miami, but I would love to do this fight at some point in time, just because there's a story behind it now, and might as well, with all this drama, might as well settle it. But, yeah, it was very unfortunate.

And I just want to maintain a good relationship with them, so hoping to reconcile at some point. Patricie's opponent, Shazabe, as you say, he trains at your gym, right? Yeah, so I have two gyms here in Miami, and Shazab actually used to live there, actually back in the day. But now he's a very successful man. So yeah, he trains in that gym. Is there a conflict there? Well, you know, and then they like, it's not my choice who wins the fight. You know, it's up to the fighters. So just like, you know, you have the UFCPI with all the coaches in there or just like you have, I think even one championship has a gym in Singapore. But just like that,

you have your facilities. And this is, by the way, this is our new cry to combat apex, essentially. We just signed the lease two days before the last event. Wow. Half the warehouse, the other half is going to be the gym portion. We'll have a pit here throwing events every month, just like the UFC does with their apex. And people are going to be able to train here. So even more, you're going to see like karate combat fighters training at our sort of PI apex. But yeah, whoever wins the fight, that's up to the fighters.

That's not up to me or anybody. No, of course. Obviously, the difference is Dana White is not a coach of a team as well. So you're sort of juggling two lives there. And so the reason I bring this up is it has been suggested, all right, since he's one of your fighters, are you favoring him, or are you in, you know, in cahoots with him

to try to make these guys look bad? Or he remained on the card, right? Not the, not Petriki. And I know the Florida Commission got involved as well, you know, reprimanding him. So it does lead to questions about if there's a conflict there because he's one of your guys.

Definitely, there's a lot of guys that train at my gym. But, you know, there's multiple coaches. We have five coaches, Dean Thomas being one of them. We have coach Mango, Salmon Bursha. Mike Rishi used to fight in the UFC,

he's coaching in my gym. So there's many guys training out of my gym. The striking coaches at my gym are Mango and Saman Versha, who was coaching Gokensaki for a long time. So those are his coaches. I own the gym. But again, like I said, you know, you're going to see karate combat fighters coming in here

and doing training camps eight weeks living inside of our, you know, PIA packs. It's not going to mean that they'll have any favor to someone. And then they have to fight the best opponent possible, and they have to do the best that they can, you know. And so what did you? You know, the thing is about the coaching part. You know, I still coach my UFC athletes.

I have a ton of athletes in the UFC. Sure. You know, so it's tough. I don't ever want to give up the coaching side of that. I thought of it before to possibly do it, but I enjoy coaching in the UFC. I think it's really cool for the fighters to understand that the president of the organization that they're with understands what it's like to live as a fighter, to coach fighters. They know what they go through.

Like I said in the past, I had like 15 guys. living in my gym. I fed them three meals a day, five days a week. We paid for immigration attorneys to keep them in this country to follow the American dream. We've done this so many times. So whenever a fighter tells me their struggles, I can connect with them on a way that, you know, all the respect to other promoters that have never coached or thought that they can't. They can never understand that, right? I've slept on the mats next to my fighters. Like, that's something very special. And when a fighter cries after a fight, I know what they're crying about. I know why. And that's the thing, that's the mission of karate combat. I

want to change fighters lives, you know, and when you look at the superstars we've come up, that's literally what's happening. You know, we're changing lives of athletes. When it comes to MMA promotions, I mean, to make six figures a year in MMA or in striking, there's probably only like four or five promotions that could do that for you. And Friday Comats, it's one of them, you know. So we have athletes, you know, that after fighting three, four times, so it's all of a sudden they have a hairline, you know, they have new teeth, they buy a property, you know, they own a home,

They buy a house for their mother. You're just seeing these crazy things happening. Robelis fought seven times last year's life has completely changed. We have a fighter. Our champion Osloy is a national hero in Morocco. He flew out his whole family to Mecca and did hudge. We have Elias Kamsan, who's a Russian superstar sold out an arena, 10,000-person arena. So changing people's lives, changing fighters' lives are the most important.

And none of those guys are from my gym, ironically, that I just mentioned. What did you learn from this, from these two incidents? I got very comfortable, Ariel. I got very comfortable because there was never something like this. This hasn't happened, you know? And so with the face-offs, you know, we used to have security like 24-7 in the lobby sitting there in every corner like the UFC has that, right? We would have that too.

And I stopped doing it because after about 30 shows, it was never a problem. Everyone was really good. You know, we get the highest level strikers on the planet. From around the world, we get glory champions, brave champions. we're getting some K1 champions, PFL champions, champions from everywhere. All these companies

and these guys don't want to fight on the street. So we thought, okay, it's not needed. Why have security when the Florida Commission's right there? Who's going to fight

in front of the Florida Commission risk their license? You know, and it was just very wrong. So the lesson is, you know, go back to what we were doing before, bring in the security,

have the proper measures to protect all the athletes and make sure, yeah, this doesn't happen again. And now we get to Wing C. This, okay, so this one to me, look, brawls are brawls, you mentioned this. I felt personally, and I know you know that we spoke about it, and I echoed everything that my colleague and friend Pizzi said, I felt like this was crossing the line because these are two men

fighting. It's serious business. There's money at stake. There's their careers at stake. And this idiot is walking in there and ruining that moment. Agree or disagree? Yeah, I agree 100%. you know, and I wish, I'm sure there's a camera angle with my face.

I was so sad for so many reasons. One, the fighters, you know, obviously is disrespect to them. They're in the zone. I mean, this can change their life. Each fight can change the course of their careers. So it's disrespect to them. And two, you've got to imagine 42 hours prior, I signed a lease, not in karate combat's name, I signed a lease in my name for nine years for this apex.

And I'm thinking like, man, if the commission comes and suspends my license, what do I do with this place? You know, I have a 10,000 square foot warehouse on the water, mind you. So you can imagine the price of it a month. And I'm just thinking like, this could be, it could the fighters get hurt and you could ruin me. Like, I don't even know what I'm going to do with myself, you know? So I was really sad. You got to imagine like there's not too many people that would hire, you know, a guy like Wing Seed. There's very few jobs that would want like a guy like Wing Seek.

And I wanted him. I wanted him. I was the madman that said, Winksey, come here, VR media correspondent and do this whole thing. And he did a wonderful job until he didn't. And it was very disappointing. He called me to apologize. Did he really? Because I'm surprised because I saw the footage of Curtis getting pretty mad at him in the lobby.

He didn't seem apologetic at all. He seemed to imply that like, oh, this was great and you should learn how to sell yourself and no one cares about you. Like there was nothing apologetic about him in that moment. Guys, please, please look. And I hate, you know, everyone. I'm going to get roasted for this. I'm going to come into the defense of Winksey on one point. The guy's a young kid.

He's not us. He's not our age. I'm 35 years old. I don't know how old you are, but he's not our age. He's super young. He's very immature, and he is learning where the line is, and he definitely crossed it a ton. He's very apologetic. He made a huge mistake.

I don't know if it's the coach in me that feels this way that I feel bad for him, because look, as a coach, like I told you, I've had guys coming to my gym with mental health issues. I've had alcoholics training in my gym. I had criminals training in my gym. And my job as a coach was to turn their life around and get them on the right track. And, hey, I failed. I've lost a student, you know, to suicide in the past. I've lost another student to alcoholism.

But I've also helped a lot of people and got them on the right path. This kid, instead of ostracizing him, in my opinion, as a martial artist, I would love to tell him, hey, dude, you're suspended. You're not going to fight for a while. So how about you come live in one of these dorms? I'll tell him right now. How about he comes, lives in one of these dorms? forms, puts his head down, comes here and trains with real fighters, you know, and learns about the martial arts, learns the martial arts philosophy, and actually trains and maybe put to the side, the influencer side of things a little bit. For me, when a guy is lost like that, he looks lost, I would love to bring him in. He needs somebody to help guide him, and I don't think he has that. But what he does is extremely wrong, absurdly wrong, you know, and very disappointing.

No one at karate combat was involved in this. No one knew that it was happening. He didn't run it by anyone. No, and I think that's extremely important to state. The biggest piece of evidence I can give you is 42 hours prior, I signed a nine-year lease to this place, and I would not risk anything with my license or anything like that. You know what's funny, man? Excuse me, not man, Ariel. You know what's funny?

When I watch other promotions, when there's braw – like when Conner McGregor throws a trolley through a bus or, like, Sean Chiklin moves an eight-year-old out the way to jump on a guy, like, it's kind of fun. Like, I'm like, damn, this is really great. This is really fun. When you're the promoter, it is not fun. Because you're going to deal with all these problems that fans don't know, you know?

Like what I just told you right now, right? I'm risking my whole life right now financially on this spot. And then this kid is going to just jump in and risk my standing with the commission. Like, it's just so nuts. It's just not right. And for the fighters, of course, it's not right. But as a personal, personal thing, it's not right because I trusted him. But I feel confident in saying if someone walked into the middle of a UFC fight, like into the cage, they'd be banned for life.

Like Dylan was banned for life, the brawl and all that stuff. Is Wing C. Ban for Life from karate combat? There's a big debate there. I really don't know what to do. You know what I'm juggling with it. Because again, honestly, the coach in me, when somebody does something wrong like that, I want to try to bring them close first. and rehabilitate that person and guide them, rather than ostracize them and kick them out,

I don't know. I don't know what's going to happen. He's definitely not coming to karate combat anytime soon, but I have to really figure out what the path is. I actually like the idea of him living here for a moment, putting the camera down and really training and learning about the martial arts, you know, but I don't know what I do with this guy. Right now he's not going to be involved in karate combat at all,

that I can say. Welcome to come to the next event. Wing C? Yeah. No. Because that's sort of banned. Like how long does that last? Yeah.

Okay. I mean, I don't want to say permanently banned. But yes, there's a temporary ban on Wing C. I would say that. And he's apologized to you. Has he apologized to Curtis? I don't know if he personally apologized to Curtis. But when he called me on the phone, he was very embarrassed and apologizing to fighters involved and to me.

He made it very clear. And I was, I didn't, I didn't scold him. I actually told him like, you know, you don't know how bad of a thing you've done. Like it's, it's really bad, right? Because now, I mean, I've never had to have security like preventing people from jumping in. I've never had that issue because around the pit side on our seating, we put the people that we trust the most. You know, it's usually like special guests, media personnel. Like, it's the most trusted trusted people, you know?

And now him doing that just violates that completely. And I mean, look, it's not a big deal. as much. But now my costs go up, right? I'm going to have to up security around the pit. I'm going to have to do a lot of different things to prevent this from happening in the future. He just harmed a lot of people. And he likes me. He harmed somebody he likes. You know what I mean? Very disappointing. And then the Larissa Pacheco fight, which a lot of people felt was a mismatch and should never have been booked. It was a brutal finish. But she's, you know, someone who's beaten Kayla Harrison.

She was fighting someone who, to the best my knowledge, just has an amateur record, right? No. So tapology doesn't show, doesn't display kickboxing fights for most of the part. Okay. You know, they focus more on MMA. So unfortunately, when you look at the topology is probably, I don't, I've never looked at the topology, probably zero and zero. But she says one and one. Okay.

She has a tremendous amount of kickboxing experience. And her coaches, her, everyone really felt she could shine in this sport, especially against a girl that yes, beat Kayla Harrison in a wrestling type of fight. So, and at 155, she'd be going to 1.35. So just to give you a background on Julia, she's a, I believe, a 15-time national champion. She won the Waka World Championships last year, and she fought 17 times last year. And she won all her professional bouts in kickboxing so far by K.O. Although she's a new pro with all those accolades and all this hype going behind her, she has a huge following, too. With all this going behind her, they really felt like in a kickboxing fight at 1.35, this girl, it would be,

far more competitive, you know? And if you watch the full video, you'll see that too. Like from second number one, the girl's moving very well, landing spinning back kicks, landing good shots. But in a end of day, I mean, Larissa Pacheco is, man, she can perform at 135 as well. She's two-time PFL champion. She's a special athlete. But by no means was this like some girl with no experience, you know? Do you feel in retrospect that it was a mismatch?

Yeah, I talked to my matchmaker. And, you know, and I'm just hats off. to that guy. He's a phenomenal matchmaker, but this was a bit of a mistake, you know. So I took him to the side and he's like, man, there's so much hype around him. The coaches were telling me this is their time to shine and they really believed in it. And, you know, I think he fell for the hype a little bit. You know, so definitely, in my opinion, a mismatch, a mistake that shouldn't have happened. And I'll be overlooking the matchmaking a little tighter now. How do you feel about the state of things? Obviously, you signed up for nine years. You talk about

the apex. But there's ups and and downs, right, when you're trying to get a promotion off the ground and a consistent, you know, viable product out there. This weekend was a tough one. A lot of people taking shots. I referenced, you know, a commentary on Twitter named Jack Slack calling Cardi Combat a meme organization, which I don't think was a compliment. How do you feel about the state of things and the way in which the combat fans view the promotion right now? Well, you know, I don't like all the brawling that happened and this wing C incident and all this stuff. And people, people obviously are not happy about all that stuff. But in the end day, you know, I'm not going to let like a 15 second moment

of wing seat jumping in the pit ruined four hours of world class fighting, you know. We have champions from all over the world competing for us, you know, Octagon champions, Ares champions, PFL champions, glory champions. I mean, nonstop Olympic medalists. It's just the highest level you could think of. And I know that if we stay on this path, we're changing athletes' lives, which is the number one mission I've always had. So I just got to stay true to that, you know. And then it's very unfortunate. I don't like it.

And I wish it never happened. But hey, I'm on the Ariel Hwani show, which is the greatest, you know, podcast for combat sports in the world. And, you know, it's an honor to be here to talk about karate combat. So, you know, I just got to move on in the right way. I hope fighters are very excited now that we're going to have even more events. We're having 10 events a year.

But now we're going to be able to have more events with our apex. And that's more activity for the athletes. So I hope, you know, we can move in a good direction, you know. And I hate to bring up so many negative things, but I'm just trying to clear the air on some of these things and hear from you what you think of it all. There was a fighter named Emiliano Sordi who accused you guys of not paying him. Has that been sorted out? That was in December of this past year. Yeah, Emiliano posted a tweet maybe for like 12 hours and took it down.

There was a bit of a dispute there, but everything settled. and that's why you never heard anything about it, you know? I think he just fought recently. I don't know how he did, but we have good relationships. I tried to book him a fight with rebellus because he's fighting at heavyweight with us. So try to book him a fight against rebellus. Probably the conversation will come back up and it'll compete for us in the future. But there was no issue there.

You know, there's always going to be some disputes here and there about things. But like I said, I think I've done 30 events. All the fighters are very happy. And, you know, everyone's lives are improving for the better. as far as old athletes. And people are getting paid and there's no outstanding issues as far as paying fighters

and things like that. No, all fighters are paid. There's nothing like that and not only paid, but when you think of, like I think, Aero, you'll know better than me, when you think of promotions

in MMA that pay that a fighter can make six figures a year in, right? You probably think like UFC, PFL, KSW, and then karate combat would be one of those, right?

Same thing with striking leagues. When you think striking, you think one championship, K1, glory, and karate combat. You know what I mean? So when you think of big boxing leagues, MMA leagues, we stand in the top five highest-pang leagues on the planet. And that's why we have all these champions fighting for us from every league. The best of every league is competing for us for a reason. What happened with that event, though?

Remember that event? The one in December where it started super late. Oh, my God. Why did it start so late? What was the issue there? Was it something about the commission and the paying of the officials? No, no, no, no. The issue with the commission that you're speaking of is once you pass 12 a.m.,

you have to pay for the next day as well. So we had to pay double. Essentially, we have to pay double for that show in order for all the fighters to be active. And a big thing with me that I'm proud of is I've been president for almost three years now. We've never canceled the show. We've dealt with like a lot of madness. I don't know if you remember in Dubai, there was like a biblical flood. you know, and the flood was like up to your hip.

That was 24 hours before our event and we still pulled it off. So I'm very proud that we've never canceled an event. December was like the worst event I've ever done in my life. You know, the guys that were building the pit, there was some issues with some tools not being there, some missing parts, all of that. And it was all rushed very quickly. So I went into the locker room before the show. I said, guys, I don't know when this is going to start, but I'm going to make sure that you guys fight tonight. So everyone stay relaxed, stay focused, you know, and I'm going to make sure that this happens for you guys.

tonight. So I think we had like a five-hour delay. It was the worst thing I've ever dealt with in my life. But we paid all the officials double. I paid everyone double. And we pulled the vent off still. I believe like I DMG right away after that. I figured we talked. Yeah. It was terrible. But like, you know, I don't want and I don't want to throw shots to anyone, but like, you know, the GFO was doing something really cool for a lot of athletes and it never took off. I didn't want that reputation to end up on me, right? So even though it was five hours late, I was like, no, these guys flew, I flew them from around the world. They all need to fight. They all need to compete. They all want to stay active. So we made it happen. Well, I do appreciate you coming on and answering these questions and

clearing the air on this stuff. So thank you very much. Good luck to you guys, continued success. Hopefully this new venture, this new venue, you know, proves to be successful and fruitful for everyone involved. And I hope that there's less of these things that people would be talking about your events on a Monday after or Sunday after for the great knockouts, the great finishes, the great moments, things of that nature. Yes, no, I appreciate that. And, you know, like I said, we built that event out in 42 hours. We have a lot of high hopes for this place. I mean, we want to announce Sam Alvey versus Dry Hall will be the next event for the light heavyweight title right here at our apex. By that time, it'll be fully built. Right now, you can see it looks a,

a bit like a mess. But by that time, we'll be ready to go. So we're going to be having that fight. And we're all over the world this year. That's going to be July 24th. Okay. So 24th, yeah, Uri Haul versus Sam Alvey. Should be a fun matchup.

And we're going to be around the world. We're in Georgia, Azerbaijan, Russia, all over the place this year during events. So it should be a good year. All right. Thank you, Assam. I appreciate it very much. Appreciate you, too. Thank you, Eric.

There he is. President Awesome of Karate Combat, Assim Zaym. who, you know, had an eventful weekend clearing up several things. And I guess good to hear that Wings C apologized, although it's surprising, and I'm not disputing it or doubting it, but considering his demeanor and the things that he was saying in that clip that we showed of his interaction with Curtis Millinder, he did not seem apologetic or remorseful at all over the incident, but perhaps after a good night's sleep, he changed his POV and felt bad about it all. But I do feel like there should be a repercussion there for someone walking into the middle of a match that is wacky.

Okay, Daniel Dubois is fighting Fabio Wardley this Saturday in Manchester. Next Saturday in Manchester, that's May 16th at the AO Arena, another legendary spot. You've got BKB 54, Mayhem in Manchester. and the BKB's super welterweight world title is on the line. Rolando Dye defending against the one and only Polly Malinaji, the Magic Man. And he's had a long day of travel, but he is kind enough to join us on this Wednesday evening over in the UK. There he is. Hello, Polly.

How are you, my man? What's up, Barry? How you do, bro? It's good to talk to you again. Yeah, yeah. Likewise, bro. Has everything going? I'm not sure what you mean when you say likewise.

Is it sincere or is it not? Likewise. No, no, of course, man. No, no, I thought we had a good combo. We did, we did. We had ups, we had downs, but I think in the end, we kind of got to a good spot. And it was a good point, and it was good TV. It was.

Which is what I always like. You're Mr. Entertainment. Good for faint interaction, you know? Of course. And by the way, thank you for doing this. I know you were traveling today, so I'm sure you're tired. No, I've been, dude, I've been, honestly, I've been sleeping all day. Now I've got to figure out how to sleep tonight after training, because I'm going to talk to you.

I'm going to go train. and then I got to figure out a way to go back to sleep somehow. All right, so maybe this is providing some entertainment for you as you try to wind down the evening. Can I ask you, Polly, you know, that fight was great. It was you coming back and whatnot, but you did suffer some serious facial injuries, right? I believe. Did you break your orbital? Yeah.

I didn't bring my orbital, thankfully, because otherwise I don't think I'd be able to fight so soon. We got some bad cuts, and probably the biggest issue was the eye. poke the eye pokes I caught there they're more complicated you know coming from boxing they're not as they're not as prevalent you know so coming from a another sport like that so there i see that they're a very complicated issue and it's one of the issues that is certainly different from the complications of pro boxing i'd say you know having done this twice now it's probably eye pokes and hand pain and hand injuries that are probably the two biggest factors for me that are different in terms of what I've dealt with in boxing, what I deal with in bare-knuckle.

Another injury were the cuts, Ariel, obviously those were more optically visible from everybody, what everybody saw. The cuts would have been just a regular stitch job away and just, you know, a regular hospital and say, I don't know, the United States would stitch you up, maybe you leave within a couple hours and you're good to go. You take the stitches out next week and you're fine. But they have people in the UK that work in the NHS that in America probably wouldn't even be allowed to work on farm animals.

And they let them work on human beings in these hospitals. And I was in that hospital all night. I was not, my wounds were not cleaned and all so on and so forth. So basically what I'm getting at is the complications from one of the stitches and the cuts, which is this one right here, has been constantly infected and pussed and out. probably up until like a few weeks ago, you know? It is closed at the moment. I probably expect it to open up in the fight.

But then again, I expect cuts to open up in bare and uncle fights that won't even have scars, a lot of long things that have scars. And this is due to the animals that they have working at the NHS, absolute, absolute inept animals who also, by the way, were keeping me in the waiting room, not cleaning up the blood dripping down my face. And I'm hearing them like wash women in the other room just gossip and talking. The hospital is almost completely empty. They don't even have a guy there to stitch anybody, let alone at least take care of whoever's in there.

And you just hear them just like hang around like wash women in the back just in the main room just talking and stuff like that. And I'm in that room and that waiting room half half sleeping because it's the middle of the night, half passing out with blood dripping down my face. It was it was a pretty interesting experience. but I'm here now. I'm healed up. I'm good. But like I said, that's probably the complications

from the last fight. The eye poke, I feel like the vision is almost back completely. I wouldn't say it's 100% back to where it was, but pretty close. And one of the two scars probably wasn't stitched up well and didn't heal up well

because of the infection. And their lack of their lack of qualifications to even clean up as a cut and stitch it up. Mind you, this is like kindergarten stuff in the U.S. If you go to a hospital in the U.S. If I was in Sicily where I'm from, I can't understand this because I wouldn't go to a Sicilian hospital, you know, unless it was something really, really emergency, you know? But in England, that was absolutely shocked at what I saw in the hospital system in England. So considering all of that, you know, you get the win and there's injuries and it's a bad experience. I thought maybe, all right, Polly gets the win, he gets the bare knuckle win, he goes out with the W.

I thought you'd be done at that point. Why are you doing this again? And especially so shortly after. I did. I did. I thought so too. And you know what happens as a fighter, you start to think, man, you know, like I didn't want to go into a title fight because I wanted to have some respect for the fighters that I, their fights that I call that I commentate for BKB, Bearknuckle. So I didn't want to just skip the line and jump the line because these guys, I see how hard they work.

how good fighters they are and just how tough they are and how tough a living it is to make. So I didn't want to be that guy to just jump in and say, hey, I'm going to fight for the title and tease that. So I said, let me try to earn it and take on a guy who's well-known, who, you know, has some accolades in the sport and, you know, we'll bring some popularity to the fight. And if I can beat a guy like that, then, you know, I could maybe fight for the title. Now, after the fight, because of the injuries and all those stuff, I was like, you know, I probably should just, you know, I probably should just, you know, call it. a rap you know the tough fight with tyler good john he was uh he was a you know he gave us we we did a great fight was a fight of the night um but you know you started thinking about it you like man i put myself now in the position for that title fight that i was talking about that i don't want to just

walk into that i want to earn i feel like i earned it now you know i beat a pretty good fighter i gave a fight of the night performance and uh you know it was it's going to get people talking and then i called the reese versus d fight uh which was the fight where d won the title again Ronda the one of the title against Liam Reese, and I was calling it for BKB because I work with BKB as a commentator. And I was just like, I can't just not fight

the winner of this fight. I don't know. Maybe it's the bug. It just hits it. It's like, I've got to fight the winner. I got at least fight for the title, you know? And so, here I am. Is there a chance? This is the last one. You know, I always want to say so, but I also say this. You know, I'll say this is probably

the last year of me. Okay. fighting. I'll be 46 later in the year, you know, and I get a lot out of myself considering, you know, I'm 45 years old. And, you know, the way I've been training, I would not have been able to train like this when I was younger because I would have felt like I'm not doing enough. And I was like OCD with the way I trained when I was younger. And I think that's at the end of my boxing career, that's probably what spelled the end of my boxing career, was the fact that I was trying to train the way I did when I won world championships at an older age. I kept getting injured and it was just difficult and it was running me down and so on and so forth. And so I, you know, I just felt, okay, I don't have it anymore.

But I think that with this break that I've taken, I've allowed myself to become emotionally detached from the way I used to train and I'm able to train a little smarter instead of harder, you know? And I work, like I told you last time. I mean, I do. I don't spar. I work, some strength work with addicts, Mace Clubs and Seb Salter and Don and Donne and John Jeffredino. They're the inventors of the addicts, Mace clubs. I do some strength work with them. I will obviously do some combat training but not sparring, keep myself sharp. And, you know, I have a regular job of ProVox TV as well.

So, you know, I'm sort of just just going through the days more regimented. And I feel like that's been the coolest part about coming back on fighting is I was getting kind of lazy. You know, like I was getting kind of like or just like unmotivated, just being a commentator and just like, Like, whatever. You have a lot of free time when you, when you, when you, when you, when you, when you, when you, when you, when you, when you, when you, when you, when you, when you, when you, I don't know, becoming a motivated. I felt like it was, it was a, uh, uh, I needed that extra spice in my life. So, I'm able to have, uh, I'm able to have this job and, and, and, and, and, and, I'm not feeling run down. I'm getting in shape. I'm eating right. I'm, I'm just feeling good, you know, and, and just having that daily discipline and that routine of discipline. It has made me feel really good. And I think you might become, correct me if I'm wrong, the first man to hold a major boxing title and bare-knuckle title if you win this fight. Ariel, I will correct you because you're wrong.

Austin Trout won the BKFC world title first. Yeah, so I have to say that Austin is the guy who's shoes I'm trying to walk in and winning a bare-nuckle world title after being a boxing world champion. So I will be the second guy. I would be the first one to win it in BKB Austin was able to win it in BKFC But yeah It's you know what's funny

I don't really think about The results so much I think about just the fact that I'm doing good At this point of my life You know what I mean I'm mentally in a good place I'm physically in a good place Anything you win at this point in life in combat

Is a bonus you know You're not supposed to win at this point in life I was not the favorite to beat Tyler good Johnny You know everybody was talking about like oh If I can you know I mean I was was the name in the fight, but the odds makers had good John favored, you know? So, so I, I take it as, you know, nothing is a given at this point in life where you're going to do a combat sport at this,

at this age, at this stage in life. So I'm just taking it every single day and executing my game playing every single day, being this point every single day, and focusing on that, exactly that, executing on fight night and not really focusing on winning, losing the world championships and all this all this stuff. Just go in there, execute. And if you execute, everything else handles itself. And this simplified mentality has also allowed me to take a lot of pressure off myself. It allowed me to get a result last time. And it's the same mentality I've taken going into this fight. You mentioned Pro Box TV, you and Chris Algeri, who does a pod, part of our network, inside boxing. You guys do a great job. I enjoy that you guys shoot from the hip. And you don't

mince words. I appreciate that very much. And so could I ask? Just curious recently, we had that the Senate hearing about the Ali Act, and I know you have thoughts on this as well. How did you feel how that all played out? Um, you know, I will say this. I think I'll put it like this. You know how I don't miss words, right? Yeah, yeah. So I thought Oscar and Nico Ali Walsh did a good job. Um, I was asked to go, but I was in training camp and it's hard to break a training camp while also, like I said, having this job that I have as well. Yeah. So I would have loved to go. I did not, it's not that I wasn't there because I didn't want to be there. Um, you know me. I don't miswords. I speak up when I need to and I speak up for what I believe in. But I just, again,

between being in a training camp and then also having my job that we've recorded every day, it was hard to get in D.C. And I said that, I think Oscar and Nico did a good job out there. And I thought, you know, I think the, the Aliak speaks for itself once it's properly explained the way it was and the way they're trying to change it once it's properly explained. But here's where I won't miss words. Ariel, what is the difference between a lot of? lobby and a bribe. It's the same thing, bro. It's the same thing. It's a fancy wording that's different. Okay. So these people, they have very, very powerful lobbyists that, that obviously are in the Senate or in the Congress or whatever. And these, everything Oscar and Nico said basically

goes on deaf ears. So in the end, what do you do? You end up passing stuff anyway, right? I could have been there. Oscar and I equal, Al-Eco, Al-Eco, O'Hush could have been, obviously, we're there. They could have been tons of other fighters there. But when there's lobby money behind everything, aka bribe money, because again, a lobby is just a bribe. It just depends on who's given it. If the wrong person is giving it, that's not connected to the system, then it's called a bribe

and they get arrested. If a person that's connected to the system is giving the money and donating, well, it's just called a lobby. We'll just give it a soft of touch name, right? So these people have very powerful lobbyists. Lobbyists. And so it became very, very clear to me when

everything that is clear in boxing that needs to be done and instead you're taking it, you're trying to take more of it away. The Aliyah needed to be reformed, sure, need to be reformed in terms of having more teeth, not to take away more teeth or minimize it. You know, you're focusing on things like minimum amount of money per rounds or minimum amount of coverage for a fight show promotionally. These things were already there, dude.

These things were already there. A promoter has to have the minimum amount of money for a fight show behind in insurance. There is a minimum amount of money you have to fight for under most major jurisdictions per round. These things were already there. So these senators are either too dumb or too corrupt to really understand anything from that perspective that Nick Khan brought to the table. What you really needed, the danger that you really have is are what Nico and Oscar were talking about. you know, and what we've been talking about in general, that if you change this,

the act in that way. Now, having said that, having said that, you want to make your own league, go ahead, dude, it's fine. I mean, knock yourself out, let yourself on fire, you know what I'm saying? But, you know,

to take away the out, you take away the Ali Act in general, and it's going to now, it's going to spill over into the non-league aspect of it. At least that part of it where the fighters have a right to know, for example, how much money's on the table, how much money's coming in,

how much money is, overall involved in a show where they are the star, where they are the A side and they are the star, you know, because I think all fighters have a right to know that because they, if they're the ones carrying the show as the product being promoted, then yes, they deserve a much bigger share than what Zufa and the UFC have been giving to fighters who are the lion's share of the promotion for certain fights. The way boxing does, but even though you have to go chase it and you have to go enact your Al-IAC rights, at least you have to, had that if you wanted to go find that is what I've talked about with Chris Algeria on the show where Chris himself has actually had to use the ALDI Act in his favor, impose it and force it with some litigations he had with his ex promoter and the star boxing. And we've seen that used also by guys like Mikey Garcia and Andre Ward and so on and so forth. It's there, even though it needs more teeth. At least the option is there if you have the money to push

the the fighting court to go get what's what should be properly yours. Under the Zufa rules, under the UFC rules, fighters don't even have the option. Like, they don't have the option. So they basically trying to bring that into boxing. And essentially, they're going to because, like I said, politicians aren't looking for the best for the people. These people are the most spineless people on the planet Earth. You know, they wouldn't be in government under that kind of jurisdiction unless they were absolutely spineless. So it's all that you can be done, man.

People are bought. Are you disheartened by this? Do you think that there is going to be a serious image? impact on the sport of boxing because they often bring up when when asked about this from other people not from the likes of me because I don't get a chance to ask these questions but they often bring up hey we're not touching that other ali act you want to go by those rules you want to you want to deal with that status quo we're just introducing something different over here no believe that or do you think that it's all going to get muddy because here's the no because here's the problem

the other the other the other ali acts still has to have the ability to be imposed if you now change the Ali Act, even under the regular boxing lane, which is the outside of Zufa Lane, now promoters don't have to disclose this anymore. Before they had to disclose this, if you demand it from them, don't get me wrong. Well, the Ali Act needs more teeth. They should be mandated that the promoters disclose it the right way and give you all the information. You really always had to chase for that information, even as a fighter. Even though the Ali Act was there, you always had to chase for it. You always had to, you know, try to get the details you weren't being given. They They always did try to skate around, even though it was there.

Promoters are going to be promoters no matter what. And I'm not saying, okay, every promoter is bad and every fighter is good. It's not that black and white. But nonetheless, everybody's be out for their own money. So the old Ali Act, the one that they're changing, I mean, at least under that one, you could, like I said, you could chase down your money if you felt like it wasn't being given to you. Now that the ALDI Act has been changed, even the mainstream boxing, they don't have to disclose certain information to you anymore. So they won't, obviously, because they weren't doing it before.

You know, that's why I gave Oscar credit. Oscar's fighting for the Ali Act. But even, you know, he's on a side where, you know, he can probably take advantage of fighters more if the Ali Act changes the way do for once. You know what I mean? But he's, he's on, he's on the side of say, hey, man, no, I'm, I'm former fighter and I want to protect the Ali Act the way it is. I can ride with that. I can vibe with that, you know, and I'm not saying everything Oscar and Golden Book Motions does is, is perfect. Nobody is. But what I'm saying is for him to vibe on that side, that's commendable. You know, so for these guys to say, oh, we're not touching the other Ali Act. You have touched the other Ali Act because once you change the law, other promoters are going to take advantage of it as well.

You know, why would they not? You know, this is just, unfortunately, it's business. It's capitalism. So, you know, that's all BS that we're not touching the other Ali Act. Once the Ali Act has changed, it's changed. Again, it goes back to the spineless, disgusting politicians who, like I said, take. lobby slash bribes. That's all it is, because a lobby and a bribe is the same exact thing just on the different

fantasy wording. And so when you were asked to be a part of this hearing, were you asked to be on the on the Oscar Nico side? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, the Oscar Nico side. I was asked that by who? By who?

I was some people on that side. I don't know if I didn't, I mean, I was asked by the pop. Some people in the WBC had hit me up. Okay. What do you think happens to those guys? The WBCs, the IBFs, WBO, what happens to in five years? I think they'll still, you know, be working. Listen, right now, I don't know if anything changes, if it changes in five years,

because, you know, you've seen an alignment basically of Zulfa, Paramount, and that side, and then you've seen the other alignment where a lot of promoters have just gone to the zone and everybody else is on that side, right? So it's become the new HBO over Showtime, right, where, you know, people align with one network and then you go from there. The only thing is Paramount has put all their eggs into the Zoufa basket, while the Zone will do deals with various promoters. I don't know how it comes about it. I don't really think it opens up that quickly in the next five years or so.

But the Zone seems to have good money and be able to fund fights. Paramount has good money and is able to fund fights. Now, on the Paramount side earlier, maybe you know what is better than me, this billion-dollar deal. Is it half-MMA and half-UFC and have boxing? Ziphael boxing for a million dollars. No, no. So it's UFC for 1.1 billion a year, seven years. So that's 7.7 billion.

That's just UFC. Interestingly enough, that number was put out there. Very, you know, very publicly. It was in, you know, all the trade magazines and whatnot. The number that Paramount paid for Zufa boxing has never been made public, has never been actually reported on. My theory on this is that, as you know, say in the world of boxing, you have to make everything public, right?

Like, as far as the Ali Act is concerned, because that is in place, you have to, you know, make your payouts and all that public to the fighters. The one that's currently in place, right? In MMA, that doesn't exist. So you can make it public or not, there's no ramifications. But in boxing, if you say to the public and to your fighters, hey, we're getting $150 million a year from Paramount, well, now they know how much this TV deal is worth? If you don't say anything, well, how are they going to find out?

And I feel like it's very interesting that we know the UFC number where there is no Ali Act, but we don't know the boxing number where there is an Ali Act right now. Do you get what I'm saying? What I get 100% when you're saying. As a matter of fact, that's the spit in the face that the UFC fighters keep taking because, you know, they're actually get to see the money. You get to see, they get the, they're like the dog who's chained 20 feet from the snack, but the snack is 21 feet away.

You know what I'm saying? Now they get to know, they get to see, but they don't get to touch it. You know what I'm saying? Yep. And that's where they've been spat on constantly. And that's what these people are looking to spin in the face of the boxers as well, by looking to try to change the business dynamic in our sport the same exact way. You know, but yeah, that's what I was curious about.

So, yeah, I don't know, man. I don't think, listen, Zufa's had shows the way the old Friday night fights used to do shows, the way ProVox TV does shows. I don't think they've been as good as ProVox TV. events. So what kind of money they are, they're funding this with, or how much money they're funding this with, I don't think it's been that great, you know, I don't, I think it's, you've had a couple of, you've had a handful of pretty good fights. I think, um, uh, uh, the best one's probably been Vazdik versus the, the Serbian kid. What's the name? Hot Rod. Radzanovich,

Radzevich earlier in the year, if you remember, Ariel. Yeah. Vazdick versus the hot rod. That was, I think it was a co-main event. Otherwise, they've been, you know, just decent, regular fly-by-night shows, which are funny. I mean, boxing, I enjoy them. Boxing fans will enjoy their fights. A Sunday night event, it's kind of like ESPN Friday night fights. That's fine if you do it that way. But I don't think anybody was ever talking about ESPN Friday night fights

is going to take over the sport of boxing back the way they did things. It was just like a feeder into championship, right? It was giving us a chance to see that middle ground to see if anybody could come out of it. And that's totally fine. Zupa comes in with this gung-home mentality. We're going to change this. we're going to do this, we're going to do this. You know, and you're not really that impressive overall.

And I know Dana said, okay, judges, by the end of the year, don't judge us at what we do right away. But, I mean, so far, has it really made that big of a difference? I think the zone and the mainstream of boxing have made some really good fights this year, you know? I think even ProVox TVs have some really good fights this year. I don't think offhand, there's been memorable fights on Zulfo. You know, but how watch. They've only had a, yeah, they have a handful.

I enjoy a fight. A pretty good main event this weekend, Mosley Jr. against Boiuch. And they're going on the road, right? They're going on the road. They've got the Chris Bill and Smith card. But on paper is different than in reality. Okay, so, yeah, you've got a pretty good main event this week. And Boeuch and and Schen Moseley Jr.

As a matter of fact, I think Moseley Jr. has done a little bit better than recently than has been expected. And Boeuch obviously is taking a fall from after the brain. Adams rematch the law. So, yeah, it's a solid fight on paper, you know. But again, are you getting – look at what boxing's put out, man. I mean, boxing had Moritia versus Andy Cruz, I mean, Desone, you know, more retire versus Andy Cruz, which wasn't even a big part of the schedule early January and turned out to be a great fight.

You had a figure-o ball. You had a – you know, you had a pro-box TV with Najee Lopez and Manuel Gallegos, you know, which is probably the fight of the year thus far, you know. I don't know. You know, these guys, like I said, the one that stands out to me is Vazdick and Hot Rod. That was a really good fight shootout. But you're not. I don't know.

We'll see. You know, like, if they weren't coming out saying, you know, we're taking over, everything, we're changing the whole sport, I wouldn't have a problem with it. Like I said, I enjoyed the old Friday night fights. I enjoy that kind of boxing. I enjoy boxing on a day where boxing is not supposed to be around, which is like Sunday. You know, you get a cool Friday and Saturday fights. And then Sunday, you get a cool Zoof.

Zufa fix, you know? I don't have a problem with that, but you know, you're trying to change the dynamic of the way people get paid. You're trying to change the dynamic of the business. You're trying to change the dynamic of championships. You're trying to create a lot of things that I'm not really viable with. That's all. Do you think the Saudis are involved in five years? I have heard no. That's what I've heard through a great bind. I'm not sure. I've heard, I'm going to just, just rumors that I've heard was that this was a 10-year plane, the Saudis. And they got it in 2020, which would mean by 2030 they'll be out, right? I don't know how, you know, how much teeth that the rumor has.

That's that I was told not long ago, maybe by the past year or two. And, you know, obviously the war, the war doesn't help the Saudis right now. Right. The war in the Middle East, right? So their involvement is sort of at least not as magnified at the moment. Do you think A.J. Fury happens this year? You know, there's a lot of money on that and the table for that fight. And money, money will, we've seen.

If there's enough money, things will change even if they don't make sense, right? Or if they do make sense. I think A.J. and Fury should be in the UK. I think I think that's a no-brainer. But I don't know. With Saudi money, do they make it in Saudi? You also lose a big piece of the atmosphere, man. I mean, how you don't make A.J. and Fury in the UK, if you make that fight, I mean, if you make it anywhere else but the UK, I mean, it wouldn't make sense to me, you know?

but we'll see. I mean, you can still put Saudi money and put it in the UK. I mean, Connor, Ben, and you bank did that, right? Yeah, I think they'll be smart enough to put it in the UK. I think people would be very disappointed. I have a question for you, Ariel, you know,

while I'm on here. Sure. You know, didn't Turkey Al-Assiqs buy, like, a percentage of interest in the zone a couple of years ago? Yes, specifically him. I don't know if it was specifically him, but the Saudis did purchase a chunk of his own, yes.

So that's my question. So with the paramount deal in Zufa, because they're behind Zufa, right? I mean, aren't they their money behind Zufa? I mean, I know there's Nick Kahn and the other guy, but it's also, I assume the Saudis are behind Zuf as well. So are they kind of competing with themselves by doing this? I mean, what's your take on it?

I mean, there's a lot of fascinating things here. I mean, what about the fact to that same mindset, so they're in business with Matt Truman, Eddie Hearn, right? And then Connor Ben signs a deal with Zufa, which they are funding. Yeah. And so they funded to take a fighter away from someone who they're very much in business with to take him from that side of the street to this side of the street. Like, it's sort of the same thing that you're talking. I don't know. I don't know. I can't explain it. And Eddie seems like he wasn't happy about that. And Eddie seems like he's not happy. But if, but if, but if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if the

own, then they own a piece of the network that you're doing all your fights on, right? Yeah. Are the societies competing with themselves? Because the Saudis are also with the Paramount deal. So, you know, and then everybody involved on both sides doesn't like each other. But in reality, behind the background, the Saudis are pulling the strings and they're on both sides of it.

You know, so I don't know. I'm a little bit confused with all that. So I'm trying to get some amazing. I'm confused as well. Let's end on a positive note, shall we? David Benavides. I'm blown away by this guy. Blown away by him.

What a performance. What a performance, and he showed some boxing. He's always shown the explosiveness and the power, and people always want to, I think unfairly call him a weight bully, but he went in here and just absolutely exploded onto the scene. I mean, he was boxing very well, you know, putting his punches together nicely, combinations of which he always does, but also, you know, you saw some check left hook,

so he's got a punch going backwards in spots with the bigger guy like Zordo, the timing of the shots, the explosiveness, the carried up the power. granted again zordo is not opatai zirdo is still an ex-super middleweight like benavides was he was a big super middleweight like benedibides was but nonetheless this is still a really an eye-catching performance and a performance worthy of a lot of praise and um i did not expect a stoppage i thought if i was going to go to distance

this was uh this was a really an impressive impressive moment and really what happens now now the stupid questions are going to get asked that's my problem here with boxing and boxing media. Now they start asking the dumb questions. Like, is he going to fight a heavyweight and all and some of this other stuff? You know, I'd like for Benavides to keep it within realistic terms and maybe go back to let heavyweight and fight Bibo. At most, at most fight Opatai. But I don't know how, again, how that works with the Opa Tye being in a Zupa, within a Zupa contract and of Benavides being outside of it. But I think heavyweight is a bit too much of a big push. You know, I, you know, for your entertainment, do you want to see somebody risk getting hurt?

I don't know. There's enough fights for. him at light heavyweight and cruiserweight to where he doesn't have to go up there. I agree. And let's also learn from Roy Jones, right? I think the prevailing wisdom is that when Roy went to fight John Ruiz, it kind of messed things up afterwards. Great moment, but it didn't need to happen. I mean, it was historic, but didn't need to happen.

He's so damn good at cruiserweight now and light heavyweight and even had great success at 168, but I doubt that he wants to go down there anymore. There's a better be of, Bivil, the Opataya. Like, there's enough for the next two, three years that he doesn't have to do that. my opinion. Yeah. And I, and I know with the Opitai fight, I would say that prior to this fight, I thought Opatite was going to be just too big for both of these guys. You know, he's not, he's a natural cruiser slash heavy while these guys are cruisers who came off from super middleweight. But the performance makes me hedge a little bit. Like, okay, you know what? Fine. You convinced me

with the Obitai fight, but I just don't want to see the guy go to heavyweight. Like you said, in hindsight, with the Roy Jones fight, you know, with Ruiz, it looks bad. We have that hindsight to look back on. We don't need to do it with Benavitas as well. But, um, okay. They convince me a little bit high if they want to make that fight. We'll see if the business lets it happen. May 16th, BKB54, Mayhem in Manchester. There it is. There's the poster right there.

You've got the great Michael Goldberg or Mike Goldberg. In my phone, he's Michael for some reason. I never changed it. But the former voice of the UFC involved as well. And I wanted to confirm something that I read and I think it's incredible. Is it true that the portion or a portion of the sales, ticket sales will be going to the Ricky Henn Foundation? Yeah.

Incredible. Yeah, yeah. It goes to the Riki Han Foundation for a mental health awareness. And obviously, we know we lost Ricky Hatton in the last six, seven months. There you are. And this is obviously his hometown, its home city. So obviously, I think it makes a lot of sense to do something like this in Manchester. Love that.

Yeah, that's back in the day, me and Ricky at the press conference. But, yeah, so we're donating a good portion to the Hatton Foundation. And also, I'll be back in Manchester on June. seventh for the hatton foundation dinner and uh it's a big event that i look forward to partaking in as well so so a lot happening in manchester manchester does not feel the same without ricky hatton and never will to me for anybody who lived it during the riggotton era i think they'll understand what i'm talking about if you didn't trust me take my word for it yeah it was uh it was amazing but um i i hope to uh you know help do my part in and raising a mental health awareness within

this fight and i think ricky would have uh would have really blessed uh this moment as well if he was around. Appreciate you very much, Polly. This was nice. It was very cordial. It was great. I enjoyed it. Good luck to you next week and my man.

Looking forward to it. Thanks, man. For sure, man. Talk to you soon. Bye-bye. Polly Malinaji, joining us, the Magic Man before that title fight.

And yes, Austin Trout. Shout out to him, won the BKFC title. He would be the first to win the BKB belt after winning a boxing world title as well. There's a lot to get to, my friends. There's a lot to get to.

We're just getting started here. Buckle up. There's a lot to get to. There was a press conference of sorts. A media gathering. What would you call this, guys? A gaggle. A gaggle. That's what they call it in the world of politics. In the Oval Office, earlier today, did we get a headcount? I believe Iliot Tuporia was there.

Eliate Teporia, Alex Pereira, Cyril Ghan, and Justin Gage. So the main incommet. Plinyo, I do believe. Plinyo as well. Don't sleep. What is this world that we're living in, gentlemen? and welcome back, PT. It's good to have you.

I've seen clips floating around. I've not watched any. Have you guys watched any of this? No. I just saw what you tweeted the picture. It's an absolute sin. It's a C. I would love, I mean, I would love to be able to watch this together some of these clips.

How many clips do we have here? We have a lot. Yeah, a lot of them. Andy, we might need some time to do this. Can we do the four box? Can we watch at the same time with us on screen? Okay, so maybe we come back to it? Or what do you guys think?

I want to watch, I want to see everyone's reactions. I mean, this seems like a merging of the world. Like it's one thing to have them talk about the fights. It's one thing to have them promote the fights, A or not, to see these characters in the Oval Office, in that familiar setting. And I saw some other clips where people are asking the president about Iran, about other things.

And like, Ilya and Alex are just standing there? Are they not? What was that? I think pizza you just wheezed there Oh, okay Oh, it's just laughing, sorry It's just like

What are you do in that situation, right? You're just standing there And they're asking them like real world questions And you're just like, yeah man, I just want to fight Is it political yet? Is it political yet? How about this belt? Oh yeah, how about this belt?

Can we look at that? Let's look at the belt. Look at this. Now, is this actually on the line or what? Or did they just make a special one? It feels like they just made a special one. There's the 250 right there. You've got the stars and stripes. It's wild. What is the M-O-C-C-C-C-C, that's got to stand for something, right? That'd be 1993. I don't know. L-X-X-V-I. What is that?

It's definitely Roman numerals. No, I know that, but what is... It's going to have to be 250, right? That's some point. You think so? L... 1776. Nice. You nailed it? Nice. Nice. Who said that? Who said that? Oh, wait. 76? Yeah. How'd you know? How'd you know? I googled it. Okay. So what's the M-O-CC? No, MDCC. Oh, what's that?

That is millennia, so one. Yeah? I guess the DCC is 700 LXXVI is 76. Unbelievable. Look at that. Fucking out. Just looked in the UFC store. Not yet available for purchase.

I'm putting on notifications. Yeah, I'm going to need one of those. Come on. How much of that with the jersey? Oh, my God. You kidding me? Oh, yeah. That's fire, Pete.

That's fire. That's a horror right there. Oh my God. Well, we did see a face off. We did see a face off between Gannon Pereira on the White House line. Is this AI or is this real? It's an a-o-y-sha. No, this is real.

Glover could use a steadier hand here. There it is. This is wild, guys. This is crazy. Do you think it's happening now? I sure do. I sure do. Is the event happening now?

we were talking before at lunch we were like is it just going to be Ilya and Alex there are they going to bring everyone else? Nah, they're not going to bring everyone else they brought Cyril out there Gatji out there too, huh?

Unbelievable. What a scene. Pete, we got a hat pad to the collection as well now. We do? Oh shit, show me. Oh! It's not bad. Looks like the old Washington Bullets.

That stops. You pick. I think we've got like four clips here. Let's just, I have no, you know, I have no real strong take on which should go first. So here we go. Let's play them. There are no people tougher in sports than the people behind me. These are the toughest people.

These are real warriors. When we talk about warriors, these are warriors. Cyril gone. These are all champions. I have to say champions. And most of you know, many of you know who they are. Cyril. great honor

Alex Pereira who's I've seen him knock out a lot of people that's what he does he knocks out of people congratulations in an unbelievable career wow

Ilya Tuporia who they say he's actually doing good on the pronunciations I can't do that pretty much I mean that's it very special and a friend of mine Justin

Gachi who is a friend of mine just a fighter like you've never seen you see the kind of pounding he'll tank and then on a sudden it's over in the way it's a crazy not in good shape so these are the these are the toughest people these are the greatest fighters in the world they're all champions and they'll be fighting against very tough people also and but I think you always go in thinking you're I really have no commentary because it's just, it's a surreal scene. His pronunciation was pretty good. Gitchie might be the toughest on paper to say in the sport.

No one gets that. He nailed it. Fair play. I do like how he's like, Alex Pereira, seen him knock out tons of dudes. A lot of people. Justin Gage, he takes a pounding. She's like, damn! That's my intro at the White House.

I thought he was going to say, I remember you July 4th weekend against Nick Newell on NBC. Oh, yeah, for sure. PFL. Oh, that's right. WSOF, shout out. Pull that one out of the back pocket. Okay, what else? Do we have others?

Do we have others? Let's see. What else does the... I like to say... I'd like to say... Oh. You know a best-dressed guy there. Oh, you look good.

Look that hair. I would like to thank the opportunity to be fighting on the White House. We know it's a special event that everybody like to be present to make the few special. Quick, great. Thank you.

One of the greatest punches in the history of the... The business. He loves Alex. He's a large hand. That's a large hand or head? Did he say he's a large hand or head? Hand.

I like how he gave him the... It was one of these. It was like the putter right there, partner. It was like one of. It's clear. He's like in Alex Pereira. He's liking what he's putting down. That's great.

Yeah. Alex says all that and then Plino translate it as soon as he said, happy to be on the White House? Yeah. I was wondering about you. Here's Ilya to Poria talking to Donald Trump. There are no people tougher in sports than the people behind me. These are the toughest people.

These are real warriors. I feel like we see us. When we talk about warriors, these are warriors. Cyril gone. Oh, yeah. These are all champions. It's the same one. Many of you know who they are.

Ciro. Okay. Great honor. Do we have another clip? Alex Pereira. I mean, it was fun. Was that Frank's fault? Okay, we have more.

We were efforting, working through it. Working through the king. That's surreal, man. It's surreal to open social media. That too. Oh, I saw this other clip here. I think it's him showing the renderings, right? Do we have that one?

He's showing the renderings to everyone. Here we go. Here's a picture. I think a lot of people haven't seen this yet. I give you that. I think you'll probably be able to do okay with it. Who said well? Not bad, right?

It looks pretty damn cool. Championship belt. Dana White was here last. night. Did you know that? He was here last night. He loves this guy. He loves all of them. Here's another one. This is another. They go all the way out all online. It's all people invited. Our country is invited to this. It's free. It's free? The event is free? You know, you know when you're in, like, Miss Lippey's kindergarten class? Yes. And they're reading, like, the book. And then they do the like today's book is the puppy who lost his way

by Eleanor Rigsby and then you show that's what that look like it does look good, not gonna lie it looks absolutely sick. Is it actually free? Someone actually told me, let me see if there's, the ellipse is free. The ellipse part is free.

The country's invited. What's the name of the guy who's singing again? Just a little bit of Jacob Brown. Shabuzi. Cold beer on a friday night. Yeah, Shaboosy. Shabuzi. They're jeans.

Just dry. And Iranian, okay, so someone sent me this. So you know how, is this their words? Or, okay, well, so the breakdown of tickets. Okay.

One third. What I was told was one third goes to Donald Trump. Dana, T.K.O. Maybe not one third, but like a portion goes to Trump. A portion goes to, uh, Trump and, sorry, Dana and TKO, a portion goes to the troops. And then there, there are opportunities to buy tickets and, holy shit, the price.

Wait, partner investment is what it's being called. USA, Freedom 250, June 12th, June 14th. This is what you're getting. This is the partner invest. This is, this is the offer, okay? Yeah. Freedom 250, partner welcome reception. press conference reserve seating

ceremonial weigh-ins general admission access this is on the 13th Zach Brown band concert access UFC 329 floor tickets so what's 329

are they calling this 329 or do you go to Connor is that 329 yeah because they're skipping right WW event integration ring signage right? Yep.

What's the price? There's a price here. 50 grand. Yeah, I'm going to say 20 grand. 20 grand? Yeah, I got 50. 50 grand for Pizzi? Rick.

What do Pizzi say? I said 20. 20? 20? Yeah, okay, so you're right. 329 is July 11th, presumably Connor McGregor's return, which may be announced very, very soon. The actual retail price?

1.5 milly. What? What? I'm staring right at it. I wonder how many of those are available. It's a deck being sent out to a lot of, you know, influential people, high rollers. Actually, that makes sense. And what you're getting is Freedom 250, a welcome reception, which, you know, I'm sure that's something special.

Press conference. Probably a hell of a welcome for 1.5 million. Well, no, no. Ceremonial weigh-ins, General Mission Access, Zach Brown, 329, Florida. tickets. So you're getting something great there. Ring signage and WWE and then you get to go

to this whole. So the term of this partnership is June 12th. You guys thought that they were going to give this up for 20K? Bro, 1.5 million is ridiculous for that. Yeah. 329 floor seeds. I actually don't think that that's

crazy. Dude, that's like a $1.45 million seat to the White House. No, but you're also getting what do you mean? All that other stuff is like at most 500k Right So you still have 1.45 million Make up

You mean 50? I'm sorry, I'm sorry All that is worth 50K, not 500K Connor, yeah I get Yeah, you're right Seats, dude But what? 50,000 is so much, yeah Okay, ring signage at WWE That's got to be worth something

What does that mean? For sure I don't know Because it's a partnership Pizzi so you assume that they're going to have Some kind of like business to be promoted, right? it's not just going to be Joe Schmo. Do they get a few tickets?

Is this a package for the 24 people or something? I don't know if it's a package. Because why would, you know what I mean? It is. I'm assuming it's not just one. It's going to be once in a lifetime. So they're banking on some very, very high rollers being like, yes, I will pay a premium for this, you know?

Is UFC White House going to have the highest gate in UFC history? No, but it does go back to, remember when they were saying, like, we're not going to make any money off of this? Yeah. Sell a hundred. of those. Sell 100 of those in here. Not looking too bad.

Yeah, that 60 million is not looking too bad. Fascinating stuff. Okay, this is all, what a time we're living in here, guys. What a time we are living in here. Oh, we do have one more sound. Okay, what else do we have? I think it's going to be the biggest event we've ever had at the White House. I mean, the lower third.

Some can't let Iran have a nuclear one. And these are all the greatest champions of the world. They're the greatest fighters in the world. You can tell by looking at it. This is madness. These are the greatest fighters in the world. How do you think if you wanted to heavy tranny? Huh?

They'd be a little tough. Gosh. That is fucking absurd. It is crazy because they're just standing there, like, not knowing what to do. Obviously, they're kind of, you know, this is a foreign environment. They're in the White House just, you know, Donald Trump's holding court, and they're just standing behind. But it is just crazy to see Cyril gone and Justin Gae on that side. Also, three non-Americans, too.

I was going to say. One who comes from France. whose president isn't the biggest fan of Trump. Another who comes from Spain, whose president isn't the biggest fan of Trump. So like, it's just, it's just wild. I think we have one more. Do we have one more?

And a friend of mine, Justin Gehci, he loves this country so much. Thank you very much. I never thought you will be so kind. Well, I have a full savage. And why I wanted to give the toughest test to you, The friend of you? The friend of you.

You said he's friend of you. Oh, yeah? I wanted to give him the... Because you know, that's what I want. You know your opponent very well, very tough. I know. I'm a very tough opponent. Do you feel good?

Very good. What are your chances of winning? Me? Yeah. I have complete faith. 100%. That's why you're here. And they believe that, too.

Would you like to say something? He has the same fate. That's going to make an amazing fight. It's going to be great, yeah. Unbelievable. I kind of do love to leave this. personal promo there. Ilya's just kind of like nudging him.

Like, what did that? What was that we were saying before? Yeah. Golly. He's like, I'm going to knock you. He chose this guy to hit knocked a lot of the house long. Yeah. This is the dude?

Was there anything else from the Oval Office or that was it? All right. That's quite a sane. Any update on the nuke part or just? No, no, no, no, no. That was a. It's not political. Yeah, no, not at all.

Let's go to Sean Strickland. Sean Strickland earlier today talking about corporate sponsors. Here's what he has to say about shooting from the hip and why he doesn't care about the ramifications. Has anyone you ever trust or respected strongly suggested you cool down the rhetoric? There might be more opportunity, especially if you're a champion.

I don't give a fuck, dude. If Nike, if Nike wants to come, give me a fucking, I'm going to fuck Nike. You want to come give me a fucking logo as you go use little Chinese kids and make fucking shoes. Like, fuck these major companies. You don't want to sponsor me. Go fuck yourself. You're actually the problem, dude. Your DIY initiatives.

Like, I don't give a fuck, dude. I don't need to be a rich man. I'm good. I can retire right now. I don't what an extra million dollars will I don't give a fuck dude keep keep your money you fucking corporate scumbags why not just keep the trash talk confined to the to the fighter himself and go instead of going beyond the country well let me tell you he kind of made that about that you know it is we live in a world right now where we're being like forced to conform to ideologies and beliefs that don't fit America the rest of the world models themselves off America and we're being

forced to import these Thorold World motherfuckers that have really no right or beliefs or identity as America. If you want to be, if you want to go have Shiri law and you want to go fucking, you want to go cover up your wife and put it on a fucking towel and a blanket, go back to your shitty fucking

country. We're not doing this shit in America. You guys have to speak up because these people are actively against everything we stand for as Americans. Oh my. All right. So it continues. Here's Sean Strickland talking about the sparring footage. Sparring footage. More of a feeling out process, really. Being leaked by Hams out yesterday. The guy's just a little fucking rat, dude. One, I didn't even know we were filming.

And those were our warm-up rounds. It's like, dude, you're just like, you're just a weak man. You're just a weak, weak man. I mean, once you take that a weak man, I kind of, to be honest, I didn't think that was a lot in the clip. Yeah, but it's also like, what is the point? You were light sparring and you show like, I mean, those shorts, little question will might. part, you know, I mean, but they, they were Amazon, you know. It was a bad angle for you. Yeah, it was bad, it was a bad angle. But, you know, I mean, hey, I like women.

He likes goats. I win there. You know what we need right now? We need to cleanse the old palate, guys. And I suggest doing so with the Alex the terrible BKFC way in footage from yesterday. Did you catch this, PTC? I saw a picture of I did not see the way in. Oh, you got to see the action.

Terrifying. friends, you've turned my friends onto Alex the Terrible. They didn't previously know much about him, but big fans now. Oh yeah. You know he's fighting tonight. Well, whoever his opponent is absolutely terrified.

Now here he is. I mean, look at that weapon. This is last night at the Blood for Blood Wayans. The event goes down tonight, guys. Ocean Center Daytona Beach, Florida. Alex DeTerrible against

Cameron Delano. This is the Blood for Blood event. Four bands, four brawes. Look at this. Is that a real weapon?

Because it's absolutely terrifying. Is that blood on the weapon? Ra! That's what he said in that moment. Uh-oh. Here comes the face off.

Hey, Chris Lytle in the middle. Oh, dear. He's like Drew McIntyre with that thing. This is a bare-knuckle event. And I believe it is streaming on blood for blood.com. Blood for Blood.com starting at 6.45 p.m. Eastern Time.

We were talking earlier. Alex looks terrifying. Go back to that photo there, if you don't mind. No, the other one? I mean, what about that ring girl? That's a lot of tattoos on that young lady, huh? Sure. I thought she was with Alex terrible.

Oh. Alex has a lot of tats too. He does. She's giving him a run for his money. The other face-off was even more intense. Did you guys see this? They were going head to head. It was craziness. These two guys were, was this, this was Jake Bostwick and Roderick Stewart? Jake Boswick, UK, MMI legend. No, I think I actually got that wrong. This is Sergei Kallanen and Brock Walker. Anyway, it was terrible. Look at this.

Is he Irish? It's a lot of tattoos Anyway, did that clean your palate Look at that picture right there Golly Those Jordan shorts That one's gnarly That's crazy

You're watching tonight Pete Blood forblood.com You better believe it Well the next game's on So I'll just double screeny You know what I mean Eat out Number four there

Yeah Blood 4 blood Not F OI I just climbed my free ticket I said the number four All right Yeah Blood 4 Just my accent

Yeah yeah And Bede out tonight, just announced. Excuse me? What's you saying? Joel Embed is out for game two. Oh, I tell you. Okay, sorry. I missed her.

I had the same thing, Pete. What? There was another faceoff earlier today in Manchester. My good friend, Daniel Dubois, faced off with Fabio Wardley. Yeah, representing Ipswich Town, newly promoted. Got that Halo sponsorship, huh? Oh, baby. Here we go.

Tait's on. Tait's on. Look at Fabio. Fabio feeling himself here. I mean, can you not hear Frank Warren say a cracker, right? Tell us, tell us, Ptie. How does he say it? It's got to be a cracker.

That's what he'd say. He would call it a domestic dust-up, an all-British heavyweight affair. It is a fucking great fight, you know. It's what it's all about. Weather's going to be nice. See, they did face off in the end. If only he did this yesterday, and I could have gone in a row of each other. If only he did this yesterday, and I could have gone in a row of

Right. The whole interview would have been saved. I don't think so. I don't. No, I don't think it would have gone that different. No? Yeah, I really don't. I think it was a compounding of a hard day. I do not think he walked off and was just like, do you fucking believe that guy?

He seemed bothered. What's this guy talking about? The face off was from months ago. He thought it was today. He actually seen a lot of shit for that. No, truly, when you talk about cleansing your palate, Alex Volcanowski in Seoul Korea truly cleanses the palate. Did you guys see this? Landing in Seoul. Look at this. Do we have volume for this, Frank? We didn't go over this beforehand.

No. Nah, we got volume. Look at this. Look at this, Alex Volcanovsky. Getting a hero's welcome in Seoul, South Korea. And who's that? The Korean zombie himself. Does this not warm your heart after all of that, Meschugas?

This is beautiful right here. With the Cookin' Wolf shirt, shout out. Yeah, of course. Ash by his side. Look at this. Look at this welcome. Welcome in South Korea. What an airport, by the way.

Yeah, I need to get this. Incredible, man. I need to get to Seoul. I'm down. One of the great cities and countries in the world. Okay, time now for everyone's favorite second one of the weekend is time for On the Nose. A lot of dilly dally today, huh? Give me a fucking break.

No, I'm telling you. A lot of dilly dally. We got to get to the questions, guys. Spanish Armada. Do you know what that's from? That's from, guys. Oh, yes. Billy Madison.

Yes. That is. Correct. Ariel, how could you not follow up on the dirtiest gym comment that Chale served to you on a platter? Is it because it was Mazvedal and the other team members

you are friends with? I'm confident saying if it was Balal-Khabib or anyone else you aren't eye-to-eye with you would have asked multiple follow-ups that was some tea we wanted to spill. He said a million crazy things in that statement.

What did you want? Going back to that previous line, like, come on. Relaxed, sir, champ. That was the most like comment. You kidding me? Is it fair to say, though, like when it's clear Chale is doing the bit, right?

When Chale is doing the thing, you're not exactly like, you know, grilling him. No. That's not the moment. That's not the time. Going back one minute ago, like you're just kind of letting him cook in that moment. This is from Pistol Pete.

No blind rank, but would love to hear each of the team's top three kids movies, pound for pound from their respective childhood. Let's hear some deep pulls off the top. You know who you need to get back. for this. Dave Allen. He was... sitcom, wasn't he?

Knowledge was legendary. Is Dave Allen like a savant or what? How was he pulling off that stuff? He knew the whole breakdown of WWE in 2001. He rifled that... He said 99 to 2002. He knows every single match that took place. Yeah, I watched that too.

I couldn't tell you like this guy went in and this guy and then did this and this. That's... Such amazing. You were like, I was in the rafters at WrestleMania 18. He's like, oh yeah, who had... Or who opened it? Who opened WrestleMania? 2018, Ariel.

I don't remember. This guy gets punched in the head for a living, and he knew it like that. You said, you're like, Christian and Booker T. He's like, I think it was Edge, brother. Like, he's got you there. He just had it all. What do you say, my wife and kids? You're like, is that my favorite sitcom ever?

And he's like, it probably makes it into the top 12. He had so many great ones there. He's great. So many great. And then he starts the rifling off these like 80s slash 90s shows. And then I get hit him with some like easy ones. Like, no, I never heard of it. You went too old, though.

He's like, Seinfeld? He says he doesn't do Seinfeld. No, but you're going back to... As a choyle though, you're not watching Seinfeld. That was the conversation, you know what I mean? That's a very... He's hitting me with different strokes.

He was probably like four. No, you hit him with different strokes and then he said the line. Leo Tank did look like the older brother. Do you guys agree? Okay. For the first time ever... Do you agree? For the first time ever.

Agree. You saying that somebody looks like somebody? Nailed it. It was actually correct. Yes. First time ever. What's his name? Oh, I don't know, but I just...

googled older brother from the show and I was like, no, no, he's famous. First time. Is it TV in the kitchen a British, UK, Irish thing? TV in the kitchen? Yeah, we haven't done it yet. So people kind of get kind of awkward when they're in our house. Todd Bridges.

He looks like a young Todd Bridges. Look it up. Put him side by side. This is Leo Tang. I didn't know Leo Tang was his nephew. That's incredible. That was weird too. But they were flowing on that one.

He was calling him his uncle. He was calling him his nephew. I always listen to my uncle. That was a great line. That was a great line. A lot of cameos. Dave, Dave killed that one.

Am I right, Connor? Leo Tang, Todd Bridges? What's going on in? You know, it's Leo a Tang, A-T-A-N-G. Connor's looking at some guy from Iowa. Oh, okay. Yeah. From the 80s.

I see what you're saying. All right. But it looks like the Jeff Bridges. No, not Jeff Bridge. Jeff Bridges. He's a very famous actor. Very famous actor. Steve Bouchemey says the promo before Benavides-Remir's fight was insane.

Did you see it? It felt like a trailer for a new horror film. I did see it. It was actually amazing. I remember watching it. So shout out to pbv.com. They give me a code. I watch it there.

It's a great service. Our boys, Kenobio and Algeria on there as well. The promo was so good at the beginning. It wasn't like the promos, like the intro for the broadcast. I remember thinking to myself, why didn't they post this anywhere? This is so good. It's a shame that no one, like you should have posted this on Friday to get people excited about the fight. But it was really, really good.

It was very good. Broadcast was great. King Triton. I just got a text from Aspinall. Dave, Dave Allen, Pat Brown, are you kidding me? I think he's a fan, right? Yeah, all the boys from the same knuckle awards, you know what I mean? Oh, that's right.

That's right. King Trayton, come on, Ariel. Saying you are not the sports. sports shit-talking type as you just shit-talk G.C. a few days prior, you are literally the antithesis of that. S subtle condescending shit-talk and then victimize when shit-talk two. Pick one side. Humble and hungry or subtle jabs and disparaging comments to those fans of the teams you're playing. And Rick, don't jump to his defense. You brown-nosed magic man. What? It's so... Is that our relationship? I'm often the guy jumping to Ariel's defense?

The N double N is crazy. Did I shit-talk the Hawks? Did I ever shit-talk the Hawks? In fact, I feel like I said multiple times that they're like a year away from being great. I don't think you should talk to Hawks at all. You did say I was a frontrunner. You said I only liked Georgia because, you know, they won back to back 90s, but that's not. Wasn't there a Mutamba jersey up at some point? Yeah, what happened to the Mutamba did? Hey, it comes out of the rafters and now we're with our current city swans, baby.

I get it. I get it. Oh, there was someone who messaged me about that. They wanted us to change allegiances. Not happening. Got a lot of people We're talking about. I'm open. Send me a jersey.

We're a non-vick club. Oh, you can be bought, Frankie. I can be bought. I'm trying to be bought for the Sydney Swans. Swan City Swan shout out. I'm wearing it right now, but I can easily replace it. Yeah. No.

Don't say yeah. No. You send the jersey to the guy. Yeah, you're Adelaide Crows. You've been bought. We've been bought and paid for. Now it's up on Pete. Open.

Open. To be honest, I mean, Adelaide Crows, like, they haven't only done much with me, you know? Like, I'm sort of open for business as well. Sydney Swans. That was a season long lease, I believe. Yeah.

You know what I mean? That was season long. I like that. I like that. I like that. I like that. It's sort of like the Everton thing and the Lester thing that people try to throw in my face. Plastic.

Nah, it's like, that was a bit, you know? You can't just come back 10 years later. If I haven't proven by now that I'm not fully immersed in all things for us, big game tomorrow. And then people say, Oh, you say game, but it's a match. I'm sorry. We call it soccer here. You call it football.

The terminology is going to be. Call it whatever you want. Game and match, interchangeable. Don't fucking worry about it. It's so annoying. It's not a fan. It's a supporter. Oh, yeah.

It's not a field. It's a pitch. I told you it would be like this, though. I remember very early on in the football dream. You did. Don't go online with it. It's not fun. Yeah, yeah.

Chama weeweeys. Hey, gang. Trey from South Dakota. I left the voicemail a couple months ago after learning of my mom's cancer diagnosis this past weekend through a couple of silent auctions and fundraising events. We raised over $10,000 to help toward my mom's treatment. Truly was an inspiring and humbling experience to see everyone who was there to support her in honor of Mother's Day. Please have Andy, the Cruz Mama, blind ranked these four Mother's Day gifts. Are you into that?

Hit me. Flowers. How many items are there you said? Four. Four. Flowers. Three. A card.

One, if it says a lot of really nice things. Jewelry. Last. Home baked goodies. Oh, man. That should have been my one. Two. I'm happy with that.

You're happy with that? Yeah. Andy, your card is a minimal. Are we seriously going number one on the card? Yeah. But what does it say? Is it like really, really nice? Exactly, right.

You've just left yourself open to a shitty card now. You know what I mean? No, no. I don't, like, I complain about shitty cards. No, no, no, no, no. We don't do blank cards. We don't do, like, shitty cards. It has to be something that comes from the heart.

Who does blank cards? Psy, arguing to a mother, what she wants for Mother's Day is golden. I'm just, I just wanted to revise. Yeah, go ahead, Psy. Oh, thank God's is number one, 100% for me. I'll take the jewelry. It's going straight to the pawn shop. Let's do it.

Oh, shit. All right. Rick should have done this. Number one jewelry. He does add peace and love, F. Cantor. Yeah. Hell yeah. Amen to that.

Jump the gilly says, can you tell us what happened with that video that was released of you being pressed in public while you with your family? Why haven't you addressed it?

I actually addressed it the Monday after back in September I spoke about it. So long before these idiots put it out there. I think it took them six to seven months

to actually edit the video and there wasn't much impressive editing to be seen. So yeah, is what it is. Out with my family. Talked about it.

Mid-September. And I saw some people try to do a breakdown that I was embellishing it. First of all, they didn't post everything. Second of all, I did say that they put a phone on my face, and they did put a phone on my face. What you saw was part of it. And when you're standing there with your kids and your daughters holding your hands super tight because you've got these freaks with megaphones shouting all kinds of insane stuff at you, yeah, it's a little uncomfortable, especially when your kids are there.

But thank God. Thank God. They did put the phone out. I said this to everyone in the aftermath because the phone is what actually calm me down in the moment. The phone is what made me realize, ah, they just want me to react. So I'm not actually going to say anything or do anything other than a small thing where they were like, you know, I think he said something like, why don't you stand for what's right? And I said I do. That's it. So I did address it.

It was back in September. It was old news by the time it came out. Here's link one who says, Ariel, any recent beef between you and Bilal Muhammad? Wow, crazy that those two comments are. back to back. In your recent UFC Perth reaction video last Saturday, Balal caught a stray that seemed to come out of nowhere. I went to the comments to get more info, but couldn't find it anywhere. However, one member did point out that your boy, Aljo Sterling, also went from Champion to Apex, a solid career progression. Al Jameen Sterling was a champion of the UFC in

23. He lost his title. He then was headlining the Apex in 2026. That's a three-year gap between championed to apex. Bilal, just facts, was championed in May of 2005 and is headlining in May of 2006, one fight in between, not several fights in between, and a new weight class. So I think completely different. Is there any beef between Balal and I? I don't think Bilal is a good person. I've tried to clear the air with him.

I've tried to invite him on the show. He lies about me. He makes up things about me. He tries to, you know, he tries to rally his. his fan base online by making up shit about me. Yeah, so is there beef? No, but I just think he's not a good dude. And I'm just pointing out the facts.

The facts are he was a champion headlining a show in beautiful Montreal, my hometown last May, and now he's headlining the apex. Would you call that a career progression that's one to be proud of? Is that a good career progression? Would you like to be at the very top of your business, headlining as champion, and then fighting, headlining in an empty warehouse exactly a year later. Would you be happy about that progression? If I was doing the very best in my job and then a year later doing something akin to that,

I don't know, say like being on Netflix or streaming on MySpace, that would be the equivalent. I wouldn't feel too good about things. And so perhaps he has to take shots at others to feel better about himself. I don't know, but he keeps going on and on about this bullshit. And just, just take a look at my feed, take a look at the things that I say, and take a look at his feed and the things that he says about everything, about life, about the Middle East, what he calls for and what I call for. What I tried to put out and what he tries to put out. Just look at that. And if you don't see the difference there, I don't know what to tell you. The sex.

That too. Weird. I mean, like, you're using that as your analogy on a Public stage. Weird. Connor Benzegs. Is Eddie Hearn the voice of the gecko from the commercials? I don't think so. But you know, John... Oh, you don't think so?

Definitively not. John Cena is the voice in the RAM commercials, as is Dana White. Which I always find weird because it's like they don't... I was talking about this with my kids. Why would you hire John C... How would you think John Cina charges to be the voice of the RAM commercials? Probably a lot, right? I'm sure it's quite a bit, yeah.

Is his voice that record? recognizable to where it's worth the money as opposed to just getting a good VO artist to do it? They always get somebody notable for this car things though. You know, Will Arnett is a very popular option for... That's a recognizable voice.

I think it's pretty recognizable. Yeah, no, no, I know. I just, I wasn't... I know John's voice because I'm a wrestling fan. I know Dana's voice because we listen to him every day. I just don't know if, like, you could get a great V.O. artist who's unknown,

probably way cheaper. Could you not? You could. They do they go with celebrities most of the time. Because then there are the people that recognize it and they're like, oh, that's John Cena's. Yeah. John Ham. John Hamm.

It might have been AI. That's a good freaking point. You also can't see him, so naturally people do recognize his voice because he's not able to be seen. So his voice is kind of the moneymaker. Islam's flambotomous says, no question for me today. Just want to shout out Joe Martinez on an

awesome job over the weekend. As usual will say the sport is in trouble after Buffer retires, but I think we are in great hands. Martinez has put in his time on Apex shows, and it's great to see him flourishing in front of a live crowd, true professionals, keep up the good work, lads. I sent this as a text. This was not supposed to be read out of that. Lex, and I agree with you. He's tremendous and a great guy as well. Lex, hi, Ariel. Why does the UFC love Jeremy Stevens? I've never seen someone with a deal like that in the UFC where he came, where he can come back for one fight, then go to BKFC, then come back. for another. I don't know, but I'm happy for him. GDP. I wish more guys had that kind of deal. Here's Craters who says, have all these

mates adorned him with the coveted title of iPhone boy? Now that he's officially graduated from the no man's land of being the last is great to own a phone. They were so excited for him. He wasn't sure how to hold the phone. He's coming into his own. He's giving it to me at the end of the night. I'm plugging it in my my little office studio. So he's handling it well.

There actually was a good byproduct. There was one kid who had like a Samsung but had no apps or anything like that. And the day after, he used my son getting the iPhone as leverage because the day after, I saw him on the day and he was like, can you please tell my parents to get me an iPhone?

Like, man, you're on your own. Next day he gets an iPhone because he told them that Ollie got the iPhone and he was now the last one with the worst kind of phone. So you're saying his parents hate his parents hate you? They didn't say anything to us

but I'm happy to help the kid out. You know, I feel like we did him a solid. When you say he didn't know how to hold it, what does that entail? He was like doing this. He was like, it was like... Oh, it was too delicate.

It was so delicate. He had no idea. And they were telling him like, oh, you get older like that, you got older like this and they're giving him the whole spiel. It was cute. I have been there.

When I got my first like expensive phone, I was holding it like it was, you know, fine china. Like there is a, there is a, it's crazy to think about you having thousands of dollars in your hand like that, uh, that you just bought. And then quickly it just becomes the shit you shove in your pocket. It's whatever. Matt Chihuahui says, happy national interpreter appreciation day.

Wow. There's a lot of interpreters that we like a lot. Shout to, uh, Fabiano. Who's the one who speaks Russian? He's great. So yeah. No, side's great. No, no, Rick, you know the one, right?

Yes. I'm looking on his name right now. He works in the Dad Rabbit? Dead Rabbit? Shout out, Dead Rabbit. Hell yeah. Oh, Mizu, remember Mizu? The Japanese lady with the pen?

Sergey. Sergei. Sergei's the man. Sergei Nogorny. Legend. Also, Everton. Everton? We love Everton.

Yeah. Yes. Our boy. Our guy Everton. Yeah, yeah. No, I don't mean the football club. I mean our guy. Anyway, do you have any idea why the UFC are not in the Larissa Pacheco business?

Yeah. Did you guys see this? She shared an email. supposedly. Here she is sharing an email from Mick Maynard saying I'm not interested

but thank you. She moved out to one. Why aren't they interested in Luricea Pacheco? The only woman who's defeated Kayla Harris? Yeah. Gets knockouts?

Why would you not be? She's now proven she can cut to 135. I don't get it. She's not boring. She's not boring. She's the opposite. Literally, she's the opposite.

Big wins. Like, you know, you. Your next prospect after Kayla and Amanda fight is Jocelyn Edwards. It's very weird. The truth is I don't know the answer to that. I don't agree with it. I think she should have a chance. The only reason I thought she wasn't in the UFC was she couldn't make 135.

Well, she just did for karate combat. And it looked good, but obviously the opponent wasn't on her level. James Portland says, Ola Ariel, why is everyone worried about Sean Strickland saying he would pull a gun? His boss thinks active shooter situations are awesome. It's not bad chow. Right? Not bad point.

I don't think that was a good point. All right. Barely Perez. Great point. Hey, Ariel, did you see the interview where Dana was bragging that the White House promo was completely AI? Even my voice is AI. That's not really me. Drop the Pizzi AI sound.

Like some AI shit. Like, I don't know. I do know. That's exactly what it is. He said it himself. Voice, everything. So cool. Danny Jay says, every time G.

says and everything like that, I'm reminded of the epic hockey video where the guy can't stop saying it. Frank, can you cue that up for everyone's enjoyment and possibly add it as a soundboard clip, being the best soundboard artist in the game, I have faith in your abilities. Give me a fucking break. Who gives it shit?

What was the saying? And everything like that? Yeah. I want to say, I feel like I don't say that that much, but sometimes people catch us something. No, I just say is, I got to be honest. Gotta be honest, man He's a honest guy I don't think you say the other one a lot

I can't recall hearing you say that I'm pretty good at picking up on those things And then people say I mispronounced Sean Strickton's name all the time Yeah, it's messed Taco Enthusious is here And he says GC, I'm depressed Oh no

Please blind rank these Atlanta losses With one being the most painful Five being the least painful UGA isn't Atlanta So not including the horrendous 2018 S-CFP national championship loss. All right, here we go. Freddie Freeman leaving the Brazen going to the Dodgers.

Yeah, I was actually, when we're out in Seattle, I was talking to Casey about the Dodgers, and he was like, Freddie Freeman, and I was like, Brave's legend. And he was like, he played for the Braves. I was like, oof, that's tough. To me, he's always Braves. Goddess World Series. Yeah. I'll go four.

I'll go four, because these could get ugly. Hawks lost by 50 last week to the Knicks at home. Five. We never had any chance You don't want to give us that That type of like credit You don't want to give us The satisfaction of being one

Plus like I mean how could it be one How was a 50 point loss heartbreaking You're sort of just like You know what the one is You know what the one is You're just like this is ridiculous Losing the Thrashers

Three yeah I loved going to Thrashers games growing up There were like $2 to get in Trading Luca for Tray Young In retrospect that Yeah two makes sense 283 Yeah 28 to 3 of course is one

I mean I've never felt anything like it in my life. I legitimately didn't sleep. Where were you? Tell us the scene. Downtown Atlanta, paid $50 to get into an all-you-can-drink bar. Just when we were up 28 to 3, like, they were walking around pitchers, filling up everybody's beers, we were smoking cigarettes. We were like, we're burning the city down tonight. I was like, I got an 8 a.m. in Athens tomorrow morning. I don't give a fuck. I'm staying up all night. Yeah, and then like, you slowly started to realize it. I've never been in a room where it was just like the energy was palpable. And when the Patriots scored an overtime to end it, all

hell broke loose. Everybody started fighting each other. A dude in a Saints jacket, which is a massive rivalry, gets up on the bar and is like pointing to the Saints logo, I just see a giant like hand come up, grab them by the jacket, rip them to the ground and they just start punching on this dude. My friend came in

because I was talking shit with someone. Just grabbed me, picked me up, ran me out of the bar, we got in an Uber. And yeah, it was just like, it was like for like weeks after I'd be sitting there with my friends and they would just like, someone would just be like, yeah, I can't believe we fucking blew that and then it would just erupt in the living room.

Like, I can't believe we lost that, and everybody would just go and go. Yeah, it was bad. It was bad. There's been several others. The 2012 infield fly rule with the Braves, the 2012 NFC championship game. We were up 17-0 to the Niners.

We blew that one. Hawks, one seed, swept by Rick's Cavs. That was great in the Eastern Conference Finals. Yeah, yeah. What score in the 28 to 3 game, did you immediately know that this was not going your way? 28 to 12, I was like, Tom Brady's going to do this, isn't he? He's going to fuck us.

And then they made it 28 to 20. And then we got the ball, and then we were in field goal range. After the Julio Jones' incredible catch, should be a statue outside of Mercedes-Benz Stadium. I've said it many times. And then we don't kick the field goal. Matt Bryant, one of the best kickers in the league that year. It would have been money.

We were inside a dome. Games over. And then when we gave the ball back when it was 28 to 20, I looked at my friends, I was like, we're fucked. You did know at 2812, though. You always know early. 28 to slow, you start feeling it. Yeah.

28 to 20 and the Patriots gets the ball back, you are literally like, we're fucked. Well, yeah. We're fucked. And then when it went into overtime, you were just waiting. It was just a matter of time before it was over. Almost 10 years since that. Almost 10 years. What year was that?

17? Yeah, 2016 season, February of 2017. Pain. Real pain. This is, what year were you born? 93. Yeah, so there was a period. This is like right in my prime sports fandom, if you want to call it that.

I was a Bill's fan. I was also a pretty, I liked the Braves. Like the Braves were my second team. I was obviously in Expos. But the Braves were kind of known as the Buffalo Bills of Major League Baseball. They lost the 91 World Series. They lost 92. 93 was the Phillies.

They didn't make it to the World Series. 94 strike. They win in 95. So there was a period there where the Braves were kind of like the hard luck losers. And they only still, actually, no, so they had the one in 95 and then they had the one with Freddie Freeman, right? there's two. Yeah, 95 in 2021. And like, there was also, I think they made it in 97 and 99.

Yes, against the Yankees. Yeah, the Yankees like ended us from us. 97 was Marlins and Indians. But 99. Yeah, definitely 99. The roster that we had, though, the pitch of rotation. Oh, it's unbelievable. To only get one World Series out of that, like Loki Hertz, we won the NLEs like 13 years

in a row. Yeah. I mean, there was a whole rumor that we wanted in 95, not a rumor, like a myth. We won it in 95, and then the city of Atlanta sold its sports soul to get the Olympics in 96, and we were forever cursed from there. But obviously Braves ended up in 2020. Yeah, I always get a little bit salty when Braves fans say you won the NLEs 13 years in row because the exos were going to win in 1994.

Yeah. But, of course, the season ended prematurely. Six games up on the Braves on August 12th of 1994. Braves are hot right now, shout out. They are. Luke Hercules says, hey, Ariel, Curse, your thoughts on Zelina, Vega saying some harsh words towards Sean Ross Sapp for reporting on her release while I do empathize with her for having to deal with such a situation in a very public way and wanting to be able to

announce it on our own terms. I don't see why the blame there is placed on Sean. I feel that a lot of fans of wrestling in MMA just don't understand the role of people like Sean or yourself. Would any other major sports have reporters, have reporters shit on for breaking news? It's so tiresome to constantly see people acting like Sean shouldn't be reporting news. he knows to be true. At the end of the day, he isn't there to be their friend. I think Sean does a tremendous job. I think he's the foremost newsbreaker in wrestling has come a very, very long way and does a really good and accurate job with all of his reporting. And yeah, I understand on a human level why she would want to break that news herself. I also don't think that Sean, both things can be true.

She could be upset. He didn't do anything wrong. He didn't do anything wrong. He was right. He was accurate. And there's no obligation to be a pal. Now, if he wanted to call her beforehand, she's like, please don't put this out there, that's on him. But he did absolutely nothing wrong. That's the job. He's a journalist. He breaks news. And she's well within her rights to be upset about it.

But Sean doesn't deserve any crap for that, in my opinion. Also, to the other sports point, like, I don't know if this person's a hoops fan, but people wanted Shams on a, you know, barbecued over the last season because of the Janice reporting. and all this stuff. So this happens in a lot of things. They don't understand the role of media generally. It is not an entertainment industry. Yeah. And honestly, I've gotten it.

I don't really break as much news, although I do have people like Chale come on my program and tell me that I'm wrong, but, you know, we'll have our moment in the sun. What's this one from GC's Fatty Boom Batty? I don't understand it. Hey, PTC, as in the sea, like the ocean, can you please

blind rank these five blue stars uh oh blues oh no honestly I'm not I'm not a big blue an hour I'm not even bullshit but I'll give it a go

I don't What is nobody This is not my fault Ricky six Okay actually don't even know that Give us the breakdown Come on PT Wait how many are there

Five Does he have six flutes I hope not. I don't know if Ricky Sixes is a boy or a girl or what. Yeah, let me Google it real quick. No, don't Google it. Don't Google it. Don't Google it. Oh, God. Did you really do it?

It's like the time we went down. If he's really packing six flutes. Oh my God. That was a day to remember. That was a day to remember. Mia Khalifa? Oh, okay. I know Mia Khalifa.

Everybody knows what that is. Ricky Six, I already give him number one. Yeah, I think you did. Isn't a guy? Do we even know? Alexis, Texas. Johnny Sins, Bonnie Blue. Okay. Johnny Sins.

I like the sound of these boys. Bonnie Blue is the most famous, right? No. Are these musicians? Infamous might be the correct. Yeah, yeah. Wasn't she arrested or something in Texas? She's the one who gave up doing blue.

Like she was hardcore blue for a year. Oh my God. Is she Bonnie Blue because of Blue? Is that why her name is Blue? Oh, you just blew my mind. Blue? Blue. Did anyone ever make that connection?

to blue herself. You don't think that's it? I don't think that's it. I mean, it seems... I mean, her name's Bunny, and she works in blue. She works in blue. It seems, right? The blue, when you say it, P-T-C, it's B-L-U-E.

Yeah. This one had potential, but I don't believe it went out. Don't be giving me that horrid now. Yeah. Here's contract from below who says, Ariel, does Winksey lose any martial arts credibility or do his unhinged madcap stunts help his brand. Don't mess with the fights, man.

And ultimately, don't mess with people's money, right? What is the martial arts credibility also? Yeah, that too. G.C., please blind rank these five pregame rituals. Edward 40 Hands. I mean, I'm very excited about this. Can I just say? Pizza, you're locked in for that?

We're doing that in Vegas? Absolutely, mate. I do it now. I do it fucking now. No, we got to do it together. It's going to be tremendous. great pregame affair. That means you're putting down 80 ounces of beer before you even leave the house. Is there straight to bed scenario afterwards? No, not straight to bed. You're active and you, you know.

It's energizing. After you take that bathroom break after it's over is tremendous. I'm going to go four. I'm going to go for. But, Connor, didn't you just say last show that you would never do it again and here you are? No, no. I said I need to do it. I've been done five years. I'm due. Power hour. A power hour is great because everyone gets involved. Let's go too. Shower beer What is that? Oh Power hour is like you put on like a playlist and like you have a bunch of

different signifiers to drink and like it's basically just you only have an hour to pregame to go out to the bars and it's just like you're cramming everything in shower beer we'll go through You probably know it as 12 o'clock pizza Rage Cage

Oh wow Rage Cage I haven't played in forever I had one friend who loved that I'll go five Keybubes What are they? We need to explain these things Jesus Christ

We just play drinking in Ireland. You know what I mean? Show up. Pretty much. Yeah. Shout out. Shout out to Ireland. I need to get back to the other.

Who are these D-Gens that have taken over on the nose? Who are these absolute scumbags? Here's Camden who says, Ariel, I know you guys will probably announce some meeting greets or events in L.A. We don't have any plan. Maybe an impromptu one of sorts, but nothing planned. Super excited to you guys here as you are all the way across the country in the closest have ever been to you and the boys in the back was when the men were in the muck.

Boys, can we get a pals at the Hollywood Park casino? TBD. Ariel Salami says, you look like Oliver Twist. Is that to you? Who's this? Yeah, I guess it is to me. Here's Link one who says, Ariel, the Daniel Dubois interview was awkward, and I heard your comparisons with an old steep interview, but who could forget your last Eric Lewis interview?

I remember how much you really didn't enjoy that one. How does it compare it to the other two? Yeah, you're right. It wasn't awkward, but I didn't enjoy it. And speaking of which, he's not coming to our live show on Friday. Neither is Kevin Holland, but I can't tell you three other people who can. So I saw some comments. Tell me, yeah.

You've got three confirmed. This is all happening during the show. Plus, likely, hopefully, maybe one more. Tell me if we've made it up to you all. Let's hear it. Oh, you're announcing right now. Yeah, why not? Should I not? I don't know. I don't know who it is.

Yeah, well, I just want to make sure I get the names right. The one I wrote them down, and I want to make sure I get the one who's not confirmed. Okay. Fighting at the White House on the 14th of June, Mr. Kyle Dachas, the Pride of Philly will be in attendance. Very nice. On Friday, 8.30, City Winery. Tickets on sale right now. Legend of the game, the reigning defending NMF champion, Stephen Wonderboy Thompson.

is joining us. Stephen, Wonderboy Thompson joining us. City Winery, 8 p.m. doors open, 8.30. Show begins

quick 90 minutes and one of the most beloved fighters in the history of the freaking sport, former interim lightweight champion and just all around

great guy and dad, your friend in mind, El Diamante himself, Dustin Porriere in attendance. Wow. Come on. Are we okay? He coming out.

Are we okay? Don't forget, Eric Jackman and Connor Berks, you know. Yeah, are we okay. Get the graphic update. Get our ugly mitts off of there. Yeah, who's pretty good? It's pretty good. Are we okay?

I feel like we're okay. Stop doubting me. I wonder if I get Dustin Poirier to say, fuck no, man, fuck Connor. But to me. Oh, yeah, that would be sick. That would be great. That would be great.

DP, Wonderboy, Kyle Dachis, and very likely one more. Wow. So that's the show. tickets on sale right now, limited left, and I'll be honest. I wasn't happy the last 24 hours.

When I promised something, it really means a lot to me. If I don't have credibility, if my word doesn't mean anything, then I have nothing. And I was feeling like shit. But these three guys stepped up. We appreciate them.

And hopefully one more as well. And so hopefully if you bought tickets already, you feel good about that. And if you haven't bought tickets, can you do me a favor and buy them tickets? Because it would make my life a lot happier. Okay. A few more to go, and then we'll call it a day.

MacD. says, is it secretly good when someone walks off an interview? Good in that it creates controversy or a news cycle? I don't like that. I don't want someone to feel like, you know, they didn't enjoy that. It wasn't worth their time. I did throw out this theory, though. I kind of feel like more people were talking about Daniel Dubois yesterday as a result of my interview in the DeZone one. Although I will say the DeZone one was completely different.

And I wasn't throwing like, you know, we didn't get off. And I think that one happened. Yes, yes. Do you think it was like a compounding thing? That happened to him in that interview and he felt like someone was making the piss out of him. Yeah. No, like this is the feeling that he had. And he came into your interview and it was a mix up at the start and he immediately was like,

hang on a second. Is this happening again? And it wasn't, but it was just because he had his guard up in that situation that made him going to react in that way. It's possible. Look, I know he doesn't like doing interviews to begin with. talked about the Frank Warren comment. Fair play to Frank as well, by the way.

Like, there was no point to any fingers there. He was just like, I wish he liked doing this more. Here's an example of another time. You know, there was no, I don't, I don't get what it has to be like someone's fault. Do you know what I mean? You're 100% right. 100% right. Like other promoters might have said, stupid questions, waste of time.

No, he handled it great. He's been around the block. Wish it didn't happen. I don't leave that saying, oh, I'm so happy. And by the way, the title of the YouTube video is Ariahawani's worst interview. That's, as I said, that's on me. I'm not blaming him. I'm taking the blame.

Just want to make that clear. He also asks, how much are you in your head the rest of the show after something like that? Like when you're interviewing other fighters like Luke Rockhold, does the Dubois interview slip at your head? I get in my head a lot and I fixate, as everyone knows. So I try to lock in, but I'd be lying if I said I do a good job of that. Just Jankem says, you used to have Hamsat on the show, now you don't, why? There's a lot of people that we used to have on

that are hard to get to. So I've certainly asked, I've certainly, just like B'Lal, who continues to say I've never invited him on, and he's a bold-faced liar, and I've produced texts that I've made public of me asking to have him on. I've also asked Chamsa to be on,

although he hasn't lied. I was just reminded of Balaal, the liar, who likes to play victim him and make up shit. Without the sex. Yeah, him. I've asked Hamsat, hard to get him. Doesn't do a lot of podcasts or things like that.

And even when we did get him, remember that one time we had him outside of the kebab shop? I know G.C. remembers. Yeah, of course. And we had to, well, didn't we log on the night before and do it? No, I think that was a Volk interview. Oh, yeah. Oh, whoa. Yeah, no.

Hums up was a Sunday night. I remember I just drove home from picking up my kids from camp. And he was like, yeah, we could do it right now. Yeah, I remember. And he was sitting outside of like a kebab shop, eating a hamburger. A kebab shop in Sweden. I was able to find it on Google Maps. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And you looked at the menu and everything. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, almost went. Cabab. Okay, let me just get a couple more here. Do you think we'll ever get Hunter Campbell media sessions over Dana? Not while Dana's in charge. Can I ask you one? Yeah, sure.

How do you feel about Arsenal v. PSG and the Champs League Fund? Did it happen? I was just thinking the same. Yeah, final. I freaking love that. It's fantastic. I freaking love that. It's a real clash of styles, isn't it?

I freaking love that. That's a gift for UEFA. That's one of the best finals in quite some time. Probably since the Man City treble attempt. As far as like... It's also like they've got history because PSG knocked them out the last time. You know what I mean? PSG have knocked Arsenal out at the championship league.

PSG trying to go back to back, yeah? Yeah. Yeah. Arsenal first time ever? Oh, and they won like... Second time. No, I don't think Arsenal. has ever won't

Champions League? You kidding me? I thought they won't. No, that's the joke. Always. Oh, I'm thinking of Barcelona. I'm thinking to finally lost to Barcelona.

Yeah. Look at me correcting you with some footy, huh? Yeah, fair play. It's not bad. My, there's another... Two blind-ranked blue categories. I'm not doing this one.

But a second one from a different person unless it's just a different name. Okay. One last one. one. These are some weird ones here. Oh, here's a good one. Two parts store, Ariel, my man,

though I do find your pizza references, frankly, offensive. May we please have a pineapple and green olive pizza shirt in the merch store? That's a great shout. It's a great shout. You're a one of a kind, freaky son of a mensch. I like that. Like that, too.

Son of a minch. Big love from down under. Thank you, sir. Frank, do we have any super chats? That we do Electric Boots says Don't let the Twisties get the best of it champ Is that for me?

Yep I think it was when you were referring to your apology for the awkward interview Oh okay all right Thanks Jake from Wendy City Sorry did you say No

RIP Ted My favorite thing of his is Captain Planet What's that? Oh Captain Planet Yes I remember that I think there's a whole story Like he pushed for it It was really cool

Rick Flair had an IG post about his old friend, Ted Turner, that we can show real quickly here. I didn't get to it. So sorry to hear about the passing of the great Ted Turner, the man that created Cable before Cable was cool. He created CNN and look at it now. He rolled the dice and wasn't afraid of taking risks. He won the America's Cup for sailing. His office looked like the Hall of Fame, which included a picture of him and Khrushchev. On top of all of that, he created so many opportunities for so many wrestlers because of his love for wrestling. Rest in peace, my friend. Thank you for the memorable personal times that we spent together. How about that? What a head of hair on Rick there,

huh? What else, Frankie? What else? The confrontationalist says, I'm a big fan and recently told a friend you were the Howard Cassell of his generation. And then I got to thinking, would Ariel like that comparison? He just wants a simple wire in response. Unfortunately, I can't give you that. But when I started my career, I told my parents in 2001, I want to be the Howard Cosell of MMA. I don't think I don't think I'm Howard CoSell. I don't think I'm remotely close to Howard CoSell. I don't think that I've had the impact that Howard CoSell had. I don't, if I'm being honest, don't think it will happen as well. Don't forget, Howard CoSell wasn't just great at boxing. He was great at Monday night football, Monday night baseball, ABC, wide world of sports, Olympics. The man did it all on a very, very big

stage. Now, media was different. Less outlets, less channels, less opportunities, things like that. but he had an unbelievable career and one thing that a lot of people don't recognize about Howard he only really started his career in his mid-40s. Prior to that he was a lawyer a lawyer who loves sports

who had the gift of gab but like he would be my age mid-40s when he only started his career so it's pretty remarkable when you think of it I'll take the compliment and appreciate it and it's probably the best compliment

that you could pay someone in my world but I don't think I don't think I'm that and I don't think I'll be that, but it's what I strive for. What else, Frank? The spattering on the keyboard says, please, sir, I want some more. I believe that's an Oliver Twist reference. Absolutely is. What else, Frank? What else?

Jesse Leight, 7774. Ariel, whatever happened to Shane Burgos? That's a good question. He hasn't fought in a while. I'd be lying if I said I knew, but I'm not sure. What else, Frank? Garaviki, if invited, would you do Rogan's podcast? would be cool. Sure. But I won't be invited. And I'm not, by the way, I'm not saying that, like, oh, reverse psychology and I hope I get the invitation, but I just don't think it happens.

What else, Frank? What else? Bob Tolick, 8255. Hey, Rick. Cheryl does an awesome walkout to Dominic the donkey. So when do we find out who won the tickets? Tomorrow. Yes.

You said that 1 o'clock, right, top of the show? Yeah, no, the email end cutoff time is midnight tonight. Gotcha. So get your plea in before midnight tonight. Have you gotten any? We have, yes, quite a few. I have to say I have received more than I expected and they've been more tugging at the heartstrings than I expected. So there's a chance that I just do a random draw live on air because it's going to be hard for me to choose this person over this person.

but remains to be seen. But buy some tickets because, as I just mentioned, there are a lot of great guests coming. Yes. Dustin Porier, Wonderboy Thompson, Kyle Dawkins. What else, Frankie? What else? Duncan 9661.

The 8-8 show is due for another appearance from Michael Rappaport. To talk Knicks basketball and White House MMA, can we please make it happen? Really? Okay. I'm down with that. If the people want it, love Michael Rappaport. I don't know if he's a Nick. fan these days, but I definitely love

him. What else, Frankie? What else? Samuel Shoe. My favorite show. Never missed an episode. Even boys in the back and Pizzi. All fans could use code 8-8-show-20 for 20% off Sam's Shoe Fitness. Is that real? Sam

I think so. Shoe. Wow, wait. I see Sam Shoe Fitness in Rally, North Carolina? We will ask for him to clarify. All right. Thank you. What else, Frankie, what else? SC-737.

If you eat yourself, would you become twice as big or completely disappear? Such a good question. Completely disappear. And that also finishes off the superchats. Okay. That was such a good question. I'm going to ponder it a little bit. Sorry.

What are you thinking about for real? No, not that. But I do appreciate it. How much was that one? That was $4.99. If it was $2.99, I would have said, like, come on, there's got to be a cutoff. Yeah, the cutoff is an interesting topic. I did want to send my best to Matt Hughes,

who apparently, I guess, blew off half of one of his fingers, or maybe the full finger? Does he only have nine fingers now? Matt Hughes has been through a lot. He said, he said 9.5 or something in the post. Did you guys hear about that? I think we have the picture, do we not?

Oh, there it is. How the fuck do you hear of? What fucking out? God's been real good to me. He left me nine more to one. work with. Golly. What the fuck did he do? He's been through a lot.

I like that he added Tub something as the song there. Is that I get knocked down? That is exactly it. Yeah. You know yourself. Well, tomorrow's BITB guys. We've got what?

A whole lot to talk about. 328. I presume we'll dominate the conversation. Sure will. 415 SUP BITB to leave a voicemail. What's the pound for pound? We don't know.

Rick's wishy-washy on it. We're workshopping it. Can I help? Yeah, please. We'd love it. Are we weighing two or three options? No, what do you got, though? Everything we throw it to Rick, he's like, ah.

Okay. E-mails he's been getting. I've really soured his mood. Okay. Top five. I got actually a few. Okay. Top five.

Pound for pound. Pound for pound. Okay, I actually got like six that just came to mine. Okay. Hit us. Top five, pound for pound. Mm-hmm. Garden Acutremans

Give me a fucking break The reason I say that is Jersey Garden State So like are you a like Are you a Delilah guy Are you a rose guy? Sure This just sounds like top five flowers

But okay Keep going Top five Diner Meals Okay It's not a bad show Not bad New Jersey known for its diners

Disco Disholiner shout out Harrison baby You know top Dinners? Legendary. Absolutely legendary. Actually, all right, you know what?

Holsters? Not bad. You guys know holsters? Wait, top five diners or top five diner meals? Diner food, diner food. Diner food. Diner food. Yeah.

I don't mind that. I don't mind that at all. All right. Top five. Yeah. Movies that took place in Jersey. Naskin. Ariel, man, what the fuck is this?

I was worth to say to myself, to be honest. You know, people don't realize how many celebrities have come from Jersey. Yeah. Like, if you go to Newark Airport, go to the Walker Frame around the NJPack, they have them all there. They have them all there, baby. Like Whitney Houston.

Legend. He ran out after one. Tony Savino. Danny DeVito. Danny DeVito. Danny DeVito. Buzz Aldrin? Oh, Buzz Aldrin.

Hell yeah. Aaron Blanchield. Merrill Street. Jack Nicholson. Danny DeVito. John Travolta. Peter Dinklage. Paul Rudd.

Zoe Salada. Anne Hathaway. Zach Braff, Kirston Dunst. Bruce Spry. Ricky 6. Frank Sinatra, Whitney Houston, John Bon Jovi, Lauren Hill, Queen Latifah, Halsey, Siza, Martha Stewart, Wendy Wood. Come on, Conan O'Brien, Shaquille O'Neill.

All right, fuck, that's a lot. It's a lot. There's a lot of people from Jersey, no doubt. The situation. Oh, yeah. Oh, I fucking saw him at the last one. Me and Pizzi had a moment there. Okay, so right now, leader in the clubhouse for a great.

Diner for sure. This is on the spot, by the way. He said you had three more. Yeah, you had six total. What about video games? to go and serve with the launch of the video game. Okay. Frankie was pushing top five awkward interviews.

Okay. Wow. Wow. Top five Oliver Twist reference. How do you feel about that? It feels fine with it. It feels a bit of a shot up across the outer. Top five Charles Dickens books.

Yeah, I'm fine with it. What about pound for pound just a tale of two cities, motherfucker? That's not bad, Jordan. Twist. In honor of Oliver Twist. In honor of Oliver Twist. He's been watching us flounder in pound for pound TV moms. In honor who?

Oh, okay. I like a Mother's Day themed one. Mother's Day. I feel like kind of Dave Allen. How about pound for pound 90 sitcoms? No. Actually not bad. Diner food.

Diner food and and twist is not bad. Okay, this is it. This is the one. This is the one. All right. Top five. Mom's asses.

What? No, no. Did you hear of it? Mrs. Mysterious. No, no. I literally just started to bring it. No, no, no, no, I mean like actual asses on sitcom mom. Yeah, exactly.

That's literally what I was talking about. I'm going to do a list of asses anytime. Wow. This is incredible. All right. What do we think? Diner food? We'll figure it out after.

Stay tuned. Vote down. Who the fuck is we? Who the fuck is we? No, no, no. No, no. Vote in the chat. And of course, Pizzi and the crack boys will take you into the weekend.

Right? As we get ready for 328, watch party on Saturday, post show on Saturday night. And then we're off to Lala Land. The next time you see me, actually, well, hopefully you'll be in attendance on Friday. That'll be the next time. And then we'll be live. We'll be live from Los Angeles on Monday. And let me just say, tease, because I've had some bad luck with saying things in advance.

As of right now, there is someone scheduled to be on Monday show that I have. not done an interview with in well over a decade. There's your tease. Okay? James Tihuno? I'm leaving it at that. It's James. Guys, game two tonight at the garden.

I got to go because I got a, I got a, I got a, I got a, I got a, I got a court side seat. Are you serious? Yeah, I'm kidding. I get it. But I appreciate how excited you were about that. And beat also, courtside seat. Damn, Jordan. Yeah.

Spicy. Beat out. All right, time to go. So by the way, what was the score in the Byron PSG? One-all. Kane got late when it wasn't enough time left in the clock, you know yourself, I think. Yeah. What would you have preferred?

Kane versus Arsenal? Or do you think this is a better match-up? I think both worked. I'm just looking forward to the heavy tactical kind of focus game that Arsenal play against the absolute chaos that PSG can play at times. I think it makes for a beautiful matchup. Love the way you broke that down. You know how it's going to go, right?

it's either Arsenal's going to win both they're going to win the Premier League or they're going to win none right it's either going to be like full heartbreak or full jubilation and they'll exercise all the demons what about those West Ham motherfuckers they've got an opportunity to win all the spoils of London this weekend

by beating Arsenal which would eliminate Tottenham as it stands if they don't get out of win and also ruin Arsenal's hopes of winning the league that would be unbelievable one fell swoop I'm actually rooting against them. Good.

But that will be happy to hear that. Well, I want Spurs to stay up. I'm sorry to my good friend Rob Armstrong, but I want West Ham down. If I had to pick, if I had to pick its leads going down, but that ain't happening. So let's get rid of West Ham.

Tomlin's leads this weekend. If Spores beat leads, they are dragging them back to hell. I know, I know. But it could possibly be in the situation come the last day of the season. That's all I'm saying. Most important.

Which obviously you'll be in attendance. Most important, tomorrow three o'clock force villa at villa Europa league final europea league final pizzi and we know what happened we know what happened last year europea league final brennan johnson so i'm just saying anyway it's been a great day thank you to all our guests thanks to all of you thanks to all them back tomorrow state time this is a piece i'm out here what the fuck is going on bro