The Ariel Helwani Show - Francis Ngannou is back! Reacting to his massive win, rest of PFL results

Episode Date: October 20, 2024

It's a 3PAC reunion on the Helwanivision Post Show. Ariel Helwani is joined by Petesy Carroll and Chuck Mindenhall to give their immediate reactions to the PFL Battle of the Giants PPV. The boys talk Francis Ngannou's emotional win (08:31), whether he's truly the Baddest Man on the Planet, what's next for the lineal heavyweight champion, snd whether the UFC would co-promote with PFL to book Ngannou x Jones. Plus, Paul Hughes' arrival as a major player (42:07), Cris Cyborg's continued success, and notes from the rest of the night's fights (50:07).

Back in your life! On this Saturday night, October 19, 2000 And 24, how do I know it's Saturday night? Because look at that window, you can see a monitor right over there Off the thingy, you see that? It's because that's my monitor, off the window You see, anyway, I'm all fired up. I can hardly keep it together. What we just did, what we just witnessed. Let me just say,

I don't know if you guys watched the pay-per-view, but this little outfit, the uncrowned network, the Helwani Show team, nomads, over the last couple of months, we came here and in our first week, we just did our very first pay-per-view, Helwani Vision live on DAZN pay-per-view. Did you see it? PFL, Battle of the Giants. We had Tyron Woodley there. We had Megan Anderson there. We had Tim Welch there. We had Rob Gronkowski there. We had JLP there. And then we had Jake Paul for the main event. And the main event just wrapped up seconds ago in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. We're doing this from the same spot, from our brand new studio, our brand new offices in the heart of New York, all the way, thousands upon thousands upon thousands of miles away in the new fight capital of the world, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Francis Ngannou, le Prédateur, the lineal MMA heavyweight champion

of the world, the true baddest motherfucker on the planet, returned to MMA for the first time since January of 2022, his fight against Cyril Gagne, you know the story by now, we don't have to go through it, but let me just quickly go through it. One year out, knee surgery. They try to get him to lose. He pulls out the wrestling bag of tricks. He says, thanks, but no thanks for the contract. He becomes a free agent a year freaking later. And then what happens? Five months. Ah, you fumbled, you fumbled, you fumbled. Signs with PFL. Ah, you signed with PFL all that time to sign with PFL all that time to sign with PFL. Signs with PFL. Fury fight.

Beats Fury. Comes back. AJ. Knocked out by Anthony Joshua in the same city that he competed in tonight. Same city. He got knocked out cold. It was terrifying. I was there.

A Friday night Technically a Saturday morning In Riyadh He was knocked out In the second round So bad that his team Was afraid for his life He was motionless

On the mat Didn't move It was terrifying It was horrific Looking back It was not the worst thing To happen to him this year because unfortunately the unfathomable unspeakable tragedy of his son passing away hit his family his son kobe and when we heard

about that a couple months later we all thought no one would blame him if he doesn't fight again no one would dare question his heart his his soul, his motivation, his mind, his grit, his determination. No one would ever question it before this unimaginable tragedy. They thought maybe at the very least he would take the year off. He would take at least a year off, maybe two years off. Who could blame him? Who could blame him if he never fights again? And then they announced this fight. Late summertime, They announce his return to MMA Highly anticipated return Much anticipated return

Much talked and much debated return Against La Problema The big man, 6'8", hadn't been quite tested But on quite a run Knocked out his last few opponents Knocked out Ryan Bader What a mountain of a man What a problem he may be

What a test he may be some comments at the press conference a face-to-face where francis looks smaller oh my god don't listen to a soul who tells you that this was an easy fight for francis don't listen to a soul don't listen to a soul who tells you that this particular challenge was easy for francis that's revisionist history now francis was the favorite going into the fight, no doubt about it. But according to my friends at BetMGM, he opened as a minus 345. He closed as a minus 225. According to my friends at BetMGM, Ferreira opened as a plus 260. He closed as a plus 180. People were starting to believe this week that Francis was in trouble, that he had a big problem on his

hands. 76% of the bets, 80% of the money on Ferreira to win, Ferreira to win. And so what happens as he walks out there? Who knows what's going on in here? He beats him up. He stops him. First round, ground and pound, vicious, Ferreira, out, cold. Francis Ngannou wins this PFL Superfight title, but more-off He continues to show us Who he is And he continues to show us that he is One of the most inspiring One of the most beloved characters in the history of the sport I don't know of a Of a way in which you can hate this man Or root against this man

Or wish ill upon this man The emotion he He showed And exuded and exemplified tonight hits you in your heart, hits you in your core. You don't have to be a father. You don't have to be a mother. You just have to be a normal human being.

How could you not be happy? And it's not because we're rooting for him, but how could you not be happy for this man? He wins, wears his heart on his sleeve. You see how much it means to his team. You see Eric Nixick. You see Dewey Cooper. You see his family.

Incredible scenes in Riyadhadh Francis Ngannou is back He's still the baddest man on the planet He's the lineal MMA heavyweight champion of the world The first time Pride, Strikeforce, Bellator, UFC, PFL champion All connected All unified Go back to the history

Go back to the lineage It happened tonight in riyadh and we're going to talk about it right here on this program in addition to that chris cyborg defeats larissa pacheco she wins her fifth major title five count them five titles strike force ufc invicta bellator And now a PFL belt, incredible stuff Johnny Eblen defeats Fabian Edwards To retain his Bellator middleweight champion And what about Big News Hughes?

One of the biggest free agent signings in PFL history One of the biggest free agent signings of the year He waltzes right into Riyadh, Saudi Arabia And fights the fight of his life Against the former Bellator featherweight champion AJ McKee and wins rather convincingly. What a night for all of us. What a time to be alive. And I felt like it was apropos to call upon my old friends, 3Pac uniting under the new banner. You thought we wouldn't unite? Of course we would unite So it's an old school post-fight show

Right here on the Ariel Helwani show set We've got my man The man in the hat The mayor of the nutmeg state The one and only Chuck Mendenhall A tremendous addition to the uncrowned.com team Of course

And we also have The bearded saint of the emerald islecom team of course And we also have The bearded saint Of the emerald isle The host of the critically acclaimed The crack podcast The one and only P.T. Carroll joining us Just like old times gentlemen It is great to be here with you Chuck

Hello Boys I didn't think this day would come I was waiting for my invitation It took a full week for me to get in here I'm sorry This is a beautiful thing I am sorry I am sorry but uh i wanted to save it for a post-flight show because everyone asked me post-flight post-flight post-flight when are we going to get a post-flight show so here we are and of course pt it's good to hear from you once

again i mean you've been all over the gaff here i mean we can't get rid of you at this point i know i know right i'm sorry everybody but uh. But what a fantastic night that was for PFL. And the biggest non-Conor McGregor win in the history of Irish MMA with Paul Hughes, a man who came on this very network and talked the talk, whether it be in written form or video form or whatever form you're having yourself, he called it and he did it absolutely amazing uh we will get to paul hughes i know you think he is the top story i know you think he's the top story but uh i regret to inform you he is not quite the top story uh chuck you wrote a fantastic feature on francis um everyone should read it it's it obviously still holds up after the fact as well it's about everything he's been through the emotions that you experience some people saw me and jake reacting to it but just seeing him getting a chance to speak to him and now seeing him do what he just did in the cage what was your reaction i mean it's a total emotional roller coaster when you see a guy who you know had gone through so much and i think that he had been so stoical almost um in his

approach to this fight that it it you it almost lends itself to being like that he's not that affected to it, right? And you're talking to him he doesn't emote like some fighters do, he's just kind of inward and if you even talk to his coaches and everything, they talk about what a stoic he is, that he calls them crybaby all the time and he doesn't like that word love and all that stuff, but to see him breaking down, um, at the end of that fight and just pouring out of emotion,

it was like a bowstring and emotional bowstring being let go, pent up, finally let go, man. And I, you know, and that's why it's so infectious. Uh,

I don't know how you guys felt, but you know, you start tearing up watching something like that because you know, just how deep this thing ran, how much you had to push aside to step in there, to perform the way he did, and just come away with that win dedicated to his son. It's a full range of emotions, man, and I thought it was one of the more poignant moments in MMA that we've had in years. I was trying to think of that. I was like, when's the last time you got really choked up over something like that that was it was just a magnificent moment man pt yeah it's unbelievable and look one thing that i obviously we're all

thinking about francis situation this week one thing we weren't really thinking about is how much he means to pfl and i don't think anybody would have blamed francis if he decides you know what i've had a really really hard year i'm not going to fight in 2024 who would have who would have said a word to him given what's happened over with him for the last seven months and he showed up and he was the perfect poster boy for pfl all week and i spoke to dan hardy earlier in the week and he was saying you know being around as chuck said like very stoic it was hard to get a read of him but when you consider all this stuff that happens to him like of course he's like that um dan also said he hoped that and ganu could find a way to find solace in preparation like i feel

like this could have went either way with that tragedy in his life. I can't imagine what going through camp would be like if that was constantly playing in your mind. But Hardy was kind of saying, I hope he finds a kind of sanctuary in the gym. It gives him something to focus on outside of this horrific thing that's happened to him.

And that's what it looked like tonight. He looked absolutely brilliant. An evolved version again, not afraid to go to the wrestling. I know everybody was promising this brace for impact you know like this this trade and fight but uh i thought he fought very professionally takedown was very good and henan was putting in his hands after that really yeah you know um i don't know if the takedown happened as a result of you know a leg kick or two and he was just like all right enough of this uh i was very curious as to how he would look just overall, you know, you bring up, oh, you know,

some people will say, oh, he's been out of MMA action for, you know, almost three years. But let's be real. I mean, this is a guy who just had two gigantic training camps for two fights. It's not like he was just sitting out. It's like he was nursing injuries. So he was active. And he's also a guy who Over the last few years was only fighting like once a year So in fact, you can make a strong case that he's Over the past year been more active Than he's ever been, that was his third fight

In the span of 365 days But, considering how Conor looked when he came back from the The boxing, you know Sejourn, if you will I was curious if he would look different. Here we see some wrestling out of him. Last time we saw him fight in MMA,

we saw some wrestling, some more defensive wrestling against Surreal, but still wrestling nonetheless. And then you see him against a big boy like Henan, do what he does and then stops him. And then of course, I could predict that my mentions are now filled with, he just beat a Bellator bum, a PFL bum.

I could predict. That is a very simpleton approach to all of this. The test in front of him wasn't just in the form of Hena Fajeda, who's a very good up-and-coming fighter. It was coming off of a knockout, what transpired with his son. That's a gigantic obstacle to overcome. And don't forget chuck remember the last time he was coming off a loss how he looked against derrick lewis look at the difference this

time 100 you got to realize too that ferreira has drawn you know he's drawn a circle around this guy and he says this is the one guy that can bring me everything right if i beat francis and ganu the world opens up to me this is this is a hungry fighter who wanted to beat him and I think was a real threat on any kind of complacency level that might exist. And there was so much uncertainty going in with Francis Ngannou. He was even answering questions like, how do you think you'll do? How do you think that you'll perform? And he's basically saying, I don't know um and his coaches were saying i don't know i don't know how this will work uh we'll see how it goes it wasn't just that he was fighting a guy who was a very live underdog or a very dangerous guy it's like you're coming through a situation

where the world both combat worlds are all watching you you're kind of shocking the world right with the fury fight the josh fight, everybody's paying attention to. These are different levels of magnitude. And to come back to something like this, less fanfare. I thought that in the end on fight week, people started to talk about it more, but less fanfare for sure than the boxing events. There was setups all over the place. And then you add that emotional complication of his son. I just think that there was so much to overcome. I agree with Pizzi, man. It was a professional fight. I think he went in there when he landed

that first leg kick. I don't know how you guys felt about it, but I was like, nah, he's still there. He's still there. I didn't know how he was going to look. And once that landed and kind of rocked him off of his balance there and put him backwards, it felt like Francis was going to be fine. But that is a lot of danger. It was like a minefield, I thought, that he was going into this fight. If I'm being honest, man, up until about yesterday, I was sort of leaning

on Ferreira winning this fight, just given all those factors. PT, I said at the very end to my pal Jake Paul, we were watching the fights together. By the way, did you guys watch Helwani Vision? Did you guys order it? I saw Gronk, I saw Tyron, I saw everybody. You saw them all? Wow. I didn't watch all of them.

I kind of went back and forth. I wanted to see. You got to go back and forth. You missed Megan. Why? You went to the official broadcast, PT. I was actually, I ran up here to make sure everything would be sorted for the post show. And when I went back down, I just forgot all about it. I watched the fight. I was like, oh, shit. I better go back.

Well, I hope you guys liked what you saw i mean we've only been slaving away um no big deal our paper pay-per-view debut um anyway audio was worse than mine was on wednesday i'll tell you that much was it bad uh are you being serious no it's fine i could hear him but i mean the abuse i got i went back and listened to him a bit. Gronk was way worse. Oh, on Gronk, I thought you said me because I was just about to crack the whip on Frank. Oh, no shit. No, Frank did a great job. Who, me?

I was just about to crack the whip. I'm not going to lie. I'm sorry, Frank. I puckered up a little bit there. Yeah. I mean, it was squeaky bum time for old Frankie. I said afterwards, let's stick with MMA for a bit here. The next time we see him, whenever that may be, Let's stick with MMA for a bit here Let's stay

Like the next time we see him Whenever that may be Let's stick with MMA A. Do you agree PT But also B. Now we get back to the same problem That we had On our hands

On the day this was I remember we did a show The three of us Did a breaking news show The day I came to To Dublin If you recall It was that day

I was flying out To To cover the first Katie Taylor fight against Chantal Cameron, and the big question that we had was, okay, great, you got the deal. Who the hell are you fighting? Now I feel like we're back to that. First, let's address the first thing.

No boxing for now, right? Let's stick with MMA? Absolutely, and my answer was the same as it was all that time ago when you asked me the first time feel the freeze right there ksw here we go stop i can catch pigeons with his bare hands when he's in tom aspinall's camp he's clearly clearly got a skill set that we haven't seen against the gander yet but look before we get on to that, what occurred to me when I was watching this is when the AJ knockout happened and there had been so much talk about like in the lead up to looking for a closing scene in a movie, it doesn't get much better than what we saw tonight, right?

After the knockout of the judge or after this personal tragedy to go in there and deliver goods for the PFL tonight, the people that put the money behind him when he was a free agent during this thing with the UFC, it's absolutely incredible. Honestly, the way it was shot like the lighting and the it felt like a scene out of a movie right it actually like there was something like smoky hazy he's on the microphone he's he's tearing up don davis and pete murray like you can see the looks on their faces they're like oh thank the good lord thank you this investment is paying off we got pfl africa coming in 2025 um i'm assuming you agree chuck right stick with mma i mean that's what that's what i want um but if you talk to him i feel like he's very torn um on this and you could understand i mean if you can get the fury fight again i don't you probably have more insight than me on this but like if he

gets the fury fight again um i could see how that would be appealing. But what you'd love to see is honestly him against Jon Jones or something along those lines. Unless some miraculous financial intervention comes in this, I don't know if we'll get that. So it's MMA. I would love to see him in MMA, but I'm with you guys. It's sort of like I don't know who it would be. And that takes away the excitement. In the UFC, this is the difference, right? The UFC, you always know kind of who's in the wings. What's going to happen next? There's always the dangling carrot out there.

And this is very reminiscent of Strikeforce back in the day, because you didn't know. You're like, well, what does it mean? Who does that person fight next? Or who comes after this? And I guess we're right back to that time. Honestly, watching his emotions and everything, it's one of those rare times I don't really care. You know what I mean? It sounds so stupid, but I really don't care. It's almost like, let the guy

soak it in for a minute and get his bearings again and put everything back together. Whatever he decides, I'm sure it'll be a very big deal. No, for sure. 100 i just i can't help but go there because the story is so great like you just want to see how far he can take this if if it's if it has to be boxing and there's no doubt in my mind that he wants to stick with boxing he wants to do it again he wants to write that wrong um if it has to be boxing i feel like The Deontay Wilder fight is the one

That probably has the most Appeal right and I wouldn't I wouldn't be shocked if they tried to get Deontay To come to MMA to do a special like There was a time where the PFL was actually Seriously considering this and then Deontay Did the whole you know matchroom thing And the 5v5 so there

Was a time where that was a real thing I could see that tough though isn't that that's tough though because it's like you anybody coming to mma i'm like he's gonna slaughter them you know um it's not like dionte's dream you know was to be an mma fighter and he segued into boxing you know what i mean it's like francis actually wanted to be a boxer and i think he studied boxing he you know he trained boxing and all that stuff it was a little different of a segue for a guy like that to go into boxing and I think he kind of shocked people by how um you know how ready he was for that sort of thing

but I just don't see any of those guys coming to MMA being that appealing do you I mean I just it doesn't really speak to me it might be a to me. It might be a better thing than having a guy nobody's heard of, though. Like, there is a kind of a circus element to it, right? Like, here comes Deontay Wilder into the MMA world. Like, it would certainly sell more pay-per-views than plucking some guy from obscurity and being like, the lineal MMA heavyweight champion is defending his title like you kind of you kind of have to start going down that avenue if you can't get a commodity i think um that's certainly how i feel about it can i just ask ariel um dana in the past i think it was back in june he was asked about the possibility of a pfl ufc situation and he didn't say no and turk yelchik adds a whole different situation to

this whole pfl ufc dynamic because we know we can throw money at things and you can make things happen dan hardy slipped it in this week when he was on with me it feels like something the pfl pfl obviously wanted more than the ufc you'd imagine right but do you give this a realistic chance of happening like what percentage chance do you give it of happening and why do you feel that way okay so it's a great question and there are two factors working in our favor here you bring up Saudi Arabia you bring up Turkey Al-Sheikh I did not see him at this event but obviously it is in Saudi Arabia my understanding is he's a little bit more involved in the UFC side of things

as opposed to the PFL side of things. And I know that there are different entities involved. That being said, it's still, you know, one country, one vision, one umbrella. So I don't think that's a huge issue, but that is somewhat notable. And I think it's a small detail that people aren't truly paying attention to.

But I would say if we're putting it into like a pros cons uh column thing i'm putting that in the pros the other thing is i do think it is significant that they are both under the espn umbrella um at least here in the united states i know that pfl is on the zone worldwide but here in the united states it's espn And that's never happened to the UFC, where they've had to share any kind of real estate with a network here in the United States. Now, you know, very soon the UFC is going to get into contract negotiations. Their contract with ESPN is up at the end of 2025. You know, is there a scenario where PFL says we want this to happen And ESPN says We want this to happen and UFC

Is forced to make it happen It feels a little far fetched is there a scenario where Turkey says here's a boatload Of money to make it happen I still think the UFC Would rather not take that money Than try to make it happen I still think they do not want their

heavyweight champion to fight the PFL heavyweight champion. And then the PFL heavyweight champion walks away with the belt. I don't think for them and their quest, which has been confirmed time and again, that they are the best in the world, the best promotion in the world, the top promotion in the world, that's a big, big risk. And I don't think that any kind of money would be worthwhile for them because that is priceless. That title is priceless. And now you have the baddest man on the planet walking away with their belt. So while I do think that there are things in place to make it more realistic than ever, namely Saudi Arabia and ESPN. I am not holding out hope. I am not holding my breath. And as we discussed earlier this week, the presence

of Tom Aspinall is a blessing and a curse because if there wasn't a Tom Aspinall waiting for the winner of John and Stipe, if he didn't exist on November 16th at around, you know, 1am, if John Jones wins, everyone would be talking about Francis versus John. I still think there's a lot of UFC fans who will now say, nah, give me, give me Aspinall versus John. You know what I mean? If that threat wasn't there, if there was no one else there, if it was Jalton Almeida instead of Tom, people would be like, nah, we want Francis versus John. But because Tom is there and because he's so beloved and because he's so good, listen, Francis is the baddest motherfucker on the planet. He's the lineal heavyweight champion of the world because of who he's beaten and what he's done in the resume. Tom may be the best. He just hasn't

had the opportunity to prove that just yet. But this time next year, it may be a moot point and he will have proved it. So because of his presence, I feel like it gives the UFC some kind of an out. Do you get what I'm saying, PT? I understand what you mean. Part of me thinks that if Jones and Stipe fight, Jones wins.

He puts the gloves down, which I don't want to see. I want to see him fight Aspril. I'm just kidding. That would be tough. That would be a tough look with both guys not of, you know, he didn't fight them. Yeah, that would be tough. So he puts the gloves down. Division continues. Aspinall

champion. Meanwhile, with the belt around Tom Aspinall's, why is the UFC more interested in the potential Jones and Ngannou fight? Because what I'm thinking is Jones has just been way warmer to the idea of Ngannou, because what I'm thinking is Jones has just been way warmer to the idea of Ngannou or at least has publicly, like he's facing

forward more towards the direction of an Ngannou fight than he ever has with an Asimov fight. I just don't think the UFC does this. Chuck? No. I mean, this is the one case, I mean, we've had others in the past, but this is the one time

I wish it could happen. And I agree with you, Ariel. I think that there's probably it's the things are in place probably to have a discussion about it or maybe to be tempted by it. I just I can't imagine for the reasons you laid out the UFC actually doing it. It's just too much of a vulnerability. They don't

really go in for that type of thing. But it seems to me like if you're any kind of viable heavyweight, you should be lining up for this, right? It is the case that it's still a $2 million purse just to fight, right? Against Zangano, is this still the fact? Yes. For the opponent. Yeah, for the opponent. So I'm sort of like anybody who could possibly do it should be vying for this like it's a it's a lotto ticket right like you're not only you get to fight the guy who's the baddest man on the planet like you mentioned but you also get a very big payday even if you are coming out of obscurity at this point

okay so so here's here's a perfect segue you know don davis loves to talk about one of the most popular websites on the internet um fight matrix.com you guys familiar with yes i've heard of it i i literally just logged on to it for the very first time ever he mentions it all the time as like the end all be all of ufc or excuse me mma rankings golly mma rankings i'm oh i. I just went to MMA heavyweights, okay? I just went. Shall we take a look at the first available guy? Shall we take a look? All right, yes.

Okay. Okay, they have Tom Aspinall, number one. Cyril Gunn, number two. Alexander Volkov, number three. Curtis Blades, number four. Sergey Pavlovich, number five. Sergey Spivak, number six, Vadim Nemkov number seven. The first available guy is Vadim Nemkov. Now, let's just keep going and see if

there's any other options in the top 25. Jelton Almeida eight, Rosenstreich nine, Hennepaheda 10. So he just beat number 10. Denis Goldsov. He's an option. Not the biggest name. Derek Lewis, 12. Ty Brewer, 13. Ryan Bader, 14. Out there, no one's paying for that. Tai Tui Vassa, 15.

Evgeny Goncharov of Absolute Championship. Ahmad is 16. He's 22 and three. Nothing. Phil DeVries, 17. Hey! Oleg Popov of pfl 18 valentine maldowski of pfl 19 linton vasel of pfl 20 sergey bilostini of pfl 21 junior dos santos 22 he is available but i don't know

how much your doordash guy number 23 23 is Romanov 24 is Rogerio de Lima And 25 is Tim Johnson When you phrase it like that It does seem like Wilder, doesn't it? By the way, kind of wild that Mr. Nganou isn't here But I'm guessing it's because of the inactivity Where would you slot him?

I asked him and I asked Aspinall this week Chuck, who's the best heavyweight in the world? They both said themselves And of course I would expect that But right now, who do you slot? Or actually more importantly, where do you slot Francis? If there's Tom out there If there's Jones, where do you slot Francis?

I'd probably put Francis number two I'd put Aspinall first Francis two and then Jones That's probably the way I'd probably put Francis number two. I'd put Aspinall first. Francis two and then Jones. That's probably the way I'd go. Top three. PT? Exactly the same.

Yeah. That's yours too, Ariel? Still between a rock and a hard place here, Helwani. Well, yeah, you don't have to. I guess we don't have to hear about it. He's one of our own He's one of our own By the way Over 60% of our viewers have Francis As the number one heavyweight

In the world of MMA That is according to our YouTube chat 20% have Tom Only 10% have Big John Jones That's a 30% Swing from our polls On Monday's Ariel Hawani show. Thank you very much to Ant Evans for that.

Yeah. And what about that shot? Big Don Davis. Look at Big Don. Ray Lewis. Pete Murray. Ray Cepho. Courtesy of PFL.

Don has got to be over the moon. That is a huge feather in their cap To have the arguably Baddest man on the planet Huge huge feather in their cap By the way what team did Ray Lewis play for at PT Ravens baby Wow

So quick So quick By the way speaking of our YouTube chat Thank you to Antoine Evans What about Antoine with the polls? 73% think Dana White will never do a crossover with PFL. 15% think he will do it. And another 13% think he'll be overruled by Endeavor,

who will do it for Saudi money. Oh, look at that. How about that? Interesting. I like Evans. What? Well done, Antoine. Well, there is a UFC event happening this evening.

Perhaps if Dana White meets the media. I wonder if he meets the media tonight. Maybe someone will ask him. What do you guys think? Does he meet the... What are the odds he meets the media tonight? I think he definitely wrestles back the narrative here somehow. 100%.

He's good at it He's been doing it recently What could you possibly say at this point What could you possibly say I think Tom Aspinall would fuck that guy up You think so All of a sudden it's Tom Aspinall He'd just argue about John Jones' goat status

That's it That's been the narrative right Why change it now? I think he'll show up to the media today. What do you think? This is too much of an opportunity.

I think he does. Yeah, sure. Why not? But here's the thing. Here's the thing. Can I just say? The Francis win puts, I think,

a little bit more pressure on John to fight Aspinall if he wins. If John walks away without fighting Aspinall if he wins if John walks away without fighting Aspinall and Francis I'm not saying it ruins his legacy I'm not saying he's still the man he's still the goat he's still all this stuff but it is a little it is a it is a mention that on the back end of the career there were two massive fights at heavyweight and he didn't fight him he fought a guy who was top five and a guy who had not fought in four years it is a fair thing to say

right chuck 100 and as much as cyril gone is you know a great fighter nobody was really pining to see john jones against cyril gone it wasn't like that wasn't the one everybody was circling for heavyweight it's always going to it was always going to be in Gano, you know, it's like, these are the guys, and especially if Tom Aspinall is the guy now, you know, these would be the, these would be the names. And even going back to light heavyweight, you know, some of the fights that he had, Dominic Reyes and Santos, I mean, they were not the types of fights that people were like, I have to see this. So John Jones for the long time has just been kind of taking on more of the, you know, just more of the guys who are the woodwork. Obviously, Cyril Ghosn is a big time name, but he was not

the guy that people were pining for. So I just feel like he's not ever addressing the central elephant in the room over the last few years. And i guess that's where it's a bad look i just i also think that john jones as much as he's flirting with you know walking away i think that his identity is so tied up to fighting he's one of those guys i i'd be shocked if he really did you know i'd be i know people are talking about this i just don't think he does it i don't think it's in his um you in his character's psychological makeup to just walk away like that if he wins or if he loses.

But if he wins, I don't think he does it. I actually think it's a mark against the UFC that they could have made Jones v. Ngannou and they didn't. They could have made it for years. It went on for absolute years. And now they have Aspinall andones and the same shit is happening and he just keeps on doing this pound

for pound thing and nothing but defiance from dana white about it like just kind of arguing about his goat status but what really is bothering people is that you know it's just that he's not you know why steepay why are we why are we continuing this it didn't really make the greatest sense. It made more sense last year as it's coming around. It doesn't make any sense now. Now you've got heavyweights all over the place that look like the bigger challenge and are way more vital at the, you know, where they are in their

careers. It's just a weird, it's just been such a weird sequence, but the Dana white just doubling down on the whole thing is um i didn't have that you know the bingo card going into just the fact that he's defended him like he has over the over the whole time of alex perera too like kind of coming up and every time his name is kind of brought up in these goat conversations you know just kind of washing over that and saying like no john jones and all of that it's just it's been a very strange year for Dana White in the UFC that way. I'm so blown away by what Francis did. He came in 16 pounds lighter than his boxing debut to do all of that is, uh, is really nothing short of amazing. I asked you guys about, uh, Helwani

vision in all honesty, uh, PFL is still trying to figure out it's it's pay-per-view strategy. Um, forget about the Helwani vision pizza. Like if you, if you bought that pay-per-view strategy. Forget about the Helwani Vision pizza. If you bought that pay-per-view, do you feel like that was a pay-per-view product? Do you feel like you got your money's worth? They kind of have to do this in a way because they're paying so much and they're trying. I still feel the UFC is the pay-per-view

king of combat sports. But as a viewer tonight, how did you feel about their pay-per-view you know king of combat sports um but as as a viewer tonight how did you feel about their pay-per-view offering i would have been happy to pay for those fights i thought i was actually like i know we're not talking about paul hughes right now but the buzz over here is incredible like for the first time in years it felt like the whole community the mma community here were texting about it like i was texting people from different sides of the country of paul fighters people who would compete against his gym and they were like i'm so nervous for paul like there's this feeling and of course look at the names that are on the card francis has come back like as an mma fan i'm watching this like i need

to see this event i do think that they need to brush up the productions and stuff like that. I think they can do better with that. For instance, like, as I mentioned, McKee and Hughes, they put the lights up on the arena as it started. And there was so many empty seats.

I thought that was a bad look. And yeah, but again, for the product itself, for the fights, I was very happy with it. Like I, I thought the Inganu story is amazing, I was very happy with it. Like, I thought, look, the Ngannou story's amazing.

I thought Cyborg fought brilliantly. Eblen and Fabian had a great final round. It wasn't a great fight, but I was very interested in the fight. And he was a McKee. That was blockbuster for me. If you were to just, you know, transpose, like, you take, you just slide out the PFL on the header, and you slip in UFC 308, you know, transpose, like you, you take, you just slide out the, the PFL on the header and you slip in UFC 308, you know,

like, wouldn't it seem like a big pay-per-view? Like to me, that would seem like if you, if this was a UFC event, it was a pay-per-view. I think that this would have been huge feeling, you know,

like just kind of give it, it was their best pay-per-view offering is way better than their championship cards because those are just kind of like, yeah, all right, you know, this guy beat this guy now. By the way, this goes back to the argument that the format doesn't work. The fight business is based off of like these are the big – they love to tout the fact that we're not about matchmaking and whatnot. A lot of this was matchmaking, right? Like Paul Hughes versus AJ McKee was matchmaking.

Cyborg versus Pacheco, for all intents and purposes, was matchmaking. Fajeda versus Francis was matchmaking. It wasn't a tournament. And so I think eventually if they want to take the next step, they have to go this route. Like just make the biggest, best, most interesting fights possible um the tournament kind of holds them back i know it's good to sell people on it i know it's good for investors i know it's good for all that stuff and more but for them to truly have an identity as the number two they've they've got to lean in the the fight business direction

um ultimately you can't look you can't you can't script the fights on paper i thought the four fights were fantastic there was the one sort of local fight which felt like you know like a bear in arlington uh if you get the uh the reference i i i'm not quite sure why they did that but it was fine it was actually quite thrilling to listen to tim walsh talk about it because he kind of predicted the uh the uh the upset if you will um that's a huge upset the odds were like ridiculous on that yes and they were actually bigger uh gc sent me the note and i and i missed it but um hussein closed at a minus 2500 and zafar was a plus 1200 By the time they fought So a gigantic Upset But ultimately

I felt like it was a Solid offering, it was their best Pay-per-view offering Of their existence and arguably Of the Bellator pay-per-view history as well And let's see Where they go from here, but they have to be very Strategic as far as pay-per-views Are concerned, like you have to be strategic As far as the from here But they have to be very very strategic As far as pay-per-views are concerned

You have to be strategic as far as the price point You have to be strategic as far as when you do it Don't forget There was just a pay-per-view in Utah Two weeks ago There's a huge pay-per-view in Abu Dhabi In a week There's a huge pay-per-view coming up in November

In less than a month There's a pretty solid UFC pay-per-view like it's just tough to ask fans to pay for that many shows you know what i mean um so i don't know what i still think the greatest thing that the ufc ever like the greatest advantage is that before most fans were even into it they'd established it was a pay-per-view business right like it was always a pay-per-view yeah there was never a threshold it was like okay if you're going to watch their better fights you're gonna watch championship fights you're paying for it and that was the that's been the standard nobody get second guesses

that at all it's the hardest thing though for new guys in the business to establish because nobody wants like they've been giving everything away for free for the most part now you're asking for payment it's just it's people actually scrutinizeize everybody else's pay-per-view like they wouldn't do for the UFC. It's not so much anyway. You know what I mean? The UFC is just, it's an established thing that you're going to pay for it. I will say this, though, and I don't know if it was because the first fight, the second fight, the third fight, the fourth fight went the distance. Can we give them credit?

What's been the biggest complaint about PFL? The cards drag And I was worried about doing the Helwani vision They went back to back to back to back There was no desk Chael Sonnen loved it He was loving it I was like oh man I'm going to get tired

We got the post show I do have to give them credit They went back to back to back There was no BS And that's what a pay per view should be You got us to buy. Whoever's watching, you know, you hope that they paid for it. We're there.

You don't need to sell us. You don't need to break it down. You don't need to go to a desk. Stop it with that. And I thought from a production standpoint, it actually looked top notch. I thought, at least from where I was sitting. UFC has actually gone the opposite way a little bit haven't they i feel like like recently i was watching that salt lake card and they used it always felt to me like there was a little promo package but then it was kind of like boom these

guys are walking here we go but on the last one it just seemed like the promos were like long and it was the pacing was way worse did you guys notice that or maybe it's just me but it just felt like now you're just being a hater no i'm not i mean it just felt drag maybe it's just it was, the pacing was way worse. Did you guys notice that? Or maybe it's just me, but it just felt like. No, you're just being a hater. No, I'm not. I mean, it just felt drag. Maybe it's just, it was because it was so late. I don't know, man.

You know, I'm getting old, but this whole, it's just, it feels like they're kind of not as quick as they used to be anyway. But I mean, it was two title fights, I guess, but it was just, and besides that, I don't know how you can really, any kind of promo for like Raquel Pennington and stuff is just going to not hit, you know know pennington catching a stray um all right that's the story as far as the main event is concerned i'm gonna skip three fights i feel like pc's foaming at the mouth he's come on give it to us give it to us which can we talk about give us let's go give us give us the big news story this man who you met when he was what probably three four years old i mean you've been

following him 18 i think he was doing ga what was three, four years old? I mean, you've been following him. No, he's been old. 18, I think. He was doing GAA. What was he doing? Was he doing Gaelic football? What was he doing back there? Gaelic football.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You wrote an incredible piece about him on crown.com, one of the all-time great pieces. Shout out to Claire Hughes, one of the all-time great names. Rare Claire without the I, which I thought was really interesting. Very rare. I thought it was a typo at first. I was hitting up Shaheen. I was like, this is a typo

No, no, no, it's legit, then I saw the tweets and all that Give us a story Paul Hughes, massive, massive decision He signs with PFL, he's held back by Cage Warriors He has the okay win over Bobby King In Dublin, solid stoppage But it got dicey, and then here he is against AHA Massive, time waits for no one

And Paul Hughes is impatient Tell us, Pete That impatient tell us that's right that's right um look i just had a feeling this was going to happen ever since i went up to belfast to see him in the last week of his training and just so calm you know when someone's kind of freakishly calm when you you know they're about to face the mat the most massive obstacle they've ever faced in their lives and they're like yeah this is fine the guy has been through so much in his in his life um again as i said in the article like he had this debut and we were all like this is one of the most spectacular things we've seen in years

19 year old guy from there he breaks his hand and he then breaks the other hand three times is told never fight again um would not listen to the doctor's advice. Sawed out hand specialists. Did everything he could to get back to a situation like this. Won the featherweight title once held by Conor McGregor in Cage Warriors. Beat Morgan Sharia and Jordan Vucinic. Two guys who are in the UFC now. Couldn't get signed to the UFC.

When the UFC came to him he was injured. And as i said about the hand injuries he was like there's no way i'm just risking this to get my foot in the door like when i go i want to be fighting the best guys in the business he kept saying this to me of course then he becomes a free agent he signs a pfl lots of people are like you've made a massive mistake here paul i'd say it's very hard to tell paul he's made a mistake tonight when he's just taken the biggest scalp anyone not named Conor McGregor has taken in the history of Irish MMA.

And who's he celebrating with after? Mr. Cristiano Ronaldo. Absolutely unbelievable. Paul Hughes. The feeling in Ireland today was one that I haven't felt in so, so long. Honestly, you know, I've talked about Ian's issue with relating to the Irishish people in the past but i'm not trying to compare him to in any way he's a brilliant fighter so is paul

for years we used to have this debate um but you know 2020 2021 people were saying who's the best fighter is it eating is a paul i still don't know but i'm just both very happy that they're here and they're fighting because they're fighting at an elite level they're both irish but again that the buzz over here today was unbelievable the text messages everything everybody seemed to be on the same singing off the same hymn sheet for the first time since dublin in 2014 nearly you know everybody was just like we really hope this guy can do it i got all the jokes and during the live chat the crack dear day and as it was premiering, I was talking to the people watching it. And, you know, full of wise cracks about Irish MMA. And I get it, man.

We have had a bad run. We have had a very, very bad run. Today, it just feels so good for Paul Hughes to get one over on one of the best fighters in the world. Dare I say the crack was 90? It was 90. It really was. It was. Everybody was just texting me.

I'm so nervous before it. Like, you know, Oh, like legends of the sport over here. Um, guys who, you know,

who have, who have been in the UFC guys who have won that same cage where his belt is Paul, everybody was just absolutely switched on. And then for him to deliver like that was unbelievable. Like I, I honestly thought every time they were in a striking exchange aj looked in trouble in there and for paul he was like what was the like think about before all this

shit before mcgregor before all of that it was always a oh these european guys can't wrestle and look i know aj had some success tonight but aj has had a lot more success against very notable opponents in terms of takedowns in terms of wrestling paul hughes was biting his time man it was unbelievable his takedown defense was fantastic and his hands were potent an absolutely unbelievable win split decision my ass by the way yeah who the fuck scored that for aj mckee and i love aj mckee i'm actually a big aj mckee fan but there is no fucking way that he won that fight i don't know who gave him it. No, it was a huge signing for them, and now he goes into their tournament.

And again, it's like, you know what I mean? It's like you just want to see. That's why everybody's texting me. Is he going to fight this Nakameh? I was like, I believe he signed up for two tournaments back-to-back, guys. He's having second thoughts, though, on that call-out. But on the moment on the, like,

it was unbelievable too. And just very genuine. Like this is the guy he is. I saw on Devin's giving him shit, but of course on Devin's is giving him shit. Hates to see an Irish man to come up apart from me, but I'm absolutely, absolutely buzzing about it. Really,

really happy. And it couldn't happen to a nicer guy. His story is incredible. He never gave up on himself. And here he is today. I think he's already one of the biggest names on their roster after a win like that like he showed what he can be for them not only in the fight but all week carrying himself the way he did and it's it's a an irish guy we can all get behind over here and we badly need that too don't you think that i was just going to say real quick don't you think that uh we were talking about it being a big win for you know in gano to win for the pfl don davis looking

very happy i felt like this one was a weird one too because for sure they mentioned it you know paul hughes you know he could have went he could have went to the ufc like he chose you know to go to pfl and ends up winning this felt like the second one in that thing so almost a perfect night i know they really love mckee too but like the hughes one feels more like the organic guy like the guy that they got you know what i mean it just feels like more of the pfl's property and and that's why it felt bigger too 100 massive investment for them in francis and ganu massive investment for them in paul hughes by the way according By the way, according to the chat Thumbs up to the chat by the way

Thumbs up, thumbs up Thumbs up to the chat 37% of viewers felt the PFL pay-per-view Was quote, not close To the level of a UFC pay-per-view 35% feel like it was close To a UFC pay-per-view 20%

20% said it was As good as a UFC pay-per-view. 20% differential. My God. Yeah, 20% said it was as good as a UFC pay-per-view and 8% hit the troll option and said it was better than UFC 300. Fans are so fickle though. If you put up like a UFC pay-per-view and you said, is this a good, you know,

you could say, does it hold up to a UFC pay-per-view event? A UFC pay-per-view event and they'd still vote that way. They'd still say, no, it didn't live up to it, you know you could say is it hold up to a ufc pay-per-view event a ufc pay-per-view event and they'd still vote that way i'd still say no it didn't live up to it you know um but look at the card all apart from the last day true in there after paul and look you know what i mean fair play to them something about the betting lines they were saying great um but you know if aj mckee and paul hughes was on a main card of ufc pay-per-view people be buzzing about it francis and ghani fighting this other giant people would be buzzing about it. Francis Ngannou fighting this other giant lad,

people would be buzzing about it. And Larissa and Soborg, people would be buzzing about it. The crowd matters, man. That crowd was just not participating. It was just not participating. That's been the problem. I know. With the boxing events.

Better Be F Bivel was huge. And that was a very important fight historically as well. But the early ones, right, Ariel? The early boxing ones, they had to learn from those early ones to get to better BF Bivol. Please learn from that. You can't be starting a pay-per-view. I'm sitting at home buzzing, fucking plugged in,

and you turn it on and there's a few lads just swatting around the floor. The seats are empty. Come on, man. They're trying. You take it seriously yourselves if you want to take it seriously yeah let's talk about another legend chris cyborg 39 uh she she was unbeaten in 11 straight seven of those in mma four in boxing hadn't fought in mma in a little over a year the win over katsugano the mma fights have been few and far between she has really gotten into

this boxing thing against you know relatively competition, but this is what she's really interested in and who could blame her? Invicta champion, Bellator champion, UFC champion, Strikeforce champion, and she would have been an Elite XC champion as well. And she takes this fight after a lot of back and forth, public back and forth with the PFL brass. And there were moments, particularly in the first round, Pacheco opens her up. She's bleeding. We're not used to that. In the end, she wins 49-46, I do believe, on all three judges' scorecard.

I thought maybe it was a little closer than that. But the right person won. There was no controversy here as far as the result. Your thoughts, Chuck, on what we saw from chris cyborg well it was interesting because i believe she was installed as the underdog going into this and that's an that's a like a novel thing um we're we were so used to cyborg just fighting people that you knew she was going to ragdoll for a long time it was very rare that she was going to go up against somebody so this to, to me, like maybe the Amanda Nunes, you could maybe point to a couple of fights where there was doubt in the air about the outcome.

This was an interesting one because you mentioned she's 39 years old. You wait for that inevitable kind of diminishing return. And I thought this might be the fight because in my mind, Pacheco is kind of one of those people that's like nobody's talking about her but she's obviously very good she did beat kayla harrison uh you know in the last fight so it's like it's one of those situations you feel like cyborg's being set up but dude she showed up and i mean yes she got cut open but there were a few times in there where she got big takedowns that that little thing where she like she hit her with the back fist was just so like uh i was like this is so vintage like it reminds just like a

throwback to strike force when she was beating the jan finney's of the world and people like that just kind of being creative and still carrying like big power and those punches and everything and just kind of i i felt it was two two going i don't know how you guys scored it i thought it was probably two two going into the fifth and just kind of to dig deep. It's kind of miraculous, man. She's been around this game for so long to still have that kind of hunger and that kind of drive to put it on in the fifth round like that and get that win. I was pretty impressed, man.

I mean, it's just so rare that you see Cyborg and she's had her problems, man. She's butted heads with a ton of promotions. And I feel like there's always like red tape with her, but when you get her into one of these types of things where she has to prove herself, ultimately, it's really crazy to see her come through, especially at 39 years old. And I, I thought she was going to lose this fight, man. I thought it was, I thought it was one of her better ones in terms of like seeing her competitive spirit come out at this late stage of her career. I late stage Of her career I was impressed with Pacheco She took a lot of shots

She was game again I don't think she only won One round but I do think that Cyborg Was the rightful winner We go back PT to the highly respected Fightmatrix.com Not being infused with Fightmetrix Or Fightmetric.com Back in the day

You're giving them so much love Ah shout out to them I am seeing it's quite It's quite the resource And we're back to the same dilemma that we have with Francis Who does Chris Cyborg fight That was the best Featherweight fight in women's MMA

That can be made because Kayla Harrison Doesn't fight as a featherweight anymore She doesn't fight at 145 at least for. And Amanda Nunes is retired and she's probably, if she does come back, fighting at 135. You don't have to go that far down to find a name that's available because UFC doesn't have a featherweight division. Cyborg one, Pacheco two, Sarah Collins three. Do you know who Sarah Collins last fought? Tom McCourt yeah Liam McCourt 6-0 Australian

but not exactly a household name there's also Arlene Blankow who's coming off a fight against Sinead Kavanaugh Kat Zingano

she beat her but there I mean is that is that is that big enough for you the Sarah Collins fight did it

did it make you it's time for Felicia Spencer to come out of retirement. We've got a fight for you right here, Felicia. Let's go. Honestly. Katie Taylor?

Katie Taylor? Chris Cyborg? Remember that was a thing? Wow. Do you remember that was a thing for a minute? Wow. I was hoping it would happen. Yeah.

Just so you could see. I just, I just don't know. And maybe there's nothing for her to prove anymore. Maybe it's just to go back to boxing. She's 39. She's done it all. There's no more belts to be won.

But I would say, Chuck, I was impressed. I kind of felt the same way as you. I felt maybe this could be a changing of the guard. She was the underdog going into the fight slightly, which was surprising. Rick called it, man. Yeah. Rick, from the jump, he was like, there is no way that you don't put money on Chris Cyborg.

Really? If she is an underdog. Yeah, he was at him in the back of the furnace to him. He was on a Thursday. And then, as well as that, she was fighting against the cut as well. I was very worried about that cut. It was bad, like, from round one. I know. Like her oh it was

you know what i mean it was it was starting to mess with her vision i thought it was really really bad and i it never got worse though that was weird that is yep it was just it looked pretty damn open there like it was only to the fifth or fourth something like that it looked pretty damn well but it happens in one and it's that bad you're like this time last for 24 minutes i don't think it would be remarkable yeah does that fight that bad, you're like, this can't last for 24 minutes. I didn't think it would. Which is pretty remarkable. Does that fight, let me ask you guys, does seeing that fight make you want to see

Cyborg, Harrison more? It never happened, but does that now, you know how we're talking about Nganou, and now it makes the Jones thing, and it makes these things more conspicuous that you're not getting them. Does it feel like you need to see that fight, or you want to see that fight more now? Or does it just feel like You need to see that fight or you want to see that fight More now or does it just feel like

I would love to see it Listen I think Kayla Harrison is hurting Herself by getting to 35 I think she's a Consummate pro I think she'll make it happen But she's talking about peeing blood It makes me nervous you know what I mean It really does make me nervous I would love to see that

I don't know how it goes How do you think it goes? Kayla Because she looked good I don't know The wrestling That's a tougher one to call now I would have guessed

If we were just coming in We didn't watch this fight I would guess that Kayla would have her way in that fight at this point. But I don't know if I have that same thought anymore. Kind of interesting. Both of them had to deal with some adversity two weeks apart. Kayla had never been cut. I don't, top of my head, I don't remember the last time Cyborg was cut.

But it hasn't been recent, unless I'm'm forgetting about one off the top of my head i don't recall so let's see what happens there you know guys there was a thing uh there was a thing a little over a year ago i would say before the the first johnny eblin fabian edwards fight that that johnny eblin could be the best middleweight in the world that was a tough fight he gets cut open he comes back and he wins. Then he has another tough fight against Impa Kasangane. And this time, you know, again, rather dominant. But I don't know if that's a thing right now, Pizzi.

I don't know if that's a talking point anymore. Agree or disagree? Yeah, I agree with you. And I think, honestly, it was the Kasangane fight. I remember looking online that night and seeing people because that was the time right he was really carrying that mantle into that fight with kasangano like that was when that everybody was kind of saying most people put this guy if if he's not challenging for the title immediately he'd slot into the top five

and the fight against kasang and I just didn't go his way I found it very impressive you know the fact that he managed to as I said before um wrestle victory from the jaws of defeat but um look that's not that's not going to not the kind of fight that's going to set the world on fire Fabian it's always it always looks bad as well like Fabian may have lost every round up until the fifth I scored the third from as well just because Johnny didn't do much with the positions when he had him down on the ground and still let Johnny win either way but um it never looks good when you're leaving the fight after a round like that right like as much as he won that fight as

much as it clearly an eblin fight like Edwards kind of came into his own towards the end and it was the most exciting passage of the fight was when edwards came into his own at the end up until then it wasn't great so optics might not be great for eblin but i still think he's an absolutely brilliant fighter i mean and and by saying that chuck i'm not trying to take anything away from eblin and and perhaps it comes across as disrespectful towards fabian because he is a very tough guy um i just think that people wanted to see some more emphatic wins and and i will also say that i think that eblin was put in a really tough spot i think as the guy who beat the challenger having to fight him again as i mentioned on hawani vision with chale is a really tough spot because you now have to figure out a new way to crack the code the other guy has seen your best stuff and he could just prepare for that yeah it's it was a tough position

but i kind of agree like it's just i feel like there are certain guys and maybe you're waiting for them they get a little bit of the clout they get a little bit of status where people are like watch out this guy's undefeated um whatever but so whenever they are watching them and they get a little bit of status where people are like watch out this guy's undefeated um whatever but so whenever they are watching them and they see a pattern start to emerge i've said this before and this pattern is just always going to like the pattern works for him you know how to win a fight works he doesn't ever have to have the plan b it's almost like what blanchfield was doing until she lost that fight in atlantic city it's like she didn't have a plan B. And until somebody forces you to dig deep in a way that you haven't been needed to, you can just kind of keep winning that way. And I think everybody senses that.

So his fights just kind of take on a certain pattern and you know that what you're looking at and it's going to go five rounds or whatever amount of rounds it is. And I think that those types of fighters tend to be a little bit, don't know they just kind of leave something to to be desired and i feel like that's where eblen's at man he's going to have to go in there at some point and put somebody away you know what i mean i know he got i know he got a fabian before but i'm like it's i think most of his fights have been decisions over the last few years and i i feel like at some point he's going to have to show that he's got more there's something more dynamic about him than what we're seeing there's a you think there's um sorry do you think there's a an issue with how the sport is consumed now compared

to like the gsp era the anderson's era like where whereas there was lots of complaints about like their fights being boring back then, right? There was complaints. I'm not trying to pretend that didn't happen, but in the era of contender series, where if you're not finishing people, like, no, you're not ready to get the contract.

You have guys like Makayev has a, uh, you know, fights to a decision and he's released. Do you think like we're harsher on people who aren't spectacularly finishing people before, because of how the sport has been skewed towards that now. Like even PFL,

the point system, you get points for this, points for that. Do you think we're harsher on guys who aren't putting people away or is it just the same as it was with the GSP and Anderson era? I don't know if we're harsher. GSP got a lot of flack.

I gave him shit myself. Yeah, I remember. He's fighting. 6 o'clock in the morning. He would be hated on now, though. I feel like he didn't get as much flack as he would get now. Is it just a byproduct of the sport being infinitely more? It's also, he had such a huge impact on the sport in terms of professionalism and just kind of coming in.

It's showing people that it wasn't like crazed lunatics in there. You know, he's wearing the suits to, you know, to the press conferences. He's like, he's an icon in Canada. And like when they'd have the events there,

it felt like this coronation, like people were just showing up. It was just a different kind of time and environment. But if he was fighting in today, I just feel like he would get hated on because I just remember some of his fights. They weren't that exciting in the end because he was just having his way with them, but he wasn't putting them away either. It would fall in line with some of the guys that we do talk like Ebelin. It would

fall more in line with that than anything else. It's just, I think the crowd has changed a little bit. I think the perception has changed a little bit. There know, I think the perception has changed a little bit. There is a common theme here, guys. Paul Hughes trade. You'd be looking for the Paul Hughes GSP trade if it was around today. Oh yeah, for sure. Absolutely. We'd be banging that drum. There's a theme

we were talking about. What do they got next for Francis? We're talking about what do they have next for Chris Cyborg? The same can be said for Johnny Eplund. There aren't a lot of great options. Just like Strikeforce, man. It's tough. It's tough. It's tough to have

an MMA promotion. Is it tough, GC? It's tough. See? Told you. Told you. Hey, thumbs up to the chat. Thumbs up. Thumbs up to the chat. I know GC is a well world winning ticket on there today Yeah We will get to all of that reaction

On Monday's program Let me I'm doing the producing here And the hosting as well You got Fridays Hey MightyZan Sent in this question Was the foghorn going off during the middle of the

fight a million dollar per squeeze is this the production that was to be bigger than the sphere mr don davis spoke of i mean it was just like a horn who cares i didn't know what's it to be honest i don't know what the thumbs up to the chat thumbs the chat. Thumbs up. I was watching Hawaii Vision. I didn't hear any of that stuff. Yeah, me neither, if I'm being honest. Zephyr, 87, so happy for Big Francis. Who does the PFL have for him now? Bader?

Nah, no chance. Bader? Really? I don't think, listen, Bader didn't want that fight before the. It's Deontay Wilder, lads. I mean, we're laughing about it at the start of the show. I think you've talked me into it at this point after hearing that list.

I will say, like, there's no part of me that is really clamoring for Wilder to fight anymore. And I want to make this clear. It's not like I'm saying I want it. I just wonder if they go that route. Do you get what I'm saying? Because of the lack of big names. Hamish Van Heerden.

How come Conor McGregor bet on mma fights conor reportedly bet 500k on in ghana to lose today i don't know who the hell knows uh is it maybe they can't bet on ufc fights is that the rule yeah that's yeah yeah all right um jn says more 3Pac, please. Best show in MMA. Thank you. More to come. And Megalito87 says, random question, where are Chuck's hats from? A lot of them are Boston Scallycats. You know that company? They make

very specific hats like this. They actually did one that was a myth, and if you've probably seen our guy Mark Ratner wearing his, um, but that's primarily where I get them. But then other times I'll just pick them up random places if I see them. So it's, it's not like I'm exclusive,

exclusive to one place or another. Really? How many do you have? Uh, I probably got like 40. I've got quite a few. There's a, there's a few of them over here, but I have another area that's in front of me here and there's probably like 25 hats over there.

Well, I do have to say one of the, uh, the MVPs of our new era here, and there's, there's been a ton. There's so many people who have done incredible things for us. And I, and I, I don't want to make the same mistake by, by naming names there's there's people like chris costa you've got it you've got to approach this differently now there's a lot of guys in this kirsten richard so many names but i do want to give as we're speaking about uh chuck's hats a special shout out to ben hefner who has been instrumental in getting our streams up and looking good uh he is a massive, massive part of our operation here. He owns a special edition myth hat.

He has shown us the picture. Really? He is. That's right. Yeah, he's one of our own here. He purchased it as just a fan, and now here he is working on all our stuff and actually informed me this past week that I met him in 2011 at the Strikeforce Dallas show in June of 2011 so that's a real fan yeah that's a real fan I mean

if you're buying if you're buying special edition Chuck Minnan all hats you're hardcore yeah I respect that's true and there's a bunch of hardcore I've been sold a few of those hats man people are buying I always love when Ratner is rocking them It's the greatest thing ever It's like we've infiltrated the UFC When Dan Ige was weighing in backstage On that night where he jumped in He's wearing it

And then he's been multiple ports all over the world At the weigh-ins And I'm like this is crazy man I love it This has been a lot of fun guys I do want to let you know That there's a UFC event Happening right now

PT's going to do a post show For that I'm told Nice Okay That's right Ben you're working late tonight mate We're doing one of the streams Robles Despain

The Cuban superstar Now Not the bad again Yeah 0-2 in his last two I'm getting a FaceTime from Eric Nixick Right now should I pick it up Yeah his hair looks tremendous by the way

He did Eric Nixick I'm live on the air right now So don't say anything that will get you in trouble But congratulations we're fucking happy For you my man Oh man what's up brother I had a call Just sharing with you man you've always been a part of the family Bro and you know you're on my mind So I Oh, man. What's up, brother? I had a call. I'm just sharing with you, man. You've always been a part of the family, bro.

You know you're on my mind, so I just want to say what's up, brother. Love you. Thank you so much. I don't want to get you in trouble, but I'll call you after. That's a sweet-ass shirt you're wearing. Holy shit. I love that. He's wearing the old-school Francis shirt. That is amazing. Eric. Eric, it's Chuck. I just sent you a note, too. Hit me.

Congratulations. Couldn't be happier for you a note too. Hit me. Congratulations. Couldn't be happier for you guys. Baddest motherfucker on the planet. The lineal heavyweight champ. Y'all must have forgot. Talk to you soon, Eric. You're the man. There he is. Eric Nexick. How about that?

That dude is great, man. I just did that piece and I saw him out in Vegas. He's choking up talking about his love for his guys man is is real that dude is a real one man we we all should have an eric nixick in our corner in life right like you that's the kind of coach you want that's the kind of person that's a ride or die guy in the trenches you saw the emotion um you saw uh you saw you saw you saw the emotion on his face You saw the emotion. You saw the emotion on his face. You saw the emotion on Dewey Cooper's face as well.

You saw the emotion on his family's face. Incredible stuff. It's really an amazing thing. We were talking about UFC going on right now. Also of note, Elise Reed, who our friend Drake Riggs over at Uncrowned, wrote a great story on And it still holds up after her victory Tonight, got a nice

Win over Jessica Penne And unfortunately Brad Katona Didn't get the win so commiserations PT on that one Do want to say congratulations to Daniel Pineda on a great career, he put the Gloves in the middle of the cage And what about Cameron Smotherman who was in Saudi Arabia earlier this week,

got a short notice fight against Jake Hadley, uh, or is it Hadley? It should be Jake Hadley flies home to America and gets a win in his, uh, UFC debut. What was the decision? It's got a unanimous decision.

One. Yup. Cause if we choked him, you could have said he went out there and smothered man. UFC debut. What was the decision? Got a unanimous decision win, yep. Because if he choked him, you could have said, he went out there and smothered man. Oh, here we go. There's three fights left, including the main event, which is an intriguing one at 185, Michelle

Pajera against Anthony Fluffy Hernandez. So still a little more MMA for you. Do also give a shout out to Jeff and Tyler on the team here. And of course, everyone in the control room, by the way. I mean, the small

operation. Who, me? Yeah. Well, Frank in the middle of the show, by the way, sends me a thing saying, I'm concerned about the buzz right now. I'm like, Frank, why would you tell me this in the middle of the show Why would you tell me that you need a mute mic In the middle of the show like I can't walk in there I had something in my thing so I was just sending you a note

Something else you should know Frank I was sending you a note hey we don't have a cough I actually took my hand and I reached for it Because we used to have a cough bun Muscle memory And I'm like there's no cough I got something in my throat What did I say back No no no you know what he says back guys He goes i'm more concerned about the lord no the whining pitch

that i hear the facts i'm like frank why the fuck would you tell me this that is the one thing that hurts you more than anything oh and now i keep asking him how does it sound now and i think he's just telling me it's fine it's good everything. Yeah, it's in my head. Fair play, Frank. Me and Chuck, say thanks to us. Say thanks to everyone. Thanks, Ariel. Well, I wasn't done. I was going to end with you guys.

It's still going. It's still going. No, I just want to give a thanks to Andy. I want to give a thanks to GC, to Rick, to Frank, to everyone. On Air Jordan, not here. He's on vacation. One weekend. Yeah, what the fuck is that on Air Jordan? Couldn't be bothered. Couldn't be bothered. He says, I don't work Saturdays. He's on vacation. One weekend. Yeah, what the fuck is that, On Air Jordan?

Couldn't be bothered. Couldn't be bothered. He says, I don't work Saturdays. He doesn't work on the Sabbath. I mean, what the fuck is that? That was very, that was well-timed, Frank. That was well-timed. And of course, thank you to our good friends,

Pete Z and Chuck. And by the way, Special shout out to our old Running mate TST Who did such a great job on the three pack Pod when we were with the ringer We still love him You won't see this it's screenless Saturday It's screenless Saturday brother

He's going to have to check in on that tomorrow At some point hopefully he'll consume it He doesn't have to see it right now Gentlemen I've been talking for a very long time. So I'm, I'm out of breath. I'm out of, uh, everything, but we'll be back on Monday. Uh, tremendous stuff from the both of you. Uh, amazing, amazing stuff from Chuck on, on, on Francis, on James Vick as well.

Do you got something coming on this card on? I'll have a, I'll have a, uh, I'm going to have a, um tomorrow I'll have a column up tomorrow And then we've got all kinds of stuff for next week So it's just going to keep on coming baby There's nothing better than a Sunday morning Man in the hat column Yes that he's so good at writing He appeared on the Moist Show last week

He made a deal Chuck He said that you'd be shit at writing for a few weeks So I got back into the swing of it What the fuck You've got the James V vick one you got i told i told shanel shoddy that like i did i felt rusty it was like this feels like because i haven't really been writing like this you know what i mean like where you're writing again um so it does it feels rusty but hey man if people like it if you guys like it that's good enough for me oh my god if you're rusty i'm mummified mate that is uh

it's fucking crazy how good your shit is well done you know my reaction was when chuck said that he thought he'd be rusty i i i i was reminded of a line from cheeto vera back in the day oh what the fuck is going on bro yeah that's what i thought a little slow there it's been a long day it's been a little slow i mean i love it see i've not been i don't get a part of it this is the first time i've been part of the effects and everything oh no you know you know who chuck is when it comes to writing i would say he's alpha i'm alpha oh fuck we're so slow right now this is work on it fellas we need to we need to look at switching someone out the next time Because Frank is half asleep

This is tough That's fucking bullshit That's how I would describe Frank's Work today Gentlemen a pleasure as always Thank you so much Appreciate you jumping on And we will talk to you all very very soon

Much love to the both of you And much love to everyone in the back as well Much love to the chat much love to antoine as well for manning the chat uh but that is it our first pay-per-view in the books helwani vision hope you watched it hope you supported the cause more of that to come much more coming here on the uncrowned network uh we've got the helwani show on monday A couple guests already in the bank for that one. Some fun names. Hopefully some people who competed tonight as well. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Boys in the Back on Thursday.

We got Friday, The Crack, and then we've got our very first watch party. It's the UFC 308 watch party again on a Saturday afternoon because they're in Abu Dhabi. Middle East has become the epicenter of combat sports, MMA and boxing. And then we'll have a post show for you following 308. Oh my God, the content. Oh my gosh. We are not stopping, but it is time

to stop. It's time to say goodnight. Thank you very much everyone for watching Hawani Vision post show. Appreciate you you very much everyone for watching hawani vision post show appreciate you all very much most importantly congratulations to francis and ghanu le predator and still the baddest man on the planet peace we're out of here