The Ariel Helwani Show - Francis Ngannou, Merab Dvalishvili, Craig Jones, Paul Hughes, Anthony Hernandez, weekend recap

Episode Date: October 21, 2024

Ariel Helwani and The Boys in the Back kick off the show by looking back at the busy weekend in combat, headlined by Francis Ngannou's big win (09:26).Francis Ngannou discusses his thunderous PFL debut against Renan Ferreira, his emotional reaction to the experience, fears and nerves beforehand, his locker room conversation with Cristiano Ronaldo, the decision to wrestle Ferreira, whether it was a late stoppage, Jon Jones' reaction, if he's going to continue fighting, potential boxing matches, whether he's the GOAT heavyweight, PFL Africa plans, and more (34:53).Paul Hughes discusses his massive PFL win over AJ McKee, problems with his training camp, knowing he'd catch McKee with a knee, the madness of one judge scoring the fight for McKee, his fired-up post-fight interview, why he gassed after the first round, his callout of Usman Nurmagomedov, Conor McGregor's involvement, and more (01:06:03).Craig Jones discusses his adventures since CJI, having lunch with Pablo Escobar's sister, the success of CJI, the struggles of ADCC, Mo Jassim stepping down as ADCC head organizer, fighting Jassim in Karate Combat, how CJI performed compared to ADCC, his match with Gabi Garcia, when CJI 2 will happen, a Nate Diaz vs. Brendan Schaub grappling match, Gordon Ryan, and more (01:31:22).UFC champion Merab Dvalishvili discusses his life since beating Sean O'Malley, the incredible scenes in Georgia following his win, his conversation with Turki Alalshikh, O'Malley's calls for a rematch, why he went easy on O'Malley in their fight, reports of Umar Nurmagomedov potentially fighting again before a title shot, and more (02:03:36).Anthony Hernandez discusses his UFC Vegas 99 main event win over Michel Pereira, how Pereira woke him up early in the fight, why he expects to be UFC champ in a year, honoring his father's legacy, and more (02:35:01).

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Area Hawaii Show! Back in your life! On this Monday, October 21st, 2020. Hello again, everyone. I sure hope you're doing well. And let me tell you, outside, right over here, this city right now is on fire. It is a beautiful day. It's like 28 degrees Celsius. What is that in Fahrenheit? I have no idea. I still haven't made the conversion. I know what 28 is. 76? No idea. 28 is a fantastic, glorious, beautiful day. This city is on fire. Our New York Liberty WNBA champs, our New York Yankees, going to the World Series. Our New York Knicks about to begin their quest to become NBA champions tomorrow in Boston. Our Buffalo Bills rolling.

It's a good time to be a New Yorker. It's a good time to be a New Yorker. It is a good time to be a New Yorker. And I'm so grateful. I'm so thankful. I am so happy we are officially one week in the books. What a week it was for this little outfit known as the Ariel Helwani Show for this brand new empire known as the Uncrowned Empire.

Yes, what a week. We launched a website. We launched a show on Monday launched a show on Monday, a show on Tuesday, a show on Wednesday, a new show on Thursday, the boys in the back, and then a special edition show on Thursday as well.

Two shows on Thursday. Friday the crack killed it. Positive vibes. The crack is all about positivity. I wish I had a fan base like PZ's. And then we had Helwani Vision on Saturday for the PFL Battle of the Giants pay-per-view. How fun was that? We had our first pay-per-view on Saturday. We had JLP with us, Tyron Woodley with us,

Tim Welch with us, Megan Anderson with us as well. Rob Gronkowski for some reason was with us. Jake Paul was with us as well. It was a great time. And it was a fun thing to be a part of, something I had been thinking about for a very long time, to see it come to fruition, to see it all come out crystal clear, great audio, great sounding, Nat sound from the arena.

We were here, we were hanging out, we were reacting. And then we did a post-show with 3Pac. We had the 3Pac reunion as well. Ah, you know yourself, we are rolling. We are rolling. On October 21st, 2024, we are rolling. And if you go back to episode one, you go back to our first show a week ago, things are looking different. Things are improving. And I do really have to give a special thank you to the entire crew in the control room they know who they are but also to the entire team here at yahoo that's why i wanted to come here brilliant people hard-working people they are not settling they are not saying ah this

is what it is no we are getting better each and every time out and in three months it will be exponentially better but all that is for a later date we are here to talk some fighting some mixed martial arts and other forms of fighting as well coming off a huge weekend and heading in to a huge white weekend oh by the way we got monday tuesday wednesday this week as well we've got thursday boys in the back friday the crack and then we debut our first watch party of the new era UFC 308 going down in the afternoon here in America 2 p.m eastern start time for the main card of course the big one Ilya Tuporia defending his featherweight title against Max Holloway some have said it's the best fight on paper of 2024 there's certainly a lot of excitement two supremely popular fighters going toe-to-toe. And yeah, as of right now, as of 1.03 p.m. Eastern on a Monday, Hamza Chemaev

is still scheduled to fight Robert Whitaker, in addition to all the great fights on the card. So we'll have a watch party on Saturday, followed by a post-fight show, another one for you. Please continue to sub, thumbs up to the chat, thumbs up to the chat, thumbs up to the chat. Hope everyone is doing well. And over on the podcast feeds as well, rate, comment, review, all these things go a long way. Trust me. All right. So what are we doing on today's program? Of course, we have to talk about what transpired on Saturday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The big story, of course, Francis Nganou, le prédateur, returns to action and he just absolute like blitzes Henan Faheda. Yeah, he landed a leg kick, but afterwards, Francis pulling out the wrestling out of the bag of tricks. How about Francis showing off the wrestling,

looking like a young Cain Velasquez out there, looking like a young Daniel Cormier out there. And then it was just ground and pound. Very impressive. 332 of the first round. The man, the emotion afterwards was tough to watch. You can't help but feel for him. You can't help but be happy for him. You can't help but want to just hug the guy because of everything he's been through, everything he's had to endure and overcome. I don't want to say it's one of the best stories because when we're talking about his story, there's an unfathomable, unspeakable tragedy attached to it, the passing of his son, Kobe. But he continues to be this story that we can't get enough of

and continue to be inspired by, continue to be blown away by. And yeah, I'm happy for the man. He has had to deal with a lot. And I'm not even talking about just this year and just what happened in the last few months is more than anyone should have to deal with, especially a parent. But what he has had to overcome and continues to thrive in the midst of, nothing short of amazing. So we'll talk about Francis, of course, and all the other results on the card. And our first guest of the day will, in fact, be Francis Ngannou. At 1.30, we'll be joined by Le Prédateur from over in Riyadh. He is still there. Now, at two o'clock, we're going to be joined by big news, Paul Hughes.

What about this guy guy this young man from dairy right this guy who's representing the tri-color he he signs with pfl and everyone's like all right we hear you pt carroll he's great you keep saying this about all the irish talent he was fighting over in cage wars it was great it was fantastic but there are levels and oh he didn't sign with the ufc ah he was looking for the easier fights. He was looking for a way out. Oh, really? All right. Well, the Bellator debut in June at the Tree Arena maybe wasn't the greatest fight of all

time in terms of the performance from Paul. He took some shots. It was a little bit tough in the first round. It wasn't the biggest name opponent. But what did he do on Saturday to AJ McKee, who's one of the best young talents and still not even 30 years old in the world, former Bellator featherweight champion. He put it on him. He was seconds away from stopping him in the first round. The game plan was fantastic. He was timing the knees. I thought he won that fight. I don't understand

how one judge gave it to AJ McKee, But nevertheless, here he is. He has arrived. The gamble, the big contract has paid off. And afterwards, he cut a mean promo on Usman Nurmagomedov, on everyone out there. We're going to find out. Does he want to go into the tournament in 2025? Or does he want that title fight against Usman? Man, as he said, Ireland versus Dagestan too would be big, big business.

And he even extended the invitation to one Conor McGregor to join him in his corner. So let's see. After that interview, we'll go to Columbia where Craig Jones is, the very colorful and entertaining character from the world of jujitsu. He put on his first ever event, the CJI tournament in Las Vegas in August. We were on hiatus at the time but by all accounts it was a huge success. They generated a lot of money for charity and he continues

to be in the news. There was some big news pertaining to his world and his feud with ADCC last week and he's teasing some announcement today on this show. So stay tuned. 2.30 Craig Jones will join us. Merab Dawali Shvili, the relatively new UFC men's bantamweight champion, will join us at 3 o'clock.

He is in the United Arab Emirates right now. He is over there, of course, for 308. And what a life he has had over the past month since beating Sugar Sean O'Malley at the Sphere at Noche UFC. That was a huge win, obviously, in his life, UFC 306, his first time on the show since winning the belt, first time getting a chance to talk to him. And so we'll get his thoughts on all of that, plus the news that Umar Nurmagomedov may fight Sonya Dong, all that and more coming at three. And then Fluffy Hernandez, Anthony Hernandez, with a huge win on Saturday in his first main

event against Michelle Pereira, who has been looking quite good as of late. Over at the apex, a dominant, dominant win for the man they call Fluffy, now has won six in a row and slowly but surely climbing the rankings at 185 pounds. You'll recall on the MMA Hour back in February, we spoke to Anthony, first time on the program, fascinating guy, loves his chickens, wants to live on a farm, wants to build a barn for him and his four kids and his wife, doesn't care about the limelight, the fame, the notoriety, just wants to live in solitude and

be left alone. But for now he is winning. He is racking up bonuses and paydays and could be very much in the mix come 2025. So that's today's story. A lot going on as always, but you know, on Saturday, I did Helwani Vision. I was talking a lot. I did the post show. I have essentially told you all that I could tell you about what Francis did, about Chris Cyborg's win over Larissa Pacheco, now winning her fifth major title. She has won an Invicta belt, a PFL belt, that was on Saturday, a Bellator belt, a Strikeforce belt. She is an unbelievable talent. I might be forgetting one, Invicta, PFL, UFC, of course, UFC. So she has done something that no one has ever done before. That's five major titles from five different

promotions. She is a living legend and uh tough fight she was cut open pacheco didn't go away but she was the rightful winner um francis by the way becoming the in many respects first ever true lineal mma heavyweight champion you can make a strong case that the ufc bellator, Pride, Strikeforce heavyweight titles were all on the line on Saturday, which is a crazy distinction that I think should have been promoted more in the buildup to this fight. But nevertheless, that's a huge deal. Paul Hughes, I told you about. Johnny Eblen successfully retained his title against Fabian Edwards.

I spoke a lot about the post show, which happened immediately afterwards. The lights were down. It was dark outside. Up right now on our brand new YouTube page. But I didn't get a chance to talk to GC and Rick, so I want to get their thoughts on what transpired. Boys in the back here with us on a Monday afternoon. And shout out to the New York Liberty for their very first WNBA championship. GC repping them. So let's go to you first GC Your thoughts on what transpired on Saturday I don't mean Helwani Vision and the smashing success That it was you sitting in on-air Jordan's seat

Who has still not returned I don't know where is he ever coming back I was going to say actually I'm still sitting in on-air Jordan's seat I'm renting this space out right now Until I have to go back there and do his job for him Fair enough It is tough Double duty Didn't sign up for this until I have to go back there and do his job for him. Fair enough. All right, so it is time. Double duty.

Didn't sign up for this. Your thoughts on the scene on Saturday, Francis winning in 332 against Henan Fajeda. Yeah, I mean, it was unbelievable. Dominant performance. I think Henan Ferreira had maybe one moment, if you would even call it that, with the leg kick, and then it was all Francis Ngannou.

The rest of the way, dominant performance, gets it done, shows all the emotion. I don't know how you can't be happy for him after the year that he's had, the life that he has had, and he continues to just win, continues to find success. You guys summed it up perfectly. I mean, there's really not much more I can add other than I'm unbelievably happy for the guy and just in awe at what he continues to do time after time that he's put to the test. EJ? It's hard because in one part, like, it was an expected result, right? Like, if you say Francis Ngannou is fighting Henan Ferreira and you go back a few years or even to the last time we saw him in MMA, you go, yeah, of course he is.

He's going to destroy him. But considering the circumstances that he was up against, the personal tragedy, the fact that he had been brutally knocked out by Anthony Joshua, the fact that we had not seen him compete in MMA for several years now, it seemed like if ever there was a time for Francis Ngannou to be ripe for the taking, for him to be vulnerable, it was now, right? And we could see the emotion after the fight clearly he had been struggling with things and battling his own emotions leading into it if ever there was an opportunity for somebody to find him in that position to to for him to be vulnerable it was now but i can't say i was like shocked right i can't say it was unexpected because if you tell me that that that franc Francis is going to put him on the ground and throw hammers like that like that's kind of the outcome that you expect I don't I don't know if he's going to have much down there and it's not

like head-on for once it hits the mat is some juggernaut but considering the stakes considering the circumstances considering what he had to overcome and I said this on boys in the back but like every time there's an opportunity for Francis to overcome something, every time there is a roadblock, every time there is an obstacle in his way, even just getting to France and then becoming a top level mixed martial artist,

like all these things, he was not supposed to be here. Every time there's an obstacle in front of Francis Ngannou, he tends to steamroll it. He tends to smash through it. So it's almost like one of those things where you have to expect Francis Ngannou to rise to the occasion and hit the level required for the moment.

And we saw it again. Everything stacked up against him. Francis Ngannou continues to get it done. But not shocking from X's and O's perspective. If Francis Ngannou has anybody on planet Earth in that position and they're turtled up, it's probably a wrap. It's pretty much night, night because he's throwing the hardest possible shots that you can take.

So, um, impressed and, and, and my, it was more of an emotional thing for, for my reaction than like more of a fight thing. It was more just,

man, you, my heart is with this man and what he was overcoming there. And I'm glad to see him has have some success. I understand what you're saying. I will push back a little bit and say there's a little sort of Monday morning quarterbacking going on there for this reason. There was so much at play here. There was so much going on in his life. First of all, when you just consider how he looked after his last loss, which was the steep a fight um he came back and

looked like a shell of himself against derrick lewis and so there was a part of me wondering like all right is the same thing going to happen here because now he's coming off a knockout loss to anthony joshua uh you change as a human being you change as a fighter when you're 30 something years old i think it's 37 um and you're getting knocked out. And so A, there was a question to be answered there. How would he just look coming back after being knocked out? B, how would he look coming back after two boxing matches? We've seen MMA fighters go to boxing, they come back, they don't quite look the same. would his style change would he be rusty with his wrestling now the the the the note that he had not fought since january of 2022 in mma all the left was a little bit unfair because the guy i mean that was his third fight in 365 days he was

kind of averaging a fight a year prior to all this so he was active and he was doing stuff but still i wanted to know would he be comfortable in the cage with the gloves using his wrestling? And we saw him be an offensive wrestler this time, as opposed to a defensive wrestler against Cyril Gann. So that was another question that I was wondering about. Obviously what transpired with his son, Kobe, that changes you as a human being. And even afterwards, he said, everyone told me I was tough. I'm not tough. And I learned that I'm not tough. And I questioned if I wanted to do this again. I questioned if I had it in me. I questioned if I ever wanted to come back, forget this year, ever again, period. And that was something people were saying after the Joshua fight,

that he was done, that he was finished, that he'll never look the same, that he made this massive mistake. He should have taken the Fury fight ran with it gone back to mma and fought you know pfl heavyweights and so then he gets brutally knocked out again like i said on saturday i was there he was he was on the mat out cold it was scary this this gigantic human being just a plank not moving and so curious to see how he rebounded from that and that was even before what happened to his son. And then there he is, you know, back in Riyadh, the same place where he got knocked out against Ferreira, who obviously hasn't fought anyone as good as him, but some are putting him,

you know, 10, 11 in the heavyweight division. I don't think that's a crazy thought. He starched his last four opponents. There was a lot at stake here. And according to my friends at BetMGM, Nganou opened as a minus 345. He closed as a minus 225. So there was starting to be this sentiment even after the weigh-ins on Friday. Oh, Nganou's too emotional. He's trying to rile him up because he's doubting himself. Federer, by the way, plus 260, closed, plus 180, 76% of the bets on Hennen, 80% of the money on Hennen to win as well. So there was a sentiment building, and maybe people were trying to convince themselves that something was happening, that an upset could have, oh, he's about to screw it all up. I was sensing it. I mean, I was getting people saying, I can't wait to see your reaction to him

getting knocked out by Hennen Fede on Saturday. And look what he did. Like it wasn't even, there was a part of me that thought if they get by a round and a half or two rounds, this is going to be a five round stinker. As I said on Saturday, y'all must've forgot. He's still the baddest man on the planet. He's the lineal MMA heavyweight champion of the world. He's still the king of the heavyweights as far as MMA is concerned um and and now what it does is it puts a lot of pressure on jones and stipe to to keep pace with him we we will get to a point one day where tom aspinall may be that guy he's not quite there just yet because of the fact that he hasn't beat john or he hasn't beat francis but he's literally right there and i consider his belt to be more real than john's but right now there's this little like dance going on with the three of them and if you want to include steepay the four

of them the man whose resume actually holds up compared to all of them and that includes steepay who everyone said for the longest time was the greatest heavyweight champion of the world i think there's now a very very very very strong case for francis yes steepay beat him but what happened in the rematch and what has francis been doing since I think that there's a strong case to be made now that Francis is the greatest of all time. I think that there's a very, very strong case of that. But the question then becomes, what do you do with him now? If you're a PFL, what do you do with this guy now? Is he going to go back to boxing? I don't want him to go back to boxing. We'll talk to him about this in about 10 minutes time. Is he going to stick around in MMA? Who is there for him to fight? Now that we've had a

couple of days to digest it, Rick, what do you think? Who does he fight? Who is out there that they can get? And let's be fair, when they signed him, Kenneth Fajeda wasn't a guy. Like we weren't talking about, we were talking about Phil DeFries. We were talking about Derek Lewis maybe leaving the UFC. So he emerged and I think he was a very fine, credible opponent. He looked the freeze. We're talking about Derek Lewis maybe leaving the UFC. So he emerged, and I think he was a very fine, credible opponent. He looked the part. It was great. It was as good as they could hope, given the lack of heavyweight talent out there, especially outside of the UFC. But is there anyone right now, if they tell you, yeah, the plan is for him to come back in March, I doubt it, but let's just say, for the sake of this conversation, is there anything that excites you as far as what's available for Francis? Not in MMA. Not in MMA.

In boxing, there's more? In boxing, there's more because it's more unknown. You can only get by, again, from an X's and O's perspective, if you pick any point in time, including last Saturday in 2024, and you match up Francis Ngannou and Henan Ferreira, Francis Ngannou is going to win that fight. Now, we needed to see it play out because of all the circumstances that you outlined, right? Because of the fact that there was so much

stacked against Francis. And that was what he was overcoming. But none of when we're talking about this is, well, Henan was actually a nightmare for him and he was going to, there's no point in time where he's going to be the one to beat him. What would be an interesting conversation is if John Jones was standing across from him on Saturday night, or Tom Aspinall was standing across from him on Saturday night, or even Stipe Miocic was standing across from him on Saturday

night. What does that look like? Does he overcome those obstacles and does he face that? So you can only do that once. Hennon Ferreira was the perfect opponent because of all those circumstances stacked up against Francis. But on paper, we're not looking at that and going like this opponent was the one that was going to potentially threaten him or be dangerous. And so you can only do that one time. We only get one of those. Now we know Francis is back. Now we know who he was able to overcome. And you need a credible opponent. You need somebody who, when you look at the paper, you go, this person can defeat Francis Ngannou. I don't see anybody out there in MMA

that is available that could make that interesting for me. It would need to be a boxing match just because I've seen Francis succeed there and I've seen Francis fail there. I'm more compelled by that. In MMA, I know that whoever they have

that is available to them, he will walk through them. I'm not scared that he will be threatened and that's uninteresting to me. I threw out Deontay Wilder not because I kind of want to see it. I don't even know if I do. He's just the most interesting

guy out there who I think they can make a fight with, who I think would be down. Is this for MMA or boxing? Honestly, it was for MMA. No interest in MMA. Zero? That fight will go exactly the same way the fight on for MMA. Yeah, I had no interest in MMA. Zero? That fight will go exactly the same way the fight on Saturday went.

Is Wilder even going to do MMA? It was something that they were debating. But no, you're right. The thing is, like, I don't... And you're right, Rick. Hennefe Head has a black belt, right? So the fact that Francis took him down down thwarted a triangle choke attempt and was just completely unfazed by it what is dionte going to do no he's going to get double

legged and punched in the head the exact same way what does that calf kick do to yeah oh yeah dionte well they're right off the rip great call so what do you do what do you do gc i mean i'm kind of with rick like the star power and the the allure of the matchups is in boxing because outside of the UFC who can you put Francis Ngannou against and make it an interesting matchup like it's like Hadam Ferreira was the guy in PFL like that this was the best they had to offer like who are you gonna put him against now Denis Goldsov like Ante Dalia like it's it's gonna end up in the exact same result he's gonna be a much bigger favorite and it's to be the same thing of who is this guy? Who is Francis Ngannou's opponent? So yeah, there's just not a ton of options within MMA that are available to him. Like you said, it's kind of like the big three right

now. Jon Jones, Tom Aspinall, Francis Ngannou. Are we ever going to see any of them fight each other? So yeah, I guess it's just boxing, even though I would like to continue to see him fight in MMA. I don't know who's out there. The thing is he has evolved so nicely as an MMA fighter. And I know this was his first fight in almost three years, but I mean, imagine telling someone five years ago that Francis would, would shoot

and would look like that on the ground. To get his last two wins. Yeah. in MMA, he went to the wrestling. I was going to say, go back to the Cyril Ghosn fight. That dude isn't out of his depths when it comes to that. And if he can put people in that position, it's going to be rough. I mean, we saw those hammers. As I said before, I don't think there's somebody on earth, if Francis Ghosn has you in that turtle position,

that you're getting out of there that's just at the end this is a stupid this is a stupid one but i just i happen to look down uh at the youtube chat thumbs up to the chat yeah yo can you imagine francis versus rico verhoeven like could we is that yeah i mean is that i'd be look i'd be compelled by that. I just don't know if Glory wants their champion going over. I was going to say, where are they doing this? Just a PFL brand? I don't know.

Yeah. I mean, I'm just trying to find something interesting out there for them. It's not the worst idea as a striking matchup. I was going to say, is there a world where Ngannou just blasts another double leg and takes him down? No, maybe it's just kickboxing. I was going to say, but then that's a glory fight, right? Now you're getting into the realm where PFL is now lending Francis Ngannou to both boxing and

kickboxing and not to him then. What if it's Rico versus Francis, MMA versus kickboxing in boxing? So it's equal footing. It's funny. I like it. It's equal footing. I like it, but we're just getting We are twisting ourselves into knots

To come up with a solution for Why can we not find an emigrant fighter I'd rather just see him boxed down Yeah, me too Do you have any interest in Vadim Nemkov? No Not because, by the way That's actually not a bad shout

For the best you can make That's the best that they can make meaning the pfl bellator yeah that's what i'm saying like i i that is a nice shout in terms of like if he's going to fight again in mma in under the pfl banner vadim nemkov yeah isn't isn't a terrible vadim nemkov is 17-2 and won no contest he has won his last three in a row. There was the no contest against Corey Anderson. His last fight was a solid submission win over Bruno Capoloza at heavyweight. Prior to that, he was fighting at light heavyweight. He has history prior to all of this fighting at heavyweight back in the day, fought in Rizin, lost to Yuri Prokhaska in Rizin as well, beat Goran Reljic.

I mean, it's just- Two things on that. That might be the guy. I don't know. One thing. Yeah. I'm not interested, not because I don't think Vadim Nemkov is very good. Actually, I think he's very, very good. But he's been a light heavyweight, right? Now he's moving up to heavyweight.

That's a different kind of thing. And two, Francis Ngannou has a finite number of MMA fights. I think we need something more compelling before, um, we go to that, to that well. Is there any chance the allure is, uh, I mean, I know they've, they've talked about starting up this PFL Africa branch. He's the chairman of it. Is there any chance that they do a fight in Africa and that's the allure of his next fight? Fuck yeah.

I would love that. Just Francis in Africa. Just Francis coming home. Yeah. Yeah. We got the picture right over here of, uh, Foreman and Ali. But you could box, that Just Francis in Africa Just Francis coming home Yeah We got the picture Right over here Of Foreman and Ali But you could box

You could box in Africa too Oh man I mean that would be sick That would be sick That alone Is to me Worth the price of Whatever they're offering

You know PT if he was here Would be upset That we're not bringing up Phil DeFreeze The KSW A little KSW champ Versus PFL champ.

But I just... What? The fights are not there. It's just the reality. The fights are not there. Francis Ngannou on his own is a draw. You need to find somebody. Again, I think this worked.

This was the perfect storm. This worked for the one time. And I don't think it will work again. You need somebody credible opposite Francis Ngannou. The truth is he probably is going to, and we're going to hopefully talk to him in three minutes, so keep it locked. The truth is he probably takes some time off. Again, that's three fights in 365 days. That's two boxing matches against the very, very best in the world, like two top five boxers at the time, two top three boxers,

right? Fury was the heavyweight champ. AJ was on a roll. And then there's another fight. Jump to the front. Yes. Oh, I heard you there, Rick. Okay. Bad mic integrity there. No, listen, these things happen. So I wouldn't be surprised if he takes a little bit of time off and maybe that's a blessing, right? That will allow them to find new talent. I will be honest, gun to my head right now,

I don't even know who's fighting in the heavyweight. It all kind of mixes together. PFL 2024, is there even, gosh, I mean, do you know the answer to this? Is this even on here? PFL 10, is it PFL 10? I think it's PFL 10. Who, me?

Yeah. Heavyweight. Okay. I mean, this might be our answer right here, guys. This might be our answer. It might be the winner of GC. Do you know the answer to this? I don't even know if I can go

to him. No. Denis Goldsov, who has won his last three in a row, including a TKO win over Timothy Johnson, part of that a TKO win over Tiago Santos, part of that a TKO win over Linton Vassell.

Going up against Oleg Popov, 32 years old, has won a shitload of fights in a row, like 17 in a row. Beat Linton Vassell back in August, beat Davion Franklin, beat Steve Mowry, which was notable, beat Antonio Silva back at MMA Series 53 in June of 2022 in Moscow. Those are the guys fighting for the heavyweight championship for 2024 in the PFL. We did get this from Marshall Z zelaznik the ceo of glory kickboxing uh he's apparently watching us

right now hello marshall how are you doing great things has been in the fight game for quite some time uh this is his response to us talking about francis versus rico uh frank some breaking news thank you i mean this is the show of record People are tuning in to get our thoughts on all sorts of things Quote anytime We can have the best versus the best We'd be interested in having that conversation Rico is the best heavyweight striker on the planet And a fight with Francis

Would be fascinating Did we just make Rico versus Francis? Did we just make that? Who the fuck is we? I wasn't even teeing you up for that. That was good stuff, Francis. Excuse me, Frank. Wow.

Wow. I'll take it, considering he's the GOAT. Yeah, he is the GOAT. He is the man. Did you have a good time on Saturday, Frank? The best time? It was my pay-per-view debut. Wow.

I don't know if you know that. Yes. Came home to my beautiful wife, and I was like, Oh, what did you think of the pay-per-view? She didn't buy it. No, listen. Yeah, it's fine. Listen, she watches all our shows more than anyone else's significant other. Yeah, like she's probably crying right now hearing me air this out in front of everyone.

She's going to feel guilty. All it is, her first pay-per-view, I'm not buying it. No, listen. What was it? 40-something bucks? Yeah. Worth every penny, though, because our production was so on it. Oh, my God. You know what was my favorite part of the whole thing, by the way? The Gronk interview.

No, other than that. Watching Francis totally... No, other than that. Okay, dude, seriously. It was how you made the sound mesh with us here oh yeah you like that huh oh my god it was fantastic yeah i really enjoyed doing that in fact it was kind of cool um the control room kept just giving me positive affirmations i never get anything out of these guys except for it sounds like shit frank fix it and this time they were like oh man that is really good is that true

that is absolutely kept doing it so they kept giving you props to the point like i'm insecure enough i'm like look if you give the same affirmation more than twice, you start to undo it. Like, it gets into the sarcasm category, right? No, you did great because it sounded. Are you familiar with Manningcast? Oh, yeah, yeah. Who's Manning? Yeah, so it sounded like that where it was you had the sound of the arena the the oohing the aahing the clap

clap the the horn um all that stuff the walkout music but we were there reacting to it all if you had to rank our best guest in terms of like the insight that they brought who would you say was number one no don't answer that don't answer oh i mean chale i mean megan um thero cronk thero was awesome. Did you see Thero mocking Chael the entire time? Yes, I did see that. Yes, I did. I thought that was adorable.

I thought Chael was like one mock away from slapping him in the face. Wow. No? Yeah. I mean, no. He just seemed so used to it. Like, I have a feeling when Thero was off camera, he was doing the same thing. They are two peas.

Would you let your kids do that uh mock me for that long yeah and is it really mocking or is he like trying to learn the techniques it seemed like some mocking okay yeah of course i would let my kids they could do whatever they want my kids had six uh soccer games this weekend it was quite the time oh damn yeah so they could do what they want um no chill was great great. Everyone was great. And no, I really, really enjoyed it. So we will talk to Paul Hughes, who had the massive win over AJ McKee on Saturday as well, the opening fight of the night, which I like that spot.

I like the way they started the card. There was that fight with Hussein and zafar that i'm still not quite sure how they ended up on the pay-per-view main card but it was fine it was a a massive massive massive upset um at least as far as the odds makers were concerned but not as far as tim welch was concerned because uh tim welch told us right before the fight started that he had looked at the tape he had done his research and he felt like the odds makers had it all wrong. He felt like they were saying no. Like, I think GC told me,

GC told me, what did he tell me? He told me, yeah, Hussain closed at a minus 2,500. Zafar was a plus 1,200. And Zafar won. So if anyone out there tried to get in on the action, I hope you bet on Zafar. I did get a text, by the way, from Juliana Pena, the reigning defending UFC women's bantamweight champion.

I've heard of her. Yeah, she asked why we never used her pick of Frances for the parlays. She was a little bit perturbed. I did have to push back and say, well, when did you yeah there was definitely a deadline said that last week yeah what did she say in response to she said friday uh to which i said yeah listen you missed you missed the deadline yeah we didn't even do it because she wasn't there we didn't do it we scrapped it she has also become a producer now yeah like if she doesn't do, we're not going to do it. To which I then said, you know, if you don't get it in by –

she's like, oh, there's too many new dates and schedules and shows. I said, look, you got to get it in by Wednesday night. That's easy. It's actually not that much different than it used to be. More time than we gave her in the past. Right. And then she said, okay, we'll do. So let's see. Let's see if she abides

this week she's a champ now and all of a sudden we're the afterthought right uh ufc 308 this weekend but of course we're still buzzing we're still glowing we're still in in a state of wonder and and and and just enjoy for our guy francis and ganu after what he did on saturday a lot of emotion but uh if you ask me it was never in doubt y'all must have forgot still the baddest And just enjoy for our guy Francis Ngannou after what he did on Saturday. A lot of emotion. But if you ask me, it was never in doubt. Y'all must have forgot, still the baddest man on the planet. Still the lineal MMA heavyweight champion. Still the true BMF.

Le Predateur himself. The pride of Cameroon. Kind enough to join us back in Saudi Arabia. I think back in the same spot that he was in just last week when he talked to us going into the fight. Right, Francis? Félicitations, Francis. Thank you so much mercy mercy yes i'm back in the same spot like you know earlier i haven't thought about like changing the angle so you can see a different spot of the hotel i think there was a table here that was like little short i say let's just do it no it's great it's familiar it's great uh can i ask you the guy who was sitting there a week ago seven days ago at exactly

this time 8 30 local time in in riyadh um you know you say things you talk about the fight you're never going to truly tell someone how they feel before a fight of this magnitude but can you now can you now tell us truly like what was going on in your mind were you doubting yourself i saw afterwards you were saying i thought it was tough i'm not as tough as i thought i was i had to overcome a lot were there any doubts creeping into your mind as you were heading into this massive fight well i mean when i um talk about tough, I wasn't making reference about like fighting, you know, actually fighting doesn't make us that tough. I think it was just about like life in general, because, you know, sometimes you feel the emotion differently, things that you didn't know that you could have you find yourself in the place that you didn't know you would ever you can ever be there and uh that's what i was

making a reference to and also like um you know yes i was here one week ago but I truly it wasn't about the doubts it was more so about like you know like me questioning

about myself like at the end of the day a fight is a fight and you can always go either way but

and I knew I was prepared enough in case I had the opportunity. But again, you never know what truly will happen in the fight. So it wasn't a doubt. But although I was about to really discover how questioning about how I can feel there in that cage, stepping the foot inside, knowing that it's no longer the same. I'm no longer, it's no longer the same person anymore.

48 hours later, physically, but maybe even more so emotionally, are you exhausted? How are you dealing with everything, all the emotion that came with the fight in the aftermath? Well, yeah, I'm exhausted. I'm tired. Physically, I'm good. I mean, no worse than I was before the fight.

But, yeah, I'm tired, you know. Unlike what you might think, the emotion aspect takes a lot out of you too. Did you expect to be that emotional afterwards? Did you even think about how you would react? You know, it wasn't just afterwards. I think the whole... It's been a long process. Yeah. It's been a long process.

It's not just like, you know, sometimes even during the training camp, you just feel it and then you feel like life is just tasteless, you know, and then you have this sadness and whether you might be in your room or wherever, you just feel it and it's there. You can control it like it is. What is it and i think you just have to uh figure out how to deal with to move on uh or to live with literally seconds after the fight was over everything came out all the emotion um can you even describe what that moment felt like like you didn't even really give yourself a chance to celebrate. I even noticed Eric Nixik coming to you,

and I think you told him you needed a second. Can you even describe what those feelings were like? Yeah. I took this fight, again, like I wasn't, I didn't know if I was going to fight, but the reason why I took this fight, I think it would be a better way to honor my son and all along the process, even when he was out, I always think of the reason why I took the fight and why I'm fighting.

Let me tell you what, it's been the toughest one. It's been the toughest fight for me. Like, to get there, I was trapped into this zone that I had to really, really, really struggle to get out of it to get to that fight, to be able to fight. It was tough.

It was really tough. It wasn't just like a normal fight that I used to fight, you know, that you just walk there and go fight and whatever happened, he was beyond fighting. He was beyond way more than fighting. Where did you find the motivation, Francis, like to get out of bed, to keep going to the gym,

to put your body through, you know, the ringer, so to speak? How did you, again, if you're flying high and life is great, I'm sure it's easy to do that, but dealing with this sadness and the broken heart that you were, you are, you were and are dealing with, how did you find the power and strength to get out of bed and keep going back to the gym in preparation? Well, uh, just, um, I think you just have to remember the reason why you're doing it. And I think this time around, I haven't had the better motivation, the better reason that I never had before for this fight. The purpose, the reason why I was fighting was, for me, was bigger than anything that I had ever fought for.

How was it on Saturday in the locker room as you were preparing from two fronts? A, just the feelings, the nerves, but also compared to how you were feeling in the locker room before the AJ fight when you told us about how you were feeling lethargic. Can you compare this time? Was it better? Yeah, I mean, it was a normal fight. It was a normal locker room day.

I was there and all I was dealing with trying to deal with my emotion because like even the fight day, the day before, the gathering that we had here at the hotel before the fight, everything was ending up into emotion and stuff

like you know yeah so kind of like make make the things make things different right but uh besides that kind of like check on myself and everything was quite okay everything was okay i i was even asked about that and uh also been checking it was just me except like maybe that emotion it wasn't nothing like abnormal but also like some question like oh well i haven't been here for so long so it's not i mean's still familiar, but at the same time, a little strange, a little, yeah, like a little far away. Like the last time I was here was a long time ago, you know, but other than that, everything was good. Everything squared up well. We get there on time, had time for everything. And the organization was great.

Everything, the commission was perfect. The production, everything was on point. There was a somewhat surreal shot when they went to you in the locker room and it was you, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Eric Nixick just chilling in the locker room. What do you recall talking to him about? That's one of the most famous athletes on the planet I know you have a relationship with him

but in that moment is he saying anything to you are you talking about anything yeah you know he also deal with such with similar situation with a newborn that he lost a little while ago. He was quite busy but for him, he said he needed to come to show me his support because he understands what I'm going through even though the situation is a little different. He didn't really know his own kid but he's still the same and the feeling is not great at all you know like he knows what he takes i mean all personal stuff it was more personal stuff okay um the fight starts by the way i was wondering did it feel you've done mma for so long but after two boxing matches smaller gloves and i know you prepared with smaller gloves but you're there barefoot it's a little different you're in a cage did that feel funky in the first few seconds being back in an mma setting as opposed to

the two boxing matches that you just had no the little thing that i felt different is the same thing that I used to feel sometimes. I just feel the canvas is a little slippery. That's why I have to wet my feet in the corner before. You feel like there are no really traction on your foot and the canvas when you step in most of the time. I always felt that. So it wasn't funky. It wasn't nothing strange.

It was just a normal feeling. I mean, at that time, you are not there thinking about those stuff. You have really, you have different things in your mind, going on in your mind that you are not thinking. You don't have so much time to think about it.

Was the game plan to try to take him down so early? Well, so early, no. Whenever the opportunity comes, he was the plan because even though he has a good ground game, what I do know for sure is that um he has a um what yeah he he does have a good river person a great wrestling artist so if we get on the ground and and i'm the i'm the one on top i i will manage you know and i will give him a rough time you know and also like

one thing that was a part of the takedown was the timing you know uh he has a right his right hand which is like almost automatic uh so you just need to press the trigger to uh to let that right hand go and then have a good timing to do whatever you do that can be efficient whether it's a punch or a take down and as soon as I found him back in the cage, trapped on the cage, I knew that that right hand was coming, he was doing and then there was a big opportunity. I think the thing, the opportunity was him laying on the cage, letting himself back up to the cage.

The finish was brutal. There's a camera angle that someone was shooting right there of you just nailing repeated shots. And in retrospect, I thought maybe it could have been stopped

a little bit sooner. Are you thinking about this at all? Like how much more is this guy going to have to take? I thought about that. Yeah. I thought about that, but the referee was right there and uh i'm like well um you know as much as i wanted to win the fight i didn't want to throw unnecessary punch i didn't want to do unnecessary damage i just wanted to win my fight and go home but the referee was there and i was hitting i'm like like, I think maybe this is when they stop.

But, you know, but I don't want to stop to figure out to act. You know, so I just keep pounding. But I think like a couple, at least four to five punches was unnecessary. If it was me, we would have stopped earlier. I wondered if you had to dig deep, like if maybe you took out the frustrations of the past few months because it felt so ferocious,

but maybe that's just how it looks when you're that close to Francis Ngannou hitting you with punches in that position. No, no. It wasn't like the frustration. It was a fight.

I was there fighting. I wasn't going there to hurt someone with the intention of hurting somebody or doing that. It was mostly to fight against my demons, to fight against me, that I'm doing everything that I can. I'm doing well, you know. So that was the thing. And then I really like work on the position, on the ground position to the point that before really start a strike, I have a great position. You know, I know that, OK that I have a good leverage here.

He's not going anywhere. So I was very comfortable to strike. Now that it's over, Francis, do you want to keep fighting? I think so. Along the way, I thought I took this fight so early. I thought maybe it wasn't time for me yet to start the fight. But the question is that when will be the exact time? And I feel like the right time will never be there. I think it's just something that you have to roll with because I don't think if we wait for years, two years, five years from

now, I don't really think things will be different. Therefore, I will not be having time to fight again. Maybe the only thing that I will have will be regret. But I'd rather regret from like fighting um even though he doesn't go from like not fighting than fighting even though fighting doesn't go away you know so yes it wasn't about like uh win or winning or losing i could have lost and decide to keep fighting because again it's just the reason why i'm fighting and also like uh uh, do what I had the opportunity and don't have to regret later. So, so the big debate is, uh, if you do come back in 2025, is it MMA or boxing? And if it's MMA against you, if it's boxing against you, so, so could I ask, do you have

a preference or are you leaning in a certain direction? Do you think your next fight, whenever it is, will be in MMA or will it be in boxing? It could be either one. I don't know yet. I don't have a hand on that one. I don't have a decision. I think it also depends on promotion. It depends.

I don't know if next PFA, they come up with something or or we fight that or did, maybe we will work on it. Then if it's boxing, same thing. Okay, so you don't have a preference? No, I don't really have a preference as long as I just think it's going to be into next year okay do you think yeah

deserved do you think first half of the year when do you think will be a suitable time to start thinking about fighting again

I don't know maybe second half of the year yeah no no no first half second quarter second quarter

got it yeah um yeah i threw out dionte wilder maybe would be a name if you do boxing or even if you do mma against him that was discussed i think for a minute but i don't know if there's any mma names that are big enough and interesting enough for you right now yeah i mean uh in t, I don't know. They still do have some names. I think the last guy that beat Renan Ferreira was Ante Deleuze, and he's still there. Okay, so these names interest you. He was a backup in this fight, so why not?

Oh, wow. If needed. Did he weigh in? I think so. He was a backup, wow. If needed. Did he weigh in? I think so. He was a backup, yes. Okay. All right. So there's stuff out there that is of interest.

You are going to fight. You say it's going to be in the second quarter. So there's stuff here. There's things that are available. And if you are going to keep fighting, is it fair to say at some point you will have another boxing match again? You will not stop boxing? Absolutely.

As I always say, maybe I'm taking more time to do stuff. But absolutely, I want to do some boxing matches again and some MMA matches. Did you happen to see, John Jones tweeted about your victory. Did you happen to see that? Yeah, I saw that. I saw his tweet.

Okay, we'll show it. What did you think of it? Here it is. What an amazing job Francis did tonight, displayed a complete MMA game, great kicks, great takedowns. It feels good to see him shine wow congratulations champ i see you yeah well whatever he means i i think he's class he said in a in a very nice way you know so i see him too and i'll be watching him on november 16th

that's the one man that's the one that everyone says why not they're they're both with espn maybe turkey has a hand in it do you think there's any chance this happens in 2025 you versus the winner of that fight or the ufc heavyweight champion? There's a chance. I can't tell on the level of one to ten. I can't tell how many, but I know there's a chance. I mean, basically, I know that fight also interested him and not many things resisted him.

Yes. Did you speak to him about it after the fight? No. Okay. He's probably about it after the fight? No. Okay. He's probably the one who can make it happen. Yes. What was that that you said? Yeah, I think... No, I haven't really done anything or speak to anybody after the fight.

I was just here with my family and they were leaving and they were trying to get some rest between like uh saying goodbye to people my family my team uh someone did then uh i think write to john uh another thing about your fight did you see the follow-up tweet no um i think here it is he says uh this guy nick says he'd smoke you, meaning you'd smoke him. And then John writes, sure. Everyone beats me up until they're in there with me. Yeah, that's, I mean, that's true.

Uh, everyone has to believe everyone that's put him has believed everyone that stepped in the octagon, believe that he's going to beat his opening. I mean, even Renan, Renan Ferreira, he, he beat me up until we step in the octagon believe that he's going to beat his opening i mean even renen renen ferreira he he beat me up until we step in the octagon so it's always like that i don't think uh that has nothing that wasn't directed to me again i i i know john john i think that was also a very classic in that response. Okay. Wow. Do you believe... No, because it didn't sound like he was mad.

He was just like factual. That's fair. Do you believe, Francis, that he actually is interested in this fight? Or do you think that... Jon Jones? Yeah. I do. I do. I do believe.

You know, I know regardless of what the game that's being played out there, I know the truth. You know, I've been behind the scenes so many times,

so I know exactly what happened. So I do believe that he wants that fight. I mean, again, behind the scenes so many times so I know exactly what happened so I do believe that he won he won that fight I mean again like even though John does a stunning idea of losing but he's going home like he's like okay let's take it let's do the last dance if this is this you know i i mean i truly i think he does i can't touch for sure but i believe did you see uh your friend israel adesanya uh there's a video of him watching you fight did you see the emotion that that he showed and how happy he was for you you yeah it's beautiful right yeah yeah it's it's beautiful now now that i thought about it i watch

it i'm like damn what were you doing francis what do you mean i mean no no not the fight like the the overall thing like after the emotional stuff. But it was good. It was good. A lot of people say they get emotional too. It's hard to stop it, right? There was so much going on in your mind. Are you saying because it's hard to see yourself crying,

you don't like to see yourself sad like that or emotional like that you know to believe that you're a man that you can cry you don't do that stuff like that until you get truly hit i mean i would i would have never believed if somebody have told me this like a year ago, I would tell him that no, you're wrong, like completely like you're talking to the wrong person. What was it like when you got to the locker room and you were there with your family and your friends? Well, because it wasn't the first time we have been together for maybe the whole week. And I always like imagine that moment, you know, during the past three, four months i have the past three months most mostly i have been thinking of that moment what's gonna happen where at every stage i visualized everything like in the octagon

we're gonna work like this you know like trying to visualize everything like so Like, so he wasn't like a hit and a fit, like a surprise. By the way, one thing that Izzy said, which I actually agree with, it's time to start talking about you as the greatest heavyweight of all time. The resume stacks up to Stipe, who previously everyone said was the greatest. Do you think that that's a fair thing to say now? Are you comfortable with this? Now, I think you're going to tell me, oh, it's not for me to say that. But come on, if you look at the resume now, there's a very strong case to be made.

You know, as far as I'm concerned, I think I have something to fight for than like the best heavyweight or whatever it is that would is truly doesn't mean that much you know i'm just here to do my best man like to to to give the best of myself and whoever is the great or at the end of the day it's okay but i think i'm not doing bad yeah i agree with that. And I know you say you're not quite sure when you'll fight again, but I did hear from the PFL brass, and they're saying PFL Africa will launch in 2025. And that was a big thing for you, right,

to sign with the PFL so that you can start something like this. Is there anything you could tell us about the PFL Africa plans, like when it will actually start, when we will actually see the product and where, which parts of Africa will be featured? We were talking about it even today. The PFL Africa is launching the second quarter next year, most likely April next year, 2025. I see I've always been the date to go. And then we were talking about the location would potentially be,

we spoke about like what four locations, which was Nigeria, not five locations, Nigeria, Rwanda, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, africa wow okay we haven't decided yet but uh you know we're just like trying to line up the best countries uh to host eventually we're gonna keep moving into different countries by the, before it's all said and done, we have to see you fight in Africa.

Wouldn't that be incredible? What a scene that would be, right? The giant comes home. This has to happen. Is this being discussed? Is this part of the plans? Unfortunately, no. Why? You know, PFR Africa is a different entity

than the global PFR. And then, regardless, it's still like a young, different entity than the global PFL. And then regardless, it's still like a young, it's still a young promotion. So yeah, it's still a young promotion. I don't know, we will see. Maybe someday, maybe we will work on the last dance maybe three years from now or four years from now that could be three years from now it could be a conversation to be made and why not that would be incredible now now do you just do you want to just go away do you want

to be left alone do you want to just uh be out of the limelight for a few months? Yeah, I think I'll just hang out. Just chill a little bit. Yeah, just chill. Well, you deserve it. Trying to deal with my stuff. Trying to put some little order in my life, in myself, you know, structure thing, and then trying to figure out the best real roads

to continue rolling. By the way, I'm trying on your behalf. I'm trying to think, okay, who's out there that could be a big, interesting challenge. I threw out Rico Verhoeven, who's the kickboxing champion. Wouldn't that be something like Rico versus Francis, kickboxing versus MMA in boxing? And I hear that Glory is interested in this. You know who he is, right?

Yeah, yeah, of course. That'd be something, right? I mean, I have a friend with him. Oh, okay. So you're friends? So no chance? No, of course. That'd be something, right? I mean, I have friends with him. Oh, okay. So you're friends, so no chance? No, no friends. I mean, we met once at the gym, I think. We are no...

Yeah, we are friends, but not to the extent that we cannot fight each other. We are gym friends. Okay. Can I work on this? Do you want me to work on it, or should I leave it alone? What do you think? Send me a deal Alright

Alright, I'll work on that And I'll get back to you, Francis For now, enjoy the victory, my friend So happy for you I was on with Jake Paul on Saturday We did a broadcast, we were going crazy Did you see that clip? I saw some clip

I saw some clip of you yesterday I was swearing, I'm not very professional in that moment But I saw some clip. I saw some clip yesterday. I was swearing. I'm not very professional in that moment, but I was too happy for you. It was the emotion. It was coming out. I'm sorry if that offended someone, but it was nice.

It was good. You were on the show. You weren't on the TV, so it's okay. All right. Fair enough. Thank you so much, Francis. So happy for youis so happy for you uh so happy for your family well done you did it again every time people question you every time

they doubt you every time they say it's too much you continue to prove us otherwise uh it's it's really an honor you know yeah and you know what like and then i heard i I saw that last, this time around and I was like, this sound, this looks like, this looks, looks very familiar. It looks like a situation that I previewed in. Like, I don't know, I always come out in the situation that I'm the least expected. Yes, you did it again. I thought this about a fight, but then I'm like, when now that you're thinking about it, it might not work that way. But here we go. You work out this time too.

Yes. Like the great Roy Jones once said, y'all must have forgot. You did it again, Francis. You did it again, my friend. Enjoy and thank you as always for coming on. It's always a pleasure and an honor to talk to you and to cover your career is one of the great honors. So thank you so much, my friend. Enjoy, and thank you, as always, for coming on. It's always a pleasure and an honor to talk to you and to cover your career is one of the great honors.

So thank you so much, my friend. Thank you, Ariel. Thank you for everything. Thanks to all the fans listening. All right, we'll talk to you soon. There he is, le prédateur, Francis Nganou. What a guy, what an inspiration, what a legend. Back on top, the baddest man on the planet. The lineal MMA heavyweight champion. He did it again. He said it was a little bit too much. He was biting off more than he can chew. Ah,

the featherweight champion, the former featherweight champion of Bellator moving up to 155, undefeated at 155. All right, Bobby King, great. Well done. But it ain't AJ McKeon. What happens this close to stopping him in the first round and then en route to a fight that I thought was very easy to score. One judge disagreed, but who cares? He's well on his way, two in a row now, in the new PFL Bellator era of his life. He is big news, Paul Hughes,

and he is kind enough to join us right now. There he is, Paul Hughes in the house. Congratulations, my friend. Biggest night, biggest fight, biggest win of your career, 48 hours later. Has it sunk in yet? I don't think it's quite sunk in, to be honest. Usually it takes me a good night or two sleep for it to sink in. I'm still kind of high on adrenaline, so I'm not quite there.

I'm still kind of in a haze, but yeah, it feels good, bro. It feels good. That's a good kind of haze. That's the haze i i bet you you dream of as a fighter i was talking to your manager tim simpson yesterday as we were trying to find you to to confirm your presence on today's show and he's like you know uh the irish love to party they like a drink or two and in riad you can't have a drink so perhaps a couple of drinks were had once you left a couple of full fat cokes in Riyadh. That was it.

I'm actually in Dubai here at the minute. So I'll have a couple of pints over the next couple of days. I'm sure to make up for it. Love it. So let's go back to when this was announced. Cause I saw the comments from Dan Hardy, who said when he initially heard that this was the plan. All right. Yeah,

I love it. But is it a little too soon for Paul? We got him in the tournament coming up. Maybe let's get him a nice win two and oh go into the tournament um was this something you pushed for was it something they brought to your attention initially how did it all come about this is the aj fight yeah yeah yeah sorry but you mentioned the season there i got confused yeah it came about it was just a random text aerial from mike cogan himself to see if i was available obviously this pay-per-view was coming up and they needed to get big names on there and big fights i was available i was of course telling

everybody you yourself included on your show in new york that i wanted to fight the best guys and aj was available so that was the fight that they presented to us of course that's exactly what we wanted so it was a no-brainer to sign that and I think it paid off well did you feel like like obviously you're confident obviously you believe in yourself that's very clear and I wouldn't suggest it was one-sided because it was a hard fought victory and I know you were you were you were close to stopping him in the first. But in terms of your belief, your confidence heading into the fight, especially as you got closer, as you were there in Riyadh,

did you have a strong sense that this would be a good night at the office for you? Yes and no. I'm always confident in my abilities. I'm always confident that I abilities I'm always confident that I can just fight my heart out I didn't have the best camp and I'm not going to lie that added to the nerves, it added to the pressure

usually you can out train nerves and pressure in some regard but I didn't have the best camp and I couldn't out train that at times so when it got to fight week I definitely felt the pressure now I am very good at flipping the switch when it gets to that I guess last five

days when you're over and you're doing the thing I was always confident that when I'm always confident that when the cage door closes regardless of what has happened in the build up you put me in against anyone in my way in the world I'm confident that I win that fight every time like I genuinely have that confidence and belief in myself i believe just in my instincts i believe

in my just in my fighting instincts to win fights you know so when it got then to fight day it was just like no remember who you are you're the man you called for this time to prove it what was wrong with this training camp what would happen i'm not i'll not get into specifics i'm not getting specifics to be honest there okay uh can i ask it was like injury stuff or was it personal stuff uh both okay unfortunately okay um that's the way i don't want to get into it. But look, it happens to us all. We must, as I talked about with my team after, this truly is what separates the best is being able to perform on nights of adversity

and not perform when you're not at 100% and still pull it out of the bag and still go in there. Biggest step up of my career and smash it out of the park just curious last thing on this to the point where you thought you might not fight nah i was always gonna fight okay um and and and luckily for you you did because what a performance and you know what i loved especially early on and we saw throughout the fight uh you you clearly did your homework because it seemed like you were timing that knee time and again.

You almost got him a couple of times. You saw that beforehand as you were planning. Ariel, I had a full YouTube episode scheduled, edited, ready to post for my post-fight interview. I was ready to say, I knocked him out with the right knee. Everybody go look at my YouTube right now because I've just posted a video breaking down exactly how I'm going to say I knocked him out with the right knee everybody go look at my youtube right because I've just posted a video breaking down exactly how I'm gonna knock him out unfortunately I didn't get the knockout with it but as you're playing the clips there it

oh my god it got so close so many times now I did catch him with it with the flying knee which whenever I dropped him straight after that but there was one knee in that first round area that would have killed him it just zoomed past his face and i remember being in the cage and going oh that was so close like i just felt it was past but look i got close um as i said to you about my fighting instincts i I really, really trust in myself and my instincts. Yeah, I was able to find every single shot that we looked for, to be honest. How much more time do you think you needed in the first? I think he was done. You think so?

I think he was holding on. I just broke the grip of his hands, and I was just about to posture and start landing the strikes. He was done. It was 100% done. His eyes rolled to the back of his head he still wasn't right coming out in the next round like so oh should have got him out of there should have got him out of there your your your thoughts when you hear one judge scored it for him in that moment that's madness like it's madness i i don't even know where to begin there

i mean sure we see this every single weekend in mma with like it's no different there's no point in me starting this big whole shenanigans and it is what it is mma judging just unfortunately it's just not incredible you know but does does your heart sink at that in that moment i mean it's all happening fast they're reading the scorecards but like i couldn't believe it. Well, look, the energy of everyone I was talking to, people were congratulating my coaches. They were congratulating me.

So I was like, oh, I clearly won this. I mean, there's no question here. And then I heard the split, and I thought they were going to – when I heard the split, I looked down at the color of my gloves, and it gave me like a flashback to whenever I fought Jordan McChennney's the first time and they robbed me of that and I remember looking at the gloves seeing red and they said in the blue corner and I just I thought it was happening again you know but thankfully it didn't uh you were you were fired up I loved it like even even before you got a chance to actually speak into the microphone we could hear you through the camera you were so fired up what what was the uh the feeling in that moment what were the emotions why were you so amped why were you so excited the victory is big but like it felt like you just

couldn't wait to get stuff off your chest yeah i mean look i guess it was a a bit of release from the camp you know as, wasn't the best. Definitely was not the best. I mean, I was gassed after the first round. I mean, we can get into that after, but I was completely gassed and I never get tired. It was a release, a promotion, and then also a realization.

You've done it. Like, you've shocked the world. Like, I do remember waking up on fight day and going, you're fighting aj mckean tonight holy shit like this is massive this is massive and then it was just that moment was like you have done it everything that you've said in this build up everything that you've said this week has happened you're gonna shock the world and then yeah that's what i've done so it felt good man felt good it felt like it feels like I've almost made it, you know?

When you say almost made it, why do you say almost? Oh, well, I mean, I'm only starting, you know? I'm only, obviously, very big fights on the horizon there. But in terms of made it on the world stage, you know, this is the first one for me on the big stage. A difference in terms of how you felt leading up to the debut in in dublin as opposed to this one definitely uh definitely a hard magnitude fight higher pressure and all facets and then as mentioned the count it just yeah it was

a different build up you know the reason i asked that is because i would imagine your debut major promotion very close to home would bring maybe even more anxiety more pressure but you felt like this one was greater this was definitely greater and it was the caliber of the opponent the the size of the card the production everything behind everything behind it. And a Francis and Gally pay-per-view, you know. And with my fight, it probably was one of the most hyped of the night. So, yeah, look, out of pressure, but I delivered. You mentioned gassed after the first round. Why? Because the camp, the cut, was not ideal.

It just wasn't. I don't get tired. I'm always the fittest guy in the room. And yes, albeit the end of the first round was intense and it was hard scrambles, almost knocked him out. It was intense, but I remember standing up for the second round and going, oh my God, you're so tired. And I remember just looking and edgy the keys in

front of me and i'm going i have to fight him for another two rounds and then i was like well fuck it big down let's go have you ever felt like that before uh only once and it was actually the same fight i mentioned earlier the first fight that was the only time i felt like that so what did you do like for similar reasons sorry to cut you off for similar reasons so what do you do like you have 10 more minutes against this guy supreme athlete

where do you find the strength and look that good I mean the boxing was phenomenal it just years years and years of hard work you can just deep killer instinct and fighting of hard work you can just deep killer instinct and fighting ability, I just have that

dog in me, I really just do I can rely on that and it can get me through these fights if all else fails and that's what got me through it you know it was still a high enough pace fight I got some moments where I was able to get my rests whenever AJ was shooting on me and putting that wrestling pressure,

but I'm also very, very good at recovering when I can in fights. I just had a dig deep barrel. It was hard. I have a very good game face. Nobody really noticed, but I tell you what, I had a dig deep. How bad was the cut compared to your previous ones? The actual last bit of the cut usually is always around the same because I am very disciplined

when it comes to all of that. It's more so how I entered fight week. Do you know what I'm saying? How I entered into the week where I felt really the detriment. By the way, just here, look, I'm not, I don't want to take too much into this. It is what it is.

No, no, I get it. But these fighters happens all the time. For sure. No, but I mean, you want, so it's not like you're making excuses after a loss, but it's always interesting to know what you had to overcome and get through to get to the victory. I'm just curious, the experience fighting in Riyadh, what was that like for you? First time? Have you ever been there before? I know it's first time fighting there, but ever been there prior?

Never been there before. Had a great experience. We did our initial face-offs the first night on the Wednesday. We went to some old castle where I think Saudi was formed by the Saud family. And that area was incredible, like properly, properly mind-blowing. So that was probably the highlight of the trip for me. Other than that, you know, we're just, it's more so media obligations the whole time.

You're not really out and about. Right. So it was a very good experience. The arena was fantastic. Just the whole production, the press conference everything they'd done was absolutely top tier we were treated so well throughout the week so fantastic experience

all around I was discussing with Tim, also debating with your friend and the man who is I think the unofficial president of the Paul Hughes fan club Pete C. Carroll who's been talking about you for years and years. What a story he wrote on you and your journey on,

on our new website on crown.com and shout out to Claire Hughes. My daughter's name is Claire, but with the I I've never seen it spelled that way. C L A R E your mother, of course, she seems like a lovely lady. Oh, she's a saint and she's 100 watching this right now so

hello mom hello claire uh beautiful name i love it that's my daughter's name it's it's it's a wonderful name and i i love the whole story really uh pt did a phenomenal job and he's he's done a phenomenal job covering you over the years so uh shout out to him for that shout out to pt what a guy and here i also did mention congratulations on the new platform all of this is all fantastic it's and getting all the guys on with you all your mates that's something i find that i really really look at something like that and find inspiration because that's you know the kind of values and principles i like to to go with them my life is bringing people along with you so i really like what you've done there. I think that's incredible. It just

is a testament to your character as well. So congratulations on this impact on your platform. Thanks so much. I appreciate that. The reason I brought that up was there's an interesting, and it's a good dilemma, but there's an interesting dilemma in front of you now, because I understand the tournament's great and there's a a massive pot at the end of that rainbow but you seem very fired up about fighting usman or magomedov and you laid it out perfectly you know ireland versus dagestan too there's the offer to connor to come in your corner all that stuff like you can't script a better story if you're the pfl or bellator um and so right now two days later what are you leaning towards and can you

get both done is it possible to to get that fight and then go into the tournament what are we thinking i mean i i definitely wouldn't rule either of them out i mean i definitely sorry i definitely wouldn't rule the season out as well i mean that would be fantastic to go get a bellator belt and then go to get a pfl belt. That would be quite something. I mean, as you know, as I talked to you about whenever I was on your show live in New York, I'm sorry, I didn't tell you about it. You hinted at it. Yes.

I was comparing to Usman. I wanted to fight him for some time. I always knew when I was coming into this organization that that would be a huge fight. And he, of course, was the champion. And look, I look I mean to me it's completely a no-brainer I mean to do that in Dubai or in Belfast is one of the biggest fights that the entire PFL Bellator can do I mean you see already see the traction that it's doing online it's it's gonna be a huge fight like so if you had to pick between one or the other if you if you had to pick either

all right you got to commit to the tournament or you're going for for this title fight against usman what are you leaning towards i honestly i i mean i think i'm in an all right position after that performance with aj to i mean i i could do both like okay i if i could i i could maybe do both like it depends what pfl bellator want to do with me, of course. The Ousmane fight's massive. At the end of the day, who in their right mind doesn't want to make that fight right now after what happened Saturday night,

after what is happening on social media? So I guess we'll just have to see. Do you know if the brass is interested in this? Did they say anything to you afterwards? I'm not too sure. I'm not too sure exactly what people want. I just know what I want next. You know, it's, look, as I said there,

I'm here for the big fights. I'm here for the high pressure. I'm here to put it on entertaining fights, which I hope I did on Saturday. And I'm here to make money. entertaining fights, which I hope I did on Saturday. And I'm here to make money. So we'll see what happens. Any word from him or his team? Do you know if he's interested?

Do you know if he saw what you did on Saturday or said? I don't know if there's anything being directly from Usman. I know that he was watching and he said that he'll fight the winner. On pre-fight, I know that khabib was had re-shared a video of myself yesterday coming out of the cage or sorry on the way to the presser talking about or basically calling isman out and he shared it and tagged us when saying i guess something like you've got someone next or i don't know the russian it's just an instagram translation it was like he's, let's go or something.

So, I mean, it looks pretty clear to me that it's going down. That would be incredible. And you think Connor in your corner would be a possibility? Is there an arena big enough for all these characters? I mean, could you imagine it? Oh, my God. It would be incredible. I mean, you would need 200 extra security guards on that.

100%. But, I mean, could you imagine Ireland versus Dagestan number two? That's a great fight as well. You know, it's not just because it's Ireland versus Dagestan and you've got the whole history. It's a damn good fight. It's two guys in their prime going at it. Yeah, and of course, there's the tweet right there.

Can I read it for a moment? Because Conor did respond to your quote. Paul, my man, I will go to the arena and support 100% for sure. And if it kicks off, I'll be in there before you could even say the Nurmagomedovs are blank, blank, blank blank your team and corner have done a tremendous job with you they will take you all the way you've got this we are with you brother bring home the gold that's got to feel incredible yeah i mean look as i've said many times sorry just a much green brother as i've said many times this guy this guy is the greatest to ever do it.

He always will be. My fellow countryman. It always feels incredible whenever these sorts of interactions happen. Because, of course, he was such an inspiration for me to continue in this game and to reach a new height. So, yeah, if we can get him in the corner that would be that would be incredible uh he's not quite as famous as conor mcgregor but getting close uh you met cristiano ronaldo on saturday uh and i loved your post about meeting him just like yeah and uh you know to top it all off here i am with cristiano ronaldo what was that like

yeah that was that was very very cool bro i was a big united fan as a kid so grew up watching ronaldo to just spend a minute or not even a minute but just to get a photo and to to meet him is it's incredible you know it's absolutely incredible it was a nice chairing on top for sure yeah there's something funny on that because he came into the arena with during the first round of my fight and at this at the stage of the fight i was on top age being like half guard but we had just scrambled like big ground upon scramble scramble scramble scramble like a and we ended up in half guard for a second and then i thought i started hearing all these boos and i was like are people booming because i'm not striking them i mean i just got here i worked so

hard to get there then i was like for a second i'm gonna need to find some posture and start elbowing them here and then after the fight i found that everyone was shouting the suit that's amazing arena and i was like oh my god thank god that's hilarious because I was doing a watch along with Tyron Woodley in that moment and we too were noting and we're like booze already this seems a little bit much I'm glad that the Saudi fans aren't

you know as crazy as some of the American fans who start booing when it goes to the ground after four seconds that is I also noticed and you referenced this in the post fight press conference i think was there someone saying like some kind of chant that is irish you even you said it also in the interview like the i i don't want to do it and butcher it but someone was saying something like a a chant or something that you responded to it was free from desire it's just a song like a soccer chant. Oh, I know that song. Free from desire. But there wasn't like a, oh, or something like that,

that someone was doing to you? Not that I heard. Oh, okay. Nice, we noticed you hit there. No, I know, I was trying not to do it, but I know there was something that you said. It was some sort of like, you said it in the cage on the microphone,

and you were like, oh, I heard that guy. I heard that guy who kept saying it whoever you are yeah that's funny anybody that was fighting these shows would have heard this guy a million times i think he was so he was on chris cyborg's team okay anything i was doing all week like whether it was a way and whether it was a photo whether she just answered a question he would just go oh okay the whole time and i answered a question in the press conference and then they went to aj he answered a question and your man just went let's go aj oh i was like who the is that guy where is he and then after i won then my corner all just started screaming when I was 18. Okay.

Now it makes sense. All right. I thought it was an Irish thing, but apparently not. Now it makes sense. Are you in the UAE? Are you going to UFC this weekend? Yeah. Okay.

As a spectator, as a fan? Spectator. Okay. Okay. Just to show them what they could have had, right? Just to see, just to show them what they could have had, right? Just to be like,

you could have been in the big news business. I mean, I'm going down to enjoy the fights. I'm heading down with Tim, who you're talking to,

and Dan, because obviously they manage Max. So, the boys have sorted me out and I'm going to go down and enjoy a great

night of fights. Amazing. It's always fun to go to a fight, I would imagine, after you just had your own big fight, you win, and now you can just sit back and chill and enjoy the show, right? Yeah, I can't wait for it, just to literally be a fan, have a couple of pints, and to just enjoy high-level MMA, you know?

Incredible. Well, you are a part of that fraternity now. Incredible win, incredible performance. Well done, and i can't wait to see what do you think by the way last thing what do you think how do you think this plays out in 2025 you think the usman fight happens and then you go tournament i hope so but it's got to be usman next like i've heard that it could be very early next year the date so i mean that would allow me to potentially do both. As mentioned, it's whatever they want to do.

I'm just here for the big fights. I'm here to make money. And hopefully I keep delivering, you know. And that would be okay? If they say January, February, something like that, you'd be okay with a turnaround like that? Oh, yeah. Okay.

Yeah. I mean, I know we need to go, but I'm really not that satisfied from the other night. And it's not because, yes, I got the job done, but I'm not that satisfied because I didn't go in there at 100%. And I know that if I wasn't so gassed, I would have made it look way better. So I'm not satisfied in that regard because I need to right that wrong and I need to get back in there against someone like Usman and just really, really put in a better performance and to just know what out of the water this time like

no like no questions asked like get the finish and again show like i'm the real deal i personally think you have done that already but i i love the uh i love the challenge that you give to yourself and uh i like that you're not settling and you're not happy with what you did. Well done, though. Congratulations. Biggest fight, biggest stage, biggest opponent, and you came out flying colors. So congratulations. Enjoy your time over there. And thank you for joining us, Paul. Really appreciate it. Always a pleasure and an honor. And you know yourself. Yeah, you know yourself. Big news, Paul Hughes with a big win. Yeah, I love it. I love it. What a freaking big win for him. And what a performance on Saturday as well. What a performance against AJ McKee. That was incredible. And really, if you go back to the closing sequences of the first round, that close to stopping AJ. That close. Now, we move along still to come, by the way, Murab Dewalishvili and the man who won the UFC main event

this past weekend, Anthony Hernandez. But up next, you know, we were on our hiatus. We were in Europe, Olympics, this, that, and the other. We missed out on a couple of big things. We talked about them leading up, but we didn't get to pay it off. We didn't get to react. And so when I was putting together the list of people that we needed to catch up with,

Craig Jones was at the very top of the list. In fact, I had told you around a week ago that he was going to be on the show Wednesday, but he had to reschedule, and we'll get into why he had to reschedule. For now, though, CJI1 has come and gone, and there's all kinds of news in the aftermath. Let us speak to Big Craig Jones and see how it all went down. He is kind enough to join us from, what is this, a cave or something? Where are you right now, Craig? I'm in hiding in Colombia right now.

The after party continues. Okay. You are literally, is this a real background? Is this actual rock behind you or is this fake? It's in my Airbnb. Strangely enough, it's some uh in my abmv strangely some mountains somewhere wow i'll be interesting so it's like yeah why are you in columbia uh honestly just for the tourism you know get in touch with the local culture the columbian women sampling some

of the marching powder i would say sure sure and how long have you been there oh four weeks feels like a lifetime though the damage i've done to my body out there yeah um uh i i i saw that uh were you with uh luke rockhold in columbia yes luke came down here for his 40th birthday wow bastard. Bastard still looks phenomenal. So I'm trying to mess up his lifestyle so we can adjust how he looks a little bit. Yes, it seemed like quite the batch. It was a photo shoot, you know, with some young models, I would say.

This was actually straight after CJI. But something, and I don't know if you can see in the picture, lured us back to Colombia only a short four weeks later. I'm not sure. What is that? What what are you referring to I would say the company great company even though we don't really connect on the language sure yeah is his hand in your pants there what's going on yeah it is it is in my pants I don't think that's something that from the Turkish or wrestling that's really stuck with us here okay okay um so so uh last week i said uh and we'll get to cji and the news and all that stuff but um could i ask and and tell me you know i don't want to get you in trouble by the way i do i do love the uh the hillbilly look that you've got going on here you look like hillbilly

jim from back in the day with the overalls no shirt under this is a nice look does this does this fly in columbia are a lot of people looking like this well actually strangely enough this is a columbian brand called true because strangely many of the women down here that you'd have a true experience but yeah i wanted people to think i was down here working so i put on the the workers overalls okay well yeah you look like one of them i guess um you you so you told me that you were going to come on wednesday but then uh you had other plans you had a meeting right yes yes so this i mean it's a strange opportunity i posted when i was at uh pablo escobar's grave obviously just flogging the oscar and frank sunglasses and someone messaged me they're like i'm having lunch with

gloria escobar on wednesday And so just a random dude off Instagram. And I was like, I thought he was taking a piss. But then I messaged him and he sent me some photos of some stuff. And I was like, oh, maybe this guy's the real deal. Let's just take a chance on this. And then, yeah, we got to have lunch with Gloria Escobar, the older sister of Pablo Escobar. Unfortunately, there was no product sampling vacancies available in the family anymore. All legit, but yeah, it was obviously pretty cool. She's 76.

I think Pablo would be 75 now if he was alive, so it's cool. Here are some families. And there she is. There you guys are. Which is a testament to our lifestyle choices, I think. What did you guys talk about? does she speak english or do you speak spanish i don't speak spanish unfortunately but i've had a bit of luck here understanding what colombian people are saying because they speak so much with the body language i might hear one word and be able to deduce what the sentence is about but yeah i mean she's just talking about what Pablo was like. Some stories I can't really repeat.

Good to have lunch with her. I wanted to go back and film something with her, but definitely she's not interested in being in front of the camera at all. I think I don't want the attention. She used to tell me the family doesn't talk anymore. Stuff that you kind of expect. A lot of security?

No security. I was with security? No security. I was with this guy Jimmy. He was the driver. I think that was the extent of the security. I think it's probably been long enough. These enemies are dead now, I guess. But it's, yeah,

no security at all. Perhaps she will be part of the investment team for the next CJI? That would be good. Look, we had to scrap around in Ukraine last time, sell some missiles and whatnot. This time, I think it's going to be safer for me to find some investment out here in South America and also probably more cost effective come at the source. source okay so now that it is uh it is in the books um you had the event it came and went i was enjoying it from afar your assessment we're about two months removed your assessment on on how it all went down in las vegas in mid-august honestly i think it went too good really like everything came together at the last second like especially for day two. We really hit capacity and sold out. We did the entire thing basically in under three to four months.

Me and my business partner, Seth, we really had no event planning at all, but we connected with the right people in the industry and it all came together. They let me obviously say whatever I wanted to market this event. We had a great budget. It was just a matter of were people going to support at the last minute? Were the innovative rules going to work? And it kind of all came together. And then not only that, but even a lot of the, let's say, enemies, I mean, not real enemies, I just like taking the piss of these people, took some big losses that weekend as well um mo jasim who runs the adcc world

championships he stepped down as sort of running the event um i think he was fired but he said he stepped he stepped down uh marigali competed at abcc now this guy posted for weeks before how he was going to double gold he was talking about his victory in the past tense he lost second round to a purple belt and now has his comments limited on instagram so like when i say things went too well i kind of like uh i'm at a bit of a loss who to attack now you know what i mean like part of the motivating factor in my life is to tear down some of the big egos in the sport but uh they're all quite a bit pretty quiet after the events happened so it was about um i believe a week ago that that mo stepped down um and and you've been saying that that he was fired what is your what is your intel it's crazy because i remember when

you were in studio this this was like he was a major part of the the feud right uh with adcc yeah and so what is your intel telling you and and and also what was your reaction when you heard the news i mean honestly i thought it was pretty funny like uh the guy talks a lot of for someone that's really never competed in the sport never coached in the sport like he's like on the outside looking in like he's kind of a john dupont character a little less harmless i'd say like he makes jokes about sweeping some of the best guys in the world like uh in the sport he calls it a money sweep which is basically you get paid to take a dive in that uh particular exchange but yeah my first reaction was, but my sources were telling me

because he had been talking previous to him stepping down about how he'd potentially do it different for ADCC 2026. And I think that was a week before he stepped down. So in my opinion, you usually don't make plans for the next event and talk about them publicly and then step down usually you're making plans and they ask you to step down doesn't make sense for me is he is he challenging you to a fight to a boxing match or something this is like yeah this is fine it's like a bad 80s movie really because like he challenged me to a boxing match but he challenged

me in the karate combat pit which is like we which is two grown men are going to settle our differences with some fucking karate. I think it would be good. It would be a poetic ending. I thought the ending was him being fired, but us having a fight would be hilarious, especially with those fucking karate ropes. We couldn't make that shit up. Are you interested? Yeah, for sure. That sounds like a hilarious time. But again, I would like some money out of this.

You know, I've competed for most organizations enough times making no money. So if he wants to do the karate dance, I hope he'd get a good paycheck for that. He should donate his check to charity, and that charity being athletes that have competed for ADCC. Right. I did hear, though, that aren't you done, or at least you said you were done competing against men? I mean, this might fit the bill

based on some of the behavior we've had to deal with leading up to the event. So, like, I might make an exception in this particular circumstance. Okay. Do you think that he was,

if he was in fact fired, do you think he was fired because of what you did in August? I mean, I don't think he could be fired just for what i did i think it's sort of in regards to his reactions to some of the things i did doubling down on certain stances for me the thing was like the secret show money like my complaint was just can we pay the athletes more money i believe you have enough uh finances to pay the athletes more money i believe you have enough uh finances to pay the athletes more money because we got bruce uh bruce buffa michael buffa they got drums they got

performances fireworks they paid too many for t-mobile so i was always like just raise the prize money to be in line with the growth or growth of the sport but he said no they didn't have enough money to do that but then ultimately when a competitor like ourselves came along instead of raising prize money he gave secret show money uh basically to the athletes to keep them in his show and i'm like if you can pay secret show money you can raise the prize money like what are we talking how how how significant was this money i've been advised by my lawyer daniel mosley to say allegedly okay i think it's 2500 but i've heard some guys got upwards of a hundred thousand dollars which to me is just insane you know obviously there's some stars in the sport that stayed over there and you'd have

to imagine they got treated pretty damn well because there were some people that were legitimate favorites to win the million that decided to stay behind so it had to be pretty you'd have to either hate me so much to not be a part of what i do or be offered something pretty damn persuasive to turn down a million dollars a chance in a million do you have a breakdown because you went head to head with them like your attendance versus theirs your views versus theirs the money you generated versus theirs do you i i know i'm putting you on the spot here i didn't ask for this in advance but something tells me you have something do you know how you did compared to them the numbers i mean it's just like if you if you have seen flight pass or flow grappling broadcast an event as a streaming provider they

don't really tell the show involved what their streaming numbers are because that gives the show a lot of leverage in negotiations so i think mo jason really knows what his adcc world's viewing numbers are i think those numbers are reserved for flow grappling and i'll hang on to that to the bitter end because that gives them control the negotiations we did very well because i was obviously free on youtube no paywall so i think day one and day two cumulatively the total youtube viewing numbers would have been over uh four million at this point i believe wow but total impressions we we had all the analytics up there for total impressions and stuff it was huge so obviously yeah in my opinion online went very very well day one our crowd looked a little empty especially especially at the start of the day, because

we started like Friday 3 p.m. But as Friday went along, started to fill up, Saturday filled up. But one disadvantage for us was a lot of people had bought ADCC tickets over a year in advance, planned flights, hotels, and planned for this. We threw the curveball at the last minute and did a Friday, Saturday. So a lot of people made that Saturday without having to change their Friday travel plans. When you saw that initially, and I saw some people posting the pictures and trying to mock you, are you freaking out? I mean, a little bit. Obviously, you're going to be paranoid inside, but what we saw was pretty much the same thing on the saturday

480 cc which sort of put my mind at ease because alvin ran so late friday i think a lot of people slept in on saturday so they showed up in cc late but i think uh you have to have something that pretty damn special to get everyone in there from the opening match i mean even like when you watch the ufc you see those premium seats empty until the main card starts sometimes. Very hard to get people to watch the entire broadcast. But I sort of tailored it towards the Friday because we had the heavy guys in the morning

and the lighter guys at night. And really, the out under 80 kilo division was probably the best division the sport of grappling has ever seen. So by staging that at the end of day one it kind of was like the main card for us and really by the time those boys started uh wrestling the stance really started to fill up now you also donated a bunch of money to charity right in the end how much yeah so we donated half a million US dollars to tap cancer out.

But it was sort of like there were three people donating there. There was CJR, Richard Byrne, who used to run Kasai Grappling. He's still involved in sort of this Kasai events. He matched our donation. And a guy choosing to remain anonymous matched it. So together, we were able to donate half a million to cancer research. Wow. Then we donated to my friend that runs sort of a jiu-jitsu gym in Indonesia, in Bali. So together we're able to donate half a million to cancer research. Wow. Then we donated to my friend that runs a sort of a jiu-jitsu gym in Indonesia, in

Bali. He really helps out the local communities out there, Academy Christos. We filmed something with him that's going to be released soon. We released part of it, but released the whole sort of documentary thing soon. We're able to donate 50,000 to him. And obviously my memory is a bit shaky from my time out here but also 50k to the brazil floods which was gabby garcia's uh charity of choice and we're going to donate some more to ukraine coming up uh to we haven't made that donation

yet it's crazy how much like logistical paperwork and what a nightmare after the show is. Mainly for my business partner, I disappear, but he has to do the background stuff. By the way, speaking of Gabby, what a scene with you and Gabby, you take off the pants, all that stuff. What was that experience like rolling with her? I mean, honestly, the best part for me about the whole show, and i think a lot of people for them as well was like uh we made we kind of did make a mockery of what gabby represents to the sport but ultimately had a happy ending because she's often been seen as the bully beating up smaller women and now for her to face off against the dude even though it's a smaller dude man versus woman match it was kind of like a poetic

ending for her because i've seen her be booed by 10 000 people at adcc for winning a match so here she got really celebrated by um the entire crown entire jiu-jitsu community and they kind of felt bad for how that poorly uh criticized her or judged her in the past um she seems i mean you tell me you know her very well she seems like a lovely person in the sense that she's game she's uh she knows what's going on and she's down to um to partake i feel like there's something there between you two am i crazy i feel like there's a there's a chemistry there am i nuts because i see a twinkle in your eye in her eye am i nuts here i mean that's what i said after about the 20th time i woke up next

to her but i really i'm not sure yet i'm going to make that public commitment yet okay gabby's gabby is an in-demand woman like a lot of people might say oh it's a big woman it's a jacked woman they're not really interested but like that is a woman that gets a lot of male attention. I won't even give away too many details because she might kill me, but even some UFC champion level attention. Wow. Okay. By the way,

how much did she weigh in this match? How much do you think she weighed? We couldn't get her on the scales. That just couldn't happen. I think we tried to. I've seen people on other shows try to get on scales as well. That's tough. That's tough.

She does not want to. What do you think? Wait. I mean, just by rolling with her, I mean, I would think minimum 350 pounds. Wow. And what were you? I would say 175 with shoes on. Okay. Incredible.

And this is something you'd like to keep doing, competing against other women. Yeah. I mean, honestly, I think I've started at the very top, the highest level, most intimidating woman. But if there are any challenges around the world that seek to take on the intergender champion yes together for cji too i love it that's the career i deserve some andy kaufman level sporting achievement i was you know what i'm sorry for for doubting you i was wondering if you knew where the intergender champion idea came from andy kaufman made a great career being the intergender champion. You know what? How old are you? 33. 33. Respect. Respect, Craig. I didn't think that you had it in you. I didn't

realize you were such an old soul. I am. I am an old soul. You know, I mean, yeah, Kaufman started that. I want to just continue that legacy. Is there someone... It's got to be a bigger, scarier woman. Is there? Have It's got to be a bigger, scarier... Is there?

Have you found one? I've been looking at cheap bars all around South America for the right taker, but still no worthy challenge yet. When you were doing all this, like, were you getting...

You told me when you came in studio to announce all this, like, you were getting some messages, things like that. You were both in Las Vegas going las vegas going head to head like were you getting any threatening stuff well we i mean we did we got some death threats nice definitely okay the other event organizer threatened to kill me too and then he went offline for a while but uh he sort of made a public apology and moved on from it.

We had some behind-the-scenes death threats that I can't really talk about, but nothing that I felt was too serious. I mean, I just went to Ukraine. I think next week I'm going to Venezuela. So when they're throwing death threats out, I think I put myself in enough danger to not be too fearful of that. The big question is, CGI2, it will happen, yes?

Will happen. When will it happen? I can't say yet, but we're hoping for an annual event. We're coming close to announcing something. Really, I want to be patient with it because I want it to be better than the last one. That's what's important to me. I don't want it to be just this one hit wonder, and then we go back to putting on regular boring last stupid two events. Because most of them are absolutely boring.

I want to recapture the same excitement we had for the first one and blow it up to what we were doing with that first one. Capture the same magic. Like MetaMarks had their first event. During the first event, they showed the trailer that it was like eddie bravo the spoiler gracie too so like they really hit the next show really good obviously they had some financial troubles but uh that's the type of energy you want to maintain so so most likely it's a it's a yearly thing it's not every quarter or six months or something like that yeah every year i mean depending on the funding uh options we have available to us depending on what escobar is offering to give us here

could determine how often we do it but yeah i would not say more than every six months just because the amount of work it is and i like kind of having it not too regularly like i miss back when you'd have to wait a month for another UFC card and you'd be so hot. Obviously, it's great now to have something every weekend, but I think part of what made ADCC special so much is that they had to

wait so long between events. I wouldn't want to do a monthly or really quarterly. I'd want to at least have some time in between. Correct me if I'm wrong. I'm not an expert when it comes to this field agcc is not every year right so next year you wouldn't go head to head no we wouldn't go head to head with them but depending on their behavior and how polite they are with me and the athletes who knows what 2026 holds you know how the relationship's going behind the scenes if you do it on the same day again.

Okay. Would you like to? I think it's entertaining, especially because all the athletes really got to watch both events because there was very little actual crossover, which just sort of marketed that way. So doing it the same weekend means the fans, especially more affordable for them,

don't travel to Vegas once that year. So I'm happy for them to watch both shows. I make a lot of jokes, but still supportive of the ADCC. You teased something on your Instagram today that you were going to make an announcement pertaining to ADCC. What's that? Well, I mean, I don't know if we can talk about this yet. Potentially some things behind

the scenes you know maybe there's been offers thrown out maybe i feel too qualified for the job now but we can't officially announce anything yet what do you mean can't officially announce you were just on your instagram saying you were going to announce something like 30 minutes ago you know the game you know the tricks of the trade. Are they trying to bring you over? I mean, who knows? I think if enough people send him an angry email, you never know what they will do to get that to stop.

Yeah. I could run ADCC as well. Seems like an easy job based on who did it in the past. Are people hitting you up? I want to be a part of it i saw someone say to me book brendan chubb versus nate diaz at the next one they i don't know if you saw that back and forth brendan chubb challenged him to a grappling match last week did you see that i'm interested but only a few commentators i grabbed my man yeah sign me up i'm in i'm in if you make that match happen, I'm in. Honestly, anything entertaining

enough like that would be amazing, but Nate Diaz would probably accusingly attack him before we go to the grappling stage. That's cool. I feel like you'd welcome that. Part of the drama. Who knows? Maybe Brandon Schaub does what I did to Gabby.

He throws a little kiss in there. But have people, have stars hit you up and said I want in on the next one. I saw what i did to gabby he throws a little kiss in there but have people have have stars hit you up and said i want in on the next one i saw what you did it's impressive i mean i would say yeah definitely but also most people were messaging me when they saw the million dollars you know that's something that made me realize that you the like ufc or high level men they guys aren't always even the famous ones aren't paid a huge amount of money because a million dollars for a grappling tournament, they want in.

Right. Very interesting. So I think it's a testament to someone's payday in the MMA field is how eager they would be to test themselves for a million dollars. I want DJ on the next one. He's a geek guy. Yeah.

DJ's a geek guy. So. DJ is a Giga. So what? You don't think he could do it? If he would do it, we'd throw him in there. Can you do a, can you do a G match for him? I mean,

who cares? You do your own rules. True. Who would he challenge though? Brandon Shaw? Gordon Ryan. Gordon. You guys are cool, right right Are you guys okay now

Rock solid Rock solid friends I would say our relationship Has never been better Did he send you some congratulations Some nice messages afterwards We did have a minor Exchange afterwards

And we really He hasn't hit me up at all, really. Actually, when the team immediately split up, we got some angry messages into a group chat, which would be funny to read, actually. I think I started a group chat. But ever since then, nothing. Because he knows whatever he sends me,

I'm going to turn it to some material. So I think, I'm trying to think. He messaged me straight after and he said, I just want you to know that I was still the highest paid grappler this weekend. And I said, I'm pretty sure I said, congratulations, buy your wife's boyfriend something nice. And we kind of evolved to that level. I mean, if he was paid more than the CJI champions,

then I would probably be even more disappointed with mo jasmine adcc that they would pay someone that much money while the prize money is ten thousand dollars for division right all right um well i guess that's not happening uh but you did go back to australia so you went back to see the family afterwards yep went back to see the family afterwards it was like coming back from a tour of vietnam i imagine that was flat i believe that i was still alive i think yeah was this a surprise here what we're seeing here did did you did your mom know surprise yeah honestly we what did we do we we had the event we went to uh columbia for a week partying that's

we saw the photo with luke so i think and then i surprised them with a trip back to australia which i mean it's a fucking long way to be honest but i think i was just surprised i survived columbia when's the last time you saw these members of your family i would say 18 months to two years wow why so long have you taken a flight to australia yeah twice it is long but i mean that's that's that's your blood that's true that's true i try to fly them to me sometimes but i don't even know where the fuck i'll be next week makes the scheduling quite hard by the way you once told me like you were you were in austin and then you went to thailand and then you had to go to corner vogue on like an hour's notice like you don't seem too worried about flights and things like that no i think i mean that's why xanax was invented really airplane experience like

you haven't have xanax economy is business class that's my opinion anyway but it's fucking tough to do these flights so brutal on the body that's why i've been in columbia for four but it's fucking tough to do this fight. It's so brutal on the body. That's why I've been in Colombia for four weeks. It's obviously brutal on the body anyway, but it has been good to be in one time zone, one location, such an extended time. By the way, to pour you out, Max, this weekend, is Volk going to fight the winner?

You probably know more than me. You probably know more than me. I don't pry too deeply into it. I just wait for the call, jump on the plane and ride the coattails but i would imagine that that is probably set up i'm hoping that something lined up for spain maybe in the future does that mean obviously right it was the hype train you know i'm so i'm super excited this why it's gonna be fucking sick to watch this yeah no it's a great one but you saying Spain, does that mean you think Ilya wins? Oh, I don't think so.

I don't know. I'd probably lean more towards Holloway, but who knows. But I'm just saying it would be cool to have that rematch in a destination like that. Oh, yeah. Okay. Fair. As far as you're concerned, any competitions coming up? Are you doing anything on the schedule? Honestly, thinking about throwing the Gi back on.

Okay. So maybe it's you versus DJ. That would be a fun one. He should have the advantage there. He's a seasoned Gi grappler of life. And I like the weight disadvantage he has as well. Sure. Would that be this year?

Not you versus DJ, but you competing in a gi. It's tough, you know. Obviously, first and foremost, I couldn't do IBJF because they drug test me. And then, gone. Is that an accomplishment? But if I were to do another show, here's the problem now. Because I promote my own show. We did CJI.

So part of me is like, do I do it on another show, support another streaming platform that sort of really can give us much support? Or do I wait and do it on my own sort of promoted events? And really, I lean towards the latter sort of situation. I agree with that. I think that's smart. By the way, when you say the drug test would be an issue, is that because of recreational drugs

or performance enhancing drugs? Would have been the PEDs, but I'd like to think that the performance enhancing and decreasing drugs find an equilibrium of even playing field for my opponents here. That's, I mean, that's my logic anyway. Because you were going up against Gabby, any special concoction for that

one? Honestly, I try not to take more than 12 milligrams of Cialis because it gives me a headache, but Gabby is the type of woman that you throw an extra eight and then you've got an accident. 20 milligrams. Okay.

Okay. Fair enough. Fair enough. Fair enough. Stay safe out there. How long are you staying there for? Honestly, he decided this morning that I'm going to fly to Venezuela

in seven days and teach some jiu-jitsu out there. So let's fingers crossed. Stay safe out there. When's the last time you slept in your actual bed, in your apartment or house? I took my house into an Airbnb,

so that thing's long gone. Okay. If you don't go back home long enough, not a hotel bed, in an underground bunker in Columbia kind of feels pretty damn comfortable. Insane. This is your actual Airbnb.

Yeah. I'll be careful what we show you. It was built in. Wow. All right. Definitely stay safe. That is incredible. It seems like a fun experience.

We appreciate you coming on. We appreciate you stopping by. And congratulations. It was a lot of fun. I was watching it from afar. We appreciate you stopping by and congratulations. It was a lot of fun. I was watching it from afar. I was very impressed and I can't wait for the second one. Keep us posted. I want in on that match.

That one, that one you, you offered. I want in. Oh, you're in. We don't have to work around that. How much organization,

the Olympics you were busy with last time. Yeah, listen, you know, I didn't want to bring it up, but I was a little busy, but no Olympics next summer. So I'm free and clear.

Awesome. You're in. You're in. For the homeless cats, cornering idea. Thank you, Craig. Congrats. Appreciate it. Talk to you soon. What a guy, Craig Jones. Always great to chat with him. A unique individual. I enjoyed watching. I've said it before i'm not i'm i'm fascinated by the jiu-jitsu community and i'm i'm fascinated by the characters and the drama and all

this stuff i'm not someone who follows it on a day-to-day basis like i would say mma or boxing um but i think it's it's an amazing thing what he's done. And I give him a lot of credit going up against the machine like that. Incredible. All right. Speaking of the machine, let us talk to the man who won the UFC men's bantamweight title a little over a month ago. What a performance.

What a win. Back at the Sphere. Noche UFC. A story, years in the making, an inspirational story in its own right. He comes to America from Georgia, comes to New York, works in construction, does what he has to do, sets his sights on a big dream, part of a team that is no stranger to winning titles, has to fight contender after contender after contender after contender, and then he finally gets his chance, he wins. And then what a scene it was when he came back home as champion. We're talking, of course, about the pride of Georgia himself, Marab Dawalishvili.

There he is, the man. How are you, Marab? Thank you for joining us. Thank you for having me. I'm doing great. How are you, Murab? Thank you for joining us. Thank you for having me. I'm doing great. How are you? I'm doing amazing. And it's so great to talk to you. And I'm so happy for you, as I said. So, so happy what a story yours is and what an accomplishment. I've seen you all over the world in the last month. Can you even describe what life has been like for you since you won the belt a month ago? Of course, changed lots of things. And, of course, it was a long time coming.

But I'm still the same guy. And, of course, wherever I go, people show me love, respect, and now I'm a champion. They treat me different, but I'm still the same guy and the goal is the same. But of course, man, I made it. History made and now I'm champion. And yeah, like, I mean, it was hard to dream a couple years ago. Everything, if I will ever become champion. But today here we are, I'm a champion. And now I'm on top of the world. When you allowed yourself to dream of what life would be like as a champion, did it feel like this, or is this

even better than you thought? Actually, to be honest, I want to be better. I want to have more time and do more active stuff. I want to visit more countries, and I want to do

lots of good things, but it's very hard to do technical stuff. I have to answer all my phones and call and make... I want to do lots of good things now, I'm a champion, but it's very hard to do it because I need people who can help me to do good things, especially first in my country and other countries too. I want to be better. When I was thinking to become a champion, man, I don't know. Life is so good for me, for sure.

Right now, I'm a champion. But like I tell you, I'm still hungry. And I have even big goals ahead of me. But history made. I'm a champion. And I'm set up forever. I'm good and I have to ask you Murab what a scene

it was when you came home to Georgia that was unbelievable man were you expecting that were you expecting that kind of reception I know my country love me and they always show me respect support love and

everything else. Georgia made me, Georgia raised me and who I am, I'm Georgian and I'm just one Georgian guy. But yeah, once I get in my country and I feel it was everything was different, man. Because especially I don't even tell government to organize this or something. We just make Facebook status or something, you know, with my sponsor and all country came out. And he was like, once we come out in the airport and people were waiting there and they were so excited and so happy.

Everybody wants to take a picture or just say and just tell me to congratulations. And I was on top of the bus, right? And we were driving to the city, and the cars were stopping and peeping, and the people were screaming, the shaking hands, and the kids were chasing us, running. Everybody wanted to jump on our bus. People from the window from the apartments they was like like a wowing hands and like it was crazy experience

when I I don't feel anywhere as more than my country when I went my country I realized I am a real champion now because first I realized I was champion then I wrapped the belt and when I looked my belt and now I got this it's mine I realized it's my belt and I cannot control my motion and like maybe first two minutes I was like maybe one minute only one minute I was like wearing motion, I cannot control my motion. And then the second time hit me once I come out from airport and I see there's so many people.

And in Tbilisi when I was and celebrating with my people and everybody, especially lots of kids outside and they're waiting for me and these people happy for me and they want to celebrate with me and they're happy for me. That was, I cannot describe man, this is like, I was feeling, I was grateful and I'm grateful for support Georgian people give me and the people give me around the world. It was unbelievable to see the hero's welcome that you received. And I couldn't help but think you probably left from that airport, returned home via that airport countless times. You left to go chase a dream in America. The guy who left initially to come to New York,

could he have ever imagined that one day you would come back and land there and this is the reception that you would get with police, with people? It seemed like thousands of people. There's a guy on a chariot over there with the horses following you. This is absurd. Yeah, the guy came by himself with the horses the horses he was telling me please come to my horse i i came from the far i i bring my horses from the like a like a couple hundred kilometers he was just riding himself nobody asked him to come and uh i said bro i can't they will the people

will jump on us and they will stall me and then it's not safe. I wanted to go actually but the people who was with me they told him please we cannot let you go there because it's not safe and you got to be on top of the two floor bus because people, everybody wanted to just jump on me. And to answer your question, no, man, I wasn't even dreaming about this when I was coming to the U.S., you know.

I have a goal to represent my country outside of my country, and I wanted to do my best when I came to New York. But like I tell you many times, I wasted my first year, and it was hard, man. I had to start working construction, and I even retired one year from MMA and I was heartbroken a couple of times and I was asking myself questions if it was worth it to continue world you know like I'm sure I'm sure I give lots of people motivation and I inspire a lot a lot of people because yeah I'm not coming from rich family or something but I was just chasing my dream and I was working and I earned everything.

And same thing, I wasn't, I don't give anything. I earned everything and they can do same thing, you know, just work. And then step by step, follow the dream and work for your dream, work for your goal. And they will they will be they will become successful yeah and then over the weekend i see you with eddie hearn in uh saudi arabia i saw you with turkey al sheikh uh what what conversations did you have with turkey in particular i'm curious about i saw a photo of you too yeah he's uh he's cool man and he told me to you should fight here in in in in rehat uh and i said you are the guy who can make this happen and i would love to fight here in rehat and i said you make this you make happen i will fight i would love to fight here and that's

um the main thing was this like he asked me to fight in rehat and i said i would love to fight here. And the main thing was this. He asked me to fight in Riyadh. And I said, I would love to. Just give me the date and I'm in. And he's just cool. And he invited me, actually. I think he sponsored UFC Noche. And he invited me in Rihad to do documentary. I was just going different places and UFC was filming.

And I had a great time. The hospitality here in Saudi Arabia is on top and they treat me very good. And it's a different culture, a different country for sure, and I'm glad I was there and I experienced it myself. I had a great time, and I would love to fight in Riyadh. Also, I met some famous tennis players. Yes, Carlos Alcaraz I saw, Martin Lawrence you were with as well. You were with a ton of famous people.

So it seems like life is treating you very well. Last week, Murab, we had Sean O'Malley on the show. And obviously we talked a lot about the fight. I just want to play you a quick clip of what he said about the fight and get your reaction. Okay. Okay. Here you go.

I'm doing everything I can do to get back in there. But you know, I want to make that walk again and I want Merab next. I know I'm better than him. I need to write that wrong. I think Miami would just be sweet. You know, I would like to go back to Miami and prove that one again,

rematch Merab. That's what I want. So he wants you in around March or April, he wants to rematch you. Are you interested in fighting him again next, your first title defense against Sean O'Malley? I mean, 100%,

man. When I saw first time he wants to do rematch, I said, let's fight November. I can't really fight November you know I can really fight even I'm here and doing I'm working with UFC I can fight him like next week I know he's he's not ready now but that's why I tell him to let's fight in November you know we know we already fought and I I know he's his game his

power everything and no problem you know I can I can fight him back and now I I know his game, his power, everything. No problem. I can fight him back. And now I will not kiss him and I will finish him. And I will not take care of him. I go easy on him the first time. So now this time I will just I will I will destroy him and but it's still I still love him you know like now I love him even better you know I like you easy on him Rob oh actually I wanted to finish him in the fifth round but when I took him down I was waiting to

show who was supposed to move and I either choked him or punched him hard and tried to finish him. Herdin told me to walk and I let go and changed the position and he told me again you gotta work and I let go what should I do and I let him get up and that's why it took me a long time to take him down again in the foot round and otherwise I was

gonna finish in the foot round but Herdyn made me to let go because he was keep telling me constantly you gotta work fighter you gotta work and I'm like working was a pretty he has to move I'm on top we go I take him down not he don't take me down you know he has to move but it's okay now this time I'm gonna try to finish him early no like I was I was trying to finish him fit round but doesn't work worked out that way and

this time I will finish him early so by you know he's saying now he's saying he wants to finish me or he will do better okay that's it's even interesting me more I mean if he if he will do it and if people are interesting I mean but listen I don't want people making this, I know, I'm sure you see also online, a lot of people talking shit. Hey, 2024, I fought Henry Cejudo in February. And three weeks later, I make weight again. I was backup fighter for Chito Vera and Shono Mali. And then I fought September again for the

belt and I think I make weight three times so now I'm a champion and then what I see every champion takes time and enjoy traveling and do business and I'm doing same thing and then usually i get if i get two times fight in one year it's very good in ufc so and then i already fought two times 2024 i wanna fight three times in 2025 so and that's my plan if if it's worked out, I don't know why people blame me. I don't want to come back in December. It's stupid. I'm a champion now and I want to take my time off. I want to enjoy my time. If UFC offers me Sean O'Malley, I would love to fight him. If UFC offers me somebody else, I will fight. I'm a champion now, and I'm not making, I mean, I don't know,

maybe some champion makes decision, but I don't care. They give me whoever is next contender, and I will fight. But my best option will be Sean O'Malley. But, hey, only if UFC wants me to fight Sean O'Malley, this way I will fight him. If not anybody else, we will see. There is lots of good fights coming up. Lots of contenders are fighting. You know who are fighting. So whoever will deserve, I will fight. So let me ask you this, because obviously after

the fight, it seemed like they wanted to do you versus Umar Nurmagomedov. But last week, we get a report, and I was hearing the same, that they're now trying to do Umar versus Song Yedong. Were you aware of this, and do you have any idea why Umar would be fighting someone other than you next? Actually, I have no idea why Umar fighting Song Yedong. I mean, for me, it's good. It's another test for him. And he has to prove,

I think, in my personal opinion, it's a good fight. But he was saying he's the next contender. UFC are giving him title fight. He was talking all the trash to me. And if he was number one contender, like he was saying, and if he was already fighting for the belt, I don't know why he's fighting again, but for the sport, it's good. He has to fight more because from time 15, he only fought Corey Sanhigan, and we all know Corey Sanhigan, he's not a wrestler. He has a hard time against wrestlers. Aljo finished him, and then he he lost against Omar but yeah Corey signing is good fighter but I mean you you you only

beat this guy and then you deserve title fight for me you need to fight more but yeah were they trying to get you to fight in December or January against him? Were they trying to pressure you to do that? Yes, UFC told me to fight him. And I said I will fight him either January or March. And that's it. That was it. now we might take out the other other fight so I don't know okay like I said now I don't know anything else you know I all I said you know I'm not January because yeah it's

a new year and it's a Georgian Christmas christmas and uh and i need i need the time you know i said february is good for me and much for me it's like and then i will go from there i like i said i wanna i wanna uh three fights in 2025 and um so and i'm ready but just to be clear if they offer you umar next you're saying yes yes, right? You're not ducking him. Yes. You have no problem. You will fight him. I have no problem.

Whoever UFC will offer me, I will fight. I never choose my opponent, and I'm going to continue the same. I never have an option like this to say I'm gonna fight him or him like you know i i never was like this situation before and i don't think any different now and and uh and also just to be clear you're available as of february so if they offer you him for the february pay-per-view or mart you'll happily fight him yes oh yes yes okay um do you think if his last name wasn't Nurmagomedov that they'd even be trying to make this fight i am sure 100 yes of course it's uh it's helpful very much uh he's uh he's uh umar Nurmagomedov, Khabib's cousin um on the field and it helps you know because that's why they pushing him there

they don't they don't they don't have Aljo like this you know because I'll do and to get the championship fight you know I think when when title fight was When the title was vacated after TJ Delisio got suspended or something, something happened, I don't remember. And then Aljo and Corey Sanger was number one contender guys, number one, number two. They don't give them title fight. They give Peter Jan against Jose Aldo. Aldo has to fight again. Same thing, you know my story, I fought three former champions before I earned a title fight.

But Umar, he wasn't fighting against top 15 guys and they give him number two guys so and then yeah but it's you know whatever man um uh you know he's a good fighter uh that's fine i'm i'm i'm i'm cool uh in the post-fight press conference i just wanted to ask you about this someone asked you about him being Russian, and then you said he's not Russian, he's Dagestani, and this seemed to upset some people. Why did you say that? That's true. But isn't Dagestan in Russia?

Yes. I don't understand what do you mean oh man those people are very sensitive when I talk to everybody it's true it's ok do you think it will get ugly

considering the history with Georgia and Russia and you have Dagestan involved do you think the build up toorgia and russia and and you have dagestan involved like do you think the build-up to this fight will get very ugly no like you know because um uh you know umar he's from dagestan and i have so much respect for dagestani people even i lost respect for umar umar gamedov for him personally but i of course, I have a respect Dagestani people and the Dagestan Republic and country. And I also have a respect Republic of Chechnya and country Chechnya.

And also there is other country Ingushetia we are we are really brothers Ingushetia and Georgia there are those there is the one country we never fought each other we was always helping each other and we always we always show the love each other and and then I will never, I will never, you know, for me there will be Chechnyan, Dagestanian and Ingushetian people and they're not Russian. That's, I will never, I don't know how to say. You know, so, you know, there is Russia country and there is all these republics. Okay.

By the way, when you went home, is it true that the government gave you like a million of the local dollars and then you donated it to a charity? Yes. So, they gave me 1 million larry and uh yeah so i'm i'm i'm donating uh to mma in georgia incredible we are in the process we are in process now yeah they're working some big projects and that's like 370 000 us dollars so dollars. So that's a very impressive thing. Well done to you. That's incredible. I did want to ask you about Sean.

He continues to say that he thinks he won the fight, that he watched it without commentary. He won three rounds. When you hear this from him, what is your reaction? Yes. He won this fight. And listen, I don't have reaction, I'm not mad. I want to promote this and more people believe this and I want to fight him because, like I tell you, I will not kiss him this time. I will try, you know, I will try because I like him.

And sometimes, you know, but this time I will finish him. You know, I will finish the fight. I will finish business. I'm not going to listen to Hardin, you know, and I'm going to go for the finish, you know. So, and, yeah, I mean, I'm not mad when i see this you know it's okay okay and so i wish it must happen i wish sure how do you feel this whole story plays out with you like in your heart who do you think you fight next and when I have no idea. Like I tell you, I tell the same thing to UFC. I'm ready for February and then, of course, March, whatever they want.

I'm ready. Not January, but I'm ready. I'm ready for February, March, April, whatever they want. I'm ready. And then whoever UFC wants, I'm ready for fight. I'm not saying it has to be O'Malley. I'm not saying, like you guys know, I said next I want to fight against Pigueiredo, but I'm not saying this one anymore. Whoever deserves, whoever UFC will choose, I will fight next. You know, it's like, because i'm not making decision ufc makes decision and i will i will

respect ufc's decision and i will i will take as another challenge i always take and you guys know i love challenges and i like i how you say that i'm ducking anybody or I'm scared of fight. You know, like I'm here for fight and I have an 11 fight win streak, guys, and I fought everybody. So, and I think I don't have to prove anything. You know, everybody knows. Real MMA fans, they know. They show me so much love, so much respect, so much support. And now today we have so many toxic people on the Internet

and the cyborg warriors, and they're talking shit for me or some other people, man. Like when I see people talking trash against Mike Chandler and Jamal Hill and my brother Aljamal Sterling. And I'm like, I realized they are fake, fake, fake people, man, and then like, just, they just wanna talk trash and they're toxic people. And I'm just, I'm trying to, I'm learning to ignoring them, you know, because the good people,

they're not gonna go internet and they're not going to talk shit. If they have some problems, they will come and they will face us or they will tell me in the street. That's it. If Umar does fight Song, who do you think wins? It depends. I don't know. I think Um umar was to win this fight you know if if the umar

this much good yeah umar was to win this fight yeah but you know we know it's a fight everything is possible and uh yeah okay and uh i i do believe you'll you'll be at ufc 308 to support your your fellow countrymen il Ilya Teporya. Are you going to be with him this week? Are you going to be helping him at all? Yes, I will watch his fight. I will be with him this week. I don't want to say I'm a professional fighter.

I love him. He's my brother. But he already has his team, his training partners. He has like a fight week. He's carrying weight now. And I'm only going to see him, support him. I'm not going to like jump his training camp and do something extra because, like, you know, I'm a professional guy. And then I will just support him as my brother.

And yeah, I mean, I will help Israel as a church. That makes sense. And what a time for Georgian sports with both of you winning, with the football team doing so well in the Euro. It's a great time to be a Georgian. And if we can end on this, Marab, if there is maybe someone out there who just moved from a faraway land and came to the United States now and has a dream of being a fighter and has a

dream of being a UFC champion, and it seemed so farfetched, just like it was for you about 10 years ago, and who thinks maybe it's not going to happen. He's not going to get signed. He's not going to get the fights. She's not going to get the fights, man or woman.

What would you tell to that person right now? Who's hanging on by a thread, who thinks it's too big of a dream and his family is maybe telling him it's time to come to reality and do something real and get a real job and get real pay and all this stuff. If there's that person who deep down wants to do it and believes that they can do it, but maybe right now it doesn't look like it's going to happen, what advice would you give to that young fighter?

Never give up. Please keep chasing your dream and every day do little step, little training. Grow, grow up. Learn something. Get better. And the right time will come. You have to be right time, right where and an opportunity will come. And especially today, it's only take a little bit, you know, like.

And yeah, keep chasing your dream. Never give up and everything is possible. Yes, just believe yourself. Don't listen to other people. Only believe yourself and keep training and you will get better in the physical, mentally and nobody can break you and nobody can take away from you because you will earn everything else and so man everything is possible man I just when you do hard work and you you will come stronger physically and mentally and nobody can beat you and then you will you will truly mean you will end and you will make your goal.

Love it. Well done, Marab. Congratulations again. Thank you so much. I know it's late over there where you are. So thank you for joining us. Enjoy everything that comes with being a champion.

Way to hold your ground. You tell them what's what. You tell them when you're ready to fight. You don't let anyone push you around. You're the king. You're the man. They're all coming after you. After years of you having to chase them down, you have to fight everyone You don't let anyone push you around. You're the king. You're the man. They're all coming after you after years of you having to chase them down. You have to fight everyone on the planet.

And now they say, no, you have to come back in December. That's insanity. So you tell them what's what. You keep doing your thing, Murab. And I look forward to seeing you back in action in 2025. Thank you, Ariel. I appreciate you, man. Thank you so much.

Okay, we'll talk to you soon. There he is, the Machine Murab, Diwali Shvili, the pride of Georgia, the brand new UFC bantamweight champion. It's crazy. Sometimes I ask these guys to come back and he's like, the guy just won. Can you let him go to Riyadh? Can you let him go to Dubai?

Can you let him drink the finest wine and rub elbows with the big shots out there, the luminaries out there? I mean, it's not that big of a difference, is it? And they figured it out. They got December sorted. They'll get January sorted. Let them come back in February.

Now, February is Australia, so maybe that doesn't make a ton of sense, or maybe it does. Maybe there's a huge Georgian population there. Who knows? Now, great stuff from Rob, great stuff from everyone. Last guest, the main eventer on Saturday

in his first UFC main event He comes out shining like a star Six in a row now for Anthony Fluffy Hernandez And take a listen to some of these Records that he set on Saturday In his win, his stoppage win Fifth round stoppage win I might add

Against Michelle Pereira Who had been on quite a run as well Strike differential 219 to 29 previous record all the way back at ufc 58 in 2006 the strike differential for rich franklin against our guy david loizzo was 106 on this night this past saturday it was 128 97 significant ground strikes landed, a new single fight UFC middleweight record. Hernandez also attempted 29 takedowns,

a new single fight UFC middleweight record. He also became the fifth UFC fighter in history to land 100 plus significant strikes and 10 or more takedowns in a single fight, joining the likes of Murab Doelishvili, Colby Covington, Kamaru Usman, and Cain Velasquez. Also, fourth most takedown attempts in a single bout in UFC history. A fantastic night for Anthony Hernandez,

who is now very much in the chase at 185 pounds. He's kind enough to join us right here and now. There he is. Hello, Anthony. Good to talk to you again and congratulations on a tremendous win. Thank you. Thank you. It's good to be back. I'm sure you knew about

those stats. Are any of those news to you? No, yeah. I heard about them the other day. It's pretty fucking awesome. I'm just doing my thing and breaking records. That you are, 100%. Did we lose him maybe did we we're checking okay he just uh froze on me here off the bat

we'll get him right back but he is here you saw him i mean you were talking to him i was just talking to him he was right there um yeah michelle pareda who obviously is a uh a stud in his own right he had not lost in one two three four five six seven eight fights and had looked quite good as a middleweight uh fluffy hernandez gets an opportunity to fight him and does big time things and and stops him in the fifth round to boot remember we had him on the show on uh on the old show back in february and he told us about his chickens and about the the barn that he wants to to make for his family he's had a lot of canceled bouts since then uh two in particular supposed to fight roman uh dolice back in june supposed to fight michelle p back in June, supposed to fight Michel Pereira back in

September at the Noche UFC card. The bout was rescheduled for this past Saturday. Prior to that, he had three fights fall through. Prior to the Roman Kopylov fight, he had a Chris Curtis fight fall through, a Kopylov fight

fall through, an Ikram Aliskerov fight fall through, but it has uh it has been an impressive run for him six in a row by the way prior to the uh man he had three in a row prior to the copula fight and then he had four cancellations puna soriano dustin stoltsfus albert duriev and ddp drek is duplessis wonder how that would have gone and that was all after his Hedolfo Vieira win last loss came in May of 2020 since then he has won every single one of his fights and as of right this moment they come out with those rankings at least for now who knows if they're going to switch them up. He is 13, one slot ahead of Michel Pereira, one slot below Hamzat Shemaev, who of course is

returning to action this Saturday against number three three robert whittaker huge fight massive gap between them that's nine slots between them i would ask anthony about that fight but he has told us time and again that he doesn't really watch anything doesn't really watch mma doesn't care about the names doesn't know much about his opponents, didn't even know really who Rodolfo Vieira was, didn't understand the significance of that victory when he beat the legendary BJJ Black Belt. Did he disappear on us? Subbed him, by the way. Gentlemen?

Oh, is he back? Okay, there he is. Hello, Anthony. How areony how are you hey sorry my phone overheated outside and i had to run inside damn is it that hot in in california so it's i'm in vegas still i'm at the pi uh getting work done and stuff and getting some recovery before i take off tonight okay all right well thanks for doing this i. Uh, how is your body after the, the win? Yeah, it's got some bone bruises. Um, but I'm solid as of right now. Um, and, and obviously five rounds, you stop him in the, the fifth. Would you have been considering how dominant you were, especially back into the fight? Would you have been pissed if you didn't stop him?

No, I definitely would have. Uh, no, I mean, I guess, I don't know. He was, he was tough. You know what I mean? Everyone's really good in the UFC it's like I'm just happy to be able to finish keep getting finishes realistically yeah but no he was tough I thought maybe he could have got I could have got him out of there sooner but I don't want to like gas myself out trying to finish him you know I mean yeah but it all worked out he's looked amazing at 185 he's looked amazing as of late like

we were saying when we were reconnecting with you um when you got the fight when you were planning for him and I know you've told us that you don't really watch MMA you don't really pay attention to these dudes what did you think was going to happen like did this match what you thought yeah no it's basically uh I just knew I shouldn't i couldn't get hit with the big explosive shots um and i actually didn't get caught early so i was like fuck with the body shot but i ended up being able to breathe it off you know i mean um it all worked out but uh with his style he needs space and i'm not like i don't give space when i fight like right in your face so i thought it was gonna play out exactly the way it did yeah uh he uh you

know he hit you with the shot and then um i think you said afterwards like that kind of woke you up right that kind of like yeah after that i was like all right fuck you yeah it's the best fight at the end of the day are you that kind of fighter are you the kind of guy who needs to get hit to get going uh usually i don't like to but i mean sometimes yeah sometimes i gotta get pissed off a little bit and then get extra motivated you know what i mean this fight uh this fight was supposed to be on the sphere card and they moved it a month ahead was it just because they needed a main event or was there a different reason uh honestly i think i don't really know how it worked out my managers like uh they want to take

you out the sphere um but i got good news that they offered a main event spot and i was like dude i'll take it hell yeah and at the end of the day i want like that's what i want is main events and to make a climb for the belt so it's it all worked out perfectly you know what i mean yeah it seems to me like you were more excited about the main event slot, even if it was at the Apex, as opposed to the Sphere card, even though that was getting all the attention. Oh, for sure. I mean, the full attention is all about you that day,

you know what I mean, if you're the main event. So it was everything I wanted since I was a kid, so it definitely worked out for me. Did it feel surreal seeing your face on there, seeing yourself on the poster being a part of a UFC main event? Man, it was so awesome. Yeah, it was definitely like it's everything I expected. First thing I put in the video game and I was like, fuck yeah.

And then now this and it's like, all right, now everything's starting to go perfect the way I wanted it to. So it's just keep doing what I've been doing and proving these people wrong. You hear from a lot of fighters, Anthony, who say, I want to be the best best i want to win the belt um and i think it's because they want to prove that they are the baddest individual in their weight class that the the you know the champ and all that that comes with it but for you because i've i've listened to a lot of your stuff it seems to me like your motivation isn't necessarily

you know oh i want to be the best obviously that's a byproduct but it really is because you just want to give your kids a better life you want to give your family and the belt leads you to that right for sure like the belt is the opportunity i mean it opens up so many doors um and then that's that just helps me for my children you know i mean hopefully i can get them better colleges or something you know i mean um i'm not worried about me personally i've had had a fun life. So I'm just going to keep doing this therapy and get paid. And hopefully I can give back better to my kids. When we spoke in February, you had said that you were kind of like a year removed from living in a

trailer with your family. Now you guys were living in the city. So you were, you were making the steps to give them a better life. Do you feel like you're now fully on that path after your first UFC main event win? Definitely. And I got money in the bank again so the house is getting paid down and i can slowly work on finishing my property and get back to the country and give these kids like a fun nice childhood with animals and pets and get them off their cell phones and off the bullshit and i mean

yeah well and what about that because you were lamenting the fact that you were living uh in the city and you wanted to get your your big barn you wanted your acres and acres of land you told us about the dream that you had with your father how close are you to realizing this dream man i think a couple more fights and i'll be able to do that you know i mean um slowly but surely i'm not trying to like rush into it and leave myself broke i gotta be able to train and make sure that I'm stress-free and able to just fight. I don't want no worries. I believe two more fights and we'll be there. Are they down with this dream, by the way?

Do they want to move to the country too? My kids love the country. They love animals. My daughter wants a horse and stuff. I'm like, you can't have a horse in the city. You know what I mean? Yeah, they're little country kids. We like dirt bikes. We like quads. We like having fun. uh, my daughter wants a horse and stuff. I'm like, you can't have a horse in the city. You know what I mean? So yeah, they're little country kids and like,

we like dirt bikes. We like quads and we like having fun. So I think the, the country suit does more. You know what I mean? Are you still letting the chickens walk around the house? Yeah, no,

they're, they're, they're awesome. They're little babies. You know what I mean? I got a bunch of them. My kids love them, uh,

walk them in and out of the house. They're fun. Unfortunately, did one pass away recently? Yeah, my Elcock was the main one. My little guy. Yep, him. Damn. Man, but he had a great life. So I was blessed to have him in my life.

And we had freaking so much fun. He did more than most chickens exactly. He did way more than most chickens exactly he did way more than most chickens did so this guy is the man you know what i mean he was the best i got some of his little children so it's like his bloodlines going on um and man it's just it's it's a fun so fun with my kids get it like show them the eggs and the babies forming and this is it's nice it takes my mind off life you know i mean yo I don't know if a chicken has ever had a better life than Alcock. I mean, look at this life.

What is this outfit? That's his little sombrero and his chain. Yeah, he got that sponsored. What a legend. How old was he? He was like two years old. Okay. What is the general life span?

It's like 12 years, 15 years for chickens. Oh, wow. So what happened? I don't know. I literally went to go get him in the morning, and he was stiff in his cage. I was reading, and he could have got sick or had little heart issues. So I really don't know. Okay. But I just look at the bright side. We had a great life, and he had really fun, and he gave my kids a bunch of joy gave me a bunch of joy so um I got made a little like a

little area where we buried him and I got a little tombstone made and we're gonna when I get back home we're gonna do it all up for him I love it it's gonna be awesome man you have such a great um appreciation and perspective on life and and I'm wondering if you were always like this, or do you think that this is something that came later on? No, I've always been appreciative. Man, I've had to work my ass off. My father was a mechanic, and I grew up working on big rigs and stuff with him my whole life. Grew up on a farm working.

I just knew what it took to, like, life's not cheap, you know what I mean? And I see my dad working his ass off all the time so I'm just blessed that I get to do what I want for a living and I get to spend time with my kids and I don't have to work all the time you know what I mean I guess I do but it's different yeah yeah it's a different kind of work yeah and uh yeah you you are you are you are living the dream in many respects a lot of people would want to be exactly in your spot a UFC headliner uh one of the top fighters in your weight class. I noticed even on Saturday when you were at the press conference and at the post show, you mentioned your father a lot,

who I know is no longer with us. But you even talk about him sharing this barn dream, like you guys wanted to get this together. Yeah. And so can I just ask, A a how long has it been uh since he passed and b what do you think he would say about what you're doing because you're so close to realizing this dream it's like it's been like five years now so i mean it took me a while to get my head straight but um man it's been i try to tell my kids about him all the time uh because

my daughter he died right before my daughter was born um but my son got to experience some of my other kids did too and they just knew how amazing it was man uh he showed me what hard work was he like he did a lot for me i mean so i just want to give that appreciation to him but he deserves leave a legacy behind yeah no i and i can't imagine how how proud he must be of you wherever he may be what do you think he would say about all this? I mean, I don't know. He'd probably call me a bitch, to be honest. Why? How can you be a bitch?

You just beat up one of the best fighters in the world. I know, but he'd probably say I should have finished him sooner and shit. Like, why did I just talk hella shit to me? So, like, that's just our relationship. You know what I mean? We used to, like, talk hella shit to each other. But he was, like, he was the guy that, like, when I'd be fighting someone, beating the fuck out of out of him he'd be like you better quit fucking around and

go beat his ass and i'd be like all right hold up but he was like uh yeah he knew how to hype me up and piss me off so just you know i mean did he did he get to go to any of your fights yeah the last one he actually went to was the uh brandon when I won the title belt. And that answered a lot of questions for him if my ground was good. I was just a kickboxer before and I had shitty grappling. And I ended up getting head kicked and had to wrestle that whole fight. And I wasn't in shape for it and I did it. So it made it work. It was good because that answered a lot of questions for him

about, like, my career going forward. And it's just all been working out, you know what I mean? And I know you don't pay attention to names, but in your mind, how far away do you think you are from really being in that title picture? Man, I don't know. So I think, like, Duplessis hadis had like two big fights or one big fight and then he got a title shot right yeah i think maybe if i have two good big fights and two

more finishes i think that just really really cements my name in there um i really don't know like uh i think i'm not sure brandon allen is but if i can fight someone ahead of him or fucking um just to prove, like, give me a hard test and I promise I'll show up and I'll show the fuck out. I'll finish him, whoever it is. And I think that won't deny me, you know what I mean? But I don't know how the matchmaking works.

It's up to Dana. I know he's always giving me a test, so hopefully they give me another one and I get to go show what I really can do. Does any of this feel overwhelming? Like, you're making it happen. You're on a winning streak, a six fight winning streak in the UFC. Sorry, something in my throat. No, you're good. Go ahead and get some water. I'm getting overwhelmed.

Yeah. Is it hard to process all this stuff that's happening to you? No, man. I've expected this since i was a kid now it's just like i finally got my life straight and it's finally happening so i mean it's just i'm not where i want to be you know what i mean so i don't really like i'm not all excited about it it's like cool i've expected this let me get the fucking belt now okay then i'll be happy probably where do you think you're at like this time next year i think uh this time next year i definitely will be the champion i mean we're almost the end of the year so if i can get two fights

wow and get a belt yeah no i think that's doable it's just if i can't get hurt you know what i mean um it's all about timing with this shit and hopefully the timing works out great i'm not gonna rush it um i'm gonna fight healthy and i'm gonna just prove it like show out every time and i've been doing for you like when do you think you will have made it what what will be the sign that mission accomplished maybe when i have the belt and then like the the project me and my father wanted to do done and my house paid off then i'll be like all right i did some shit you know what i mean mean? But until then I got to work. So I don't know, maybe after that. Well, uh, you are working my man, you're doing a great job. Uh, it's, it's really great to see. It's a great story. And I

hope that you get that, that dream. You get to realize that dream that your, your father and you had and, uh, and that 2025 brings a lot of big things your way. So thanks for doing this on a hot day in Las Vegas. And always great to talk to you. Yeah, thank you, Anthony. All the best to you. You too, man. All right.

Talk to you soon. There he is, Anthony Hernandez. A great story and a real great guy and someone who has turned his life around and is an inspiration. And I love that he always talks about his kids. I love that he always talks about his dreams i love that he always talks about his dreams i love that he talks about his family i love that he talks about wanting to realize the dream that he and his father um came up with it's amazing stuff our conversation

back in uh in february on the show was was a real eye-opener and and i also like the fact that he doesn't really pay attention. He's like, all right, yeah, give me this guy. If this is the guy that gets me to this fight, then no problems here. Three-time Performance of the Night bonus winner. Two of them, by the way, in his last two bouts. Like I said, Michel Pereira on Saturday,

Roman Kopilovov his previous fight former lfa middleweight champion seven and two in the ufc and quite the showing on saturday a showing that kind of got over um overlooked because of the big francis fight but uh this is a guy who is very much in the mix in my, at 185, and also someone who continues to be very fun. He had the stoppage win over Kapilov. He told us that he submitted him in the second round, the rear naked choke. He was seeing Mario Lopez in the front row,

and he was reacting to him, which was awesome. He had the TKO win over Edmond Shabazian. He had the submission win over Marc-Andre Barriot. So he's getting finishes. And of course, the one that really put him on the map, in my opinion, was the choke against one Adolfo Vieira back in February of 2021. I do believe almost everyone on the planet, including those who are a who are a part of this show had that as the submission of the year. So shout out to him for continuing to,

uh, make things happen. And currently just 31 years old. So he's got a lot of time on his hands. I'm not sure what happened to my throat there, Frank. That was scary. Oh man.

I'm really sorry to hear that. Yeah. We'll have to get you like a cough button or something. Um, man, I'm really sorry to hear that. Yeah. We'll have to get you, like, a cough button or something. I got a text from Sean. During the Marab? Yes. What did he say? I'm not sure.

Can I read it? I'm not sure. Well, I, for one, I'm glad you mentioned it. Well, he says Marab's nose makes yours look small. Oh, my gosh. Okay, all right. Maybe you shouldn't read that. I don't know.

I mean, is. I said thanks. It's tough. That is tough. That is tough. I'm not sure. But listen, it seems like he wants to fight him, and it seems like he's down to make it happen in February. It seems like he's down to make it happen in March.

Or it could be Umar. If Umar fights Song, Song could screw up all the plans. Fascinating times in the bantamweight division. Some breaking news here. Rick just sent this to me. Samantha Irvin, who is known to be the best PA announcer In the world of wrestling right now

Posted this Earlier today Just about an hour ago WWE Universe my time has come to an end As your Monday Night Raw ring announcer I love you all tremendously And this does not mark the end of my art I have a lifetime

More to share Thank you to every WWE fan who accepted me To the women's locker room You are the most Incredible group of people On the face of this earth I am beyond proud

To be your colleague And friend To the crew And cameraman I can't thank you enough For the encouragement The laughs You created such a

Wonderful positive atmosphere For me Love you all Is there a next Oh To the me love you all is there next oh uh to the ww superstar oh this is a lot of uh okay so i didn't realize there was like multiple slides here anyways it seems like she's gone now um she thanks a bunch of people she thanks triple h to my fans my entire career i've been waiting for you you we are meant to be and i can prove it stay tuned all my love and still samantha now interestingly enough her i believe husband

husband or boyfriend i think they are married they're engaged she's engaged to ricochet who recently left wwe and signed with aw and a lot of people were surprised because of their you know their relationship and now they're on competing brands that part is not significant but they could have traveled together. But once he left, they thought they can't travel. Maybe this means she is headed to AEW because it would be better for her life. I'm assuming most people in the comments

are suggesting that. But remember, she had that great moment at WrestleMania when Cody won. And her voice cracked. It was amazing. She's incredible. So there's some breaking news earlier today. We got word that NXT will be at the ECW arena in

Philadelphia next week. And I think Halloween Havoc is, is next week as well. Any big Halloween plans, guys, you guys doing anything over there? Trick or treat. Oh, wow. I came in hot

there. Trick-or-treating with the kids. Okay. Any parties? No. No parties. Getting dressed up, though. We got a Boys in the Back episode. We got a Boys in the Back on Halloween. That's right. October 31st. Yeah, man. You want to come?

Get dressed up. It's funny. Frank says this almost like I don't come. I was there on Thursday. No, I'm inviting you to the Halloween show. That was the first one, man. That was the interesting one. So we'll see you there then. We'll be keeping tabs for the future episodes.

No, no, no. I've been, like, it's been very clear to me, like, we don't need you here. We don't want you here. So I could take a hint. This is, you're spinning this really nicely. We've been like, we'd love to have you for every episode I can't be bothered

It's a long commute in Got things to do What are you guys going to dress up in? Wow You really think we're going to reveal that Is it going to be There's nothing I enjoyed more as a kid You go trick or treating you come home

And there's like a Simpsons Halloween special Yeah nothing I enjoyed more as a kid. You go trick-or-treating, you come home, and there's like a Simpsons Halloween special. Yeah, yeah. But you know like the themed episodes, the specials, are we going to get like a themed episode? I mean, I feel like everything needs to be in the Halloween

spirit. I mean, there'll be decorations and whatnot. I don't know if like the whole thing is going to be themed. Come on. What do you mean come on? How themed are we supposed to make it? I don't know if the whole thing is in the game. What do you mean come on? How themed are we supposed to make it? I don't know. Top 10 scariest fighters. Top 10 scariest Oh, sorry. We do have plans.

I'm actually kind of pissed you just brought that up. That's the theme I'm talking about. Me and Frank and Rick have been in our group chat. Oh, what? You guys have a separate group chat? A boys in the back group chat. Wow. That's kind of... Now I'm actually pissed. I don't have any separate group chat. I don't have a separate group chat? Hey, hey. A boys in the back group chat. You don't need to let them know about that. Wow. That's kind of fun. Now I'm actually pissed. I don't have any separate group chat.

I'm giving you an invitation. I don't have any separate group chat. Can I just say what a window into your soul it is to say the thing you were most excited about for Halloween was coming home to a Simpsons episode? I actually. Not the candy, not the seeing your friends at trick-or-treating. Unless I'm mistaken, Ariel. When you get home, you dump all the candy and start going through it while the themed episode is on.

There's still the last minute trick-or-treaters coming through to your house. I mean, it's great times. You and your siblings, it's love Halloween. We used to read, what is it? Yes, here it is. Have you guys ever read the book Harriet's Halloween Candy? No. Never even heard of it.

Sounds like a classic. Rick, in particular, you should read it to your kids because it's about a dog named Harriet who goes trick-or-treating and then spends all her time organizing her candy. And so when,

and interestingly enough, and this was before our second son was born, her brother's name is Walter. And so she gives Walter all the bad candy but she continues to organize organize organize but as she's organizing she's constantly eating it and she gets sick and so when my son um you know when my son was younger we always used to

say like are you organizing so he would like lay it all out and he'd put you know all the reeses together he put all the other ones together you know what i mean like organizing that wasn't really a thing but what you're explaining no no it's just when you said like lay all the Reese's together he put all the other ones together you know what I mean like organizing that wasn't really a thing but what you're explaining no no it's just when you said like lay all the candy out it reminded me uh of of organizing the candy and it reminded me there's got to be someone out there who has read Harry and Telly candy to their kids sour sweet chocolate what is this organizing yeah I'm gonna get just rip I just I just dig through it till I find what I want agreed I'm I going to get that book for the kids, but the organizing candy

that happens is I organize it into my mouth while the kids go shower, and then when they come back, they've got less. Yeah, you're the thief. I used to always get so mad at my parents when they would steal the good candy from me. Do you make a menu for yourself? Why do you sound so echoey, Frank? There's a

speaker right in front of me. What does that mean? That it's echoing back into the microphone. Oh, okay. Maybe we could turn it off? I was asked to turn it up earlier. Well, now it sounds echoey. Is this better? How are we doing?

We had a good show. Yeah, I know it was a good show. Do you make a menu for yourself? Oh, now it sounds better. Do you make a menu like,? Oh, now it sounds better. Oh, my God. What? Do you make a menu? Like, hey, when I eat this candy in the sitting, I want to start with something sweet,

and then I want to go to, like, you know, chocolate. Then I want to end with something sour. Are you asking this because you do that? Maybe. I do not. It's a bit OCD. Nah. Yeah, a bit OCD.

How are the Jackman and Elwani households In terms of the candy that they give out Are we talking Not a full size Respect I'm not there yet I went on a rant about this last week Or last year, excuse me About the badge of honor that it is

Potentiousness Oh come on, everyone Everyone always You cannot be a full size candy giver Without announcing to the world that you're a full-size candy giver. Okay, but can I say, I appreciate the full-size candy givers. They make all of us, they elevate all of us, and I am appreciative of them. I am not one yet. I've not reached that level. Why does it have to be announced to the world? It's like, you know, you're vegan, you're this. Like, you just have to know.

The kids are talking about it, so you might as well talk about it too. Listen, I'm not impressed, okay? We can all afford a little extra candy bar. All right, so why don't you do it then, man? Because it's easier to go to freaking CVS. There you go. By the way. I'm not putting in the effort.

It's not about the cost. It's about the effort, man. By the way, correct me if I'm wrong. Where do you even get the full bag of full-size candy bars? No, no, it's not that. You get a box. You can't get a full box. Where do you even get said box?

When I go to CVS. Costco has those. But again, you're going to have to buy, you know, six, ten boxes like that. You're going to have to lug them home. I don't even know where there's a Costco next to me. I go to CVS. I go to Amazon. I buy some things.

I salute the full-size candy. I feel like we discussed this as well. The people that give out two liters, that's just an insane amount. That's a thing? Oh, yeah, yeah. One kid is lugging that around. Wait, two liters of what?

I've never heard of this. The dentists do that because then they're like, all right, I'll see you in a week. Popular TikToks and stuff where they're just like, every year we give out two liters and they have like a house full of two liters and they give them out. That's ridiculous.

I would be annoyed if someone gave my kid. I wouldn't take it. I wouldn't take it. Yeah, no thanks. I don't need two liter room temperature. I'd probably guzzle it and then jump to the next house. Honestly, if I was a kid, yeah, I would probably take a massive gulp

and then throw the thing. Funny you mentioned Triathlon Horrors. I've actually been going through watching like every year's Disney Plus has The Simpsons. Oh, yeah. I've been watching all the Triathlon every year's Disney Plus has The Simpsons Oh yeah I've been watching All the Triads Do they hold up

Oh they're amazing Which is the best Man I don't know I watched one That was pretty good From like 1996 And like they cover Like the election

And all like the Current things from 1996 I feel like the Older ones are better Than the more recent ones Yeah no doubt Frank I don't hear

A word you're saying By the way Like you're just Like someone Like literally Hundreds of yards away from me. He's actually standing out in the hallway trying to scream into his microphone. Even now, I don't hear anything that you're saying.

I don't know why you're so low. Yeah, I don't know either. That sounded better. Okay. What did you want to say? Because I heard... Go ahead. Speaking of which... No, go ahead. No of which no go ahead no no no time that

the floor is yours the one with amityville the one that's based in like basically uh rick's um abode it like has to decide at the end like do i live with the simpsons oh yeah that was good implodes yeah that was worth it the weight yeah no that was good stuff that was good you know i was looking up because uh isn up Because Forest is playing right now We have all the graphics Or we didn't get to those That was a no go We actually assigned Jordan to that

But unfortunately Not here That's good No problem Yeah Okay Currently tied Second half has commenced

0-0 against Crystal Palace Back home at the city ground we have to make it a fortress again that was you know last year as you recall um you're a little bit off because i see the group texas has quieted down it's basically just me and jake on the group text at this point right you know i've been busy lately man yeah the the the output is similar to Frank's on the group text. Like, I'll be like, yeah. Did you guys see that? And I'll get nothing back.

I've started to think about starting my own group text. Just me and Rick just talking. Oh, wait. Now I'm in the Forrest group text? Oh, no. I just need someone to talk to. This is a disaster. What happened to Jake? You were just saying you were happy to have Jake.

No, I mean, I'm happy to have him. It's like one every 10 texts. What about your kids? So that's, my kids are into it. Actually, yesterday, we were at a bagel shop yesterday in the midst of, my kids had six soccer games, Saturday and Sunday. They were part of a soccer tournament.

And our final record was one win, one draw, four losses. All right. All right. Successful. They found the back of the net at all? Total goals scored in these six games by the teams, kids did not score, three goals.

One game had two goals. One had one, the final one yesterday. Tough sledding. My middle son's team is the best one. I hope no one's listening. And they were not, it was the final one yesterday. Tough sledding. My middle son's team is the best one. I hope no one's listening. And they were not, it was the top and bottom. So it was tough. It was tough, but it was very fun.

I loved every second of it. And in the midst, in the middle of one of the games, we went to a bagel place to get food and there was an older gentleman there wearing a Forrest hat. Whoa. And so I went up to him and said nottingham forest are you fan i was wearing my forest pants and he said yes uh actually i'm from nottingham i was like what the hell are you doing here uh he was probably 75 yeah and then he's telling me about he was there for the two european championship wins 79 80 we're talking

about brian cluff we're talking about the city ground. We're talking about Nuno. We're talking about Steve Cooper. We're talking about Brandon Johnson and his father, David Johnson. I was having a blast. And then I was this close to being like, you should come over and we should watch an upcoming game. You didn't. I was just going to say, it sounds like you found your group text guy.

Yeah, what? Well, that's why I bring this up. Well, because I was like, where do you watch? And he's like, where do you watch? And where like where do you watch and where did he watch uh he says he watches at home i say i watch at home we talked about crystal palace da da da the one thing was he was a little bit older and he was eating a bagel and it was a lot of food coming out as he was talking oh he was just spraying so did you start to back away? No. New plan. My son was like, that was disgusting.

Did you see how much food was coming out? Was that bad? Yes, it was bad. I was like, wow, I was actually going to invite him. No, you can't invite him over. I was like, all right, fine. No, just meet him at the bagel shop. Nah, this poor old man was speaking with such passion about Nottingham Forest.

He was probably delighted that someone reacted to his hat. And now here you are shaming him. Destroying him. He probably has a condition where he has to spray his food everywhere. It was a lot of sesame seeds. Maybe you just hit 75 and you stopped caring. Listen, the guy was- I hit 35 and stopped caring.

Listen, the guy was at a bagel shop at 1030 in the morning, loving life, by himself on a Sunday. God bless him. That's what I say. Respect, man. Yeah. Respect. I don't have, I'm starting to see a lot of messed up things

and like, I see people dying on the everything bagel hill. I see people dying on this like, What's the hill? What is the debate on that one? The onion bagel? Gosh. I enjoy the bagel 100%.

What is the debate on the everything? That it's just the best one? It's just too much. It's too much. Oh, that it's too things. 100%. What is the debate on everything? That it's just the best one? It's just too much. It's too much. Oh, that it's too much? Oh, you say it's too much? I love everything. No, no, no.

It's sesame or plain. What? Sesame. Whatever the bagel shop offers. This is a horrendous thing. Sesame is one of the worst. So the Knicks did this. The Knicks did this on media day.

They asked everyone what their bagel order is, their New York bagel order. What's yours? Egg with cream cheese, untoasted, done. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Egg bagel york bagel order what's yours egg with cream cheese untoasted done wait wait wait egg bagel oh bagel with cream cheese untoasted okay okay okay first of all you said i thought you meant like fried egg and cream cheese no wow okay egg bagel untoasted why does it have to be egg are you what is the best preference have you ever had an egg everything i I have. No problem with it. I really enjoy it.

But plain egg is better. Regular egg is better. Ariel, were you about to shame a fried egg and cream cheese? I've never heard of such a thing. Is that even real? Okay, so something I will do is everything bagel with egg and bacon, cream cheese on the side because you can't put it on because the warm egg and the melted cream cheese. But bite by bite, you spread a little cream cheese on it. That's not bad. So instead of cheddar cheese't want melt the cream cheese but bite by bite you spread a little cream cheese on it's not bad so like instead of cheddar cheese you rip the cream cheese i'm a scallion

cream cheese guy so shout out it's great stuff man wow this is crazy so what's your order is that your go-to that's what that's my go-to or if i'm just getting the bagel and cream cheese it's everything with scallion with scallion cream cheese scallion cream cheese yeah thatallion cream cheese, yeah. That's my top tier cream cheese. No, but is that your, like if you're going to a bagel shop, you can order anything you want. Then I'm getting the everything egg and bacon, scallion cream cheese on the side that I'm going to spread on. Wow. And then I'm actually a two bagel guy. I'm going to go sandwich one and then I'm also going to get

a dessert bagel. So like if they've got like a cinnamon raisin With like a strawberry cream cheese Something like that French toast bagel fantastic Like maybe a chocolate chip cream cheese If this place is really deluxe So you're going to have two bagels in one sitting So I'm usually a guy that's going to go full Savory bagel knock that out of the park

And then I'm still hungry but now I'm kind of Getting that sweet tooth coming at me I'll go half of the dessert bagel, save the rest for later. It's going to hit perfectly if I'm doing this around like 10 a.m. or something. Wait a second. It's going to hit perfect around 2 p.m. I'm with you, but where you messed up is you combined too many flavors, right? If you're doing the French toast bagel, you don't get the strawberry cream cheese

because now you're just like mixing. Okay, I'm actually with you on that. Flavor one or the other. No, no, no. Flavor one or the other. No, no, no. You shat on me for having an order of which to eat candy, but like having an order of what you eat your bagels is like, that's okay. Order? He's just two bagels.

It's like dinner and dessert, man. You're talking about you're going to write up your own menu on whether or not you're going to have sour candy or chocolate candy. Please get me another bagel. You tried, Frank. Please stop, man. What am I going to do?

Sit down? All right, Ariel, what's your order? I'll take my crepe before my steak. I want to know Frank's. Mine is a plain bagel, lightly toasted, light cream cheese. Boring. All right, so let's ask them what their opinion is. By the way, you actually go to the bagel shop and say lightly toasted?

How annoying is that? Actually, no. I was ordering bagels the other day and I was like does anyone want anything And Frank was just like yeah I'll take a plain Bagel with plain cream cheese lightly Toasted and could you scoop it out on each side Oh no I'm just kidding

I was just gonna say there is Nothing worse than the scooper Don't eat the bagel if you're gonna do the scoop But this guy Frank we can walk to the grocery store Get him a Thomas plain throw some Philly Cream cheese on there hand it to him and he'd be like This is the best bagel if you're going to do the scoop. But this guy, Frankie, we can walk to the grocery store, get him a Thomas Plain, throw some Philly cream cheese on there, hand it to him, and he'd be like, this is the best bagel I've ever had. I'm not rich enough for it, but, you know, number one order is plain lox,

plain cream cheese. That's the classic. That's rich? That's the number one. The lox is, at this point, is $30. You're talking $30. $30 a bagel. $18 a sandwich.

That is top notch. Lox is fantastic. I'm with you. Just bagel, no lox is, at this point, is $17. You're talking $17 a bagel. That is top notch. Lox is fantastic. I'm with you. Just bagel, no lox. We're doing egg bagel, cream cheese. That's it. Is lox a New York thing? Because I always have lox, cream cheese, bagel when I break my Yom Kippur fast.

And Pete T was asking me what I was going to eat. And I told him that. And he said he's never heard of the term lox outside of New York. Yeah, I was going to ask. Maybe they just call it smoked salmon elsewhere. Yeah, that's what I mean is lox is a term. No, I've seen it nationwide. Yeah, I was going to say they call it lox in Georgia.

All right. My go-to, and by the way, you guys have been to Montreal or haven't? I have, yeah. I've had a Montreal bagel. I've not been to Montreal. You agree it's infinitely better, right? No, New York bagels are the best. That's so crazy.

Not even in the same stratosphere. GC, you ever have a Montreal bagel? I have, and I've been to Montreal. I hate to say this as much as I love food. Bagels are kind of ones or zeros for me. It's either good or it's not good. I can't like it too much. You don't have the palate.

That's fine. Try it lightly toasted. That's fine. I get that, but't like You don't have the palate That's fine Try it lightly toasted That's fine I get that But they're not close Egg and turkey Egg and turkey If I'm feeling crazy Egg cheese turkey

But I try not to mix Wait What's the bagel Plain or sesame Sesame is the go to Sesame Sesame with like Deli turkey on it

Yeah Egg No cream cheese Yeah you're not doing A cream cheese No butter Sandwich Nothing to moisten

That bad boy up No man Wow This is What kind cream cheese No butter Nothing to moisten that bad boy up No man Wow What kind of cheese It actually used to be American It used to be my thing At the airport

When I would always take Like the 6am flight to Vegas Or whatever flight I was going to That was the routine I would wear the same thing And I would get an egg Turkey cheese bagel It would hold me over

For the whole flight But you know now that i'm getting older i feel like i can't do it so i'm ashamed to say like when i went to get my son the so his order he we call it a saturday special even if it's sunday it's egg turkey bacon cheese that's his favorite respect so i feel like you guys are using the bagel which i find like i it holds a special place in my heart. Yeah, I mean, from Montreal, it's way more. Yeah, no, it's not. New York bagels are better. Literally, there's a Nike shoe

made for Montreal bagels. You realize this, right? I know, but New York bagels are better. You are using it as a substitute for a sandwich bread? That isn't... Bagel cream cheese is a... Of course, we have bagel and cream cheese up the wazoo. I make it four times a week For lunch for my kids

But when you go to a place at 10 o'clock In the morning you want something that's going to hit You get the egg You get the turkey But here's what I want to tell you guys Because I'm getting older And because I feel like things aren't sitting as well I'm ashamed to say that I get

A whole wheat wrap Egg and turkey This is what you're doing You're just getting a sandwich sitting as well. I'm ashamed to say that I get a whole wheat wrap egg in turkey. You should be ashamed. This is what you're doing. You're just getting a sandwich. You might as well just make it a sandwich. No, I love bagels. I'm obsessed with bagels. A wrap, huh? By the way, like you, GC, when I was in my young

30s, I used to have two. I used to have two bagels. It's great. It's got to be a weekend morning as well. When did you have to stop eating bagels it's great it's great what was the cutoff it's got to be a weekend morning as well when did you have to stop eating bagels over the wrap yesterday you're making me nervous 41 40 oh man all right you're making me nervous 10 years from now i'm not gonna be able to eat now we're gonna keep can we go back to the barometer of whether uh montreal and new york

bagels are better is uh the fact that one has a Nike shoe name. Yeah, that's it. That's it. That's the inconclusive. That's the water. The New York boiled bagel. If you need a deciding factor, what better deciding factor than that? I don't know, maybe taste? Yeah, you would say that. By the way, Nike isn't going to immortalize a bagel that is

substandard with a shoe. They could have easily made a New York bagel. New York has a thousand different ways New York bagel Ancient age New York has 2,000 different ways Antoine put it on the poll Better bagel Montreal New York Let's settle this once and for all How about that

There's a poll up right now That just says cream cheese Question mark yes yuck That's a horrible poll If there's a yuck for cream cheese If you're not says cream cheese, question mark, yes, yuck. What? Yes. That's a horrible poll. If there's a yuck for cream cheese? If you're not eating cream cheese, then you're not eating baked. Get them out. Get them out if they do that.

72% say, or 73% say yes, and 28% say yuck. Weirdos, 28%. Yuck? It's because they had no other option. They could just say no. Is that possible? Who doesn't like cream cheese? It's so good.

Declare yourself. You ever have cream cheese with olives? No. I've not, but I wouldn't be opposed. You ever have cream cheese with the salmon in it? Yeah, like the bits. Yeah. Awesome.

Have you ever put cream cheese on your pizza crust? You think it's like, but it's not. It's not good for it. It's so hungry right now. I mean, I would have responded to what you said, Frank, but on a scale of one to 10 in terms of audible decibels, you are a negative 14. I am not putting myself as the priority on the TV.

It's literally like, there's four microphones going on at once. You sound like, well, maybe wait then? There is wait. Like not have side conversations on the show? Maybe that's... I'm a subway conductor. I'm going to put mine as the priority now.

I heard something like priority But I couldn't hear the rest Stop it Cream cheese on your pizza crust I think you said cream cheese No I'm kidding We're putting it in after The pizza has been eaten

And then you dip it It's not opposed It's just bread and cream cheese As opposed to bagels and cream cheese I said I'm not opposed because that's just bread and cream cheese, but I don't like. Oh, as opposed to bagels and cream cheese. You're right. I said. I just said. Vast difference.

I'm not opposed because that's what it is, but like why? Why am I. I don't know. It's just something I did as a kid. I was just curious. Where do you guys fall on the whipped versus normal? Whipped. Nah, no whipped.

I'll whip it myself if I have to. I like a whipped every once in a while. Throw in a wild card. Get it whipped. It's not bad. Not a fan. You're soft if you eat soft creams. How do you feel about-

Put that knife in there. Another one that I hate, ranch with the pizza. Oh, crush that. You know what? I'm not a ranch guy in general, so I can't comment. Ever since I moved to the Northeast, I've been shamed for that. No, I'll do it with you. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

What is it? With the crust? No. It's a whole thing. Any piece of it. Yeah. Just dunk it. It's great.

That seems weird to me. Well, you know, you didn't grow up in the South. It's fine. Yeah. Is that a South thing. Any piece of it. Yeah. Just dunk it. It's great. That seems weird to me. Well, you know, you didn't grow up in the South. It's fine. Yeah. Is that a South thing? Yeah. I guess it's a Southern thing because I did it. Frank did it.

Connor's the only other person I know who does it, and he's from the South. No, I've seen people do that. I think it's weird. I said it was the only other person. I'll do pineapple on pizza and dip it in ranch. Pineapple and jalapeno. New Yorkers absolutely spice that. Pineapple on pizza is fantastic.

I've told you my go-to. Pineapple and green olives. Shout out. pizza is fantastic I've told you my go to Pineapple and green olives I still haven't tried it You can't get good green olives on pizza here in America I've not gotten it once Only in Montreal If you're out there in Montreal watching right now Go to the Domino's Pizza on DeCarrie Actually on Cote St. Luc Road

They have the best Domino's That is the place And actually on Cote St. Luc Road They have the best Domino's Yeah I feel it right here Domino's? Yes That is the place I thought we were going to get like a This is the Montreal bagels is better guy

From the palace that brought you Domino's pizza Domino's pizza in Montreal Is exponentially better than Domino's pizza in America I don't know what it is I taste it right here You grew up eating this?

Every Sunday night That was the tradition Every Sunday night You have like an immense amount of this. Now, we can stop the poll around. New York bagels have one just on the basis of this. I feel it right here. I feel it.

Green olives from the fast food chain in my throat. Stop. I feel it. Stop. I thought you were about to be like, Mike's in Montreal. Stop. Green olives. He gets them shipped directly from Italy.

I-Y-K-Y-K. Yeah. Domino's pizza. We all know. If you know, you know. We allY-K. Yeah. Domino's pizza. We all know. If you know, you know. We all know. We grew up eating Domino's. We've all had it.

We've all probably gotten sick. No. No, not to our friends at Domino's. True or false before we go. Francis Ngannou's next fight will be in MMA. Rick? False. True.

Wow. I say true. Against who? That's the one I think. Yeah, not true. The winner of Gold's of Odek. Christ, if we really do that. Odek.

I think it's Popov. Odek, Popov, isn't that it? Oh, yeah. Sure, sure, sure. Who wants this? I feel like we kind of just made Rico fight. I feel like we kind of did something. I'm down for Rico.

That is more intriguing to me, but that would take place in a boxing ring. Battle of the Giants too? Hell yeah. I mean, that's a real, that's a spectacle. Do that in a 40,000 seat Netherlands stadium. I was going to say, Netherlands or Africa? I was literally going to say, the best place for that fight is on Rico's home soil.

Just a better crowd than Saturday. We need a bigger pop in France. Yeah, it was a little bit. Netherlands would go nuts for that. That is where to do it, but then it's not Francis' fight, right? Then it's Rico's fight. True or false, Murab's next fight will be against Sean O'Malley, Rick?

True. Yeah, I'm starting to think true. Wow. That's crazy. Seems like the UFC wants it. It seems like they want it. Why not? That is wild. True or false,on shop versus uh nate diaz will happen at the next cji i would watch it i would watch it too brandon shop famous the the the shutdown the shutdown uh in metamorris so um it wouldn't be the first grappling competition

for him oh yeah i remember that the shop shut down what was it called again i forget that there was a term for it the big brown Brown shut down or something like that. But I would watch the hell out of that. I don't know if they could afford them. Maybe they can. They had money. That was the whole thing. Craig was trying to, you know.

They got the Escobars in now. That's true. That's a good point, sister. True or false, Paul Hughes' next fight will be against Usman or Magomedov? I'm going to say true. I think you have to do it. The NFL got something here. Yeah, where else do you go after you beat AJ? The problem is, this is the problem

that they face. You will get some big fights, and then you'll have this tournament, and it's hard to mesh to. Now, last year, they did a February show in Riyadh, if you recall. I believe I heard, was it Don?

It might've been Don when he was here at Yahoo Finance a couple weeks ago. He referenced it again. Do they do it on that card and then have him fight in the tournament two months later? It might be a lot to ask of young Paul Hughes. If he's willing,

yes, you do that. But you are right. The crowd needs to be a little bit better and I don willing, yes, you do that. But you are right. The crowd needs to be a little bit better, and I don't know how they get around that. I was okay with the crowd. I know, look, it's not great. I'm not even going to go down this road.

I do this with the Apex. I'm the sympathizer when it comes to this stuff. I'm not going to go there. Apex isn't designed to have a crowd, though. This show was, and it was lackluster. Yeah. You know what wasn't elwani vision that was popping what about jake paul and i reacting to the wind we have that we do we have

that clip i was going to play it for francis but he said he saw it so i didn't have to here's jake paul and i reacting to francis and ganu's tremendous win back on saturday it was dramatic it was hyped it was fantastic it was incredible theater it was absolutely energetic it was electric here it is he's back y'all must have forgot francis is fucking back he's back what do they say now about him the lineal heavyweight champion of the world the baddest man on the planet what do they say now about him jake yeah you know yourself what are you guys talking about why what do you mean i said why you break at the fourth wall no you were literally talking oh sorry i almost had to uh we were talking about your foul language there i mean oh you know like yeah you did pg bro did

the zone get mad at us No we didn't hear from them Put the card up Yeah We were talking about this Because obviously We know like the part In our language

Yeah But on pay-per-view Is that Listen Unless someone told me otherwise I figured pay-per-view All's fair in love and war We don't know but

I think because it was pay-per-view You were fine When they do that It's because it's on YouTube Or their fast channel But this is pay-per-view And I were fine. When they do that, it's because it's on YouTube or their fast channel, but this is pay-per-view. And I guess we'll find out if it wasn't fine. Listen, I was hyped,

okay? There was emotion, alright? Helwani Vision was a lot of fun, if you haven't seen it. Yeah, it was fun. It was fun. Can you get it right now? Actually, you know what? It'll be up on our YouTube channel in a few days. Oh, look at that. Yeah, how about that? And how about the fact that we're back tomorrow?

Should we tell them who's on the show tomorrow? Please. We got a great show lined up for you tomorrow. Are you going to give it all away? Maybe give them a few. Give them a few. Give them a few. Give them a few.

Give them a few. Give them a few. Give them a few. Give them a few. Give them a few. Give them a few. Give them a few. Give them a few.

Give them a few. Give them a few. Give them a few. Give them a few. Give them a few. Give them a few. Give them a few. Give them a few.

Give them a few. Give them a few. Give them a few. Give them a few. Give them a few. Give them a few. Give them a few. Give them a few.

Give them a few. Give them a few. Give them a few. Give them a few. Give them a few. I haven't heard a single one of these guys. Well, you're not in the proper chat, because I feel like I shared it,

but maybe not. The proper chat? Is it called the proper chat? This man is going to join us so many chats yeah there are a lot of chats this guy does the IFB work Frank

I don't know but we are going to be joined by the man known as Hangman yeah oh great wonderful alright well I was going to

just stand here but let me go back to the microphone here I come oh look at this beautiful studio Hangman yeah Well, I was going to just stand here, but let me go back to the microphone. Here I come. Oh, look at this beautiful studio. Hangman. Yeah.

Dan Hooker going to join us, among others. That will be tomorrow on the program. Again, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Boys in the Back on Thursday. Crack on Friday. Watch Party on Saturday for 308. And we'll have one of the fighters competing at UFC 308 on the show tomorrow. And then, of course, post-show

on Saturday as well. Hey, did I say Watch Party Friday? I meant Watch Party Saturday. Do me a favor. If you're watching this right now, give me a thumbs up in the chat. But more importantly, hit that subscribe button. Hit that bell. Hit that like. We're supposed to get one of those fancy like click subscribe thingies.

Remember that? Efforting. Efforting, okay. We'll get it. Jordan's probably working on it. Circle back. Alright, well thank you. And if you're listening to us on the pod feed, hit the follow, hit the like, hit the comment, hit the five star, hit the

sub. Appreciate y'all. We're out of time. Time to go home. It's been a fun day. A jam-packed day. Yeah. It's weird because it's like, it's all the bells and whistles.

It's all the bells and whistles, but it's like we're in a different place. There's a bird that just flew behind you. saw that right i've actually seen several birds today it's great good stuff maybe we should uh not have the windows so clean yeah very very supportive of the window argument hell yeah hot in the streets is that a real window or not uh thank you very much to everyone who sent in super chats uh matthew lets us know that King McGregor, or actually he called me King, or maybe it was Francis, McGregor lost $500,000 betting on Henan Fajeda. Swiss Cheese says,

Ariel, stop digging and got into a bigger hole. Spelled hole wrong. You helped put him in this position with no one to fight, get beat up by pro boxers or beat up on some PFL. Oh, yeah. You sound very smart and uh that's it we're done uh we'll get to all of these super chats on wednesday when we do on the nose but you can keep them coming and i do love the polls if the ariel show had a swear jar who would pay the most ariel rick

gc frank 62 of you fuckers say me if we're talking on air yeah it's definitely oh yeah but all fair would you say it's frank andy and i'd say it's definitely and. Probably between me and Frank. Hey. Thank you very much to all our guests. Francis Ghanoumourab, Diwali Shvili, Paul Hughes, Craig Jones, Anthony Hernandez.

All of you. All of them. Back tomorrow. Same time, same place, same piece. I'm out of here.