The Ariel Helwani Show - Georges St-Pierre, Dustin Poirier, Ian Machado Garry, Randy Brown, Eubank-Benn reaction, NFL Draft stories, weekend news

Episode Date: April 28, 2025

Ariel Helwani starts the show with a deep dive into his life-changing experience announcing a draft pick for the Buffalo Bills, before the Boys join in to react to UFC Kansas City and Ian Machado Garry's win (04:36).Georges 'Rush' St-Pierre — Ariel’s MMA GOAT and Canadian legend — discusses his new hot sauce company, the UFC’s return to Montreal, the slump in Canadian MMA, cornering Aiemann Zahabi, the harsh reality of retiring from the sport, his relationship with Dana White, Belal’s claim to GOAT status, Tom Aspinall’s future, and more (33:37).Ian Machado Garry joins the program to discuss his short-notice decision win over hard-hitting Carlos Prates, their post-fight interaction, being the backup fighter at UFC 315, his title aspirations, potential future fights against Islam Makhachev and Shavkat Rakhmonov, his issues with Joaquin Buckley, how he learned Portuguese, and more (1:04:01).The Boys in the Back join Ariel to discuss all the drama leading up to the fight of the year candidate Chris Eubank Jr. vs. Conor Benn, including Chris and his father reuniting before the bout, the weight miss, the prospect of a rematch, and more (1:25:12).Dustin Poirier looks ahead to his UFC 318 trilogy fight against Max Holloway and talks about running into Ariel at the draft, his reaction to Benn-Eubank, the decision to retire, fighting Max for the third time in 13 years, his mindset going into his final walk, Ilia Topuria’s future at lightweight, filming a potential sequel to the 'Fightville' documentary, his final walkout plans, and more (2:01:41).Randy Brown calls in after his UFC Kansas City knockout of Nicolas Dalby to discuss the issues between them, rebounding after his loss, breaking his hand in the first minute of the fight, returning to Jamaica, and more (2:57:38).The Boys rejoin Ariel to wrap up the show with a breakdown of the rest of the news and results from around combat, including Oleksandr Usyk vs. Daniel Dubois 2, before answering some Super Chats (3:08:27).

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Err-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r- 2000 and 25 hello again everyone. I sure hope you're doing well. Oh my gosh the vibes at the moment dare I say Immaculate I mean this is New York City right here my friends New York City is on fire right now It is an absolute beautiful day here In the Big Apple in Manhattan. Oh my gosh, and there's nothing better than a Monday after a Sunday afternoon, Nick's playoff victory. And you could just feel everyone's, maybe it's just me, but you could just feel everyone's vibes, everyone's demeanor, everyone's happiness is at an all time high.

You feel it. A Sunday victory, then the Monday, spring, beautiful day. New York City is the place to be and I am so happy to be here. And I feel great because I just had a wonderful weekend. I think we all feel great because it was a wonderful combat sports weekend and we have a lot to get to.

Yes, even you, Frank, even curmudgeonly you, if that's a word, has got to be feeling great on this Monday because we have so much to talk about after a load of, we were saying oh my gosh this weekend's gonna be great, April 26 is gonna be great, well it all delivered if you ask me and then some and then we come with this super stacked lineup on a Monday afternoon, April 28th, the final Monday in April 2025. How lucky are we? Now, let me get to the lineup and then we have a lot to discuss. No time to waste, no dilly dallying allowed. Back into the show, we'll be joined by the Pride of Jamaica rude boy Randy Brown, who put an exclamation point on his feud with Nicholas Dalby over the weekend. A tremendous win for him, a knockout win.

It was a firefight, it was bloody. He got a performance bonus. It was just the performance that Randy Brown needed to reassert himself at 170 pounds. So we'll talk to him about that. He's in Jamaica, so that'll be a lot of fun. Prior to that, we are going to be joined by Dustin Poirier. You may have found out on Friday, I had a quick reaction on the YouTube channel.

Dustin Poirier, Max Holloway, it is in fact going down July 19th for the BMF title. The retirement fight, the last dance in New Orleans at the Smoothie King Center. No one gets this opportunity. How unique is this? It is super unique. People get retirement fights. We are told months in advance that some people are going to retire it is very rare that we find out that they are going to retire in the UFC in their hometown or at least close to

their hometown a couple hours away from Lafayette they ain't going to Lafayette New Orleans is the perfect place for a Dustin Poirier retirement fight he is getting it July 19th and he will talk to us about it at 3 o'clock prior to that will be joined by Ian Machado-Garry. You probably know by now he beat Carlos Pratches in the main event of UFC Kansas City. More on that in a minute. And then prior to that,

the reigning defending greatest of all time. Yes, in my opinion, the greatest of all time, the pride of Saint Isidore Quebec Canada, the man who carried this flag to the highest apex of mixed martial arts and still does so till this day with the utmost integrity, honor, respect, professionalism, the greatest welterweight champion of all time, in my opinion the greatest fighter of all time, the one and only George St. Pierre. Why do we want George St. Pierre on the show? Because the next stop is Montreal.

Yeah, I know there's Des Moines this weekend, but the next pay-per-view stop is Montreal. And so we'll catch up with GSP, Rush himself to talk about all the things going on in his life. When you have GSP on the show, you know it's a special day. And so I'm looking forward to all of that and more.

This past weekend, we had UFC in Kansas City, We had the KSW mega show with Eddie Hall and Marius Pujanowski, won by Eddie Hall in just a matter of seconds. He threw Marius Pujanowski like a rag doll. And of course we had the cinema that was U-Bank Ben. I mean, what a time, what a day it was. In addition to that, of course, you had the FA Cup semis, unfortunately commiserations commiserations, but it's okay Champions League still in our sights didn't work out

And there was this little thing called the NFL draft and that's where we shall begin because I have to say I'm very proud of myself Honestly, I'm proud of myself. I know that sounds weird But let me explain not because of what I did or said or any of that. It's just the fact that I went. I say no to a lot of things. In fact, just like an hour and a half or so ago, I said no to something that I know I will regret,

but I say no to things more often than not because I don't want to miss soccer, I don't want to be on a plane, I don't want to go away. And everything was telling me to say no to this opportunity. You remember the one. Dion Dawkins comes on the show on Wednesday, tells me I need to go to the draft for the bills, for the community, for Western New York, for the 716, for the mafia. And everything was telling me inside not to go. Anxiety, connecting flights, being away, all that stuff and more. I said no back in 2022. I could have been the one selecting or announcing the selection of one James Cook

legend in the making. It's my son's birthday, Taylor Serrano, Fight Week. I said no, I always regret it. And I said to myself, the next time this opportunity comes about, if it ever comes about, I gotta say yes. And so when they asked me, I said yes. And then I looked where it was and I was like, oh, Green Bay, damn. No direct flights, damn. Away from the family, damn. Eh, maybe I shouldn't go.

Eh, maybe I'll wait for another one. But I fought through that and I went. I woke up at 3.45 a.m. on a Saturday, two days ago, got to the airport, flew to Chicago. I promised the team, I promised Nicole, I promised everyone I'd do a vlog, and then I realized on the plane to Chicago that I forgot to record anything in Newark.

So already my vlog sucked. Did some things, Frank gave me a lov. Listen, I'm a 42 year old man. I see some of these guys like Colby Covington walking around with those lovs on their shirt thinking they're like Sneeko or Kaisanat or these dudes that stream for four or five hours. I don't want to be that guy. I'm not walking around with a little love thing. I'm not that guy. I'm not that cool with a little love. I'm not that guy.

I'm not that cool. I'm sorry, I'm not that cool. And so I felt weird about it. I was taking some videos in the United club and walking around like the Home Alone, Chicago terminal thing, but it just wasn't me. So I said, you know what? I'm just gonna let this flow.

I get to Green Bay, what a town. The smallest airport that I have just going to let this flow. I get to Green Bay, what a town. The smallest airport that I have ever been to in the United States. 12 gates total. Just about 100 or so thousand people live in Green Bay. You land there, there's not a soul in the airport. You go get an Uber, there's not a soul in sight. You get to the hotel, there's tumbleweeds. It reminded me a little bit of Winnipeg. When I went to Winnipeg, it was kind of dead. Like there was not a soul on the street,

there wasn't a car driving by. It was dead, absolutely dead. Get to my hotel, get changed, put on the fit, more on that in a moment. And then I get to the draft right outside of Lambeau and I realized why there wasn't a soul in sight. It was because the entire city was there. It was a sea of people, concerts, people just so happy that the NFL draft was in their hometown. They were over the moon. It was unbelievable. Partying, I see what they're doing between the picks

because now it's the fifth round, the sixth round, the seventh round. How do they keep them entertained? There's a sea of people out there looking at nothing. There's music, there's a comedian, there's games, there's prizes, there's trivia. They asked me to get there at 11. Now, I flew solo, went by myself, and I show up there, and I'm rocking, you know, my Thurman Thomas jersey. I had to represent number 34, my old school Bill's hat and the Zubas pants.

Now I saw a lot of people shitting on the fit. There I am right outside. That fit wasn't for you. If you're a Bill's fan, if you're from Western New York, if you're a member of the mafia, you understand the fit. The Zubas wasn't for you. Packer fan, Chiefs fan, Chargers fan, Rams fan, Jets fan. It was for the Bills fan. They knew they all knew as people are like giving me shit about the fan.

You don't get it. I Y K Y K. I think that was it. If you know, you know, and I get there at 11 o'clock and they tell me my pick is going to be round six pick one. That's pick 177. That's still like two rounds away. So it's me and Josie Altador, former New York Red Bull, former Premier League player. I think he made it to the Premier League, maybe the championship. Been around, former US national. Former Premier League player think he made it to the Premier League. Maybe the championship been around former US national He's a minority Owner of the Buffalo Bills. Look how he's dressed. Look how I'm dressed So you're telling yourself like golly do I look like a dork up here or what? But I'm like no, I'm gonna have a blast

That was like right before we made our picks He made one right before me the first person that I spoke to when I was there was the Kamish. Roger Goodell, the guy who's walking me around. He's like, do you want to say hi to Roger? I'm like, uh, sure. Look at us. He whispers in my ear, Gary, your process.

Swear. He was locked in. Say, where are you watching Kamish? You got a stream? Anyway, so I'm sitting around. I'm sitting around Waiting sorry to get nervous starting to think okay. What am I gonna say here? I didn't want to plan I didn't want it to feel forced. What do I do what I say? I just go out there do I wing it do I make a scene everyone's going up there?

They're having international fans go up there. They're doing things like everyone's just going and reading the pic It's kind of boring. I flew all the way out here. Welcome at 345 in the morning. Anyway, I'm sitting in the room. Then they say, okay, you're going to go into the pit. So they move me into the pit. I get to the pit.

Now this is like on the floor in front of the stage and they have like a VIP section, but it's outdoors. First person I see, El Diamante himself, Dustin Poirier, who's there on behalf of the New Orleans Saints to announce their pick. Look at me. Me, DP, Jolie, his wife is there. Shout out to the Good Fight Foundation. And we're just chatting. Ask him to come on the show, book a guest. Life is good. Chatting, chatting. Then I see Quatermire was like, yo, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a second. Is that Jimmy Uso and Chelsea green of world wrestling entertainment? There he is.

Down since day one ish down since fellow Canadian Chelsea green, who just lost the U S title the night before, uh, now I'm, I'm flying high now. I'm flying high. So everyone's there. We all got our gear. The clock is ticking, starting to get word that they're not showing the pics. They're not airing the pics. Not all of them.

That I fly all the way out here and there's going to be no visual evidence of me making any pics. Then they say, okay, you got to go to the back. They tell you five pics before your time. Oh, by the way, the bills have made a couple of trades, traded some pics. Could you imagine if they trade the pics and I'm left like a bride at the way, the bills have made a couple of trades, traded some picks. Could you imagine if they trade the picks and I'm left like, like, uh, like a bride at the altar left by her fiance. So I'm sweating this out. Please big baller bean.

Don't trade my pick. Please. I need, I need my moment. I flew all the way out here connecting flight. So then they take us into the back. Now we're like literally in the back and I see how it all goes down. There's all these people there, headsets, you know, I've worked in TV, I get it, but I see this big board and it's like an Excel sheet and it's the picks coming in.

Like the teams are all connected to this one thing and then they write it in and then it pops up. So I'm looking at it in real time. The bills are still staying there. I'm feeling good. And then I'm looking at it. It says Ariel Hawani making the pick celebrity it said. I should have taken a picture of this. And then I see my pick come up and then they hand me the card. This is it. They hand you the card right here. And it says with the 177th pick in the 2025 NFL draft the Buffalo Bills select Dorian strong DB Virginia Tech All right. There I am with the card and so

All right, they're saying okay. I was the first pick of the sixth round. They take a little break. I'm out there I'm like shadow boxing. They're like, let's go. You got this. They were actually great back there They were hyping me up now. I'm getting a little bit nervous. They've never really done this before. Don't screw it up. Represent. And they say, okay, 30. And then they say 15. Helwani, you ready? I said, I've been born ready.

Heelwani about to make his NFL draft debut. They open the curtain, and then this happens. To announce the Buffalo Bill selection, please welcome Ariel Helwany. What's up baby? Where else would I rather be standing up here representing Bill's Mafia, representing the 716 Western New York, representing this incredible franchise, and you know the boys in the back, they want me to cut a promo on the rest of the league.

But we're not doing that today. You know why? Humble and hungry. why humble and hungry okay pause it right there first of all pause right there first of all a lot of the people saying there was no reaction yeah there were 100 000 green bay packer fans there now i kept pointing at two guys you'll see them in a moment they were they were uh bills international fans so they were they were my they were my connection all right of course they're not going to pop for me and everyone's just like going through the pics

at that point, yeah, trust me, it's a lot different when you're up there. I wasn't doing that for anyone there. I wasn't doing that for the internet. I was doing that for Bill's fans. I was doing that for the 716 for Western New York. Now did you guys catch the Easter egg? They didn't think I'd mention them.

The boys in the back, that includes everyone by the way. That includes P.T., that includes Andy, that includes Jordan of course. That includes all of you. Did you guys hear them. The boys in the back, that includes everyone by the way. That includes P.T., that includes Andy, that includes Jordan, of course, Frank, that includes all of you. Did you guys hear that, the boys in the back? Did you hear the mention? I didn't get any pop, I didn't get any reaction. I did see that, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Burn it. I mean, it was kind of- You did do like a point to like the back. Yeah, the boys in the back, because I wanted to tell everyone that the boys are with me. We didn't know. The boys are with me. I thought it was the people in the production.

I went up there at the NFL draft, and so selfless I am, I make sure to mention you guys. I actually, I swear on my life, I was going to say, uh, now the boys in the back think it will, it will make for good crack if I, if I, but then I was like, they might think that I'm actually talking about crack cocaine. So I couldn't do it. Fair point.

Fair point. Good sensor. I couldn't do it. So I just want to let you know, PT, you are part of that shout out. Okay. Yeah. Now people are thinking that no one's reacting. Fair point, fair point. Good sense. I couldn't do it. So I just want to let you know, PT, you are a part of that shout out. Okay?

Now people are thinking that no one's reacting. Trust me, they're reacting. First they're reacting like, who's this wacko? And then they're like, okay, hurry up. But they're still reacting. And I made sure I had to hit a couple things. Where else would I rather be than right here, right now? That's a shout out to Marv Levy.

That's the great Marv Levy who said that before all the big games. Then I mentioned humble and hungry. Coach McDermott says that after every game humble and hungry we can't talk shit we got to be humble and hungry okay continue continue there are my guys international fending here yes here it is

of the reigning the fending yes look at that. NFL most valuable player... Now they're getting fired up. JA17... QB1. QB1.

Hey Josh, congrats on the wedding. Yeah. Can't wait. Mazel tov. He said just a couple of months ago... What did he say? What did he say? Be good.

Be good. Do good. Do good. God bless. God bless. And go... Bills. Oh, that's when the God spoke to me. With that out of the way. Here we go. Here we go. It is my great honor to say. Now they're getting annoyed. You hear the booze coming in. That with the 177th pick. Yes. In the 2025 NFL Draft. Tell them. Tell them.

The Buffalo Bills, North America's team. Oh, they hated this. Listen. Select, Dorian Strong, defensive back, Virginia Tech. Welcome to the family, Dorian. Let's go, Buffalo. Hey. Hey. I mean, look, was I yelling? Was the energy high? Should I have maybe done a little bit more like

with the 177th pick in the 2000? No, of course not. You gotta go up there, you make your moment. I was happy with it. What'd you guys think? Any thoughts, any critique? I think the silence makes it. Like I think the lack of a reaction.

Like if they were like cheering you on, I wouldn't have enjoyed this half as much as I did. I actually loved the booze too. The booze were great. Yeah, yeah. When I said North America's team, it really pissed them off. I actually love the booze too. The booze were great. Yeah, yeah. When I said North America's team, it really pissed them off. That's when I finally, it was a mix of like,

can you please leave and no, I got to tell, like there were a hundred thousand people out there. 98% of them were wearing green and yellow. Like this, if the Packers went up there and said anything, they were going crazy. Of course they're not cheering for me, but it wasn't about that. I could have went up there and cut a promo on Wisconsin and the cheese

I don't want to do that that was all for the bills and I wanted to hit those those points those famous lines If you will give a shout out to you guys heart was pumping not gonna lie heart was pumping I mean you're looking at a sea of people. I felt like I was at Woodstock or something But overall pretty proud of the moment I think you nailed it how many chances are you gonna get to announce a Buffalo Bills draft pick who cares if it takes 90 seconds? Yeah, we're in round six at that point. Now you have that video forever. It's it's tremendous stuff. Yeah, I've got no notes I feel like you nailed that. I appreciate that of course didn't air on TV. No one saw it in the moment They were talking about like some sort of tragedy and like they're sitting at the desk and you can hear you in the back,

you're like, with the 177th pick! They're like, we'll continue to further the cancer research. Yeah, I didn't know what was going on. How could you know? No, I'm not blaming you. It was almost like a curb episode when it originally happened. I'm glad we were able to get multiple different angles

though. So then I got the BTS, then I got like the wide angle, but finally I got like the broadcast angle and I was very, very proud of that. I mean, look, like I said on social media, you dream of things as a kid, you don't dream of this. Look at me, look at that. Look at this, this is the great one.

Eyes open, looking at the football gods, connecting with them, telling me that good times are coming to Orchard Park. And of course I had to represent Thurman and then Thurman retweets me. Thurman's my favorite football player of all time. Ah, it's crazy. I'm wearing his jersey up there, Peter.

I mean, look at the profile picture of him. And Bruce. And Bruce in the gold Hall of Fame jacket. Those are my guys. I only have two jerseys, Bruce and Thurman, that's it. Stevie Johnson shouting me out. And now- You're about that three. Dorian Strong. You're about to have a Dorian Strong.

You're about to have a Dorian Strong. Oh yeah, hell yeah. Oh hell yeah. Look at Stevie Johnson. Bill's wide receiver, great. Offering me a piece for the desk. I mean, what? He calling me AH, like we're boys.

I mean. Stevie Johnson legend. So then that's all done. Heart's pounding still. I see DP, I say, yo, go get him. Great job, man, go get him. Great job, man, you got this. He kept it simple, you know, that's his prerogative.

You know, no notes either. And then I'm trying to get a taxi back and it's like completely shut down. Everything's shut down. So I'm walking and walking and walking and walking. And then I go on the United app and I see like, maybe I can leave tonight. And I don't have to leave tomorrow morning.

5 a.m. again, all this, Mr. Nick's game, all that. I see there's one flight left from Green Bay to Chicago that leaves at 5.30 and then there's a connector to Newark at eight o'clock. So I finally get an Uber, get to my hotel, it's now four o'clock, make the switch, get to the airport, it's like 440. I never, I'm a two hour early kind of guy,

but there's no one at the airport, there's no one on the streets. I get to the airport and these people are so nice, so salt of the earth, they're making Danishes cringle. It's a Wisconsin delicacy from the Danish settlers that came to Wisconsin centuries ago ago and they're making this, look at that, and they're just giving it away for free as a thank you for coming to Green Bay, as a parting gift, all different kinds, raspberry, strawberry, cream cheese, salted caramel,

I had the salted caramel, it was tremendous. Looks delicious. It was amazing. Get on the flight, land, connecting flight, delayed from eight to 10 30 delayed from 10 30 to 11 30 delayed from 11 30 to one. It's now seven 20. I walked by a gate. There's a flight to LaGuardia. I say, Hey, can I get on this one? We have one seat, middle seat coach all the way in the back. Put me on.

I got a UFC Kansas city fight to watch. Got on that flight, made it home, same day, got home at like 12 31, watched Gary Pruettches in the car, and my kids woke up and like thought you were coming home later today. And I got home, I gave them a cheese head that I bought for them. And that was my day, my seven hours in Green Bay. And I could live to tell it. And I said to them, I'm gonna bitch about this, I'm gonna moan about this all the way until I leave,

and then I'm gonna come back on Monday, and I'm gonna be so happy that I did it. And there's the lesson, so happy that I did it. So most importantly, thank you to the Buffalo Bills, a dream come true. Thank you to Kelsey Sweet of the Buffalo Bills for that opportunity. I love that team with all my heart you guys know Bills Knicks Expos

Those are my teams growing up Expos no longer around you know how I feel about the Knicks to be able to do that for my team It is an honor that I'll never forget and most importantly. I hope I did the Mafia proud I hope I did all of you proud so there it is. This will go up somewhere and Yeah, I'm very very very very thankful. It was a great time, a great time. Now that out of the way. I wanted to tell you guys about that. P.T. are here. We're going to be joined by Ian and Gary. Your thoughts on what the big man did on Saturday. Has he finally earned the respect? Has he finally earned the respect of the MMA community at large in your opinion? I think definitely like with the first three rounds were nothing short of a masterclass as far as I was concerned. Everything he said in the lead up to this, like he'd show levels. He showed that over the first three rounds. He was brilliant. Like one thing that I was, I've been thinking about a lot with Ian, um, is the way he uses

his lead hand. It's a lot like John Jones does. It's not just there to the fine range. It's doing so much more than that. And if you're a player, you're a player, you're a player, you're a player, you're a player, you're a player, you're a player, you're a player he uses his lead hand. It's a lot like John Jones does. It's not just there to find range. It's doing so much more than that. If you've noticed, Pratchett's been another example over the course of the first three and maybe four fifths of rounds. This is a guy we've seen absolutely starstood. Whatever

Ian is doing, lads are finding it really difficult to deal with him. We saw Shavkat struggle as well. We saw MVP struggle we saw so many like really really good strikers struggle with this guy and so I don't know how anyone could say after that like oh wow like you know he's a hype this is all just hype or whatever he fought brilliantly obviously I think that the last round and the optics of that aren't ideal in terms of what Ian is trying to do and look he's got that backup place secured as per Dana White saying that at the press conference but I do wonder, I'm sure you'll get onto this with him later, I do wonder if say if

neither Jack Della Maddalena or Bilal Mohammed pull out of this fight and Ian is there as the backup I don't think this necessarily guarantees that he is next in line beyond that. I wonder how he feels about that. But I think it was a really good fight against a dangerous opponent on short notice. I think people will obviously criticize him about the fifth round, but even at that, I think a lot of people, I was looking at the reaction online and everybody was saying like, oh, how didn't Pratchett finish him? Like it was right there.

He was just a few, like three punches and this fight would have been over. And he is still not settling in any position. He is not giving giving practice a target to hit. He is constantly moving. He looks at he looks at six and sevens, but he still knows I just need to keep moving here and I'm going to keep going. And he's still not settling in any position. He's not giving giving practice a target to hit. He is constantly moving. He looks at he looks at six and sevens, but he still knows I just need to keep moving

here and I'm going to keep going. And he's still not settling in any position. He's still not settling in any position. position he is not giving giving Pratchett a target to hit he is constantly moving he looks at he looks at six and sevens but he still knows I just need to keep moving here and I will stay safe and that is what he managed to do thought it was a brilliant performance here's the bottom line if if you aren't a fan of Ian Gary's person human being you don't like his style you don't like his accent you don't like like his accent, you don't like the way he looks, you don't like the way he talks, walks, those shorts. You don't like for some weird reason his personal life. The guy's done nothing wrong to anyone.

If for some reason you're just not a fan, some people like you, some people don't, that's fine. You don't have to like everyone, you don't have to be a fan of everyone. That's the fun part of being a fan, it's okay. That is totally okay. You get to pick and choose. You don't have to respect the guy,

you don't have to root for him. You may want him to lose, that's fine. But if you don't respect him as a fan, it's okay. That is totally okay. You get to pick and choose. You don't have to respect the guy, you don't have to root for him, you may want him to lose. That's fine. But if you don't respect him as a fighter at this point, as a fighter, you're just a plain hater. What this guy has done is shut everyone up. No one thought he was gonna take

the Shafkat Rachmanoff fight. No one thought he was gonna take him to the very end, take him to the distance, and lose a razor close fight. No one thought that he would want to fight Carlos Prochez who was on fire knocking everyone out in the UFC and probably was on an incredible run, an incredible momentum that he had, excuse me, built for himself. No one thought any of that was going to happen. And then he comes in there and he says, yeah, I'll take that fight on short notice.

I'll fight Carlos Prochez. I'll fight him in a main event, five round fight, no problem. And then beat comes in there and he says, yeah, I'll take that fight on short notice. I'll fight Carlos Prochez. I'll fight him in a main event, five round fight, no problem. And then beat the guy when everyone was probably rooting against them. If you don't respect that, what he's done in particular in the last four or five months, and not only that, prior to that, you know, Daniel Rodriguez, Neil Magny, Jeff Neil, like he has done it the hard way and with not a lot of people backing him and, and we could talk all day long, deserved, undeserved, inflicted, self-inflicted, who gives a fuck?

This guy has stepped up. He wants to come back in a week and fly to Montreal and be the backup fighter. Fair play. Is he guaranteed the title shot? Not everyone is. There are people who have been the backup fighter who haven't gotten that title shot. That's fine. He could worry about that later, but you got to respect him at this point. There's nothing that he has done in the cage in the UFC and prior cage warriors that shouldn't be

worthy of your full respect. I mean that was that was a brilliant win. We could talk about the fifth round all we want. And, and, and maybe some of the blame goes to Carlos Prochez who didn't put his foot fully on the gas. Maybe he was tired. Maybe he was hurt. Who knows? Ian Gary won that fight fair and square. If he, if, if it shouldn't be whether the UFC wants to give it to him. If he's down to be the backup and go through another weight cut, he

should have that opportunity if he's up for it. And then let's up for it. And then let's see what happens. There's Sean Brady out there for sure. I would love to see a number one contender fight between the two of them. If in fact, Shavkat is next, that's the fight to make. The buildup is great. The stuff with Buckley is just weird at this point.

I don't know what's going on there. It's just kind of like creepy stuff. What is ha Buckley is an amazing fighter. You don't need to resort to all of this. He's got a big fight against Kamaru Usman. We found out about it June 14th, Atlanta, but Ian Gary's at the, the, the highest echelon of the Walter weight division at this point. And he deserves your credit, excuse me. He deserves your respect. He deserves your respect and your credit.

I mean, that is a phenomenal win and it has been a phenomenal And he deserves your credit. Excuse me, he deserves your respect. He deserves your respect and your credit. I mean, that is a phenomenal win and it has been a phenomenal stretch. That's two short notice fights. I'm not breaking any news. You all know this. Two short notice fights in the past four months. I am thoroughly impressed because I think a lot of people thought, yeah, he'd pick and choose.

He doesn't have that dog in him. He doesn't have that fight in him. He doesn't have that fight in him. He's not gonna do that. He's gonna be the guy who's gonna ask for a full camp. Not a lot of people do this. Certainly not back to back. And so I say much respect to Ian Gary, and I can't believe he wants to turn around

just to be the backup. And maybe he wants to do that, and he wants to take a page out of Alex Volkanovsky and say, I will force their hand. Well, those are the things you have to do, and it out of Alex Volkanovsky and say, I will force their hand. Well, those are the things you have to do. And it worked out for Volkanovsky. It feels to me like he's coming into his own. It feels to me like he just has more confidence.

He's not catering to the internet. He's not catering to the vocal minority. He's just being himself. And that's who he is. Now you can decide whether or not you like him or you don't like him. You can decide whether he's your cup of tea or not. That's fine.

Not everyone is going to be that. Now you can decide whether or not you like him or you don't like him. You can decide whether he's your cup of tea or not. That's fine. Not everyone is going to be that. But you've got to respect the body of work now. Taking Shavkat five rounds, taking Carlos five rounds and winning the way in which he did, I am thoroughly impressed. We'll talk more about the rest of the card throughout the show. We got to get to youubank Ben of course and I have a lot of thoughts on what transpired and the commentary surrounding what transpired. Obviously we know Anthony

Smith's retirement fight didn't go as planned. He lost in the first round against Ming Yang Zhang. Ming Yang Zhang is going to be a real force. He's on some kind of run. I was talking to Dean Amasinger, who is doing a lot of work over in China with the UFC and speaks very, very highly of him. It was a brutal, vicious finish. The game isn't kind to anyone. It's very rare that you get to leave the game like George

Saint-Pierre did. And Anthony Smith, unfortunately, goes out like that. Nothing to be ashamed of. What a run. Dealt with a lot of trials and tribulations throughout his career ups and downs. And so he sails off into the sunset and will be around the sport for a long time as a commentator. So have no fear. David Onama with a win over Giga Chikatse. Abus Magomerov with a win over Michelle Paheda. I mentioned Randy Browns win over Nicholas Dalby. Ikhra Mali-Skirov's win over Andre Muniz was impressive.

I mentioned Randy Brown's win over Nicholas Dalby. Ikhra Mali-Skirov's win over Andre Muniz was impressive. A great TKO win there. Matt Schnell came out of retirement to beat Jimmy Flick, another guy who came out of retirement back in the day as well, Chris Gutierrez with a win, Damone Blackshear with a win. What about Malcolm Wellmaker with that incredible knockout of Cameron Simon?

That was a great win. He's gonna be on the boys in the back later in the week as well, and there you see the rest of the results. UFC Kansas City in Fuego. All right, in a matter of moments, we're gonna be joined by GSP. Do we have GSP? No, sir.

Any sign of him? No. Oh, well, that'sSP? No sir. Any sign of him? Nope. Oh. Well that's weird. He'll be here. Well I should... I was trying to land the plane there. How about that Malcolm Wellmaker? You love that guy. What a performer.

Love him. You know... Pizzi's the one that really loves him. Why? Because I picked him when the boys in the back parlay this week and I was looking at his fights. I wanted to see, I was being a bit of a bitch last week. I think I went with something.

The last time we picked, I went with like the biggest favor on the card. And I was like, you know what? I want to, I want to restore the faith of the lads. I want to show them I can pick a young man from obscurity and let him get the victory. And then I saw this young man called Malcolm Hellmaker and my god, I like the kids moxie as soon as I set my eyes on him Ariel. I saw him on Contender Series knocking a guy clean out and then I said oh let me see what else this guy has to offer.

I went back to 2022, guess what he did to that dude? Knocked him clean out as well and I said you know what? I think he might just do this in his UFC debut tonight. And there it was, lo and behold, as soon as that bell rang, there was a few kicks, and then he uncorked an unholy knockout punch and he secured my place back in the good graces of the boys in the back.

Thank you. We'd love to have you back. Oh yeah. That was great. And the guy, is he like back at work today? No, no, no, he quit his job today. Oh, he quit his job. He got a bonus, baby. Got a bonus. Got a bonus.

Quit his job. Was a full-time, like, welder. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think he's like a pipe fitter. Bad motherfucker. Look at that. Look at that. Then he would go on train, man. Now he's 9 and 0. Get this man on UFC Atlanta. Yo, where is he from? Like Atlanta proper or?

Augusta. Augusta. So like three hours outside of Atlanta. It's where the Masters is placed. I'm familiar with it. How far is that from where you Atlanta proper or? Augusta. Augusta. So like three hours outside of Atlanta. It's where the Masters is played. I'm familiar with it. How far is that from where you grew up? About three hours. Is he the greatest fighter to ever have from Augusta? I thought you're in Nekota Woods.

From Augusta? Yeah, probably. Post to Savannah, if you know Savannah, it's like 40 minutes out of Atlanta. Love Savannah, great. St. Patrick's Day parade there, I went there one time. Also the Bananas. Shout out, just sold out Clemson Stadium,

81,000 people over the weekend. Oh yeah. Bananas did? Yeah. Shout out to the Nanners. Incredible. What a time, what a time. All right, great setup there, thank you for that PT.

All right, without further ado, we move along to our first guest of the day and I said at the top of the show, it always feels special, there's always something in the air when royalty is among us, when the greatest of the show, it always feels special. There's always something in the air when royalty is among us, when the greatest of all time is among us. The man who flew this flag better and prouder than anyone

in the history of mixed martial arts, you know him. He's the greatest fighter of all time. He's the greatest welterweight champion of all time. That ain't changing anytime soon. He is the pride of Saint-Isidore, Quebec, Canada, and with the UFC finally, after 10 long years, returning to Montreal in just a couple of weeks time, we thought we gotta talk once again

to George Rush St. Pierre. And so without further ado, we say hello, we say bonjour to the great George St. Pierre. Working out? Do you never take a break, my friend? What's going on here? Yeah, man. Thanks for the introduction, my friend.

But yeah, just finished. I'm going at it with some young guys who are training hard and it's not like wine. It doesn't get better over time, unfortunately. I love it. What kind of training are you doing? MMA training? Now today I did Jiu Jitsu because I had

a shoulder surgery a few months ago, so now I'm picking it up now. Soon I'll be 100%. And are you training for something in particular? No, I'm training because for me, I'm a martial artist. I love to learn. I've been doing this for decades, and I learned two new moves today that I never seen before.

Wow. I mean, it's literally always the same thing because you're, you know, but I learned new ways of entering the back that I never seen before. So, you know, even at this stage of my life, I keep learning every day, every time I step in the gym, you know? Do you enjoy training more without a fight on the horizon? Just as this chapter of your life is training more fun

as opposed to training for a fight? Yeah, it's more fun. It's much less stressful for me. It's more therapeutic because it helps me be a better person. And I love it. I love the camaraderie I have with my training partner. I love to learn. I love the sport.

The only thing I dislike, it was when I was competing, it was the, you it was before the fight, not knowing if you will be badly hurt, humiliated, or winning the ultimate honor. For me, that was the thing that I hated the most. By the way, George, the last time I saw you, I don't know if you remember this, we were in Paris together at the Olympics.

I saw you at the Canada House. That was the last time we spoke. Did you enjoy the Olympics and did you get to go to any events? Oh, yeah. I had a friend and training partner that was competing there, and Alex Moore. And yeah, so it was a lot of fun. And I mean, it did't happen the way he wanted because he got matched with the gold medal, the guy who won the gold medal right off the bat so he lost but he happened to score on the guy and for him I think it was a learning experience and it was a learning

experience for me to see the best in the world wrestle together, it was amazing. You always have a million things going on, George. It's amazing. I see you all over the world. You're always doing incredible things. And I just got this in the mail. This is unbelievable. This is the greatest.

I was like, what did George send us here? This box right here might be the greatest box ever in the history of boxes. And it's for a hot sauce. Look at this, look how it opens. This hot sauce hot sauce what is I felt like this was like gold being sent to me George I don't even want to open it I'm afraid because it's gonna break there's one here and another one here you've got your own hot sauce now George what is this tell us about this the KO what is this with Lorde's hot

sauce company yeah it's all it's a product that is from Canada with Canadian chefs and with Canadian ingredients. It's all bio, no GMO. There's one, the more pale one, it's a hot sauce, but the other one that is more dark, that is darker, it's really a hot, a strong one. I like my food spicy and I decided to go along with the project and it was a lot of work because we tested a lot of different ingredients. It needed to be for me the best hot sauce ever. So that's how we made it. It was a long process in the main game and now it's out and I hope people will enjoy it. I can't wait to try it. Thank you for sending, thank you to Phil for sending it to us.

And what about this UFC gold edition that you're doing with Bud Light, this can, is it true that there's like a piece of the belt in there from when you fought Nick Diaz? Is that true? Yeah, it's true. So last time I fought in Montreal, it was with Nick Diaz a few decades, like, no, not a decade, like a few years ago. But almost, yeah, almost a decade. I think it was actually- UFC 158, right? Yeah, yeah, like a decade ago, roughly.

But even, yeah, more than a decade ago, actually, sorry. Crazy. But time flies, it's crazy. But I wanted to give a chance to the fans to raise gold. And we did that for the fans. It was a fun project and I hope people will enjoy and tune in for it. Why do you think it's taken the UFC so long

to come back to Montreal? Well, I think normally when they do a show, they need a local guy to headline the show. But I think in Montreal, people love the, love the, love combat sport sports and it was a strong demand for them to come back. Because if you look normally when they go in Paris, they have a French guy headlining the car.

They go to, I don't know, Miami, they have a guy from Florida headlining the car. And the same thing, you know, so except Vegas, Vegas, I would say it's because it's the fighting capital of the world. You can see guys from every nationality atlining a card, but normally when they go somewhere else, they want a guy, a local guy to atline, but Montreal loves, we love combat sport and there was a strong demand. You know, I love Montreal, I love Quebec, I love Canada just as much as you. I've been waiting for the next guy, the next you, the next Rory, the next Olivier Aubin Mercier, and I don't know who that person is and there's Eamon Zahabi who you'll be cornering and we'll get to him in a moment

but I've been waiting for that next wave of Canadian MMA stars and I don't feel like it's there yet. Do you share the same concern that I do? I was in an era That I was very fortunate to be in an era that if there was a lot of talent what where I was come when I was competing and not only that I remember at the time everybody was training in their own gym and I made an alliance an alliance with Patrick with a David Loiseau The guy in Victoria, Steve Clavo, Rory McDonnell, Dennis Kang. So what I, Steve Vigneault, everybody, all the top fighters in the country

at least once a week got together to spar and exchange. And then after they returned in their own gyms to train and it created a very competitive but not in a malicious way, in a way that it was inside Canada very competitive, but in a way to help each other. And I don't see that sometimes today and I feel like it's missing because in Canada we have a big territory but we don't have the numbers to compete with other countries. We don't have the numbers to go against us Russia Brazil or Europe so we need to train with each other if we want to be competitive and and at the time When I create that alliance a lot of guys they didn't really get along together

But at least they were training together and it was very competitive I remember like after a Friday if things didn't go your way, you were immediately thinking, Oh man, I'm going to get him back next week. You know, it was because it was like. Sort of like it took your, a part of your pride and you need that competitiveness inside from the inside, but not in a malicious way. We never tried to hurt each other, but it was about pride. And you're trying to recreate a similar environment that you're going to

compete in. And I think that's the thing that is missing, because if you're always training with the same training partner that you're used to, you don't have that feeling of uncertainty. And I think that's the one thing that needs to be done. And also, people need to stop comparing themselves to other people. You know, like, I never tried to compare myself, for example, to Carlos Newton was the first Canadian champion, because we're different. Carlos, Carlos Newton, for me, he was an inspiration. He showed us that it was possible to get there. So I didn't compare myself. I was trying to compare myself to what I was yesterday, and slowly, every day trying to get

better than what I was. And when you do that, and you focus on that, after let's say a year, you turn around and you look back, you're like, man, I'm so much better. It's not the big thing that matters, the small thing. and that's how I think It's missing a little bit from the new generation But we have a lot of good guys coming up amen is one of them and I see I have a great hope for him What a big fight he has against the legend Jose Aldo and you will be in his corner, right? Yes, I will be in his corner and For him it's it's now or never It's a chance for him to enter the top 10 and

become a serious contender for the title. Yes at 37 and for the longest time he was Faraz's younger brother we would see him around the team but we didn't know if he would ever have like a real proper career. For you to see him now like take this torch he really is carrying the torch for TriStar I would say at the moment he's's the guy. And as far as Montreal fighters, he is the guy right now. What is it like for you to see him, Faraaz's younger brother, front and center after all these years? Well, I try to tell Eamon, I mean, for me, it's great. For the fan, it's great.

But for Eamon, I think he needs to focus as if it's just another fight. Don't make it bigger than it is. And don't try to be better than you normally are. Just be yourself and that's enough to win. Go out there and what matters is your preparation. You build up your confidence with your preparation. And if you build your confidence, you have the right, you'll still be afraid, but you have the right

to go out there with the full faith in yourself and trust the outcome. And I think he's gonna do very well. There's a lot of fighters in Niagara right now. Niagara top team has become a great team in Canada. Mike Malott and Jasmine Jasdavicius, they speak so highly of you. They look up to you and they give you that respect. Are you comfortable when people do that?

They say you're the reason why they want to do this and they want to follow in your footsteps. Now as the elder statesman, if you will, are you comfortable when people pay you that kind of respect? It's a great honor for me and I really appreciate it. It really touched me. It's great and I wish them the best of luck for their fight. I'll be watching and I'm going to be cheering for them. I love it. It was just by the way, it was just a couple of days ago, 17 years since the debut in Montreal, UFC 83 against Matt Serra, the rematch.

When you go back to that night, April 19th, 2008, what are the first memories that come to mind? Wow, it's probably the loudest crowd I ever heard in my entire life. I could not even hear Bruce Buffer doing the introduction in the beginning of the fight. And I remember leading up to the fight, I mean, not leading up, after the fight, there was a newspaper in the Montreal Gazette with me in the front page like this punching down Matsuro. And it was written that Barbarian sort of overtrown Montreal Canadians for the record

of assistance, you know, and now the guests that sometimes call me for interviews. The thing I'm shifting a little bit, and I'm not mad, it's just it shows that the people got more educated on fighting because back in the day it was new. It started in US, Brazil, but nobody knew about it. And now look out where it is now. People love it. And it just, it makes me very happy. I remember you've told us about how nervous

you would get before the fights. You would look at yourself in the mirror. You would sometimes throw up. The debut, were you more nervous than ever? Because there was so much pressure on you to get the belt back, but also being in Montreal for the first time as a UFC fighter, was that the most you were ever nervous? It's weird to say, but when I was young,

I thought that later on in my career, I will get used to it and I'm gonna be less nervous. But turns out that every fight, when you're successful, every fight, every next fight is bigger than the last one because there's more at stake. So you get more nervous and it gets worse and worse. But the thing that happened is that you learn how to deal with it better. And I learned how to domesticate my fear.

And the way I overcome my fear, I mean, you never it is by it prefer about how well you prepare yourself and when you prepare yourself the best you can you build up your confidence and your if your Confidence is not the absence of fear is knowing that you have what you need in order to succeed and it's normal to be afraid I made peace with it There is no courage without fear and you should not be afraid of it and let's tell me What is the scariest Ariel. If I tell you before, let's say you're in my open and I tell you man, I'm gonna kick your ass.

I'm not afraid of you. Or I'll tell you, hey Ariel, I'm scared as hell. But man, I prefer myself the best I can. And there is nothing in the world, not even a feeling that can take away for me the opportunity that I'm going to walk through the octagon and I'm going to beat you and I don't care. Even if I'm scared, I'm going to walk the walk no matter what and I know I'm the best I can be.

What is the scariest? For me, the second version is way more because it's real, it's authentic and that's how I felt before every fight and I didn't need to hide myself behind my feeling because I knew I was afraid but when it was time to walk I you know you fake it until you make it in a way you put on a mask you go all in you know it's like a like a bluff and poker you go all in and if you lose you know it's because the guy is better than you and there's nothing you can do but if you if you if you you know it's because the guy is better than you and there's nothing you can do. But if you, if you, if you, you know what I mean?

You know, you have not turned the corner. You have done everything you could to be optimal, to be the best you could be. And that's the way I took it, you know, and the outcome and don't control it. Me myself as an entity, I do not control the The only thing that matters and count is the task and the objectives thing that I need to do. And when you learn how to do that, to sort of hypnotize yourself that way, you become with an unbreakable mind.

And that's scary, my friend. That fear is somewhat of a privilege, having that pressure is a privilege. You don't have that in your life now. Do you get it from other sources? How do you recreate that? You know, in my life, when I grew up, I got bullied when I was young in school.

So I used to deal with fear from a very young age. And I learned that confidence can help you overcome the fear. And, you know, like, because I was bullied, it was a very traumatic experience when I was young, but now I realized that it made me better to deal with it later on in my mixed martial art career, because there's a lot of mental warfare

in mixed martial art. There's a lot of guys that are gonna try to to intimidate you, they're going to say things that try to make you derail off your game plan. And because I learned how to put a shield around myself in a very young age, I think it helps me. And I learned a lot about psychology and a little bit of self-hypnotizing, if not self-hypnosis, I think it makes me much, much better. And I never been, you know, I'm very athletic

and I'm very strong and fast, but I never been the, you know, I don't think I became champion because I was the most athletic or I worked the hardest. There was guy just as athletic as me, even more athletic, guys that work just as hard. But the thing that made the difference, I think, is that mentally I was never afraid of getting out of my comfort zone in order to improve.

And when you do that, you know you have done everything you could to be the best you could be. So you have the right to go there, confident, fully confident. And confidence is the most important thing. You can have all the skills in the world, but if you don't have the confidence, it, you can't reach your optimal, your full potential.

And recently I saw that you tried some ayahuasca. I did that during COVID. I can't tell you where and when, but I always wanted to do this because I'm very curious about consciousness. What is consciousness? You know, the religious people will say it's your soul. The scientists will say it's the chemistry in your brain.

And you know, we all dream sometimes and remember our dreams. What does that mean? You know, what is real? What is not really? You know, What is real? What is not real? Is this real? Because like René Descartes says, if you put a straw, let's say, in a cup of water, the straw is bent. But the straw is not really bent.

It's your senses that fool you. If your senses fool you once, they can fool you twice and forever. So what is consciousness? So I decided to go on a journey and I tried it. I wanted to do it once. I never took drugs. I've tried marijuana when I was at school back in the day, but I never did anything else. But I always wanted to try that. And I wanted to learn about consciousness. And I did it and I'm very happy I did. It's not a recreative drug. It's not fun, but I learn more about myself

and I'm happy I did it. I did it once and I don't think I'm gonna do it again because I love my brain and it's still a drug. They call it medicine, but it's still psychedelic. But I'm very happy I did it. It was an incredible adventure. George, we see a lot of sad scenes in MMA. Like this past weekend, we saw Anthony Smith, he said he was gonna retire,

and he goes out bloodied and sad. The game usually beats the fighter. It's very, very rare to go out the way in which you did. No one has ever gone out the way in which you did. Khabib, close, but you had way more title defenses, 10, 13 title victories. When you see this, and then even, I don't know if you pay attention,

like it seems like BJ is in a tough spot too, and life after fighting. When you see your fellow fighters and the state that they're in post-fighting compared to the right moves that you made, I'm not trying to heap all the praise on you, but you really did it the best way. How does that make you feel?

Well, the temptation is always there, but there's something that you cannot beat, it's time. And all we have in this world, it's, sooner or later we're gonna lose it, whatever it is, like materialism, we think about, oh, I'm building up my legacy, my legacy. Yeah, people remember me now, my image. You know, the next generation, the other one, maybe the other one.

But in a future generation, nobody will care, you know. So it's my ego that wants my legacy. And it's good as a fighter because you want that pride, you want that ego to carry you because it helps you to be more successful. But when you retire, you have to learn how to dissociate yourself from it. And that's what I worked on since I retired. And it's very, very hard. And there's a lot of guys that they don't know when to stop. They think they can beat time, but it's impossible. You know, it's a cycle of life. You cannot beat time. Everything we have now, it's temporary.

We all gonna leave and you know, everything will be lost forever. You know what I mean? So when you learn, I learned that and I made peace with it. And you know what I mean? It makes me sad when I see guys they messed up their health. And because when you retire, normally you have another, maybe you have another half of your life to live, you know, so it's important that you stay as healthy as you can. And also if you retire, you know, on a winning street, you know, they tell you pass the torch, fuck that, don't pass the torch, retire on your turn, not on their turn. It's a self selfish sport you know and you have to be selfish you know what i mean and when you feel it's time to retire

retired you know when i when i retire is because i was at the time if you go back after bismay i got ulcer colitis and i got symptoms i was on heavy medication and I did not want to hold on the title for too long because by respect for my colleagues, I say my colleagues but my competitors that are trying to get the title so I relinquished the title because I didn't know what was going to happen and then I realized the stress and everything in my life, it was time for me to retire. And I did, and I'm glad I did it. I don't regret it. There's always gonna be in the back of my mind, oh, if I come back, I think I can beat him, I think so,

but this is my pride talking. It's not what I should follow. I love seeing you at the events and being celebrated. I know when you walked away, I think Dana was upset that you were giving up the title. How would you describe the state of your relationship with the company now? I'm in good terms with Dana.

I saw him in Saudi Arabia last time, and we're a good friend. We talk about stuff that we could not talk before, like stuff that I was thinking during negotiation, and he was thinking going on and you know, it's funny, we have a funny relationship and I love Dana, he's a good guy and he gave me actually a device that helped me sleep. He sent it in my house. It's something that costs a lot of money.

It's frequency, it sends your body frequency and it helps you sleep and it's amazing and I have a great relationship with Dana and I like him, you know. And I have to say Ariel, on that note, you're always been a, you know, you're a reporter and your job is to deliver the news and you're one of the guys that I really look up to in a way that, you know, everyone was afraid of UFC and everybody was like always doing what they were, that they were be told. And you, you, you fought, you didn't follow that. You, you, you stick to your, to your value and you report the news the way it is, no matter if it was brutal or not. And if it could impact your carrier and you and you always stood up for your ideology, and I respect that.

Oh man, thank you. That means the world to me. You know how much I love and respect you, so thank you for that. I'll just ask you two more things, and then I'll let you go. The guy fighting in the main event, the champion, Bilal Mohammed,

says he's getting close to being the GOAT in the welterweight division. You have 10 successful title defenses in a row and 13 victories in title fights. He has no defenses in a row. He had a great run, multiple, but like when you hear this, do you laugh like that? I wish him the best of luck

and maybe he will be the goat. I told you earlier about ego. I learned how to try to dissociate myself with my ego. A guy who does not do that will still be like, no, because I got more title than him, blah, blah, blah, bullshit. But man, I wish him the best of luck. And you know what? The record are made to be broken. And I wish him the best of luck. And he's very skilled. He's got all the tools that he needs to become the goat. not only in my division in the GOAT in the entire UFC roster you know and I wish him the best of luck and if he does congrats to him

and I wish him the best in his journey but right now he has a lot to do you know it's not done yet you know it's uh he needs to to prove it you know him, to himself and also to, you know, for in terms of legacy for his staff. But it's good that he's hungry and he has a lot of pride and ego because you need that in that game. It's a very egotistic industry and you need to be that way, you know. And if you would not be that way, you know, people don't understand sometimes they think it's some kind of arrogance.

I don't see it as a kind of arrogance or an insult. I see it as a competitive spirit, someone who's very competitive and who's very proud and has very high hope and faith in himself. And I wish him the best of luck. Last one, there's a guy named Tom Aspinall, who every time I speak to him about the game, about life, about the career, he talks about you. You being his inspiration, you being his favorite fighter, you being the guy he wants to be like. He looks up to you with the utmost respect. I mean, I was just talking to him about you and he adores you. He's in a tough spot right now. I

don't know how much you follow, but he's waiting for John Jones. Does he move on? He feels like his career is being halted by one man. What advice, if any, would you give to Tom Aspinoh who I think is very frustrated right now because he thinks he's the best, but there's a guy holding him up. Well, if I could give Tom, and thanks for that. I mean, it's a great honor for me to be, to hear that. I think Tommy needs to focus on the next task. I remember when I lost to Matt Serra, I was making the mistake of trying to focus on Matt Serra to get my revenge immediately,

but I had a few other fights lined up before to get that. And if he's only focusing on John Jones, and if John Jones does not come back right away, he's not focusing on the right thing. He needs to focus on the what is next, the next path, because the rest it's a distraction, you know? And things that need to be done will be done. You know, I don't know what John will do, but as a fan, I would love to see this fight. I mean, because in terms of legacy and accomplishment, John Jones is the best, you know what I mean? But, and I understand Tom, from his point of view, that he wants, he's a proud fighter, he wants to be the best. But

now it's all depend on what John want to do. If John still want to do this, if he's compensated fairly, all that plays. So Tom should not focus on that because it's outside of his control and he's wasting a lot of energy focusing on that. And I know it's very hard, but he need to sort of self-hypnose himself to focus on the next thing and be hungry about the next task. And by doing this, only focusing on the next thing, next thing,

next thing, next thing, he's going to build up his legacy and perhaps one day he's going to be the greatest. You know, he's got all the tools as well to be, you know, a lot of people, you know, He's got all the tools as well to be, a lot of people want this fight to happen because a lot of people believe like, oh, he's the guy that's going to crack John Jones code. And as a fan, I want to see this fight and understand on both sides, John want to be compensated. It's a game. It's a negotiation game. It's a chess game. And know, it's a chess game.

And on the other side, Tom is waiting, you know, and I understand both point of view, but from Tom needs to focus on what's next and the rest sort of try to clear your mind and only focus on that thing, you know? Great advice. You're the man, George. You see right there on the screen,

you could see there's a doll of you over there on the left and Bret Hart. To me, no one represented Canada on this stage better than you two. And so it's always important for me to have you guys up there. Good luck with the hot sauce. I will be trying it tonight with my family. Good luck with Bud Light. Good luck to Ayman Zahabi and the team in Montreal. Can't wait to see you there, please. And Ariel, I'm saying this. We organize an evening right after the weigh-in, May 9th, with the fans. It's sponsored by Still Standing Strong. It's a clothing company that is inspired by people from all walks of life who overcome obstacles and they sponsor an event that will be held at the Vogue Hotel Friday, May 9, immediately after the official weigh-in of the UFC. The tickets are online and there is limited place. So people wanna come see us.

There will be four others, Canadian mixed martial art legend, Patrick Cote, David Loiseau, Valérie Le Tournoi, and Olivier Aubain Mercier with me there to hang out and take picture with the fans. Wow, wow, that's incredible. I love that, well done, well done. It wouldn't be the same without you and those names as well.

So thank you so much for doing this, George. Much love, always a great honor having you on the show. I really appreciate it. Good talking to you, Ariel, man. Take good care. Thank you, you too, my friend. There he is, the great George Rush St. Pierre. What a guy, golly, how could you not love him, right?

How could you not love that man? An absolute legend and just you know when he says those things about me it's like that's George St. Pierre. That's you know that's royalty right there. The greatest. George Brett. What a life. What a life we have here. Okay another man that I have the utmost respect for is our next guest and you need to know this because it doesn't happen. next guest and you need to know this because it doesn't happen. Two weeks ago he was on the show. We were getting ready to head out. It was our last show. It was post 314, all that stuff and more, right? He does the interview about the protest fight. I think we were the first ones he spoke to. I think so. And then afterwards he comes on, sends me a voice note

and I'll talk to you on Monday. That's the kind of confidence this man has that's the kind of after the win. He says that's the kind of confidence Short notice no problem dudes on a winning streak knocking people out No problem, and what did he do he went out there and dominated one of the hottest fighters in the UFC He's the pride of Dublin Ireland and of course Brazil as well. He's Ian Machado Gary He's kind enough to join us after a big win on Saturday in Kansas City. There he is in the airport. Hello, my friend. How are you? I'm good, man. How are you? I'm doing great. How are you feeling?

Do I feel like I've been in a fight, Errol? No. And granted, it wasn't that much of a fight. I mean, I dominated 99% of the fight, but yeah, just feel like I was in a fight. Right. It's hard. He's harder than you thought. No, I was not as I expected, but just I can now guaranteed that I can say it with authority, sure.

Not hit hard. Any, any injuries or just the cosmetic stuff here? Nah, just a little bit, a little bit more beautiful and banged up than I know him now, but that's okay. He caught me one there and I swear to God, I think it was in the third round, maybe the fourth round, he caught me a punch and I swear to God, I could only see his fist

because it was about the same size as my face. Wow. Well, there's some of the- Scum chans. Yeah. And I know you were very confident and I think you were looking for a stoppage overall though. Was that kind of how you thought the fight was going to play out that kind of dominance for the vast majority of it?

Yeah, absolutely. I told you I'm going to beat him where he's best and there's going to be no excuses. I went out there and I dominated him from the first round all the way to the last round. I made one mistake, but I was, other than that, I was absolutely dominant in his own rounds, in the area, in the, in the space where he has the most fights, the most experience. So there's no excuses when he goes back home. I'm the better fighter, I'm the better man.

And my hand got raised and he knew. What's the mistake? I just said sloppy take down at the end. Sloppy take down, roll bottom and then yeah, when you make a mistake in MMA, you it pays off. You know what I mean? It pays off. Some people criticize them in the aftermath saying he didn't like put his

foot on the gas and, and, and, and really laid laid on you didn't inflict more damage or throw more punches. What do you make of that? I think that's absurd. You want to say hi to Ariel? Oh yes. The legend say hi. Look at this guy. Golly. Hello. Can you see him? Say hi. Hello buddy. Can you put me on, put me on so he can see me? Yeah. Hello Hi, what's your name? Leo you're so cool. Do you like my toy?

I'm showing him my toys God Yeah, so I look, he distracts me every single time. Where was I? Okay, so we were talking about the criticism that Carlos received. Yes. Not pouring it on. I can't imagine how anyone would spit on someone

like Carlos Pratchett trying to push at the end when you think that I just put him through an absolute pace. Ariel, I looked at the stats, I threw 262 significant strikes and shot for 26 takedowns and the world just expects Carlos Plata to up the gear. I put the pace on that man, that man was lucky to be standing at an octagon and he came in that last round more dangerous than he did the other four because he knew he had to win. He was like a wounded animal. He was more dangerous than that fifth round. And he went out there and he tried his best. Unfortunately, his best wasn't good enough.

I saw you guys have a bit of an interaction in the back. It seems like there's no hard feelings. It seems like there's all respect. In fact, it seems like you even kind of extended an invitation to maybe train together in the future. I've always said that if you, if you are man enough to share the rock to come with me and we go in and we do that dance, you have my respect for life, you just, it's one of those things it's I feel like Carlos is a good guy. I don't feel like he's there's any animosity towards him or his team or I don't feel it backwards.

And I said, I wanna see all the Brazilians reach the top. I wanna see them all get to the top. I understand. I've been able to see how hard they have to work to get where Carlos is in the first place, for example, that I wanna see them all succeed. And if there's any fight that I can help him with, then it would be an absolute honor.

I do have to say the celebration after your name was announced was pretty damn cold, man. That was pretty damn cold. Did you think of that on the spot or what? Like that was- No, I thought about doing it when I finished him because I thought it'd be a lot more dramatic. But I think after that dominance,

once my name got called out, I think putting the cigarette out and just kind of standing up about how it made sense. That was freaking cool. I mean, and the look on your face too. I told you it was, I proved it. I told you, I told you two weeks ago, the first interview I did with you, I told you, you got the exclusivity for 24 hours, dude.

I came out here, I showed everyone that I was better than where he's best. There's no excuses when he goes back to San Paolo on trains that he sits there and goes, ah, you know. No, I was the better man. Sure, he did well, it's a fight at the highest level, but I proved that there's levels to this, and I'm at the very, very elite in the welterweight division. So you said in the aftermath,

you said that you're gonna go to Montreal, my hometown, by the way, so if you need any tips, I'd be happy to share. You said you're gonna go there and be the backup fighter, and Dana White confirmed that to be true in his post-fight press conference. Have you also been told Ian that, all right, if the fight goes through

and you don't end up fighting, that you are the number one contender? Because sometimes being the backup confirms that, and sometimes it doesn't, as you know. So what does that mean if the fight goes through and you don't end up fighting in Montreal? I believe I'm next. That's the way I believe it.

I made sure that when I took this fight that I was given another opportunity because that's what happens when you save cards. You get opportunities. I negotiated it into my contract that when I win, I get the opportunity to go and be the backup. But also when you take back to get the opportunity to go and be the backup. But also when you take back to back fights and short notice and you saved the UFC in two cards in a row, those awards pay off. And for me, there is no one more exciting in the division right now. There is no one getting as much attention.

There is no one that if you put the champion of the welterweight division versus Ima Shadow Gary that will beat that right now. champion of the welterweight division versus Ema Shadow Gary that will beat that right now. Shkaav Kaat is injured and I don't believe Jack Delamatta-Lena wins this fight, so Bilal will stay the champion. And so is there a part of you that is hoping Jack falls through or Bilal falls through or are you hoping you don't just because you've just been in a fight and who wants to fight you know two weeks later? Me? I do! Good call. I'm on my way to Vegas right now to make sure that I can get the best possible recovery I can so that when I go to Canada, I'm ready to go.

That's my entire plan here. I am putting a good seven days, 10 days of focus on rest and recovery and getting my nutrition back in order so that I can be there, I can weigh in. Because if anybody slips up aerial, could you imagine it'd be the biggest heist in USC history? Ian Machado Gary goes back to back to back, goes out there, proves to the world that he's not afraid of anybody anywhere at any time, goes out there and wins the belt in 14 days notice after just going five rounds with one of the scariest guys in the division.

And he pulls off the victory and he gets that belt wrapped around his waist. That's some cinematic shit right there. Oh no, it would be insane. One of the great stretches in MMA history. Do you feel like your body's okay with that though? Like you have to go through another weight cut, you have to kind of prepare.

It's not a lot of time, but usually you go on vacation after something like this. You take some time off. So is your body up for it? I mean, I think right now, the first thing is like straight after a fight, you kind of have it, like everything hurts a little bit. The adrenaline calms down the body starts to relax, especially after a five round fight with someone like Carlos. For me, mentally is the main point. I'm mentally locked in.

So as long as I'm mentally locked in, whatever's happened, I've fought with torn PCLs and broken hands and I've fought with all of the areas. It doesn't matter if I go in here, as long as I get the opportunity, if I feel good, I'm going to walk into the locker room on May 10th if I need to and I'll get my hand raised. Have you, have you, I'll ask just kind of point-blank, have you been promised the next title shot? I've not been promised anything. Okay. I've not been promised anything. Okay, fair enough. I'm sure you may have seen this. Sean Brady has commented on the fight saying, once again, he was watching, saying that like, there's no chance that you're next.

Is there any possibility that it's you versus him to determine who is next? Not in my mind. Not in my mind. That guy needs to do a little bit more too. I think we see, I think you could see many, many different scenarios for Sean. But in my mind, I don't think he's in my path right now.

I think it's the winner of this fight. I don't think it's a, obviously in my mind, I believe I'll win the fight. Therefore, Islam said that he wants to move to 170. So if he wants to come up, I'd more than welcome that. And then I want the rematch with Shavkan. That's where I look at it. If that's my ideal way,

that's the three fights that I want. This is the plan you've laid out, right? I like it. It sounds good, right? It feels pretty, I mean, yes, it's an incredible plan. Is this what you're envisioning? Like, is this what you're feeling or is this what you're trying to manifest?

Are you seeing this? Both. Both. I think there's an absolute possibility that that is it because I don't think there's an absolute possibility that that is it. Because I don't think there's anyone bigger to fight for the title in the division right now after May 10th. Let's say Jack and Bilal go ahead. I don't believe there's a bigger name to put it. If you want to sell a pay-per-view and put a main event on, the biggest fight you could put on the welterweight division

right now is me versus Bilal. There's no doubt about it. And then everyone, everyone should take a step back and give Islam the respect he deserves, the pound for pound number one, if he wants to move up, which is what everyone was asking me on the fight week. So I'd absolutely love to welcome that. It'd be an honor and you know you go out there and you beat the pound for pound number one, you take that spot and then I'll get the revenge against Shavkat. And that's a three fight fight that I could get behind. You can piggyback off of this or not. You can comment on it or not, but can I just say, and I saw what you had to say in the post fight.

I'm uncomfortable with this Joaquin Buckley stuff. There is a line being crossed here and I don't think family, I don't think it needs to go there. You could sell a fight, you could pick a fight. That's the game. This is uncomfortable for me to watch. How do you, how do you not respond? I saw you didn't want it to like, this is different stuff, no? It's just desperation.

That's all it is. It's, it's quite sad. It's desperation. He can't get enough. Can't generate enough talk about himself by doing the stuff he does. So he needs to try piggyback off other people. It's okay though, let him be him. Is he in the crosshairs?

Do you need to get that one? My man's focusing on trying to get all the content he can with me this weekend. Meanwhile, he's got a fight. He should focus on his fight, get his fight done, and then we'll see where the future goes. Do you think he wins that fight? Meanwhile, I think no, I think he runs through. I don't think he wins that? I think, no, I think he runs through.

I don't think he wins them. I think he demolishes him. Okay. So then he he's kind of in the picture then if he wins that fight. Again, I still think it's Palau next. Yeah. And then I think I'll win the belt and like, I know I can. And then I absolutely welcome up Islam and Shavkat rematch.

Like either way, either order of that. But that's the way I'm going with it. Because Shabkat is the number one contender, but I injured him. So he's out for a while. So when he comes back, everyone deserves the respect to let him go next. That's what he earned that night. But if Islam wants to come up, he's the power for power number one. So it's either way, I don't see that I beat Bilal, and then it's Islam or Shabkan X and then the other one would be after that. Do you think there's any chance JDM wins?

I don't, there's always a chance. I think stylistically, Jack is very good for most of the division, but just against someone like Bilal who just does not stop, constantly puts pressure on you. You know, we've seen Basel and we've seen Gilbert go out there and take Jack down pretty convincingly and win the fight in that round. Bilal's better than those guys in that area. And he's kind of just better at mixing up, switching stances, making it awkward for people. And then he picks you up and dumps you in your head.

I think Jack has to get going early in the first round to have any success because I think every minute the fight that goes on allows us going to keep gaining and gaining and gaining momentum. Now I went on a bit of a rant at the beginning of the show saying look not every fan has to love every fighter you may not like the way he dresses, talks, walks, what he represents, whatever. But at this point, if you don't respect Iman Chattogary for what you've done, just the body of work, the resume, stepping up doing what you've done over the last few fights, then you're just being a hater.

Like you're just being a plain hater and you don't want to give respect. Do you feel like you have finally earned that respect from the community? Are you sensing that now? I feel like I've proved the respect to myself that I deserve to have. And if people give it to me or people don't, I know what I deserve. I know how good I am.

I know what I've done for this MMA community over the last couple of months. I've shown the real, true fighting Irish spirit. I've gone in there for anyone, anywhere. I've showed that I'm amazingly talented and I've done it against the baddest men. I'm willing to fight the best because I know I want to be the best. So what people say about me, I don't care about. I know and hear and that's what matters. You really don't care, like you really don't want that respect? It's nice to get that love and respect, no? I need to get this right. But Gary Vaynerchuk once said, if you give weight to the love, then you give weight

to the hate because when the wet, the love isn't there, you need it. You search for it. So for me, as long as I'm focusing on the human, I am and the people I surround myself with, that's all that matters. The love is great. Well, I focus on me and then that's the only thing that keeps me straight. Blinders on dude. Just curious, did he say, and I know you're represented by Vayner Sports,

Lloyd Pearson, one of the best in the game under the Gary umbrella. Did he say that to you personally, or is that something you heard him say? No, that's something I've heard him say. I'm a massive fan of Gary's, and I've spent some time with him, and I think he's an amazing human,

and he always drops some good liners. He's a phenomenal speaker, he knows what he's doing, and he knows to activate your mind. Were you always like that? Or is that like a mindset that you've learned over time? I think early on in my career, I still never really cared about people's opinions.

Like I don't care if you think I'm a dick. I'm just gonna be me. That's the thing. I've never really taught about what people think about me. Obviously as a kid growing up, wanting to be the best and seeing, seeing the best come through the organization and get the love and respect they deserve. I feel like I've done nothing to, to warrant, no generate hate. But at the end of the day, it's like, I'm just going to keep doing what I wanted

to do and what I dreamt of doing. And the 16 year old me that was in Dublin, Ireland at my time with my headphones on on my laptop watching fights, he'd be very proud of the person that I am today. I wanted to do and what I dreamt of doing. The 16 year old me that was in Dublin, Ireland that night time with my headphones on and my laptop watching fights, he'd be very proud of the person that I am today. So I'm making a little boy proud by sticking to his dreams and reaching for his status. And I'm not stopping anytime soon.

I'll let you go in a moment because I know you guys are at the airport and it's stressful to be there, especially with a young kid. Don't worry, he sat down, he's good. Okay, okay. I didn't know what time your flight is and all that. But I'll let you know.. He sat down. He's good. Okay. Okay. I didn't know what time your flight is and all that.

But I, but I'll let you know. I don't know. Okay. You follow the boss, right? I get it. I get it. Are you going to get that CPF card now? What's the deal with that? What's the update?

Look, all I know is Brazil is pounding at the moment. People are just ranting and raving about me getting my CPF. I've actually had CPF lawyers, like lawyers contact me through email saying, we can help you get a CPF. I'm like, I bet you can, yeah. They want to, cause I saw it. Did you do like a promo for UFC Brazil? Your Portuguese is incredible.

And you're talking about, I think you're talking about getting the card, right? Or wanting the card. Yeah. They did like a quiz with me. And then this was afterwards. I was like, look about getting the card, right? Or wanting the card? Yeah. They did like a quiz with me. And then this was afterwards, I was like, look, you did a quiz with me on Fight Week to see if I deserved my CPF.

I didn't get a single question wrong. And then I said after the fight, look, I'm the best Brazilian welterweight on the panel right now, where's my CPF? Give it to me, where's my passport? What kind of stuff were they asking you? Like general Brazil history? They asked, yeah.

They asked me, like, they showed me a photo of a place and said, can you name this place? I got it right. Wow. So in Rio, for example, a person from Rio is called a Cadiocca. They said, what's someone from San Paulo called? I was like, Paulista.

I said, Dan, oh look, you gotta understand all these things. You can only know these things if you've been to Brazil. You don't get them learning and reading about it online. So yeah, I got them all right and then went out there, done the job, proved that I'm the best Brazilian welterweight on the planet as well. And now I'm gonna get that. That's gonna come some way, don't matter.

By the way, how did you learn how to speak Portuguese so well? So when my wife was pregnant, she gave birth, he came out, didn't respond to English. Wow. Wow. He just was responding. Every time she would speak to him in Portuguese, he just would respond.

And every time I would speak to him in English, he would just look at me like, completely blank expression. I'm like, he does not understand. So I forced myself to learn. We went and we spent time in Brazil after one of my fights and we ended up staying there for ages. And I fell in love with the language. I hope to one day speak more Portuguese than I do English because the examples that I've had from Diego Lima to Charles Oliver, to Damien Meyer, to my wife's side of the family and so many others. The Brazilians, like the way the men speak is

so beautiful and powerful. There's words that they have that English doesn't have. The expressions, the descriptions, it's completely different. So I hope to be in a place one day where I speak more Portuguese because I'll have a much lighter vocabulary and it will be more expressive and beautiful and that's where I want to get to. So the plan now is go to Vegas, stay there, recover, and then go to Montreal? That's the plan.

So you're not going home? Not right now. No. I've got a job to do. I'm mentally locked in. One goal of mine, and that's to be able to, if I possibly can, step in, because I do not want to miss an opportunity

to go out there and shock the world. I do not want to miss an opportunity to pull off one of the biggest heights in UC history. And by the way, Ian, what about cage warriors? Cage warriors doesn't like me very much. They don't really mess with me, as they say in the business. They tweeted this before your fight. Look at that.

September 25th, 2020. You knew. Ian Gary's a name worth remembering. You made me look good, thank you. I give you all the respect in the world because you've been shouting me out a long time, a lot longer before most other people knew about me. You're a real one.

You know, like you said, you've been watching MMA for God knows how long. So you know when you see a real one, you know where it can go. And I told you right then, I'm still telling you right now. Man, what a story. So very happy for you.

Congratulations. What a performance, what a run for you. Love the fact that you're going to Montreal. Love the fact that you're the backup Montreal. Love the fact that you're, you're, you're, you're the backup fighter. And if this turns out the way you're laying it out, it's going to be an all-timer, my friend. So keep it up, keep it up. I appreciate it. Thank you for your love and respect as always.

Every time I go out there, I want to prove that I'm technically one of the best in the world. And if everything goes to plan, it's definitely goat status coming up for sure. So we've got a lot of work to do. We're not doing any time soon, but hopefully Manchuria will get the opportunity. And I step up and I shock the world there. Thank you.

Thank you, Ian. All the best to you and safe travels and good luck in the next couple of weeks. It's going to be fascinating to watch this unfold. Appreciate it. And I'll see you on Fight Week again. All right, can't wait. There he is.

Parabens, Ian, Gary. what a guy. Uh, that is, that is tremendous. I would, uh, I would welcome that. And, uh, you know, sometimes when you have that guy sort of like hanging around fight week, it becomes a story unto itself and it actually raises the intrigue in the fight. It really does. Um, so he is, he's actually adding a lot to the Montreal card, which, you know, is, is a fine card, uh to the Montreal card, which, you know, is a fine card.

Two title fights, the Zahabi fight is on there against Jose Aldo, Jasmine's on there. But he is going to... Yeah, he's going to be one of the top storylines. Make no mistake about it. So he's actually doing the UFC a big favor by raising his hand and saying he wants to be on that card. We'll talk more about UFC Kansas City back into the show,

plus the other weekends coming up. doing the UFC a big favor by by raising his hand and saying he wants to be on that card. We'll talk more about UFC Kansas City back into the show plus the other weekends comings and goings, news and notes. But it's time to talk about Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday. It's time to talk about U-Bank Ben because here on the program we've been talking about U-Bank Ben for a long time. We've given Yerrick Rick's stick over the fact that he called it his most anticipated fight of 2022, 2023, 2024. Now here we are in April of 2025, the press conferences. Once this fight was finally signed, sealed and delivered and, and what a

journey it was to get to that point. You know, the 60, 40, the weight, the suspension is it going to weight, the suspension, is it going to happen in Riyadh, is it going to happen in England, etc., etc. Once it was officially announced, once it was officially done, and they had those two press conferences with the egg, with the face-offs, with the animosity, with U-Bank, with Nigel there and senior not there, you felt like it was on. Ticket sales skyrocket, 67,000, they sell out by the time Fight Week rolls around. But I was feeling like by the time we got to Fight Week,

there was something off about all this. I don't know if you guys share my feelings, but I think it started to turn when I saw that senior interview with Seconds Out and others where he started to call his son a disgrace and that he was ashamed and he didn't teach him to act like this. And I started to feel like, man,

this was built on the rivalry. This was built on what Nigel and senior did if seniors not on board it doesn't feel right something was was was a little bit off um my guyade wasn't involved that's his story to tell there was I was I was feeling some sort of way about it I was feeling some sort of way about it. And then you get to the weigh-ins and you find out that after multiple attempts, Junior is off by 0.05 pounds and has to pay 500,000 pounds to Conor Bend.

Oh, by the way, had to pay 100,000 pounds to the British Boxing Board of Control for the egg slap incident. And then you see the way in which he looked at the ceremonial wands, which I like that they did that. They don't do that a lot in boxing, the morning wands a la UFC and then the ceremonials. He still looked gaunt. He still looked unhealthy. And then you remember, oh, and he has a rehydration clause, he can't weigh more than 170 by 8 a.m. the next day, so he can't fully rehydrate.

There was an uncomfortable feeling. Now, I'm not doing the thing that I see a lot of people in the UK. I saw a lot of people in the UK, it's very disappointing. Leading up to the fight, they're talking about how the fight is a sham, they're still harping. Like I saw a senior on TalkSport and they're still harping on the drug tests. They're still asking him about Connor Ben. They're still asking about the eggs. Guys, move on. You're talking about the Liam Smith fight. Like guys, the fight was happening at this point two days from the interview. You're still harping. By the way, these people who are harping on the drug test and whatnot, are they going to harp on drug tests when John Jones fights Tom Aspinall if he does? Do they harp on Anderson Silva?

Do they harp on that type of stuff when it pertains to MMA fighters and UFC fighters? Or do we only harp on Conor Ben and British fighters in boxing? I don't get it. They're still harping on it on the Monday after. I'm not doing that. We were all in on this fight. We were intrigued, but it was seeing him look like that, the face, the body, there was something uncomfortable about it. And the fact that his father wasn't involved, didn't endorse it, I never felt like this was a sham of a fight. There was a story to be told, and quite frankly, while one has been around a little bit longer,

it wasn't like Chris was a champion defending his belt against someone who didn't deserve it. Like there was no belt on the line. This was just a rivalry that turned into something greater and there was obviously great intrigue because all of England seemed to be there. And then the event starts and then that shot appears and it was straight out of WWE. It was straight out of WCW Nitro. It seemed like Junior was a thousand percent sold on the fact. I don't think he was working us and I hope at some point we find out how it all happened.

I would love to ask him. He was in the hospital in the aftermath. He got released today, I'm told, in good spirits, in good health. We wish him the best. How did this happen? But that reveal of his father, I'm not ashamed to say it, this right here is legendary. It's just absolutely legendary. And we could talk about the motives, and we could talk about the limelight and this like that. That's a father and his son hugging after everything they said about each other. And you've got to give Junior a lot of credit. He didn't say much. That's one of the great, I have goosebumps just watching it now and I've watched it 50 times already. That's a father and his son. That's a father who didn't want his son to go down this road. That's a father who has been through a lot. He lost a son. Junior lost a brother. That family has been through a lot in

the limelight, in the public eye. And I don't know if at the end of the day, senior said, I'm not letting you go to war without me. Yes, I don't train you anymore. Yes, we're not on the best of terms. You're not fighting my rival's son without me. I don't know. Who knows? I don't know if he got paid to be there. I don't know. None of us know at this point.

But that shot right there is one of the all-time great shots. And I feel very confident in saying that that walkout, given the backstory, given the relationship, given everything that was said in the buildup to the first fight and the second, this one, is one of the greatest walkouts of all time. This right here, this will never be forgotten. This will be talked about forever. That's father and son. Hurt, damaged, wounded.

I wish we could play the music, but the mix to the dun dun dun dun dun dun with the orchestra, the still DRE, look at that. I swear to God, that hits me in the heart. It was, if you missed it, shame on you. If you were one of those people that was trying to prove a point or make a point, I'm bigger than this. This is a sham. Like those jokers overseas, shame on you. You missed one of the all time great moments. As a father, as a human being, you had to feel that.

You had to feel that. And then all of a sudden this footage emerges online and I have to say, I don't know what it is, but I saw this footage. It's from apparently a documentary that aired called At Home with the Eubanks. And it's a 13-year-old junior trying to convince his dad to let him box with Lennox Lewis in the kitchen. His mom's there too. His brother's there. And this is just putting my own personal spin on it. Like my son's about to turn 13 in two days. I see my son, like the mannerisms, the age, the way he talks, and I see the father, senior, struggling with letting his

son do this. For this to somehow see the light of day the day after this whole scene could you imagine how big of a shame would have been if senior wasn't there and for it to come out after a played out like this and junior gets the win it's beautiful it's really beautiful it's it's some of the most poetic beautiful symbolism that we've ever seen in combat sports you can't script this this is not this is not pro wrestling. This is, it is as poetic, as beautiful, as symbolic as we've seen anything. Father-son, bloodline, falling out, tragedy, triumph. If you don't know what I'm talking about,

just watch this. This is a 13-year-old Chris Eubank Jr. trying to convince his dad to let him box. His dad is struggling, and you fast forward all these years later, some 24 or so years later, and you know how the story plays out after everything. It takes my breath away. Take a look. Let me ask you. I often tell Christopher that boxing is a business that you never see middle class or upper class youngsters become champions because you need hunger, you need to be hungry.

And the fact that you've kind of been brought up within these four walls here and you've been protected, I don't think you're going to be hard enough. I just want to try it, I just want to see what it's about. If my head can do it, why can't I do it? That's the argument. 20 World Championship wins, son. Actually, that's good because he won 21. So many people come to understand, you take take a beating is that what it's about nothing and I hope I hope you're not stubborn and kind of that's why you're

stubborn and bullheaded that's why you made it so you're saying you know for the guys you know me you might have to be for the guys you don't make it in boxing you know it's tragic. It's a tragic business to be in. And you're convinced he's not going to make it, just let him go until he wears himself out of it and he's not bothered anymore. Yeah, and by then all those good-looking features would have gone. You know what they say? Let me tell you what, trust me, don't be Christopher, just leave it alone. And you know what?

Remember what they said, right? Okay, am I bad looking? Why are you putting that into the kid's head? I don't want him to fight. I don't want him to fight. Everyone get hurt, everybody get used to it. What you're seeing is irrelevant at this time. Is it relevant?

Yeah, why? Because it may not happen, it's like whining about what might not happen. Let me just bring this point to you. It's irrelevant? Yeah. Why? Because it may not happen. It's like whining about what might not happen. Let me just bring this point to you. I would never want, when I have kids, for my daughter to be in the car crash. So, what do I do? I say I'm not buying you a car and you can't drive.

Is that the right thing to do? No. Okay. Go. That. Go. That's good. And this is the part that hurt, like, he's sitting there, he's eating his ice cream, and then at the end, senior says, okay, but you see how reluctant he is, and he asks him for a kiss.

I mean, I feel like I've had these conversations with my son about other things. I mean, we argue every day about him not having a phone. And this is a father speaking to his son. And so seeing this in the aftermath of the father showing up on fight night to be by his son's side, it's beyond beautiful. Take a look. What do you think? I try to try. beautiful. Take a look. okay that's what I said yes or saying using an R I want to do it you want to do it okay

just leave it there Okay, come on. I know, maybe there's another, maybe there's another, another, no, let's just put it this way. I've never wanted to watch. Nobody want to watch. But I throw hope at Mullenbrook thing.

Incredible. I love the part, like any 13 year old would say, the dad's like, just let me know, just let me know. He's like, dad, I told you already. I wanna do it, stop with this. And look how it turned out. And oh, by the way, what a fight. The best part is the fight freaking delivered. And you can't say on the Monday like,

oh, just because the fight delivered, the whole thing was a sham. No, the fight delivered. It wasn't a sham. They were magic together. Just like their dads were together. The fight freaking delivered. And the right man won in my opinion.

You know, eight to four, nine to three, something in that vicinity. Conor saying I see today, Conor saying that he thinks he won by one round. Obviously entitled to his opinion. A close fight. There is a rematch clause. I suspect they'll do it again. Turkey says he wants it. Eddie says he wants it.

Conor said he wants it. It delivered. It was a home run. Tottenham Hotspur was on fire. They dug down deep. That 12th round, I don't know how both of them stayed on their feet. Honestly, they were slugging away. It was rock and sock and robots. It was beautiful. It really was. It's to me, it's April 28th, that's the fight of the year as far as boxing is concerned. At this point, there's still seven months left or so,

but that's the fight of the year. And so what were you thinking? I know, this is what I know New York rake is gonna say. He's gonna say, I told you so, but I will remind Him that no one no one said that you were wrong. No one said that your enthusiasm was unwarranted No one said that it was it was misplaced But I know you're gonna say I told you so so go ahead

It would be very easy for me to come on today and just be like look Here's the video footage of when I say this, it's gonna be the fight of the year, you guys scoffing, and the doubts, and the slander, and all the things I had to, the ordeal that I had to overcome to get to this point. You suffered the most. Instead, instead what I will do is say,

I'm glad you all enjoyed, welcome, and let's celebrate what was the best fight of the year. And if you cared enough to dive into the story, if anybody cared enough to think about the story of the fathers, of the sons, of the clips that we just showed of Chris Senior and not wanting Junior to be in there, of the drama between Chris and his father leading up to the fight, this has everything you would want from a fight, regardless of what the fight actually ended up being. All the drama that was involved in this,

Conor Ben's positive test, the fallout from that, the promoters, like every element of this, every aspect of this had the makings of something magical. To your point though, for one, I was scared a little bit that it had peaked early. I was scared that the press conference was going to be the best moment we were going to get. Because during fight week, all of a sudden,

the drama was kind of stripped away. The face-off, they were very far from each other. Not until Chris missing weight by 0.05 pounds, which, by the way, is insane. How does the scale even go? An extra digit? Let's stop it at the one decimal place if we can. But missing by.05 and the drama that that created.

And then seniors involvement, senior WWE style coming out of the car, it just took it to another level. The pop in that arena, when they showed them walking in together on the screen, I don't know if we'll match that in another thing happening this year. Now what do you think, I don't know if we'll match that in another thing happening this year. Now, what do you think? We don't know for sure now, but what's the, I don't know,

what's the theory as to what happened? A, was he, no, no, was he always going to be involved? Was it all a swerve or did he, was it an 11th hour thing? Do you think he got paid? Like, what are you feeling? I say this with zero knowledge, obviously, right? Of course.

I have no additional information on this. As a father myself, if I saw my son struggling in the way that Chris Jr. did on weigh-in day and feeling like his back was against the wall and feeling probably alone in that moment, I'd swallow my pride and decide to be there. And I'm hoping that that's what happened. I'm hoping that senior said, I see my son in the most vulnerable spot possible. He probably feels alone right

now. It's a solitary journey cutting that weight. And regardless of how many people you've got around you, at the end of the day, you're the one who has to get those pounds off and he couldn't do it. And then he he's gonna have to suffer to make that 170 pound weight on Saturday morning. I'm gonna be there for my son and he was. So I'm hoping that's the story. Honestly, I really don't care what ultimately got him there. The fact that he was there is everything. But I'm hoping that that's it,

that he knew the chips were down and his son needed him and he showed up. Now, we played devil's advocate for a moment. Sure. I do see some people saying, eh, he stole from the moment. Hell no. He made it about himself.

He shat on his son, he called him a disgrace, he kicked him, he wasn't there, he let him go to the press conferences and all that stuff alone, and then he showed up when the lights were brightest. What's the response? It's his dad, and that's his son.

And at the end of the day, he was there. How amplified was the moment for him, for his son? I mean, you see the emotion in the ring between them after, you see the emotion with Nigel and Connor as well. This meant everything for both families and yeah again I don't I honestly don't really care why he showed up. If it was to steal the spotlight he was still there and I'm sure it meant everything to Chris Jr. To be able to say we got beyond whatever the the drama that we had before this was and we are we're in

the ring together to able to celebrate this win for the Eubank family, I don't think it really matters to Chris Jr. Yeah, you see some skeptics out there, but it doesn't really like- What, who cares? Yeah. Chris, if he was there to steal the spotlight, he was dressed in a spotlight stealing way,

I'll tell you that. Oh my God. That happened. He earned every moment, every second of that spotlight. What was that jacket? What was that jacket? It was incredible. He's dancing. Yeah I think it was all a work. Yeah I think I think on his son of disgrace everything like that. I think that was a work It was all work. You think he was always planning on showing up? I'm going on CNN or whatever you bank junior went on was just like there's nothing more I can do

I've tried my best. I've asked him to come many times and it's all to him now. I think it was all a work and then he shows up and this is what you get. You get the massive pop, it feels like WWE. Wow. The takes get that much more elevated. Rick is usually the cynic. What's cynic?

It's showmanship, it's good stuff. I think we also have to acknowledge though that Senior was probably right. The reason he was so mad was because he thought Getting Chris to Chris jr. To suck down to 157 Was malpractice and something extremely dangerous to him and the fact that he missed 160 by 0.05 He was probably right that was That was going to be a horrible, life-changing type thing for Chris. And so the father was trying to protect the son.

It felt like he did everything. Then we obviously have the whole letter and the camp change and all these other things that go into it. But ultimately, I think it's a little bit of you were probably right about some things. I was probably right about some things. I'm my own man. But I was also trying to protect you. And now we're reunited to this power, to this force.

Don't get me wrong, they've obviously had real, real issues in the past, but I'm saying in like the 15, 20 days out from the fight, you also get the moment where the Bens are watching the TV and they see it and it's just like, oh man, I can't believe they're actually there. I mean, what would have changed in 10 days from from you bank senior being like, you're a disgrace.

You think I'd be in your corner? You're mad. You're mad. I would never be in your corner. So you think when he said that you think he was still planning? Wow. I think he was working right there. What do you think?

I agree. I agree with a lot. Well, he said himself afterwards, he said like, I was always going to be here. He was interviewed on his way out and he said like there is a bit of theater to this stuff You may have remembered my own career because that's what of course you bank senior was the man with but like to think about that impact And I don't think to Rick's point I don't think I've popped for a Non-fighting moment like that in my life like to see you bank just a door open and seeing them there

someone like that in my life. Like to see Eubank just the door open and seeing him there, absolute cinema. Like I used to, my granddad, God rest his soul, used to wake me up in the middle of the night when I was a toddler to go and watch Eubank fights, to watch Prince Nazean fight. So he's, he's an unbelievable figure when it comes to boxing in the UK. He was the guy who kind of brought through sky sports, boxing, all that kind of stuff. It was all hitched to Chris Eubank back in the day. But just as the impact on the spectator to see that as well, like my friends have been talking about this fight, as I told you last week, they've been talking endlessly about this fight. I know you guys didn't feel the buzz here, but that was over there. But over here, you could definitely feel it. And that the previous day, when they saw Chris Eubank weighing in, they were like,

that's it. You know, Ben's going to have his way with him in there. Like this is terrible. He's not going to be able to take this kind of impact. And then when they saw this footage of Eubank coming up with his dad, they were like, oh, he's going to win. He's going to win. So, so what I'd say to anyone who was kind of saying he's taken away from his son's moment,

like if the spectator is that having that kind of impact to see that man there. Imagine what his son felt. That's my fucking dad. Like one of the biggest legends in the history of boxing in the UK, a man who brought a new audience to this sport over here in the 1990s. He's here. He's in my corner and he's being Chris Eubank. Like he is he is putting all the moves out there. Like it was so performative. Absolutely amazing. Like a totally enjoyable card. And then look, we haven't even started talking about the fight really. That was absolutely insane.

The lads were texting into the group as they're watching it and fair play to them. They were scoring rounds. My head was swirling. I was just completely lost in it. Absolutely brilliant. The specter of Chris senior would have hung over the fight regardless. So this idea that like his involvement coming in is like stealing the spotlight, he was going, it was going to be a detraction. His absence from the fight was going to be noted. Let's say Chris gets that Chris Jr gets that win and he's just standing there in the ring and he's like, yeah, I wish my dad was here. Like it was going to be a talking point. It was going to be a talking point.

It was going to hang over the fight regardless. The fact that he opts in, becomes involved, amplifies it to Pizzi's point, everybody watching at home gets excited, the arena pops, it could not have been seen as anything other than positive. I don't care if he wanted the spotlight. He deserved the spotlight.

And so him and his son got to share it. There was a sort of like kill or be killed moment all of this, because if he would have lost Junior, I think people would have blamed Senior. Oh, you showed up, you took away. So like I felt while it gave Junior a boost, it also added a bit of pressure. Maybe he didn't feel it in the moment,

but I felt like the Monday morning quarterbacks, especially in the UK would have been like, ah, he distracted him, this and that, but like, we all know, like, that's your pops there, man. All you want as a kid is for your parents to be proud of you. Well, put yourself in the shoes of either 13-year-old Chris in that video, who wants to show his dad, I can do this,

and now his dad's there at the biggest fight in British boxing in front of a sold out arena and he has to put on that performance. Or even the guy who told his dad, I'm the man now, I'm the one making the decisions in this supposed letter that he sent to senior. I'm the man now, I'm making these decisions, I'm going to stand on my own two feet. Nobody could be more motivated to show him in that moment that he's here and built for this and then he did. Incredible. Incredible. Are we getting a rematch? Do we want a rematch?

I don't want a rematch. Okay, that's interesting. I don't need one. We're getting one. We're getting one. We're getting one for sure. Why don't you want a rematch? Especially you, Rick. The fight was fantastic. I don't think you can overcome from a stylistic perspective, from a boxing perspective. I don't think Connor Benz power is carrying up to that weight class and for what it's worth Chris Jr. has a tremendous chin and it's going to be hard to crack regardless. I don't think he's going to be able to change

anything in that regard. Like Connor Benz is not going to be able to fight differently in the next fight. He's going to be coming forward. He's going to be winging massive shots. He's going to try and take his head off. He's going to land a bunch. He's going to probably look like he's close to doing it and then ultimately he the power is not gonna come up with him And Chris is just gonna be too big a man And then add to that the fact that all the drama that led up to this one all the stuff that got me so excited And me saying that this is my most anticipated event you cannot replicate that you cannot redo that There is only one time that they are gonna step into that ring for the first time

There's only one time it's gonna be on the back of the drama with Connor Ben's positive test. There's only one time it's gonna be with Chris Sr. saying he's not involved and then getting involved. There's only one time there's gonna be the egg slap. You cannot replicate the magic that was here. I'm okay putting this one to bed. And I don't see a way Connor Ben wins this fight from a physicality perspective.

That's the issue that I most have. But they're gonna do it. You know they're gonna do it. There there's too much money there's too much money in it and too much intrigue I mean sixty seven thousand there's gonna be even more I was just sent like a deck of all the the social traffic and that like you don't walk away from that because you can't you bank but there's a need to be immediate doesn't that's a great question what do you think because I think I think right so all of the talk of Chris, like he wanted, like his dad said he should be fighting Canelo.

He said he wants to fight Canelo, all this kind of stuff. Let him go off through that. Like, I mean, Ben, Ben is for a lighter weight class. That, that, that from my, that from my money, like that's why I'm like the rematch, like what, what's it going to prove to us? Are we just waiting on Chris to slow down due to old age at this point so he can catch him kind of thing and but let them go off and get back on their main quest like this is gonna be there in a year's time or whatever like

regardless of what happens because like I look that's what the fight was all about it struck a chord and brought our culture in England that's why it's got so many eyeballs on it like they can come back to this after a fight like that they can come back to this regardless of what happens they could but you know they won't. No. To Pizzi's point, though, for me, this was stock up for Connor Ben, regardless of the loss.

And I think you can carry that momentum into the lighter weight class, where you're going to have a lot more success. I just think Chris is too big for him. And I was on record picking Chris. I think that was the way this fight was always going to go. Connor had his moments, but Chris is too big and too sharp a boxer, is a boxer versus a puncher. And the puncher is drastically outsized.

It's not gonna go super well. In his own weight class, to me, that was a performance that makes me go, okay, Connor Ben might actually be better than I thought. He isn't just this three round, five round Tasmanian devil, he can actually fight into the later rounds and look pretty good. I'm more interested in him at a more natural weight class.

But we all agree it's going to be next, right? There's too much money. There's just way too much money. But how do you match the drama? I don't think you can match the drama, but I am with Ariel. I think the intrigue will be higher because I think the fight delivered in such a way

that people want more of it, they're gonna be excited for the second time. The theatrics will be different. There will be no, oh, you bank seniors here. Oh man, the egg slap, everything like that. But they'll do it. They'll sell out a massive stadium and they'll make a ton of money off of it. Yeah. Now they could go to Wembley, which is, which is bigger than Tottenham Hotspur. Crazy. Senior wants junior to go after Canelo. Canelo has plans. Canelo has William Skull this weekend, then Terrence Crawford in September.

Canelo ain't diverting those plans for junior. There is no bigger fight for the two of them than this. I know Ben has wanted to go for the WBC 147 belt. The only part that sucks about it all is there's a gap between them, right? I know Eddie will tell you, Eubanks a 160 pounder all this stuff he's really more of a 168 pounder at this juncture of his career and and I know some will tell you

that Ben is a 154 pounder he's really more of a 147 pounder and so it's a bit of a gap but we're about to see that gap by the way between Canelo and and and Terrence Crawford although Terrence is, by the way, between Canelo and Terrence Crawford, although Terrence is going all the way up as opposed to Canelo having to come down to 168. So you just wish that it wasn't uncomfortable. It's uncomfortable to see him look like that on the Friday. And the.05, I mean, where was Mark Ratner? Mark Ratner is the best at the weigh-ins.

Can we get the thing that goes like this and then they move it over like that? .05! But why do we have a second digit after the decimal place? That's what I don't understand Why do we need a second digit? 20th of a pound a 20th of a pound. It's zero. It's it's it's 160 point That doesn't fit the crime. Come on There were no belts on the line either like yes like 0.05 but but out of respect to Connor Ben and the point we're all making that does matter because Connor Ben is drastically

out outsized here and and Chris Eubanks should have to suffer if he's going to have this much of a weight advantage he should have to suffer he should have to get down now do I think that's five hundred thousand dollar pounds off your purse probably not but he should have to suffer to make that weight do you think he should the rehydration clause should stay then that's a problem Oh, you want to see Chris suck down to 160 and then 170 again? I don't but ultimately how do you even the fight? How do you make that? Chris you bank will be all right with it

Yeah, no, I'm sure the person's gonna be worth it 160. Can they at least let him Do away with the rehydration? That's the thing. It's there. It just makes everyone uncomfortable. It makes everyone. Yes. That scene, that scene that played out there. I thought was crazy when I was watching this on the matchroom, put out a video with Frank

Smith and Mr. Mujib. I believe his name is in the U bangs corner. And it just, it spoke to the intensity of the fight, which I enjoyed about it. But it also made me, my sentimental kind of feelings about it went straight to U-Bank even more so than they were because I felt like it was like nearly a bully ring as he was trying to weigh in there. Then you have the footage of the gloves and there his team are kind of saying like, we didn't agree to this, this horse hair, all this kind of stuff.

And it was crazy. And that, that is probably, that was, that was really a very negative feeling going from Friday into Saturday before we saw you bank, you bank senior or if that was a really weird feeling to be like watching him face off, look emaciated still hours after weighing in and it makes you feel a weird way about a fight that should be a lot of fun, right? Like should be getting people excited. I think that dominated the conversation for the whole night before the fight. So I don't know.

I don't know how you make it because Chris has obviously won the fight. You look very good. It was a war. It was brilliant. But you know, they're going to want that there. And I just think it kind of highlights all the issues people have with boxing and saying that kind of stuff. And Eddie, I feel for Eddie to a degree. Eddie's going to be joining us in studio tomorrow. He's in New York. I think he's getting to New York today for, of course,

the Times Square card. What a weekend, by the way, in boxing. You've got the Times Square card with Ryan Garcia and Rolio Romero, Devin Haney, Jose Ramirez, Arnold Barbosa Jr. going up against Tiafema Lopez. That's this Friday. Then you've got the Canelo card, Martin Bacoli on there as well. You've got Bruno Serras against Jaime Monguilla

on that card. And then on Sunday, Naoya Inouye fighting in Las Vegas, his big return. So that's back to back to back boxing. Again, tried to tell all of you it's an exciting time for the sport. Anyway, it feels like every time Eddie has these big moments whether it's Anthony Joshua back at Wembley or it's Katie Taylor's big debut in Ireland or it's the 5v5 it's it's better be a bit who knows it feels like he always loses does it not I feel for him in that regard it always feels like he loses and yes he's had the big wins Katie against Amanda

etc but it feels like when when the the spotlight is really on him and Matroom it really does feel like he he fal. So he'll no doubt be pushing for the rematch. No doubt Connor Ben will be pushing for the rematch. And I suspect Chris hasn't really talked about it. He wasn't at the press conference. He went to the hospital and his dad hasn't really talked about it as well. But there's so much money involved.

There's so much intrigue. They really, I mean, on a big weekend in British sport with the Premier League in Liverpool and all that It felt like it felt like they they dominated the FA Cup semis. They dominated and it was it was pretty cool to see I don't know if there is a fight in in America that can dominate The headlines like they dominated in the UK and obviously the UK much smaller England much smaller, but I mean it was it was the biggest story. So biggest story and it delivered and then some with all the intrigue, all the storylines, all the twists and turns. I had the great

pleasure of chatting with our next guest about the fight right before it kicked off. We just so happened to be in Green Bay at the same time to, yeah, look at us. I mean, one dressed way better than the other. And, you know, that's no knock on Dustin's outfit, but I mean, you can't beat Zubas pants. He was there, of course, representing the New Orleans Saints. I representing the Buffalo Bills. It was lovely to spend some time with him, hence seen him in person in quite some time. And this coming off the big announcement that the the last dance

For one dustin poirier is going to be taking place in his home state of louisiana in new orleans at the smoothie king center And it's a very very unique setting a lot of fighters get retirement fights That's not unique, but they don't get them at home And it just speaks to the respect that the organization has for Dustin Poirier BMF title fight round three versus max he introduced and welcomed a Debuting max hallway to the UFC many moons ago now. He'll be Fighting max hallway in his last fight in 2025. It's a crazy story. He's kind enough to join us Let's say hello to LDM on tae. There he is. Mr. Dustin Poirier. Good to see you again, Dustin

How are you? Oh Looks like we lost him or he's just really mad at me One of the other we'll get it fixed. All right, we'll get it fixed. So yes, it is going to be round three they fought way back when in 2012 It is going to be round three. They fought way back when in 2012 UFC 143 I remember it well a 20 year old Max Holloway taking a fight on short notice getting submitted. We didn't know

Who he would be what he would become Dustin, of course a WC vet Who he would be, what he would become. Dustin, of course, a WEC vet. Several fights in the UFC, eh, like three, I think, fights in the UFC at that point. Then they met again in Atlanta in 2019, a tremendous fight, which doesn't get talked about as much as the Kelvin Gaslam versus Israel Desenyev fight,

but a pretty damn great fight. It was co-main event for the interim UFC Lightweight title and Dustin won gold on that night, UFC 236. And according to Mike Bond, who does a great job of following all these factoid stats, numbers, this is the longest spanning trilogy in UFC history. So it started in February of 2012, February 4th, and it will end July 19th for the resurrected BMF title. That's UFC 318. And in case you're wondering, no,

a main event for 317 hasn't been announced just yet, so they're skipping one, but there is a 317 and that's going down June 28th in Las Vegas, so we await word on that. We suspect that Ilya Tupori will be one half of that main event, but we don't know if it's going to be a vacant title fight against Charles Olvera or an undisputed title fight against Islam Makhachev. We do know that that's going to be the main event and we have not, I do believe, found out any other fights for that card just yet. Now let us go to the man who I was hanging out with in Green Bay over the weekend.

Is he there? Yeah, there he is. Hello, Dustin, how are you? What's up, brother? Good to see you again. Great to see you. It was a lot of fun to hang for a bit in New Orleans. Before we get anything out of the way, talk about anything, a huge, huge mazel tov to you and your wife, Jolie, and your whole family.

We just saw the announcement. You're gonna be a dad once again. How great is that? Incredible stuff. I hope everyone is feeling good, but so very happy for you. That is amazing. Yes, sir. Papacito, man.

What's crazy, bro. I told my wife, I was like, I'm about to hop on Ariel's show. I told them I would do it when we were out there in Green Bay. She goes, did you know that whenever you kind of broke the news about my daughter Parker, about my wife being pregnant,

it was to you in Vegas at UFC 195. So here we go again, bro. Wow, really? That's why, I mean, bro. Wow, really? That's what I mean. She was. Yeah, it was, it was early too. I was, it was behind after the fight.

I think I fought Joseph Duffy, but my nose got crushed. My adrenaline was pumping. It was supposed to still be a secret, but I told you in the interview and same thing. You told me Mazel tov. My wife brought that up today. That's amazing. Wow. That is incredible.

By the way, was she mad at you back then for spilling the beans early? I think she was a little bit. I mean, that was nine years ago. She might've been a little bit mad, but I was concussed, man. Come on. Yeah, come on. I mean, what do you expect? That's incredible. Well, I'm very happy to be here again, talking to you through throughout everything all these years later. That's amazing. Great job on Saturday, by the way. You went out there, a bit of a different approach to mine, I would say. You were all business.

You went out there, you did the job, and you left. Yeah, you had filler and thriller. I was just, I was just throwing. I love, it is pretty damn fun. You look out, I don't know if you had a moment to look. There's a lot of people there, man. It's pretty, Dude, it was like a hundred something thousand people.

I saw people shitting on me on the internet but because they were like why does this dweeb this goofball come up here talking about the weather they don't understand the day before it was freezing cold and pouring rain and they had a hundred thousand people standing in the rain and it was a beautiful day but do these guys and girls one woman in the crowd was 90 something years old she won a helmet I think you were there when she did to have that many people there for a draft is insane. And they were so happy. They were so excited to welcome everyone there.

I had a blast, no regrets whatsoever. We did briefly talk, by the way, before we parted ways, I went up and then you followed about the Ben Eubank fight. And you told me you would text me afterwards. I told you so, because you thought Ben was gonna do it them's the them's the breaks that's the game I thought you bank

but what a fight you got a chance to watch it right incredible fight of course I got back to my hotel room just in time after the draft bro and man an incredible fight especially those last rounds that were just in the pocket toe-to-toe I can't wait to see it again I know they're gonna use a rematch clause and I'm still going Ben I'm going just in the pocket toe to toe. I can't wait to see it again. I know they're gonna use a rematch clause and I'm still going bin. I'm going bin in the second. In the second one. Let's see, let's see.

Okay, now to your business. I'd love to work chronologically if we can. When, so we saw you in Newark almost a year ago now, 11 months ago, and you were on the fence. Do you remember the moment where you said, all right, I'm not done, one more? When was that moment? Before we got to Max and the date and all that stuff,

when did you say, okay, we're gonna do one more? You know, in the moment, I felt like this might be it. This is it. That's why I kind of spoke to Joe. I didn't officially announce my retirement, but I felt like this was it. You know, I came short of another title fight. I'm never gonna get another title fight.

I would have to win ten in a row probably to get another one. And I don't think I have it in me to go through what it's gonna take to get another one, I've been doing this a long time. And I got back home, healed my injuries, my knee was banged up. I went into the fight with busted ribs, so that had to heal. And then obviously the nose was crushed and broken in five places. So I just healed up, got back on the mats, went back to American Top Team later on, trained a little bit, came back home. Then I just went again a couple of weeks ago, got beat up by Gamrot. And I was like, you know what, I got to do this right go out with a big one I still have it in me to fight it's just chasing that title and climbing

back up a ladder once again you know I'm getting old my body hurts I can't train like I used to but I can still scrap so I just want to have a great fight and go out on my terms and then to do it when I brought it to the UFC's attention that I wanted to do it in Louisiana possible and they entertained that I was kind of blown away I didn't think they would entertain that idea the UFC's attention that I wanted to do it in Louisiana if possible, and they entertained it, I was kind of blown away. I didn't think they would entertain that idea. The UFC hasn't been here in over 10 years. So, man, it's just an honor. I'm just thankful that the company listened.

Thank you, Dana. Thank you, Hunter. Everybody involved, the state of Louisiana, Jeff Landry, the governor. Everybody played a huge part in making this dream a reality. So that's the thing. I don't think people truly appreciate this.

It happens more in boxing, like someone says, I want a retirement fight, the promotion will cater to that guy, especially if they're a star. You know this, like the UFC schedule is laid out like years in advance, and so for the stars to align, for them to move things to accommodate you, like we see retirement fights all the time, and they'll happen in Vegas or some random city.

For them to cater it all towards you, I'm actually kind of blown away by the honor they've bestowed upon you. And so I'm wondering if they couldn't have made it happen, if it couldn't have been in New Orleans, would you have still come back for one more, or did it have to be the two? I want a retirement fight, and it has to be in New Orleans.

Nah, I probably would have still fought somewhere, but just the fact that it all lined up is great for me and my family and people who don't get to travel the world and come to all these crazy fights I've been in. But I probably would have still done one more just because I want to go out. Like I don't want to leave the octagon like I did in the Islam fight where I'm kind of like second guessing everything. I want to be sure of it.

I want to walk into the arena knowing that this is the last time I've ever ever going to feel this and That being said it brought this whole camp fight week everything I'm going to do coming up in these next two weeks two months I'm gonna just try to embrace because this is the last time I'm ever going to be put in this position and feel these nerves And get to walk out in an arena and fight another man and what a legend When they gave me max Holloway, what a legend to be standing across from. I said legends only and he's definitely all of that. I'll ask you specifically about Max in a moment,

but just curious, one last thing on New Orleans. To the best of your knowledge, how difficult was it to, because UFC gets crazy site fees now, like they're on fire so much that they gotta go where they're getting the highest bid. How hard was it to actually get the event to New Orleans and especially a pay-per-view because the last show that was there about a decade ago, that wasn't even a pay-per-view. That was just a fight night that you fought on.

So how difficult was that? There was a lot of, you know, like you said, people don't know behind the scenes what's going on, the schedule, the calendar's laid out, deals are in place. So there was a lot of hurdles to jump over, a lot of fires to put out, but dude, we got it done. That's all that matters. Amazing. Now, did you want the summertime or if they would have said like, hey, it's April, would that have been okay for you? The thing with for me as I've gotten later into my career is fighting in the summer is better for me because my daughter is in school and she can, you know, when she's not at, during the summer she can come to camp with me. She daughter is in school and she can, you know, when she's not at,

during the summer she can come to camp with me. She's out of school for summer obviously. So she can come to training camp with me and I don't have to be separated from my family as much. Okay, all right, so this is perfect. So they accommodated you on the time of year, the location of course. What about the opponent?

Did you say, I know you said legends only, but did you specifically say Max? No, dude, that wasn't the name I even mentioned to them when we started talking about this fight coming together. Wow. This location and retirement fight. I had to write other names. Okay, can I ask who those names were? Islam, I'm sorry, Toporia, Gachie, I thought Gachie would close the trilogy maybe.

But this has been going on so long. Gagey was matched up with Dan Hooker at the time that this really started taking place. So he wasn't an option at the time. If you had a top choice, who would it be? Man, that's tough looking back because I've been knowing about Max for a little while now so I've kind of been selling that. No, I mean, Max is great. Like you said, I was his first fight in the UFC.

He's my last. Like I said in my fight with Benoit Saint-Denis, bro, this is the nature of the beast. Guys get old, young guys come in. It's just cool that the full circle moment like this, me and Max fought at the beginning of his UFC career, fought in the middle of his run, and now fighting at the end of my career. It's kind of cool. But closing the trilogy out with Gagee means something to me too.

But thinking about what he said in that interview, like our families don't deserve this. Anytime you and this guy fight, it's going to be a hit on collision. Somebody's getting hurt or both of us are getting hurt. We can fight a hundred times, that's a hundred hospital trips for sure. So, I'm not saying that the max fight won't be a war, because the last one definitely was. But, Gagey said he was okay with closing this thing out one and one. And the more I'm removed from that fight being an option,

the more I'm okay with it too. BMF title, its involvement in the fight was somewhat up in the air because obviously Max has fought since. Was that something you asked for or they said, hey, we're gonna bring it back for this one? How did that come about? They brought it back.

I didn't bring that up. I don't know if it has something to do with me pitching to Dana I was in his office, maybe six, seven months ago or longer, telling him, hey, let's do a BMF tournament. And I pitched me, Gage, E-Max, and Booker. So I don't know, maybe that's why they put, no clue really. By the way, to the best of your knowledge, did they ever seriously consider that tournament?

Because it created a lot of buzz, I remember, when you first said it. Yeah, me and Dana sat down in his office and talked about it. But he thought I was talking about like a few month tournament where the guys fight each other. Then a few months later, they fight again. I was talking about a one night tournament. He told me nobody would sanction that. Like old school, like you me nobody would sanction that. Like old school, like you have to fight two times. Yeah. And I would be totally down with doing a 10 minute first round. Like if they wouldn't allow one night, five rounds each fight, or even one

night of tournament, three rounds each fight, it would be too many MMA rounds in one night for a guy I would do one long first round, whatever you want, dude, I thought it would be a cool idea. I think there are some commissions that would have sanctioned that, especially maybe like not the prime, you know, the Californias and the Nevadas of the world, but I just don't know if the UFC's in that business anymore.

Bro, bring back 10 minute first round. You like that? Love that, man, love that. And also, if we do it that way, let's go really far back. Like, let's do a 10 minute first round and you judge the fight as a whole, not round by round. Oh, you prefer that. At the end of every fight,

I would rather the judge say, which guy would you be walking out of the octagon? Or which girl would you be? Yep, yep. That's pride rules. That's how they did it in pride. Yeah, bro, exactly. that's what I want. Yo, could you imagine?

You know what? I feel like every BMF, like what makes the BMF different? It's judge like that. I don't know if the commissions would go for it, but that would, I would look that way. Every time there's a BMF fight, 10 minute first round fights judges the whole time.

Yes! A war work. Soccer kicks allowed. Yeah, imagine. Knees to a grounded opponent. That would be incredible. Would you want those? Are you saying?

Hey, we're getting close there though. We're getting close, right? With the hands can touch, you can still boot somebody. Yes, yes. For this fight, you'd be down for that? For the hallway fight? 100%. Oh my gosh.

That's crazy. I mean, that would be unbelievable. Now, would it be a point of pride for you? You win the belt, you win the fight, and they retire it? That would be, I was talking to you about that out in Green Bay, that would be, that would be dope man to be the last BMF and kind of have that part in UFC history and fight fighting history. But it's whatever dude, I just want to get, I've never lost two in a row. So obviously I lost my last fight to Islam. I plan to retire keeping that same pattern.

And I'm wondering in the in the discussions, did that come up? Like, hey, if I win, are you guys gonna retire it? Do I get that honor? Never, never once did they talk about that. Okay, so we'll see how they played. Of course, it was once in the 170 division, then they moved to 155, so who knows? The thing is, I was just talking to GSP about this,

he was on earlier, and the art of retiring, Dustin, is a very interesting thing, right? We see some people stick around too long, not get the fairytale ending, we just saw it with Anthony Smith, no one wants that, but at least he got to go out on his own terms, he asked for the last fight, then you have guys like GSP, I think no one did it better than him as champion,

he walks away, Khabib as well. Why do you ultimately is it? Let's not forget about dog, Robbie Lawler. That was beautiful. That was beautiful. And you know, you could say there's different levels, right? GSP walked away as champion, Robbie gets the victory. I remember Chris Lytle had a great goodbye as well.

Ultimately. I think he got a double bonus in his last one. He did. Was it against Dan Hardy? I think it was against Dan Hardy in Milwaukee, actually. But to land the plane like this, because I know you've been thinking about how to retire for a minute. To land the plane like this. What is the advice that you'd give to a fighter? How do we reach the point where this is the perfect time to go away and you feel like, okay okay there's going to be no regrets? Dude everybody's career is so different. I've just had a place now where I want to keep. I've been doing, here I am again like with the

same broken record stuff. I say this all the time. I've been fighting longer than I have it. Fighting has been my identity for my since I was 17 years old. This isn't easy. This isn't an easy choice, but I know. It's coming back. Six years old, January I'll be 37, no doggy tricks, but doing those tricks on a regular basis and training like I need to train for me personally to think I'm prepared for fights. Are you, you froze on us there for a moment,

but we got you back, are you still there? Yeah, can you hear me? Yeah, yeah, we can hear you. I think the picture might be frozen. Yeah, the picture's frozen, but we can hear you. So we'll fight through it and hopefully it comes back. If not, maybe we reconnect. But okay, so can I ask you this?

Is there any part of you that is, okay, I think you're back. Is there any part of you that is, okay, I think you're back. Is there any part of you that is worried that you win, you look fantastic, you knock him out on the first round, you're like, damn man, I should keep on going. No, that's the plan. I plan to win and look good doing it. This is it. This is it. When I lay the gloves down, I'm done fighting. I have to come to terms with that. I think it's going to be pretty tough. But I'm still on the way to that fight. So it's not there yet. You know, I'm not dealing with those emotions yet. I have a long camp ahead of me. Max is a tough, tough fight. It's going to be a lot of emotional up and downs, I think, after this one. It's gonna be a lot of emotional up and downs, I think, after this one. What do you think the camp will be like?

Do you think you'll think about, this is the last time I do this? Will you be cognizant? Are you going to try to have those markers and honor those things and celebrate them? Or is that a dangerous game to play? I'm gonna just try to embrace it and be in the moment and enjoy the pain and the suffering a training camp is.

You know, because everybody's different, but I push myself hard, man. It's eight weeks of grinding. My body hurts every day. I'm hungry. I just want to do everything right and be at the best that I can possibly be for July 19th and try to put on the best show I can for my retirement fight. And, you know, like I said, I honor this game. I respect every fighter.

What we do is something special at this level. If you can change your family's life and make a career and provide for your family, I'm just so blessed and grateful to have a journey like this and to be able to do it. But I just want to really soak it all in, man. Every day at training camp, the weight cut of fight week, the press conferences, the walk out into the arena,

all the uncomfortable is a privilege, man, and I want to really be in the moment. Yeah. When does it all start? When does the camp actually start? My daughter has her final cheer competition coming up this weekend, and I know Gamma is getting ready for a southpaw.

So I think the second week of May I'll probably head out there and help Gamera finish up his training camp, give him some southpaw looks and that'll be the start of mine. By the way, what's up with your guy Gamera? Why can't he get a high profile fight? What's going on here? I mean, I feel like he's in the mix there and then he's put on the apex in a very, very tough fight but it's not exactly high profile. What's happening? Yeah man, the guy's I think I'm defeated in the mix there and then he's put on the apex in a very very tough fight, but it's not exactly high profile What's happening? Yeah, man, the guys I think undefeated the UFC Looks like a hell of an athlete like good fighter man. Gamrata

But that's just camera's mindset though when I was at the gym two weeks ago or whatever whatever it was He was telling me he'll fight anybody. He doesn't care if they're ranked. He just wants a fight He actually moved himself to American top team. He's living in the dorms. He's been there for two months, I think. He said he's not leaving until he fights. So he had his mind set. That's incredible. Good on him.

What a warrior, bro. He beat me up. He's in good shape right now. Okay. Well, I'm looking forward to that. I'm also curious, and I think a lot of people are, and I just wanted to get your take. How do you think the cookie crumbles here

at the top of the 55 division do you think it ends up being Ilya versus Islam Ilya versus Charles it's all very much up in the air man your guess is as good as mine I say do Ilya versus Islam international fight week huge card huge fight everybody's gonna be excited about that me as a fan I'm excited about seeing that. So do that in International Fight Week. That's a huge week to set it up and a great fight. And then Islam moves on to 170.

Do you think he'll have success at 170? You know him well. Yeah, he's big. He's a good-sized guy and his skill set is the highest level to compete with anybody. It's not like he's gonna be hugely undersized at 170. There's gonna be some guys who are bigger than him for sure, but he's strong and solid.

I think he'll fit in, he'll probably be the champ there. Wow, okay, you think you can get that second title? Yeah, I do. What about Ilya getting a title shot in his first fight at 155? You down with that? I mean, he was the undisputed champ until the Miami card at 145. I don't know, he's saying he had a deal in place with the UFC that if he was going to move up, his fight was going to definitely be guaranteed a title shot.

So if that's true, it has to be. Yeah, I tend to think if you're the undisputed champion in one weight class, you move up, you should probably fight for the belt. I don't feel like that's so controversial. Put him in there in Islam, let Patty and Hooker fight, give Genchi armin or gamrot or something like that, keep the division moving. I know you and Patty were,

I was more Patty trying to get that fight and you said legend only and all that. Ultimately, were you surprised at what he did to Michael Chandler? Of course, man, of course. I really thought Chandler was gonna beat him, but I was wrong. Patty's legit, man.

Do you think he could be champion? Yeah, if he believes that it works hard enough and keeps doing what he's doing, he can be. If you were, you know, walking around right now across paths, you and Michael Chandler shake hands. Do you think at this point you guys can be, not friends, but like cordial around each other? Yeah, I think so, yeah.

There's no animosity there, right? Or do you think there always will be some sort of animosity? Nah, he's good. You're the olive branch guy, he's good, bro. He just did some dirty shit, and I don't like the way he tries to say he doesn't do stuff like that,

even if it's not on purpose, him doing certain things, like just be a man and admit it. Mm-hmm. Going back to your fight, June of 2015, do you remember that fight? Do you remember the last time you fought in New Orleans? Yeah, of course, I fought another Hawaiian. That's right, oh, that's crazy.

Yes, that's right, Yantzi Medeiros. That is wild. Yeah. What do you remember from that time? Like, did you feel like there was more pressure because you were close to home? No, I loved it. I loved it. I know some guys who don't like to fight at home

because it's more pressure, people reaching out for tickets and feel like more weight is on their back, but I loved it, man. I love being home. I love New Orleans. I love Louisiana. It's gonna be a special night. Man, and I don't think they've announced anything else

for the card, but obviously all the attention is going to be on you and it sounds like you're okay with that. In the end, do you know how many times you'll, by the way, I was wondering about this and we talked about it a little bit. Like, and I had Anthony Smith on, I was like, oh, this is gonna be your something 61st fight,

and he's like, no, it's not even close to that. I feel like you may fall under that umbrella as well. Like, right now it says that your official record is 39 and 1, so this would technically be your 40th fight, but do you think it's way more than that? Yeah, I have at least 10. Wow. At least 10 fights that aren't on my record.

And why? Is it just because they were in small promotions, or like how did they not get there? Small promotions, sanctioned bodies weren't the same back then. This is before sure dog you know this is full contact fighter days where it was mixed rules like we would do a raise of hands if we could throw elbows you know it was just it's just what it was back then. Does that bother you that it's not on there or who cares? I mean, it would be cool because of nine and one, I'll get nine more wins.

Oh wow, you even know your record. Yeah. You know which fights are missing. Yeah. That's amazing. Nine and one. Man, so technically that would be nine and one. This would be like your 50 something, 51st fight.

Or 50. 51, I thought it was more than that. No, it's more than 50. Well, because right now it says that your record is 39 and one, that's 40, and you're saying nine and one. So it's 51 maybe. Yeah, 51, golly. That's incredible.

I was wondering, have there been any talks, Fight Phil was at the beginning, any talks of a sequel, something, I know the director, Michael Tucker, he's been sending me emails talking about, any talks about like closing the loop, ending, filming anything to sort of, you know, close the story? Yeah, man, I don't know how much

or how little I can actually talk about this, but they flew in from Germany a few weeks ago and started filming just to have some things in case this takes off, but that is the plan. A close to fight with the same husband and wife, Michael Tucker and his wife, Petra, who shot the first film. So it's crazy, full circle thing right there as well, man. Wow. He actually, honest to God, didn't tell me that. He would just like,

Yeah, I might be, I might be saying too much. No, no, that's amazing. So they're going to, they're going to follow you this entire time? That's the plan. Wow. Are you okay with that? Honestly, I don't like, uh, I mean, all the embedded guys know the countdown. People know I don't like messing with the camera. the embedded guys know, the countdown people know, I don't like messing with the camera. I try not to be a jerk to them, but I don't like all that extra stuff. But to have this captured for my last fight, to have this moment in time forever,

the same thing with the first fight with documentary, man. I wasn't too, too crazy about it in the moment doing it, but I'm so thankful my kids are gonna have that to watch and I have that piece of my life captured so I'm looking at it that way for the for the final the closing of this fight story it's a have this on film to go along with the first one dude is incredible how many people get that opportunity yeah until this day one of the greatest combat sports documentaries of all time I'll just ask you a couple more and then we'll let you go I know you've talked about life after fighting. Three years from now, what do you think Dustin Poirier is doing?

What's the main thing? You have the Good Fight Foundation, you've got the hot sauce, you've got other things, you've got great sponsors. What do you think is the main thing? Because you're still such a young guy, you're not even close to 40. Yeah, dude, and I'm leaving a lot of money on the table. I'm making the've never, I'm making the most I've ever made in my career and I'm walking away. It seems crazy, but I just want to be healthy. And I want to be a father and a husband and be home more, staying busy. Being the daddest man, you know, being the daddest man.

That's what I want to do. So you don't think you'll work? You'll think you'll be more just like present at home? I mean, I'm always gonna be working. I'm always hustling doing something. I have a lot of things going on, businesses outside of fighting, but nothing's gonna keep me busy like fighting does.

Nothing's gonna fill that void of fighting. I'm gonna try to find something. Hopefully I don't go crazy. Do you think you'll be a coach? I would love to help out guys who know about fighting and they're on their journey, but starting guys from a blank sheet likes He's someone how to shrimp down a mat and how to throw a jab cross and footwork Fundamentals is not like a passion of mine. I don't know if it could ever turn into that but right now No

But if like let's say a guy like Johnny Eblen says, like, I'd love to have you in my camp and then ultimately corner me, things like that, you're not going to completely kind of sort of disappear from the sport. Of course not, no. And I do that anytime he asks me. I fly down to Florida and I corner him wherever he wants. Guys like that, I'll help out anytime

and give what I think, give any knowledge I think I've learned over the years of doing this, any pointers, any tips on anything, I would love to help guys like that. But I'm never gonna be fully away from the sport, bro. I'm gonna still be in the gym every week, doing jujitsu, doing kickboxing drills. It's not like I'm gonna just smoke bomb and disappear.

I'm always gonna be around the sport. I would love to keep working for ESPN, doing analyst work, staying connected to the sport. I'll figure it out as the time goes. I don't want to plan too far. I don't want to plan too far. I've got a lot of work ahead of me, a lot of work ahead of me. And I think after July 19, I'll really

be able to process it all. Teddy Atlas told me, man, he said, it's hard to see the picture when you're standing this close to the frame, and I'm still right in front of the frame. Wow, God, Teddy is so damn good with those. Did he tell you that recently when you guys were working together? No, he told me this years ago.

It never left my mind. I think about it all the time. Wow, God, I love Teddy. He's so profound. You did great at 314, and it seems like you're getting more and more comfortable every time on camera doing the analyst stuff for ESPN. Do you feel that way? Do you feel that way? God, I love Teddy. He's so profound. You did great at 314, and it seems like you're getting more and more comfortable every time on camera doing the analyst stuff for ESPN.

Do you feel that way? Do you feel like you're getting more comfortable up there? Yeah, it's all about reps, as you know. As anybody who's on live broadcast knows, the more I do it, the more comfortable I get, the more I feel like I can be myself, and you can see who I truly am. I'm not biting my tongue or not trying to speak too much because I don't want to step on another analyst toes or over

talk myself, you know, so as I find the groove in the flow of live TV, I think you'll see more and more of who I really am. I just need to get on there. I need the reps. What are the plans for the walkout? Anything special? Dude, I might stick with the same mashup. I did in a Jersey.

Yeah, I don't know, but I was thinking, here's the thing. I was thinking, I was thinking, I was thinking, I might stick with the same mashup I did in a Jersey. Yeah. I don't know, but I was thinking, here's the thing. I was thinking my first fight in the UFC when I fought Josh Grisby, I walked out to little Wayne. If little Wayne wants to walk me out in New Orleans, I'll walk out to little Wayne on my last fight. Let's switch up to James Brown. Yo, that would be sick or, or little Wayne singing James Brown. Oh, I walk out to little Wayne on my last fight. Yeah, which up to James Brown. Yo, that would be sick or or little Wayne's singing James Brown

I might be pushing it, but okay, maybe that's pushing it Wow. Yeah to to Louisiana legends Is this the if have you made the request yet, or is this the official putting it out there in the ether? No, I haven't spoken about it. This is the first time you know what I love about about this? Because if I'm being a thousand percent honest, Little Wayne was snubbed at the Super Bowl. He should have been the halftime show for the Super Bowl. It shouldn't have been that Johnny Come Lately, Kendrick Lamar. It should have been Little Wayne. He is Louisiana when it comes to music, right? And so here, here's the next big event, the next big sporting event in the city since the Super Bowl. That's you, your retirement fight, UFC 318, he walks out with you. Come on, does he sing DC's song, the Rise Above one,

or is it a different song? What are we singing? Nah, I think, no, for sure. I walked out my debut against Josh Crispi, Drop the World. So if he does Drop the World, I'll come out to him in my last fight. Oh my God, all right.

I'm gonna call him after this, I'll put in to him. My last fight. Oh my God. All right. I'm going to call him after this. I'll put in a word and hit him up. He has my number. If he sees this, tell him to hit me up. Hit me up Wayne. You and Wayne text. I did this podcast once. Okay. Hey, that's not bad.

That works. That works. By the way, speaking of DC, he never got the retirement fight in Louisiana. So once again, it's another victory for DP over him in the battle of who's the king of Louisiana. Look, DC called me yesterday. Actually, he tried to call me.

Couldn't answer it. I was busy. I was working in a yard. I was doing some landscaping duties. And then I called him back and he's like, oh damn, you really are a Louisiana boy. Don't answer my calls because you're outside doing yard work. I'm like, yeah, bro, I'm here right now. So he understands what's going on.

Yeah, I know. He gets it. He gets it. He gets it. He gets it. He gets it. He gets it. He gets it. He gets it. I called him back and he's like, oh damn, you really are a Louisiana boy. Don't answer my calls because you're outside doing yard work. I'm like, yeah bro, I'm here right now. So he understands what's going on. Yeah, I know, he gets it, he gets it.

Well, I'm delighted for you. This is the way it should have been. It's a beautiful thing. Kudos to the UFC for making it happen, the city, for making it happen, the state as well. No one deserves it more than you. So congrats on getting this opportunity, this fight the way you wanted it.

And I can't wait to see how it all plays out in that fight week is gonna be amazing as well So great to see you this past weekend your wife as well and again most importantly congratulations I was trying do we have it? I was oh we do that. Hey, how about this? We found it We found the moment UFC 195. This is it you telling me way back in the day. Let's take a look Let's watch it together You seem to be very fired up after the win, even in the middle of the fight. This one meant a lot to you, why?

Well, you know, honestly, man, I just found out my wife's pregnant. Maslitov. Thank you, bro. It's gonna be my first child. I found out not too long ago, you know, a week ago. So I kind of put things in perspective already for me. In my past, man, I've

overthought things cared too much. If that makes any sense. This is fighting is who I am and it's what I love to do. And I'm so passionate about it that it overwhelms me. But lately I just said, you know what? I don't care. Damn. How about that? I haven't seen that in years. Yeah. So I told you when I found out and I'm telling you again, that's crazy. My nose was smashed in that video. I had two surgeries right after that. Golly, what a time.

You've always been gracious. I'll never forget the Korean zombie post fight interview. Very few do that. The emotion, you've always been so real and it's just been such a pleasure. I know this isn't the last time we'll speak, but watching that takes me back to all those great moments backstage.

Thank you, Dustin. Congrats on getting this and good luck in training. Really appreciate it. Thank you, brother. I appreciate it, man. And I'll tell you what, July 19th, I'm going to fight like it's the last one. Can't wait. All the best to you.

There he is. Dustin Poirier. Oof gives me chills when he says that makes my palms sweaty. I don't know if you could see that right there. What a freaking legend. A real one, as they say, a real one. I referred to that zombie interview because it didn't go his way that night in Fairfax,

but he showed up and he was so emotional and you could just see how badly this guy wanted it. And you wanted it for him. You wanted it for him. And I think whether you're a McGregor fan or a Holloway fan or some of his other, you know, Khabib Islam, like, I don't know many people who don't like a Chandler fan. Like, how do you not respect that guy? How do you not like that guy? Always kept it real. Always did it the right way. Yeah, I'm gonna be bummed when he walks away but I'm looking forward to the celebration that is to come of his career

and everything in the aftermath. We had a retirement fight on Saturday for Anthony Smith. It didn't go his way and it was one of those things where it was like, man, I know the broadcast was trying to put a nice bow on it and say oh This is the next best thing, you know, he would have wanted to walk out in a pool of blood or something like that I don't know. I don't know if I a thousand percent agree with that That's a tough and there's a part of me that wishes he could fight a 40 year old and get a win but that's unfortunately not how combat sports goes the The circle of life that is combat sports is a cruel one at times

Dustin's getting a chance to fight someone who's a little bit more on his level at the moment Max just fought for the belt so it's it's no easy task But I really felt for Anthony and then And then the moment there with the fan wearing the Nebraska shirt and he's flipping him off. And I was like, who's he talking? At first I was like, is he flipping off Dana and Hunter? Like what's going on here? I don't know, that's just Anthony.

And I don't know if he'd want to take that one back. But you do wish, we've seen this picture a few times, Shogun getting beat up in his retirement fight, or Frankie Edgar, I don't know, it was a mix of emotions. There was a part of me that just wished he could have got a bit of an easier fight. Do you know what I mean? I didn't want him to get a cupcake, but that dude is so tough and just so relatively unknown.

You hope that he's able to take the baton and move on and do something with this. But Anthony did appear to be in good spirits. You see the post there. He got the video in the aftermath. He got the moment in the cage with his family. So he got what he deserved, in my opinion. But it always stings just a little bit. You guys like the Holloway-Pourier matchup. Do you think the UFC got this one right? They obviously got New Orleans right.

Do you like the matchup? Couldn't like it more. Don't think there's a matchup I'd like more. Definitely, I know he was talking about Gaiety. This is better for me. I agree. For sure. I think way better. You like it too, GC. Absolutely, yeah. Two legends, you know he was talking about Gachie. This is better for me. I agree.

For sure. I think way better. You like it too, GC. Absolutely, yeah. Two legends, you know they're gonna put on a great fight. You're putting in the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, putting a little silver on the line. What more can you ask for?

The silver on the line. Is it up there, by the way, or is it gone? I don't know, I think Rick ripped it down for his Clarissa Shots signed boxing gloves. Yeah, I like that one better. Better. By the way, did Rick get a tan or something? Why do you look different? I mean, I know you got a haircut I did get a tan and also like we're messing with the lighting and new cameras. Okay, cuz there's something different I mean, we got new cameras back here. Thanks for noticing. Yeah. Well, okay

Maybe that's what it was if I'm being honest, it feels like you guys get a lot of upgrades back there But I'm still I'm still playing with the same toys over here on this side What is going on? You started with with the best started with okay? I always say you guys yeah Both of you look a little bit more Sexy dare I say or dare you say you say it I didn't say you dare to say you said it a little crisper Yeah, second second poor a Holloway fight is one of my favorite fights of all time. Oh, UFC 236.

Yeah, and them being able to run it back a third time. Two guys. I mean, would it be crazy if Max walked away too? I know he hasn't been promoting it in the way that Dustin has. This has been definitively Dustin in Louisiana. But I don't know. There's worse ways to go out than these guys go into a battle and then they both you know hang them up Cuz I what does max have left you think there's a chance max go retire, too

I don't know he hasn't really spoken under the way that Dustin has which is what I'm saying But I don't know that could be a great finale for both guys I just feel like he's going into this this lightweight part of his career. He's only 33 I don't think this will be the last one for him. He's 33, but he's got the craziest miles of a 33-year-old that you could possibly have. He's been in the UFC since he was, what, 19? Yeah.

Max Holloway's only 33? That is nuts. That was his debut. I think he had just turned 20. Or maybe, or he's just turned 19? No, I was thinking in my head, I think he had just turned 20. You would tell me, but that's nuts, man.

It's nuts. I don't know. I'm just throwing it out there. I'm not saying that this is a, but I thought about it. I was like, look, it'd be a good crescendo for both guys, to be honest. This is it. This is the way to go.

Can we just talk about the psychological, not so much like a roadblock, but Max Holloway gets it, he gets the game. I don't think he's a malicious person. I think he's someone who actually loves the history of the game and respects it and the fighters and the grind. You have to prepare to ruin someone's moment. You know what I mean?

You have to prepare to spoil the party. Him honoring Dustin Poirier is fighting him as doggedly as he possibly could. It's a very nice thing to say, but everyone in that building is going to want Dustin Poirier to work. 1000%. Except for Max Holloway.

Yeah, and his team. He's also down 0-2 to Dustin right now. He wants to get one before he goes. The alternative is what? Somebody who's just gonna come in there and be like, all right, Dustin, punch me in the face. Like this should be- I know, it's just a tough spot.

He is going to bring to him the war that Dustin wants. The thing that Dustin did best, the thing that Dustin craves, the reason he's hung on this long, he's going to give it to him. And I think Max is the perfect dance partner. Would you rather Dustin fight a Zhong Ming Yang? No, no, no, no, no.

But I'm just saying anyone, even Ming Yang. I mean, for Ming Yang? No, no, no, no, no. But I'm just saying, anyone, even Ming Yang. I mean, for Ming Yang, it was like, okay, this is my moment to snatch his aura, right? That's a big name for me. Yeah, so I get why he would wanna go in there and kill him. But someday soon, Max is gonna be in the retirement spot. And hopefully for him, it'll be in Hawaii. Wouldn't that be a great story?

I just mean, I don't know, maybe I'm overthinking it, but I feel like that's a tough spot to be in. Basically what I'm trying to say is, I can understand if a fighter like Max would be like, you know what, I don't want to be in that position. I don't want to be the guy to ruin his fairy tale. Do you know what I mean? I can be someone else.

I do see what you're saying. I just think the paycheck is probably very nice for it. He's headlining a pay-per-view event. And then I think at the end of the day, you say that to Max, and Max probably be like, yeah, you know, that would be a bummer to spoil it. But fuck him, I gotta go get mine. I gotta go win myself.

I think he can get to a mindset where he's okay with it. I think it's probably a recognition of, if I was on the other side, I would want somebody to try and kill me too. I would want to have somebody bring that to me the same way I'm going to bring it to him. I think he respects Dustin, and I think he knows what a legend Dustin is in this game, and what a legend Max is in this game himself.

And so this is the way to do it. This is how you show that respect. I think this is the best outcome. This is what you would want. The fact that it's in New Orleans is just amazing to amazing You know, I've only been to New Orleans once and that was to do sidelines for an NBA game Pelicans mavericks. It's one of the more you know, you talk about surreal moments Mike Breen Jeff Van Gundy and myself. But really what's most surreal about it, I was just telling my kids about this

because they're now really into basketball. They know everyone, they know all the analysts. They know who's calling the game, who's the eighth man, tenth man. Like they've reached that point. And the greatest part of that trip was going to dinner with Breen and the producer, and then me mentioning that I had never been to Cafe du Monde

and Breen saying like, come on, let's go get some beignets together. And it's me and Mike Breen having beignets at Cafe du Monde. The Breen beignet story is just- Have I told this one before? Only 6,000 times. Oh, I love this. For the most overrated food thing in the world,

the beignets are fine. The beignets are fine. It's not worth going out of your way. But I was sitting there with Mike Breen having beignets dipping into hot chocolate. I get it. I get it. I wish I was there, to be honest.

I wish I was there. It was unbelievable. No one's is incredible. No one's is incredible. Haven't been since 2022 for the Final Four. Shout out. Road trip. I did two bachelor parties there.

It was incredible. So I didn't really. It was pouring rain, and I was there trip. Oh yeah. I did two bachelor parties there, it was incredible. It was the best place. So I didn't really, it was pouring rain and I was there for 40 hours. Yeah. So I didn't really get a sense of it all. All right, now I understand that the Brie and Beignets was the only good thing in that entire. I mean, getting to work, silent is great,

but like, yeah, I don't have any, I don't even know if I went to Bourbon Street. Maybe I just like crossed past it or something like that. But it seems pretty cool. It ended on a weird note because I got to the, I got to the airport and it was my daughter's birthday party the next day and I was super nervous that for some reason I was gonna miss it.

And there was a power failure in the airport. And then I started to freak out. So I got in a taxi and drove to Baton Rouge. Shut out, LSU? Yeah, just to get a flight to Atlanta and then back home. Power failure in the airport, could you imagine on a Saturday morning, the chaos? Yeah, that's not.

Power failure in an airport, never seen that before. And they said, oh, it's gonna come back It's gonna come back never came back never came back So you made the right move I made the right move well I mean it eventually came back, but not while I was there you made their own get out yeah, and and and Quickly before we get to Randy. What did you guys think of the Anthony Smith situation? The flicking off the fan well just like how the whole situation played out. Yeah, it just felt like a no-win.

Yeah, yeah. It felt like adrenaline was high, and I don't know. If Anthony's happy, I'm happy. At this point, this is all I can hope for. It seemed like he was just like, I don't know. It almost felt like he was just like kind of talking shit. It felt like he wasn't really too bothered. I feel like before the fight, he accepted win or lose doesn't really matter to me.

I'm just going out one last time. I will say this, the last time he fought back in December against Dominic Reyes, a lot of emotion, sadness, he felt broken. I was happy to see at least this time as he walked out, a smile on his face, he seemed content, at peace. Do you know what I mean? I mean he had a giant gash on his head and he seemed content at peace, do you know what I mean?

I mean he had a giant gash on his head and he was just like, I'm gonna go get showered up and then let's party baby. And then I was watching the post show and he went up to the desk and was talking to them and he had a beer in his hand and he seemed to be in really good spirits, was looking forward to continuing the desk work

and everything like that. So yeah, it feels like he's in a much better place than last time. I agree. I was happy for Randy Brown. Shout out, man. We got to hang out with him. We did the tiny desk office picks.

Or is it the tiny office? Tiny office. Yeah, tiny desk is NPR. Yeah, shout out. Yeah, there we are. You guys crammed into that tiny office. Yeah, it was great. Shout out.

Like how big is the clock? It's pretty small. Yeah. It's all pretty small, there's tiny microphones and all that and this was right around when his fight got announced against Nicholas Dalby and I was just like, oh yeah, Nicholas Dalby, great guy, this and that, he's like, nah, he talks a lot of shit.

I was like, oh shit, and apparently he had been talking some shit and then I'm on social media on the Friday before the fight, well literally the day before the fight, and I see Nicholas kind of going in. I saw a couple tweets and I was like, man, all right, there seems to be a lot of bad blood. Game on, Randy.

Quote, he's calling him, this is his nickname, I can't win a fight without Ipokes Brown. He's either a dumb cheater by not being aware he's doing it or an intentional cheater that doesn't have the courage to own up to it and don't give a shit about constantly making fouls since he keeps doing it. He has more eye pokes in one round of almost all of his fights than I've had in my entire career which is zero. Let's see if he dares to not do it tomorrow or if he continues to be a coward.

I'll dare him to not do it for a reward of 5,000 USD. I think that's, is that 5,000 or is it $5? Because it's a period. No, no, no, no, no, he's Danish, 5,000. Okay, I bet he's too much of a coward to accept. I'm not sure if he did accept, but I know he was pretty hyped afterwards. He knocked him out in a war of a fight.

Bloodied, back and forth. They were swinging away, rock-em-sock-em style. Yeah, my fight of the night, it was crazy. Did it win performance bonus or fight of the night? I can never. Oh, I was saying mine, I actually don't know. It won some kind of bonus. Yeah, 50 G's for sure. I'm trying to look here. His, his last, his last stoppage win was in February of last year, February 3rd, 2024

against Muslim Sally have, and he was coming off that very, very controversial split decision lost to Brian battle after winning three fights in a row. And so this was a big one, especially with all that shit talking. And so yes, it was in fact the fight of the night and it should have been the fight of the night. Did they say it on, oh yeah, there it is. Yeah, they say it on topology with that little ribbon.

Yeah. Nice addition. No, and then when you click on the plus sign, it gives you the fight of the night thing there with the star next to it. Yeah, it's good stuff. It's really the best. Shout out to topology. Also, their boxing has gone really good too.

I never go on box rec. I just go on topology now. Yeah, box rec is abysmal. It's a pain in the butt. It's abysmal. I actually like Wikipedia better than I like Boxrec. Yeah, but sometimes you just don't know if it's 100% accurate. Boxrec or Wikipedia?

No, Wikipedia. Wow, wow, wow, you're one of those. Well, I mean... Wikipedia truthers. No, I just... You sound like my 10th grade social studies teacher. You don't... No, I can't use Wikipedia as a source.

Wow. Wikipedia always right. I just thought... Never been wrong. Okay. I don't know if someone could go in there and change things you know what People have changed mine. I'll tell you your birthday right now. Ariel Jacob Elwani. Yeah, well 1982 I appreciate that yes, thank you, Quebec, Canada they did get They did get Dominic Cruz's birthday wrong

I can tell you that. That's probably when I turned on Wikipedia, if I'm being honest. When they got it wrong, not only by like, oh, they got it wrong, it was like five months wrong. It was a completely different day. It wasn't even different month, same day. It was different month, different day,

maybe even different year. Anyway, can we talk about this for a second? What is going on here? Yeah, that hot sauce. I gotta give some of that a try. Yeah, look at this. I'm not even showing you right. Look at that Look at a beautiful bottle. Do had you ever have you have you ever heard of Lord's? No, but their packaging is nice. Look at this By the way, it's a lot of hot sauce right here. Yeah. Yeah that'll that'll last us we By the way, there's a lot of hot sauce right here. Yeah, yeah, that'll last us. Rick keeps his communal hot sauce bottle in the fridge.

We're gonna have to add one of those. You wanna put this in? Oh yeah. I got a whole thing from them here. I even got these ones. You get the K.O. sauce? Oh, you got personal bottles too. What's the difference?

You know what? The one that you just had is like the limited edition one. Oh. Are any of the bottles signed by GSP The I was looking at the website earlier. They have limited edition. They're like like 200 bucks or something 100 bucks Yeah, those are like this. I thought this was cologne. It looks like cologne It looks it looks like I'm about to open in its time for my This

Wow, is that more hot sauce? I think so. Busted open. Shout out to Lourdes. Yeah have you ever heard of Lourdes? No, no. Second time I've asked. No, but I saw it in Ontario. No, based in Ontario. Okay. Where did you get the beignet? I saw in there that they have a Carolina Reaper sauce and I want that one. What does that mean? What does that mean? It's a very, very hot pepper. Rick loves spicy food. He loves to go in quinoa, jalapeno and turkey meat. And then man, he gives the hot spots bottle like a spank

and he's just like glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug. It has the little thing to keep you from pouring too much. He pulls that off and just pours it on. Yeah, he pulls off the safety and just like, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug. I'm just like. Yo, this is amazing. They gave me a whole box.

Holy smokes. Dude, they look good. That was like a Chipotle one I saw. I mean, they got a nice little flight here. Aloha. Oh, wow. What is that, like a pineapple hot sauce? Sign me up for all of them.

I think that one was habanero's too. Limey Bender, not to be confused with style bender He's gonna have to go in the in the private on ground millionaire Have you guys ever heard of Lord's? No, but I but I'm a fan already. I'll tell you there's even a letter here. Hey Is Randy Brown watching all this or is he not here yet? No, we had him for a second. Okay, we're efforting I was on Randy Brown's Instagram story earlier this morning. Oh I was on his Instagram story. He was at some kind of

He was at some kind of party Did you guys see this? He was at some kind of parade Randy Brown. Look at this scene Some kind of something He's getting after it. Yeah, he was at at, I think he's in Jamaica right now. Look at this scene. I thought it was maybe the victory party. Nice. Shout out. Anyway, we're going to be joined by Randy Brown in a matter of moments. I do have some breaking news while we await...

The Return of One Randy Brown the return of one Randy Brown. Rude boy as they say. As you guys know, Karate Combat goes down this Friday in Dubai. It's KC 54 as they call it. This Friday May 2nd 12 p.m. Eastern. You can watch it live and free on Karate Combat's YouTube channel. That's just youtube.com slash karate combat. It's in Dubai at the Agenda. Tickets on sale at karatecombat.com is what I'm told. You'll recall last week we had Smilin Sam on there.

Smilin Sam defending his heavyweight title against one Tyrone Spong. Mohamed Mokhaev is fighting in the co-main in his karate combat debut against Bolat Zamanbekov. So looking forward to that. But I have been told by promotional sources that a match that has just been added in their pit submission series, which is basically their grappling wing, if you will, is Maksharip Zainukov versus Armin Tsurukyan. versus Armand Tsurukian. UFC lightweight contender Armand Tsurukian in a 175 pound catch weight bout. So he usually competes obviously at 155 in the UFC

making his karate combat debut. How about that? In a pit submission series bout. So this will be like grappling. Yeah. Okay. Which is cool because Armand's a great grappler, but we haven't had a chance to see him. series bout. So this will be like grappling. Yeah. OK. Which is cool because Armand's a great grappler, but we haven't had a chance

to see him. Remember, I said that he was going to be my fight of the year last year. Didn't quite work out. Then has the title fight in January. False drew 11th hour. This is his first time competing in 2025.

Can't wait. You know, Karate Combat seems to have a very good working relationship with the UFC and I would suggest that they keep it as such where they're able to get some of these guys. You know, we had Caio Bahaglio on recently talking about getting the opportunity to go up against Brendan Allen, if you recall. He said he really enjoyed his time there and it feels like they're doing something. You know, they try to- They were gonna do that Bryce Mitchell one.

Bryce Mitchell against Eli Barzala, yeah. It gets eyes on it. No matter if people are tuning in live, the social clip will break out well for an Armintzerukian submission fight. I love it when the UFC fighters who we know who are invested in, and we know they're very good at this one thing, like when Aljo does, uh, cage fury, grappling and all that.

I enjoy those very much because you get to see them in a different light. They're not, they're not weight cutting. They're just focused on their one thing. When, when, uh, MVP went up against Carlos Condit and Polaris, I enjoyed that as well. So this is good. And I honestly, I have to give the UFC a lot of credit. I don't know if they can say no. I don't know how it works, independent contractor.

Who knows? But the fact that they allow the guys to do this, I think, is very good for everyone involved. Oh, I'm sure they can say no. You think so? Well, yeah. I mean. They have to approve it?

Protect your investment. Yeah, I'm sure. Look, worst case scenario, somebody goes out and gets injured or something like that. Like, you, I mean. They have to approve it? Protect your investment. Yeah, I'm sure. Look, worst case scenario, somebody goes out and gets injured or something like that. They can't have that on your watch. So I'm sure you have to get a clearance here. But yeah, it's good eyeballs for them.

The first thing that Armand is doing since that title fight cancellation, this. So it's big for them. Yeah, so that is this Friday. You guys are heading out to Des Moines. Yeah. Saturday. Saturday morning.

How are we feeling? You guys gonna do the turn around like me, come back Saturday night? No, no, no, we'll be staying. 24 hours in Des Moines? Yeah, 24 hours in Des Moines. Direct flight? Direct flight, yeah, it's gonna be great. Big plans,

gonna do a fight feast, go to the event, prelims all the way to the post-lims. What's the arena called? Is it T-Mobile? I think T-Mobile was KC this weekend. Kansas City? Yeah. Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo. Another Wells Fargo. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They have that in Philly as well. Yeah, which was the last event we went to for BKF. Weird. Yeah, Wells Fargo to Wells Fargo. That is weird.

Is it Wells Fargo Center? Wells Fargo Arena. Okay, all right. Yeah, you can't call it the same. What's the capacity? 16,110, yeah. We'll meet old TST out there. Wow that to me is the craziest part of all this.

The craziest part is he's, we're just doing the 24 hours in Des Moines, he's there Friday to Monday. Why? He says he wants to take in everything Des Moines has to offer. What does Des Moines have to offer? I'm not trying to be facetious here but do they have a lot to offer?

No, no, no I agree, I don't I don't think so I don't I don't think they do but uh but old TST is gonna experience it I can promise you that much So what's what's the final cat is Frank going no no wow couldn't be bothered. So what's the final count me? Yeah, Rick. Yeah, yes, T. Yeah hammer guy Nick Wow that's it Yeah, all four going to TST. Yeah. Hammer Guy Nick. Wow. That's it. Yeah. All four going to the fight? Oh yeah. Yeah.

Love it. Love it. All right. Well, looking forward to that. We'll obviously talk more about that, and you guys will set the table on Thursday. Let us go to the aforementioned Randy Brown, who I do believe is joining us for the first time

from Jamaica. Is that in fact true? The victorious Randy Brown, who had that massive win over Nicholas Dalby. Ah, there he is. What's up, Randy? How are you? I'm good, I'm good.

How are you, Ariel? Are you back home? I am right now. I'm on, I'm at an event right now, so it's like I have no wifi, so that's why I'm like, oh no. Okay, okay, well thanks for joining us. We won't keep you too long. By the way, you know what I saw?

I saw the UFC did a thing where they followed you back home and I have to say, I love the accent when you're back home. It's a different accent than the one we hear on the interviews. I think we should stick with that one. It doesn't make sense. It wouldn't make sense, Ariel, because people wouldn't understand what I'm saying, so it wouldn't make sense. How do you switch so quickly, like back and forth, so effortlessly? I saw when you were talking to your dad on the phone, I'm like, who is this guy?

I've never even heard this version of you. That's just how it is, man. When I talk to my family or just when I'm home, you know, that's just how it is, man. I saw on your Instagram story, what was that parade that you were at yesterday? It seemed like quite the time you were on top of some bus or something like that. There were tons of people I thought it would maybe like a homecoming victory parade for you. Here's the scene. It looked like a great time. What was that? Nah, that's just that's carnival. That's every year. That's 2025 carnival. A plan to go except a day before my fight.

Okay. Amazing. Well, well deserved. Congrats on the win. We showed, you told me a little bit about the bad blood and then I showed before you came on Nicholas's tweet the night before the fight, like really going on, going all in and calling you a cheater and all this stuff. Did you see that before the fight and did it add any more fuel to your fire heading in there? 100%, 100%.

That's why I was talking to him. When I broke his nose, that's why I started talking to him and telling him, you know, yeah, that's broke. It's going to be all night, you know, because typically I'm not, I don't really go into fights with bad blood or do all of that. You know, it was weird to see him come and be like that, considering, you know, his track record throughout his career.

He's always been pretty helpful. We're both veterans, so I guess he thought I was a cheater, so he wanted to kind of get the refs prepped, whatever to get, you know, whatever advantage he could, I don't know what his intentions were even throughout the week, you know, interpret me throughout the week, which is very unlike him. I don't know. So that's why I reacted the way I did and did what I did after I knocked it out. What do you say to you during the week?

Same thing, you know, asked me about, you know I post he was like the problem if I plan on poking I Asked me They saying that I'm dumb or whatever. I don't know what he's doing, but it's just it was just weird It's not a character fan we had a conversation away from all the cameras where everybody's beating by the bike away and you know, Being he just had this weird attitude, you know what I mean? It's like very dismissive of being like how he's gonna do me. So, you know, that is what it is. Of all the wins that you've had in the UFC, considering all that, did this one feel the best?

Yeah, 100% man. It was cool. It it was cool, considering all the shaky talk that a lot of people didn't get to see that, but yeah, it definitely felt good to go out there and get a big finish and trade it in the pocket like that. That's something that I typically don't do. So I decided to stay in the pocket with him and it worked out. Man, it was fun to watch.

It was the fight of the night and deservedly so. Does this mean maybe we'll see more of that because it was fun to watch. It was the fight of the night and deservedly so. Does this mean maybe we'll see more of that because it was so incredible and we saw you you reign supreme or would you rather not? Maybe, maybe, you know, it's just, you gotta earn it, man. You got, now he's a warrior at the end of the day. He may be a knucklehead, but he's a warrior. And you know, he for, he brings that out to everyone

that he fights, he pushes that pace and he forces you to fight. And I've always said in my whole career is that I can do that, I can fight you in a phone book. You know what I mean? But I'd rather stay on the outside and pick you apart and stay slick and stay clean and stay pretty. But to get that out of me, you gotta earn that.

You know, and he earned it. You know, and it just didn't pay off for him. I was curious what you actually, like when you knocked him out you you stood over him Was that what you were saying there? Is that what you're referring to you were talking about his nose? No, the moment I broke his nose I told him Bro, oh wow all night What you say to his there's just me being

Peace out. Yeah And then you walked up to the camera and I think you said, fuck out of here with this or something like that, right? Yeah. It was good, man. I said my FN favorite. Yes, yes. I liked it, I liked it.

It was cold. I could see how fired up you were. It was kind of a different side of you. And as a spectator, it was fun to see. And so maybe, you know, and honestly, after the last fight going to the judges and you were disappointed and whatnot, maybe it was just what the doctor ordered.

Maybe he needed to bring that demon out inside of you. Oh, 100% man, I needed to, he definitely, you know, not only him, but battle too, you know, everything. I was just frustrated throughout camps and all that, you know what I mean? So it helped, it helped. There's a lot of shit going on, that kind of, you know, fighters we deal with and we hold back,

and then the one time we truly get to express ourselves is in the octagon at that time, and I was fully able to release and express myself to my full acceptance movement, so it was cool. I saw your hand. What's the status? We saw afterwards it was pretty swollen, and I see it has a bit of a, yeah, so what's going on?

Broken? Yeah, broken. I got an x-ray on it today. Now possibly surgery this week. Oh wow. I'm probably gonna be up for the bit. Well, why is it? I broke it in the first minute.

The first minute. I think it was an uppercut. It was an uppercut I threw early. I threw a jab uppercut, I hit him against the cage and I hit him from there. And then I just, so I like threw round one with it and then get into that slug, that slug fest round two. And then, you know, I still had to keep punching him

but it was broke from round one. Damn, that just makes the whole slug fest that much more impressive that you were doing all of that with a broken hand, broken right. Yeah. Like I said, I was like, Hey Sensei, my right hand is broken. And he was like, don't worry about that.

Don't worry about that. I'm like, all right. I gotta worry about it a little bit. I can't throw it. That's why there's a point where you see me throwing like double, triple lead hands. Like there was a point where I just started using my lead hand, jab, hook, jab, hook, hook. You know, then he just, he just got in my face

and forced me to throw. So I was just like, I was just like, I was just like, oh. By the way, why, why, why is your hand in that, in that like position there? Why did they put it like that in the cast and not like closed or something like that? It looks like you're, what is going on there?

All right, I don't know. That's what they gave me at the UFC. All right, all right. This is how it's sligging. Crazy. By the way, being in a fight where the guy's blood. Maybe it's good for celebration. Yeah, no, I feel you, I feel you.

Being in a position where the blood is all over you like that. Is that gross? That's the last thing you think about, Ariel. That moment I think about shit. I don't care about what's on me. You're just fighting, man. I don't care about the blood. The blood could be in my face. It could be in my mouth. I don't care. Okay. So there's no more. Did you experience that, though? Did it get into your face and mouth? Obviously it was on your face, but like in your Did you experience that though? Did it get into your face and mouth? Obviously it was on your face, but like in your eyes, your mouth, like it was all over, it was pouring out.

Probably it was, I know it was in my hair, it was on my face, it probably was on my mouth, it was all on the side of my lips, so maybe. You just don't notice, because in the moment, you're just fighting, honestly, I'm honestly not even thinking about that, I'm not thinking about anything in that moment. You're so focused on, you're so engulfed in just the moment

and the, you know, the intoxication of war, I guess. You're not really thinking about anything else. Those things are minute, they're so minor in that movement. Yeah, yeah. So what do you do now? You're celebrating back home? Yeah, right now I'm just home chilling, man. Right now I'm on a boat at this place.

Um, I made in K you know, maybe because some boats pull up and we'll just kind of just chill out, play some music and vibe, you know, so that's really, I'm here from, I'm just doing that. Can you let, before I let you go, I'll let you go right now. Could you just let us live vicariously through

you, what is the scene outside the boat right now? Can you point the camera? We had to take a smaller boat to. I played with fire there, huh? Good job. I just wanted to see, I wanted to see the blue. You probably dropped the phone into the water

and everything. Ah, golly. I need to flip those. Thought the boat's pulled up. You know what I'm doing? So this boat came from me, so it's gonna take me back once I get off with you guys. Oh yeah, that's what we're doing.

Amazing. Alright, so thank you for doing this. Enjoy your time there. Be well, get well soon. Congratulations. Incredible fight. Really, really enjoyed it and very, very happy for you. Thank you, brother.

I appreciate it. Rastafari, one love. Alright, you want me to go to the accent with Kiyos, accent with white? It's like a new side of me. Rastafari, one love. You want me to go into the accent because you're asking me why. It's like a new side of me. I'll go into some part of it before I leave. You know what I'm saying? I'm the toughest Jamaican in the MMA business.

You know what I mean? It sucks. Yeah. But there. Yes, I love it. You should do all the interviews like that, Randy. Come on, man. Then you wouldn't know what I'm talking about.

That's better though. I like it. It's just damn cool. I love it. I love it. Much respect, my man. Well done. Appreciate it, Joe, man.

All right. I'll see you later. Thank you. There he is, the great Randy Brown, joining us from a boat in Jamaica. That's why I like to have the thing, Jamaica. Boat in Jamaica. We go all over the place.

Where do we start today? Oh, Montreal, Kansas City airport. Actually, it should be Montreal, Kansas City airport. Louisiana, I think. And then Jamaica would be like here, something like that. All over the gaff. Man, imagine just be, imagine you just want to fight. You get to go back home, be on a boat,

love life, Randy Brown. I think the accent is way cooler. Well, sorry, his actual accent, not the American accent. But I think it's Patois they speak over there, right? Yeah, I believe so. I think he said it in there. Oh, you did say that? All right. You guys ever been to Jamaica I have not no I would like to

but they love me over there specifically because I've shown so much love to their prodigal son Patrick Ewing the pride of Kingston Jamaica and of course cool runnings one of my all-time favorites as you guys know. I'm sure they appreciate your support of Cool Running. I know, you're single-handedly sending royalty checks to the entire cast of Cool Running. Yes. Where do these guys come from? Jamaica! It's so great.

1988 Olympics, what a time it was. Very happy for Randy Brown. Any other thoughts from Kansas City or do you think we covered it all? I mean, you guys are speaking to Wellmaker. Yeah, I can't wait for that. What a name, by the way, apparently he's done with the full time gig. Oh yeah. This morning.

Yeah. He told us. Yeah, that's, that's exciting stuff. Pipe fitting. Good for him. So it wasn't just about Kansas City. It wasn't just about you bank Ben. We did have the battle of the behemoths in Poland, Eddie Hall versus marriage

Pujanowski, and it didn't really last all that long. In the end, what was it, like 32 seconds or something like that? Eddie Hall. Yeah, it was like 30-32 seconds. Look at this, look at this. I mean, this is unbelievable. Slings them like a rag doll. Here it is, here it comes. Oh yeah, get off of me. Oh Jesus. Holy smokes. The beast Eddie Hall just absolutely mauling.

Couple of shots directly, directly to the back. By the way, what about that ref? I mean, could they have gone to smaller ref? Yeah, right? Probably should have grabbed another world's strongest man to be the ref for that guy. Yo, I gotta tell you, I was watching the weighans, I was, we need to go to a KSW. I want to do like a whole week's worth of shows, maybe even like a doc by, like, it

is just such a scene over there. You don't have to sell me. I've been dying to go to a KSW event for the longest. Even the gloves look like pride. Like it's just like, it's the second coming. It's the reincarnation and and Octagon's doing great, K-Drawer's great, but there's just something about the the pageantry of these KSW events. The next big big one for KSW. When is it? Really go. I don't know. Oh okay I thought you were setting it up. Let's see. Do you

know what KSW stands for by the way? Uh, Polish. Kon-fron-tacha-zut-walki. That's awesome. Yeah. Or Polish. Or Polish. It's just like fighting federation or whatever. Oh, May 10th. Saladin Parnas.

Ah, I'm down. I'm down. Ah, UFC through 15, UFC 315. June 14th, fill the freeze. Ah, link up with Tommy A? Actually, yeah, none of us can. I'll be in Atlanta, you guys got Bar Mitzvahs to handle. Yeah, yeah. Wait, there's more than one?

And there's, it's a whole, that's it. Bars, bots. It's just two events. We need to go. I really wanna go. Man, we really It's just two events. We need to go. I really want to go. And we really are. That's unfortunate. Parnas and Phil the Freezer.

If they have some kind of like WrestleMania International Fight Week with all those guys, could we get a Parnas, the Freeze, Eddie Hall, Pujanowski too? I don't know if they're going to do a rematch. Probably not. But does Eddie Hall continue his own make career?. I don't know if they're gonna do a rematch, probably not. But does Eddie Hall continue his MMA career? You don't think? I'm asking.

We're hoping to get him on the show on Wednesday. He did talk about the event on his TikTok, this via MMA fighting. Obviously when he was on the floor, I was just hammer-fisting. I think I hit him once or twice in the back of the head. Then I heard the ref shout at me and it clicked. So then I went back to the face.

So again, my apologies, my experience. I wouldn't like to be hit in the back of the head. So I'm sorry, Marius, but these things happen. It was an accident. So I guess he's acknowledging that it was back of the head. I think that one was done. Done and dusted. When he freaking... When he tossed them like a sack of potatoes and then drummed on them.

It was like with one arm. I was like, get off me. You gnat. Eddie Hall might be the best heavyweight on the planet. Oh yeah. Eddie Hall versus Tom Aspinal? Definitely the best super heavyweight. No, forget Tom Aspinal. Oh, they train together. John Jones? Yeah, yeah.

John Francis, who? The longest reigning heavyweight champ. Someone's gonna clip this off. Well, no, the community, did they post that yesterday, ESPN MMA? Oh, the community notes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But it was, I didn't even see the weigh-ins.

What did they weigh in at? Let me see if they have this here on. I think Eddie Hall was like 355 or something. I think he missed by.05. He missed? Got him. Oh, got it, got it, got it, got it. What was the,

well, Eddie Hall. Oh, 354. Eddie Hall, 334, and what was Marius? Duh, 334. Oh, 334. Eddie Hall, 334. And what was Marius? 267. Duh, golly. 267 for Puginagami. So that's like 70 pounds difference. He looked it.

He absolutely looked it. He's just like a block of a man. Like a granite block. It almost makes me think it's only fair if he fights two guys at once each time. Like, I don't know if I want to see any one man try to take him on. I think he needs to fight two men. We're going to have to do two versus one. You guys been keeping up with the 100 men versus one gorilla argument online?

What is this? I see this popping up. What is this? There was somebody who purported that 100 men could not beat a gorilla. 100 men. Because of the ferocity, because they're, oh, you think you could do this? Well, they're gonna tear your, and it just turned into this debate. Sort of the soup de jour debate on Twitter these days.

I think if Eddie Hall was in there, we'd have a decent chance. I'm fairly certain that. Eddie Hall versus the gorilla? No, no, no, no, no, a hundred people. Eddie Hall's? No, no, no, we just have it. Well, I'm recruiting a team here. Eddie Hall is one of. Oh, what if it was just Eddie Hall versus a gorilla?

No doesn't stand a chance. You don't think Look at that guy. Look at a gorilla a gorilla can bench press like 4,000 pounds. Oh my gosh This is where this this is where this thing comes from because people do the metrics on the gorilla and then they're like Oh man, I want I like I want metrics on the gorilla, and then they're like, oh man, how can this thing do that? In my head, I want to say the gorilla, but 100 guys will kill a gorilla. 100 people can't even, yeah. That's a lot of people.

100 guys will kill a gorilla. Eventually you just have to get them down and stuff. The 100 couldn't all do it at once, though. There would only be six of them surrounding the gorilla at a time. No, no, you heard that. So you had to work at shifts. And I think the gorilla could do that.

A quick update here, a quick Google search. A gorilla can reach up to 25 miles per hour of speed. So even if Eddie Hall can, Oh, we're still talking about Eddie Hall the gorilla? I mean, he's not catching. No, no, no, Eddie Hall's not beating a gorilla. And now something that's coming out of the woods is 200 men versus a polar bear.

No. That one I'm siding with the polar bear. Is it the 200? Is it the Spivak or an actual polar bear? I think a, yeah. That's a good point. Serious Spivak versus. What if it, legit, legit, 10 Eddie Halls.

Versus a gorilla? Yeah. Yeah, probably. If it shifts. Your odds go up once you start getting higher. So yeah, like 20. 20 Eddie Halls, I'm taking 20 Eddie Yeah, me too 20

All right a hundred men versus a gorilla is dumb because obviously hundred men Obviously your money where your mouth is jackman like what is what do you do? You're one of my hundreds so you're in there first one that comes up like skull just gets crushed Yeah, and he uses uses the body of the one that he just killed as a weapon The other one the main and I got 90 more to start it in a row Yeah, you have like 10 sacrifice you have to choose 10 people to be sacrificed to be clear And Eddie Hall and Marius they come in and then you don't think there are men out there that will that will sacrifice for this warfare Yeah, the history of time men have sacrificed themselves for warfare.

We're gonna do it in this one as well. Not all 100 are coming home. Oh, no, no, no, no. There's just 100 that are involved. Gentlemen, I can guarantee you, some will not make it out of this today. Most will not. Will not make it out today.

We need some like the way we do- But if everything goes right, that gorilla ain't gonna make it out today. We need some like Connor inspirational triumphant music motivating the 100 men to get. You asked where it started last night. I saw the original tweet where the guy was like, y'all are crazy, 100 dudes could take out one gorilla

and it had 157 million views on Twitter. Jeez. What the hell? It's amazing how like the internet can just. Is somebody going to make a video of 100 men facing off with a gorilla is that? The now because someone's good somebody gonna do it was gonna die We're not suggesting it

Way for gorillas, so mr. Beast quote tweeted a the tweet and was like should I should I make this happen? Yeah, I feel like that's the next step have you seen mr B's like squid game thing? Oh, yeah, my kids love it It's a little weird. Yeah, they like most of it is like self elimination Like how much money will it take for you to eliminate yourself from the thousand? I think they start off with have you guys ever seen the show all-american on Netflix? I Am aware of it. I've not my roommate used to my kids are obsessed with it. Wait, like the shitty CW football show? Yeah. What?

Corporate Jake is a big fan. What? This show has fans? Oh my God, them and all their friends are just obsessed with it. They can't stop watching it. So 13 year old boys and Corporate Jake. I mean, it's an incredible test.

As a former CW employee, CW has almost 99% misrate on their shows. It's just incredible test. As a former CW employee, CW has almost 99% miss rate on their shows. It's just all shit. It's just all slag. They're enjoying a renaissance with NXT and some other stuff these days. NXT, exactly. I did wanna ask you, are you happy,

are you content with the main event coming to Atlanta on June 14th? It was announced Kamara Usman against Joaquin Buckley is going to headline the State Farm Arena. Yeah, formerly known as the Highlight Factory, formerly known as Phillips Arena. Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. Was it known as the Highlight Factory?

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, that's what we called it. Back in Joe Johnson days, Josh Smith. But that was the nickname. Nickname. Okay, got it, got it, got it. We called it the Highlight Factory, Dominic Wilkins. Oh, I know the human highlight, but he never played at State Farm.

He was long gone by the time State Farm came around. Well, Phillips. He was at the Omni arena. Yeah, I was gonna say he was at the Omni, you know. You know your ball there. Yeah, I'm excited for it. I'm looking forward to it. It's good to have Kamaru Usman back. Last time we saw him was with the Hamza Tjimaya fight up at 185. You know, him getting older doesn't really favor him at all just because of the knee problems that he's had. He's not a young spry chicken anymore anyway. And then Joaquin Buckley is sort of the exact opposite. He's coming on so strongly. But Kamaru Usman's a legend. It'll be nice to see Joaquin Buckley texted.

Don't love that he's going from like Covington now to Usman. Two guys past their primes, but I think he'll sell the fight. Usman's a big name. For a fight night, I think it's a solid main event. Yeah, no, I definitely think it's a solid main event for a fight night. Credit to Usman, I don't know if this was maybe the fight he was looking for in terms of, okay, wanting a legend,

because Buckley has been great as of late, and Buckley's making his presence felt. He was all over, he was all over Kansas City there. It's kind of interesting. He's like calling, he's already calling for the E and Gary fight when he still has to fight Kamaru Ueshiba. Right.

Who knows? I mean, and then the co-main Rose versus who, Miranda Maverick? Yeah. It's not a bad main and co-main. I'm looking forward to it. We did find out that Rafael Fazeve and co-main. I'm looking forward to it. We did find out that Rafael Fazeev will co-main event the UFC debut in Baku

Azerbaijan There you have it against Ignacio Bahamundes who's coming off a big win in his own right? That's great great fight It's that like who's coming together not featherweight remember after the The fight against just Gichie, he had hinted at a potential move to 145, it ain't happening. Yeah, not yet. And that's the following week, June 21st, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And then International Fight Week, the week after that. Pay-per-view, Newark, the week before Atlanta. That's a nice four week stretch for the UFC. Jake Paul, JCC Jr. also in there. Said it. One fight that won't be happening in that stretch is Drikis Duplassi, I was about to say Diamond Dows Page. I thought you were gonna tee up Gamrot. I was gonna say actually if we want to just go one week earlier it is. It's Gamrot versus Dovett Klein.

Uh, no, it is, uh, drinks to bless see who confirmed he will not be fighting international fight weekend that it was not, uh, due to an injury, it was never part of the plan. Okay. So everyone had their opinions and rumors and stories about a shin break and injuries. I found it all very entertaining. Unfortunately, none of it is true.

Myself and UFC already discussed a fight date and an opponent. The June fight was never signed and I did not pull out of any fight. I am the champion. I know when I fight. You as a contender just show up when we tell you to. Fight announcement coming soon.

Stay tuned. Hashtag prepare to be amazed. Hashtag still knocks. And Dana White did confirm that the fight's a done deal just that it's not happening in the national fight week. I told you it's going to be Ilya, it's just going to be Ilya versus someone. Whoop, as I hit the pencil there. Did you almost just grab another pencil instead of picking that one up? Is it going to be Charles? Is it going to be Islam? But it's not going to be DDP

versus Khamzat. So all that stuff that popped off about seven, eight, nine days ago, I guess all for not. It seems like we're getting, obviously July 19th is DP. It seems like we're getting Alex Pera versus Magomed Ankhalyev in August, location TBD. Then you've got Noche in September, it wouldn't happen there. Feels like if we're reading the tea leaves, it feels like we're going back to Abu Dhabi, right? It feels like this title fight is happening in Abu Dhabi.

If you just lay it out, it seems tailor-made for that. It would make sense with Hamza's past as well. Yeah. What about former French international and former Man United star Patrice Evra not going the celebrity boxing route, which is what most people do, going the celebrity MMA route.

Who saw this coming? Patrice Evra tweeting on Friday, breaking him officially, I like how he broke his own news. I'm officially training for my first fight with PFL Europe. They will pick my opponent. They asked who I want to face. I said Luis Suarez. I'll pay out of pocket.

He can even bite me. These two have a history. And I saw a video today where Khabib, big time football fan, said he would like to train Patrice. He said send me location. I give him credit. A lot of guys in his position, we've seen basketball players football players NFL players do they go into boxing? MMA the entire package and so kudos to him and I could tell you that Patrice is gonna join us on Wednesday's program to talk about this You guys into that do you even know who Patrice's I need you to help me like how big a Big deal. Oh, yeah, he's a big deal. I mean the perfect person to talk about this is Do you even know who Patrice is? I need you to help me, like how big a star was in his day. Oh yeah, he's a big deal. I mean, the perfect person to talk about this is Man United fan, Pizzi Carroll.

He was a big deal. On France and on... yeah. He played for someone else as well. Also played with Juventus. Juventus, Marseille, West Ham. Monaco. He played for someone else as well Also play with you that you've been to small say West Ham Monica Monica Yeah, French International. That's why I said French International 81 caps Chances are when it doesn't 16. Yeah, I mean, so he's a lead of the elite. He's very lead I think you by the way, I think he was captain for man United and France. Mm-hmm 2009 world XI that's 11 or that yeah So looking forward to that. I think that's a May 17th. I do believe say that May 10th or May 17th PFL Europe

You guys into that thumbs up in the chat. Sure, yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. No, I was wondering if the chat was into it. So that's happening, that happened as well. And what was interesting about it was, you know, Dakota's looking for a fight, Dakota Divchiva, who gave me some stick yesterday after Man City beat Nottingham Forest,

but if I'm being honest, I deserved it because I had rubbed it in a couple of times when we passed them in the, in the table. And then when we beat them, uh, I, I was a little surprised to see a little, uh, a little spiciness from her and it wasn't due to Lorde's hot sauce. Uh, she posted this on her Instagram. Now I wish I could say I could read that. I remember reading it and noting it was, what did she write here guys?

She wrote, give him to me at this point. There's no way he's getting paid before me with a little like knife emoji. Damn. Dakota fired up. I don't blame her. I do not blame her. I'm looking to see if I've gone through all the news and notes here.

What did I miss? What did I miss? I do know we have super chats. How about that? Could you hear us? Okay, or we could just go to the super chats now. Alright. What do you mean, could I hear you? Because we were like, I think he's gonna forget the super chats. No. And then you immediately were like, I know there's super chats.

Yeah, I just wanted to see if I had. Yeah man, take your time. No, go ahead, please. I thought maybe you were gonna hit Usyk Dubois maybe. Oh yes, see I knew there was something. Alexander Usyk versus Daniel Dubois II has been officially announced. They fought back in August of 2023. There it is, Shout out to Everything Boxing, our guy Darshan.

It's going down July 19th, so it's not gonna happen on the same day as this proposed Shakur Stevenson Williams Zepeda, New York City Parts Unknown fight card in the day after. The Netflix card, it's happening the week after at Wembley. I mean, it's just stadium show after stadium show at this point. If you want an indication as to how hot boxing is in the U.S., you can go to the website The Netflix card, it's happening the week after at Wembley. I mean, it's just stadium show after stadium show at this point.

If you want an indication as to how hot boxing is in the UK. Usyk Dubois too, it was somewhat controversial back in August of 23, they fought in Poland because they couldn't fight in the Ukraine, or in Ukraine, excuse me. Dubois landed what he believes was a clean body shot, which dropped Usyk. Usyk said below the belt. Referee agreed. Usyk ended up winning. People said that Dubois quit.

Dubois hasn't lost since. Now he was supposed to fight Joseph Parker February 22nd. He didn't fight with Drew, fight week. Still very mysterious. Still seems a little bit sussy as the kids say. My boy, the big oos, Joseph Parker, still left in the dust. He beat Picoli, I thought he was going to get, I didn't really think it was going to work out to be honest. Once Dubois withdrew and didn't say anything, it felt like they didn't want to risk the Usyk fight. I think the Parker fight warranted, missed me with this IBF eliminator crap. Oh, he's

IBF champ, blah, blah, blah, who cares? They just, they, Undisputed, what does it matter? They just break it up anyway. Parker was the one who showed up. Parker was the one who beat Bacoli. Parker should be the one fighting Alexander Usyk. And he put together that great video, you're still the one I want, the only one I need, you're still the one, you know that one? Looks like you made it. Anyway, that is happening and they had a face off today. Did you guys see this? Cap or no cap? What do you no cap? What do you mean cap? On the push.

I don't know if there is a cap or no cap to like what that was. Was it real? What was that? He was just like. It really happened, unfortunately. Do I think it was like. Come on, Daniel ain't that guy.

That's out of character for him. And then they both just stopped right there. They just stopped. There wasn't much to it. The security didn't even get in there before they stopped it was kind of also I love how the boys rockin a suit and yeah and it was six rockets what's what's who who's and one once one pant leg up who's buying usic debois for like the bad blood though this is not you bank Ben like who cares you know there is a story

there it was a low blow who cares you think it was low blow sorry I don't think it was a low blow right there's a his team feels there was a low bro but we don't need like a fake shove like who these guys are great boxers I'm in I don't need this I just feel bad for the big goose sure I mean hopefully it gets a big fight. That is the silver lining. That is the silver lining. That's something big.

I don't know who it is other than Joshua. I mean that could be the one, why not? Well now Fury's saying, oh I'm coming back. Yeah, he says a lot of stuff. So annoying. Shocking. Just make up your mind. All right, let's go to Super Chats.

Super Chats. Starting off off is Mo M. Will the Times Square card be open to the public? How? Well, I guess it's open to the public because it is in the public, but you can't like get in. My understanding is it's going to be blocked off, 300 or so people, no tickets being sold.

So I guess you can kind of go, what you'll be able to see, where it will be situated is all very much up in the air at this juncture. Maybe we'll find out later in the week. Maybe we won't. Maybe it will be a big surprise. This is the return of Jim Lampley, by the way. This is the big one.

So let's see. But no, there's no place to purchase tickets, unfortunately, if you're a fan hoping to attend. But I guess you could just walk there and hope for the best. What else? Meagolito asks, Josie Altador, Toronto FC champion. Feels more like a statement than a question. Hey, we accept both.

Yeah, yeah, shout out to Josie. He was great, really enjoyed, very smart guy, doing a lot of investments and things of that nature. I was really, really impressed. And yes, he did win while a member of TFC. TFC is Toronto FC, for those wondering. What else? Jake from Windy City,

Ariel, just remember, you'll never walk alone. Yes, congratulations, YNWA. No, they did it, they did it. And you know, I'm happy for the Liverpool fans because when they won, it was during the pandemic, so I don't think they got a proper celebration. And of course, we hold our heads high around these parts. We did beat Liverpool at Anfield, and we did tie them at the world famous City Ground.

So I'd say that's pretty good considering they ended up winning the Premier League. I prefer when the Premier League is decided a little closer to the final day adds a little more intrigue. But they were dominant from the outset and and I and I think actually when when force beat Liverpool back in September a lot of people were longing for the return of Jurgen Klopp and look at this Arnie Schlott did an incredible job in his debut so kudos to him what else coming up with the cool Alex Gray avatar Osh Request been a fight feast from New Orleans Wow

That's not bad. What did you say? What was the avatar that's on there is an artist from New York Alex Gray, just how did you know that? Yeah, you know, some of us are cultured. Yeah, this is the last one by the way Okay, what do we got? That was the last one. Oh, okay. All right Well, thanks. I thought you were setting it up. I thought there would be a mention of yeah, I screwed up man the phantom foul Everyone talking about Josh Hart fouling Tim Hardaway jr. Didn't what was phantom about it didn't see very obvious foul I mean, that's that's that's a that's a contact basketball player. That's that's in the flow of game No part that is like things. Yeah, okay We're gonna we're gonna call foul on every single contact if so then Dennis Schroeder should have been called for foul when he tackled Jalen

Brunson that doesn't make it not a foul I'd be if I was a Pistons fan I'd be more mad about the ridiculously easy shot Kate Cunningham got and then bricked but hey hard away got the brakes they've talking a lot of shit a lot of shit ain't over yet three one can I tell you my favorite part about all this? Tweeting about it and then getting a bunch of replies obviously from angry Pistons fans, which is fine, but just calling me biased Yeah, no shit. I'm biased What a bias take like yeah, I'm a fucking die-hard fan. What do you think? I'm not reporting on the game. I would love if at the end of that Knicks game when he's on Twitter like refs got it wrong yeah Hartley should be on the line

what do you think the replies were just utterly absurd yeah no question oh yeah you want me to go out there and say Josh Hartford fuck that I ain't on TV I ain't calling this game I'm not reporting on this game I'm a crazed fan jumping up and down sweating with my son. He's wearing his Brunson Jersey. I'm praying to the basketball gods. No fucking shit. I biased. I'm as biased as a guess.

What are you expecting? You're expecting down the middle commentary from me here? No big shot by cat there. I mean, that's, that's two big shots, three big shots. He was, I saw some, I saw some AD on Twitter saying it was one of the greatest shots in NBA history. Yes, of course I'm going to say that. By the way, even that two people are weighing in.

I'm actually not shitting you. I was scrolling, and I saw the tweet before I saw the Mule. I was just like, what is this? And I was like, oh, I'm not going to say that. Of course I'm going to say that. It went viral without real? That's incredible. Of course I'm going to say that. So it went viral without real, ah, that's incredible. Yo, of course I'm going to say that.

Ben Stiller liked that tweet, by the way. Shout out. Dude. Ben Stiller tweets about it. It's the Knicks. Is Ben Stiller going to replace Spike Lee in that Knicks number one fan position? He's getting there, but Spike was there yesterday.

It's going to be a wow, yeah, who's the first guy that they went over and hugged? Oh, I know. I know. Look, Spike's the king. Spike's the king. But I feel like Stiller's making a play for the throne. He's really into it.

He's really into it. Him and Timothy Chalamet at, what was it, game three there. Was it game three? Yeah, game three together. Yeah. I say it's a great, I was even in like, the midst of it all, I was gonna say it was the greatest shot in the history of shots.

Like, of course all of this is ridiculous. I'm a fucking crazed fan. Well, like, do you not know what it means to be a fan? That's what it means. You say stupid shit. You say outlandish things. Yeah, they're saying stupid shit to you because they're fans too.

They're saying dumb shit to you. People are like, look at this guy, he does a no ball. Yeah, what are you talking about? By the way, it was an incredible shot and the baseline fade away over the backboard was an equally incredible shot both shots which I would like to see hardaway shot if you didn't get fouled

that would have been a both shots I will say I'll get to that in a moment both shots I'll say like they're kind of like no no no yes yes yes shots hardaway did himself a disservice he leaned into the foul if you would have just worried about the shot you know then by the way bub there's the brakes and you know what

enjoy the 74 million that the Knicks gave you for doing absolutely dogshit shot you know then by the way bub there's the breaks and you know what enjoy the 74 million that the Knicks gave you for doing absolutely dogshit and I can't believe in 2025 that we are subjected to Tim Hardaway senior rooting against the Knicks enough of that guy I had to I had to watch you like vocally like I hated Tim Hardaway senior no no I'm saying now is he like sitting in the front row I don't want to see him on my television I don't want to see Tim Hardaway senior in 1997 he broke our hearts game seven we were up three one then the brawl happens and this dude's fucking shooting threes at the decrepit Miami arena and I got to see this guy in 2025 as a 42 year old man get off my screen Tim Hardaway jr one of my least like

nicks only because I didn't like his dad I liked him when he was at utep the utep's two step and I liked him at uh golden state run TMC, but I don't want to see these dudes. And by the way, can I just say, Jill and Rose, like them, you never played for the Pistons. I know you're from Detroit, but like you kind of then the allegiances are then with the team that you played for, Indiana, Toronto, et cetera. All right, fine. Weber, never played for Detroit. All right, Michigan. This is horrible, this is horrible Here's here's the worst day Detroit guys. My worst my take Chauncey Billups Pistons legend

trailblazer coach Did he get fired? Did he get fired? The Chauncey Billups get fired by the Yeah, okay, whatever I hate it I ignored that I don't think the Chauncey if I if I's fire. Yeah, okay, whatever. I hate it. I ignored that. I don't think... The Chaunty of Fire? If I'm the Trailblazers, I don't want my head coach sitting in the front row cheering on the Pistons. I'm sorry. You're the head coach of the team.

I'm sorry. You don't show up. Am I wrong? You just went on this whole thing about why those other guys can't be on TV rooting for the Pistons because they didn't play for the Pistons. This man who now actually played for the Pistons, they didn't play for the Pistons. This man who now actually played for the Pistons, had a legendary run for the Pistons, was a championship winner with the Pistons, now is not allowed to cheer for that team.

He's head coach. He's affiliated and gets paid by another team at this point. If he wasn't working for them, fine. You're gatekeeping fandom in a way that I'm not comfortable with. Listen, people were telling me that I was being biased. I could tell them whatever I want. It's my platform. What gatekeeping? You're right about that. The rules and regulations that people put on fans

is hysterical. It's like, oh, you can't claim that you're plastic. We did this thing with the Premier League and the fans got so mad. Again, bringing out the Everton tweets and the Leicester City tweets. I mean, these people who never watched the show, they don't know that we were joking the whole time. But like getting to decide who can be a fan and who can't be, I think is hilarious.

Everyone could be outlandish, irrational as a fan. But these people online who think that they can be the gatekeepers. I'm just saying if I was the owner, the one that bothered me the most was Chauncey, because if I was the owner of the Trailblazer, I would say, why are you out there supporting another team? That's all.

I'm paying you to be the representative of my team. You're my head coach. Why aren't you out scouting someone right now? Why aren't you out drawing plays for the Summer League? So if you ever show up anywhere, we should be like, why aren't you repping on crown? You're only with us. No, if you see me waving pom poms for a competitor.

No, not waving pom poms, just there. Just attending. That's what he was doing. He was waving pom poms. He had pom poms in his hands? Literally. I'm looking at them. This is ridiculous.

When I say literally, I mean figuratively. So you literally mean figuratively. Yes. By the way if you look at the dictionary they have now amended the definition to mean both exactly and inexactly like the opposite. It has two meanings that are opposite of each other. Legit. Credit to Tauncey Billups you know if you're Blazers fan, in this picture he doesn't look happy to be there. He does not look like he's enjoying himself one bit. He looks tired. He's hating it.

Yeah, he does not look like he's having a good time. You know what, I did notice that, so I wondered if he was paid to be there. This is incredible. I'm just saying. The breakdown of these different allowed and not allowed Finn directions. Tomorrow on the program gents,

Eddie Hearn in studio as I mentioned. Big. Looking forward to that. A lot to talk to him about in the aftermath of what transpired this weekend. A friend of the program, King Rye, Ryan Garcia will join us. Oh wow.

And a man who has been in the news for the past two plus years. Who, me? I'm not sure if he'll be breaking his silence or not, but we will, in fact, be talking to Jeff Molina on the show. Oh, wow. Who, as you know, has been in the news for all that stuff with James Krause and whatnot.

So I'm looking forward to that. Also, our own nowday program at 5 Eastern. So a lot looking forward to that. Also, our Lennard Day program at Five Eastern. So a lot to get to on a busy week and a beautiful week here in New York City. I mean, just look at it, look at it, look at it. I'm gonna go douse myself in this hot sauce because we have so much of it. Oh, this is called the Rush.

Which one are you gonna start with? I think the Stylebender one. Nice. 500 milliliters. Look at Chauncey building. Yeah, what about him? Look at his picture, Adam. He doesn't look happy either. Where is he, where is he?

Oh, look at that. I'll let that blow. Yeah, you know why? Because he coaches another team. He doesn't look happy either. Where is he, where is he? Oh, look at that. I'll let that pull up. Yeah, you know why? Because he coaches another team. He doesn't want to be there. I put my water bottle that was a little bit wet on top of my card and now I got a little, gosh, what is wrong with me?

Treated your one NFL draft card as a ghost. Yeah, what was I doing? You just throw it in your bag too? You didn't put it in a folder? No, I just threw it in my bag. All right. Listen, what about that? You just throw it in your bag too? You didn't put it in a folder? No, I just threw it in my bag. Alright. Listen. What about that? I walk up there, rock in the Zubaz. Would you say that was... was it a...

Was it a Grand Slam, a Home Run, a Triple, a Double, or a Single? Did they tell you who to pick or did you get to pick your own? Yeah. That was what I was waiting for that was good, that was good, that was good I'll go home run I'm cool with that, I'm cool with home run it would have been Grand Slam if they put you on the broadcast

yeah it's all out of my hands when do we get the Dorian merch and do we go old school VTEC Dorian or do we get the bills Dorian? It kind of feels like you got to get the bills. It kind of feels like one goes home bills, one goes away bills, one goes home Vatek,

one goes away Vatek. I'm cool with that. And like we just rock up in the 44s everywhere we go. Love it. All right. Thank you to our guests today. Thanks to them. Thanks all of you.

Back on Tuesday, same time, same place. And say peace. I'm out of here.