The Ariel Helwani Show - Ilia Topuria, Georges St-Pierre, Jon Jones reaction, Ice Cube, Nazim Sadykhov, more

Episode Date: June 23, 2025

Ariel kicks off the show with his reaction to Dana White's announcement that Jon Jones retired and vacated his heavyweight title (04:36).Ilia Topuria joins ahead of his vacant lightweight title bout against Charles Oliveira at UFC 317 to discuss the fight, Islam Makhachev's decision to vacate, Paddy Pimblett, the possibility of fighting in Spain, and more (35:50).Nazim Sadykhov, Azerbaijan native, calls in after his Fight of the Night performance at UFC Baku to break down winning two bonuses, moving to New York as a kid, his beginnings in MMA, and more (1:01:38).The Boys in the Back join Ariel to give their opinions on the Jon Jones saga and its impact on Tom Aspinall. Then, they move into the biggest results from UFC Baku and the other news and notes around the sport (1:26:05).Next up on the program is Ariel’s Fanatics Fest interviews, first with Ice Cube (2:49:54), who covers everything from his Big3 basketball league to professional wrestling, and then with Georges St-Pierre (3:12:07), who weighed in on Jon Jones, his fight with Khabib Nurmagomedov that nearly came to be, Islam Makhachev moving up, stories from his career, and more.Ariel and the crew wrap up the show by looking at the Terence Crawford vs. Canelo Alvarez faceoff and answering your Super Chats (3:40:29).

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- 23rd, 2025. Hello again, everyone. I sure hope you're doing well. I feel like I was off with my ups and downs there with the 23rd and the 25th. I was a little bit off. I was a little bit off tune, if you will. Let me tell you, it is a scorcher. It is prime time New York City summer out there,

and I love everything about it And I'm so excited to come in today because we have so much to discuss so much has happened in the world of combat sports and in the world of MMA and In the world of the UFC in particular and thus we begin Starting today a massive massive massive week for all of us here at the area How many show this is annoying me because it's not centered, so I'm just going to move this a little bit right over there. Yeah.

And there's Tommy. Thank you very much for stopping by, Tommy. Yes, a massive week. Why? Because we're doing our show today. Tomorrow we have special edition of The Boys in the Back. I'll be taping something after to be played at a later date. Then we've got Ariel and Ade. Then date. Then we've got our own now day. Then on Wednesday, we've got the crack.

We're flying to Las Vegas. Then we have a special Thursday evening edition of the Ariel Hauwani show live from Las Vegas. A special Friday evening with some massive guests joining us Thursday and Friday live and in person from the Venetian Friday evening show, watch party, post show from Vegas, and then a Monday post pay-per-view show live from Las Vegas. First time we've ever done this.

A full week of incredible programming starting today and what a time to start because we are coming off a huge weekend of news. Now first, let me tell you about today's program. On Friday, I mean really all the fun started a few days ago because on Friday we were at Fanatics Fest in New York City at the Javits Center. What an operation. They rolled out the red carpet for us. We got to do a live show in front of a great group of people. While this is happening, Tom Brady is over there with Logan Paul and Adam Silver's on the stage before us and there's all these famous people and I'm walking around with my kids and they're

freaking out not because they see Derek Jeter, Kevin Costner, Tracy McGrady, but because they see Aidan Ross and Drusky. We met them. I got to meet Chris Weber. I got to meet Dwight Howard. I met him once before many, many moons ago. Chris Weber, my brother's favorite player. It was a who's who. Everywhere he turned, it's like, oh, Amir Khan, not the boxer, but the McNeese State, now NC State team manager, Oricon, with the big boombox. What a great time. And we did a show with Ice Cube and George St. Pierre Friday afternoon. We were able to record that show and I think a lot of the people didn't do this and we are going to play

it for all of you today. Now this is from Friday. Everything very pertinent, everything very relevant. The Ice Cube chat was great. The GSP chat was even better. And so we'll play all of that on today's program. We'll reminisce a little bit about Fanatics Fest as well. Prior to that, we'll be joined by Nassim Sadikhov, who had a massive win on Saturday in his home country of Azerbaijan. And then prior to that, a gentleman named Ilya Toporya, who is headlining UFC 317 International Fight Week this Saturday at T-Mobile Arena,

fighting for the vacant title. The former UFC featherweight champion, in some people's eyes, the former BMF champion going up against Charles Overe. You may have heard of him, the pride of Georgia and the pride of Spain as well. He's going to join us at 1.30 to talk about all of that and more, a lot going on in his life. But first we must talk about, yeah, there it is. We must talk about the little item on the bottom right. And by the way, congratulations to the Oklahoma City Thunder and their fans, they won the NBA championship. Commiserations to the Pacers fans and our love goes out to Tyrese Haliburton.

I may not like him very much because of what he did to the Knicks, but no one wants to see that happen and that is really shitty. So I hope he gets well soon, truthfully. out to Tyrese Halburn. I may not like him very much because of what he did to the Knicks but no one wants to see that happen and that is really shitty so I hope he gets well soon, truthfully from the heart. Okay UFC Azerbaijan. Solid card prelims okay so-so. ABC don't really make a big deal about that, don't love that. Main card, better, some great moments. Sadiqav, Faziv, main event, didn't hate it as much as most people. Khalil Raunchy wins, he beats Jamal Hill.

Of course Jamal afterwards in his face talking, I'm not really sure what exactly he could have said in that moment, it was a fairly one-sided affair and then even afterwards surprised at the judges scorecards in my opinion round three won the fight five rounds to none 50 to 45 at worst 49 46 and I'd love to see him fight Yuri for the number one contender spot because they are probably gonna do I versus Prahra probably in October. All right. Nice little Saturday afternoon. We're all good. Everyone's happy. I'm talking with the guys.

I'm like, man, isn't this amazing? It's a Saturday afternoon. It's still light outside. We can enjoy our evening. The event is come and gone. We talked a little bit about, hey, should we do a post show? That's fine. We'll talk about it on Monday. We've been doing a lot. We did the show on Friday Got a bunch of shows coming up in Vegas. I

Get a text from GC in the group chat saying is this John Jones news real? Quickly go on Twitter see Dana White is holding court Post by press conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, shout out. And he announces to the world that John Jones has retired. That not only has John Jones retired, he has also vacated his title, and as a result, Tom Aspinall is the new UFC heavyweight champion. No longer the interim champion, he's the heavyweight champion.

Something that should have happened two years ago when he beat Sergei Pavlovich at Madison Square Garden. Because that's really how this should have been handled from the beginning. Should have been handled. John Jones couldn't fight November of 2023. They call Tom Aspinall to save the day. He fights on two weeks notice against Sergei Pavlovich.

He knocks him out in a couple of minutes. He should have been the champion on that night. He should be approaching the two year anniversary of his reign. He beat Curtis blades in July, probably should have fought. Once already this year, maybe even this coming weekend. But you all know the story, you all know what has transpired over the last eight or so months. And so, in case you missed it, this is how the reign of John Jones, the career, at least for now, of John Jones came to an end. Saturday night, technically Sunday morning in Azerbaijan, 11 or so minutes into the press conference,

Dana White is asked, after a bunch of questions about guys he probably has never heard of or regions, where he's going to go, he's asked about the heavyweight division, and this is how he announces the news. Take a look. On the heavyweight front, you recently set a deadline for John Jones to face Tom Espinel or risk losing the title. And with that situation evolving, what criteria are you using to decide? Uphold legacy by waiting for Jones or prioritize division activity by clearing the belt? You said the timeline for Jones, two weeks to decide what to do with the title, whether it takes the fight or you're going to strip him.

What do you think is more important to keep the belt there so he can uphold his legacy or remove the heavyweight division, take the title away from you? John Jones called us last night and retired. John Jones is officially retired. Tom Aspinall is the heavyweight champion of the UFC. Thank you very much. You just cancelled out my question, but anyway, I don't know if you heard about this, but seems like Francis wants to come back and he says he changed his mind.

Would you be open for him to come back if he really wants to and if he says okay to your conditions? Francis says he changed his mind and he would consider coming back to the UFC. Would you be open to having Francis back? If what? He would consider coming back to the UFC if what? One thing I've learned over the years about Francis, Francis doesn't always mean what he says publicly, what he says behind the scenes are different than what he says publicly. I'm not a big fan. I would be shocked if Francis ever came back here on lots of different levels. I'm not a fan and he doesn't always mean what he says. Alright so two things there. Number one, the reporters for the most part did an okay job but I'm not here to criticize

them. We need to get this right. Francis Ngannou has never said, ever, ever, ever that he's willing to come back. There was a hypothetical conversation between his coach and Luke Thomas, Eric Nixik and Luke Thomas about if he could come back. He never said it. So that question was not fair to Francis Ngannou. And then the subsequent slander, not fair as well.

It's also ignoring the fact that Francis Ngannou has a contract with the PFL. He can't just waltz back into the UFC. Now they could co-promote. We all know that's not going to happen. So it's a pointless and useless follow-up question. But there you have it. That's how it's announced.

Dana White says that he got a call the day before and John Jones is out. Now I think, I think what happened was John Jones did this interview with the Nelk Boys where he all but said he was done, which was interesting because this interview was conducted last Saturday after the DBX card and John had been telling us for quite some time, I already told the UFC my plans, I'm not sure why they haven't done anything with it. But it seems as though as he continued to try and hint at what his plans were, the UFC felt like their hand was forced and they had to put it out there. Because at this point, what are we waiting for? Now, Tom Aspinall is coming to Las Vegas this week. He will be there back end of the week. He was told that a decision would be made by International Fight Week. Why I think this is ludicrous that it all went down like

this was we had waited so long for the resolution to this issue. Could they have not done something in Las Vegas in front of all the fans before the press conference, after the press conference, before the weigh-ins, after the weigh-ins, in the middle of the card on Saturday, before the fight, after the fight, presenting Tom with the belt saying, you are the man, this is the Glamour division, you are the baddest man on the planet, you're the heavyweight champion, you've done it all right,

everything we've asked of you, why not do it like that? He's literally gonna be there in a couple of days. Where every media member, every fan is gonna be there, you do it like this in a throwaway midway through a press conference in Baku Aizabajan in the middle of the night over there when no one's paying attention. You do it like that. What is that? Like surely we can't be that apathetic about the product.

Surely we can't care that little about the state of things. This is the heavyweight championship of the world. That's how you announce that Tom Asperall is the king. That's how you announce that John Jones is retired. That's massive news. When Michael Jordan, the goat of his sport, retired, there was a huge press conference and every single media member under the sun was there.

John Jones's retirement is a throwaway midway question in a press conference in the middle of the night in Bacow, Azerbaijan. Does anyone else not see the lunacy in all this? It's absurd. It's absolutely absurd. And so I was trying to figure out why didn't they just wait? Why didn't they just wait? Why didn't they do something in Vegas, a presentation, a ceremony, something to make this feel big, special, to wash away the annoying nature of the past seven or so months as we are constantly told it's going to happen, it's going to happen, I guarantee it's going to happen, up until recently, a couple of weeks ago, to Jim Rome,. It's gonna happen, it's gonna happen. And then 30 or so minutes after the press conference, the Albuquerque Journal drops a massive piece of news.

The Albuquerque Journal, which has been covering John Jones for quite some time, and a reporter named Jeff Grammer, who we've had on the program before, to talk about Holly Holm, been covering John, has been covering the Albuquerque fighters like Holly, like Michelle Watterson, all the Jackson Wing fighters.

They drop this news, literally minutes after the announcement. John Jones, the often battled Albuquerque resident, considered by many to be the greatest mixed martial artist of all time, shocked the combat sports world Saturday when UFC president Dana White announced the fighter had retired. But the news didn't come before one more legal matter arose. when UFC President Dana White announced the fighter had retired. But the news didn't come before one more legal matter arose. One White did not reference in his Saturday afternoon announcement of Jones' retirement. The Journal has learned a criminal summons accusing Jones, 37, of a misdemeanor charge of leaving the scene of an accident in February was filed Tuesday in Metropolitan Court.

I'm reading this now and I'm like, is this story from nine years ago, ten years, eleven years ago when he left the scene of a hidden run? Because it's eerily similar. Jones has been called to appear for a bond arraignment on July 24th in Metro Court. The criminal complaint stated an Albuquerque police officer was investigating a traffic crash near San Mateo and Lomas when she came across a woman in the passenger seat of one of the cars exhibiting signs of significant intoxication and lacking clothing from the waist down. The woman reportedly said Jones was the driver but fled the scene on foot. She then called Jones, the complaint stated, and a police service aide spoke to the man on the other

end of the call believed to be Jones. He, quote, appeared to be heavily intoxicated and made statements implying his capacity to employ lethal force through third parties to the PSA, the court record stated. The PSA requested backup after what was believed to be a threat when a police officer then talked to Jones it said similar allusions to violence were made. The man on the phone never answered direct questions about whether he was Jones. The complaint stated. It goes on and on.

This is a horrible look. The woman later told police she drank alcohol and consumed mushrooms at Jones' house and recalled needing to change her clothes at his house and her quote, next recollection was being at the scene of a traffic accident end quote. She said the last person she remembered driving her car was Jones, the court record indicated. Police said Jones called the woman's phone 13 times from the time of the crash until 1134 a.m. the following morning and that text messages from his phone were included though could not be quote unquote captured in call detail records. And so when I read this, I'm like, holy crap, they put this out there to beat this news

to the punch. Obviously they don't want to have their heavyweight champion attached to it. So we say, Hey, John, you got to move on. We're either going to let you retire and vacate or we're stripping you. What do you want to do? It's sort of like when a team has a great relationship with a coach, we don't want to say we fired you. We parted ways.

You resign. Keep your dignity intact. And I was almost certain. I mean, the timing is too close. I was almost certain that was the case. But then I reached out to Jeff Grammer of the Albuquerque Journal and I said hey Because what I thought was they reached out to the UFC for comment The UFC catches wind of the news this happened in February four months ago They say hey, we got to get ahead of it. Well, guess what that didn't happen

Jeff Grammer tells me he's sitting there. He sees the news of John Jones's retirement. And amazingly, as an incredible reporter says, Hey, let me just look up John Jones's name, Jonathan Jones in the Albuquerque police records and see if anything comes up. And voila, there's this incident from February. What? That's absurd. How they kept this quiet for four months, I will never understand. One of the most famous, if not the most famous resident

of Albuquerque gets into another fender bender, if you want to call it that, and no one knows for four months. In the past, we knew within hours. Now I've spoken to a few people who are very, very tied in, and they said they've known about it, but the police did a great job of keeping it under wraps. That's what they said.

He's got great relationships. And if not for Jeff Grammer looking it up after the announcement, who knows if and when it ever gets out? I'm assuming it would have at some point. But to suggest now that the UFC got ahead of this because they knew, no, he only reached out to them after the press conference for comment, Jeff Grammer, which makes the announcement and the timing and the decision to do it at

a post-fight press conference at Baku all that much more insane. All that, I mean, they dodged one because we could be sitting here on a Monday saying, when are they going to move on from this guy? They literally dodged it by minutes. Unbelievably. The domino of their announcement led to us finding out about this. In the midst of all of this, John Jones puts out a statement, essentially saying that he's confirming the news that he's done. Today I'm officially announcing my retirement from the UFC.

This decision comes after a lot of reflection and I want to take a moment to express my deepest gratitude for the journey I've experienced over the years. From the first time I stepped into the octagon, my goal was to push the boundaries of what was possible in this sport, becoming the youngest UFC champion in history, defending my title against some of the best fighters in the world, except for at the end, and sharing unforgettable moments. It goes on and on. Now some people put it in some sort of AI thing and said it was a I don't know how to do that. Who cares? It is what it is. There's the statement. This morning his lawyer lawyer, Christopher Dodd, puts out this statement as John's lawyer.

I'm stunned by the Albuquerque Police Department's decision to charge him in this new case. In the thousands of cases I've handled in my career, I've never seen a case as strange and unwarranted as this one. John was not driving that night. He wasn't in the car. It appears that an intoxicated woman used a false allegation against John to avoid being arrested for a DWI and the police fell for it. Based on the criminal complaint, it looks like they went so far as to seek a warrant for John's cell phone records while conducting a misdemeanor traffic investigation. I've

never heard of such a thing. It is truly unbelievable that the police would waste this amount of resources on such a case. The only thing I could think of is that the police were targeting John for improper purposes. We will get to the bottom of it and make sure this baseless case is dismissed." So this will go on and it's amazing because the story of John Jones was littered with these issues. One's almost exactly identical to this one. We'll see how it happens. We'll see how it all shakes out. But for it to end like this is something that no one could have scripted. I mean, it's just, it's unimaginable that it could end the same way that it almost like got off the ground with that first DUI and then the stuff in the middle and then the pandemic stuff.

And now this But here is what we can unequivocally say I told you months ago The ufc wanted to make this fight. They did everything in their power to make this fight. John jones asked for 30 million They didn't want to give him 30 million They negotiated I heard from one source that even turkey got involved. He wanted to make the fight. They eventually got to the 30 million. John said he was in. A couple days later he said he was out. And

once he said he was out, he was never back in. And that's now two, three months ago. Why they waited so long? As we told you a million times, they were holding out hope that they could convince him, and until they had to pull the trigger, they didn't feel like they had to make any kind of announcement. Initially, they were talking about an August fight at MSG

on that 16th date, and then they were hoping for the November date at MSG. In the midst of all this, as John says I'm out, he's openly campaigning for a Francis fight. In November, after beating Stipe, he's openly campaigning for an Alex Prager fight. So if you sit here and say, John just didn't want to fight anymore, you're not being truthful.

You're not telling the full story. John Jones retired because of Tom Aspinall. John Jones retired because of the presence of Tom Aspinall. John Jones retired because he did not want to fight Tom Aspinall. That is an unequivocal fact. John Jones will tell you that the reason he retired is because Tom Aspinall isn't a big enough name and there's no one else for him to fight. No, John Jones retired because he did not want to fight Tom Aspinal and because there was a threat of Tom beating him and there's a lot of equity, there's a lot of value in

retiring undefeated. And so, hey, we made our money, we're getting a boatload to do Russian reality shows, let's just walk away. But look, if anyone wants to say that he retired and walked away because he did not want to fight Tom Aspinal, I'm agreeing with you. I'm agreeing with you. That's the truth. Because if Nganu was available now, he would fight him. If Pereira was available, he would fight him.

If Cyril Gan was available again, or Martin Boudet was available again, or Jelton Almeida was available, or Marcin Tabora, he would fight those guys. He doesn't want to fight Tom Aspinall and he felt cornered. And so he's walking away now. Does he come back maybe when Tom stumbles if he stumbles or if there's a super fight out there? Who knows? Never say never in this game. Never. But he is not fighting anymore and he gave up his belt to not fight Tom Aspinall. That's an incredible feather in Tom Aspinall's cap. A young man from Wigan made the supposed goat retired and I don't want to hear the GOAT talk.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm tired of beating around the bush here. You cannot be the GOAT if you have multiple PED infractions on your record. You can't. And you cannot be the GOAT if you didn't want to do what others did for you. Time on a tradition, you fight the top contenders. Not only was Tom Aspinal the top contender, he was the interim champion for almost two years.

You didn't want to fight him. And you told us time and again, as recently as your interview with the Nelk Boys, Tom doesn't excite me. The Tom-John fight would have been the biggest fight of John Jones's career since DC2 in 2017, eight years ago. With all due respect to Anthony Smith, to Thiago Santos, to Dominic Reyes, to Cyril Gahn, to even Stipe himself. None of them come close to this fight.

Dana White himself called it the biggest heavyweight fight of all time. The anticipation, the buildup, the buildup, the buildup, the buildup. So this idea that he doesn't excite you, that he hasn't done enough is hogwash. Look at his resume, look at John Jones's resume. Not even close as far as heavyweight, not even close, not even close. Tom is a natural real heavyweight who has fought them all and done it the right way and has had the shortest time in the octagon. And what did I tell you guys from the beginning?

Just like I told you all about the Connor thing a year ago, and some of you, Johnny, come lately, he didn't believe me. I told you all months ago, he was in and then he was out. They got him the money and then they didn't. Meaning he was in and then he said he didn't want to fight anymore. And Dana White said at the presser in Newark, he's in, he agreed. And what did I say on the Monday after? He's not telling you the other side of that story. The other side is he's out. And what did he say when Mike Bond said there were rumors,

rumors of the FU money and then him walking away from it? Unless you hear it from us, don't believe anything. Well, look at what he says to reporters yesterday at Fanatics Fest. Did you know about the stuff that came out of albuquerque last night i'd i'd i'd sought to that when i saw today i said off ever was going to think this is why you're tired maybe maybe that is why retired

who the hell knows man but uh... yeah i i don't know these are all questions you gotta ask him we had the fight done i i you know you saw me talking about a very confidently that this fight was going to happen and then He changed his mind there it is Thank you confirmation. We had the fight done. He changed his mind. Thank you. Can I get a clap Frank? When will you? Stop doubting when will you start believing maybe after after number 16. Anything. Anything? Anything.

Anything? Thank you. Thank you, Frankie. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. And so now we wake up on this Monday to a new reality, a new era, Tom Aspinall, the heavyweight champion,

as he should have been two years ago, and John Jones now has a new legal issue to deal with, and he couldn't have screwed this up more. If you just would have made this, if he did, what he wanted to happen was that he would ask for the money, the UFC would say no and say, hey guys, they don't wanna pay me, I'm out. UFC got him the money.

It didn't work out. That's what happened five years ago with Francis. That was his alibi. The alibi was, hey guys, they didn't want to pay me. I'm not doing it. And who could blame him? Because as I said, he deserved it back then and he deserved it now. But I think he thought just like five years ago, they weren't going to come to the table. Well, guess what? They came to the table because they wanted to make the fight. And in the end, there was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. And so Tom Aspinall is the heavyweight champion. This isn't me being a hater.

This is telling it like it is. This is telling you the exact truth of what happened. The exact truth. He didn't want to fight Tom, and so he's retiring. And that's an awful way to end one's career. If he just would have walked away in New York because he never wanted to fight Tom, none of this would have been an issue. GSP moved up to fight the undisputed champion in 185 and retired a few weeks later.

GSP retired on the night that he beat Johnny Hendrix. That's how you do it. That's how goats act. That's how the fight game works. You don't string this along for months and then disparage the guy, say he's not big enough, not good enough, when he would have been the biggest fight

that you've had in eight years, and then just retire via a throwaway announcement at a post-fight press conference in Baku, Azerbaijan. Are you kidding me? Absurd. So all of this, as I said on Saturday, is shameful. The way it was handled, the way it was announced,

all of it. But now we can move on, because it's a new day, it's a new era, and Tom Aspinall himself told us that he's going to be a fighting champion. And so, in about an hour after we speak to Toporia and Sadiqov, I'm gonna go through the timeline of all this stuff just as a refresher for fun because you know we like to do those deep dives.

GC, Rick, PT will join us as well. And we'll just lay it all out for you one more time. I mean, I pretty much laid it out here as far as what happened over the past 72 or so hours, but I wanna go all the way back, all the way back. Because really this all starts with the Pavlovich fight. That's when he should have been champion and Jones versus steep a would have been a fine fight

To just do as a legends fight main event. No problem Madison Square Garden known would have battered an eye, but they screwed this up back when they did not make Pavlovich versus Aspin all for the undisputed title back in November of 2023 All this could have been avoided. And they screwed it up by not making it into a big deal this week. Ultimately, Tom is going to fight probably later this year. Oh, what happened? Probably later this year.

Maybe in Abu Dhabi, and the train will roll along and everything will be okay. But this could have been handled so much better. So much better. And you know, it's crazy, there's so many similarities between this situation and the Taporia-Mahatchev situation. Big fight doesn't come to fruition. Right there. Obviously, Mahatchev moving up. But I think there's a lot of similarities, so I'd like to talk to Ilya about that when we are joined by him Hopefully in a couple of minutes here And I remember Dana white telling us many many times over the past seven or eight months I remember him saying

This is gonna happen hundred percent hundred percent I guarantee it They knew as of two three three months ago it wasn't going to happen. And I also remember 14 or so years ago while the UFC is scratching and clawing its way to the top, which is where they're at right now, saying, hey, we make the big fights. But when you just look at the heavyweight division. There has been an opportunity to make four massive fights, maybe the biggest over the past 16, 17 years, and they have not been made. Fiora versus Randy, Fiora versus Brock, Jones versus Nganu, and now Jones versus Aspinol.

I laid this out, and people were like, well, what about Anderson versus GSP? And what about Anderson versus John Jones? Yeah, those are other, I'm just talking about the heavyweights. The heavyweight division, the glamor division. Unbelievable. I can't believe it all went down like that.

I can't believe they announced it like that after all these years. That's Jones versus Gustafson. I think that's Jones versus Gustafson too. I was watching the, I mean the Nelkboy thing, I could do a one hour breakdown of just the Nelkboy interview. But now it's old. At one point he asks him, Kyle does, have you ever fought in Canada? And he says, yeah, I fought Alexander Gustafson there, UFC 165. And he's like, oh yeah? What city was that in? And he goes, Montreal. How do you not know that? Now I remember John telling me that, you know, he was, he was doing a lot of stuff that week in Toronto, but like, as I said, on Saturday, that's like confusing New York and Chicago. As I said on Saturday, that's like confusing New York and Chicago

Never fought in Montreal What are you talking about? That interview is wild at one point. He says if Francis presents himself in a humble way, maybe he could come back What Francis has never once? Insinuated that he wants to come back not once. What are we talking about here? Never! Show me once. This idea that he legally couldn't say anything, couldn't make an announcement, is hogwash as well. He said that for months now. I legally can't make this announcement. I legally can't do anything. The UFC is going to have to make the call. They're going to have to

tell you all the news. What? Did Henry Cejudo ask them for permission when he vacated the title? Did GSP ask them for permission when he vacated the title? Did GSP ask them for permission when he vacated the title? No. You do what you gotta do. You're moving on. What do you care? What's it to you at this point?

You're moving on. You're not taking the fight. You agreed to the number, and now you don't wanna fight. All right. I hate the ducking thing. I hate that, especially with cage fighters. John Jones has fought them all. He's number two for me. And if we're allowing

PEDs, I can understand it. I think the PED stuff removes you from the conversation as it does Anderson as well. But the resume is undeniable. The people, the legends that he fought, undeniable. For it to end like this is really hard to imagine. Because in one breath, he's telling us, Tom isn't that good. And now you're like, what's the explanation? Then why aren't you doing it? Why aren't you fighting? I don't get it. And why didn't you then just make the announcement

back in November? In case you're wondering, Tom Aspinall did go on his YouTube channel and briefly talk about this. I believe we have the clip. Can we play the clip real quick? Everyone, the news has broken. I'm sure everybody's seen it.

UFC undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. Moving forward, very very important to me just that I acknowledge everybody quickly who has supported me in this. I'm not going to say it was a tough time but a bit of a challenging time over like the last kind of 10-11 months that I have been inactive due to no fault of my own but luckily that is all behind us now. Massively appreciate the support from everybody massively appreciate the support going forward i'm going to keep this thing as active as possible i want to be the best heavyweight ever to walk the face of the earth i'm going to defend this thing as many times as i possibly can i'm going to keep you guys entertained now i'm going to really give

back to everybody who has shown me support over the last year, over the last five years, over the last 10 years. Really appreciate the support and love from everybody. And we're going to see an active defending UFC heavyweight undisputed champion going forward. Thank you guys. And I'll speak to you soon. There it is. There's Tom. There it is. There's Tom. For you fans, it's time to get this heavyweight division going,

an active, undisputed champion. Now I can tell you, Tom Aspinall is going to be in Las Vegas later this week. The Uncrowned Squad is going to be in Las Vegas later this week as well. going to be in Las Vegas later this week as well. So a lot of you are wondering why is he not on today? Usually he'll come on the Monday after some big news. I'll just put it out. Aspenal Vegas on Crowne Helwani Show Vegas. Stay tuned do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do defending UFC BMF champion, the now former featherweight champion, and the potential future UFC lightweight champion, the man who will be headlining International Fight Week UFC 317 this Saturday, Timo Bull Arena against Charles DuBronx Oliveira, the pride of Georgia and the pride of Spain, the one and only Ilya Toporya is here. Is he there? Ay, ay, ay, ay.

Ay, man. Come on, let's go. How are you, Ariel? Very good, very good, Ilya. How are you? And you? Super good, I'm doing very, very good. You look fantastic, my friend.

You look fantastic. Thank you very much. And I have to say thank you, because I understand you're trying to limit a little bit of the media, but you're coming on on this Monday, and it means the world to us. So thank you so much. I really, really appreciate it.

It's always my pleasure. You have been supporting my career since the beginning, so thank you. I have to give you back. Muchas gracias. Can I ask you, before we get it, because I just went through a whole thing about Jones and Aspenall, and I said I feel there's some similarities between you and Islam, where one guy doesn't wanna fight the other. You understand? When you see it, do you see it? No, not at all.

No, no? Tell me. No, you can't even compare that situation. You can't compare like John Jones with Islam. You know what I mean? John has done so many great things in the sport. He fought the best of the best in the last 10 years so I don't think he's ducking anyone. He just wants to retire, he's tired maybe of the game or whatever and

he wants to retire. I don't think he's ducking anyone because you can find a guy always that now he's the next one, he's the next one, he's the next one. Even if he beats Thomas, you know, it's going to be, there's going to be something, someone new, so. Okay, Ferik, then can I ask you, is Islam ducking you? I think he's doing his things. I don't think he's ducking me, to be honest. I will be lying to you if I tell you that he's stalking me. I think he's tired of the way card. He wants a new challenge. He moved to the welterweight division. He feels and he thinks

that he has a chance to become a double champion. And I think that this is all he's trying to do. If Bilal would have beaten Jack de la Maddalena would you have been fighting Islam this weekend? If I would fight him? No like because what we were told was if Bilal remained welterweight champion he would have stayed at 155 yeah and he would have fought you. Do you believe that? 100% he wouldn't have another option. So what what is confusing to me is they're talking about maybe having this fight him versus JDM in October Why not just fight you it's such a big fight and then regardless of outcome you fight for the welterweight title in October If we were so close we were six weeks away because we only found out about your fight after the JDM Bilal fight Why didn't we just get you versus Islamlam? There was so much history there.

And then he moves up after. Because I think that not a lot of people understand how hard is the way cut. When you get tired of the way cut, it's like there's no name in the world that motivates you to fight. There's no money in the world. It's like you just wanna to take care of your health

this the reason why I Switched the way the weight class and I I think that he's doing the same thing I was told that you had a meeting with the UFC in Australia and that's when you informed them that you didn't want to stay at 145. Is that how it went down? Can you tell us about this? Yeah, I went with my brother to Australia because he was fighting there. So I had a meeting with Hunter and I told him like, I don't want to, I don't want to keep killing myself to make this the 145 weight class. I want to, I want to change the weight division because I feel that I'm not enjoying anymore the process. It makes me at some point hate the sport.

You know, when you cut the weight, you are like, this is the last time I'm fighting. This is the last time I'm cutting the weight. And in reality, I love the sport. I love my job. I love what I'm doing. So I had to make some changes. Okay Okay, and and when you said that to them Did they tell you all right, we're cool with you moving up and we will give you a title shot regardless at 155

Yeah, they have been very nice to me. Okay, they told me like we are gonna give you the title shot because this is what you deserve and Yeah, and the only thing they told me is like, actually I told them like, I don't have any problem recating the title because I know that there are many guys fighting for their dreams. I don't wanna stop anyone's career.

So I can recreate a title even today. I don't have no problem because I'm not planning to go back to the Federal Weight Division. So they understood it and here we are. So I'm fighting for the World Title. So when Issam was saying, I'm not giving up my belt and all this stuff, you just kind of laughed it off. You didn't believe it because you were giving that promise.

100%. And whenever I get the promise from them, they always back up their words. I'm happy you're saying this because Chael Sonnen said that I was lying because I said you were given this promise and you were told that you were going to fight for the undisputed title when you moved up. He said that that was insulting to you because you're not the kind of guy that cares if there's belt and no belt. I'm like, that's not the point.

The point is you were told this and he was just talking smack. You understand what I'm saying? So you're confirming it. 100%, 100%. I wouldn't give up to my belt. Like if I don't have, if they would tell me, like, I don't know what's gonna happen with you in the lightweight division, maybe I would think a little bit more

and I will be like, well, listen, maybe I have to keep killing myself before I get the opportunity to fight for a title because I don't wanna I Don't wanna How will I explain this? I? Don't want to start anything new Knowing like where I'm going what's gonna happen Ultimately you get the the vacant fight not against the champion Islam

But it's against Charles who's a tremendous fighter, a former champion and beloved. Was there any moment there where you were a little bit disappointed because no knock on Charles, Islam is just, you know, the man for so long and all that, you're like, ah, this feels like a little bit of a letdown? Not at all. I can control what they do. The only thing I can control is what I do and the decisions I take.

So I wanted to fight for the war title and this is what I'm doing. If it's against Islam, against Charles, against Arman, whoever. This is what I wanted. I didn't have had any specific name in my head like I wouldn't have had any specific name in my head, like I'm fighting this guy or I'm not fighting. The only thing I had in my mind is like, I'm fighting for the war title or I'm not fighting. Do you think they got it right though? Because it was really, it seemed like it was

either Charles or Armand. Do you think they got it right giving it to Charles against you? I don't know. I don't know. Whoever. I'm here. You're here. Even if they want to, they want to call me right now and tell me that it's Armand this Saturday. I don't care.

Like, I know what's going to happen. How much happy, like if we would have talked on a Monday before the Holloway fight, which I think we actually did talk about, like your mood right now and how you're feeling compared to Monday before featherweight, is it just dramatically different? Dramatically different. It's like right now I feel good, I feel happy. I still, I'm able to like keep eating, keep drinking.

I didn't have to kill myself until this point. Of course the fight week is always tough, it's always hard, but you can't even compare. That extra pound gave me life. And so how much do you think you'll weigh on Saturday? And I'm gonna tell you in kilos. I think I will be between 79 and 81. 79, sorry, I don't know, kilos to pounds is 174 is 79.

Wow. Yeah, yeah. Wow. For sure. What did you think you weighed when you were fighting at featherweight by fight night? I was always between 76 and 78. Geez, you'd gained that much.

Yeah, between 10 to 11 kilos. I have to say, I saw your open workout on Friday. You did it at the PI. The striking is unbelievable, man. I'm not just saying like the speed, the precision. You look like you're on a different level than like we're showing a little bit of it over the last couple, this is a compilation,

but you look like you're in incredible form right now. Thank you very much. I have been working really, really hard, to be honest. Really, really hard on my striking. Also in my, sorry, I'm getting a call. No problem. So yeah, thank you very much. Oh, there we go. Did we lose him? We might have lost him. The striking though is, is, is we'll get him right back there.

The man, Ilya Toporya. Oh, I think he's back. Is he there? Yeah, I'm back. Okay. Yeah, I'm getting a call. I don't know what's happening. It's fine. You're a busy man. I understand. Fight week. You know, it's interesting to see you say that, to hear you say that, because since we last saw you, the fight against Max, it feels like every week something else happens in the life of Ilya,

where it's like this guy's on a different stratosphere. Whether it's you coming out in front of the Baron of Beyu, you getting a street named after you, you in an NFL commercial, every, I see you come out with your promotion, wow, every single week there's another big thing. So how are you dealing with all these things that are happening in your life, but also not losing sight of what it is that you're great at and known for, which is fighting? How do you balance the two? I'm trying to enjoy the whole process. It's a blessing that comes from God and I try to enjoy it.

Is it hard at times? What you said? Is it hard at times? Because I'm sure like you're living your dream now. Everything is connected to my sports, to what I love to do. So I keep training, doing my things, and sharing my knowledge with the new generation. This is all I try to do.

I'd love to see, we saw Murab come home to Georgia. I want to see one scene like that with you. Do you have plans after this fight to go to Georgia? Because I can't imagine what the reception would be like you landing at the airport, the amount of people that would come out to receive you. So I don't know. Maybe. I don't know how my life is going to look like after the fight. I don't like to organize anything because after the fight,

I always used to get calls like come, come, come here, come there, come do this, do that. So I don't like to have anything planned because maybe I'm getting a better proposal for someone else, so I learned. I understand. Now what's interesting, and not to look ahead, but I feel like the talk right now about the UFC is, okay, where are the big fights, the the mega fights John and Tom isn't happening?

Ilia and Islam for now is not happening And I think that the biggest fight that the UFC can make for the back end of the year is potentially you versus Patti Do you think there's a chance that if you win they won't have Patti fight anyone and just put him right into the title fight Against you. No, that's not gonna happen He's he's one fight away's one fight away for the title shot so he needs actually that fight because it's gonna be even better for our fight. If he gets one more win so we're gonna have I think the biggest fight in the UFC right now at the moment. So who do you think maybe him versus Justin Gaethje and then the winner fights the winner of your fight? Yeah, him versus Justin Gaethje because I think he's gonna beat him easily.

You think Patti beats him easily? Yeah. And then you guys... Because of the style. And then you guys off there of because of the style It's not like I don't like Justin Gage. I'm actually a huge fan of it all of his fights I enjoy a lot watching him fight. He's those guys That takes a lot of punches and truce a lot of punches. I love to watch him fight, but I think that Patty Could get that win easily because of the style.

Is it true that in your talks with the UFC, you asked about the Spain fight and they said if you fight in Spain, it has to be in the middle of the night. So, and this isn't something that interests you? Yeah, something like that. Okay. So is that dream over now? But no, it's not over because they are trying to close a new deal. So maybe in that deal, they are gonna get some space to make an event in Europe in a prime time,

in a prime time there, I mean, in Europe. So if they get that, I would love to fight in Spain. In the stadium, in the Bernabéu? In the stadium, yeah. So if they get that, I would love to fight in Spain. In the stadium? In the Bernabéu? In the stadium, yeah. That would be... It has to be in the stadium.

You versus Patty in that stadium would be insane. It will be insane. I think that it... But I don't know if pay-per-view wise it will be insane. You know what I mean? You don't think? If they do like prime time in Europe, I don't think that the pay-per-view numbers are gonna do really

well. I feel like the biggest market for the pay-per-view is the United States. Sure, sure. But you guys are getting to be so popular here in the United States as well, not just in Europe. Yeah, I know, but I think that the biggest fights has to happen in the United States. I like this. Here I am trying to convince you of how big of a star you are and you're still remaining humble, so it seems like your head hasn't gotten too big. It's good. Thank you.

Thank you. That's very good. What do you make of Charles at this point in his career? He's coming off the big win over Michael Chandler. Do you think he is as dangerous as he was a couple of years ago when he was fighting for the belt? You can't never count him out because he's a dangerous guy. He has the most finishes in the UFC history. But I don't know. I have faced those kinds of situations many, many times with, well, with Max Holloway.

They were like, I'm beating, like no one could beat them. No one can knock them out. And they always had this thing in the mind, like, oh, I faced this guy and this one and that. No one could knock me out, but you never faced me. You never faced someone That's skillful like me. I This what I'm saying them since a long time ago that the skill development I'm bringing in the sport

They never felt it. They never saw it So this what's gonna happen with Charles. He thinks that he has some opportunities, but the reality is that he has not. The only thing he has to do is like show up and I'm gonna do a rest. What are you envisioning now as far as the way the fight goes? I'm gonna finish him in the first round. You say that to me, like I say, I'm going to get a coffee.

Yeah, because he walks forward. This is all I need. Like the time that takes me always to knock out my opponents is the time that takes me to close the distance because they run away. They run, they move the side to side. And once I close the distance and I go with my combinations, I knock them out.

But with Charles, I'm not gonna need to close the distance because he walks forward and this all I need to take his lights out like just try to stay in the middle of the octagon just try to do that and you are not gonna see me coming this is your second time fighting International Fight Week a few years ago you fought Ryan Hall on the prelims to be chosen this spot, do you feel like this is confirmation that they view you as one of the faces, as one of the top stars of the UFC to be the headliner? I don't know. I don't like to talk about those kind of things.

They called me, they wanted me to fight in the International Fight Week. Of course I know I'm not a dumb person that I know that I'm one of the biggest names in the game right now for everything that I have done. But I don't know that it puts me in a spot where I can say like I'm the face of the game because we have many, many great athletes in the sport right now.

And so is there, in your conversations with the Brass, did they ever say to you, okay, we'll give you this opportunity, and then did you ever say to them, when Islam moves up and wins that belt, if he wins that belt, I want a shot at that belt too? Did you have that conversation yet? I know you've said it, but I wonder how they received it if you ever said it to them. Yeah, we had that conversations also, but you know how they are. Like they don't want me to talk about anything

that we talk in private. Okay, okay, I understand. But it's a thing, right? Cause obviously no one's ever done it. It could happen, it could happen easily. And you don't think it would mess up your body? Not at all. Listen, my mentality is always like that.

If I'm walking in the street with my wife and someone says something to her, I'm not gonna ask him how much is your weight, how much is your reach or height or this or that. I will stay there and I'm gonna take his head off. And this is how I think. This is the fight business. I don't care how much is your weight. we have a fight. Let's fight if you have that that 10 extra pounds

Congratulations, but that's not gonna help you before it's all said and done. Do you think you fight at 170? What before your your UFC career is finished. Do you think you fight at 170? Yeah, for sure that could happen. Okay. Listen, if you have a champion like Belal or I don't know many names that I could bring right now, that's an easy path. Like you can go slap him and get that title and that's it. I'll let you go in a couple minutes. I know you're very busy but I do want to ask you about your brother. What a great performance in February. You mentioned that you're with him. It was amazing because I know he's sort of like been in

the shadows a little bit and helped you but now to see him get his moment. What was that like for you? He had an amazing performance for me. He didn't look like he had six fights. He looked with a lot of experience. He dominated in the striking and the wrestling and the ground game. The way he administrate his energy. He did an amazing job. I'm proud of him. And there is so much more to see about him because I'm very sure that in his next fight, he's going to get that huge knockout. You will see. Okay. And as far as your nickname is concerned, what are we going with for Saturday? El Matador, por favor. Oh, we're going back to that. We don't realize, we don't appreciate the things

before we don't lose them. So it happens to me with El Matador. I love that one. You gotta stick with the classic. Yeah, with the classic, El Matador. And where are we? Soy un hombre muy honrado, que me gusta lo mejor. Da da da da da da da da da. I always wanna dance a little salsa when I hear that song.

I feel like my- Just stand up and dance for me Ariel. Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, mi amor. Where are we with you and Ronaldo? Are we still, did we squash the beef? What's going on? Cristiano, he went against you this guy. Yeah, I don't know.

I think that he said something about me when he was in the backstage with Ningenu and it felt bad to be honest. But then, I don't know, he started following me. So we'll see. Maybe one day we'll meet each other. This is what I said. Like once he's going to meet me in the person, he's not gonna have that opinion about me.

Like that I talk too much and this and that. But maybe that's the perception they have about me when they see me in the social media. Who knows? So after all this, he then followed you? Yeah, after all that, he started following me. So maybe that was the olive branch. Maybe he saw something different about me.

Okay, okay. Is Sergio coming to the fight? I don't know, I don't know. I didn't speak to him in a long time. Okay. Actually I texted him and he didn't answer me. What? I thought he was your boy. What's going on? Yeah, he's my boy but he didn't even answer me. Come on. Forget him. Forget. What about your, your, your wife and kids? Are they coming on Saturday? Yeah. My wife is here and my son is coming. My daughter is staying in Spain. El Niña, she's staying back. Yeah. She's staying back. Too young.

Too young to be traveling that much. Does your son understand what you're doing now? He's five, right? I think. Of course. He loves, if you see him like how he does his pad works, you are going to be, you will be surprised. So he's the next one. He's the next one.

And he loves the fight game. He loves it. He, he asked me all the time, dad, I want to train that. I want to train. Do, I want to train. Do you want him to be a fighter? Me, personally, I don't know whatever he wants to do. The only thing I want from him is I want him to be a good person. This is all I want, with good values.

Amen. It's very dry in Las Vegas. Any roses? Were you able to find, do you have roses for Saturday? Of course. Of course. I can't wait. With all respect for my opponents, we have to take the rose. Well it's great to have you back. Welcome back. It's been a long time. Thank you so much for doing this. Really appreciate it. Good luck this week with the cut and everything.

And then good luck on Saturday night. Can't wait. Thank you so much, Ilya. Thank you. Muchas gracias, Ariel. You're the man, you're the man. Thank you so much, Ilya. Thank you very much, bye. Have a great day. Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, mi amor.

Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, mi amor. Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, mi amor. Am I getting that right, Andy? Da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da da da da da da da. Ah yeah, yeah, yeah. Didn't notice you were referring to his daughter, El Nino, La Nina. It's not El Nina? No, no, no. La Nina.

What is it? Been on my Duolingo grind, I'd know, thanks. La Nina? Yeah, the girl? El Nina. Nope. Nope. No.

El Nino. El Nino. Nino the boy La Nina. Yeah, there we go Why could why couldn't anyone help me out? Yeah, I'll just go on air next time actually. It's La Nina. Excuse me Ariel, you've got this wrong But you know what I call myself El Nariz and everyone says that that's wrong, too It should be Lana Riz, right? Yeah.

So, it's my own little twist, okay? Very nice. And you know what? Kept it very respectful towards Issamah Hachev, all good in the hood. I will say that I think that there are some similarities, but also I know he has the same management team as John Jones, so you know,

I respect that he's sort of taking the high road here but he is the he is the right guy to be headlining this event and it makes all the sense in the world because International Fight Week and especially this this you know June-July card has always been the showcase of who are the biggest stars who are the guys and some people are saying I've schmutz, what's going on? I've schmutz on my glasses? Is it like condensation? I don't know. I'm sweating like-

You're sweating in there because it's hot in there, isn't it? When freaking Paul Walter was here last week, oh, yeah, I was sweating up a storm. Okay, anyways. Let's move on. Let's go back to Azerbaijan. Oh, as I touch the thing here, one of the big stars of the events, the UFC's debut in Baku was Azerbaijan's own Nazim Sadiqov. What a fight, oh my gosh. Not only did both he and Nicolas Mata win performance bonuses,

they also won the fight of the night bonus. So they both walked away with a hundred each. I don't recall the last time that happened. If I'm being honest, it might've happened before. And the first round was Dicey. He survived a 75 strike onslaught to stop Mata in the second round and really waking up the crowd. The crowd was a little bit sleepy at that point. They exploded.

It was a beautiful scene for the man known as the black wolf who resolved to stop Mata in the second round and really waking up the crowd the crowd was a little bit sleepy at that point They exploded it was a beautiful scene for the man known as the black wolf who resides here in New York Here in Brooklyn to be exact, but of course is the pride of Azerbaijan What a moment for him and he's kind enough to join us here and now hello my friend. How are you? Congratulations on the win Thank you. Thank you. What a moment. Is that like a, could you have ever dreamed of something like that? Let's be honest. Azerbaijan has never really been on the map for the UFC.

For you to get a moment like that in your home country and then have a performance and a fight and a win like that has to be beyond your wildest dreams, right? On fight week, there was a photo that resurfaced. There was me holding the Azerbaijani flag, I think it was in 2015 or 2014. I'm holding the Azerbaijani flag and the caption is, I'm going to put us on the map. And then for all of this to unfold the way that it did, this double bonus, this fight of the night and then this fight of the year contender talk

is absolutely mind blowing. And the fact that the UFC even went to Azerbaijan was also like, I'm sure a surprise to a lot of people, but given that it was a beautiful show, I think you guys, I think you guys, the aura in the arena was incredible. So I think you guys are in for a treat if the UFC keeps coming back to Baku.

Yeah, and it seemed like in the aftermath, Dana White said that they're gonna come back. So it seems like the reception was great. And also all week, like even the open workouts, we don't usually see that anymore. The amount of people that were there. What was it like for you, the vibes? Like did this add nerves, add anxiety, add pressure, or were you just kind of flying high because you're receiving this kind of support I mean look at this this is nuts.

Yeah you know it felt like a paper view it felt like a paper view this did not feel like a fight night at all this felt like a paper view and the amount of I knew that I was going to get support I didn't know that it was going to be to the extent of fans. I knew that I was going to get support. I didn't know that it was going to be to the extent of fans tearing me apart on my walkout to the cage. I literally was getting pulled into the stands. Before I even walked out, Nicholas is still walking out and I'm hearing my name being chanted throughout the arena. I'm like, what the hell? I'm not even walking yet.

All of that was a lot, but it was not overwhelming. It actually carried me. I felt like I was on the cloud nine, being carried on cloud nine to that stage. You're still there, right? You're still in Baku? Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna be here for a little bit. I'm gonna just show some relatives.

I haven't seen them in like two years. It's been a busy two years in training and all this stuff. I moved to Vegas. I am from Brooklyn though. Where are you from Brooklyn by the way? Are you from Williamsburg? Yes. Williamsburg, right?

Yeah, that's where I thought you were from. I've seen you in Brooklyn a bunch of times. I'm from Midland. Really? Flatland. Okay. Why didn't you say hi? Why didn't I say hi? Well, no, I saw you at events. I even took pictures with you.

So it's not like I did not say hi. Okay, okay, okay, sorry, sorry. It was like the Habib thing one time on Brighton Beach. Oh, yes. You were there? Another time I think was at an event. I think it was in Brooklyn outside of Barclays or something. I saw you. I said, what's up for sure. Why were you at? I remember that presser, the Habib one in Brighton Beach. What were you doing there? Just chilling. Just checking out Habib.

Wow. That's amazing. Yeah, I was still an amateur at the time. And I was fighting, I think I already transitioned to amateur MMA because I have like a crazy long background in different sports in amateur. But I think I was like already an amateur MMA fighter, either like two and all or something. And then that Habeem thing came along.

And then I went to that conference. I was a big time Habib supporter for a while. And you still are. Of course I am. I was actually crazy saying this, that now, saying that about the past. And then he was, Taghir was warming up right before we came into the locker room.

Our report time was like literally minutes before they walked out. So to see him there after being a fan, like close to 10 years ago, all of this is mind blowing, but I'm taking it in and I'm glad to put on a show for everybody. I'm glad that people are able to recognize my talent finally

and see the hard work I've been putting in for years. Did you say anything to him when you saw him? No, I didn't want to bother them. They were literally on the cusp of walking out. They were literally like, I just said, Salam alaikum to all of them. Islam was there, Usman, Umar, like they were all there. The whole squad was there.

I just, they don't want to really bother them. I just wished Tagheer luck. And then I went to do the anti-doping test right after in the back. What age were you when you moved from Azerbaijan to the US? I was six. I was six. I moved a long time ago.

I came up in Brooklyn, grew up in Brooklyn. So yeah, it was, it's been a, I'm a lifelong American, but American is Azerbaijan, you know? I still represent the culture. And I think the support that I was showed by my own country Like it explains it explains everything and and what a squad you have backing you you have John Wood Ray Longo

Marab, right? I mean, this is like a this is a freaking all-star crew So when did you move to Vegas to train with with John Wood at Syndicate? officially train with with John wood at Syndicate. Officially October of last year, but I was floating in and out of Vegas, like back and forth with New York and Vegas from like pandemic, from like 2020. Uh, my teammate, uh, fought on contender series. And, uh, I remembered the first time I went to Vegas, I was like, wow, I really liked this place. So I was just kind of going back and forth, always showing up to Vegas.

And then I got signed in 2022. So I was coming to use the PI a lot. And then I officially just made the move and it's worked out miraculously so far. So let's see what's next. I referenced the first round, the 75 strikes and all that. It looked like for a moment, you were in a bit of a precarious position.

What are you thinking in the midst of some of that when he's hitting you with some of those big shots? You know what, I was hurt, but not badly hurt. I was conscious of everything. I was mostly worried about the referee. I saw the referee hesitate a few times. So I didn't want the referee to jump in. That's what I was thinking about the entire time. I was more worried about the referee jumping in than really me being hurt. A lot of what he landed was on the guard.

I would say 95% of the shots he landed was on the guard. With that being said, and to be fair, he landed a good shot to the liver that backed me up. And then he landed one good shot to the head that rang a bell for sure. But overall, like I was fine in that exchange and that's why I fired back. As soon as he stopped, took a step back, took a deep breath, I fired back right away, heard him and backed him right up.

The finish was incredible in the second round. The way you were attacking the body, going upstairs, downstairs. When you finally dropped them and realized that you had won, can you even describe what that feeling was? Well, I don't know. You know why I'm saying I don't know right now? Because it happened 48 hours ago.

Yeah. And I just haven't been able to process it. Since I came out of the cage, first of all, I've slept like a combined haven't been able to process it. Since I came out of the cage, first of all, I've slept like a combined 40 minutes in the last two days. Second of all, I just haven't been able to really process everything.

I just, I've just been in meetings and talking to people and talking to fans and being, you know, I'm stopped on the street here, like every two minutes, everywhere I go, I'm like doing a meet and greet, you know, like I sat down today to have some food with Chingiz Alazzo, another world, the one champion kickboxing champ, powerful pound king in kickboxing, yeah.

So I was hanging out with some friends, and then like the entire staff, the waiters, everybody's like asking pictures and stuff, and it's cool, I'm grateful. So, you know, I'm grateful for that, but it's like, it's like asking pictures and stuff and it's cool. I'm grateful. So, you know, I'm grateful for that. But it's like, it's just been crazy. I just haven't really processed all of this. But to put it in short, if I was to describe it in any way, I don't know, man, like just the craziest feeling ever. I can't ever describe any feeling, any, ever describe any feeling, anything that resembles what I felt on that night to bring the UFC to my home country and show them my culture, show them where I came from and show them

who I am. And then that is who I am. These kind of wars where I'm hurt but I'm not giving up, I come back and I run through the dude, that's me. That's Nazim Sadiqov. So I don't know, man. It's like if there was anything that came close, it would be MSG. But overall, nothing comes close to that feeling. That was an absolutely electric feeling that I'm still feeling through my body right now. And I haven't been able to really process it too much. I love it. I love how raw and real and authentic it all is.

Did you have a lot of family and friends there? Yeah, yeah. That's actually what put pressure on me. Like my uncles came out, my cousins came out, the ones that live here, the ones that live in Russia, they flew over here from Turkey, from Russia. Like I just had a bunch of friends, relatives, a bunch of media.

I'm doing photo shoots and video shoots for big channels in Azerbaijan here on fight week. And I'm not used to that. And I'm like, you'll get away. I just want to train. I just want to cut weight. But at the same time, I know that comes with the territory. So all these thoughts that I have in my head,

I kind of shoot them away as soon as possible because like this is what I dreamed of quite literally. So can't complain too much. Sure. And I know it's probably all very surreal and all very fresh, but you know, you have a job to do and everyone wants your time now. So you have to try to balance the two,

but it seemed like you did a very good job of that. And for it to end like this, with this type of performance, and then you get the double bonus as well. I saw the video of you getting the news of the double bonus. I mean, that's unprecedented stuff. They don't often do that. Just giving it to two guys, the performance and the fight. This is great.

What's going on here? I wish Charlie, Charlie Quinn, I wish he told me to put on some pants or something. He runs in the room like breathing heavy. He runs in the room breathing heavy. I get a knock on the door, I open, it's Charlie. Listen, stand right here. Stand right here.

He puts a camera in my face. I'm in my underwear. I'm not even in shower yet. There's blood on my underwear and everything. Wow. I think there's still blood in my hair from the fight. Anyways, I'm like standing there and he's like, I'm like, what's going on?

And he tells me about the $100,000 bonus and I was just like, whoa, $100,000. And Rey did say something like that. He's like, do it, I think you're getting $100,000. But like to hear it and then to know it's now a reality, a fact like it's not even only about the money it's about the fact that I'm out here doing things that haven't been done you know I don't know how many fighters out there I'm sure the likes of like Gachier Poirier or people like that fighters like that but how many fighters have two fight of the year candidates?

Let's not forget 2023 at the MSG with Bar Shove, where we also had a fight of the year candidate. Once the fight was done, everybody's like, that's the fight of the year. That's the fight of the year. And here we are in Baku, double bonus fight of the year candidate. And I didn't even know all this. I didn't even feel any of it. I just came in there, I had a job to do. Fight of the year candidate, Baku, Azerbaijan,

my home country, the UFC coming to Baku, Azerbaijan. This is what I'm saying. I can't grasp my head around it. Not all of it, not at once. So it's just gonna maybe take me a few days. Maybe it'll never come, but I'm one of those people I just, I need to analyze these kinds of things. And I'm telling you, take me a few days. Maybe it'll never come. But I'm one of those people, I just, I need to analyze these kind of things.

And I'm telling you, it was a good year. Just from getting signed to the UFC, it was a good year till I realized I was in the UFC. I was like two and already, and I'm like, oh wow, I'm in the UFC. So all of this, it's gonna, it might take me a minute to be honest with you. So I heard you say in the post-fight presser

that your ankle was a little bit, I think it was in the post-fight presser, we said your ankle was a little bit banged up. Uh-oh. Oh damn. Was it- But to be honest- Did that happen before the fight or in the fight?

You know what, Ariel, I don't, it definitely happened in the fight. I just don't, I'm not sure if if I like did I tweak it before the fight? Like it wasn't like swollen or anything. I just I felt a little something like in the last three weeks of camp But um, I kicked him in the elbow and in the head a bunch of times So had to be one of those shots. Okay, and how is it now? The swelling went down significantly from yesterday. So I think I'll be fine soon. I think I'll be back in the gym soon Maybe fight new soon. Who knows? Okay. I mean you deserve a little bit of time off. That was quite the

That was quite the battle. Did you think he would be that good that tough? Yeah, yeah Nicholas Mata has been touching UFC canvas from 2015 He was on the Ultimate Fighter Brazil in 2015. So he has that. He's been lacing up those UFC gloves for a decade. And that's a guy with 10 knockouts. That's a guy that has character, doesn't back up. And I'm glad he got the bonuses too.

The bonuses are from both sides. We both won those bonuses and I'm very happy he did so. I'm very happy that he won the bonuses too. The bonuses are from both sides. We both won those bonuses and I'm very happy he did so. I'm very happy that he won those bonuses. So, yeah, I mean, like the odds were crazy. I was confident in my skills. The odds were crazy in my favor, but I was not gonna sleep on them because you sleep on Mada, you get slept.

Your family moving from Azerbaijan to Brooklyn, why did they make that move? you get slept. Your family moving from Azerbaijan to Brooklyn, why did they make that move? You know, like at the fall of the Soviet Union, all these countries, you know, the small republics, there was, it was war-ridden. It was economic problems, governmental problems. There was all kinds of things, all kinds of revolutions

and all kinds of things going down in of revolutions and all kinds of things going down in these countries. So it made life nearly impossible. Like America was a lifeline for my family and we'll forever be grateful for that. And we love America. So yeah, like it was kind of do or die type of thing. I'm not saying that I come from some terrible life.

I had a good life compared to my parents, but yeah, like Azerbaijan in the 90s, or almost any country, former Soviet Union, post-Soviet Union, it was tough times. And in your introduction to martial arts, what was it? My dad put me into karate, it's. This is we're talking about overseas. I he put me into karate when I was like three and a half years old. And he put me in with the sole purpose of like, just being able to grow up with discipline, knowing how to fight, knowing how to defend myself,

like it's by Johnny culture, Caucasian culture, The Caucasus, like every father in the Caucasus will put their son into wrestling, boxing, something so they can grow up and know how to defend themselves and defend their family and all that stuff. So he put me in for that and then it just kind of snowballed. It went into combat sambal, hand-to-hand combat. Then we moved to the States, continued my combat sambal and hand-to-hand combat with master in sports I went pro. I started college and stuff and I was like I want to fight I want to fight professionally. I knew this from high school like literally from ninth grade

I was like dreaming of the UFC eighth grade even even yeah, maybe even like junior high school, but But like I knew that I really had to take it like a job like you have to train full-time Like I when I went pro it was like in my 20s And and who are your guys like when you're dreaming in eighth grade ninth grade? Like you have to train full time. Like when I went pro, it was like in my twenties. And who are your guys? Like when you're dreaming in eighth grade, ninth grade, who are you looking up to? We're talking about before them. And we're talking, you know, when I started watching UFC, you know, my first introduction, when BJ Penn shocked the world at UFC 46.

Wow. Matthews. He choked on Matthews. And then the very next pay-per-view. And my dad ordered these things. My dad very next pay-per-view and my dad ordered these things. My dad ordered these pay-per-views. My dad was like, my dad watched UFC from like UFC 3. Amazing. Yeah, we were still over.

He was still in Azerbaijan like watching UFC. Anyways, my introduction was that and then I watched Ladell blast Tito Ortiz against the cage at UFC 47 And I was just like infatuated. I wanted to watch WWE every all the kids are talking about WWE in school But I was like, but my dad never let me watch WWE. He's like, you're not watching this fake shit I'm a soviet dad. You're not watching this fake shit here Watch this and then you put on some UFC and now I loved it. And how old are you there? 46, 47, UFC, how old are you?

You know, so we ordered, I remember watching Arlovski defend his title against Tim Silvia. I think it was their trilogy at UFC 61, Bitter Rivals. You see how this is all off the top of my head. You're a legit fan here, I love this. Dude, I watched you from Sharedog. I watched you on Sharedog, I had a Sharedog account.

Oh my gosh. I was coming up on the phone. Oh my god, that's crazy, man. I feel like a lot of the guys who come in now aren't this well-versed in the history of the sport. Not me, man. I know it all. I watched your interviews with Diaz. Oh, that's awesome. Thank you. I watched it all, man. I watched it.

Were you on the UG also? On the what? On the UG on the underground. MMA.TV. That was the competing forum with Sure Dogog or you were a SureDog guy? I was a SureDog guy. I do remember like not only that forum, but I remember like several forums, but nobody came close to SureDog. At least in my opinion. Yeah, no, it was crazy over there. Cool format and everything. I used to drop my like competition videos and stuff and they were like, good job kid, keep it up. What was your name? What was your username? Dude, I gotta get that for you. I don't remember. and stuff and they were like, good job kid, keep it up. What was your name? What was your username? Dude, I gotta get that for you. I don't remember.

It's been years. Why do they call you the black wolf? So wolf, like with Russian speakers, like wolf, like you compliment, fighters compliment each other with like an animal, right? Like people, you're a wolf, wolf you're a tiger you're a lion i got the compliment in train in sparring one time uh yo naz you you fight like a wolf you're a hunter you always hunt

and i like that so i was kind of like yeah i think i'm gonna adapt that as nickname and black wolf is a specific breed of wolf where that doesn't travel in packs they don't depend on other wolves it's a real breed of wolf that doesn't travel in packs. They don't depend on other wolves. It's a real breed of wolf. You can look it up. And they exist in Azerbaijan, actually. And they exist in the USA as well.

I think Yellowstone or Keystone Park, something like that. They have a few black wolves in the US. Anyways, it's a more athletic breed of wolf that doesn't depend on other wolves. It's always constantly hunting alone, surviving alone, and thriving alone. So that was, I compare that to my life a little bit where I had to make like big MMA decisions or big like the businesses decisions

or other decisions in my life, where I did have like in my father, for example, to have my back, but overall I was alone a lot of the time and I just adapted Black Wolf because of that reason. Like I had to do things on my own a lot of the time. So there you have it, Nazeem Black Wolf Sadiqa. I love it. That's a great backstory.

And your story is great. Have you also said that you want to go unbeaten in 30 fights and then retire? I don't remember saying that, but that would be ideal. I definitely want to keep fighting for as long as possible, as long as my health allows me to. Why? I mean, okay, so maybe I confuse that with someone else, but it's not a bad thing to

strive for. But I'm not on the, wait, you said 30, you know, I have one. No, no, no no 30 like go on a winning streak now of 30 fights that's what I thought I read. I may have said that somewhere but that just sounds like that that sounds like something I would say though. Yeah I'm not I'm not really I'm not disagreeing with it now I don't know what that Nazeem said but I'm not disagreeing with it now I'll go 30 you know and retire. Yes. Or yeah, 35, Win Street.

Is the goal, because they're coming to New York in November, would you like to be on that card? Would that make the most sense for you? Call me crazy, but I would be down to even play. So I was just hometown hero. Yeah. I would go over to Paris and play villain against BSD. I would do the same with Manel Torres on Mexican Independence Day.

Those are some fun names. If not, maybe a veteran at some point in the year. All I'm saying is it doesn't have to be MSG. Let me heal up, let me take like a few days and I'll literally like be, I'll let Danny Ruby know, hey Danny, I'm ready to go. This is the timeline and you might see me much sooner than MSG and at least that's what I'm hoping for.

I want a really active year and an active career. I like that. You got your hometown hero reception. Now you could be the villain on enemy territory. That says a lot. So much respect my friend. Congratulations. Well done. What a win. What a performance. What a scene. And you really woke up that crowd. They were a little bit sleepy as I said beforehand. But after you guys fought, the place just exploded. And then Rafael fighting and all that stuff. So it was a great night for your country. Congratulations and great to have you on.

And it's great to see you and speak to you again after all these years. Thank you, thank you, Ariel. All right, we'll talk to you soon. Yes, sir. There he is, the Black Wolf, Nassim Sadiqov, who had a massive win on Saturday over Nicholas Mata. They won the performance bonuses

and the fight of the night bonus. That's $100,000 each. And the stats were nuts. 75 strikes from Mata in the first round. And eventually, Sadegraf winning in the second round via right hook. 417 of the second round. Great guy who reps Azerbaijan, Brooklyn,

and Las Vegas these days. I love it. And by the way, he mentioned Paris. We woke up this morning to some very exciting news, guys. Breaking news, Frankie. We are in fact going to get it. Maybe the era of not making the big fights is coming to an end because we are getting Caio Bahalio against Nasaldin Imavov in Paris.

This is a brilliant fight. This is the fight we all wanted to see in September at the Accord Arena, the number one contender fight at 185. No ifs, ands, or buts. It took us a while to get there. It was quite the journey to get there, but we got it. I thought we were gonna get it in Chicago, but this is even better.

Imavov home in France,, Boholio tracking him down, chasing him. Once, once Imovov said, I'm no longer the backup and I'll fight your ass, then you had to think that it was going to happen. And then the cherry on top is having it in Paris. That place is going to go insane. That's a great main event for Paris in September. So shout out. All right, let's bring in everyone. Cause I've weighed in a lot on the, the John Jones, Tom Aspinall situation.

Ilya said he didn't see any similarities between his situation and, and Tom's. And I know it's not like apples to apples, but I do see some similarity in that there's a big fight and there's and, and I know it's not like apples to apples, but I do see some similarity in that there's a big fight and the guy who is in the, you know, the prime time spot doesn't want to fight the, uh, the rising, the surging contender, uh, in the end guys, what's so fun? What's so funny?

P T. Nothing. Yeah. Frank is just in my ear here. Give me some information. Apologies. Nothing's. Yeah. Sweet. Nothing there. Frank is just in my ear here, giving me some information. Apologies. Sweet nothings? Yeah, sweet nothings.

Sweet, sweet, sweet. Why does it sound so echoey, your microphone? I don't know. Oh! Is it not plugged in? We have an issue, we have an issue, we have an issue, we have a plugging issue. Yeah.

Is there normally that slanted thing in the top of the room as well? That's always been there. Yeah, that's always there. That's always there. Frank. That's my attic. I guess I'm just too busy looking right at your beautiful face Frank when we like when we bring them in and like test things we don't I was more interested in finding

out of PT likes chicken wings than actually checking his audio I mean it's not even plugged in well let's go back to Frank we go back to PT there for a second it's not even plugged in the thing now it's not working give us the old it's not even plugged in. What are we doing back there? Like, what's happening? I asked him questions he wouldn't answer me. Are chicken wings big in Ireland, Pizzi?

I don't know. Oh, wow. What a difference. I don't think so. What did you just read? Did you just read some type of article about chicken wings in Ireland? I didn't read shit. I just don't know why you didn't answer the question when I was asking you.

All right. I was just afraid he was going to try to yell, ask me a question, and then mute me as I tried to go though chicken wings. I didn't read. I didn't read shit. That's the only answer to the question when I was asking you. All right. I was just afraid he was going to try to yell, ask me a question. And I mute me as I tried to answer him. That's something that's been a really need to cause you'll just unplug the microphone. Pizzi, what do you think? Johnny walks away. Tom is denied. I thought we're going to get into the Imelvoff coyote fight there. No, but yeah, it's crazy. Yeah.

And what a way for it to happen. Um, we were all very happy with our, with our, uh, early shift on Saturday, I think. Yeah. And, um, came out of nowhere. You know what I think is crazy about it? And I'm very surprised by Dana White's reaction because the UFC did a lot for John Jones. You know, when you think about everything that's gone on in John Jones career and continues to go on as we've heard about over the weekend, UFC were always there and UFC were always

building them back up, failed drug tests, arrest after arrest, incident after incident. They were always there. Dana White, I'd say, has shown himself to be a promoter only, exclusively speaking about John Jones for the last 18 months. At every turn, up until February when we kind of got Islam is now the pound for pound best, when we realized that something might be up there and now we know that that has nothing to do with this latest legal issue. But the fans have every right to be annoyed. Tom of course has every right to be annoyed.

But I think the UFC should be really pissed off about this. You know this is a guy that they have, this wouldn't happen in other sports, it was happening with John Jones' career. You mentioned the PED situation, It's not just one situation. Uh, you've mentioned the latest legal situation. This is a legal situation, a litany of legal situations. John Jones has been involved in over the years and UFC were there promoting him, calling him the best of all time. And this is, this is the reward at the end of it all.

And I know a lot of times we're, we're always into it, like make that money and get out, like that's what the fight game is all about for John Jones he has been propped up by this promotion he's been propped up by this sport he's been propped up by the fan base in a way that he wouldn't have been in any other sport and for him to walk away like this I'd be infuriated if I was Dana White and I'm quite surprised that he seems to be taking it all and destroy it. There's almost like a relief when he's talking to the reporters at Fanatics Fest yesterday, especially combined with the news of this latest incidents, like, okay, maybe we could just be done with this.

Cause think of it, think of all the shit that we don't even know about, the stuff that they've had to deal with, moving events for him. Like they moved an event essentially on fight week because he couldn't get cleared. All this stuff, UFC 200, getting that whole thing ruined three days before.

There's been so much drama with this guy. I mean, three weeks before he's fighting OSP, he's in an orange jumpsuit. And it was kind of interesting for some of the newer fans being like, what is going on? He's retired and there's an arrest and all this stuff. And it's like, welcome to the John Jones show. This is what it's been like, for better or worse,

for the past 14 years. It's never been boring, that's for sure. But you're right, nothing has ever pissed Dana White more than guys vacating titles, not defending, leaving him high and dry. And so this is what I thought a couple weeks ago. If that pissed you off, what do you make of all this? Like, it's not only like leaving him high and dry. They got you the money. They made you the deal. you said you were in, and then you dragged it out

with tweets and hints and I'm living my best life and oh, I don't care, I could give up the belt, all this stuff, like he made a mockery of the title. The only thing I would ask is, did he drag it out or was the UFC complicit in that, right? Like Dana White could have taken that title from him whenever he wanted, instead of doing this thing about, we think we're gonna be able to convince him,

because let's call it what it is. Every time he said in public it's happening, it was, we know John basically already said no, or said yes at one point, but is on the fence and going back and forth, but we think we can convince him. And then ultimately they couldn't. You're 100% right. Leading up to like February, March,

they did what they had to do to make the fight happen. But once he said he was out, they could have pulled the plug. But as we said a million times, they didn't have to, so they waited, they waited, they waited. I just don't understand why they waited until the post-presser and Baku, why not just wait till International Fight Week it's whatever but yes once that happened

because you'll recall on this show I said the UFC is not to blame but once he said no they're to blame yeah and also Dana White's kind of been on record in a few things one like he's always said John is a nightmare behind the scenes like he's not easy to deal with like but he's the goat it would always be like John Jones is the best fighter ever but like you know he like he's not easy to deal with, but he's the goat. It would always be like, John Jones is the best fighter ever, but he's a headache, just like any kind of huge star would be. So you have to imagine sitting here today, Dana's thinking about this saga and was like, was this whole headache worth it?

Was this waiting on John Jones to ultimately then give me a call or somebody at the UFC a call in the middle of the night to say,'m officially done worth all the consternation I would imagine that they are so desperate like like it or not John Jones name moves the needle in a way that nobody else that we're talking about other than Connor McGregor does right all this attention is for John Jones because of what John Jones has done in that octagon and the stuff outside as well. There is a cult of personality, there is a tension that needs to be paid for John Jones. And so I guess it's worth it, right?

You have to kind of empty the chamber and try to get this done and then they couldn't. Maybe that's why he felt relief, seemed relieved at Fanatics Fest because he feels they did everything that they possibly could. He said, no, all right, now it's time to move on, get this heavyweight division moving.

You have a guy that wants to be active in Tom Aspinall and you can kind of just say, all right, try my best, let's move forward. He did guarantee it though. He said 100%, 1,000%. He's got a bit of a bit of egg on his face, but I mean, however this played out, I ultimately am just relieved that it's over.

I am relieved that, all right, Tom Aspinall is now going to start getting over. I am relieved that, all right, Tom Aspinall is now going to start getting fights. We have to stop, we can finally stop doing this. Will he, won't they, Duck, this, that, now John Jones is retired, it's time to move on. Let me ask you this, GC. We talked a lot about the legacy thing, right?

The legacy, the legacy, is it affecting his legacy? Now that it has all happened, has his legacy been affected? Man, I feel like right now now in the heat of the moment, we are right on like the hurricane is hitting of him retiring. I feel like people are going to claim that his legacy is tarnished,

but I think as the years go on, this will kind of fade to black and the accomplishments that he had, people will still consider him one of the greatest mixed martial artists of all time. I think it has affected his legacy. The way this was handled and the fact that he's not retiring because of an injury, he's not retiring because, hey, I just don't have it anymore. He specifically, the worst thing John Jones did in all this was when he started to say,

oh, the Francis fight is interesting to me. So like you think when people look back on his career, it'll be like, you never fought Aspenal. I think it's too early to say that. It's the way he left and then all of a sudden it becomes a snowball effect. It's the issues with the UFC 200, post UFC 217, it's the arrest, it's the Dominic Reyes fight, it's not fighting for three years,

it's not fighting for Atasanganu, it's choosing to fight Stipe instead of like, fighting for Hatsan and Ganu, it's choosing to fight Stipe instead of like all these things that become like a lot of like but but but but but but but but. That initial run from essentially 2011, like you can even count the previous fights, but when he beats Shogun up until you know, if you want to include all the other stuff fine, but like from 2011 to 2020, it's a lot of shit, but it's a lot of great moments as well.

It's a lot of big wins. Everything post 2020 is one big mess, if you ask me. It's too early to say this. It's just too early. Tom Aspinall has John Jones's legacy in his hands. If Tom Aspinall goes out there and becomes as great a heavyweight as I believe he can be, John is going to have egg on his face. And this will be an indelible part of his legacy.

He will be inextricable from Tom's climb. If Tom Aspinall goes out there and loses his next fight, this will not have any impact on his legacy. In fact, people will rewrite history and say, Tom wasn't equipped for it, Tom wasn't ready, and if he fought him at that time, John probably would have won. Tom Aspinall is holding the keys to John Jones' legacy, and he's the only one. Now John Jones had an opportunity to put those back in his hands, to grab those keys back. Maybe not the best metaphor now that I'm thinking about it.

He had an opportunity to take back control of his legacy, and he gave it to Tom Aspinall. So now Tom has a responsibility and an opportunity here to really determine what John Jones's legacy is going to be. If he goes out and falls flat on his face, John Jones will not be impacted by this at all. You're right, you're right. John, Tom has to win like at least the next two or three. He needs to show something. If his next fight is against Cyril Gaunt and say he goes out and loses. Is that the fight? It has to be, right? I guess. But if it's not Francis and Ganu. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, like I thought Volkov won that fight,

but like who else is there in the heavyweight? Jelton Almeida, I know he's got his hat in the ring. Yeah, I saw Jelton with the tweet. Shout out to Jelton. I would love to see Jelton get a shot, but I feel like he needs one or two more to get back in there. I think that-

But they need, sorry, go ahead. I was just gonna say, I think the Curtis Blades loss hurts him, especially with Blades having the most recent loss to Aspen Hall. I just think they need to really, like when Tom fights they need to spotlight a few heavy weights that night. You know, whatever they're doing in the title situation. If it's not in Ghana we can talk about that later. But if it's gone, have Volkov on the undercard

against Jelton do something just to, to, to breed some life into the division. Like it has killed this division. What John Jones refusal and John Jones and USC's decision to make him fight Steve Aimee Ochage that has killed this division. No, no, no fights make any sense. You know, you're seeing guys fight. You've seen Gann and Volkov essentially just sit out because what's the point? Like what am I, if Tom, Tom Aspinal is not fighting, what am I fighting for? And I think they were right to do that, but the division is just all over the place. They need to make a clear situation.

Like I've been talking about doing a tournament or something like, and that's probably a bit of a stretch, at least do a number one contender fight the night that Tom fights, um, first offence, this toilet or whatever the wording is on that because the fan base need a clear guide on what the fuck the heavyweight division is now. That's how bad this has been. That's how bad this sit out situation has been. We no longer know what is going on in that division and they need to, they need to show us again, basically what is going on in that division and they need to show us again basically

what is going on in heavyweight. I'm with you, Pizzi. On that, start booking these fights, put on showcases, get people excited about people below Tom Aspinall. But honestly, the more I think about it, the fight doesn't really matter who Tom Aspinall is fighting. Put him in there with anyone. The goal is for him to just start knocking them down and knock as many of them down and

just become this untouchable heavyweight king, the guy who has the shortest fight time in the octagon, two and a half minutes, whatever it may be, and become that next star at heavyweight. Whoever it is is irrelevant to me. This division needs Alex Pereira desperately, desperately. Okay, so is there a chance?

They haven't booked the Onkaliyev fight. Yeah, Alex seems like Pereira wants Onkaliyev, but this is the fight to... Yeah, he posted the thing, he posted the thing on his- He posted his weight. On the scale, yeah, he looks like a heavyweight, he weighs like a heavyweight. I saw him on Friday, he's in great shape.

He does not look, you know, out of shape at all. Here's the thing, they wanna do, there's three pay-per-views in October. There's the early October one, October sixth. In Vegas, that could be Pereira Ankhalayev. Then you have Abu Dhabi, that could be JDM Islam. And then you have New York, that could be Tom versus Suril. Now I heard that Tom would prefer Abu Dhabi. So do you put Tom and Abu Dhabi and Islam and JDM in Abu in New York or does this have to be in Abu Dhabi? I feel like a combo of those three fights has to

happen in those three slots. The question though is does the UFC try to you know freaking super charge heavyweight and say to hell with the Ankhela fight let's move Pereira up? I don't know. I would. Yeah no I mean it's a very intriguing thought. I put something on X that basically said, and I've said this on Boys in the Back as well, I think Tom Aspinall could be the UFC's biggest star. Bigger than Ilya, bigger than anybody.

I believe he has all the makings to be the biggest star that the UFC has, just because of his demeanor, but also because of his fight style. I think he has the perfect combination of all these things. Every response was, he's not gonna fight anybody, so how is that gonna happen? For one, I feel that challengers always rise, right? Tom Aspinall was the guy who came out of the,

ah, there's nobody for John Jones to fight. He came out of that. There will always be somebody that eventually emerges. For two, you kinda have Alex Pereira there as a kingmaker. Alex Pereira holds the keys to somebody becoming a potential star. Now if he drops another fight to Magomed, it's kind of wasted. Magomed's already beat him. It doesn't really add any additional rub to Magomed. If he goes up and is a viable contender for the heavyweight championship and Tom Aspinall is able to

beat him, that's some real rub that they could utilize. I think that would be the better business move for the UFC, but I don't know that Alex Pereira is ready to give up on that light heavyweight title. Yeah. Or is it... I agree with you about Tom and it also just kind of... it also like hammers home the point of how crazy it is that John is walking away now because there is no next guy after Tom. There's literally no one. No. Do you know what I mean?

It's like, if you were the top of the, uh, if you were at the top of the lightweight or the welterweight, you'd be like, okay, but then there's Sean Brady and then there's Carlos process and then there's Ian Gary. There's no one. No, there is no one for miles. It is Tom and that's it. You have, you have done it all. There's nothing left.

And so, yeah, you're right. Tom could be that guy. If he stumbles against Gunn of all people because of how easily Jon beat Gunn, you know the first guy to tweet about it is gonna be Jon. You know that. He's going to do everything in his power. He's gonna have a voodoo doll.

He's gonna have this doll right here. He's gonna ask Sav Jelly for this doll right here and stick pins in it on that night just so that he could say, see I told you so. No, he loves Tom, he said it. Yeah. He loves Tom.

The biggest Zero Gone fan on earth will be John Jones. John said he loves Tom. Tom's awesome. I love what he does. Tom's awesome. How many happy dads had he had before that interview? Oh my God. He's crushing one during it.

The craziest part of all this, as we're talking about it, we're talking about the John Jones legacy and all this stuff. We're asking about like, is not taking a fight after an historically great career, the thing that's gonna affect his legacy. But this like, outside the octagon thing that's happened to him, isn't even a blip. We haven't even thought about it because it's number 12

in the line of things that have happened to John Jones. His legacy is so firmly established in the cage, and then also outside the cage. I think he has affected it. I could separate the two. I think he has affected it. I could separate the two. I think not fighting this guy hurts his legacy. I really do. It will depend on Tom, in my opinion.

Right now, GC's right, we're in the heat of it. Who knows in a year how we feel about it. But the way this played out, and the way he was so eager to fight other people, and when push came to shove, it had to be Tom, and he'd rather walk away. By the way, walking away from millions of dollars. Think about that.

Tens of millions. Millions upon millions of dollars to fight this guy. How badly did you wanna keep that O on your record? And how much is that worth to you? I guess they've done the calculation that it's better for business to just walk away with that than take that money. Man, it is a... Those Russian reality shows must be paying nice, man.

It is a wild decision. It really is. Like you're right there. The fight could happen in three months and then you would be done and you would walk away with tens of millions of dollars and you fight this guy that you've said is ordinary, you said is not that great,

you said you've seen him get, you know, submitted a couple times and all this stuff. It's, how does this not, how does this not make you think some kind of way? At least differently. Well, ultimately just because the resume is still the resume, you know? Yeah, but it's the way, it's the whole thing.

It's the whole story. To me, it's the whole story arc. It's like, you can't, you can't talk about BJ and Phaidor without talking about how it ended. Exactly. It doesn't take anything away with what they did in the midst of it all at their peak, but the whole story, like the story of Michael Jordan

also includes the Wizards years, the whole story. And so the story of- Well, you're making the case for what Jon did. You're making the case for why not come back and take away that loss, because you're gonna be the Wizards Jordan, because you're going to be Fador, because you're going to be BJ. Says who? No.

If he loses that fight, use that. I'm not telling him to stick around for four or five extra fights and go on a five fight losing streak. I'm saying fight the last guy left. Literally the last guy left of the world. That's the rest. Yeah, but that affects the legacy. You didn't want to take that risk. What you just laid out though is why not? That hurts the legacy more. Biggest payday of your career.

The P.J., the Fador, the Michael Jordan wizard, that hurts the legacy more. You can't compare a five fight losing streak to one night at MSG for $30 million. You just can't. You're undefeated. Those guys stuck around way too long. John is still beating people right now.

Fight that fight right now. You dragged it out, they got you the money and then leave. That was it. That this is not Jordan wizards. If he lose you, you made that comparison. No, no, no. But if I'm saying, I'm saying what you do at the end of your career affects what people will say about you in totality.

That's what I'm saying. For sure. But he didn't step in and do it. GSP, the way he behaved, the way he behaved screws this all up. Sorry, PC. go ahead. We already at GSP as the greatest of all time, though, Rick didn't. So it's like our starting position is somewhere different, you know what I mean? Yeah.

Well, the way he handled it was completely different as I've laid out a bunch of times. Um, and, and, and, and I understand that some people might say, well, that's not wins and losses, but if you just go tit for tat through all the different categories, that that's another reason why I consider him the greatest. Um, I think that's the biggest reason why I wins and losses, but if you just go tit for tat through all the different categories, that's another reason why I consider him the greatest.

I think it's going to be Gunn, and then it's up to everyone else to jockey for position, but let's see. I mean, he's going to Vegas this week, he's talking to the Brass, and let's see what they come up with. I hope they do something for him. I'm not going gonna hold my breath. This whole thing is so weird, the way they're just so like, even yesterday was weird.

They have this press conference for Canelo Crawford. Canelo Crawford are sitting there, Michael Buffer is there, and Dana just walks up and does the, you know, who's got the first question. There's no actual promoting, you know what I question. There's no actual promoting. You know what I mean? There's no actual, he wasn't there in Riyadh. Boxing audience are used to it, right?

Like the bit of showmanship as they come in. They're used to a bit of. Just a smidge. A smidge, he just walked, like he literally walked up there to say, who's got the first question. Classic line though. Yeah, it is a classic line. It's just, it's just weird to do that. And by the way, what if no one asked that question

at the press conference? Oh, they'll ask And by the way, what if no one asked that question at the press conference? Oh, they'll ask. You think someone, what if someone, like really, that girl asked the question, shout out to her, like the greatest question of all time. She gets the John Jones retirement school. What if no one would have asked?

You think he would have ended with it? Oh, by the way, before I go. I was thinking that. Like, and like, he just like heard them out and he's like, sorry, what'd he say? Then they do the repeat thing. And and then like he made it an announcement like it was like the president of the United States It's like the like we got a confirmed kill It was just like last night at 12 41 a.m

Eastern John Jones made contact with me and he is officially retired and like Aspen all is now the heavyweight champion of the world. Like he delivered it like he had it memorized exactly what it was gonna say, but it was off the cuff from the person asking. I wish they had a whole parade set up for Tom and Wigg and they're like, he says that the president was, all right, no, no, no, couldn't, couldn't. I just wonder if no one asked it,

would he have just said it at the end and then said, all right guys, see you later? Maybe he would have saved it for fight week. I was gonna say like, how does it, how do we not wait till international fight week? It's right there. To do this. Tom was always going, right?

Tom was always going. Tom was always going. Especially considering what you said about the legal thing was only coming out later. It feels bizarre that Dana just dropped it. Super bizarre. Could you imagine? Baku.

Yeah, no, I was gonna say, could you imagine if they would have come out with that news like today of the arrest and he's still the champ and now they've got a ton of egg on their face. But again, as you just said, like Albuquerque Journal only looked into it after the retirement.

So they would have come out with it next week. I actually think that would have been helpful because then they can go, it was out of our hands. Like this lead is John Jones thing, we had to do it. Tom's the champ, you know, we don't know what this is gonna have an impact, they would have had an excuse. That retired, to retire and then that drops five minutes later is just insane.

It's the perfect John Jones, it's so John Jones. I remember reading the article and then refreshing it and there was more details, like they were writing it in real time. Oh man. And I was like, yo, how is this happening at the same time? Go back to the one, when was it? 2014 I think it was, it's so eerily similar.

It felt like the same story all over again. I think this story starts with the Pavlovich fight, but we could debate this all day long. But even like the Pavlovich fight, it was like John had just fought Cyril eight or nine months prior. And it was like, there was still hope that it would just be John versus Tom. But he was gonna be out for a year.

You know what I mean? He had surgery on his elbow, surgery on his shoulder. You call up Tom in the middle of the night, you give him the interim title fight. It could have been so much cleaner. Let's go through a bit of a timeline here. All right, so really you could say Pavlovich, maybe you could pick another date.

Let's start with March of 2024 when they see each other at this expo. The only time they ever see each other face to face, a very memorable moment. Do you want to do this quickly? Why do you want? Just saying hello. Just saying hello.

What's going on, man? How are you? Hello Just saying hello, just saying hello. What's going on man? How are you? Hello babe man. I'm going to do this thing. I would hope so. I would love to man. I would hope so. Respect man.

All the best. Do a quick picture. Sure. Face off. No no, no problem. No problem. No problem. Thank you. Thanks, no, okay. No, no problem. No problem. No problem. No problem.

Thank you. Thank you. That's great. Thank you guys. Thanks John. Appreciate it. I would love to have the honor one day. I would love to have the honor.

Maybe one day. Hope so man. All the best. All the best. How's everything? It's healing. Slowly, slowly, slowly. All the best man.

Look at the way he looks at him. Thank you man. Thanks man. You son of a bitch. You came up on me like that. You son of a bitch. What an asshole Tom me like that. You son of a bitch. What an asshole Tom is, huh? I would love to have the honor.

Well known, well known asshole. Um, Tom comes back in July of 2024 and he beats Curtis Blades in seconds in the middle of the night. By the way, shout out to the, uh, the YouTube channel. They put together a really nice video with some videos of Tom and his father Andy when, you know, Tom was just a little kid training really great retrospective stuff. Anyway, in August of 2024, Tom is talking to Michael Bisping on his great YouTube channel. And well, he kind of predicts all of this. Take a look.

There's no way on earth that he's going to fight me. Not a chance. I will retire John Jones without even fighting him. There it is. I will retire John Jones without even fighting him. That's what, nine months ago? And by the way, I do want to give a special shout out to my good friend, Butlikar Bisping, who just a few weeks ago said that I didn't know what I was talking about regarding, you know, John saying he was in, he was out. I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I that it? I don't know. But he clearly watches and so I just want to say hello to him because I know he takes a lot of content from us. Likes to refute

my stuff but time and again I prove to be correct. Anyway, in November John returns to fight Stipe in that highly anticipated fight. Stipe, one of the greatest of all time, obviously a decorated champion who had not fought in several years, full-time firefighter at that point. Here he is talking to Kevin Ioli on his great platform about the prospect of fighting Tom Aspinall. Tom Aspinall is the guy that people want

to see you fight, right? So here's the question. You're fighting Stipe Mičić and I know you're focused on that fight. If you defeat him as you're a six to one favor to win the fight, if you defeat him as you're a Steve Bamićić and I know you're focused on that fight. If you defeat him as you're a six to one favor to win the fight, if you defeat him, will you defend your boat against Aspinall who has the interim title?

More than likely not. More than likely not. I feel like Tom Aspinall is, uh, I don't want to say nobody, but he just hasn't proven anything. He hasn't done anything. And I understand that. I mean, he won his bet against Sergey. Sergey just got slaughtered by someone else. So it's just like, I'm not here to gamble someone else

making a name off of me. At that point, by the way, uh, Tom had, had won his UFC debut. He beat Jake Collier via a 45 second knockout. He then beat Alan Baddow in a minute and 35 seconds via TKO. He submitted on Jerry Loftsky, John's good friend in the second round, a minute and nine seconds. Uh, he, uh, he TKO'd Sergey Spivak. He submitted Alexander Volkov. He blew out his knee against Curtis Blades, came back a year later and

TKO'd Marcien Taibura in a minute and 13 seconds. He knocked out Sergey Pavlovich in 69 seconds. That's what Tom, the quote unquote, nobody had done up until that point. Pretty much beat everyone that he could have other than the top dog who, who, you know, clearly did not want to fight him. Then at the post-fight press conference, excuse me, pre-fight press conference, a day later, Dana White is asked about whether or not John will fight Tom. We all know that this Saturday has to take place, but for you personally, do you still

want to see the winner of this fight fight Tom Aspinall to unify the heavyweight title? Was that for me? Yeah. What's the question? Do you want to see the winner fight Tom? The winner should absolutely fight Tom. Yeah, no one cares about this guy, right? This is New York City.

There's petitions being made. Unprecedented. No one cares about this guy, right? This is New York City. There's petitions being made. Unprecedented. No one cares about him. What a look. Stipe is like, please get me home. Yeah, no one cares. We've never heard anything like this. What a look.

What a look. By the way, the day prior, John is asked by the media about why he doesn't really seem all that interested in fighting Tom and gives the greatest answer of them all. Take a look. They see it as like this great challenge. They want to see greatness challenge. Like, does that, does that entice you at all still? There's a part of it that does. But if I'm being completely honest, I feel like Tom's been such an asshole that I don't want to do business with him.

His fans have been so annoying. Obviously, you don't get this far in a career being affected by fans or whatnot, but he's just an asshole. He's 30, so he's from this influencer generation where you can hop online and the t-shirt sells and all that. I'm past that type of stuff. I'm like, bro, if you had a little bit more respect, then maybe we could have worked something

out. But I just don't even want to do business with him. At the end of the day, this is a business. And fighting me gives him an opportunity to change his life forever. I don't even want to give him the opportunity like he just played his cards wrong with me personally and and you know I'm three years from being a 40 year old grown man you know what I'm saying it's just like the press conference going through the whole shebang with him I just I'd rather not do but hey though on the other side Oh

respectful cool barely says much It's like I I'll do business with you. I would risk it all with it for the human being like you You and you actually have the accolades to back up your shit. This other guy is just a big mouth who's hot today There's been so many guys who's hot today who are just gone. You know, Sergey was in the same position not too long ago. Now he's starting to fall off already. I've just been around this sport too long to give a big mouth who's hot today. The opportunity. P.T. How great is that? Tom and influencer in the same sentence is one of the

I'd say he's more offended by being called an influencer than he is being called an asshole. But honestly, I'd say he's like, I can't fucking believe he said that. Very funny line though, in fairness. Is there any evidence by the way of Tom being disrespectful or being a quote unquote asshole towards John at any point throughout all this? The only evidence I have really is John is Tom saying like,

yeah, it would be great to fight him, but honestly, all I want is to just be the undisputed champion. That's it. That's the only it went to like, oh, he's not going to fight me. I think he's going to retire. I'm going to retire him without fighting. That is the worst thing he said. And it's 100% true. And like, not for nothing. I don't think I can't think of a more down to earth guy that is in a spot like Tom I've ever met in the fight game. If we could roll the tram footage again please where he's telling people not to vape on the

train. I mean this guy is, this is PSA's he's doing for free. He gains nothing from this and he's doing this. And I think he's the perfect tonic to Jones in the sense that, and look Rick's right about the call to personality, this stuff in the fight game, and look Rick's right about the cult of personality, this stuff in the fight game, these darker aspects of people's personality is what attract the fans to the sport in many ways. But as we've seen with McGregor, we've seen with John, when it's a litany of things,

it does start to tarnish your legacy to some extent. And you're just not going to get that with Tom. Tom is going to fight often and he's going to fight as GC put it earlier, like this is what he needs to do to be put across that. He is a guy that wants to be in that spot as an invincible guy. He is a young man in this spot. He will fight as much as he can. The only problem I think, and it's a problem that we usually see in PFL.

This is what's worrying for the UFC. This is a problem we usually see in the PFL or KSW or something like that. It's on the promotion to get the bodies that will make the people interested. It's just simply not on Tom here. He's a brilliant fighter. We know that already, but it's on them. And that's why I'm so disappointed to hear. And look, I know that the contract thing with PFL, it's not sewn up, but he still has a

contract with the PFL, it's not sewn up. But like, you know, he still has a contract to PFL. But for Dana White to simply dismiss that, Francis Ngannou, a guy, if you moved him into this situation, Ben Foulkes has been talking about it, you've been talking about it, Chuck's been talking about it too. If you move him into this situation and put him against Tom, the fan base immediately forgets about the John Jones, the way, everything. It immediately becomes this massive, massive fight, the lineal heavyweight champion in the world against Tom Asimov for him to completely dismiss that is disappointing for me as a fan of a promoter we've seen this in

boxing many many times boxing promoters fall in and out with fighters all the time but they know what the swallow their pride for the product and it's disappointing to me that Dana White will not swallow his pride for the product because that is the only reason why he wouldn't want Francis and Ganyu back in this promotion. Very well said. And by the way, this is ultimately the biggest difference between Dana and Vince McMahon. Vince would always do business.

Regardless of his past history with someone, Dana will not. Can I just say one thing on the Francis thing? Because I've been thinking about this. For one, he just did the whole, I guarantee we're gonna do this fight and it completely blew up in his face. So if I was in Dana White's shoes, maybe I wouldn't go as hard at the whole, I guarantee we're gonna do this fight, and it completely blew up in his face. So if I was in Dana White's shoes,

maybe I wouldn't go as hard at the Francis, like never gonna happen, maybe it's more of a we'll see down the line, whatever. But also, as you said, Francis is under contract with the PFL, it does not help his leverage or his negotiating power to be like, yes, we will find a way, I'm very interested. It's probably the best course of action

to actually get this done is for this to play out the way it's playing out. Now, can he ultimately on the back end of this, like sneak it in the back door and make it happen? Let's see. But I don't think it helps him from a negotiation standpoint, from a leverage standpoint, to be like, I'm very interested in Francis Ngannou.

So maybe it's the best thing that will actually ultimately happen. But if you said we'll see, that would be fine. We'd all go, that is a shift from where we were. But then we'll speculate that we'll do this. Shut it down. Exactly. I think it actually might help.

It actually might help. So you think that's a strategic thing. You think that's a strategic thing. I don't know if it's strategic, but I don't think, I think it helps more than harms, is my feeling. I get what you're saying, but it is so personal. I mean, just look at the disdain.

Oh, for sure. That he shows on his face when talking about Francis. Like he can't escape it. It is so personal, he will never ever. By the way, it's not even just a Francis thing. You gotta do business with another promoter, no way. These guys who are essentially like drowning right now, you're gonna prop them up, you're gonna give them the rub, no chance.

If you had even the slightest hope of Tom John last week, it has to be 100X less chance of Francis Ngannou coming back and fighting Tom Hospital. There's just no way. And it's because of his personal grudge. Yeah, it's the business, it's the personal grudge. The grudge, the contracts, everything. Yeah, he said, no thank you, I'm walking off.

Oh yeah, you're gonna walk off? All right, we'll show you. And he's not a free agent. If he was a free agent, I'd say, okay, maybe there's a shot, I'm walking off. Oh yeah, you're gonna walk off? All right, we'll show you. And he's not a free agent. If he was a free agent, I'd say, okay, maybe there's a shot, but you gotta work with PFL, and that contract isn't up for a very long time. We're kidding ourselves.

It's a shame. You're 100% right, Pizzi. That's the fight to make it. That's the best way to fix all of this, but it ain't happening. November 17th, after the Stipe victory, John's win over Stipe, he is asked to expand on his Tom is an asshole thoughts. Here's what he said.

What specifically has he said or done to make him an asshole? There's just a lot of people on his nuts right now. And I- How does he make him an asshole? Coming up with John Jones t-shirts Buying a little duck and just a little just a little shit that he does. He's annoying to me He's annoying to me and and that's my own personal. He annoys me. I Get to you guys you find it entertaining

But I find him annoying and I just don't like them. And at the end of the day, if I give him the opportunity to fight me, I want to be so compensated. I want to say it, I want that fuck you money, honestly. And that's just what it is. That's just what it is. Or else my life is perfect without him. I don't need him at all and he needs me. And that's a good place to be in a negotiation.

And they got him that money. And they got him that money, which can only prove that he was never interested in fighting him. A month later, last show of the year, Buckley-Cubbington, Dana White is asked about the fight. Jones versus Aspinall, is that sort of the big priority and you think that's the biggest fight the promotion can put on in 2025? 100%. And I think it's probably the

biggest fight in heavyweight history and it's a massive fight in the history of the company too. It's a big fight. Yeah we know Tom Aspinose down Jones is kind of like on the fence or at least that's what he said publicly. Right. Have you talked about it? It's weird. How confident... What's weird about that? Let me tell you what's weird about that. So usually those guys say that shit behind the scenes and not publicly. John says that shit publicly but not behind the scenes. John is a very unique individual to deal with. From day one, I've been confident that John Jones would do that fight, right? I mean, even before the fight.

So if he won, there's no way John doesn't do this fight. John Jones isn't afraid to fight anybody, and that's a fact. And the only time that anything remotely weird has ever happened with John Jones And the only time that anything remotely weird has ever happened with John Jones was the time that his fucking camp did the weird chaol sonnen thing. We can't fight chaol sonnen on short notice. Other than that, and that wasn't him, it was his team.

And he listened to his team for whatever reason. But that's like the goofiest fucking move in the history of the UFC. But other than that, John Jones behind the scenes is not a guy that turns down fights. Would you say, would you guarantee 100% we see that fight? Yeah, I'll say 100%. Good stuff from Danny Segura. By the way, when we're talking about the legacy and the story and the book being written,

the reason why Nganu Jones didn't happen was because of John Jones. And now the reason why Aspinall Jones isn't happening is because of John Jones. Them's the facts. There's no other way to slice it. A few months later, Dana White has asked that the UFC 313 post-fight press conference if this fight is still going to happen. Here's what he said. You were talking about Tom and John. Tom released that video blog a few days ago on the train where

he was saying like John side is holding up the fight. What is he referring to there? Well, I think that listen John Jones definitely wants to fight just when and where is what we're working on now. Do you feel a confidence? I think you said John, I'm very comfortable on first day fight happens. Yeah. Summer. Yeah.

Not only is it not happening, it's not happening in the summer. We we found out around it's around this time where the money comes through. And I don't know if it's exactly before or after but it's around this time where the money comes through. And, um, I don't know if it's exactly before or after, but it's around this period where John says essentially thanks, but no thanks just a couple of months later, Dana White has asked about it on an IG live. He's consistently asked about it, but here's what he said in May about this fight. So a little over a month ago, Tom Aspinall, I didn't read it.

I told you guys already. Well, get Aspin Hall versus Jones done. John Jones versus... The heavyweight fight will happen. Relax, I'll announce that soon. What happened there? What's going on? I don't know, but I was watching that IG live in real time. I was watching it live. One of the funniest Dana White clips of all time. Just like that. John Jones. Grrrr!

Heavyweight fights can happen, guys, don't worry. Just like, did he forget Tom's name? Did he get something stuck in his throat? I don't know what it was. And the fact that he's in like a bathroom makes it all the better. It's like a hotel bathroom. It's one of my favorites.

Oh my God, it's incredible. Well, just a few weeks later at the post-presser for UFC 316, he's asked again about it, obviously, and for the first time reveals, John accepted the fight. But he doesn't tell you the very important detail after that, which is he then unaccepted the fight. Take a look. So Dan, just to clarify there, you said John has agreed to the fight with Tom. To clarify, you said that John agreed to fight Tom. Yes.

John agreed to fight Tom? Is that what you just said, Dan? Before, like on the last answer, you said... John agreed to fight Tom, yes. so he hasn't signed a contract right? Yeah, I mean you guys have heard me for the last however long I said I guarantee this fights gonna happen It's fights gonna happen fights gonna happen You guys told me the crazy shit that was going on on Instagram and all these other places But yes, I've been saying John is gonna fight Tom There's some rumors out there that you guys had offered him his fuck you money and he turned it down. Unless you hear it come from here or we put out a press release, don't

believe any of this bullshit. It's like the turkey stuff, you know what I mean? And everybody said, I know turkey said some stuff, but unless we come out and say something, it's all bullshit. I just don't get sucked into that stuff anymore. I don't even care, I don't even listen to it. And most of the time, the shit that I hear that happens, I hear from you guys when I come to things like this. Otherwise, I don't care and I don't pay attention to any of that stuff.

But yes, John agreed to fight, Tom. Facts. Two weeks later, Dana confirms that what we said was true. And oh, by the way, yesterday at the Canelo-Croftford Presser, Turkey himself talks about how everything fell apart with the Netflix people and he thanks Nick Khan for bringing them together and for fixing it. He even specifically mentioned the date, May 16th,

when there was supposed to be a presser for the Netflix upfront. And so even that was true. And so he's telling you like like unless you hear it from me I mean no actually it's almost the opposite at this point anyway just a few days later Dana White is on the Jim Rome show and guess what he's asked about Tom and John now we're like four months past the point of of John turning down the fight here's what he had to say. What I'm about to ask you, you're not going to say is the beauty of what we do, because I know you're sick of the question. Does John Jones not want to fight or does John Jones just not want to fight Tom Aspinall?

That's a great question. Listen, John Jones has been an interesting human being to deal with since the day he got here. But I will say this about him. You would never hear me out, you know, talking about he's the goat and he's the this and he's the that. If John Jones didn't want to fight people, John Jones has never ever said, I'm afraid to fight this guy or I don't like this fight for me or any of that stuff. One time his coach at the time, back in the day,

I don't know if he's still with them or whatever. How's it like, Oda? I think it's the only fight we've ever canceled. Had to cancel a show because of, but he wouldn't fight Chael Sonnen because his coach thought it was a bad idea to take that fight on late notice, but it had nothing to do with John Jones.

Yeah, he sort of did. John Jones has never turned down an opponent here or been afraid to fight anybody. What about Francis? So if for instance, he doesn't fight this guy, who would you like to see him fight? Or are you gonna wait until he fights this guy? I don't know.

We'll see how this thing plays out over the next couple of weeks. But yeah, if we can't get this fight done, we'll move on quickly. I was gonna say, Dan, my last thought on that, how long are you gonna wait? I mean, how long is it worth waiting for? I said a couple weeks. A couple weeks?

Yeah, we'll have answers in the next couple weeks. Well, there you go. Baku was the spot. I feel like everything went at the overdrive once the John Nelkboyz interview came out because I feel like he forced their hand at that point. Here's what he had to say. Tom Aspinall and all the things that he's been saying about you. I think he's awesome, man. I think he's awesome.

I think he should go on and have a wonderful career. Do you think that he needs you? No, I think he needs me. I think when you want something bad enough and if you get it, it could be the worst thing that could ever happen to you. I'm in a spot right now where I'm really enjoying the fruits of my labor, all the hard work I put in. He's just not he's not in a position. He's not in the position to like.

Excite me, it's just the truth. Because if I whoop his ass. It's going to be this it's going to be it's going to be the next guy. There's going to be this, it's going to be, it's going to be the next guy. There's going to be a whole new fan base of somebody who everybody believes in. I'm not being a champion is my whole adult life. It's crazy. How many happy dads?

I don't know, but it's, it's the thought process is insane because there is no other guy, Tom is so popular at this point because of all of this nonsense. And does anyone disagree with the fact that this would be the biggest fight for John Jones since DC two, like Smith, Reyes, Tiago Santos, those were all just sort of like, you know, all right, let's move on. He comes back. Okay.

It's a big fight, but nothing even remotely close to this. Dana himself called it the biggest heavyweight fight of all time. And John did the best promotion for it to an extent and then walked away from it. But yes, I agree. But here's the thing that we haven't put this in, in the quotes. One thing he said, and he said it often was you guys want to see me challenged.

Like it's some type of shock. Like that's what that fucking goal belt is about. Like, you know, it's about guys constantly trying to climb the ladder and get the belt off you. Like when he's describing this situation, like, Oh, you know, Tom's going to come along and then another guy is going to come along. Yeah. That's what being a champion is. You know, you should know that better than anyone, John, like most successful fighter, whoever lived, you know, like that is essentially what being at the top of the mountain is. And he keeps on saying it like it's some criticism of, um, fight sports fans, but

that is literally the whole fucking sport. Any aspect of this sport, any aspect of any combat sports you look at, that is what the goal is to get to the top of the mountain and have other guys try to pursue you. I just, I just never understood that as a, as a defense as to why he's not fighting Tom Aspyn. It's crazy. There's a second part to that though, which is that he felt like Tom was not the guy, right? He was saying that, but he was also saying there's other challenges out there. There's a Francis, there's an Alex. It is not Tom. So it wasn't that he was just saying

like, Oh, I'm not ready for any challenges. He was saying, Tom is not there yet. It's not a dismissal of the idea of fighting. It's the dismissal of the idea of, Tom Aspinall is not worthy of my time to fight, which he was pretty consistent with. Whether we believe him or not is a separate issue, but I don't think that part is like him not saying what he means.

Again, if he wasn't the champion, if they would have just made Tom the champion when he beat Pavlovich, no one would have really cared about, oh, fun fight against Steve. Yeah. Fun fight here, fun fight there. But the fact that they made him keep that belt, it changed everything. He did not realize what the duty was, amazingly, of being the UFC heavyweight champion.

There's a duty there. And so it's not like we're trying to see you lose or we want like, no, you got to fight the next man. It's not up to you to decide who's interesting and who's exciting. It's up duty there. And so it's not like we're trying to see you lose or, we want like, no, you gotta fight the next man. It's not up to you to decide who's interesting and who's exciting. That's not how this works. It's never been how this works.

In few exceptions though, right? He kind of got to make it work this way in a way that basically it's like him and Connor, who could have gotten away with this bullshit other than them? You know, like it kind of did work, but only because he was John Jones. Like, that's not really what it's supposed to be.

You don't think Pantoja could do this? No, I don't think Pantoja's got the clout to be able to do this. For the sake of the timeline, once again, to complete this whole damn thing, here's officially how John Jones' reign comes to an end. On the heavyweight front, you recently set a deadline for John Jones' reign comes to an end. On the heavyweight front, you recently set a deadline for John Jones to face Tom Aspinel or risk losing the title. And with that situation evolving, what criteria are you using to decide?

Uphold legacy by waiting for Jones or prioritize division activity by clearing the belt? You set the timeline for Jones, two weeks to decide what to do with the title, whether it takes the fight or you're going to strip him. What do you think is more important to keep the belt there so he can uphold his legacy or remove the heavyweight division, take the title away from him? John Jones called us last night and retired. John Jones is officially retired. Tom Aspinall is the heavyweight champion of the UFC.

Thank you very much. All right, so there it is. There's the announcement right there. That's the one. Put it in the Hall of Fame. That's how the illustrious career and the heavyweight title reign, which included one defense in the span of two plus years,

comes to an end. He's asked some subsequent questions, but it's pretty much all in that announcement right there. He's in New York the following day, yesterday, Sunday, and is asked about not only the news that came out minutes later of John Jones' legal issue, new legal issue, minutes later of John Jones's legal issue, new legal issue, but all of this story that I've been banging the drum about about him saying yes and him saying no that Dana White said back in Newark, unless you hear it from me is

bullshit, here it is, just for the you know for the sake of history. Did you know about the stuff that came out at Albuquerque last night? I saw it today. When I saw it today, I said, everybody's gonna think this is why he retired. Maybe that is why he retired. That's relief right there. Who the hell knows, man?

But yeah, I don't know. These are all questions you gotta ask him. We had the fight done. You know, you saw me talking about it very confidently that this fight was gonna happen. And then he changed his mind. We had it and then he changed his mind. And there you go.

And that ties it all together. And oh, by the way, for the sake of history and the timeline, here's Tom reacting to the news. Everyone, the news has broken. I'm sure everybody's seen it. UFC undisputed heavyweight champion of the world Moving forward very very important to me just that I acknowledge everybody quickly who has supported me in this I'm not going to say it was a tough time

But a bit of a challenging time over like the last kind of 10 11 months that I have been Inactive due to no fault of my own but luckily that is all behind us now. Massively appreciate the support from everybody. Massively appreciate the support going forward. I am going to keep this thing as active as possible. I want to be the best heavyweight ever to walk the face of the earth. I'm going to defend this thing as many times as I possibly can. I'm going to keep you guys entertained. I'm going to really give back to everybody who has shown me support over the last year, over the last five years, over the last 10 years. Really appreciate the support and love from everybody and we're going to see an active defending UFC heavyweight undisputed champion going forward. Thank you guys and I'll speak to you soon.

PT, maybe you could speak on this. I hope that the UK media, the European media at large, treats him like the champion that he is. Fury, Joshua, Dubois, these guys get a lot of love. Moses Atalmas. They don't give Tom even that much, you know, reporting and coverage like they do the boxing champions and let's not even get into the football. They need to get behind this guy. This is the heavyweight champion of the world.

This is the guy that made the goat retire. Are they going to get behind him? Is there any sign that they're getting behind him? Yeah, no, there is. I think, I think it's a large part down to the situation as a played out. I think that's one of the big, big hamstrung situations of this was he was building up so much momentum. As I've told you before, he's been in spots that not a lot of people have been

in, in terms of, you know, big time TV shows, everything like that. Michael McIntyre's variety show he was on, you know, doing comedic bits there. He was on question of sport, which is like a real legacy show on the BBC. He is well liked and, and I think they will get behind them. It's just a matter of him competing. Like I saw a pure fever for the guy when he was in those London main events. Um, he added something to those cards that we haven't seen in a long time. And he is this kind of, um, every man, even though he's definitely, it just takes

you meeting Tom Aspil once to realize this is far from the average guy walking down the street. He's just a Goliath. He's a massive, massive dude. But I can remember for the Volkoff fight, and I think that's this first UK main event, and it's the best, it turned out to be the best London card ever, I feel. It was after the pandemic, and there was just this explosion of joy. And he was the guy at the top of that card. But the day of that card, I was staying in a hotel just down the road from the, uh, the fighter hotel, which is usually to Hilton. And I'm just outside walking back and next I see just Tom walking by himself down the road, the day of his main event, just walking through the streets of London. I was like, Oh, what are you doing? And he's like, Oh, I was just walking around and nothing to do.

He's like, what are you doing? I was like, I'm just going in here. And he's like, Oh, sure. I'll come with you walking through the lobby of this random hotel, just walking up and say, I rang you, I believe I rang you. And I was like, can you believe what this guy's doing? He's just walking around, shaking hands, talking to the fans before they go to meet him. He is, uh, he's going to be a joy for the media to

coverage the mainstream media to cover over there. He is a very funny guy. He's from a working class background. He has very witty stories, very raw stories as well about lads getting their nose a bit off as he's working the door and security. Like he knows what he's doing with this spotlight and he has a, he has an opportunity and I said this about him from the second I met him. He has an opportunity to change the perception of the sport. A lot of the sport is framed around what Conor McGregor is doing in the UK and in Ireland

and as we know he has had his fair share of controversy too. He is the main frame of reference for everyone in the UK and Ireland as to what this sport is. Tom Aspin is a completely different guy to that. He's a completely different guy to John Jones who we spoke about earlier. So I think it's just a matter of him fighting. He will do all the media spots. He has no problem speaking to people.

It does not exhaust him to get on and talk to TalkSport or the BBC or yourself or anyone else. He is very, very friendly with the media. I think we're on the verge of something massive here. I think he has the ability. I know Rick has kind of brought it up and I know he doesn't believe this, but he's right to say like,

if he was to lose his next fight, I don't think there's a hope in hell that he's losing his next fight or the next one after that. I think this is gonna be the longest toil rain in heavyweight history. And I'm looking forward to see what happens. Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow.

Those are some bold thoughts there and I appreciate them very much. And so let's see, you know, the thing is the John Jones story, he doesn't get to just kind of sail off into the sunset now because we're gonna have to see how this whole thing plays out. He's due in late July, which is in about a month.

I think it was July 24th if my memory serves me correct. So let's see, but for now, Tom can move on. Let us see what they do with him this weekend, if anything. And let's see if he pays a visit to our Vegas studio. You know what I feel bad for in all of this? Tom's going to have some fun. I feel bad for Khalil Rowntree. It's like that fight never even happened.

I feel like he got five minutes in the sun and everyone moved on, including us, it's just because it was such a massive story, but he deserves a lot of credit. People didn't like the fight. I thought the fight was fine. I actually thought, especially in the first couple of rounds, like he was clinical. He was poised. He was patient. He attacked the legs.

I mean, I thought he fought a very smart fight. And then that moment afterwards where Jamal's like stepping to him and I don't know what he's saying. I don't know what he's implying that he didn't fight. Look at that face on Jamal right there. He's surprised by the 50 to 45. It was the easiest fight to score. I thought it was a great performance out of Roundtree.

And to me, the fight to make is Roundtree versus Puchaska. The winner, if Pereira stays at 205, the winner of Pereira on Kaliyev fights the winner of that. It's right there. Like all of a sudden, heavyweight is where light heavyweight was a couple of years ago. And really where light heavyweight was in the immediate aftermath of John Jones, heavyweight is now in that spot in the immediate aftermath of John Jones. Light heavyweight is building itself back up and you've got a nice little four man tournament there. I had no problem with the fight whatsoever.

It was a great fight. Right. I mean, it was a great fight. Yeah. I saw a lot of complaints about it. What was the complaint? What was the boring? They want to finish. They said the boys, the fan base, contender series, all this bullshit. Like it's like, they just want finishes. They don't like that is, that is a, you don't know, you, you don't enjoy this All this bullshit. They just want finishes. You don't enjoy this sport if you couldn't watch that and go, that was spectacular. Spectacular is the wrong word. If you couldn't look at that and say, that is brilliant.

This performance that he's putting on, the work to the legs, basically being able to do what he wants with Jamal for rounds four and five because of the early work he's done to the legs. I think there's something being lost as this sport gets bigger and bigger and there's more eyeballs on it than ever. People can't just enjoy that. You're watching a soccer game, I know it's not like for like, you're watching Real Madrid and they systematically beat a team 2-0. Nobody's going like, oh for fuck's sake, they didn't score 10 goals.

It can't be just a vicious knockout all the time. I think Contender Series, because of Dana White constantly saying, we're looking for killers, you can have an excellent performance there, go to a decision, and they're just not keen on it. The incentive for the fan base has changed. They think that is the only way to be successful here. I thought it was a brilliant for from Khalil around tree Yeah

The appreciation has been reduced to like knock out sub or nothing right like yes that was that was a fantastic technical performance He was chewing up Jamal Hill's leg Ripping nasty stuff to the body like it was great It was exactly what Khalil needed to do to get in a very impressive win for a guy Who's real only like top name on his resume to that point was Alex Pereira. Now he has another guy like, I thought that was fantastic.

You guys like the Prochaska idea? Hell yeah. That's the one, right? Love the Urie idea. What a fight. What a freaking fight. And both of them have this intensity to them. Did you see the beginning of the fight

where Jamal was just like standing there like this and he just kind of walked up? Oh, Lille. What did I say? Oh, I said Jamal, sorry. Yeah, yeah, yeah, round tree. Yeah, what was that? What are up. Oh, real? What did I say? Oh, I said, Jamal, sorry. Yeah. Yeah. Roundtree.

Yeah. What was that? Yeah. And then we later find out dudes on a torn meniscus as well. Yes. We came out today. Unbelievable. Uh, I would love to see that fight and I would love for the winner.

There's something about roundtree man. There's something about him. He's got this like, I hate to say that word aura, but like he does have it. He has that intensity, that aura. He has that thing that you want. And he's really come into his own, especially since the, the prayer fight. Fazeeb gets a win. I was just going to say on Khalil, the thing that to me,

that is so special about him is everybody else gives everything they want to do so much. They want to do promotion, this, that, the other. He's the guy who goes the opposite way. He holds everything and he doesn't want to let you in. And so when you get those little wanna do promotion, this, that, the other. He's the guy who goes the opposite way. He holds everything, and he doesn't wanna let you in. And so when you get those little peaks of it, you're like, holy shit, there's something about this guy

that I am drawn to, he is magnetic. And then you get the little kernels. I love everything he's doing. Can we have the Jamal Hill conversation, or is it? What's the conversation? I think we should, I think it's the second half of this equation, you know? The Jamal Hill conversation or is it? What's the conversation? I think we should, I think it's the second half of this equation, you know? The Jamal Hill conversation is, you know,

the things that had to happen for him to become a UFC champion were extraordinary. Yuri's fighting Glover, Yuri gets hurt, they ask Glover to stay, he doesn't wanna stay, he doesn't wanna fight, you know, an interim, or you know, he doesn't wanna wait,. He doesn't want to fight, you know, an interim or, uh, you know, he doesn't want to wait. So they do this, this vacant title fight between Jan Bokovic and Magomed Onkalaev. That fight ends in a draw.

Wasn't the best fight. And so then they book another vacant title fight for Glover and Jamal Hill. Which is insane in itself. Like to go from two guys are fighting for the title to go two other guys are now fighting for the fucking crazy. And, uh, Jamal wins fair and square. Glover retires and then he tears his Achilles and he loses the next fight to Alex Pera. The amount of things that had to happen there from Yuri's injury

to the two guys accepting the fight, Glover not being one of them. To them fighting to a draw, to them rebooking this title fight with two new guys a month later, and Glover now agreeing to fight Jamal, Jamal winning, it's a crazy thing. I don't think it's, he will probably take it like this, I don't think it's unfair to say that the circumstances in which he got the title fight were extraordinary. Now, he did have to win the fight, but then you would hope if you're part of his team that the decision kind of ages well.

He's now 0 for 3 since that fight. The other thing we have to acknowledge is significant knee injury. Like devastatingly significant knee injury, like devastatingly bad knee injury. And like, who knows what version of him. Do you mean Achilles? Didn't he have a knee or was it? Yes, it was. He tore it. Didn't he tear his ACL? Well, no, no, the Achilles was in the basketball game. No, no, but didn't he have a bad knee? He had a knee injury and then he rushed back to fight Pereira. And I think that is, that

is what you need to be selfish as a fighter. And every single one of us, when that fight was announced and famously me and Rick made the day in a white highlight reel, shout out. Our big concern that day was that guy is rushing back from an injury to please his paymaster, which is the, which is the UFC. And if you're rushing back to please these guys, and if everything goes right, perfect. This is great. I'm a company guy, they're gonna love me.

But if it doesn't, they're not gonna love you. Like that's what, I think fighters forget this all the time. I think that was a big mistake for him. To rush back and to fight that fight. Do you know at the same time that was going on, Aaron Rodgers was returning from a similar injury, right? And everyone was like, it takes this long, it takes this long. And Jamal was quicker than him. Jamal was quicker than him getting back in there. And

I think that's really messed up him. I think rushing back and trying to be that company guy and trying to have like a heroic moment and look, all fighters look for this thing. That's nothing you can take away from a fair play to him balls to get in there and do that. But I think that is one of the definitive mistakes he might've made in his career. That has him in this situation now. Yeah, it was a quick turnaround for the record.

He wins the belt in January of 23. He tears his Achilles in that basketball game in July of 23. He comes back and fights Alex right after April. No, no, no. He comes back. Yes. Well, they had to move on, but he comes back and fights Alex where, you know, he's still kind of like the uncrowned king, if you will. He loses to Alex. Then he's fighting two months later. He comes back quickly to fight on the McGregor card and then injures his knee and then it gets delayed. Remember he was gonna fight, I think he was gonna fight Carlos Olberg. No, wasn't it Roundtree? Wasn't it?

Yeah, I think OG was supposed to be Roundtree and then it became Olberg. And it became Olberg? Roundtree and then it eventually turned into Anthony Smith versus Charlie. So the Achilles was the first thing that he came back from too quickly that he came back July would be seven, eight months from an Achilles injury. Yeah, that's crazy. Too much. By the way, what's up with these Achilles injuries?

I mean, it's crazy in basketball, but like all these young guys, the Achilles injury used to be like the old man injury. Like I remember Ewing at the very end of his career had problems with his Achilles. Like it was always the old guy injury. And now it's happening to 20 year olds and late 20 year olds and early 30 year olds. I don't know what that is all about, especially in the NBA, but that's a different topic for a different day.

To your point on the run up to the, to the title, it really is crazy. Like when Yuri had the belt, he was Jamal Hill was fighting Tiago Santos in the, in the Apex as like the 10th ranked dude. And I'm pretty sure he was down on the scorecards going into the fourth before getting a KO and then three, four months later down on the scorecards going into the fourth before getting a KO. And then three, four months later, he's fighting Glover for the title. It really was just a wild turn of events

to get there in the first place. Yeah. And I think it's completely fair to be like, at the time, he was one thing, but maybe he was, maybe he's not that thing. Maybe that injury affected him, or the multiple injuries affected him. Maybe he just had that opportunity against Glover,

and that was the best he was going to be. We don't know, but the run has been mismanaged at Pizzi's point. I just don't feel like he has handled the return and all these things kind of correctly. Maybe a step down will do him good, right? Maybe a guy who is not at the level that he is fighting at because we're going Alex, Yuri, Khalil,

these are cream of the crop. These are the top guys that you can face. We had seen him lose before. It's not like he was this undefeated guy who comes up and rises like he had lost in the UFC. Maybe if we see him fighting a lower level competition, he gets his mojo back, he gets the confidence, we see where he really is at, it can turn around.

But I do think there are questions now about like, can he be at this top level anymore? Yeah, he's now 12 and four. Fazeev beats Ignacio Balmendes, his first win since July of 2022, and a great moment for him. Remember, he took that short notice fight against Mateus Gamroth, no, not Mateus Gamroth.

Justin Gaethje, Mateus was in the mix of all that. He injured his knee against Mateus Gamroth, no, not Mateus Gamroth, Justin Gaetje. Mateus was in the mix of all that. He injured his knee against Mateus Gamroth and had not fought for like a year and a half. Takes that short notice fight against Gaetje back in March, loses a close fight, gets the fight in Azerbaijan, and beats Bahamundes, who was on quite the run. I did get a text, guys, and I wanna read this, if I may, because I-

Oh, pray tell. I offered the opportunity to come on. I did get a text guys and I want to read this if I may because I oh I tell I Offered I offered the opportunity to come on. I feel like you know what I'm going to say here This is a text from manager to the stars Danny Rubenstein Oh, we love Danny on the show tomorrow Make sure you bring up how on the boys in the baku both Connor and Eric picked Bahamundes over Faziv. Ooh, stuff. Yeah. It has been brought up.

I'm sure he texted. By the way, it has been brought up by Danny to us. Okay, all right, wow. I said, why don't you come on the show and tell them yourself. And he goes, no. No, no, no, Danny did tell us here. Let me read it. Several times actually.

Oh, wow, wow, wow. Yeah, more than once. And the second the fight ended, I was in the middle of texting him and he beat me to the punch. It's crazy that in the moment that his client is winning, he's thinking of texting you. Yeah, yeah. Also, we didn't put on this slanderous campaign

of just like, Fazeeb's got no shot, he's fucked, he's cooked, there's no chance. We were just like, the size disparity of all. I also pointed out, gotta get the takedowns, gotta go to the body. He did both those things successfully. He must have listened. I was gonna say, Danny were just like, the size disparity of all. I also pointed out, you know, gotta get the takedowns, gotta go to the body, he did both those things successfully. He helped to get the double. He mostly listened. I was gonna say, Danny was probably like,

you know that guy on the boys on the back, actually made a good point, man, maybe mixing the takedowns there off that. This is what Danny said to us before the fight, important to... Uh-oh. No, no, it makes Danny look good because Danny was ultimately right.

Bomb Monday's has never fought anyone, too many people giving him credit. Basically, we just saw a much shorter guy, starch a much bigger guy in the Marab and O'Malley fight. I don't get this line. He was basically saying like, I know everybody's looking at the physicality of Bahamundes, but look at who Faziv's faced

and look at who Bahamundes' face. Like, you know, take a look at that. I said, Danny, you certainly have to understand why a guy with a massive size advantage and finishing capability is at least favored in this fight while backing your guy who has proven. Certainly could see a hindsight, quote unquote, this guy was favored over Faziv playing out,

so I kind of protected myself there. And then what do we see in hindsight? This guy was favored over Fazeev? Like it was kind of obvious, right? Like we should have probably backed Fazeev here. Like the veteran experience, the diversity of the game, incredible performance. And a guy that I don't think gets enough credit for those last two fights with Justin Gaethje were just some of the best fights and I and everybody was kind of like moaning ahead of that second Gaethje matchup dude is nasty and for my money I actually thought he could have been a main event in Azerbaijan if

yeah the right opponent for him it could have been a main event he's incredible Faziv and shout out to Danny who reps him but Faziv is incredible man. Shout out to Danny for riding for his guys. No, that's what you want, right? You want to go all the way back there. Walk on all the way back. No, no, a bomb one is a big size advantage. You know, remember last week's show when you guys both picked a guy who got 30, 27.

I'm still laughing about that. Wow. He texted us before the fight, as soon as the fight ended, and then a day later. Amazing. Incredible. But fair play to him. We let him, we let him chetch.

He was absolutely right. Mikhtabek Oralbae with the big Kimura win, submission win over Taufik Mosayev. That was a very nice one thought maybe he might get a performance bonus. Our boy Nassim Sarikhov with the incredible win over Nicolas Mata a Contender for round of the year, maybe fight of the year when it's all said and done

Mohammed Naimov with a win Commiserations to our good friend the Welsh gangster Oban Elliott losing to CEO Kyon co that was a tough one There's nothing really that you could say. It was just a tough, tough night at the office for him. I do think that he will be back. He is saying and doing all the right things, uh, a tough, tough outing against a very good young fighter as well. So let us see what about the iron turtle guys? What about him?

I mean, what a fucking beast this guy is. Sane. So the punishment, the the punishment, the illegal punishment that this man had to endure, everything. I mean, the dude, Narduev, thought he won the fight. It was shades of Chris Cyborg and Shayna Baszler back in the Elitics, he did. It was crazy, the whole thing.

Like, he's celebrating, like the fight is over and the guy is just on the floor, eyes exploding and all this stuff. In the end, he wins via nan adipocision. Tough as nails. I mean, I can't believe they continued the fight after that. And it's just like, yep, keep on going, brother. And not only did he keep going, like the third round, he just dominated.

It was incredible. They took two points away from him. He didn't even need the two points. He was like, you know what? Keep the two points. I'm gonna fight through all this cheap bullshit and I'm gonna win anyway. It was great.

But this is 29.25 the card, right? That's insane. Yeah, that was one of the cards. This is what makes him such a legend though. It was like, yeah, he's tough as shit and he'll come to fight and we see it in the performances. He's incredible. He's an absolute legend. Know him off so close to winning that fight, man.

Within a second he went from nearly winning the fight to you're getting disqualified, mate. He jumped on the cage. He was up on the cage and he's like, come on, shower, shower me with praise. Like, this is incredible. And then they're like, hold on, man, get down. Respect to me though, as the referee, you can see bro didn't even start like taking off.

He's not even halfway across the octagon and like ref is like time, time. Do we acknowledge that GC was in the bag for iron turtle and that's the only reason it wasn't called there? And that was actually me. I would have called it DQ. Or maybe I wouldn't have. Maybe Iron Turtle would have been like, don't do it. Eyes gushing blood. He's just like, don't do it. Let me keep going. I got this. But they wanted blood out there in Azerbaijan. He was failing the tests the referee was giving him. They're like, can you see? He's like, no. And they're like, hang on, hang on. Relax for a second.

Think about this. Chill for a second. Just chill for a second. How many fingers? You might be able to see in five minutes. Four. All right, he's good to go. A lot of people were crapping on the crowd,

but really they didn't have a ton to cheer for. I know, Pete, so you did talk about the decisions, like 10 of 12 were decisions. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Some of them were kind of tough. Like I understand not every fight needs to be a finish, but like that. And then finishing the Atlanta card with six straight decisions, like it can get kind of like, all right, like let's, let's get some action. Something. Yes. That's fair. I was kind of talking about the main event and isolation,

but like, of course I can understand like in the crowd, but I'm more talking about the online people being like, Oh, this is, you're sitting at home relaxed. Do you know what I mean? It'd be like, I want to see an NBA game with only dunks. Yeah. Like that's great, but that's not real. Like you can't see that. Unfortunately. So if every decision was like the iron turtle decision, I mean, we'd be, we'd be

happy people. And then by the way, they do the all dunks in the all star game and nobody wants to see it. So like, it doesn't work. It doesn't work. Uh, not only did we have UFC on Saturday afternoon on ABC, uh, to Andrei Rylovsky for winning his BKFC debut. He defeats Josh Copeland. Jessica Ai won her BKFC debut.

She got a smooch at the weigh-ins and then got a win on Saturday, so shout out to them. We did have the PFL return, and one of the big stories was Kevin Lee's debut for the PFL. Unfortunately, it was another tough loss for him and he seems to be insinuating that this is it. He even posted a video of his jaw being wired, which is quite gruesome.

In case you missed it, here it is. You know, I'm proud of what I was able to do during that fight. My jaw might be wire shut. I might be drinking out of a straw, but at least I was able to go out there, test myself. I'm no coward. I ain't never been a coward. My body just gave out on me. My heart was there. I was proud of the way I prepared. I was able to make the weight on short notice. And I was in tremendous shape.

But the fight just didn't go the way I expected it to go. My legs just never got underneath me and I knew I was fighting a tough opponent and kid the world champion for a reason. So I don't hang my head for a second. I'm proud of what I was able to do in this sport. Proud of what I was able to do last night. I can go and tell my kids, your daddy ain't no coward. I showed up, I put it all out there, put my heart on the line. And yeah, I'm proud of that. We'll see what's next. The man he lost to was Gatsi Rabadonov.

Remember that, when you see that, when you crap on some of these fighters for being maybe, you know, I don't know, Pastor Prime, whatever, like Kevin Lee, I know at times has given people reasons to feel some sort of way about him. The guys out there trying to... live his dream, continue his dream, fight whomever he can fight, and it's hard to see. It really is. I've always enjoyed talking to him, watching him. He's sort of a killer be killed type of fighter. And so do wish him a speedy recovery.

Pizzi, there's a lot of talk about, you know, the, the UFC needs an influx of fresh blood. Four new European fighters signed to the promotion. Any interest in the likes of a Shemrock? Any interest in the likes of Auntie Delia, Robert Rukhalla, Jakub Wicks locks. I pronounce that correctly. Don't think so. But yeah, look shamrock huge following me from one of the

all time great names by the way. Yeah. I, I haven't got to the bottom of his link to Ireland. He, I know he trained with a Dublin combat Academy for a long time over here. He has a wild story. I know he told you about this already where he was kind of on the run for a crime he didn't commit for some time. I think it ended up with an arrest at some stage in Ireland, but he was later let go. But a really, really talented guy, a great submission artist, not too unlike Paddy, his great training partner. I think he's going to bring a lot of energy.

The talk is he is signed to the UFC proper as opposed to Dana White's Contender Series. That's the way things have been going for guys in the European scene lately. And to the leisure of course, a veteran. He is a training partner of Tom Hospital and speaking to the hospitals, this guy is one of the best guys in that training room. He is there giving hard rounds to absolutely everyone in there. It's crazy to think these guys from all over Europe are coming to Wigan now on the outskirts of Manchester to train with Andy and the lads, but they all love him.

I believe the other two lads are Polish fighters who are well supported as well. Good signings and looking forward to seeing what the lads do. I'm particularly excited about Shamrock. I think he's riding the momentum of next generation. Obviously, Patti is sky high at the moment. Reminds me a lot of SBG when Conor first broke through. A lot of the people around him start getting opportunities on him. I'm glad to see it. Love it. It's good to see. I mean, another heavyweight in the mix, another heavyweight leaves the PFL ranks.

So let's see. Like going with big wins as well. Big wins. Is Andzi trained with Aspinal? That's right, yeah. He does indeed. I mean, who doesn't train there? If you're going to take yourself serious,

the heavyweight, you got to get out of the wig, and now you got to go with big Andy. What about this tweet from someone named John Jones? I don't think it's the same John Jones saying to Kevin Lee, Kevin, I think you need to have a real convo with Ali and ask him why Gutsy was the fight you had to take as your first in PFL. For the record, he was put in a tournament,

so I mean, as much as I wanna sit here and crap it, I mean, you're a replacement. In any event, he could have easily got you a fight on the finale card in August against a more suitable opponent for your debut. In my opinion, he set you up to make Godse look good, get a good high level name on his record and there's Kevin saying, I know. So that's tough.

That's tough. So like the one thing you can say for the PFL though, like in all this time of like the UFC and not making the fights that everyone wants to see. Like, thank God that they are right. Thank God that they're getting their Hughes and it was my fight. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Um, let's see what happens there because it sounds like they're trying to wiggle their way out of it. In fact, I got some texts after our conversation, Pizzi. Yes, I got some texts. Thank you for reminding me so much has happened since our last show where some people didn't seem to love our conversation regarding this

There's they they can try to convince themselves Any which way that what they're doing is the right thing delaying this if there's one thing we learned about the fight game Over the past, I don't know six to eight months is if you got something Book it now because guys could slip guys could could lose guys could get injured because guys could slip, guys could lose, guys could get injured, and all of a sudden your big fight has gone poof. Unless you promise this fight to, I don't know, some country in the Middle East and your next time going there is only a few months away and you want to keep people active. Or unless you promise a fighter who, I don't know, is maybe trying to leave the promotion at some point in order to take the spot of his, you know, of his, of his friend

and training partner who has left a division that he would enter. I don't know. That's very specific. That's very specific. It's a crazy thought, I know, but if you're not doing Hughes versus Usman next, because it's the only interesting thing happening in the promotion right now. And the only interesting thing, miles and miles away, if you're not doing that next and you're actually seriously trying to convince yourself that it's the right thing to do to not do it next, then I, I, I don't know what to say. I really don't. I'm at a loss.

Like, like, I mean, if we did a poll of everyone on this panel right here and asked them, what is the only fight, like name the best fight the PFL could put on right now. We all know what the answer is going to be. I would challenge you to give me another two names on the PFL roster that you could put together that is in any way as close in terms of interest to Paul Use v Use Man 2. It's insane. PFL need to get people to watch the product. This is a guaranteed way to do that. You have the fight of the year already.

It's right there. People won part two. It was a fucking brilliant fight. It was so close. People, I walked down, I was in Belfast. There was people still giving me the breakdown of how they scored a fucking rounds. And not to mention again, I'll say it.

You sold a ticket to Belfast. 8,000 people bought them saying, this is the last time you're going to see Paul Hughes because he's going gonna be fighting for the world title next. That's bullshit. That's all I got. No, you're right. You're 100% right. And if I'm Paul Hughes who has done his best to fly the flag and every opportunity when people are asking about the state of PFL is like no, I love it here. I love what they're doing. I love being a PFL fighter. This is how you repay him by trying to do this sort of bait and switch thing, or at least say, no, no, no, it's going to be bigger.

It's going to be bigger. Trust me. No, it's not going to be bigger. Nothing's going to change. And in fact, you're just playing with fire because someone could slip or, or, or someone can leave the promotion. How about that? Oh, wow.

It's almost like we can all see what's happening here. It feels like, right. What they're trying to do is get us man out. Like, Ousmane is the champion and then Paul becomes a champion. That's what I think is happening. Yeah. Yeah. And that's a silly fucking game to play. The other big news, by the way, if you're a fan of this was on Friday in the closing moments of Smackdown. John Cena recreated the infamous CM Punk pipe bomb of 2011. Same scenario, almost, with changing some things here and there, using the same exact verbiage. It was a great visual. There he is, sitting above him. Now the one awkward thing was, this was like a seven minute promo, and Punk had to like lie there for seven minutes

in between the pieces of the Slim Jim branded table, which is just a wild thing. Vince McMahon rolling in his grave at the sight of that. But it was great stuff from Cena and really probably the most, I think, effective and interesting stuff that he has done since turning heel. Even did the breaking the fourth wall thing, saying hello to the likes of Matt Cardona and Nick Nemeth, Claudio Castiglioni. So go check that out if you're interested in it, but the nod to the 2011 infamous pipe bomb in Las Vegas was, was kind of cool if you're an OG fan.

Um, the likes of John Cena, CM Punk, and many others were at fanatics fest this past weekend. So are we. And it was a great time. I hope you went. I heard they had like over 150, 170,000 people come through over the three days. Uh, they really treated us great. And I was really excited to be able to talk

to two absolute legends in their own right. And so we said to them, hey, we're doing this. People are giving me crap about this on Thursday and Friday. Oh, you don't care about your fans. You don't care about your fans. No, of course we were gonna record it. So we said, we'll do it, but we want it recorded so that we could play it for all of you.

Two great conversations with Ice Cube. Ice freaking Cube, O'Shea Jackson Sr., straight out of Compton. And then a conversation with the greatest of all time, George St. Pierre. Now this conversation happened on Friday, but we talk a lot about John Jones, and a lot of it is very pertinent, and dare I say even more pertinent on this Monday. So here it is, sit back and relax. My conversation in front of a live audience with Ice Cube and GSP, enjoy. It's a huge honor for me to say hello to our first guest.

This band needs no introduction. I personally just woke up in the morning and I had to thank God. I don't know, but today seems kind of odd. Let's say hello everyone give it up to O'Shea Jackson Sr. aka Ice Freakin' Q! Yeah! Yeah, yeah! What's up my man? Thank you so much. Look at this. Living legend right here with us.

The founder of Big 3. So great to have you here my man. Thank you. Great to be here. I'm boys with your son, Junior. Because I'm a big pro wrestling guy. He's a big pro wrestling guy so he was on my show. But to have you here is a really big deal.

So thank you so much. Is Junior in the house today? He's at the hotel right now. He's at the hotel? He's on here? Yeah, yeah, he's at the hotel. He got, I guess he got his own things to do around here, so... Fair enough. He wasn't hanging with me today.

Well, you're doing big things, and by the way, Big 3 is killing it. Thank you. And it's actually apropos that we're here today because we focus on fighting on combat sports. And just last week you guys had a little scrap. Yeah, we had a little scuffle, you know. I love it, you know, in a way, you know, cause it's all about the competition.

Course we don't want our guys fighting on TV, but we do want them to be passionate. We do want them to play to win. And we don't want them to take no shit up there. You know what I'm saying? So, you know, that's what sports is missing right now is, especially basketball is little mano-a-mano in your face. Trash talking never hurt nobody.

There's too many friends in basketball. Too many friends. Right? 90s basketball, Knicks, Bulls. Those guys were friends behind the scenes, but when they got on the court, they were fighting. Oakley was fighting Jordan. I mean, they really want to win, I think, when it comes to fans.

We don't want to see friends play. We want to see enemies play. Yeah. You know what I mean? We want guys to go go at it because that's what it's all about It's all about the competition So who won that fight by the way Lance Stevenson or Dwight Howard? Did you guys see this Dwight Howard and Lance Stevenson? You know what? Dwight got skills, you know, he was able to get him

know what? Dwight got skills, you know what I mean? He was able to get him. I think he was trying to toss him. He couldn't really toss him because Lance, you know, he had his heavy base on him. So they end up tumbling into the stands and then I lost Sida who was really winning after that. So I'm gonna have to give it to Dwight because he was able to kind of yoke him up a little bit. I agree. By the way, are there any, like, how do you feel about it? Fines, suspensions? No fines, no suspensions.

Wow. Yeah. I like that. You know, we looked at it and they got throughout the game, so that's punishment enough. Like, they already got punished for that game. Why should we? Punish him again for the next game or take money from them, you know, no punches thrown Little bit of hugging a little bit of kissing. I like it No need for fines, you know

Not at all. No crazy man You see now they'll call flagrant fouls on taps. Stuff that Bill Ambir was doing to Michael Jordan, he would have gotten suspended 35 games this year. Yeah, I think that's what people love about the Big Three. We playin' the game the way it's supposed to be played. Nobody likes to see tiki-tack fouls. The players don't like to play like that. They want to play hard.

They want to bang. They want to get physical. So why not let them play the way they naturally want to play and not try to police them, not try to police their personalities. Let them be themselves, play the game to the highest level and get the edge, you know. Sometimes that gives you the edge when Let them be themselves, play the game to the highest level, and get the edge, you know? Sometimes that gives you the edge when you can trash talk a little bit, you know? I want to pitch you an idea. I was thinking about how we could take the big three to the next level.

All right, I'm with that. And I want you to succeed. I'm a fan. I'm a huge basketball fan. And I love seeing the older guys get this opportunity to kind of go out on their own terms and have fun Yeah, so big three in case you don't know is three on three, right? You have all these legends who go toe-to-toe in the summertime eight season, right? This is your eight season Yeah, you guys are killing it. You know in the Olympic Games, there's a three on three. Yeah basketball tournament, right? Yeah, we've been trying to get our athletes in that you guys gotta get there Who wouldn't want to see Dwight like the best three guys from the

big three take on the rest of the world they represent team USA cuz I was at the Olympics. They call Adam Silver. He's not letting you? No, call Mark Tatum. Why are they why are they hating? Gotta ask them you know we got the best three on three athletes in the world it's not world. It's not even close. It's not even close. So we need to have our athletes in the Olympics representing, bringing the gold back to America. You know, seeing the gold go to these other countries is kind of retarded when we know we got the fucking players.

You know, we got the players to win the gold. So they should use our players, man, and stop playing these politics. It would be so great. I was at the Olympics last year. I think the gold medal game was France, Lithuania. You put in some of your best three guys. It would be great for the league, great for the sport,

and they'll be able to hang with them. Our worst three guys can handle those dudes you know I mean we got the best players in the world you know when it comes to three on three we got the best league in the world when it comes to three on three so why not they do it with the NBA they let the NBA players represent and bring home the gold why not let the big three players represent the United States and bring home the gold. Why not let the big three players represent the United States and bring home the gold. Does the NBA give you trouble? Are they are they keeping their distance from you? What's going on there? They hating a little bit. Why? Not the players. No, the like the brass. The players love us,

the owners love us, the GM's love us, the coaches love us. Just the front office, you know, the front office got a problem us. Just the front office, you know, the front office got a problem with the victory. Why is that? Man, you know, I guess we doing it too good. We changing the game. You know, we doing what we supposed to do. You know, they didn't want to be a part of it,

so, you know, I can't. It don't make crazy man sense if you ask me, you know, and so when it don't make crazy man sense if you ask me. You know, and so when it don't make crazy man sense, I don't try to figure it out myself, so I don't know. Do you still love doing it? Do you still, it's a grind, right? It's a lot of work. Yeah, I still love it.

You know, it's been a lot of work to get the big three to season eight, but I love it. You know, it's been my most fulfilling project in entertainment has been the big three. Well, I remember back in 2017, you had the T-Mobile Arena booked on the same day as Mayweather McGregor. Yeah.

You had it first. Yeah, we had it first. And they tried, what happened? What ended up happening? They tried to like elbow you guys out, right? Well, yeah, they booked it on the same day as we booked our shit. And we was like, yo, you know, they was cool about it though. They was like, can we work something out?

And we ended up working something out. What happened? Well, they cashed us out a little bit. But you know, they also, we did a co-promotion with Dana White the UFC okay you know Mayweather they did a co-promotion with the big three they came to our our championship game that was earlier in the day we we moved the event okay so they can have the arena and you know we we made a great business decision okay very smart by the way I And you know we we made a great business decision.

Okay very smart. By the way I follow you on social media. A couple of days ago did someone in TSA steal your iPad? What happened? Well yeah I put my carry-on got accidentally put under the plane. Okay. So when I went into it to look, you know, when it came through baggage claim, my shit wasn't in there, you know, and I was like, whoa. So, you know, I went to 10 because I need that. Yes.

I need that iPad, you know what I mean? So I went to 10, and they came up with it. Who looked it up? Who found it? Well, what it is, they put it in a whole nother compartment in my luggage Oh that I didn't look here, so I mean where I put it right right right, but it was in your bag the whole time It was in there. You went to Twitter, and you went nuts. I went nuts because Don't touch my shit. I feel you. I put a little card in there saying we touch your shit

But don't touch it. It wasn't nothing in there to touch. touch your shit. But don't touch it, there wasn't nothing in there to touch. That's right, that's right. Don't move shit either. Yeah. You can't put it in a different compartment. Hell no, don't move my shit, don't touch my shit. Respect.

So by the way, I wanted to ask you, your son is like hardcore wrestling fan. Did he get that from you? Like are you the one that got him into wrestling? No, no. He got into it himself. Are you a big wrestling fan? I used to be. Like what era?

I'm a Superfly Snooka and I guess Hulk Hogan was the man back then. He was, yeah. Now people don't like him so much. Yeah, Superfly Snooker was my man. You know, that was my favorite wrestler. But then, yeah, you know, it was the Iron Sheik and all these other eighties. So like you're talking like eighties. Yeah, yeah, the glory eighties, you know,

when it went from just being some obscure thing to, you know, nationwide. So I'm around the same age, and when I was watching in the 90s, my dad would get mad at me. He'd be like, turn this crap off. You should go do something else. Go outside.

Were you the same way when your son's up there watching? No, man. I respect wrestling. You know, these are athletes and the shit they do is mind blowing, as far as how acrobatic they are and how athletic they are. So I always respected the game, even though I know it's a storyline to it, but it ain't fake.

You can't fake the kind of shit they be doing sometimes. So I see him at all the big events and whatnot. when you were coming up like when you were with NWA When you were in the 90s did you used to go to the big fights in Vegas? The the boxing and all that were you ever at any of those classic fights? I went to a couple I went to a couple of Tyson fights. Oh wow, and then I said I'm not going no more man cuz Those fights will last three rounds and shit. You know, you get dressed, you know what I mean?

You pack, you get to Vegas, you know, you check in, you ready for a fight, and the fight lasts 10 minutes. So I was like, man, I need to watch these on TV. Not worth it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm a pay-per-view man, I need to watch these on TV. Not worth it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm a pay-per-view man. I respect it. I know we're in New York right now.

Are there any baseball fans here? I gotta say, I went on a whole thing on my show back in October, and I know we're in New York, but I have to keep it real. Keep it real. There we are. Yankees Dodgers, game one, Dodger Stadium. And we have to keep it real. I know there's probably Yankee fans here,

but we gotta keep it real. All right, screw the Yankees. Screw them, I'm not a Yankee fan. I'm a Blue Jays fan. Shout out to the Blue Jays. Listen, this dude comes out from the outfield and it's the greatest sporting event, live performance that I've ever

seen I mean you crushed it it was a this was a boxing round it's a 10-7 you know what I mean it was a knockout and then another knockout it was so freaking good the timing the way was shot the time of day you freaking nailed that shout out shout out that was unbelievable what you did you know what I'm talking about right game yeah it was great it was actually game two it was game two it was and nailed that. Shout out, shout out. That was unbelievable. What you did, you know what I'm talking about, right? Game one? Yeah, yeah, it was great. It was actually game two. It was game two. It was on the Saturday night. My bad, my bad. I was supposed to do game one, but Fernando Valenzuela died. And so they was like, can

you do game two? And I was like, yeah, you know, I'm thinking in my mind shit. I hope they win cuz When you went when your team lose it in the World Series or the finals Nobody's in the mood for no rapping and shit. You know you like let's get this game to going yes. Yes. Yes, so By Freddie Freeman hitting that grand slam credible it set me up to have a great performance because nobody knew I was performing. It was game two. The building was already electric. It was amazing. So we just put the cherry on top.

But if the Lakers, I mean if the Dodgers would have lost that game, it might have been a different performance, you know? Well, afterwards everyone was like, all right, how's New York going to respond? And again, I have to keep it real. I love Joe, but that was the difference in the performance, the acoustics, the sound. Were you watching that being like, oh, this is the response?

I'm good. Well, I was watching because I wanted to see what the Dodgers was going to do. But you had to have seen that. He was in a tough situation. Why's that? Because you're performing and your team is down 0-2. Yeah. Don't nobody want to see you perform when you're down 0-2.

They want to get the game going. Let's try to get a win so we 2-1. You know what I mean? So he had an uphill battle. But you have to admit the performances weren't quite the same. Well you know, I mean, so he had an uphill battle, but you have to admit the performances weren't quite the same Well, you know, I'm ice cube. Yeah I've been doing this for a long time And so I've been doing this since

This is 40 years now since 85 Unbelievable. So I Got I got a couple years owning. Yeah for sure. Speaking of the Lakers by the way, 10 billion? What do you make of that? Man, I was a little, I bought 10 billion short. Yeah. But hey, you know, when it gets to that level, I think you got to cash out because there's only so many people that can buy your team after you reach 10 billion. The buyers start to shrink.

And so when you find somebody that wanna do that and you built it to that level, it's probably time to cash out. Especially, you know, if the bus family didn't see nobody else who could run it, you know, could keep it going. You know, you don't want the family to lose some shit y'all built, you know what I mean? You want them to be able to run it. And if you look around and nobody can run it, it's time to sl run it. And if you look around and nobody can run it, it's time to sling it. But not having the bus family as the owners of the Lakers, that's weird, right?

I mean, for as long as- Very weird. Right? Yeah, because they were amazing owners. They was always able to land a great free agent. They was there, they brought Bob McAdoo to town. Oh yeah, from Buffalo. I know people say Magic and Kareem,

yeah, but to keep it going, you gotta bring in pieces. They bring in people like Bob McAdoo, they bring in people like Shaq, they bring in LeBron, even trading for Kobe, you know, they just made all the right moves at the right time. Do you believe that the NBA... Are you a conspiracy theory guy? A what?

A conspiracy theory guy. I don't really know what that is. You know, I believe in... That's a lot of bullshit going on, if you want to know. For real. So a lot of people think that the NBA orchestrated the Donchich trade Yeah, to put the evaluation higher. I don't know about that. That's crazy I would say more that they made sure that Dallas got the number one pick

You know like doing that the evaluation thing and all that that's It's like mad scientist stuff, you know But that truck but that fucking number one pick was suspicious It started having like four years four or five times in a row Somebody lose a best player and then they get the number one pick. Yes. Yeah, who do you like Pacers or thunder in game seven? I want the Pacers to win. Why is that? Because of Mike Epps. You know Mike Epps from Indiana.

And he ain't never happy about shit in sports. So I want Mike Epps to have a good time and feel how it feels to win the championship. The Lakers don't want so many. I know. We beat the Pacers too. I remind them of that. So you know I want Mike to have a good time. So I want them to win for Mike. By the way I wanted to ask you a few years ago you were attached to a movie about Clarissa Shields. Yeah. Clint Strong I think it was called. Shields. Yeah. Flint Strong, I think it was called. Did it ever come out? It came out, but the movie happened during the pandemic, right in the middle of it. So they were saying I would have to get the shot or jab to be able to come back into Canada. They were shooting it in Toronto. Okay. So I was like, I'm not getting that.

So. You said F that. I'm off the movie, you know what I mean? I'm like, find somebody else. So you weren't gonna be, so is it the one that just came out now? Just with a different name? Okay, was it called, all right. It's a different title.

Got you. Hey, I wanted to ask you one last thing and then we'll let you go. I was talking to my wife before and I was like, what do you wanna ask Ice Cube? What would you wanna to ask him? And I actually thought she had a great question. What made you part of what you were like in terms of like your success early on, your motivation?

You wanted to, you know, you wanted to get out. You wanted to be, I heard you in an interview say like I want it to be big in my neighborhood but then you became big worldwide. Your kids are growing up in a totally different environment, right? They're already big. They already made it. How would you instill in them the same kind of motivation that you had to be their own person, to be successful, to have that grind, to have that mentality, that mamba mentality, so to speak?

How do you do that? Because if they just look around, it's obvious that they're growing up in a different environment than yours. Yeah, I mean, you know, it's not easy, but it's really about, you know, do you want to make a mark in this world? You know, how do you want to leave your legacy? How do you want people to remember you in this world? And you got to do big things to make a mark. You gotta be noticed.

You gotta make sure that you're working at doing your best at all times, giving 110% because you never know who's watching. You never know who's looking. Gotta have that pride in yourself. And then good things will happen. You know, it's not really about trying to go conquer the world. It's about conquering, you know, what's holding you back in yourself. I love it.

And then the world will notice when you do something great. I love it. And you have done that in music, in film. By the way, a lot of people say, Boys in the Hood, my favorite Cube movie, Higher Learning. Oh yeah. I love Higher Learning, man. Thank you.

Remy, shout out to Remy, Michael Rappaport. Yeah. Amazing, and then of course now transitioning into the big three and still doing the music, and you have a tour coming up. Yeah. You're doing a lot of big things. Everyone, make some noise, show some love

to the one and only, the often imitated, never duplicated, the inimitable Ice Freakin Cube. Thank you my man. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. All the best to you. Yeah, good luck. There he is everyone. Ice Cube in the house. In a couple of seconds we're going to say hello to Combat Sports Royalty. If you ask me, and I've been consistent, I've been consistent. Hey, show some love to Ice Cube, the one and only. I've been consistent with this. You ask me who's the greatest of all time,

I've always given you the same answer. I've always given you the same answer. There is one guy who did it the right way, who never embarrassed himself, his country, his team, the sport, the organization. He fought them all, he beat them all, and when he was ready to walk away, he walked away. He didn't hold on to the belt for himself. He won a belt in the 170 pound weight class and then the 185 pound weight class and he did it with pride, with grace and with class. He is the pride of Saint-Isidore, Quebec, Canada. The greatest of all time. Everyone make some noise for George Rush St. Pierre

the freaking man thank you so much GSP GSP GSP what a sick jacket by the way the OVO GSP how are you my friend George? Doing fantastic. Thank you for the warm welcome guys. Appreciate it. It's great to be here. It's great to be here with you. Guys, this guy is so down to earth. I'll reach out to him and text him and he'll be like, yeah no problem, I'll come on your show. With other people, you to ask like five different people just to get to the guy GSP is built different and I said recently George I said we are learning once again we are being reminded once again why you're the greatest of all time because not only did you win a belt

at 170 you wanted a 185 and you beat the guys you beat the 185 champ you didn't beat the interim champ you didn't fight for a vacant title You beat the guy who was the champ you never embarrassed yourself You never embarrassed the sport you never got suspended steroids PDs and now what we're seeing with John Jones I have to be honest with you is reminding me why and the world why you're the greatest of all time You deserve that you deserve that and I know you don't agree with me and I know you're not gonna like this No, thank you. I mean, it's a very subjective thing, you know, like, there's other guys that deserve to be there. Dimitrius Johnson. For me, my goal for me was Royce Gracie, because I believe he did certain things that will never be done ever again. So it's very subjective. Can I ask what do you make of this whole

situation with John? He's the champion and it seems like, look, when you won, when you beat Michael Bisping, two weeks later you said I'm done. This is not happening. Well it depends why he does it for. If it's for a negotiation tactics with the UFC, that's you know you have to it's a chess game but if you do it just because you want to hold back everything and it's an ego thing, this is not okay. I feel like if it's a way for him to get more money, it's okay, but it's a tactic, negotiation tactics. But if it's just because he wanna hold it as much as he wants and he knows he's not gonna go back,

this is not fair because other fighters are waiting and as an athlete you have a window. If you're past that window you can never go back. Right and no I don't know about that but here's the thing George the thing to me is as you know you always have to fight the top guy. The whole thing has to go. If Matt Hughes would have said to you no I don't want to fight you how do you then realize your dream right? If Shogun Hua would have said no I don't want to fight you, how do you then realize your dream, right? If Shogun Hua would have said no I don't want to fight John Jones in 2011, how could he

have realized his dream? And so when I hear him say, oh Tom doesn't excite me or Tom hasn't done anything, well how do you know unless you give him the opportunity to do something? That's how it works, right? You can't hold the belt hostage. So I think who's accountable right now in this situation, it's maybe the UFC. The UFC has to change their policy and I believe they have to keep the ball rolling. If the ball is not rolling, it delays everything and it can be a very negative thing for the young contenders that are waiting to get a shot for the title.

Right. Can I ask based on what you know both of them, Aspinall Jones, who do you think actually wins if they fought? It's a tough tough match to call. It's very hard to bet against John Jones because he is all is basically almost like a perfect fighter, but is Tom Espinol as what he needs to crack the code? That's the big question. Tom Espinol is certainly a type of fighter that is different than everyone else. He reminds me a little bit of Fedor Emanyalenko except that he's heavier than Fedor and it seems that to

me that he's more refined than Fedor. Is that is the updated version of what Fedor Emanyalenko was. It's a tough tough fight to call. I mean now as time goes by for sure John's athletic ability will start to diminish. It's normal you know he maybe he passes prime and Tom is in his prime right now. It's a tough in terms of accomplishment John Jones the best ever I believe. But if you talk about now, it could go either way. It could, man, it could go either way. You know I've said-

I don't know what it would be the odds. I don't know who would be the odds, but it would be interesting to see. I've said that Tom reminds me of if Frank Muir and Cain Velazquez had a child. Same type of body, same type of movement, he has a great jujitsu game, power in his hands. You see what I'm saying, right? And he moves like a middleweight. Crazy. And he's good everywhere. You know, like he's good everywhere. And he's very athletic. Like he can match John Jones athleticism. John on the other hand has so many tools like he comes out

with certain things that we haven't maybe he could come out with something we haven't seen from him yet. It's very very tough to call. I mean I would I would not like to bet on this fight because it could go eat away. By the way, I've never asked you this question. You retired in 2017, that's when you walked away after the Bisping fight. I had heard that they wanted to make like a four-man tournament the following year with you, Khabib, Nate Diaz, and there was one other person that my memory is escaping me right now. Do you remember anything of this? Do you remember this coming towards you?

I remember that we're trying to to make the the fight against Khabib and the UFC didn't want to do it in the beginning. Then I retired after. Was this right after the Bissping fight? So yeah, after the Bissping fight, we wanted to make the fight. I think it's after, it might be after. I'm not 100% sure. But I remember we wanted to make the Khabib fight. And the UFC did not want to do it because they wanted to keep the ball rolling with Khabib instead of doing one big fight taking the risk of you know after the champion lose

it's not worth it to keep the ball rolling but then after Khabib retired and after Khabib retired Dana called me and asked me if I was interested in fighting Khabib. Wow. I asked and I found it was strange because I didn't really believe it because I asked him if Khabib really wanted this fight and he said yes. So I said let me think about it. Then I called Ali Abdelaziz and Ali says that wasn't true. And then I knew it wasn't true but but then after Dana came back and says, when I try to promote a fight, I don't do three people calls at the same time, which is true.

Wow. But that's really what happened. What weight would it have been at? 55 or 70? I think it would have been maybe catch weight or... Catch weight. We didn't really discuss the term it was just hey what are you interested the first time it was on my side we decide we asked the UFC if they were willing to make the fight they didn't want to do it yeah so then a few months

after then Khabib retired a few months after Dana tried to make it because he knew we were both retired and yes he tried to make it he was into it if Khabib was into it would you have done it. I would not have choice. Who would have won? GSP or Khabib? There's only one way to find out. Yes. God damn. And we will never find out. Golly. Yeah, but listen, it's maybe it's better that way. I mean, for a fan perspective, I understand it's frustrating, but for an athlete perspective, I mean, we both finish on top and we're both happy and we make great living. I mean, in a way that if we would have fought,

one of us would have lost his sort of aura and I mean sometimes when I look back at it maybe it's a good thing you know. No one has done it better than you as far as the retirement. You didn't hold the belt hostage, you said I'm good, I'm walking away and when you were ready to come back you came back and that's what I think people need to recognize. I could have I could have hold the belt if I wanted to, but because at the time when I retired after Bisping, I was diagnosed with ulcer colitis and my condition was very bad. I was on medication and I didn't want to hold the division because I knew it was a lot of

young contenders and I knew I could stay with the belt and pirate with the belt and get all the money to sponsor for a year but I didn't want to do that because it would have put the division on hold. And I knew at the point that I knew I was not coming back, I needed to take care of my health I really wish the belt immediately after because I didn't want to do that for the respect of my peers you know. For the longest time you had the record for most takedowns but now there's a guy named Marab Dawali-Shvili did you see his fight a couple weeks ago

this guy is unbelievable. He's a freaking machine he's unbelievable it's he's a lot of fun to watch. And a gas tank for days. He doesn't stop. Gas tanks and his attack, his takedowns, the way he comes in. And you know what the interesting about Mirad is he doesn't come from a wrestling background. He comes from judo and sambo background. That's one thing that most people don't know about him. Right, right, right. And so when you are like you're at home, I know sometimes you do some work, who are the guys that you say, oh, he's fighting tonight, I have to watch? Who are

some of your favorite fighters to watch right now? Oh, I like to watch all the great, all the greatest guys like John Jones, Tom Makachev, Tuporiya, Wakanowsky, and Ghanou. I like to watch all the best guys. I watch Usman against Buckley. I like to watch the best guys because I can learn from them. Okay, so let me ask you. Islam's moving up to your weight class, right? He's fighting JDM, who just won in Montreal. You were there. How do you think he does at 170 against the champion? I don't know what weight he walks around that. If I have an advice to give an athlete

who trying to go up in weight, don't make the same mistake that I did when I tried to fight Michael Bisping. I tried to force myself Bisping. I tried to force myself, to force my body with a very severe diet to put on a weight and it got me sick. When you do it naturally it's really really hard to put on a weight. Of course there's guys that do it but they're cheating. It's not good but when you, everybody has a different type of body but for my type of body,

trying to force myself to eat and put on weight and eat five times a day on top of it, all the stress, I got really sick. So if I could give an advice to a fighter that tried to put on weight, do it, but don't think of it as a priority. You know, just focus on skill first, try to eat, but don't force yourself because it could become very detrimental for yourself. Did you watch the Jack Della Maddalena fight against Balal that night in Montreal? I watched it, I saw it live. I didn't know much about Jake, but man, this guy can fight. He's great, right?

He moves all the time, he's unbelievable. Very accurate. He makes me think of a similar style to Nick Diaz in a way that he's always in front of you in your face kind of guy always moving great boxing great kickboxing great takedown defense very crafty on the floor he comes back up great style. What do you think Balal could have done differently in that fight if anything? I think Balal should have right away come more aggressive and try to make Jake fight on his toes. I think if Belal would have fought the same way he fought Leon Edwards, it could have

been a better fight for him. I don't know if he would have won, but it could have maybe been a better fight for him. I loved seeing you in Eman Zahabi's corner, how into it you were, like when they would show you in Faraz on the camera, you were screaming so much. What were you thinking in that fight, especially when Aldo hit him with the kick? Were you freaking out? I almost had a heart attack because Eman is a good friend of mine and he's a training partner and at the turnaround he almost got knocked out he got he got two head

kick he cut he got cut with two head kick in the head and I don't know how he survived that to tell you the truth it was I had never seen anything like it like two we call that in in French penalty, you know, like the penalty in soccer is the same thing. He hit, he hit two penalties right in the head and came back, won the third round. It was amazing. Did you think he had done enough to win the fight? I think he did enough to win the fight. It was very close. I think he lost the first, I think he won the second by a slight edge, and I think he won the third. I think he won, but very, very close.

He's in the same weight class as Marab. How far away do you think he is from that top level? I think AMN needs to go right now. He's 36 or 35. It's now or never. 2025, 2026 is your right now. He needs to go right now. He can't let any opportunity slides. He needs to accept every fight that comes. Every fight that's going to make him improve his ranking, he needs to take it and aim for the title. Is it amazing for you to see him now succeeding because he was always, for us, his younger brother. He was

training, he was helping you guys, he was coaching, but now to see him get the shine in Montreal. Yeah it's amazing and A-Man is, I would say, his biggest strength. It's his fight IQ. He's someone who's very, very smart. He fights in a very intelligent way. You know some guys, they have an athletic advantage, they are powerful, explosive, they have endurance, but I would say Eamon, his strength is his fighting IQ. His ability to transform himself into the perfect nemesis of his opponent. I would say that was part of your strengths as well, right?

That was part of my strength as well. That's right. And I was very explosive too. I had a great detonation, very good to cut the distance and control the distance. Superman Punch, you made it famous. Who taught you the Superman Punch? A guy who taught me the Superman Punch. I mean I knew the Superman Punch before he taught me, but he he taught me different version of it and he helped me perfect

And it perfect and yet it's Phil nurse. Oh wow crew Phil nurse the man incredible New York is amazing Unbelievable. He was always in your corner You know it was so great that week in Montreal to see some of the legends like yourself like David the crow Loazo like Rory I haven't seen Rory McDonald at a UFC event in years. It was really nice to see him back. Do you still keep in touch with him? Because I feel like he just kind of disappeared. No, I saw Rory in the gym the other day. He trains. He doesn't train to fight anymore but he's still in shape. I see David time to time. I mean the guys they still in good shape. It's fun. Sometimes I go back to the gym and I see some of, I call them the OG. I see some

of the guys that used to fight when I used to fight and I like it when I see them because they still in good shape. They still sometimes take one of their young guys, show them what they're made of and it's fun. How do you do it? For us out there, regular people, you look like you could fight tomorrow. What is the routine like? Sometimes I see, I'll go on social media and GSP is like, just about to get started my five day water fast. So like, geez, for what?

How do you do this? How do you stay so disciplined now at your age? I do it now not to be the strongest fighter in the world. I do it more for a therapeutic use and it helps me be a better person. I do fasting, I do all these training because it makes me feel good. It's very therapeutic for me. It's a way of living. I'm a martial artist. I don't train because I have a competition. I train because I love it and it helps me be better in my own skin. What about the diet? Is it still as strict as it was?

Oh, I don't have a diet. If you would have seen me last weekend, I was at one of the events of Grand Prix Montreal. My vodka, Purcent, hosted one of the events. And Purcent bet 99, so I had to go there and I and I got pretty pretty drunk. So I don't have any dietary restriction. I just do whatever the hell I want but I burn it the next day it's fine. I love it and by the way tell the people about your new hot sauce. He sent me some of this hot sauce. It's unbelievable. It's really really great. Yeah it's very good. It's called, it's my

new hot sauce. One is called the Rush and the other one the K.O. The K.O. is super spicy. The K.O. is very spicy but it's all made of natural ingredient, no GMO. It's made with local natural ingredient and it's as healthy as it can get for a hot sauce. Unbelievable. Well, GSP, thank you so much. Guys, can we show some love to this man? I can't say enough good things about him. I remember 2008, the first time I walked into TriStar Gym and he was sitting there. That interview is still on YouTube and I felt like my heart was going to beat out of my chest. It was going to come out. I was so nervous that I was in the presence of a real life icon and at the time he was an icon. That was 17 years ago and to see this guy, please believe me, has not changed one bit.

You see superstars who change, who get a big head. He has not changed still down to earth still doesn't think he's a superstar He is as real and as good and as cool as it gets show some love to the one and only thank you George Rush thank you. Thank you. Thank you an absolute honor to have him here with us One of the greatest of all time in my opinion the greatest of all time and this has been amazing I know everyone's gonna leave now because GSP is gone. This guy's got a bills hat. I love that. Shout out to the bills Hey guys, thank you expose. Love it. Thank you for being here. Check us out on YouTube area Oh, I want to show you know what it is uncrowned calm. I appreciate you guys more than you know, much love and peace Thank you guys that was so of here. Thank you guys.

That was so much fun. Thank you very much to Fanatics Fest for having us. I'd love to be back the next time you do it. If you're in the New York area or not and you have an opportunity next year, it sounds like they're going to do it again. Go. Absolutely go. Because if you're walking around and you're a sports fan, it's really like a sports heaven. Your head is on a swivel, you're like,

oh my God, there's that guy, that guy. People are just walking around. If you're a collector, you love memorabilia, you love cards, heaven. If you love merch, heaven. If you love just taking it all in, heaven. I brought my kids, I brought my wife, I brought my nephews and their friend, and they were, my nephews just like left us.

They went to Travis Scott's concert, they're hanging out with Adam Schefter, they've got all these people. We run into Chris Weber, Dwight Howard. Like I said, we were in the green room and there's all these people like, what am I doing here? This is wild.

The way they all work to make that happen, there's multiple stages, and I was only there on Friday. On Saturday, you see LeBron there, Wemby's there, Tom Brady's there, the whole freaking weekend, the amount of stuff that came out of there. Kevin Durant is getting traded in front of everyone. All the WWE stuff, the, the, the, the entrances, KSI is there. Logan Paul's there. It's incredible.

It really is. And, and, and last year, one of the highlights at Fanatics Fest was the fact that they did this, um, Jake Paul versus Mike Tyson presser. I was an ad it, I was out of the country. This time they did Canelo Crawford, which is great. They also had a summer slam kickoff on, on Saturday. So at the, at the presser for Canelo Crawford, which is great. They also had a summer slam kickoff on, on Saturday. So at the, at the presser for Canelo Crawford on Sunday,

it was actually the second leg of their world tour. The third leg is going to be Friday in Las Vegas. Maybe we'll go. And it was interesting because on Thursday, Dana White wasn't there, but it was a great setup. It was a great setup. And they announced a few things, including a six-figure bonus, which I think is a little bit interesting because these guys are making hundreds of millions of dollars.

Do they really need a six-figure bonus to entice them? Anyway, this is the first face-off. This is on Thursday in Riyadh. This is Terrence Crawford and Canelo Alvarez, which is, you know, it's kind of surreal seeing them side by side. Bull Mac in the house, Richard Schaeffer on the left as well. Canelo obviously looks a little bigger,

but I don't think as big as people thought. There they are. Pretty respectful. Stoic. I don't think as big as people thought. There they are, pretty respectful, stoic, unflappable. On and on it goes. They also announced, by the way, that they'll have a record-breaking 140,000 pounds, which equals 188,000 or so dollar belt on the line, which is quite unique. Later that day, some photos were posted of them all enjoying a nice dinner with the man

in the middle, Turkey Al-Sheikh. What's on the menu there? It looks like an incredible meal. Anyway, at the presser on Sunday, they bring out the fighters, they bring out Turkey. He then talks about how, you know, sorry, this didn't get announced in May, this and that. We made it happen. Nick Khan, I told you all this. He's the one that kind of salvaged it all. And then he brings out Dana,

which I saw some of the MVP Jake Paul guys, not loving that, saying it should be about the fighters. Dana comes out, does this thing, announces that Max Kellerman is gonna be on the broadcast. We haven't heard from Max in quite some time since he left ESPN about two years ago. And then they have their second face off. Well, technically their third, if you count in the ring

following the William Skull fight, and it's dramatically different this time around. What changed? Poor manners? I don't know, but look, much different. Here's a push, Dana's in the middle, oh snap. By the way, it's a little different. It's a little different in boxing.

The trainers aren't up there in MMA. It's usually, you don't have the Richard Schaeffer's in there, all the security. It's a little different, right? And so there you have it. September 13th, Las Vegas, you guys pumped. Did this make you guys more excited for the fight? Did you need it? I didn't need it.

I'm pretty excited. I saw some people saying the dinner was not good. The dinner's kind of odd. Two guys that are gonna scrap in three months. Yeah. What do you think they talked about? I don't know. How much money they're making?

What do you think, Frank? It's like, how's the family? What was on the menu there? I don't know. I think people are starting to get the sense, like I've been hearing more and more people be like, are they really gonna go at each other's throats? The only thing, like, you know,

the fact that they're sitting down for dinner, then it seems like this push was a little bit manufactured, right? Like it kind of came out of nowhere after the cordial last time. I don't see Bud not going for the throat. I can't say, you know, look, the Canelo, the last Canelo fight was a bit disappointing. I have to admit, I just can't see a world where bud Crawford signed

up to do anything, but go to war. So I at least have faith in that, that bud is going to try to come for Canelo's head. Yeah. I I'm pumped for it. I mean, they're two legends just seeing them face off is pretty damn cool. That was an old man. Yeah, I'm pumped for it. I mean, they're two legends, just seeing them face off is pretty damn cool. That wasn't the only big fight that was announced over the weekend,

although this one wasn't really announced. You get what I'm trying to say. What about November 16th at the Ariake Arena in Tokyo? The great Anatoly Malkin against Rogue Rogue, Part 2? Did you guys see that? This time in a cage? I did see that, yeah. Love it. Interesting. One championship heavyweight title rematch The great Anatoly Malkin against Rogue Rogue, part two. Did you guys see that?

This time in a cage? I did see that, yeah. Love it. Interesting. One championship heavyweight title rematch. In a cage this time, not a ring. Shout out. Anyway, so there you have it.

The third leg is going to be this Friday in Vegas. Should we pull up? Yeah, I'm down, bro. For free? What time? I'm not sure. Should we pull up? Yeah, I'm down bro, for free? What time? I'm not sure. Do you guys know? Should we be local?

Yeah, should we do a PFO watch party on Friday night? 10.30 PM Eastern start, 7.30 on the best coast. Let's do it from my hotel room. We'll clean up. No, I thought we'd do like at the Venetian. No, we don't have the space book then. Well, we could just hang out at the sports book. Oh, okay, yeah, yeah, just like an actual walk party.

Oh, we're just like hanging, you mean, and watch? Just, yeah, let's do it. Hang it with the boys. Yeah, I'm down. I'm down, Venetian sports book, shut out, yeah. Maybe they have a TV at the Omokaze place? Frank, you in? Let's do it.

No, Frank can't be there, because if we say we're going to the sports book, then everybody's gonna come and they're gonna see Frank's face. That's right. That's right. Frank keeps bringing up this Omakase place. I'm not sure what he's talking about.

Relent- Who, me? It's like every time he eats, he's just like, it's probably gonna be as good as that Omakase in Vegas. By the way, Frank, don't tempt me, I'll be there. Yeah, man, I know you'll tapped in. Yeah, these other ones Actually, oh It's birthday still going. It's good. So

30 days it's 30 days taking out a loan for for his 40th So we'll do the omakase. I don't know. It won't have to do anything next Matt Frank I got a great birthday present for you. Oh, no, what is this super chats? Look how quick this guy is. It's pretty quick Logan McIntyre is also quick. He says finally a new heavyweight era has begun Look at you even with that little thing there like that little transition such a pro move Charger castee little thing there like that little transition such a pro move charger cast

you're gonna say what else Dana was embarrassed the situation got out of his control UFC is 100% at fault for not making a deal with John not moving on sooner when John wasn't taking a fight making Aspen on weight blame UFC I mean they did make the deal and he did agree to it so but yes if you want to say the moving on part sure I'll concede that. What else? D-Y, ah, sending all the love from Conch Republic, Florida. Wow, what's that?

I think it's A-H, if I'm. Oh, but what's Conch Republic? Where is that, anyone know? Conch Republic? Conch Republic. Yeah, it's pronounced Conch, isn't it? Oh, Key West. Is it ah, or A-H?

I don't know, but either way, shout out. Like, Roan Nation and the Far-Outa Keys. Sounds lovely. It's great, I've been. What else? Roger Cassidy comes back in on a positive note. Let's go kill a Warrant Roundtree. Yeah, let's go.

I'm a fan, I enjoy his fighting style, his demeanor, and I'd love to know what he was thinking at the beginning of the fight when he walked up like, mm, he was almost like luring him in. It was very interesting. The psychology is off the charts. Anyways, what else? Gabe P12, thoughts on the CJI UFC BJJ sitch

and the alleged copy and paste job by the UFC. Also any plans to have Craig Jones on the program? I'd like to have Craig Jones on. He's been elusive, but we always love having him on. I'd be long if I said I was very, very up to speed on the CJI UFC BJJ. By the way, UFC BJJ, I feel like they could have done a better job, like a cooler name than that, no?

I feel like that's the right name. Okay, what about this thing where it's like they're airing the episodes on YouTube, like in the middle of the fight night on Saturday? Why are they doing that? Why, I didn't know that. That's what I think was going on, maybe I'm wrong. Speaking of names, I did see Dana asked why

or how they came up with Zufa Boxing. He said they thought about it for months. Couldn't think of something. Oh really? Okay. Yeah. You didn't see that? No, that's incredible.

Couldn't think of anything or couldn't land on anything. And then just all thought like, look, we got a ring. It says Zufa boxing. We've trademarked it. Like, let's just go with that. Great. Wild, wild, wild stuff. Um, do you think they should have gone with TKO Boxing? No.

No. I like it. Zufa Boxing. It finally became a real thing. It has cache. Oh yeah. Reputation. We've been waiting so long and now we've got it.

It is true. They have like a lot, they have merch. They've got a logo. I know, I'm trying to get a Zufa Boxing shirt. On sale anywhere? No. Gonna have to custom make it. Redbubble?

Yeah, Redbubble will get a cease and they've got a brand. I know, I'm trying to get a Zufa boxing shirt. On sale anywhere? No, gonna have to custom make it. Redbubble? Yeah, Redbubble will get a cease and desist. Uh oh. What else? Jake from Windy City. The fact is, DC is a bigger man than Jones ever was. Jones might have had the accolades,

but he will never have as much as respect in the MMA world as DC. Yeah, I guess. I don't know how DC got involved in all of this. I thought he meant one. He's his biggest rival. No, I know, but we haven't really brought up his name once. I also don't agree with the sentiment.

John will always be more respected than DC as a competitor. Now, as a human, that's a different story. Sure, sure. But is there many among us who would not be in comparison to the things John Jones has done? That bar is set pretty low. Even as a competitor, a couple of steroid pops there.

Even in the rematch. In the octagon, he's at it. Who's chatting back there? It seems like... Frank, he was mentioning something to Jordan about El Macase. What's going on back there? It's the thing that we could do like a 415 on where

we're doing a show here Frank we're also trying to produce on the front some of us are trying to make some editorial decisions on the fly on what on what you know what to show it Frank all right let's see it glad you asked so love dog says do we think that WWE will cancel their shows this week and this is what you're worried about nobody's worried we have to discuss things we're gonna discuss he paid what he paid for 99 thanks love dogs I've seen a lot of and starting with everything going. Nobody's worried, we have to discuss things. We gotta discuss. He paid, what'd he pay? 499.

Thanks, love dogs. I've seen a lot of people say this. I mean, as fate would have it, UFC was just in Azerbaijan, not too far, although obviously things have escalated. I wonder, I mean, who am I to say? I feel, I was talking to people in Azerbaijan and they said they couldn't, they

didn't feel a thing. Um, a lot of this gets pronounced or, or what's the word you see it magnified. You see it and you're like, holy crap. But it's not like, um, it's not like Iran is bombing Saudi Arabia at the moment. So like UFC was literally right next door and, and you know, the train rolled on. So I don't know.

I've seen people call for this. I've seen people, you see people start to get into arguments on social media where they, they start to like say, you know, I'm no, I'm no like world expert or anything far be it for me, but the movie should cancel. And then they start to like, you know, they start to like say, you know, I'm no, I'm no like world expert or anything, far be it for me, but they maybe should cancel. And then someone will get in their replies and argue with them.

And then they'll argue with them. It's like, well, I thought you weren't an expert. So which is it? I don't know. Who knows? It's obviously not great timing. But who am I to say that they should cancel or not there was more activity today so let's see let's see it's when in five days what else Alex the great Garcia coming in with the crow as his profile picture

I love it who love it with the UFC officially booking of Kyle versus Imavov for Paris main event, why not book. Ooh. Rufy versus PSD and the co main, the fighting nerd slash Brazil versus France. Love it. I did also love this Sadiqov idea, but yes, that's a nice, that's a nice thought right there. That's a great thought right there. Love it. Love everything about it. I'm in. Great stuff. What else? Lastly, AAK. Finally, Iron Turtle.

One thing I wanted to add to the potential context of his name, Koreans created some of the first iron-clad armored warships in the 1400s called, you can see this for yourself, or the turtle ship. Geobukseon? See, I didn't want to fall into that trap yeah Korean I don't looks good man give it a whirl thank you you're more brave man no no yeah no I appreciate that he's he's a lovable character I got a message from a zombie juniors manager said, uh, he saw the interview.

We'd love to have him on. So we're big in South Korea these days. South. I mean, Korean fighters are having a moment now where we were on the come up. One of the spots, you know, left on my, on my list that I'd love to go to. We can go, uh, we can go to Seoul on, uh, on our way

to Austin, knock them both out. go to Seoul on our way to Austin. Knock them both out. Hell yeah. On our way to Austin, Texas? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Go here to Seoul, Austin, back here. Okay, yeah, I'm down.

Actually, there is one more. Oh, wow, okay. Aunt Evans just came in at the last moment. Oh, of course. How's USC's big June turnaround going, my boys? So this is a funny one. In the midst of all this madness on Saturday, in the midst of all this madness,

there's Aunt in my private WhatsApp chat acting like this, acting like a Twitter YouTube troll with the exact same message, exact same message. And it took everything in my power not to explode on him. He's loving doing this thing now that like, hey, I'm right about the UFC being watched. Meanwhile, doesn't take anything away from the fact, and by the way, $2, like, I mean, talk about cheap. Doesn't take anything away from the fact that,

you know, they're about to score a multi-billion dollar TV deal that's going to last many, many years, but fine. But it is rich that the guy who worked for the company during way worse periods than this is trying to take this, like, victory lap tour over, like, a couple of tweets that he said. And all we said was, you know, there's big fights happening in June. And by the way, I thought the newer card was great, the top two fights. I enjoyed the main event on Saturday. Like John Jones retiring has nothing to do with June. So like the point that he's trying to prove is not really a point that he can prove because we never said anything about John Jones wasn't fighting in June. Tom Aspyn was fighting in June, but it's just funny. This is a former UFC PR guy and let's not get into this. You worked for the company. You worked for them in PR. Your job was to spin all this stuff. Stop it with this. Okay, this is not. This is not the fight that you want. Okay, just like you made a point. You had a tweet, it went viral, leave it at that,

and let's leave it at that. Like enough already, enough. Am I crazy though or hasn't June been better? Now what he's saying is like there was potential to have these four cards being credible. Baku and Atlanta were definitely a let down and 316 was all right. It's all cyclical.

Compared to what cyclical? Compared to Apex Slop, like this was fine. Compared to Apex Slop, I'm in, I am in agreeance with you. The ant thing also, it's like, I'll be scrolling and it'll just be like some random account and ant will be responding just like all caps, just like washed. Why?

Ant man. I like posted a picture from UFC Atlanta and he had like this insane metaphor like sent to me about me attending the event. I'm like, brother, we get it man. You were the head of PR. You worked for them we get it, man. You are over the UFC. You were the head of PR. You worked for them. You sound like a scorned lover. Stop it. You moved to Las Vegas. Stop. Like you worked for them. Stop. You were the guy carrying

water for this company for years. Stop. Stop, stop, stop. It's not a good look. And we love you. And oh, by the way, stop. It's not a good look, and we love you. And oh, by the way, Ant has an article on Uncrowd right now. Don Fry versus Joshua Hiro Takayama, the untold story of MMA's most iconic and tragic brawl 23 years later. 23 years ago today, one of the all-time insane brawls.

We love you, Ant. But this is annoying as fuck. If Ant was reacting to this article, Ant would say it was an overrated fight. It wasn't iconic at all. A thousand percent. That's what that would be the Ant take. Look at the technique.

Washed. It's so tiresome. Stop it. Oh, we love Ant. We love Ant. We love Ant. But Jesus Christ. Sometimes I want to go to his house and smash his head up against the wall.

What's this? All right, easy. Sorry, sorry, sorry. That fight is worth your time. You should watch the fight and you should read Ant's article. It's a great article. Because it's incredible. Shout out to Ant. Yeah. Shout out to our boy, Ant. That fight is worth your time. You should watch the fight and you should read Ant's article. It's a great article. It's incredible.

Shout out to Ant. Yeah, shout out to our boy Ant. Shout out to Ant. I enjoyed the article when he put it on his substack five years ago. I'm looking forward to reading it again. Oh, I didn't realize this was a retread. I know, I know, it's not.

But I gave him shit because he's written about this fight many different ways, but it's different when you're writing in front of five people on your substack as opposed to the number one site for all things combat sports, I get it. Do we need to do mediation? No, I get it. What's the issue here?

No, I get it. I'm trying to fucking fix my camera and my microphone and there's Ant being like, how's June going, boys? Shut the fuck up, Ant. How's your fight going? Do we need to have a sit down? Do we need to have a mind in Las Vegas? How's it going for you guys?

Are you really WhatsApping me this right now? My camera doesn't work, my microphone doesn't work, and this is what I have to deal with? I'm gonna set up a dinner, me, you, and... I want nothing to do with that dinner. I want Omokasa. Hey, we'll see you at the Omokasa. Yeah, Frank's paying, though.

See you at the Omokasa. Yeah, Frank's paying though. See you at the Omokase. What else? That was it. Oh, that was it. We had to end on a bit. It is a great article. By the way, shout out to uncrowned.com. The coverage as of late has just been absolutely stellar from Ben Foulkes' article on the John Jones

situation. Uh, we, we had, uh, Drake Riggs talking about, uh, the greatest fights that never were. Darshan, our lead boxing writer, always on top of things. Talking about the big upset of one Galahal Yafai this past weekend. We even had Jack Baer showing up talking about all things John Jones. Legal issues. What else? What else? Oh my God, I forgot to even say breaking news! How about this? This is like Shane McMahon showing up on Nitro circa 2001. The Great Mark

Raimondi aka Marundi showing up on Uncrowned.com right now. Do you guys know this? The Night WWE legend Scott Hall killed a man. It's an incredible article. It's an excerpt from his new book, which comes out tomorrow. Say hello to the bad guys. How professional wrestling's new, new, new, new, new world order changed America. We had him in studio on Wednesday. Phenomenal conversation, especially the anecdote on how he found the designer of the iconic NWO logo, but seeing Morundi's byline up there with his picture

was nice, was very nice. I enjoyed it. I saw that clip floating around. Yeah. People are picking it up. People liked it, right? Yeah. Shout out to Mark.

Shout out to Mark. Nicest guy. Nicest guy. Nicest guy in the biz. No? Nicest guy in the world. In the world. According to, on Android. In the known universe.

Yes. Um, I do want to remind you guys that it's a very special week of programming. Tomorrow, it's the boys in the back. Not me at 1 PM Eastern. What do we have tomorrow on the boys in the back, not me at 1 p.m. Eastern. What do we have tomorrow on the boys in the back? A special choo choo Tuesday edition of the program. We're gonna be breaking down all things

International Fight Week, all things UFC 315, just do a mega preview. 317. Sorry, what did I say? 315. Oh, there also will be a 315 deep dive on the back end. Perfect. Jose Aldo. Classic, Eamon Zahabi.

Postmortem. Eamon Zahabi. JDM. JDM of Rahm Ahamed. Deep dive on UFC 317. A couple of voicemails. I mean, we gotta be brief. We'll be tight, it'll be condensed

because we're pre-tip. We're heading to Las Vegas. Yes, and we're also taping an interview that's gonna air next week. More on that. Wednesday, well, some of the team flying out to Vegas tomorrow, Andy and Jordan. Shout out.

Like the responsible adults in the room, right? Some people were saying like, should Frank go? And they're like, eh, doesn't really have anything to do. We'll see if Frank makes his flight. Frank and travel day is not the best combo. Shall we talk about Dallas? Maybe that's for the memoir. Yeah, I think that's one for-

No one cares, by the way, Frank, all the notables are no longer with us. Yeah, I'm sure they're still, yeah, anyway. Omekase. The best part about that experience was, oh, I thought today was a travel day. Well, nevermind. The best part of it was me beating on

Frank's door and then all I hear in response is snoring dead asleep we gotta We gotta go meet the zone. Frankie, get off, man. What, it's travel day. Travel day. We gotta look at Frank right now. I wish I had a look at him. Can we get a camera and GoPro? So good. All time moment. The Uber ride over, so

never forget. The best was the aftermath of the meeting when Frank was trying to make conversation. Though the best was the aftermath of the meeting when Frank was trying to make conversation. Yes, that's what I'm talking about. I never felt more like with this guy, just shut up, God. I was so happy to parachute into this

and miss the action. Oh, it's an all time moment. If we can get anything even remotely close to that, Frank. My therapist says no more. If we do, Vegas will be sensational. We can get anything even remotely close to that, Frank. My therapist says no more. If we do, Vegas will be sensational. Wednesday, it's The Crack, live. Thursday, Helwani Show, special start time, 3 p.m. Eastern.

All right, we're accommodating for West Coast. 3 p.m. Eastern, special start time. Friday, Helwani Show, special start time, 3 p.m. Eastern, special start time, Friday Helwani show, special start time, 3 p.m. Eastern, guest list being booked as we speak, going to be stellar, Saturday watch party, Saturday post show, all from Vegas, Monday post pay-per-view show from Vegas as well, pool parties are being discussed, omakase, we're gonna do our own UFCX. It's gonna be called Uncrowned X. Eight by 10s, gift bags, loop bags, omakase. Yeah, this is not approved.

Nobody has signed off. The omakase has been approved, the eight by 10s still pending. No gift bags. But hope to see you all there. Yeah, we'll party. We'll be out and about. Looking forward to it.

The one thing, I actually love going to Vegas because, Ricky, remember I used to say this, I'm picturing everyone descending upon Las Vegas International Fight Week, listening to us, getting them hyped. I used to always say this for the Conor fights and all that. The one thing about Vegas that they still haven't figured out is coffee. There is not a single good coffee shop on the entire Las Vegas Strip. It's unbelievable. Like, nothing.

Nothing even remote. It's just Starbucks or crap? Well, you know, like, per capita, like, square footage and amount, it is the most Starbucks in the world. The Strip? Yeah. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. I'm right strip? Yeah. Hate it. Hate it.

Hate it. I'm right there with you. Hate it. Tastes like crap. Nothing. I wonder if they have a monopoly. They have to do, there's one every six feet. There's like seven.

There's no like local guy. There's no like, you know. No. Nah, it's awful. Would you navigate the strip to go to that local spot though? One million percent. No, not you, you're crazy Oh, but no what an actual other person. Yeah, man navigate it. I know they're going to Starbucks

Someone send us a great local coffee spot in I love it. I'll go there every morning with you. I want okay It's called kid cups Kid cups. Hey guys, just talking about Keurig's another bad joke. We know they're way long Frankie I saw I saw a nudge Jordan and he was like, hey watch this, this is gonna be a good one. I knew we were fucked as soon as he said that. What is it? Let's just move along, it was a bad joke.

Keurig, Keurig, you pop it open, you pop the cake up in. A little pre-cups free, just stick it in every hotone. I know, you burn the plastic as the coffee pours. Okay, so, whatever, we'll forget that comment. I've asked people. I'm gonna be good. And people have sent me, oh, this place, this place,

and then I look and it's like 15 minutes away, like in a car. This is my point. Nobody's going, nobody's going. I know, I just wanna walk somewhere. It's Starbucks, you got Starbucks, that's it. My question is, why doesn't it exist? Because they're not gonna go the 300 feet if the Starbucks is right there, that's it, it's it. But my question is, why doesn't it exist? Because they're not gonna go the 300 feet

if the Starbucks is right there. That's it, it's Starbucks. But why doesn't some hotel survive? They can't survive. The business can't survive. The strip is time square. The strip is, it's all changed. But it's so big.

There's, you know, there's that secret pizza place, and there's the- That's inside a hotel. I mean, I guess you could put one in a hotel. Yeah, why can't- I guess at Cosmo, maybe you could- Or maybe is it just like MGM has a deal with Starbucks and they have the majority.

It's gotta be something like that, because otherwise it doesn't really make any sense, to be honest. I guess also like what's a mom and pop wanna set up in a casino for? That's the thing. Maybe they could kill. They might.

I mean, you could kill. You do like great artisan coffee. Oh, 24-7. Get the big ass espresso machine, the Morosco. Don't you like milk bars coffee? It's not great. It's okay. Actually, to be honest, it's probably the best one.

I want someone that specializes in coffee, not crack pie or whatever it is. Yeah, shout out to the crack pie. Oh, shout out to the crack pie, but like. By the way, this is significant. The first time I met GC, well, one of the first times you said to me, you had never been to Vegas and that you always wanted to go for international fight week. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Also your first international fight week. We actually got a, a voicemail last week that said, uh, something, some things that I had said promising that I would go to international fight week, 2022 come hell or high water, hell or high water. Hell or high water. He was like, does that mean nothing to you? I promised I would go to international fight week, 2023 failed 2024 was never going to happen.

And now 2025, we finally get to make it happen. I can't wait. So you've gone for 300, 300. Your second time was the Noche slash. Yeah. Us. Yep. Our big return. And this is your third. Sphere card. Yeah, us, yep. Our big return. And this is your third.

This is your third trip, right? Yep. Oh man. Third time in Vegas. There's nothing like June, July in Vegas. There is. 105. The best. It's like I needed to recharge my Vegas battery a little bit. Like when we were leaving for the Sphere,

we had to stay up all night. Me and Rick are walking the strip to try and cash my bets. My dumb ass was like, I want to get paper tickets. And then the sports book was closed. We walked, me and Rick hiked the strip to try and cash my bets. My dumb ass was like, I wanna get paper tickets. And then the sports book was closed. Me and Rick hiked the strip at like 2 a.m. last time. Our flight was at 6 a.m. I was leaving, I was so dog tired.

I was like, I'm good on Vegas for a minute. My Vegas batteries have recharged. I can't wait to get out there on Wednesday. Any merch? Any merch. Like, did you get any Vegas inspired? I mean, I got some Raiders stuff, some UNLV stuff. We're ready to go.

Nights? We got our Vegas neck pillows. No Nights stuff. No Aces. No Aces, no Nights. No, no Aces, no Nights. What about Las Vegas Outlaws of the XFL? No, but that's a good one.

Yeah, good chap. I used to have their shirt. Um, they played them the first game. He Hate Me? He Hate Me. Get a He Hate Me jersey. That actually would be pretty sad. Where do I find that?

I'm sure not too hard. Well, it's gonna be great. Looking forward to it. So again, a unique week of programming. I mean, I could even take it a step further. Monday, Vegas show, that's next week's show. And then Tuesday, it's the crack. And then Wednesday, it's a Hauwani back in New New York and then it's the BITB back in New York.

And then we're off for July 4th. That's your next two weeks. And that will roll right into Taylor Serrano three fight week with Pizzi in New York, did something just happen to the screen there? As I said, Oh, wow. With Pizzi in New York, uh, he'll be here all week leading up to the screen there as I said bird flew by. Oh wow with Pizzi in New York he'll be here all week leading up to the fight and maybe he'll even go to the Shakur Stevenson versus William Sipeta fight in Queens and maybe he'll even go to the Club World Cup final. Who knows? The world is our

oyster. Anyways gents time go, hard out 503. What do you think the OKC parade is gonna be like tomorrow? Probably gonna be. You think it's gonna be like the Florida Panthers parade in front of the six people? Nah, OKC's got fans. Yeah, they do. What else they got going on there, right? Yeah, so some OKC doesn't have any clubs.

The players are gonna have to go celebrate at TGIF Friday. Yeah. Um. I saw they, they uh, they closed, like all the police was out right afterwards, and they didn't let anyone celebrate. I'm happy. I mean, I'll still, I'll always be a Son's guy, and my heart bleeds for the Sonic's fans. But they're gonna get their team back,

it's all gonna be okay. They'll be just fine, they'll be just fine. What a team. If I was starting a sports franchise today of any kind, regardless of sport, my first hire, Sam Presti. First person I try to hire. What he's done in the last few years, rebuilding that team, breaking it down, rebuilding it, and turning it into this

with the longevity in the future ahead of them is unbelievable. What a job. What a job. Thank you very much to everyone who stopped by at Fanatics Fest, we appreciate you all very much. Thank you very much to Ice Cube. Thank you very much to everyone who stopped by at Fanatics Fest. We appreciate you all very much. Thank you very much to Ice Cube. Thank you very much to George St. Pierre. Thank you very much to Nassim Sadiqav. Shout out to Brandon. Brandon was there. Our guy. Much love. It was great to see him again rocking the merch. And of course, shout out to Ilya Toporya. Thank you very much to him for stopping by.

Thanks to you. thanks to them. Back on Tuesday, same time, but this is it, peace out here.