The Ariel Helwani Show - Ilia Topuria, Mike Malott, Urijah Faber, Josh Barnett, RAF's Chad Bronstein, UFC Winnipeg & WrestleMania 42 reaction

Episode Date: April 20, 2026

Ariel Helwani kicks off the show by reacting to the biggest moments from UFC Winnipeg and WrestleMania 42 (12:53). Mike Malott is back after his big win over Gilbert Burns in Winnipeg, recapping the fight, then touching on the experience of headlining again in Canada, receiving support from Pierre Poilievre, controversy surrounding an incident with the Canadian flag after the fight, the success of teammate Jasmine Jasudavicius, and more (59:07). Josh Barnett returns to discuss his decision to wind down Bloodsport, coaching UFC fighter Victor Henry, his thoughts on the state of the wrestling industry and WrestleMania 42, and more (1:26:00). RAF founder Chad Bronstein joins to talk about the promotion’s rapid growth, UFC allowing its athletes to participate, the signing of Khamzat Chimaev, potential for a meeting between Chimaev and Bo Nickal, his level of interest in signing names like Jon Jones, Georges St-Pierre, and Brock Lesnar, and more (2:06:42). Urijah Faber stops by to break down his RAF match against Arman Tsarukyan and the viral moment where Tsarukyan tackled him off the stage, before discussing competing for RAF, GFL potentially coming back, his own promotion A1 Combat, Cub Swanson’s retirement as the last remaining WEC fighter, and more (2:34:50). UFC lightweight champion Ilia Topuria returns to the show, talking about his mental state after dealing with personal issues, his upcoming fight against Justin Gaethje at the White House, rooting for Paddy Pimblett at UFC 324, still wanting to fight Islam Makhachev and even submit him, not being threatened by Arman Tsarukyan, a potential fight against Conor McGregor, his ownership of WOW FC, and more (3:01:24). The Boys in the Back join Ariel to cover some news and notes (3:38:04), before answering your Super Chats (4:35:10).

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Air... Monday, April 22,000. And 26, hello again, everyone. I sure hope you're doing well. It is great to be here on a lovely, yet somewhat cold once again. Monday afternoon in New York City. So happy to be back. What a week it has been.

So much has happened since we last spoke on Wednesday. What a show that was. Golly, we've got a lot to get to. And off the top, let me tell you about today's program. Let me tell you about today's lineup. Then I'm going to tell you about the rest of my week. Then we're going to get into the weekends, comings and goings and news and notes and events

and all those things and more that have happened. But I'm happy to be here. I am happy to be here. I feel like I can exhale. Serenity now. Serenity now. Serenity now. It's a fantastic show.

A fantastic lineup for all of you. Let's start with the back end of the program, shall we? Back end of the show, 4 o'clock Eastern Time. Mark your calendar, your notepad, your clock, your alarm, all those things and more. The reigning, defending, UFC lightweight champion, former featherweight champion. El-Mattador. Ilya is going to join us on the program. It has been a minute since we spoke to him.

We spoke to him before the Charles Olavera fight, not after. A lot has happened, a lot has transpired in his life and career since then. And of course, he's returning to action in less than two months. White House lawn. Justin Gaichi. Main event, you know all these things and more, but there's so much to get into with Ilya Tuporia. So I'm looking forward to that. That's going to be at 4 o'clock.

Prior to that, we're going to be joined by the California kid, Yariah Faber. Talk to him about his match against Armin Tsarukian, which he did not win. And about some other comings and goings as well, Alpha Male. all that stuff and more, always great to talk to. The very first guest in the history of this program. You may recall June of 2009, the show was called Fight House Radio for three episodes. Uriah Faber as a WEC star.

So before he even moved over to the UFC, WEC champion as well, was our very first guest from a hotel room in L.A. with a broken hand, he tweeted, hey, I'm going to be joining Ariel's show, how far we've come, and he's still competing, in one way, shape, or form. Prior to that, we're going to be joined by one of the founders of RAF, long time coming.

I've been wanting to have this chat with Chad Bronstein for a very long time. And, you know, they just had their seventh event. Eighth event is coming up on the 30th of May. And that's the one that's going to have Gable Steven and Kobe Covington, Chris Widman, many others. And I've just been really impressed with what they've done. Over the weekend, they announced that Hamza Tshamayev has signed with them as well. Date as far as debut, TBD, opponent, TBD, but I've been really impressed and I'm curious about the business model. I'm curious about how things are going. Fox Nation, Arm and Tarukian,

using the UFC fighters and other names as well. So I wanted to have a chat with Chad. I think our first, we had them on before they launched, but after they announced it, but our first since they've launched and done several events. It's Chad, it's Eric Bischoff and Israel Martyr. Tina is a long-time wrestling coach. They're the faces, the heads of the organization. Chad, really the one putting together the matches, boots on the ground. So looking forward to that, Chad, very much. That will be at 3 o'clock, 2.30.

The Warmaster, Josh Barnett is going to join us. He had a busy week as well. He was at, well, he was at Mania Week in Vegas. He had his own show, Bloodsport. And after 15 events, he kind of shockingly, at least to me, surprisingly, announced that he was shutting it down. this was a big surprise. Our own Casey Leiden was there.

Casey Leiden, he's filming back there for an uncrowned film, and then he lets us know, like, oh, wow, they just made this announcement. So very surprising. We wanted to talk to Josh about that. A little mania talk as well with Josh. A little MMA talk. Coach for one, Victor Henry, among others.

So a lot to get into one of our favorites, one of the OGs of the game, the one and only the war master, the baby-faced assassin, Josh Barnett. Then at 2 o'clock, Mike Malat is going to join us coming off that huge win for him on Saturday in Winnipeg, in front of his people, just the third Canadian to headline an event, a UFC event in Canada. The other two, you may have heard of them, George St. Pierre, Roy McDonald. He gets this opportunity on Saturday and he passes that test with flying colors. He disposes of Gilbert Burns in the third round, impressive win.

He looked great, sees the moment. and afterwards Gilbert Burns essentially retires. Doesn't officially say I am done, done, but says, I think I'm done multiple times and that he has no regrets. So we'll talk to Mike about the win, about the moment, about the week, the stage where he goes from here.

One of the good guys of the game, proper Mike Malott, brother of one Jeff Malott of the Los Angeles Kings, will join us at 2 o'clock. So a tremendous five pack of guests, there you have them. Headlined, of course, by one of the biggest stars in the sport,

one of the best fighters, pound for pound, the pride of not only Spain, but Georgia as well, I'lliott's Poria. So I cannot wait. I cannot wait for today's program. A lot to get into. Wednesday was a very special day on the program.

Gina Carrano in studio, Mike Perry in studio. You know what happened during the chats. Very good chats. Very, very happy with them. And yeah, I mean, having Gina in studio and having that moment with her, I think a lot of people appreciated it,

enjoyed it and it was from the heart and I was really, really happy to get that opportunity. I said goodbye. Pete C., Rick, G.C., Frank, everyone did a great job of taking his home on the nose. I appreciate you guys very much. And then we bolted to Times Square, which took a while because it was in the heart of midday traffic. Off the bat, I was struggling because someway somehow there was gum on my bag that got on my suit, that got on my shirt. It was a mess of a situation. There was a lady that was hired as a hair and makeup person that helped me out with all of that

because it was a massive piece of gum, like right on my suit shoulder. That was the best. But we hosted two press conferences back to back. One was for the April 17th MVP show that happened on Friday at the Infosist Theater, formerly known as the Hulu Theater, formerly known as the MSG Theater, formerly known as the Felt Forum way back in the day. More on that in a second. And then we hosted the May 16th press conference, Rhonda, Gina, Nate, Mike, Francis, Philippe, and, you know, what happened there.

And we'll get into that on today's program. Then we had the weigh-ins on Thursday. Then we had fight night on Saturday. And, you know, I really enjoy doing those things. I enjoy being in the ring. I enjoy being on television. I enjoy the reps. I enjoy, you know, being in the ring is something that I've always wanted to do and something

that I've always felt very passionate about. but never really got the opportunity. So getting in there, interacting with fighters after a big moment, a big knockout, a big victory, the reps, being back on ESPN, all very, very, yeah, very memorable and stuff that I'm very appreciative of.

I will admit, there was a very scary moment in the co-main event. Shadeja Green, who was the unified super middleweight champion, fought Lonnie Daniels of New Zealand, and it was a massive week for New Zealand combat sports. to ask her about that going into the fight. She ended up winning via TKO and experienced something that I've never experienced before in all my years of being at fights. Because, you know, when you're watching something at home, you don't get to see everything.

But here you get to see whatever you want to see. And so I'm in the ring. Lonnie beats Shadija, big upset. She's now the new champ. They're attending to Shadasia who really seemed kind of out of it in the final moments of the fight, she's sitting on the stool, and then it just looks like she shut off. I've never seen that before. Her eyes closed, and she just, it just felt like her body was lifeless.

She just kept, if they didn't hold her up, she would have fell, face first. She was sitting on the stool, eyes closed, hunched over like this, and then all of a sudden you see everything go into motion, EMTs, put her on the stretcher, right out of the ring, out of the building, into an ambulance, and Lonnie was shaken up. She was very emotional. Thought she handled the moment tremendously well, subdued. I tried my best not to make,

even though it was such a big win for her, like I just felt weird celebrating, shocking, scary stuff that just transpired right in front of us. And then you get to the Elisa Baumgartner fight. She beats Bomi-Rae-Shin in a very entertaining fight, but it was like somewhat of a brutal fight because so many punches were thrown and landed. And you're sitting there and you're like, man,

it's just kind of hard to move on. Like, for a moment, I was worried. I was worried about her life. I was worried about her life. And then it's, you know, the show goes on and I get it. But it was, it was tough. I was sitting next to someone, actually that same makeup artist lady, and she's not a fight fan.

She's a mother of three. And she's like, I can't watch this right now. And I got it. We're something what desensitized to this. fighting stuff. Luckily, it seems like Shadija is okay. I de-empt with her. She said she's doing better. She posted this with everything in me. I want to thank those who had great concern. And even the people who figured out during the fight something was wrong. I passed out due to bleeding out of my brain. However, I'm in ICU, on the road to healing. I'll be back to get what's mine 100% covered. I appreciate

MVP and Nikisa being right by my side in the hospital. God is good. Breeding out of my Blaine is, I mean, that is, that is terrifying stuff. Luckily, she's posting that. She seems to be in okay spirits, all things considered. But that was as terrifying a moment that I've ever experienced at a fight. And certainly having the perspective of being in the ring and having to decide, like, okay, how do I handle this interview? You know, again, this is what I mean by reps.

I wish that never happened. And just a reminder how scary all of this can be and how dangerous it is and what these fighters go through for our entertainment. Next morning I had to wake up like three, four hours later, did this new project that I'm working on more on that in the coming weeks. And then I finally took a long nap. Watch the Knicks. Watch the Knicks pick up a nice game one win.

Who are they playing again? Atlanta Hawks. Oh, yeah, yeah. All the club, baby. I mean, it was. Lucky first round, first game win. It is what it is. Was it lucky?

Yeah, I guess lucky. You got you right where we want you. Yeah. Tonight, game two, eight o'clock. Series doesn't start until the road team wins. I was happy you tuned in. Which will be this evening. Yeah, shout out to Prime, man.

Yeah. Getting ads for stuff to add to my cart during the game is nasty work. Yeah. Is it me or is it oversaturated the picture? Does it not feel a little bit off to you guys or is that just my TV? It might just be your TV. Okay. Who's to check?

Yeah. Perhaps that's the theme of the weekend ads because we'll get into that in a moment. But yeah, bring it on. Bring it on, boys from the Peach Tree Sting. We're excited about game two tonight And then we got into WrestleMania And then we got into the UFC and all that stuff And so let's get into things

Because I'm excited to get your take All of Uses take on everything Let's just quickly touch on the UFC And then I really want to get into The WrestleMania of it all Two nights, all that stuff and more Mike Malott Big win for him, big opportunity for him

To headline, like I said Just the third Canadian to headline in Canada Gilbert Burns on a four-fight losing street going into this fight. Now, he was losing to the upper echelon, but still getting up there in age. And it really felt like this was a fight tailor-made for Mike Malad to establish himself, not only as a star in Canada, which I think he's done already, but as a player, as a ranked player in the welterweight division. PT, let me ask you, were you impressed with Mike?

Do you think he's that guy, or do you think that we're willing him into that spot because Canada in particular has been starved for that guy, for that next Rory, that next GSP, and he seems to be the one best suited for it right now. Yeah, he is the guy who's best suited to it. There's no doubt about that. But even if you look at his interview, he did with Chuck Mendenhall in the lead up to this fight,

he seems very reluctant to take the reins from GSP, you know? And maybe that is the fact that the question is constantly framed, like, are you the new GSP? Are you the new one of the greatest fighters of all time, if not the greatest fighter of all time? I think that's putting a lot of lofty expectations on the guy, but I think this was a really, really good performance. As you said, in the lead up to this fight, I was looking at the losses Gilbert had, and it's

kind of like the new 170 pound Avengers he's lost to, you know, all the guys that he's ushered into the title conversation, guys like Michael Morales, things like this, he is a very, very good fighter still. And Mike Malott looked a lot better than him. He outclassed him in the fight. So I think he could well be that guy, but I think he's reluctant to be, yeah, Yeah, yeah, on the new GSP. Who wants to put that on themselves?

What do you think, Rick? I thought it was a great performance. It's hard to know what to make of it because of where Gilbert Burns is at in his career, obviously. As P.T. alluded to, he has lost recently, but it's all been to top-tier talent. More than that, though, I've just been impressed with Mike Malott and his last two performances. Since the Neil Magny loss, he has improved and improved and improved and improved. And now I know there's some, there's a bit of a stain on the Kevin Holland fight, right, due to the low blows. But as far as the action that was actually happening in that fight, Mike Malat was doing fantastic and in my opinion on his way to winning that fight.

And to have the names, Kevin Holland, and then Gilbert Burns on your resume tells me that you're a top Walterweight, right? I don't know where he's ultimately going to fall. I don't know. I don't believe he will be GSP. I just, you know, call me crazy, but being one of the top three fighters of all time is probably too lofty. But I do know that he can compete with elite level talent at Walter Waite now. That's where I've got him. I'm curious where he's going to fall in the rankings, G.C.,

and you look at the bottom half of the rankings right now, he's not ranked. But they kind of alluded to the fact like, oh, you're going to be ranked because Gilbert was 11th going into this fight. And so you look at the people who are around 11. You've got Joaquin Buckley at 9. You've got Michael Vanne Page at 12. Gabriel Bonfim at 10. Do you think he can hang with those guys right now? Yeah, I'm excited to see it.

This was the first performance that I've seen from Mike Malad against a top-level guy where I've been incredibly impressed. Obviously, the Kevin Holland went sort of stained by the nut shots. And then other ones, it's sort of like he didn't really put that stamp on it where you're like, man, that was a really, really impressive performance. But he did that on Saturday night. Where is Gilbert Burns at in his career? Obviously, retiring is now on a five-fight losing streak. So, like, I want to see him against the younger guys in this division that are also ranked high.

to see where Mike Malat truly is at, but man, the hands looked incredible. The stuffing of the takedowns was on point. I think Gilbert Burns went 0 for 7, and then to get the knockout. He looked fantastic, and I'm excited to see him against. Like, a walking Buckleague, Eros Medi, someone in this top 15 that is on the way up rather than on the way out. Even an MVP who I know may be reaching the end, like I think that's a very fun, competitive fight. I like him a lot. I mean, obviously, he's very easy to root for.

He is truly a proper gentleman. Like he is true to that nickname. Represents Canada very well. I think he's the perfect guy. Does he end up becoming a champion? Who knows? I mean, he's well on his way. He's won four in a row now.

They're putting him in this spot. He continues to fight on this Canadian. You know, anytime they go to Canada, he's on one of these cards. And he seems very happy with that. Like he's not saying, get me out of here. He wants to be that guy. His brother plays in the NHL. He checks off all the boxes.

The question is how, what's the ceiling? I think that's the big question. question right now, but it's a good question to be asking of someone who is Canadian, because it's been a really long time since we've had, we, the Canadian MMA fan, has had someone who can even be put in that spot. Now, it seemed like Dana White was a little bit upset with the attendance. Someone asked him, post-fight press conference, is it going to take nine years for you guys to return to Winnipeg? And he said, yeah, probably, I think alluding to the fact that he maybe wasn't happy, I think the gate was a little over a million, not the typical fight night numbers

these days. But, you know, Winnipeg isn't the biggest market in the world. The last time they were there was at around 700 or so thousand. So it wasn't below that necessarily. It wasn't a bad night

at the office for the UFC. If a million and change is a bad night for a fight night without a super duper star on it, you're still doing quite well. And it wasn't the greatest night for the Canadian fighters other than once we got to the main card,

Jasmine Jazz DeViscius, Charles Dordain. Shout out to her. her, was it a pouch in her mouth or not? I'm still not sure. What was that? I thought it looked like... We're going to have to do an investigation. Who know? My vote is yes. You think yes? I thought it was like a gum.

Like, you know, sometimes you put the gum here just to sort of feel the tingly of it, no? She was feeling tingly from something, but I don't know if it was. I don't know what that was. Why would you chew gum there in a fight? She will have to speak on this. It's become viral. Could you swallow the pouch too? Fair play? Yeah.

And Henderson used to fight with two picks. Come on. What do you think, PT? It's a zin. It's a zin? All right. I prefer FRE. Have you guys tried those? I have and I love them.

I was actually going to say I'm an FRE guy as well. That's right. That's right. So anyway, Great Woodford. Charles Dordane fight was tremendous. The Mandel Nalo fight was unbelievable as well against Jai Herbert. What the, maybe the round of the year.

It was so good. It was like the Paul Daly Nick Diaz for a UFC fight night. And I know you love Jai, PT. My heart did break a little bit for Mandel. rat garbage, which I wish he would re-adopt that nickname because he's worked so hard to get to the UFC and for his debut to end up like that, but a

tremendous, tremendous fight. You know who else worked hard to get to the UFC? Yeah, he's been there, right? Joy Herbert. That was in his debut. Congratulations, Joy. I, my heart, warm for you, Joy, if you're watching, congratulations. Not to the Black Country banger. I was watching with some friends, WrestleMania, UFC, dual screen

TV, but it was like, it was getting to the hot point on WrestleMania, so it was on the big TV, UFC on the Little TV. I was going nuts for that fight and everyone was like, what are you doing, man? Chill out. Like the rest of the match is fine. I was like, nah, man. Jai Herbert and Rat Garbage are going to war down here. You mean mango.

Yeah, mango. Mango. What is mango? It was given to him. He doesn't even know. But is it about a mango or is it like some anime thing or, you know, like a character? What? It's just a check. I don't know. Like, does he, like to eat mangoes? I don't know, probably. We're going to have to find out.

Mangango? What is that? Isn't there a move? It's a type of cheese. Yeah. Yeah. You're thinking of Django. Django. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Great movie. All time.

Mango to Django? Shout to Leo. I do want to give a big shout out to Doreno, Gilbert Burns. Truth be told, I haven't talked to Gilbert Burns in quite some time. We did have that little back and forth many moons ago when I was saying Leon Edwards should be next. And it got a little bit weird with us with some tweets, which I don't even know if you wrote those. But since then, I've DM'd with him and we're cool. And honestly, like, I don't.

By all accounts, Gilbert Burns is a sweetheart of a guy, a gentleman, a great father, a husband, a family guy. You see the way he supports Pantosia. By all accounts, a very, very good human being and someone who represented the UFC and had some big fights and some big moments. And it's just always tough to see those moments. You know, one of those, one of the questions that I'd like to ask Mike about, and I'm always wondering about this. Like, when you're in that moment, when you're the guy who has now beaten the other guy, guy who had his moment and now you get that win and he's sailing off into the sunset. Do you start to think about your own mortality in that moment or are you so on fire,

so young, so fresh that you think this is never going to hit me because it just seems like week after week we are faced with one of these where you're like, man, it gets to everyone. No one is immune to it. Father time, undefeated as we say and you see him in there with his family. Can we give a shout out, honestly, can we give a shout out to the Canadian crowd? Like, did you see how they made him feel in that moment? Like, that is a part of the world that has no connection to Gilbert Burns whatsoever. And they had no obligation to shower him with such love and respect.

And I just thought it was really cool for them to understand that this was a big emotional moment for him. And I thought that they, like, if you didn't know any better, you would think that Gilbert had some sort of connection to that part of the world or to Winnipeg in particular. I thought it was really amazing of them to show him that kind of love. I did wonder, was Charles O'Levara in Winnipeg because of the Saskatchewan fight from all those years ago? Like, was this the make-good? Why was Charles O'Olevera there? I'm not quite sure. Did you guys see Charles O'Overa in attendance?

I did see that. Did he have nosebleeds or something? I thought it was the make-good because the Saskatchewan fight from 2015 or so didn't quite, you know, the Max Holloway fight. Yeah, no. I know. At Saskatoon Arena. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I thought it was the make-good because it's sort of the same part of...

He has fought in Canada since then. Yeah, but it's like this, it's the prairies. Yeah, you know? Yeah. You talk about Mike Moulat and the mortality thing. Yeah. He's only four years younger than Gilbert Burns. Is that true?

That's in four years and three months younger. What are you serious? That is why. Mike Mollah's about to turn 35. He's turning 35? This year, yeah. I'm gonna say he's 27. That's what I said.

On boys in the back, I was like, I swear this dude is 28. Like, he can't be older than me. That doesn't feel possible. Wow. All right, well, he's no longer a prospect anymore. Mike, you better get going, all right? So maybe he was thinking about the mortality. He's like, fuck, that's going to be amazing.

So Gilbert Burns is 39? Next year. I think Gilbert Burns turns 39 in July. Yeah, July 20th. Shout out. Great birthday. True or false, Gilbert Burns fights again. Because he never quite said it, right?

In the UFC, I don't think so. You think it's like a jit-tie thing? Yeah, I think he does fight. He does something again. Interesting, interesting. Really? It's every single one, basically. basically doesn't retire, right?

I feel like Cub, I don't know, he's seemed pretty adamant about not doing anything anymore. But yeah, you never know. I do, by the way, I do like the fact that there's an RAF out there for some of these guys or UFC BJJ or, they don't really do the hype and all that. Like, I don't mind them having an ability to make money without getting punched in the head.

I don't mind it. And clearly, they can still be draws. RIF is learning that. But yes, he didn't 100% say that he was done, but it sounded like he was leaning towards it. He was emotional. His kids were there. It was a great moment.

Put the gloves down. Put the gloves down and all that. Sorry, you were really putting something. I was going to WrestleMania. No, no, no, no, no. Okay, I want to talk about WrestleMania, guys. And I know you guys watched and shout out to our boy, the solemn monster, Jason Solomon, who did a great job for us this weekend.

I asked him if he could do a night one recap, night two recap. He did both. Shout out to Frank for getting. them up. Busy weekend for Frank, guys. Two wrestling pods, inside boxing pod as well. Give me a fucking break. I don't know. Petey, I just want to say,

like he didn't ask for the Monday off. I just, you know. Yeah, no, I saw that it, you know, it was really, really love what Solomonster did over the weekend. And, you know, I was stuck into that night one podcast. Yeah. And then I was like, this morning, I was like, you know what would be great for today. I'm going to stick on

night two, because obviously, night two, up and 12 hours ago, I pressed play, it's going to be there. Yeah. Wasn't there. So, I mean, was he working all the weekend? Was he? Okay, it's fair.

It's fair, Frank. Yeah, fuck you. I was going to say, Frank does not look amused one bit back here. Hey, credit to Frank, we were having, you know, small talk. I was like, how was the weekend, man? He gave me a full rundown of the weekend. Movies he saw food, did he ate, everything he did. Oh, not very busy.

Never mentioned the work. Never mentioned the work. And I was like, didn't you have to do a couple of the uncrown wrestling shows and the inside boxing. Yeah, man, no big deal though. Wow. I was like credit to you, Frankie. He probably reminded him to do that, and that's why the podcast was up so late. When you said, did you know how to do it?

He's like, oh, shit. Actually, you make a good point. He was like, oh, fuck, shit. I'd back off, Ptie. I'd back off. I mean, I could feel the animosity from here. He's actually not smiling at all. He did a great job, and I appreciate him and love him very much.

So shout out to Jason and to Frank. Wanted to do that because there were two nights, and, you know, there was a lot going on here. I want to weigh in, and I want you guys to weigh in as well. First, the obvious. The obvious is night two was infinitely better than night one. I mean, no question. I thought on paper it was a better card, if you will, and it was just a better viewing experience, and I thought the matches were better, et cetera.

I have said from the beginning, by the way, I have said from the beginning, I hate the two nights. They've been doing this for a few years now before the TKO purchase. acquisition merger with the UFC. I feel like a major event, the Super Bowl, game seven of the NBA finals, the national championship game is not broken up into two.

Obviously, there are things leading up to that, but I don't love the idea even when I went live. Like when I went back in the day for BT Sport, you go once, you come back, that second day just kind of feels like

you're hanging around too long and that's the culmination. That's the crescendo. So I don't love the two nights. I will say this year, I think the two nights were a benefit. Why? Because I think that they realized some things didn't work on night one, and they altered it a little bit. I think that they were able to learn from night one's mistakes and make night two better. Now, the matches were better. I thought the stories were better for the night two matches, but I do think that they learned

some lessons. So in a way, the night one, night two format kind of helped them this particular year. A lot has been said about the flow of the show. A lot has been said about the flow of the show. A lot been said about how it felt. A lot has been said about the ads, about the lack of wrestling, all that and more. And truth be told, I generally agree with everything that has been said. I was watching the Knicks game. Nick's game started at 6 o'clock. I ain't missing that for anything on the planet. But I wanted to know what WrestleMania looked like. So at halftime or commercial breaks, I would go back and forth. Every time, I kid you not guys, every time that I went back to WrestleMania, it was either a commercial break, it was just fluff stuff, there was never

any activity, there was never any wrestling going on. And it just felt like those commercial breaks would last forever. I don't know if it's our anxiety as human beings, but especially on ESPN Plus, when they're playing the commercials and there's a clock, I just find myself staring at the clock and counting it down, as opposed to like, you're just watching regular commercials and you're like, okay, now it's coming back. it's coming back. Now it's coming back. And it just kind of adds to the sort of experience of like, okay, it's not that long. You're waiting. You're waiting. You're waiting. But you're not fixated and knowing at two minutes and two seconds, oh, there's still two minutes and two seconds left in this

thing. And I don't know if all commercial breaks are three minutes. I've never sat down and timed them, but they just felt incessant and long and frequent. And what I remember from back of the day and what I think a lot of wrestling fans remember is WrestleMania or every big wrestling event never had commercials, never. When there was dead time, if you will, it was a backstage segment, it was a backstage interview,

it was a promo, a three, four minute promo to WWE did better than anyone to hype up that match. You didn't get any of that for this weekend. You didn't get, to the best of my knowledge, and I did go back, by the way, and watch when the Knicks were done. You didn't get any backstage interviews, vignettes, promos, segments.

Like some of my favorite WrestleMania moments and memories are Bob Yucer in the back with Andre the Giant or Mean Gene in the back with Hulk Hogan. Macho man, promo, Jake the Snake promo, Heart Foundation promo, the behind the scenes, the interactions, rock, Austin, WrestleMania X7, the buildup, the hype videos, all that. That was all stripped away. and what makes it hard to stomach for fans like I and the hardcore fans is it was all stripped away for ads. It was all stripped away for ads. And look, I understand. It's not on pay-per-view. We're getting it for quote-unquote free one hour on ESPN 2 and one hour on ESPN, which is kind of cool. But if I'm being 100% honest, I don't love that either. It feels splintered.

WrestleMania is such a big deal. Would we ever see the first half of the Super Bowl somewhere and then you've got to change to somewhere else? No, you could see the pregame somewhere. You could see the prelims somewhere, but the show has to be in one spot. It feels splintered. And for like entrances to be lost and in between stuff to be lost for ads, it's a hard thing to stomach. TKO as an entity has a task on their hands right now. Their big task, in my opinion, they have to win the hardcore fans over. They may not care about the hardcore fans right now.

They may care about the, you know, the casuals, the top line, the mainstream fans, celebrity influence, influencers. They may not care about the hardcores now. But they will start to worry about them when the casuals become hardcores, which is what they want. And the hardcores teach the casuals, which is how they feel right now, that those three letters are not very welcome right now. When you have fans chanting FTKO in the post show, that's a problem. The letters TKO are becoming somewhat stained in the eyes of wrestling, MMA, and boxing fans. That's a problem.

We should never be talking about TKO as fans. That's the parent company. We didn't talk about Zufa when we were watching the UFC back in the day. That was the parent company. We didn't really care. But they have become this sort of entity that is ruining, in the eyes of a lot of fans, this thing that we loved so much.

They're ruining the sanctity of what we loved so much. much. The mat now has ads everywhere. All right, big deal. The table now has ads everywhere. All right, big deal. The apron now has ads everywhere. All right, big deal. No more backstage vignettes. No more interviews. Entrances being lost. It doesn't feel the same anymore. It doesn't feel the same. You would never see. I'm watching Ria Ripley against Jade Cargill and they go to a shot of Michael Cole and Wade Barrett. And then they zoom out a little, and there's a guy named Adam Weitzman sitting next to them. And I couldn't believe my eyes. Adam Weitzman is, by all accounts, a very good guy.

I've actually talked to him a few times online. Syracuse guy, businessman, has a scrap metal company. He has clearly, you know, a good amount of money. God bless him. He is influential in the Syracuse scene was a, I guess you could say, like a booster of some kind, would always go to Syracuse basketball games with very famous people, Carmelo Anthony, Jimmy Fallon,

those types of people. They got a falling out with Syracuse, then went to help Jerry McNamara with Siena and was helping them as well. All to say, I'm like, what is Adam Whiteman doing here? And they say, oh, and we're being joined by Adam Whiteman, who I guess paid

for some sort of VIP experience to be sitting next to the broadcast team during WrestleMania. He never said a word. They showed him. He didn't even say hello, he smiled. But would you ever watch the Super Bowl and have them cut to Joe Buck and Troy Aikman in the booth and just have a fan there? You would never have Joe Smith in the booth?

Like, there are certain things. I am certain that TCO is making a lot of money and they're doing very, very well. There has to be a line. Not everything should be for sale because I'm sure that you can make that money in different ways. Slap sponsors on the wrestler's shorts all over the thing. sponsor, sponsor, sponsor, there's got to be a line. There has to be a line. The NBA has sponsors on the court and it's like CGI and all that stuff. You don't see someone sitting next to Mike Breen and Richard Jefferson during the NBA finals. This is WrestleMania.

And I'm sitting there, I'm like, is everything for sale? And I guess everything is for sale. But they're not struggling. They're not the PFL. They're not one championship. They don't have to sell everything off. And so for me, it felt, I will be 100 percent honest, it felt soulless. it felt soulless. The whole thing felt solace. And that's the term that I use for the apex. And that's the term that I use when I see the AI stuff. It feels soulless.

And they have to realize, because I know there are very smart people involved there. And they're not new to TV and they're not new to sports. They have to realize how to get the soul back into their product. It does not exist. And I thought it was very apparent on Saturday and Sunday. It does not exist. Even as they were showing the stage,

the stage did not feel as elaborate as it did in the past. When they were showing in and it was bright outside and there were no pictures on the screens, it felt stripped down. It didn't feel big.

Roman's entrance was great. CM Punk's entrance was great. But just the frame, everything just felt off. It felt off and soulless and cheapened, if I'm being honest. I'm not against advertising. I know that you need to sell ads.

But there are ways to do it with some sort of gravitas attached to it, some sort of grace and class attached to it. And I felt like when everything is for sale, it gets lost. It gets lost. And it was upsetting to see. That did not feel like WrestleMania.

That did not feel like the showcase of the immortals. That did not feel like the biggest night in pro wrestling. Didn't feel like the Super Bowl. Didn't feel like the World Series. It didn't feel like the national championship. It didn't feel like that. And I don't know if it's because there are people at the very top of TKO who aren't wrestling fans

and don't understand the history. They have gone from nothing to overboard. There's got to be an in-between there. There's got to be an in-between where the soul of the company and the product remains to where you're still benefiting and making money off of it, but you're not spitting in the face of the fans. If you went online after night one, it wasn't just the internet wrestling community that was bitching and moaning, which sometimes they do find, great, we're very, you know, it's a very hyper-crit. I wouldn't even include myself in it because I'm not as hardcore as them. I mean, the only real wrestling that I'm consuming these days, other than the big events, is the Uncrown wrestling show because it's that damn good, and it gets me up to speed. I'll tune in here and there.

I'm very well aware of what's going on, but I was not missing WrestleMania because I love WrestleMania and I love wrestling as a product. To see it like that, to see it presented like that was was deflating, was absolutely deflating. And the word that kept coming to mind was this feels soulless. There was so little wrestling. There was so many ads. so many breaks. And again, there used to be breaks in between matches, but it was always product stuff, hype videos, backstage interactions, vignettes, interviews. There's got to be a way. There's got to be a way to find that fine balance. It did not feel like they were worried about that fine balance.

They were worried about making as much money as possible for those two days. And I'm sure they killed it. I'm sure they killed it. Now, they announced the attendance and it was down from last year, and I'm sure next year they're going to get a shitload of money to be in Saudi Arabia, and the attendance will be fine and all that stuff. How do we get the soul back? I mean, that's another thing. To have WrestleMania in Saudi Arabia, the Super Bowl would never go to an overseas entity.

Forget about Saudi Arabia. It would just never go anywhere overseas. To me, WrestleMania is the Super Bowl. WrestleMania is the Super Bowl. You would never see the Super Bowl. Maybe I'll be proven wrong one day at the Burn of Bayou. You just wouldn't see it. You wouldn't see the Super Bowl.

Super Bowl at Old Traffert. You would not see it. You wouldn't see it in Australia or France or Brazil or Saudi Arabia. You just wouldn't see it. And I just feel like everything is for sale. And in doing that and having that mentality, you're upsetting a lot of the hardcore fans and you're taking the soul away from the product. And that product, Roman versus Punk was amazing.

Roman versus punk was amazing. I love those guys. Freaking Roman, man. He is unbelievable. Like, I was watching that with my kids, with my boys, and they're like, this dude, like, talk about aura. Like, this guy, I don't know if any human being on the planet has ever oozed aura like this guy.

And he has really turned into their, talk about QB1, like he has turned into that guy. And it didn't just happen. It's been happening. Let's be honest, since the pandemic, since 2020, he's been that guy. And to hear him, he was amazing in the post-fight show. He was amazing, talking about Obafemi, amazing. And they did a lot of good things, especially in the second night. Obafemi putting over Brock.

Amazing. Brock retired. That was all great. I don't know for sure he's going to be done and dusted. I thought that was perfect, though. The way they did it, it was perfect. Does he come back for SummerSlam in Minnesota? Let's see.

But in a nutshell, like in a vacuum, that was amazing. Demon beating Dominic. That was amazing. All of it was great. Main event was great. It wasn't overbooked. It was great. There was so much other stuff.

And it just was all sort of tainted by so much advertisement, so many breaks, things being for sale. Night one was not good. Night one was not good. The main event was not good. Randy and Cody deserved better. It felt like a glorified Smackdown or a Saturday night's main event. It did not feel like the main event of night one.

Just didn't. And I know that there are people longing for what we saw in Philadelphia. Philadelphia felt like the apex of it all. Night one tied into night two. Philadelphia was amazing a couple years ago. LA was great the year before. I think Austin, well, it was not Austin. It was right outside, Arlington, right outside of Dallas, Cowboy Stadium.

That was great the year before. This just felt, it felt disconnected. The matches were too short. A lot of people who should have been on weren't on. It did not feel like the biggest night in wrestling. And usually you watch WrestleMania for one or two nights and you're like, damn, this is the best. And then you want to tune into the Monday show and you get back into it.

And then there's backlash. And then there's this. And then you're like, oh, man. And then you kind of go off and do other things. And then you kind of come back maybe in the fall or something like that, right? It was disheartening. It was very disheartening. And so let me ask you guys.

Let me ask you guys. I'll start with you, PT. I know you checked it out. I know you're a casual fan, right? What do you think? Am I right? wrong? Did you feel the same?

tell us. I think it even, it starts before the event even, because it was the least hype of ever felt for a WrestleMania in my life. Like I was tuning in. I kept forgetting it was on. You know, usually like there's something, you're like, oh shit, that, like, you know, that's the big story in this one. I'm going to check it out.

Didn't feel like that at all. I had night one on and I was kind of just walking away from it. Like there was nothing keeping me there. Night two was better, as you say. but it didn't feel big. I like the Obof Femmy and Brock Lesnar match. Obviously, for me, someone who doesn't watch it every week, I don't know a lot of these people.

So when it's familiar faces, it becomes a lot easier. Obviously, Rhea Ripley and CM Punk and Roman Rains in the main event, it's got more of my attention. But I don't know what they were showing over for you guys on ESPN, but I feel like I've already seen the full Hulk Hogan documentary that's going to be released on April 22nd. They kept on showing these four minute clips of it, and they're all different clips. And I'm like, combined on both nights of seeing at least 45 minutes of this documentary now.

Very excited about that, but did not feel like a WrestleMania. It did not feel like the spectacle. As you were saying, when you looked at the set, you know, when it was still abroad, it, it looked very industrial or something. Yeah. It didn't look like, you know, the big spectacle. And I had to actually go back and watch it because we're talking about the WrestleMania throughout the weekend, the group chat. And I was kind of saying.

something about the Hulk Hogan documentary or whatever to you guys. And I think it was GC. It was like, my, Pentas walkout was sponsored by Mortal Kombat there. And I rewound it because I didn't know. I can remember watching it going like, this feels a bit weird.

But yeah, it was like a Shou Khan mask he was putting on. They had Mortal Kombat things in the background. That really takes away from the, the entrance is a big part of this. Like, it gets you jeed up. And when the dude's worried about like presenting himself or some type of

advertisement on the way through his entrance, it kind of kills the buzz. What do you think, G. I know you were locked in. Yeah, I mean, the ads were TEL's points. They were just, it was egregious how many there were. Like the Penta one, you're sort of walking out and he's got the cool mask on.

You're like, oh, this is cool. And they're like, oh, this is the mask from Moral Kombat 2 in theaters May 16th. And it's like, Mortal Kombat logos behind him as he's making his walk to the ring. And then just like, you were watching Hulk Hogan documentary clips. We were just getting a slate that said WrestleMania will be back soon. And it was like two and a half minutes of this slate. And then to your point, every other square inch of the ring, the stadium, everything was covered in ads. It was ridiculous. Night 1 was atrocious. It was one of the least amount of enjoyment I got tuning into a wrestling match.

I, similar to Pizzi, I'm like, you're getting Royal Rumble, SummerSlam, WrestleMania, and maybe like one or two off nights from me a year. Like I am a admitted casual wrestling fan. But I have always loved WrestleMania. I started watching it back in like 20, 22. I think was the first year I did it, maybe that Arlington show. And I've always loved it every year to the point where I'm like, yeah, let's watch the Raw after Mani on Monday. I have no interest in that. Last night was much more enjoyable. I really liked the matches last night.

I liked Obafemi. He seems like a budding star. I thought the main event was good. My only issue was like the main event. And a lot of these guys wrestling is that I would look up how old they were. And like, it is jarring how many of these guys are in their 40s. there really is like few and far between when it comes to these stars being in like their 20s and early 30s, which I just don't know where that lends to the WWE going into the future.

But overall, like I liked night two, night one stunk. I can't even remember anything other than Cody Rhodes versus Randy Orton. And I sat there for the full three and a half hours and watched it all. The demon was great. Love the demon. That was sick. But yeah, overall, like I'm given in like the whole of WrestleMania. like a C plus B minus.

Rick? Yeah, I'm not going to be able to say anything that anybody didn't know. Are you sick, Rick? What's going on? No, no, no. Okay. Sick? Sick, Rick. I feel like a million bucks.

That's that bullshit. Allegations are getting strong, man. All right, all right. You sound like shit. You do sound, you do sound. No, no. This is not my phone. You need this mask for a moment?

I think this is a Frank thing. Okay. All right, yeah. I think this is a... Frank is getting it to me. I think it must be something with my mic, because I sound normal and feel good. Frank?

You look like how I feel. Thank you. I feel great. So thank you for the compliment. I look forward to WrestleMania every year. This was not an enjoyable one. That's as simply as I can put it. I really look forward to WrestleMania's SummerSlam Royal Rumble,

like the big tempo events for WWE because it's my opportunity to kind of check in on the product because I'm not a regular consumer, although I do stay up to date thanks to the Salomonster with the Uncrow Wrestling Pod. It's a great pod. and this felt a little bit, like, you know, lesser than what I had experienced previously. I will say night two was much closer to what I'm used to, right?

Night two was much closer to what I expect from a WrestleMania product. But even there, it did feel like at a certain point we were kind of like moving through things to get to the main event. And so, yeah, there wasn't enough time for a lot of the, you know, the matches. There wasn't anything other than, you know, commercials and commercials and commercials and then very short matches. it's hard to get into it. But I will say if you take a cue from the very first UFC event on Paramount, you can fix these things, right? Oh, yeah.

You can find ways that the monetization of this, which is very, very clearly what they're trying to do and very, very clearly what their angle is has shifted too much, right? You've lost the content. You've lost the product. You've lost what you're actually trying to deliver to fans. And you need to kind of bring these things much more into balance. There's ways to do it.

They just were not successful this weekend. You need to listen to the fans as well because two years ago, they were on fire. Two, three years ago, they were on fire, man. The Bloodline, Sammy Zane. I was in Montreal for that match. Like, the place was going apeshit for him and Roman Raines and Cody Rhodes and then Philadelphia and the rock. You need to listen to your audience.

And I think the audience is speaking very loudly that they don't want as much celebrity involvement. They don't want things to be shortened as much. I mean, I have this here from Shaheen. Our guy Robert Jackman, no relation to Eric, is one of our great wrestling writers over on Uncrown.com. U.S. viewers, according to Robert's research, got around one hour of commercials each night combined, around one quarter of the entire running time taken up by content trying to sell you something. As a comparison, he sat down with a stopwatch and counted the amount of time taken up by ads in three previous WrestleMania's. Okay, so Mania 22, 20 years ago. Mania 32, 10 years ago, Mania 38, which was 22, and the last one before TKO.

At 32, he counted three minutes and 49 seconds of ads. At 38, there were six minutes and 10 seconds. At Mania 22, there were zero ads. Now, pay-per-view, things change, but still, it's a lot. So the amount of broadcast time taken up by actual wrestling matches was just 34% this year. That's down from 43, four years ago and 51% percent. back in the 2000s. And so, like, that's a problem.

We're tuning in. I'm not saying there shouldn't be ads. I'm not saying you can't pay the bills. I'm not saying that, you know, you can't do that sort of thing. The business has evolved and I'm not offended, even though it's jarring sometimes to see the ads on the table and all that stuff. But they've got a really good roster right now and they've got a very loyal fan base. to me it's unsettling to go online and just see everyone shitting all over it.

And I don't believe it's one of those tribal things where it's all the AEW fans. How could you defend that? How could you defend something that feels soulless? Right? Like I sit there and I watch Roman and punk and I'm like, this is awesome. This is why I love wrestling. I sit there and watch the El Grande, Americano and all that stuff happening in AAA. This is awesome.

This is why I love wrestling. But then you see it become bastardized and you see. see all the soul taken out of it and all of it become corporatized. And you're like, well, what's the point? Can I just, I just want to clarify something because I believe I'm correct on this. And you tell me if I'm wrong. The ads would be a product of ESPN, right? The ads would be their inventory to sell.

Well, okay, so I can't sit here and say, okay, this guy's calling the shots for this dad and the other, but we do know that TKO cut these deals, right? Yeah, yeah. So ultimately, yeah, you do put something on ESPN. ESPN's going to sell it, but they're all in business together. No, all I'm suggesting, much like, and again, I alluded to the UFC with Paramount on their debut, I imagine that that length of time, right, them deciding that we're going to do basically, I don't know, what were the gaps, like four to five minutes each,

and then there was like three, four commercials and two and a half minutes of we'll be right back, was ultimately decided by the partner, not necessarily TKO or, WWE and that they were trying to maximize what they could do with the window. And this is not to like throw TKO or WWE bail, nor to say ESPN are the demons. We should go after them. It's more to say that maybe the relationship aspect of like how they're going to monetize this hasn't been honed in yet and they still have plenty of opportunity to kind of like fine tune that a little better. It just started. It started in September. So I'm not trying to say all is lost here. I do think that falls more on ESPN.

If we're handing out the blame, I do imagine that ESPN is the one who's setting these kind of like windows, and TKO, WWE is kind of having to be like, all right, how do we build a show around, this is how much they're going to do, this is when we're going to come back, not the other way around. Yeah, well, I'd love to know,

because you put the first hour on the deuce or the mothership, and then the rest of it is on ESPN Unlimited. And I don't know, maybe like when it goes, to unlimited, there's less ads. It didn't feel like there were less. No, did not. But I feel like it should be that to a degree. Like plus versus, you know, regular. Yeah. So they just have to, I mean, they just have to figure it out.

Look, I see that there are some people who are saying, look at Triple H not showing up to the post show. And I actually like that. I didn't like Triple H showing up to the post show. I didn't mind him at the pressers per se, but I don't want, you know, I talked about this after the Cina match. I don't want the director to show up immediately after the movie to explain to me why he made certain decisions. And that's how they were treating that. They also have to find the tricky balance. And I thought Roman does this better than anyone. Cody does it really well to a degree.

It's like work, shoot. We're living in this like non-KFabe era where unreal is there. But then like they're sitting there at the desk, breaking it down like their real matches on ESPN. And so it's a tricky thing. But when you have Triple H up there explaining why you have, you know, certain decisions being made, or why certain people are winning. To me, there's nothing good that comes from that. And I know they want to position him as the Dana White, the promoter,

and he does a good job of that. Like, he is the perfect guy for that right now. You don't need to have him. So I don't view that as a cop-out necessarily. I think those moments, those segments should just be, you know, Obafemi, Roman Raines, Cody, whomever just won, and just let them sort of revel in it and have them, you know, up there doing the thing.

And you have the fans back there reacting the way in which they react, Paul Heyman up there and whatever. So that being said, they're well aware. There's no way that they're not aware. And he alluded to it in certain interviews leading up to mania about the backlash, about the fans, not loving it. But I just, I don't know, I walked away from all of that thinking like, man, I don't remember the last time.

I'm sure there have been times where the product was down. Obviously, we know there have been times in the 90s and certain other times a few years back where it was this much animosity. And it's just, it's interesting for us because usually we'll come on here in the past and talk about wrestling. and then we'll go back to our other thing. It's the same company controlling these three entities. And there's going to be a time in the not too distant future

where the same company is going to be the biggest dog in all three sports. I have no doubt about that. Zufuva boxing ain't going anywhere. People could talk about Turkey being involved, not being involved. They ain't going anywhere. WB ain't going anywhere. UFC ain't going anywhere. But what is that product going to look like in five or so years if we continue down this path?

I don't know. But I hope they're listening and I hope they're paying attention because we all love this, we all want to enjoy it. I just feel like, like I saw that Matchroom promo for the Dalton Smith fight. I'm like, oh, yeah.

Oh, that's brilliant. Good promos can be produced for combat sports. Good posters can still be made. There's still good stuff out there. There's still creativity to be had. It doesn't all have to feel soulless. I keep going back to that word

because that's what it feels like to me. It's really what it feels. To your point, to your point, like Matrum had an event in Liverpool. They lost the main event to that card. There was worry about how it would get on. they gave Molly McCann like a 10 minute entrance in Liverpool. She was fighting a 3-and-3 girl and she fought very well.

But like just the idea that they would go out of their way to give the viewer that. Like that's what that's for essentially. It's for people at home to go, holy shit, this looks incredible. That's all you kind of want as a fan. You want some moments that are unique to certain events. And we aren't seen anymore. And honestly, like you're mentioning about TKO, all the way through what you've said today, all I could think about was Rhonda's comments

from before she signed with MVP when she said they're just trying to maximize his profit and make the product at a cheaper rate than they have previously or something to that affect. That's not a direct way. But that kind of feels the same thing with WWE, same thing for UFC at the moment.

You know, it's interesting. I was critical of Sina's retirement. I thought they nailed the Brocklesser retirement. There was no big pomp and circumstance leading up to it. Big dude wins. He looks like a superstar. He is going to be a superstar.

Brock's emotional. That seemed legit. Takes off the gloves, takes off the shoes. DC in the back over there. What a shot that is. O'Shea Jackson as well, but the DC framing, I don't know if done on purpose or whatever, was great. If you're a long-time fan, you get the connection. I thought that was great.

Do you buy it? Okay, that's the question. I reached out to a couple people, and I didn't get in a response. I thought that he was going to retire, he's going to retire. he's going to retire in Minnesota. That makes all the sense in the world. Perfect. Do you do an angle where he comes back now and he gets brought back by Gunther or someone

like that? I don't know. I kind of hope not because I thought that that was perfect. And what's the difference? Buntler brings him back to them beat him? Yeah, because Gunther's the guy who retires everyone. That's his gimmick. But what's the difference between this and John Sina?

Well, the difference is the Sina thing was a year-long build. That was being billed as his retirement match. There was no connection between him and Gunther. That was just like Gunther winning a turn. tournament and then he gets that. And then John seen his gimmick is never give up. And then we see him tap. Like it just, it felt wrong every step of the way. And oh, by the way, now we see him again three months later as the host of WrestleMania. Like he doesn't even, and he's the, he's the best. He's salt to the earth. But like he doesn't even go away long enough for us to

truly, truly miss him. This felt impromptu, emotional. It felt like a fight. It felt like Gilbert Burns, right? It felt like I've realized I'm not good enough. I'm old. I want to do this and that. I'm done. It was great. I thought that was great. And Obafemi is the man. and they've got something very special in him. I'm such a Mac, I thought it was real. I thought it was real. I was like, wow, nobody knows that bro. Oh, it could have been real.

I mean, it could have been. It was like, no, fucking. That's it. I'm on the Mac. I don't know. You're out of your mind. And then take the silence on the comedy review, I'm like, they don't know what's going on, man. They're scrappling over there.

It's still real. That's great work by then. I mean, they were staring there, like, staring down at the screen, like, with their jaws on hinge. They definitely were like, oh, oh, my God. Is he really doing this? But it did feel good. right? Like it looked good. It was nice. I felt like I was watching something like,

well, you know, like this is a big talking point, you know what I mean? Did not feel like that most of the time. My favorite thing of the whole week I thought Roman and Roman and C.M. Punk was incredible, but my favorite thing of the whole week was Jay Uso and it is what it is. Like, that was incredible.

Cameron and J. Uso doing a program. On a podcast? Yeah. Just unbelievable. Cameron might be our best. But G.C. not impressed. I didn't see it You didn't see it He beat him up on his show

Oh no no no I didn't see Did he get Did he get his revenge No there was no Pay off There was no like additional thing to it He literally said the next day He ain't leaving Las Vegas

Before he said Oh you think he shows up on raw Maybe Is Raw in Las Vegas? Yeah Yeah Okay something else I liked From Night 1 was

Paige coming back You'd like that Shout out You were excited about that Yeah Tell us why A couple of people that are watching with

or like diehard wrestling fans so there was a massive pop for them yeah Rick loved that one too I like that one too you guys remember we were at Arthur Ash when she debuted on AEW

yep that's how I knew her I was like oh shit yeah yeah you're like that she is that was me seeing Adam Weitzman in the commentary I know you dropped Adam Whiteman on us I was like who the fuck is he talking

Silence the group was just like I don't say anything Hold on Pizzi you saw the camera on a J Uso thing no No Wow nobody saw this A lot of it was watching. My face was directed at

WrestleMania, PT. It was in vague. No, no, this is on social media. What we've learned here is we're having conversations in the chat. There's some people paying attention and there's others. Oh, it was so good.

Can I just say X as well? What happened to Twitter? You used to be able to fucking just put WrestleMania in there and people tell you how they feel. You fucking put it in there now all kinds of shit. You're not getting the fucking

WrestleMania chat. Come on, Elon, please. The search feature on X's ass. It's fucked. That's another conversation, but it is ass. That is another conversation. We can talk more about this, and I'm going to ask Josh Barnett about it as well, because I know he was watching, and his takes on the business are very interesting. But let us welcome in our first guest of the day.

We were just talking about him. He had an amazing moment on Saturday in the True North, Strong and Free, in Winnipeg, to be exact. Just the third Canadian to ever headline a UFC event in Canada, victorious, just as the likes of GSP and Warren McDonald have been in the past. And it did feel like a, I don't want to say a coming out party, so to speak, but it's like a, like, all right, he has arrived, he is going to be ranked, and now he is here, beating the likes of Gilbert Burns. We're talking about the proper one, Mike Malott, who is kind enough to join us right here, and now to discuss what happened on Saturday.

There he is. And I think a familiar spot, I feel like we've talked to you after one of your fights in this exact spot. Maybe I'm crazy. Congratulations, nevertheless, Mike, on a great, great win for you. Thanks, brother. Yeah, I know we haven't chatted here before. So, you just headlined in Canada.

You fought in Canada before for the UFC. it's different when the whole show has been built around you. It felt like in many respects the Mike Malachio, and I know you'll say there were other Canadians on the card, including teammates and whatnot, but it did feel like you were the face of this card. Now you come home, you take a minute, 48 hours removed. Has it all sunk in?

Like, do you, have you come to terms with what you accomplished on Saturday? Because I know it meant so very much to you. Yeah, yeah. It's incumbent to terms with it. It's funny, everything felt so fast, man with as far as the finish, and then right into the post-fight interview and then Gilbert's whole, you know, retirement felt like we were right into that

and then into all the media. It's funny, I didn't really get to think about the fight and actually remember what the fight felt like and what the exchanges felt like and exactly what happened in the moment. It took a couple hours before I got to sit and digest exactly what happened after the whirlwind, right? But it's starting to digest.

now and it's a pretty cool feeling. So what did it feel like? You looked fantastic, the striking, the stand-up, the takedown defense, everything looked great. What did it feel like to you? I felt great, man. I felt really calm. I felt like I really built on how I went into my last fight. My last fight, I felt really calm in there. You know, stalking guys, my last two fights more than I have in the past. I haven't necessarily been the biggest stalker in previous fights maybe a little bit more mobility and movement on the outside these last two fights I've kind of stocked and boxed a bit more and yeah a little more combat a little bit more of a

combination fighter these last couple of fights and landing big shots obviously Saturday I found the mark more and ended up getting the finish with it but I felt really common there I feel like I'm really maturing as a fighter in the UFC and growing within the octagon and and really finding myself in there So when you say you felt really common there, I'm wondering if that was the case throughout the week. First main event, first main event in Canada, that's a lot, right? And you said all the right things, but now in the aftermath, did it feel different going into it? Not really. I feel like I said a lot of the right things, and I feel like sometimes it can feel like people, like I might have been trying to relieve the pressure almost the way that I was saying it.

But it was genuine. I'm like, no, I genuinely feel calm. people talking about well there's a lot of pressure your main event but i thought of it as not being that different as how um to how a lot of my fights in canada have felt to be honest a lot of them have felt like there's a ton of expectation for me and pressure on me and um expectations for me and then as far as my mindset goes my fight is is always like the main event you know what In my mind, it's the most important fight of the night. So for me, it's not that different.

But it's one thing to say all that. It's one thing to say like I've had pressure in the past and so it won't affect me going into this fight. But then to actually go out there and feel it and think, oh, like, everything I said is how I genuinely feel and feel like my performance showed that. So, yeah, I'm really happy about that part of things. I was just going to say, to your point,

even when you're not fighting in the main event of a UFC card, it does feel like you're the Canadian main event, so to speak, right? Like, it does feel like you're usually, as of late, the last of the Canadians, and for us Canadians, like, you're the culmination of it. So that's why I think maybe this one didn't feel all that different. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, absolutely right.

Both in the expectations, kind of maybe the, for the Canadian fans, like you said, kind of the Canadian main event, but then also just for me, right? Like, even when I was making my UFC debut in Jacksonville, for me, that's, I'm fighting on the prelims against Mickey Gall. For me, that's the most important fight of the night. I don't care about the main event. I'm focused on my performance.

So to me, my fight has always been the main event. But, you know, maybe there's more expectation from fans, which isn't my focus. You know, of course, I want people to be proud. And I love when people say that I've done a good job and they like what I do. But at the end of the day, I'm focused on what I need to do rather than, like, other people's expectations. Do you feel like you have now entered into a new chapter of your career? Probably the biggest name that you've beaten Kevin Holland up there as well, but this is a former title contenders. I think most people would say Gilbert is a notch above the main event, all that stuff we just talked about.

Do you feel like this is now the start of a new chapter? Yeah, but I also feel very ready for it. Like this doesn't feel like something that's beyond my capabilities or something that's that it doesn't feel like I can't believe I I'm here. You know, it feels like, yeah, man, this is where I belong. I'm ready to be, I'm ready to be fighting the best guys in the world. I'm ready to be in main events. I'm ready to be on pay-per-views. I'm ready for these moments. I feel very prepared. I feel a lot more prepared than I did when I was a little younger in my career and I feel very confident going into this position. You say you're confident, you're ready. This kind of struck me actually during our show about 30 or so

minutes ago, one of our guys brought it up, and it's wild to me, and I have to be honest, I didn't really look at it this way. You're 34 turning 35 in November. He's 39 turning 40 in July. You actually started your pro career a year before Gilbert Burns. And so it's amazing. Like, I view you as kind of a new kid on the block, but, you know, you're 34. And I'm not saying you're old by any stretch. I'm a 43-year-old saying this to you, but it feels like it's really coming in, you know, it's all coming together for you now. You're coming into your own. You're ready, you're confident. Do you feel anxious like, I want to get going here?

There's a stretch of time that every fighter has to really make their mark and to go for it. Do you feel like you've entered that period now? Let's go. Yeah, I think I am in that. Like you said, it's time to go, but I feel like I am there. This is the perfect time. Like you said, I've actually been a pro for a really long time, right? Thursday, yeah, Thursday.

The 16th was my 15-year animal. of my pro debut. I went pro when I was 19. And yeah, I'm in my prime. I feel great. I feel young. My body's healthy. I pushed myself the hardest I've pushed for any camp and my body held up better than the last several camps. Yeah, I just feel ready. I don't feel necessarily anxious about it. I'm sure if I sat down and just started dwelling on the fact that everyone only has a certain amount of time. that, you know, we'd want to, want to, I don't know, like I, I have plenty of time left and that I don't plan on racing and I'm making the most of it, excited great performance the other day. I'm fighting fairly consistently, you know, I'm not fighting four times a year or anything like that, but, you know, we're, we're making the climb and I just need to keep doing what I'm doing.

I always wonder about this when, when a fighter beats an older fighter who is at the end of the career and then puts the gloves in the cage and all that stuff on the mat. Do you ever have a moment, and maybe not exactly in that moment because there's probably so much going through your mind. But as you know, Father Time undefeated, and it sort of catches up to everyone. Everyone who looks invincible at some point has that moment. Even the great Michael Jordan had that moment where he's like, I can't do this anymore. Are you looking at him and being like, man, I got to appreciate this, I got to enjoy this.

This will happen to me one day as well. I'll be in this same spot one day or does that thought not even cross your mind? not necessarily that but the appreciating the moments absolutely because i know it will be done someday so i try to treat every fight as if it's my last you never know what life has in store and there's no no guarantees in life right like i i want every fight to i want to leave every fight feeling proud of my effort and my preparation of the way i carry myself and that if something happens in life or, you know, something unforeseen happens or whatever. And it ends up being my last fight. I want to know. You gave it everything you had and you can hang your hat on that.

And Saturday night definitely felt like it fit those expectations. We were looking through your social media and look back at what you were posting, what you were doing the last time the UFC was in Winnipeg in 2017. And you were just a young book at Team Alpha Mail with the likes of Sage North Look at this guy here. Look at this guy. Sage Northcut, my old roommate, Jarrell ask you. Yeah, man, these guys are, yeah, it's funny, man, living down there, those guys were pushing me. I was probably, what year was that?

2017. Yeah, so fighting at 55. Skinny Mike, but yeah, those are great guys, man, those are great times. Even some artsy shots as well where you're like looking, I don't know, I don't know, where are we right here? Yosemite. I was on a hike at Yosemite and we just put up a put up a hammock for the day and just hung out with some friends and somebody snapped a picture.

I was like, ooh, that looks deep. I bet people will think I'm before if I post this. Is that guy thinking of, like, is he thinking UFC main events are coming? Like, my time is coming. Are you dreaming of this? Or have you surpassed all of those dreams? I think that picture was very metaphorical.

I'm in the valley and the mountains in the background to come and I'm going to climb that mountain, you know? Okay. So you were daring to dream of all of this back then, right? This is not like new territory for you. No, of course. I had moved down to California for that reason, right? I'd move down to Alpha Mail to start training with those guys.

And Erya Faber and that whole team because I wanted to be the best in the world and I wanted to learn from guys who had different experiences from me and different martial arts journeys. And yeah, this has been the dream the whole time, man. What about that locker room that you were in on Saturday? Manitoba Moose locker room. that your brother once played for and would actually change in? That's the exact locker room?

That's his locker room. Those were some good vibes, man. I talked to my brother on FaceTime after, and he saw that somebody else posted that or the UFC posted that, and I saw the Manitoba Moose logos in the background. He goes, oh, boom. As soon as I saw that, I knew it was a rap. As soon as I saw that, I knew it was a rap,

because he played one game for the Jets, but his career in Winnipeg was for the Manitoba Moose primarily. So that was his locker room. That was where he got changed every day before he'd go out and skate and before he'd go out on the ice and get in a fight in the same arena where I was fighting. I'm wondering if you asked him like where his stall was and actually sat there for the good vibes. No, I didn't tell him about it until afterwards. Oh, okay. And I wanted to stay focused and, you know, I don't want to chit chat too much before the fight.

Just I took a video. I still haven't showed him that video, but I guess he saw the UFC posted some stuff from the locker rooms. and I think that's how he saw that I was in the Manitoba most locker room. And another big weekend for you guys. He's playing in the playoffs against Colorado, so obviously he couldn't be there to be in attendance, but it did seem like you had a lot of people there supporting you. How many do you think you had actually from your friend's family circle,

everyone there for you? They brought about 15 people backstage for me. It was really cool. You know, my wife, my parents, my in-laws, my siblings, my mental coach, and then a couple of friends all came back. It was awesome. I didn't know they were bringing them backstage after the fight. Came out of the medical tent and they were all standing there. It was really cool. And even Mr. Pierre Pauliev back there as well, who shouted him out on the Joe Rogan show.

What was that like, by the way, when you, I'm sure you saw that clip beforehand when you saw him specifically shouting you out? That was really cool. I'm at my in-law's house right now and my brother-in-law is the one that sent it to me. Yeah, that was a super cool clip, especially because it wasn't a smooth segue from something they were already talking about. We were talking about how, you know, how his campaign didn't work out last time and he goes, yeah, I'm not crying over spilled milk. Anyway, how about this Mike Mala guy? That's a pretty sweet, pretty sweet call out there. I loved that.

thanked him for that when I saw him on Saturday. That was pretty cool. What's he saying to you back there in that moment? Do you remember? Just congratulating me. I think just the way I don't remember exactly what he said, something along the lines of, you know, you know, that I did a good job and I was carrying myself well and, you know, kind of saying nice things. You know, Canada is a proud of type thing.

And, yeah, that was pretty cool. I feel like we need to get, we need to get him up there to Niagara top team. He seems pretty fit from that shot there. He seems like he's doing something with the kettlebells and all that stuff. So I feel like you guys could teach him a thing or two. I know he trains a little bit, too. I know he hits the Mitz. I know he cracks the Mitz.

Okay. throw the hands. So I'd love to hold some mitts for him sometime if he wants to come out to a Niagara top team. Amazing. And speaking of Canada, I'm sure you've seen this. Some fans upset that the flag was taken away from you as you were sitting on top of the cage. Do you have any idea why that was? No, I've heard that before.

So when I was in Montreal, I went to go lift the flag and the, I don't know if it was a commission guy or who it was. They're like, oh, you're not allowed to have it in the octagon. So I said, can I jump up on the side? He said, yeah, sure. so I jumped up and then I left the flag. So I skipped the first process and jumped up to go grab the flag. And as I'm pulling it up, he snatched it out of my hand. And he did it all shitty too, where he like snatched it and looked at me like this.

And I was like, what the hell, man? Number one, don't try and be a tough guy to me. Like, I just fought in a cage. And then number two, like, I don't understand what the rule is that I couldn't have that flag. I walked out with it. This is you in Montreal. by the way. This is you on top of the cage on the trail.

Yeah. Yeah, I'd spent eight weeks visualizing, getting to reenact that. Yeah, I enjoy getting to hoist the flag. I'm proud to be Canadian and I'm proud to be in a room full of primarily Canadians, you know, getting to perform in front of everyone and getting to compete out there with the, you know, flag metaphorically on my back. I want to physically and literally have the flag on my back when I'm in there. But, you know, not the end of the world, but would have been cool. to be able to hoist it.

Yeah, you seemed a little bit annoyed in that moment from maybe the aggression in which he took it away from you. I still don't quite get it. There was a manager named Danny Rubinstein who tweeted that you can't have it covering any sort of sponsor, but there's different angles. And you were actually standing on or sitting on top of the UFC Fight Pass logo right there. So it's not like it was, I don't know, just seems weird. If the flag wouldn't have blocked anything, my legs blocking something, but the light wouldn't

have blocked anything. Did you inquire about it afterwards or no? No. No. So good. Yeah. You mentioned in the post-fight press conference that you don't really look at what other people are doing or trying not to watch the fights. But there was a weird, weird, maybe not the best word.

There was a trend where the Canadians weren't doing so great on the undercard. And then all of a sudden it picks up with Jasmine and then Charles and then you, Mandel had a tough night, even though that fight was incredible. I would imagine you're still kind of looking at what Jasmine's doing because she's, She means so much to you, right? And that always has to give you a bit of a boost. Of course, yeah, that was nice to see that she was doing well. I didn't know how the Canadians had done, but I had heard that I saw Julian LeBlanc walking out and Robert Valentin getting interviewed. So I put the two and two together, and I saw that Tanner Bowers are lost.

So I knew that there were at least a couple Canadians that had had a rough night. But I didn't know how it over and all it did. But obviously, you know, to fight I care the most about it's obviously my own performance. And then Jasmine, of course, I want her to do well. So I try not to watch the fights when I'm in the back because you get emotionally invested. And you just get kind of worked up watching the fights. And I want to just stay focused on my own fight. But I was definitely excited and relieved to see that she won.

He was bummed for Mandel because he's a really, really solid fighter, if not about him for probably over a decade. really solid fighter so bummed for him but I'm sure he'll be back and then I was stoked to see jordane got the win I again I didn't really watch that one I saw a couple of times at some ooze but that's about it but yeah stoked for him he's a beauty hilarious guy so yeah happy happy we closed out the main card with some solid wins for Canada you train with jasmine are you aware does she does she like have nicotine patches in her mouth when she when she trains are you aware of this habit of hers because it seems like she had something in her mouth during the fight that everyone's

freaking out about in a good way. I don't know what you're talking about. We'll have to ask her. We'll have to ask her directly. But if so, that makes me think she's even more gangster than we thought. Jazz is gangster as hell. Yes, I had no idea of that gangster. But shout out to her.

Well done. Have you ever tried that, by the way? To fight with us in it? Yeah. No, I've sparrow them in. You have? What does it feel like? Oh, it's a good time.

Does it give you like a little extra buzz or I've never tried one of those? I don't even know what they really taste like. Yeah, like a little, it just kind of focuses you a little bit. And especially sometimes it's like you're sore. It's a long week of training and you need to get ready for a sparring session. I just need a little more like kind of pick me up before we go. Just toss one in the mouth card and get in there. Okay.

Well, all right, we'll have to find out. We'll have to ask her. you were asked in seven different ways who's next. You say you don't ask about anyone. UFC says five rounds, three rounds, no problem. I did want to ask you about last week, Kevin Holland quite vocal about wanting to fight you again. Would you view that as an appropriate step? Or do you feel like because you got the win over him, that would be a step back,

despite the fact that he looked good in Miami two weeks ago? I think that's a pretty big, I don't see why we would do that fight. Right now, we just fought recently. there hasn't really been much time between the fights. I'm coming off a win and ranked. Again, I don't pick the fights. If the UFC says that's the one that makes the most sense, I would be confused with the choice, but okay.

But I don't see that being the one that we're going to do. I already fought them once, and I got the win, so I don't feel like there's much else to prove there, but whatever. Would you be disappointed if by tomorrow you're not ranked? Yeah. Yeah. I was disappointed when I was ranked and they bumped me out because Mokachev came up and without a loss I went from being ranked to unranked. I knew that was a possibility, but still a little bummed. Like damn it, man, I had the ranking for a second. But, you know, I've been saying for a while when my friends asked me about it like, oh, aren't you bummed that you're you're not ranked? I'm like, well, I'm not married to being number 15 in the world. I, that's not, that's not. end goal here. So it's cool to have been ranked to have hit that milestone in no way I belong at that, you know, in the rankings. But the fact that I'm out for a couple of months from being 15 to unranked isn't the end of the world. I should definitely be,

to be shocked if I'm not at least 11 on Tuesday. Yeah, and that's what Gilbert is as of now. That will change probably tomorrow. And so I was looking, there's around that number, Gabrielle Bofim, there's Michael Venom Page, Urs Medich, D. Rod says he's fighting Leon Edwards in July. Are those the kinds of names that you're expecting to be offered to you? Yeah, I would assume someone ahead of wherever I'll be. I just think that's typical to the sport is you want to fight at a ranking, you get a shot at a higher one, right?

So I assume it'll be someone ranked in the top 10 for the next one, but you never really know, ma'am. Do you think that one of the byproducts of now climbing up the rankings will be, you're going to start probably fighting outside of Canada, right? Like you're going to be put on some big cards as you move along. And I would imagine you're at peace with that. Have you thought about that sort of thing? Like at some point, you kind of graduate from being the guy, you know,

main eventing the fight night, so to speak. Possibly. I actually thought kind of the opposite. I thought I would be more likely to be the main event staple for the next couple of fights in Canada's, you know, for, Canadian fight nights or like I have been in the past if there's a pay-per-view, either the feature fight

or now co-main because I'd be fighting for a highly ranked spot. So I kind of saw it in the opposite direction, but who knows, man? I'm thinking the next time you headline in Canada, it's for a title. I feel like we've moved past that point. I think so?

I think so, yeah, for sure. Hell yeah. Okay. You disagree? I don't disagree. I just I don't know. I thought I think top 10

versus top 10 type match makes sense for a fight night main event or a pay-per-view

like commain or feature fight but yeah dude you never know I don't yeah I'm not trying to like force

anything and I don't need to only fight in Canada they give me a fight somewhere else cool but you're easy going

I try to be no you definitely you definitely give up that vibe and certainly like talk to talk and walk the walk. I know you don't like to say names, and I'm not asking you to say names, but do you have your own internal lists?

Like, are there sort of benchmarks in terms of fighters? Hey, I got to get by this guy. Gilbert is a huge one. And then this guy, and then this guy, do you look at it that way? It's more like I've visualized fights against pretty much everyone in the top 15, you know? Like, it could be any one of these guys.

How would I approach that? You know, obviously in this. this camp, it was a lot less of the focus, right? But I guess the next couple of months or next short little while will be focused on, obviously, me growing. And then, okay, how would I approach this one? Is there anything that I would do differently? It's just kind of like almost a playful strategizing.

Just curious, it seems like Islam's going to fight Ian Gary next as far as the top of your weight class. Do you think Ian can beat him? I think Ian's a really high-level fighter, man. I think it's a tough test for him, but I wouldn't be shocked, man. He's done really well in fights in the past, and there have been moments where there are guys that you think he might struggle with more, and he's looked great. He's one of the best guys out there. It's definitely not a cake, a walkable fight for either one of these guys.

You're going to try to make it out to one of your brother's playoff games now? Yeah, flying out Thursday. Oh, really? So what would that be? Game three? Game three, yes. We're going to go to three and four in L.A. Incredible. Incredible. Well, enjoy that. That's got to be a thrill for you and the family, and I know that you guys are riding high from this past weekend. So enjoy that as well. Thanks, as always, for the time, Mike. Congratulations. Amazing what you're doing for the country,

for the sport. The way in which you conduct yourself is great to see as well. So obviously, congratulations and keep that up and looking forward to the next step on this journey. Thank you very much. Thanks for having me on. and I heard you have Faber on soon, so tell him, I say hi. I will. I will absolutely do so. One of your old friends.

There he is. Proper Mike Malat. Victorious this past weekend against Gilbert Burns, Gilbert Burns, also a Mench. So we wish him the very best. We wish him well.

And he had a great run as well. Obviously, the last few fights, not the best, so to speak. For him, five-fight losing streak, but look who he's, you know,

look who he's fighting against. Bilal Muhammad, Jack Della, Sean Brady, Michael Morales, Mike Malad. I mean, that is a who's who his last official win, at least for now in the UFC, April of 2023 against Jorge Mosvidal.

Prior to that, Neil Magni, prior to that, Hamza Chamae of a loss, but remember, fought his ass off against Hamzad, April of 2022 in Jacksonville. That was a big time fight for him. Fought for the belt against Kamar Usman in February of 2021, went on a great run beating OAM, Mike Davis, Alexi Kunchenko, Gunner Nelson, Damien Maya, Tyron Woodley to get that title fight. against Camaro in February of 2021. And so 22 wins as a pro 10 losses seem to imply that he was done. Let's see.

He didn't say a thousand percent, but seemed content. In fact, this was the scene. He actually just, I don't know if he came home today or yesterday, but Vicente Lucke, a longtime friend and teammate of his, posted this on social media, a great scene for Gilbert Burns. We could show it if we have it, of him arriving in the, in the airport earlier with his family.

It's a nice scene here for Gilbert. Love this. Look at this. Henry Hoof there, I see. That's awesome. You don't see that a lot in the U.S. Right?

Nice little heroes welcome. There's a whole crowd of people behind there. There are his kids. Look at this. Look at that little guy. That's great. Well earned, well-deserved. Doreno, shout out to him, much love, and congratulations on an incredible run.

All right, time to talk to one of our favorites. He had a very busy week in Las Vegas as well. He was not a WrestleMania, but he had his own show, Bloodsport, a bit of a rematch for him, ran the show, competed as well, and then he dropped a bombshell on us afterwards. I had not seen anyone allude to this, talk about this, any rumors, any references to this, And so we need to get the scoop from the Warmaster himself, Josh Barnett, kind enough to join us right here now to talk about everything that transpired over the weekend. There he is.

Hello, Josh. How are you? What's up, man? Good to speak to you, good to see you. Life good. You as well? Yeah, yeah, that's pretty good. I'm a lot of sport.

Great matches all around. Great competition. Gress on Mill Week and brought some athletes with my own over to compete. during this many people and able to shoot

both them did that. Okay, okay, time out, time out. Connection is very,

very poor. I'm wondering if we could do something to rectify this because we won't be

able to understand a word that you're saying. Is there something we can do

guys? I don't know if it's a phone, Wi-Fi, L-TE thing. Okay. So let's

reconnect with Josh here in a moment because I don't know about you guys but I didn't understand a word

that he said. Other than that I think he had a good weekend in Las Vegas. Warmaster, of course, 48 years young. Youngest UFC heavyweight champion, he was 24 when he won that belt. Former King of Pancras, Pride and Strike Force heavyweight Grand Prix runner-up. Wins over the likes of Andre Arlowski, Frank Meir, Randy Coutur, Big Knock, Mark Hunt,

Dan Severance, Sammy Schilt, Jeff Munson, Sergey, Jaditonov, Roy Nelson, competed for UFC Pride, Strike Force, Pancreys, Affliction, KSW, Dream. And he had his 15th bloodsport event that was on April 17th. So, yeah, the Thursday, no, the Friday, the day before WrestleMania at the Horseshoe in Las Vegas. He defeated Nugida in the main event. Nagata beat Barnett 23 years ago in Japan. So this was a nice rematch. and for the Hardcore is a great callback to that feud and fight.

Let us check in with Josh now, who I'm told is good to go. There he is. Hello, Josh. Can you hear me now? Yes, I was hearing you just fine. Apparently, my wife, I sucked. I don't know why. It sounds much, much better now.

So whatever they did with you is perfect. I think you were saying that you had a great weekend, right? I did. It was another great bloodsport event. A lot of killer matches. is everyone laying it all on the line. Plus, I brought some new students over to WrestleMania Week, Angel Verducco, Joe DeShue, both had some great performances.

And, yeah, overall, great time. Okay, so I love Bloodsport. We've talked about Bloodsport. I love what you've done with Bloodsport. In fact, Casey, who you know, Casey Leiden and Esther Lynn, uncrowned films. I wanted him to go there and do a film on Bloodsport behind the scenes. you were kind enough to give us all access. Amazing, amazing, amazing.

And then I find out you've announced to the crowd at the event, Bloodsport is no more. And this was massive news. A shock to all of us, like I said, had not seen anything sort of alluding to the fact that this might be coming. And so can you explain, A, what the announcement, the official announcement was for anyone who may have missed it and B, why you made that announcement?

Well, I mean, I didn't, I wasn't trying to make a big deal out of it. And I didn't want it to come off as, a gimmick or I didn't want people to think like, oh, they're just doing this for the purpose of drumming up some sort of interest or it was insincere. And, you know, there was a lot of conflicting feelings amongst myself within my own heart about what I was, whether this was going to be the case or not. But, you know, when all said and done, I feel like, yeah, I absolutely made the right choice here. and essentially what I said was it wasn't for anything negative it wasn't necessarily a bad thing you know there wasn't like a tragedy or there wasn't some major um I should say overarching like bad issue or problem in that sense but for me bloodsport had an evolution of where it was trying to get to and that was not going to be a traditional indie wrestling uh... especially because I don't think blood sport is really it's not really made for indie wrestling in the way that like a lot of indie wrestling is done especially because I

don't think it's you're doing shows at the kind of frequency well especially like gcw because you know breaths on the road like holland day in and day out like a road warrior every weekend and that's this show is not for that we wouldn't have the the the talent to keep up with it, you know, just because we can't book just anybody on this show. It doesn't work that way. And also, for me, like, that evolution was, like, everything that I was building upon with this concept was to be able to try and get it to that point to where I felt like it could really be put together in the best format and the best way possible to give it its ability to

to flourish and it's best. And we're just not there. We're not close. So for me, it was better to end it now than to keep going on and quite possibly diminish what the product is or run it down before we had a chance to really get to where I really feel like it would have been in its best. When did you come to this decision? It's been something in the back. in my head for some time because like I said this was not like this isn't a fly-by-night thing this isn't done with um uh spur of the moment last second considerations you know I think very deeply and heavily

about this and I was trying to like say bring on corporate sponsors or sponsors in general to support the show and bring in some other outside um elements to try and help with no building towards what that ultimate example is and we just weren't able to do it um you know that that's not to say that there isn't any possibility of doing that but you know i had a timeline and we didn't meet those goals so for me it was like all right um um um from from what i'm feeling and the way i'm seeing things it's like all right it it's just got to be done then for right now or you know, I mean, I don't know. I mean, but it is over.

I mean, it is not like I'm doing a hiatus. It's not a, oh, we're a temporary. It's closed unless things can be done to get us to where we need to go. And when you say things can be done, like what does that mean specifically? Well, we need more capital. We need our own office. We need more employees. We need a lot of things.

because the way I think that this show can really best flourish isn't, like I said, it's not the indie wrestling way. And we're not trying to be an AEW, WW, New Japan. We don't have that kind of money. And we're not going to run those kind of shows at that kind of capacity. But we have to, just like we are not like anybody else in professional wrestling, we can't take exactly the same approach as the rest of the other facets of professional wrestling do these days. So, you know, it's quite possible we could put together what is needed to fully envision what I see Bloodsport as being and where I think it will flourish most. But it's going to take a lot.

And it's a lot more than most indie shows. And it's a lot less than your majors. But it's kind of, it's going to need aspects of both, really. And so I understand, you say it's not indie, but it's not WWAW. So what would you say it was? Well, I mean, it's an indie promotion, right? But I mean, the way indie wrestling is done is there's like a kind of a general approach towards it. You know, you've got everything on a live show or you have like a live and a streamed combination, which is kind of where we're at, which is not all that dissimilar from some of the larger indie promotions running out there.

But there's still a more heavily reliance on specific fan bases and live. events and the gates. And for us, I think we have to have a different approach than that, because we're not going to run enough dates. One of the things that I want to do is to be able to not only pay wrestlers better, create bonus incentive structures for certain things in terms of what we're doing as far as numbers, and then also be able to get multiple match deals with people that we can honor all the way through, even if they get picked up by someone and, you know, allowed to finish their dates out so we can make storylines so we can create more compelling aspects to this because these wrestlers in bloodsport are incredibly special people to the industry

because they have this aspect of them that isn't found in every other wrestler and I want to be able to show why that's special and how that plays into what we do and to give as much opportunity for people to invest in these wrestlers as possible and not just from hey I follow wrestling on the internet or I know I look people up on cage match or whatever I want this to be something where there's the content and the production and things behind it that can create that more human interest aspect but that more deeper human attachment that drive to know more about that wrestler and then why what they do in the ring matters so much more so it's interesting as you're talking about this,

when you are speaking, you're speaking sometimes in the present tense, like these are things you're trying to accomplish as opposed to I wanted to do this. And so it still seems to be like you're leaving the door a little bit open to rectifying, to salvaging this. Am I wrong?

Well, I mean, like I said, on the night of the show, I'm not saying this is like, you know, there's not a, we didn't take the shovels out, dig six feet under, throw it in, pour gas on it, set it on fire, you know, whatever, then, you know, cover it and molten obsidian. And it's not that kind of thing.

But yeah, I'm not saying that this is, that there's no possibility that Bloodsport could be, could return to, to producing shows. But it is, unless it can be in the way that I know it is necessary to really take this product where it needs to go, I'm not doing. it and I don't want it done. Are you sad about this? Of course. You know, what I've done

with everybody that's been a part of this from Brett to Adam at 5B and his help from every single wrestler, every promotion that has helped us. I take a lot of pride in that, but I also feel a heavy weight of responsibility because none of these things

would happen if I wasn't here bringing these people to the table. And I do it because I want, one, I believe in everyone involved. And two, I want to show the success and spread the success amongst all these people as they're helping make that success possible. In, you know, I don't want to say in secret, but like before you made this announcement, did you, what I'm trying to say is like, did you give it a go? Did you, did you shop it? Did you try to get investors? Did you give it like, yes. Oh, you did. Okay. And. Oh, I did. No, I had, I have a great looking pitch deck. It,

It didn't lead to where I needed it to, but I do have a nice pitch deck still. How long were you doing that, that process? It took a while to be able to get to that spot, but not long enough, clearly. And so why not just say, hey, you know, we don't know, let's see. In other words, why decide to kind of publicly pull the plug now as opposed to like say, look, we're going to give it a year, we're going to try, we're going to talk to these people and really try to go for this as opposed to several months or so as it seems. No, it's the, from where I sit and the way I see it, what it needs is not as easy to get as,

it's not just as simple as having money either, because if somebody's going to put money into something, there's always going to be some want out of it. I know what I want. And for one, if I'm doing blood sport, it's 100% total creative control at all times, final cut. No ifs, ands or butts. There is nobody else that is. It's also why I said, you know, I'm not, you know, I've seen some people be like, oh, well, it'll be, you know, how about, you know, someone else, X, Y, Z's blood sport.

And I'm like, no, that ain't happening either. This is my show. This is my concept. I know how it started. But from day one of what has been Josh Barnett's blood sport, it's not. the same thing. It is ran a different way. It's got a different ethos behind it. It's had a lot of work put into it. It's had a lot of development shaping towards its aesthetics. And this is my, this is my baby. And no, I'm not giving it to somebody else. I'm not transferring it off.

I'm not, it doesn't work like that. And if I can't, if it can't be what it needs to be and how I know it needs to be to get where I want it to go, it's just better to call it done. What was the reaction when you went backstage after making that announcement? Shock. A lot of people thought it was like a rib or not really a rib, but maybe a, it was an angle of some sort. No. And, you know, there was, there was tears. There was some very upset people. And I know everybody, it's so easy to look from the outside in, to be on the internet. And just have such a cynical approach towards everything. It's irony, cynicism, almost to the point of nihilism.

And I really, it's no BS when I say that you would be shocked at people that I know are massively huge in their industry, be it be it Indie Wise or majors or whatever that have begged to be in this. show or that come and do this show for nothing just because you know it's like man i i don't have the budget to really do you proper and i'm sorry i have no disrespect and they're just like it doesn't even matter because people really believe in this and if you see them in this bloodsport ring it's not like it's not just a oh i'm taking a booking thing and i know that seems so oh yeah he's just full of crap and he's just tooting his own whore or whatever i mean but the thing is it's not really about me because I'm glad that people do trust in me, but ultimately they are the ones who make their decisions. They're the ones who decide where their time and their energy and their body is going to be spent.

And they see what I'm doing. They understand it and they trust in it. And I just make the ring and try to help them have the best moments possible in that ring, in a place that doesn't exist anywhere else. I don't care if somebody else doesn't have ropes or tries to do what they call a shoot-style promotion, which is another misnomer. I mean, yes, Bloodsport has tons of aspects, which you would call shoot style,

but this is not shoot style. This is not the UWF. This is not UWFI or rings. That can't exist anymore. That zeitgeist of wrestling is gone. And all these fans that are so, you know, newborn babes to really what the history of you in wrestling is over the past 30 years,

all they do is they see it on a ledger online or they watch a tape or they catch clips. Most of the time, people aren't even watching home matches. They just watch highlights. You know, TikTokification of things. But when the UWF originally came out, I don't mean like first UWF necessarily, although this does apply, but I mean more like second UWF, a newborn or she didn't say, as they call it, into what would become really the understood collection of shoot style. that zeitgeist of shoot style within the broader zeitgeist of professional wrestling at the time,

that was basically MMA to everyone back then. Most people were like, this is 100% shoot. These are actual fights. And a fight card would be five bouts, maybe four or five. And each match is, I don't know, 20 to 13 minutes or maybe 60 to 13, whatever. Then you get UWFI and you've got some short. order matches and professional Fujimori-Hull by the time Pankers came out, they called it Biosatsu, pro wrestling,

because matches were over sometimes in 30 seconds, so people were absolutely shocked. That didn't even register to them. But like I'm saying, that was, that was MMA. And there wasn't MMA like we have it today. So that space was occupied by shoot style wrestling. But now you have MMA and you have pro wrestling, but you cannot create a UWF thing.

anymore. You know, we don't, you'd have to have a dojo. You'd have to have, you know, striking coaches, grappling coaches, whatever. You mean, these guys didn't train pro wrestling so much. They trained fighting, although, you know, pro wrestling and fighting are one half of the same coin. It's just that you can see where they're spending their time. And look, that doesn't exist now. So I'm not, I've never tried to do that. I've always tried to lean more into the pro wrestling side of things. And because we're not an MMA show. We're not a full. shoot style show and we can't do the UWF. It just can't be done. It's just not possible in this day and error. So instead of trying to do something poorly and it can't be done, we'll do something

that takes from homages and builds upon what I think is possible. And for me, I've always said it's not a shoot style promotion. It is a pure and raw form of professional wrestling. And pro wrestling, I mean, isn't about like, oh, if I threw a cross arm bar on you, or a knee bar, now it's shoot style, versus if I use a figure four leg lock, I mean, that's just more on it. It's just moves. It's really about, it's more than that.

And, you know, we're a pro wrestling show. How much time did you just free up in your daily schedule? Because I know this would have probably taken up a lot of time. I know you're coaching. I know you're competing as well, but this was probably a beast, right? Yeah, no, it took a lot of time. Yes, it does bring me up.

And I do have a lot of things going. I've got Victor Henry fighting June 6 against Bryce Mitchell, which is fantastic. That actually happening. Oh, yeah. We've signed the bout agreements. I thought he was duck at us, but it turns out, I don't know, maybe he was just caught up in a lot of flat earth research and didn't have time. But either way, it's all good and done. So thank you for that, you know.

Just wanted to fight for my boy, Vic, who I think is going to crush. And then I've got the ACWA, the American Cash Wrestling Association. We're partnered with USA Grappling, which gets you, now you've got to spend $60 to get your USA card. Now you get insurance on every event you compete in. You know, we're not getting that in any other organization. And then we're still just 40 bucks to compete for the most part. And we're running these now around the nation.

The next one, last one was at Riverside. The next one is going to be in Fort Worth, Texas at the Fort Worth Convention Center. And we're looking to host the U.S. Open National Championships again. sometime here in August and SoCal. So this has been a big push of mine too to really try to get catch wrestling established. And, you know, I see stuff like RAF, you know, going on where you got Polis and Sarukian and all this. And they're going to go doing grappling match in Brazil.

I mean, like, nah, man, I have the solution to all of your issues if you need to do any submission-based stuff, you know, R-A-F, you come talk to me and I'll set you up with the best system that can incorporate any kind of grappling style and make it. so that everybody has an opportunity to use what their strengths are on a mat without it being just straight freestyle like Recco. Well, the good news is one of the founders of RAF is on right after you, so we could bring that up to Chad Bronstein. I did want to ask you, though, about the sentiment over the past week

because, as you know, shows like yours and Joey Janella's show and other shows as well were a huge part of WrestleMania for fans, right? All the indie shows, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. massive part. Next year they're going to Saudi Arabia and there seems to be a sentiment that all of that is going to be lost. What do you think happens to WrestleMania Week? I saw Paul Walter Houser tweet something like, hey, all the other promotions should come together and put on a mega show that same weekend in the U.S., put their egos aside and do something for the fans who aren't able to travel. Do you think that something will be lost next year because of the big WrestleMania show being so far away from the United States? I mean, I'm glad you brought that up because it also brings up something I wanted to address. Well, I'll answer your question first, specifically. And honestly, lost or an opportunity, depends on how you look at it. Okay.

What's the opportunity? The opportunity is like what, you know, PWH just said there. If you want to go ahead and get together and do something, and I would caveat that or even add an addition, it ain't just about egos, it's about professionalism. There, which is a, if you think dealing with, uh, uh, how would you put it like indie, indie, uh, MMA organizations is difficult. Try dealing with indie pro wrestling shows. Oh my God. The, the, the gap between professional and just outright bonkers, like, why did this

guy ever be given money to do anything? It's, it's massive and it's constant. Uh, and those that are true pros out there are really worth their weight in gold because there's a whole lot of them that really should never be allowed to book the show at all. But yeah, WW, if they're going to go to Saudi Arabia, I mean, that offers an opportunity for the indie side of things to do stuff. They're not going to head out over there. And to which I wouldn't blame them.

I mean, not even for any political or reasons you want to think about in that sense, but just for the sense of logistics and cost, it's not really feasible. And with that, which reminded me to bring something out. up. You know, when people, I've heard people saying stuff to me or whatever, for one, closing the show had zero to do with Saudi Arabia next year. It had zero to do with the WWE ever telling me anything or whether I'm going there or they're going to do this show. It's nothing. You know, and here's something. The WWE has never not once told me what to do, how to do anything, had any input on the show ever. I know, whatever. If you want that, narrative to exist in your head so that you can hate the WWE, which I'm not telling you to hate whatever you want to hate, love, whatever you want to love, man, I couldn't give a shit. And neither could the WWE or whatever. I mean, they're their own thing.

But if that match is booked, it's booked the way I wanted it to be straight up. And, you know, I personally take great offense at wrestlers that you liked or you really enjoy, then you would lament how, if they're in the WWE or wherever they may be. you feel like they're not being used right. I then bring them in to run however they want to go in this ring, to just let it all hang out. And then because they have some particular letters attached to the back of their name for where they're wrestling, oh, now you hate them, as if somehow they're not a good wrestler,

that all the things you enjoyed about them never existed. I mean, it's just freaking ridiculous. And, you know, I'll tell you to you this way. I know how I can use anyone that's on my show, no matter whether they came from WWA, Anew Japan. And I work with people. I pride myself, I'm being a professional and doing good business. And if something didn't work out for me, I just don't book it. And if something does align with how I'm trying to put together the show, then that's how it's put together.

And straight up, nobody tells me what to do, not even once. I work with people. I'm not a slave or, you know, beholden to anyone. You know, Brett is a huge help. He doesn't force me to put, book the show any particular way. Like I said, this is my show. And my connections, like, whether they be WW, AE, A.W, a New Japan. Well, especially the New Japan, the WWE ones, New Japan, obviously, because I'm born of that

company and Antonio Anoki. But with WWE, those are relationships that I have established over a, you know, well over a decade because I've had athletes in that company for you know for 20 years so I know people like triple H and all these others from way way way back then I got to know Nick and you know they they want to do business too and they want their wrestlers to succeed I don't mean just succeed like oh go out and get a win and make us look great because we're w we I mean they really actually care that their talent gets to go in there and get reps and go out out there and have a match to do this sort of thing. There is zero pressure over the top of me

from anybody. Nobody tells me what to do. Nobody forces me how to do things. I just work with folks. And so just cut that whole narrative out, throw it away. It's pointless and it's so unbelievably wrong. It's not even funny. I appreciate that. Can I ask you, did you watch WrestleMania? Yes, I was there for night one. Okay. Did you know, a lot of takes a lot of criticism, a lot of thoughts, opinions. You're an expert when it comes to this. I've weighed in. I'd love to get your take on how it felt.

There's enough being spoken about it. Really, I think what I'm going to say, and call it whatever you will, tephered or not. But I think that the industry, not just wrestling, but a lot of things around how we have, how these licenses are used, how the IPs are distributed, how the events are structured for how they make money.

We are in a whole new era. And if you don't like it, I can understand. It's radically different from the way it was. And I don't know when things are really going to settle because technology keeps changing the way things are done. Companies and mergers and all kinds of things are affecting how stuff is being produced and programmed to put out there and how it's monetized.

and we live in a wild, wild, wild world right now. And it's one thing to say, well, I hate XYZ or I hate this person or this person's ruined everything. You know, I'm not telling you to change your opinions or whatever. But like for one example, you can talk about, let's say, WWEs, booking and presentation and all these things. But one thing you need to understand for good or for ill, they are in the front running of how all of this is being done. And it's not because they're creating it. It's because they're just reacting before everybody else had. This is a tragedy of the comments kind of scenario.

So if how this media distribution is happening and how these rights deals are being made and site fees and all these different things, is you see as a problem fair enough but this is the new way of media distribution and monetization now and it's I don't know how it's all going to settle in the end

but would you agree Josh when you're a fan at home who doesn't think about site fees and all this other stuff which I know are very very very real things and we talk about them all the time you're a fan at home and you see the amount of and the lack of wrestling and you see the way it's presented, it's hard to stomach because it looks dramatically different

from the product that a lot of us fell in love with. Is that not accurate? Yeah, sure. Yeah, fair enough. And look, what I'm saying is just to give you some more context. No, I understand all that. When you watch it, I'm not, yeah. When you watch it and you're saying this is different?

Because, like, I don't watch wrestling. I just don't watch wrestling in general. But you were there. You were there on Saturday, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was having a great time. And, you know, I don't, I, look, I don't generally have any trouble expressing my opinion. But when it comes to this kind of stuff, I just distance myself because I have no idea how these things are being done.

And I don't know whether one person gets to make decisions anymore or not. And that's typically how wrestling has been. You know, you might have your guys underneath you putting together storylines on this side and on that side. This person's working on tags. This person's working on this. or women's wrestling, the division there, all kinds of stuff. But that would all funnel up to someone at the top of that pyramid in the hierarchy there, and then the decisions are made.

I don't really know that that's the case anymore or that any decision that you make is just as fluid as until somebody else comes in from another division and tells you you have to change it because of, I don't know, maybe an advertisement thing or a celebrity influencer. I don't know. But it's not just, WWE, I can see how that would be far more visible and noticeable. But I'm saying this is everywhere right now.

And the amount of which this can penetrate into a product will vary, but it's everywhere and all the time. So honestly, the reason why I hesitate to be full on with any real critiquet, is because there's just so much that even I don't really truly know at this point. But, you know, my thing is to make what I think is best. And that's why I was doing bloodsport. Fair enough.

Not as an ante to anybody else, just as to, for me to just be like, well, I can criticize, but how about instead I just make? And for me, that was just a better solution. And I think that's part of the reason why a lot of fans are sad to see it go, because it was such a great and unique product. I did want to ask you before I let you go. I remember back in January, Gaichi Pimlet,

you refer to it something to the effect of one of the worst UFC main events. And to be honest, I had a similar, like I was blown away by the toughness. I was, you know, you cannot take anything away by the grit, by the determination, by the heart, but from just a technical standpoint,

and I'll never sit here and be the guy, I'll be like, oh, you know, that jab did it. But it just, it felt a little bit, for lack of a better word, it felt a little sloppy at times. And while we've had some fans get upset about the dominance of Islam or Hamzad and then praise this, I was like, hmm, I wonder if I'm the only one. And then I saw the likes of you and Matt Brown and others be like, yeah, that wasn't that great. Can you expand on that?

Why did you feel that way? Well, easy. It was weighed against themselves. They fought terribly for them, especially. And I had seen plenty of their fights. I knew what their strengths were. And I had a rough idea how they'd be employed. And then it just fell apart.

It was just all over the place, sloppy action, feet not under you, all kinds. It just really poorly instituted what seemed like game plans. And it just, I mean, for one, it shouldn't have gone all the rounds if they were fighting to their best abilities. It really wouldn't. And I just saw two guys fighting way under their capabilities. And, you know, look, some days you just show up and everything just seems to go wrong. I don't know why that is sometimes. You just feel out of sync.

Could be pressure. Could be maybe your body's not really as recovered as you thought. Could be any number of things. And it could be an external influence, you know? Maybe somebody close to you, something. You found out some illness had struck them or somebody had passed away. It could be all kinds of stuff. But to me, it wasn't like a lot of it was a little hyperbolic to get a response.

but some of it was really because everybody was touting it as being such a great match and I'm like it was terrible, it was awful. Not because they're awful fighters and not because they didn't give it their all, but because they were performing way lower than their skills and where their capabilities have shown in the past.

They were like degrading in that match instead of being to that next level of where you would see their essential lineup for that big moment, that title match. So, you know, for me, I'm like, I have plenty of, you know, things to complain about with modern MMA. And a lot of these younger folks have no idea what they missed out on. But in that particular match, I just didn't, I know the necessity, especially from, you know,

the Booker's side is to, you know, try to highlight it as much as possible and, you know, to step over what was bad, but I just, from a lot of just noise out there on the internet, I'm like, you know, not that the UFC has to do better, but no, we as how we look at these things need to do better. And, you know, those guys are way better than that. And I think if they fought again, we'd get a better match than they had that time. But, you know, it wasn't necessarily a dig at any of those guys by any means. And, you know, fighting is fighting. You just never know how it's going to go. I'm doing some commentary

for a show coming up, bear knuckle boxing, blood for blood. Yes, Alex terrible. And Alex, he fights like the wild bear that he loves to, he loves to wrestle with. But as much training as any of those athletes on that show

do, be it Cretos or Taylor Starling or Bostwick or anyone, that on the night, whatever you got, however it's going to come out, that's what we, that's what's there. And, you know, you don't intend to come out and be any less than your best. But once the lights hit you and the punches start flying, it's just what you got.

So, um, not hoping for any bad performances or, uh, underperforming athletes on that card. But, uh, that's just the way of the fight game. I mean, that's the way of professional wrestling too. Well, I'm looking forward to that. That's May 6th in Daytona Beach. We had Alex in studio last week. What a fascinating guy. And so I understand you're going to be a part of the broadcast team.

That's great. So we won't have to wait very long to hear from you on a broadcast, so to speak. Congratulations, Josh, on everything you did with Bloodsport. I'm going to hold out hope that it will make a comeback because, as you know, in the fight game, no one really retires. And so I'll say the same for a promotion one day. You may be back. But congratulations on everything that you built and the connection with the fans, the brand.

You know what you're getting when you saw that. I thought Natty did an amazing job of reinventing yourself under your umbrella. I wish we would see that Natty in WWV a little bit more often. But again, you know how these things go. And so I hope that you are proud of what you accomplished. And yeah, and you're holding your head very high. Good luck to Victor in June. That's a huge fight.

And good luck with everything else that you got going on. Always great to have you on the show. I love to hear words of praise from my manager. Yes. I'm super proud of what we've done with Bloodsport. And I'm really, really, really proud of every. athlete that has come through and stepped into that ring, they've given me so much, they've worked so hard, you have, you know, you guys just don't know how much it means to the wrestlers to be

in, in this show, and how hard that they really work at it, how much they listen, and how much I try to be a force to help them, not just be better, just to give a good match in my show, but to help them in general. To me, pro wrestling is a sport really built on. I mean, there is the action in the ring, but until you step onto that mat, it's all about you guys being in the back, mentoring, picking people up, building them up, and, you know, the veterans bring the younger athletes up with them and try to mentor them and help them be the best that they can be. And bloodsport helped me do a lot of that. And, you know, Brett Lauderdale's an incredible, incredible partner, great guy, he's done a lot for professional wrestling, continues to do so. And, you know,

I'm not, I have no regrets with blood sport. And I would love to be able to see it return. But, you know, unless it's under the right circumstances, it's just I'd rather it, rather go out on top with something like, like you talked about me versus Eugene Nagano. What a dream that was, Natty and Shana and everything that came with that show. Thank you, Josh. All the best that we'll talk to you soon. Thanks, bud. There he is. Josh Barnett, the Warmaster,

aka the Babyface Assassin. Great stuff from him. And again, I love Bloodsport. That's part of the reason why I wanted to do one of those behind the scenes. And so I guess our film that will be coming out in about three or so weeks will be about, at least for now, the last one.

So stay tuned for that. Stone Cold Steve Austin was there. Other notable wrestling luminaries were there. So very, very exciting stuff. So we go from one promotion that seemingly is closing its doors to one who is very much enjoying a rise and doors wide open and, you know, you throw around meteoric, who knows how to quantify any of that, but when RAF, Real American Freestyle

Wrestling launched in August of last year, I think a lot of people weren't quite sure what they were going to get. And whether or not it would get off the ground, we've seen other wrestling promotions, not pro wrestling, but amateur collegiate freestyle wrestling promotions come and go. was the real pro wrestling league way back in the day, and they never really got off the ground. They were kind of DOA. RIF is not that, and they have seemingly found a very nice mix of, you know, catering to the hardest of hardcore, catering to the MMA fans, catering to the Olympic fans, the collegiate fans,

catering to everyone. And it seems like every few weeks, they have one of these shows that is dominating the combat sports landscape. And I don't just say that because I'm going like this. No, we have a website. And it's uncrowned.com. And every time they put on a show, the traffic for the RAF stuff is crushing it, sometimes doing way better than the UFC stuff.

They had a show this past weekend in Philadelphia. It was headlined by Armatirician versus Uriah Faber. Another viral moment for Armin. They have a show coming up on May 30th in Dallas, Gable Steven, finally going to be making his debut, Kobe Cumberton on there. Chris Weidman as well. They announced the signing of Hamzaa Chama. They're doing massive things.

with known names, names that are coming up, names that are known to the MMA wrestling community. It's fascinating stuff. So long overdue to have one of the founders of RIF on the program, Chad Bronstien, without further ado, let us say hello to Chad as we talk about all things RIF. There he is. Hello, Chad. How are you? Hey, what's up, Ariel? How are you? I'm doing great. Great to have you on. And first things first, congratulations to you, Eric, Izzy, Terry Belaya. May you rest in peace, Hulk Hogan on seeing this come to fruition. Be honest with me here. When you guys launched this, well before the August date in Cleveland, but even on that night, would you have ever imagined that you'd be in the

place that you are now somewhat eight or so months later? It feels like this has all been expedited, monthly shows with big names attached to it. Was this all part of the plan, or is this moving quicker than you thought? I think it's moving quicker than we thought. When we first had that, I remember when Hulk, myself, and Bischoff were at Hulk's table and Clearwater. and he's uh eric's like we should call ariel awani so we call you on the phone and we're telling you about our idea um and that was like i think it was almost a little over a year ago yeah to we're at we we're definitely weren't expecting to um be here but uh wrestling is the oldest sport in the world it's freestyle wrestling and so it just needed a stage to be on so i thought the people

were the timing was right so um it's great to see where we're at it's a lot of hard work but um definitely my expectations are way ahead of what we were going to be at at this current time. What do you think has been the secret to the success? Why are you where you're at right now? I think it's a mixture of things, right? I think it was timing. Wrestling is a popular sport. It's getting more popular. It's the fastest growing sport in America for women. But internationally, it's got a huge stage. I think, you know, we had guts. I think that a lot of, the issue with wrestling was that it was stuck in a Pierce mindset. So if I love wrestling, kind of like how you watch how you are in MMA. So I would watch Big Ten wrestling on a Friday night. But to call up my wife or someone else,

it probably wasn't the most interesting thing to watch. So our whole goal was to, you know, change it up and bring entertainment and put on a big stage. And I think that's why it's working is that we're highlighting these, we're highlighting all the athletes, we're telling their stories, we're pushing the athletes to really show their showcase their personalities. In wrestling, you're told just to be very disciplined, very serious, and not showcase emotion. So we've kind of fine-tune that and told people to do the exact opposite of what they've been taught. One of the things that I think has helped you, and I'm curious if you agree, is like, if you look at RAF1, Bo Nicol is on there. And obviously, he's well-known to MMA fans.

And there were other names like Lance Palmer, Daryon Caldwell, but not Armin Tsurukian, Marabdualishvili, Hamzaa, Jemayev, Yariah Favre, Henry Savi. Hudo, I think having these massive UFC stars, MMA starts on your show, has exposed you to the likes of eye, to the hardcore MMA fan and has kind of leveled everything up. It feels like that has kind of evolved as well. The amount of MMA involvement on these shows, would you agree? I would say that definitely helped. I think when we first started, one thing I forgot to mention is our Fox deal, like a brand new league to be able to have a TV deal. But yes, to your point. Remember, Izzy Martinez is Holly Holmes coach. And so it really set off with Bo Nickel in Cleveland, but we had a surprise appearance from Holly Home. And when Holly Home showed up too,

it really set the tone where a lot of the MMA community started to really pay attention with Bo. I think Bo was on your show when we first had the Cleveland event where he did an interview with you. But people started to pay attention. And then Lance Palmer being a two-time PFL champion, 38 years old, you capture that nostalgic audience that wanted to see Lance Russell. But it is, obviously, it's great to have the crossover matches. And I think that you're seeing a lot of the amazing wrestlers, Olympians, starting to learn from the MMA guys and girls and really show how they promote. And I think lastly is, people forget Kobe Covington was a two-time All-American. Michael Chandler was an All-American.

Chameh, obviously, Freestyle Sweetest Champion. All the, all, Armand has wrestling background. So the thesis was that you have an option. You could go straight to, you know, if you were out of college, you only go wrestling in the Olympics. They never had an opportunity to make money or really being a professional league. So this is giving the ability to actually do both. We're additive to the UFC.

We're not really competition to MMA. We're an additive platform. I had a boxing manager text me on Saturday after the Humzut News came out. And he was like, bro, why is the UFC letting all? all their guys signed with RAF. And I kind of explained the difference between, you know, wrestling and fighting and boxing and things like that. But, you know, historically in the past,

like UFC kind of just told their guys to stick to the UFC and it seems like you have a great relationship with them. So how have you been able to get to the point where they are? Letting is not probably the best word. They are technically independent contractors. But they could say, no, we'd rather not. How have you gone into the point of, hey, like, the biggest names are able to fight or compete, I should say, on your cards?

So, Ariel, how did you and I meet? We met through Giuliana Pena, right? Correct. You spoke in her. So I have a relationship with Hunter Campbell from working with, you know, being Juliana's agent. I only have one client in sports because I'm more an entrepreneur, but Julianna happens to be one of them.

She's amazing. But that's how we met, and that's how I met Hunter Campbell. And so my relationship, you know, we have a great relationship with them. And also Eric Bischoff and I had a call with, you know, Nick Conn, a few weeks. back. I think everyone looks at it as, hey, we're not out there talking bad about anybody. In fact, I think the UFC and WW, we took some pages out of their book, right? And I think we're a great platform for all three of us to work together because, you know, you should know better anyone. How many fights, Juliana could fight once or twice a year. So if someone has the opportunity

to wrestle four or five times more throughout the year and their brand and their names being out there, it only helps everybody. I mean, look at what happened with Armin over the last, you know, few months. The feud with Giorgio kept them very much in the news. Social media stuff is fine, but like on the Monday after that first match, everyone's talking about Armin. And so I'm happy that they view it the way in which we all do as well. Could you tell us about that process? Like, how does that work?

Do you have to ask them, hey, we want to do this or that? We want to do this match, whatever, and they have to sign off on it. Are there rules we've heard, you know, two active guys can't go up against each other? What could you tell us about the do's and don'ts? So right now, I mean, I would say that as long as we're not going to, you know, for a fighter, for example, if, let's see, Bo Nicol, Michael Chandler, they're both on the White House card. And we're not going to go say, hey, Bo, we want you to wrestle in June when we know Bo is training for his White House card. But come July, if he's not injured in that fight, Bo can wrestle immediately in July on our coverage, which he'll do, right? So as long as we're not interfering with their camps and we're not putting up.

up matchups that that's called the UFC wants to put up, you know, where the active athletes are reaching out to Hunter and asking them, hey, are you good with us wrestling? And again, it's been a very good relationship. We have, there's no confrontation between the two. And I feel like it's, you know, we're very complimentary of them. And so far, you know, they've been complimentary of us and saying goes to the W&E. So it's a very good relationship. And, you know, they're approving, they're approving their athletes to wrestle. Because again, it's, they're not, It's great to have them active. I would say injury, a lot less likely to be injured.

And it's a great platform. Is there a rule in place where two active guys can compete against each other? I wouldn't say it's a rule, but it's definitely something that has been talked about, I think, between the athletes and the UFC. But I would say we haven't done any two, we haven't had any two active UFC athletes to wrestle each other. You did have Gable at your show this past weekend, and you announced the signing. He's fighting July 11th. Is that close there?

Is there a chance that that doesn't happen, or is he good to go? No, Gable, I think, you know, Gable and Abe, his manager, they talked to the UFC, and the UFC knew he was going to wrestle. So, no, we're all good there. So it's May 30th in Dallas, and he's going up against Alexander Romanoff. And then obviously, Kobe versus Chris Wydenman. And Kobe's become a, I think obviously Kobe's his star in the UFC, but he's also, you know, has become a baby face in early. I was talking to him the other day and he's like, Chad, I love being a baby face.

He used to being the villain in the UFC and he walks into, he walks out, you know, on the stage and he's getting, he's getting chaired for. So it's been a, it's been a different experience for him. And by the way, I know when Gable is competing, I meant he's fighting for the UFC July 11. So it was. Yeah, international fight week. Yeah. Yeah. So I wasn't sure if it was too close.

in the eyes of his team or UFC, but sounds like not. Colby seems to be loving this. Every time you have a show, I ask Chale about it. He's glowing about it. He seems to genuinely be loving it as well. I did see the interaction between Colby and Armin, which I think would be a massive match for you guys. And it seemed like he was sort of dismissing the Chris match,

saying this is bigger, this is what I want more. What is the status there? Because they had their moment there, Armin and Colby, but he obviously is booked against Chris. So what's going on? Right now, I mean, still Chris. and Colby, they both definitely want to wrestle each other. You know, Kobe, so, you know, during the show, you saw this, but Henry got, Henry had an

injury, right? So we, Kobe reached out to me and Izzy and is like, I want to go. So the idea was that maybe Maraub would get a different, a different opponent. And then Kobe and Armin could wrestle. They were trying to push for that. Wow. We couldn't, we couldn't make that happen, right? because Uriah, you know, we were excited about the Uriah Armine match.

And so, but yeah, we had a situation, obviously, Henry getting injured so that Kobe was trying to push for that, but we didn't let it happen. Okay, so do you think that can happen because they are two active UFC fighters? I think it's possible. The only thing is they're not in the same weight class. Right.

You know, I haven't been talking to Hunter about that, but I know Kobe and Armin separately have been reaching out to him trying to push for that, but that would be something that they would have to get approval for. but it's a matchup that I think would be a great matchup because Kobe being a great wrestler and Armin being a really good wrestler you know, it's anyone's match in that one.

But they also obviously both, you know better than anyone because they're both on your show, but they both love talking shit. So it'd be fireworks. Armine has kind of made a habit out of appearing and competing on all your shows this year. Will he be on the May 30th? you know i think that armin

armand told me point blank he loved to wrestle eight times a year i mean he you know armans are really uh when he's there you know i think what people don't see an area when you talk to some of our athletes like we have a really good culture at raf like everyone loves being there they look forward to being there on that week but armin comes in every time he's a he's a ultimate professional um and he's having he's having fun he has you know when he walks out in that crowd philly was electric It felt like Rocky 3 when Kyle Snyder was down 60 and came back and won 126.

That was the loudest crowd I've ever seen in any of our shows. Wow, wow, wow. Armin is a massive draw. He's a big deal. But, you know, he sometimes gets a little fiery. We had the thing with Giorgio a few shows ago. And then him kind of driving Faber off the mat there. What are you thinking when all this is going on?

I thought I was honestly worried about Eirio. Yeah. That was, I thought that was uncalled for, obviously. You know, Armist said didn't do it purposely, so I'll take his word for it. But, you know, Yariah is one of my favorite, you know, he's unbelievable. I don't know if you watched a press conference, but he's, he was amazing. He's incredible. I was crying, laughing.

I was telling him I had to hold my breath because he's just that funny. And he did it against Henry, too. But I give Yariah a lot of credit. Like, people underestimate him, obviously. He's 47. He got a lot of comments, but he fought real hard in that. but I definitely didn't like seeing him thrown off the side of the map, but he got up pretty quickly with a smile on his face

and went to finish that mat. So he's unbelievable in our promotion. People forget he is also an NCAA qualifier on top of all his other accolades that he has. Big news, of course, on Saturday, the signing of Hamza Chimaev. How difficult was it to make that happen? So I don't know if you know Armand's,

well, Armin as an agent and manager, but his managers sweep and sweeps Chimae's agent and I met both, I met Sweep, Izzy and I met sweep through Pat Bounty. And it's something, I don't know, when Armin went against Giorgio and Chimai have tweeted, I'm ready to come to RAF in a sense. He said, I'm watching RAF. I think, you know, people forget, Chimai is an unbelievable wrestler, right? He has a wrestling background in freestyle.

And I think he's just seen, he's seen the opportunity. And a lot of people, their first love is wrestling. So if they can help grow the sport and they get to compete in it, you know, it was something that was meant to be. So he's been wanting to come on and we finally have been able to make it happen. Now we're just trying to figure out who his opponent's going to be. Any idea when he may debut? Obviously, he's fighting May 9th for the UFC. How soon after do you think he might compete for you guys?

I think he's going to go in the summertime. Okay. I think you're going to see a lot more. We're going to announce a lot more people, Ariel, and it's going to be, I think summer's going to be great for us. So we have our event in St. Louis, June 13th. And then we have an event in July in Milwaukee. And then our anniversary show is going to be in Cleveland, which is going to be a massive show. And it would be awesome, too, to see, you know, Izzy Martinez, who you know, is my co-founder.

He was John Jones' coach on top of being Holly Holmes coach. but you know you've even seen john jones say he wants to come possibly in wrestle so you never know who's going to show up to uh wrestle oh oh oh that sounds like a tease are you guys talking to john uh you never know i mean there's wow well john's john's um john's manager is the same uh same agent is the same agent for cable and you know again is he's known john for years but uh i don't i don't know it's it's i'd say anything's possible as we're seeing more and more people want to wanted to wrestle. And that was, you know, John was and Kobe and his, you know, they all knew each other. They're all part of the wrestling community back in the day. So, you know, you never know.

So I saw Hamzut's tweet over the weekend regarding the type of people he would like to compete against. Here it is translated, courtesy of grok. Poor wrestlers started throwing challenges my way. I'm having trouble finding sparring partners waiting for any Olympic champion to step up for sparring. If he survives, I'll give him $200,000. So, so, you know, I thought of that. And I was like, oh, are they going to give him like a guy with Olympic credentials like you know this seems like the perfect lead into his debut what type of opponent do you think you'll match him up against I don't know this we got to figure that out but you know Kyle Snyder said that he wanted to wrestle oh my yeah and uh and there's there's a lot I mean we have I don't know if you know this but at our

event on uh in Philly we had four Olympic gold medalists nine world medalists um from six different countries so the options are uh there's quite a bit of options to wrestle him. And our heavyweight division, along with our 97 kilogram division is stacked. I would say, dare I say, I mean, there's a lot of great options out there for you, but of the ones available to you right now, I think Humzad versus Bo is the biggest match that you guys could put on. Agree or disagree? I would say so. Here's what I think, right? And you correct me if I'm wrong, but what I would think is like storylines matter. Like when you saw Bo and Kobe fight on the press conference.

That would have been a great White House matchup, obviously, being that they went viral. And you could have took that storyline that happened in RAF and took it over to the UFC. But I think the same thing goes. Like, if they were, again, we're not doing anything unless everything was approved. But I look at it as like if they wrestled on our format,

then there was a fight to be had. And let's just say one loss or other than boom, you got a rematch in the UFC. Is this something you will look into, though, that particular matchup? I would love to put that match up, put that match up on eventually. Yes, yes, yes. When we first started this, when I was sitting down and talking to Izzy and Eric, I don't know if you remember, but at Penn State,

Bo, Nickel and Jason Null for the best one-two punch in college, both three-time NCAA champions, Electric to Watch. That's how when we thought about this league is you want those kind of people and Kyle Dake, et cetera. So Bo, I think Bo really wants that matchup. It's something that Bo probably asked for since day one of starting RAF. Does Hamza? You know, I think he'd be open to it, right?

I think he respects his, he respects Bo's wrestling. And I think he'd be open to it. It'd be a very good matchup. Over the weekend, we saw Brock Leicester retire, or at least I think he retired from WWE. Any chance someone like him, him in particular, but also like one of these WWE names,

you say you have a good relationship with them with the wrestling background come over and actually compete. Yeah, you know, when Eric and I were talking to Nick, we kind of talked about that, and we're going to talk again. But I mean,

originally we started this, Eric, myself, when Eric, I was talking to Bishop and Hull, and we had Jewish Creed as part of American Made. Yep. They did approve him to wrestle

in our first show because he's from Cleveland, Ohio, but he couldn't make, there was something that came in. But Chad Gable, I don't know if you know that. Chad Bettis, he's also a Greco, great Greco wrestler and college wrestler. So he'd be another one to come on board here.

But it'd be awesome that Brock Lesnar wrestle if he wanted to wrestle now that he's retired. You know, again, you know, we're talking to get, we also, people have called out GSP too to wrestle. Yes, Colby has multiple times. Have you talked to him about that? We have, we had a conversation. Okay. we've talked we're trying to get them out to the show to see it so you can see it when people come to the show and you still haven't come to one yet but when people come to the show i was waiting

for that by the way i was waiting yeah yeah when people come to their show they they they they catch it's a different um it's really different like you have to be there to feel the energy um it's really a family a family friendly sport right and when you come there you we have our fans almost sold out you see all these kids and i you know i think it's a they see it you know it's it feels So I think when you come, it's kind of addicting. So then once you're there, I think you want to do it. Like, Sean O'Malley came to our show in Arizona. He had the time of life the next day he posted a piece of content being funny.

And no one asks him to do that. But I think it just, when you're there, it's different. And that's the first show that Maraub went to in Arizona as well for you kind of, you know, get the feel for. And Marab, I would say, is one of those professional people I've ever worked with throughout this process. Will he be booked on a future show? Yeah, we're trying to get Marab, depending on what his fight is, but we want to continue to put that matchup on against him and Henry. And we may go to, we've been talking in Izzy and I to Lotto, who's on our last card, he's in the parliament. He's the one who was Olympic gold medalists to possibly do an event in Georgia.

Okay, okay, I love that. One thing we were talking about, would it make sense for you guys to go like the Friday night before a big UFC so you can get some of that, audience to come to your show. Have you thought of that? Yeah, I mean, listen, you saw the numbers in Philly. Like, we sold out the crowd. Yeah. So I think that we just, you know, we're in a different lane. Again, we're not competitive with the UFC. Our audiences, there's, you get, you're sharing audiences, but I think there could be a night where we do that. If we go to Vegas and maybe they have a big event on Saturday, we could do an event on Friday. So, you know, we're only, we're only eight months, I think

people forget, we're eight months old. Like, we're just trying to, you know, get our bearings in, but we're also going into youth. We're going to have a youth belt series. And so we're, you know, we're going, we're going as fast as we can. I hope you don't mind me asking this type of question, but I'm always fascinating about this and giving your growth and success, it comes to mind. Who owns RIF? We know about you, Eric, and Izzy.

Are there other investors? Are there other people behind the scenes that you could tell us about? Yeah, we have an unbelievable, so when, When we went hope, myself, when we on the tour for real American beer, right, we saw, it's kind of how this came about just so you know is my son, my wife was in the hospital for our second child, and it was she was in there for four months. And so I took my son who was at the time seven for wrestling. And I wrestled my life.

So I fell back in love with the sport. And we were trying to think of a way to, you know, in the beer world, how do you own an audience? So we thought about the amateur wrestling world. and Hulk got to know wrestling because he called me up on a standard like, brother, how did your son Chase do this weekend, right? And so we met a good investor throughout that is from left lane capital, which is a venture firm. And it has, it focuses on sports, all emerging sports leagues.

So they were one of our first partners. But we've really grown from there. And we've wanted some really good strategic partners that are helping us grow. So, you know, and we also, you know, we also have our. you know, other people on the, from our employees that have equity in the company, but we have a really good investment group that backs us. Does TKO own any type of stake in R.A.F? They don't own any stakes in RAF, but they do own a stake of real American beer. Okay. And how is that going?

It's going good. You know, we have a CEO there named Terry Francis. She's incredible. And it's, and Nick Hogan, obviously, is still part of both companies. But it's going, it's going, going well. It's a grind and you know, we're getting out there and it's also the main sponsor of our RAF. And we just actually Erielle closed a big sponsorship today

with Spartan Games, which is now an exclusive partner for us for a year. So we're starting to we're gaining a lot of good attention, starting to grow the sponsorship opportunities as well. Congratulations on that. I did want to ask about that. What has a, I know Hulk was a client, but also a very good friend. I'll never forget that phone call that you reference at the top, surreal.

What has it been like to see this come to fruition, have the success, but sadly not have him around to see it all come to fruition? It's definitely weird because, you know, we were on a tour with Hulk for a year myself. So Hulk was my client. Hulk was my partner. Hulk had a manager named Chris, who hasn't had a manager, still is named Bo, who's a partner in our league. And we all run tour together for a year going to every different state.

And that's how we met Fox, actually, through going on that tour when Hulk was doing the campaign stuff too. But it's definitely weird. When he was in the hospital, he said, brother, I'm going to take a bus if I have to to get down there to the first event in Cleveland. So he would have had a blast. He thought that after he learned about wrestling and freestyle wrestling, and our first call was with Gable Stevenson, actually, when we started the league. he knew there was an opportunity to really make this big, and he would say that it felt like 1984 Hulkomania when the lightning bolt happened, and it went big. That's how he felt it would be. Wow, wow, wow. Yeah, a shame that, you know, he's not able to be around to see it all come to fruition.

I'm sure he's very much. He really liked you. He was, that first call, he's like, now you're just playing to my heartstrings here, all right? Oh, no, he did. He did. Bishop, we didn't give any credit on this interview, but, Hulk said that when he and my house right here, Eric Bischoff came in my house and he sat at a table. And I told Eric the idea of the wrestling league. And Eric said, I'm in. And Holt's like, brother, Eric is the best of what he does.

And I can tell you from working with Eric, he is a genius. And he has been, you look at that production quality and the team he's built. When you walk in and again, when you come to one of our events, you'll feel, you'll know it's, you know, Bischoff. And I think the world of him as well, so not surprised by any of that. Can I ask you before I let you go for events in 2025 so far? You mentioned May 30th, June 13th as well. Is the sweet spot one a month? Are you trying to do around 12 shows a year here?

I think we're going to do, so we're adding, we're going to, we're probably going to get to a point where we're going to do between 18 to 24 shows a year. Wow. The key is, yeah, we're an internet. So it's called Real American Freestyle. but as we go to these other countries, we were set to go to Bahrain in May. So Izzy and I were in Bahrain meeting with the government out there

and we signed a deal to go there in May. And obviously the war, we can't go there. But we were planning on going to, in the summertime, maybe three countries. But the goal would be have one event in the United States and have one event in international regions every month. Okay, golly.

Ambitious stuff. I love it. Very, very ambitious out of you guys, but it seems like it's all working and very happy in the signing. Oh, you coming, though, before we get off? Yes, yes. When am I coming? That is a great question. I will be there.

As I've told you, many a times, I want to go. I was going to go to the one in January in Tampa. Didn't work out. It seems like we can't align. Even trying to get you on the show, you're so busy. It's hard to get you on. I want to do a behind. Yeah, please.

I was trying to get to, you just got me on. I made it, I was going to Vegas tomorrow. Yeah, and I moved everything just to have you on. It was great. You've been great covering it and giving wrestling a platform and all the rest of the... Uncrowned has been giving you guys more love than anyone out there. I think it's... But Ariel, I think it's important for your...

It's great because the wrestling world appreciates that, which is a very dedicated community. And we love doing it. We're not doing it out of charity. It's warranted. It really is. The matches, the events have been great. I've enjoyed it very much. Fox Nation has been a very easy platform to navigate and do all that.

stuff. So kudos to everyone involved. Kudos to you. Keep it up. We're big fans. I enjoyed. Talk about it on the show in the A block, so to speak, like top of the show. That's prime time, as they say. But again, congrats to you and everyone. It's been great to catch up. Tell your riot. Tell your, tell your, tell your riot. I know he's on after me, right? Yep, yep. He's awesome. So we'll appreciate you, Ariel, and we'll talk soon. All right. Thank you, Chad. All the best to you. There he is. One of the founders of Real American Freestyle Wrestling, R.A.F. Chad Bronsstein. Let us talk to you, Rayah Faber. Two people now have told us to say hello to your eye favor on this show. That just shows

how beloved the California kid is. Without further ado, we say hello to the, I mean, the inimitable, one of the greats, the legend, the pioneer. Hello, Uriah. How are you? Doing good. How are you, Malot and Bronstien saying, hey, I know Yeraya is coming on. Please say hello. Everyone loves you. How about Malat, man? What a stud. That guy, you know, going from the coaching corner to be coming the next superstar from Canada. I love that guy. And Chad, you know, visionary, baby. Yeah. For the RAF future. I want to obviously ask you about RAF. That's the main reason why we have you on. But did you see this coming from a lot? Like, did you think he would turn into this when you first met him all those years ago? Yeah, you know, we had, we had our banquet every year.

And Malat was our, you know, we give out awards and he was like the newcomer of the team where a guy that has a bright future back when he was an amateur, back when he was still early pro. And then he took that hiatus. He wasn't feeling it for a while. Him getting his coaching, you know, his coaching made him so much more confident and so much more hungry. He literally made the walk multiple times as main events and world championships and comeback fights.

And he was making the walk as a coach. And I think it just made him realize, like, he can do it. it and he needs going to do it. I mean, he's going to be a world champ. Amazing. I love that. All right. So what about you? First things first. How is your back, your eye? I mean, you know, we're getting up there. You're getting driven off the mat. It seemed like you fell into concrete. Yeah, I was on the concrete. I'm getting thicker and sturdier. My back was actually hurt going into that. Like the two weeks before I did my first match and I watched me hold this guy ahead. I'm smiling, talking to him right there. You see that?

I'm saying, come on, man. You got to resort to this, buddy. What happened there? Look, I like Armand, to be honest. Yeah. I don't think that was personal. I think that was him being a clickbait. He's like the National Enquirer as a human being.

He's trying to get these clicks and at all risk, you know, these young guys will do anything for the clicks. And he wanted to risk both of our livelihood for some clicks there. He knew what he was doing. he said oh let's throw caution to win and bless his heart i could have you know been a you know got up and did an elbow shiver to the back of the head or bitch and moan but uh i know exactly what was going on he's just trying to draw some attention to the wonderful sport of wrestling you know get himself in line and um you know it's it's all good i i literally landed on the cement i think it helped my back my back was hurt two weeks ago and i wasn't able to do much training

I think he re-aligned it there. And I didn't even do a warm-up at the match. I did no wrestling other than footwork in motion leading up to that because I had a little issue. And I think he fixed it. So thank you, Arm on again, for, you know, the help. I do have to say, I saw that presser on Friday, and I was like, man, this is like 2011 Faber Cruz. Like, you had some Zingers there. I had not seen that type of fire from you at a presser before in quite some time.

Like, it just felt very, where did that come from? What do you mean? You know, you and I have banter all together. I know, but I didn't, I haven't felt that. You and I have, you and I have on text messages is the same shit. Same with Connor. Me and Connor still rip each other on, on DMs on Instagram. I know, you're very, you're very dry.

You're very dry, and you're not afraid to go blow the bill. Also, by the way, I have a, I have a bone to pick with you, but I'll get to that in a moment. I know what you're going to say, man. It's me doing my clickbait. I put your name on there. I know it was Ben who wrote that article. Yes, what the fuck, man. I was hoping you get a repost or something.

I didn't see it until today. I know, it was my clip. This thing right here. People were like, hey, what the hell, man? And then you got all the people in the comments saying, yeah, of course, typical Ariel. I had nothing to do with that headline. Although, you know, it's my site. I'll take ownership.

But, golly, way to come after me. And look who's talking about it. me, you, and everyone else. Sure, sure, sure. I had to get you involved, man. You weren't at the event, so I said, let's get Ariel involved. But what about the fire towards Armand? It felt, there I say, somewhat personal, a little bit?

No? Oh, absolutely, no. Okay, all right. And honestly, Armand, you know, he's a crackup. He was perfectly cool the whole time. You know, he was threatening his bodybuilder, like, guys were going to get up and beat me up or something. but those guys are all very respectful. They have respect for their elders, as the one guy said.

And, you know, no harm, no foul. I mean, I will say, you know, wrestling needs this, you know, and I think I'm in here, obviously not having to run at the Olympic, you know, hope for wrestling. We're trying to get back in the fight game. But I'm a guy that spent his whole life getting really great at mixed martial arts. I haven't wrestled, wrestled, and a freestyle rule set other than maybe once in the last 23 years. I've been doing jiu-jitsu. I would love to do a jiu-jitsu match against Armand, a jih Tzu match against Henry.

But I love to compete. I'm about to be 47. My birthday is next month. I love to get out there and do something right before my birthday to keep things lively and, you know, get me something to work for and show these guys lead from the front for my guys that throw caution. the win and look for opportunities and that guarantees. And, you know, I'm a guy that's got a skill set that can stack up against anyone at any level in a bunch of different disciplines. And so I'm not afraid to test it and I'm having fun.

And so I had a great time, man. So you were in there with Armin? He's obviously considered one of the best fighters in the world. Your thoughts on the skills that you saw, the strength, the technique, is he who we think he is? I think he's great. Yeah, I think he's very tough. I knew that going in. You know, I said it before.

There's some natural gifts that he was born into. Number one is his hair starts growing right here, like right past the unibrow. It starts right in the middle of his forehead. You know, whenever you're going against somebody that has that in the genetic code, that he's going to be tough. Yeah. Hair starts right here. It ends right before his back starts where his back hair is going to be bulking up when he's a little bit older. Yeah.

And so he's got some natural gifts. He's got a lot of resources. I don't know if his dad or some girls paying for him or some Armenian rich guys letting him rent planes and whatnot. But somebody's giving him the right resources and he's using it the right way. He's getting top-level training and he's taking it serious. So I hope, you know, and he's playing the game. He's a guy that is calculated and he's a clickbait machine, a human walking clickbait. and he's not afraid to test himself.

He's going after Colby next. I was a much smaller guy than him naturally, and now he's going after Colby, who's a much bigger guy than him. He's not tippy-toeing around anything. He's just taking on challenges. So respect to Armand. I would like to get that jiu-suitu match, though.

I'd like to do a combat jiu-suitzs match against Henry Suhudo and a regular jih Tijuana against Armand. Do you think he beats Colby? if he wrestles him? Absolutely not. You kidding me? Not. I mean,

there's no way, dude. Really? Colby... I thought you were going to say absolutely. No way. Really? Guys, I'm... You know, Georgia is a pretty good wrestler.

He's a strong guy. Armand and him are like neck and neck. They're about even. Colby is an All-American Division I wrestler at a heavy weight, and he's young and still competing. I'm 47. I have been wrestling for 33 years, so I've got skill set and everything else. But, you know, there's no way Arm on Beats Colby.

Wow. Okay. I mean... He's active. He's arguably one or two best lightweights in the world. I know Kobe's a 170-pounder, but they'll find a common way. I don't know. I just feel like he's a lot more active.

And, you know, in his prime as opposed to Colby, who isn't. Yeah, but this is freestyle wrestling. You have two minutes. Yeah. Then a 30-second rest, then you have another two minutes. Colby's going to do just enough to win. Armand's pretty good, and people say, oh, he only wrestled three years as a kid.

Three years as a kid in a place like Georgia where they take training serious gives you the fundamentals to really start. Not long Armand's been training for MMA, but as soon as you start training for MMA, but as soon as you start training for MMA, then he started wrestling, because wrestling is one of the cornerstones, and he's got resources to hire the best coaches and everything. So let's say he started training for MMA when he was 19, 18, 20, 21, 22. He's had another 10 years to practice wrestling, but Colby's still competing. Colby's still an active athlete.

Colby's a guy that, you know, never took his foot off the pedal when it comes to you know, being an offensive guy. I've been just having fun. I do jiu-jitsu three days a week. I didn't do any training for this wrestling specifically because wrestling hurts. No one to get hurt. I just take the skill set that I have and know that I'm there and go in and compete because I love it. But it's going to be different against Colby.

Colby's going to have his way with Arm on for sure. You've been around this game a long time. You have your own promotion, A1 combat. I want to ask you about that in a moment. but you know what it takes to put on a good show. A, what's working for these guys in your opinion? B, what do you think the ceiling is? Listen, I drew some parallels,

and I know you talked about this last press conference, but I think my press conference with Henry Sehudo was even better. I don't know if you got to watch that. Yeah, yeah. It was a lot of fun as well. But what I said there is you've got the right ingredients. You know, you've got Dana White, you know, despite how you see him or anyone else sees him,

that guy loves the fight game or at least you know got into this fight game because he loves it he was already managing Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz before he bought the UFC he was teaching kickboxing he was you know got kicked out of Boston because he was getting shook down by

Wydie Bulger who who was trying to take money from his gym his fight gym at the time like Dana's a fight guy he loves it he's passionate about it he's also an over-the-top character he's not afraid to fight and has that grit.

That's Izzy Martinez. If you don't know Izzy, he's one of the top coaches in the world for wrestling and for MMA at this point. He's an over-the-top character. He doesn't take shit from anybody. He loves wrestling more than anything itself. And I mean, he's a main character, bro. He's a main character.

Then you take Chad, who you just had on the line, who's a super savvy business guy, he's had a lot of success in the business world and he said this is the most excited he's ever been for any project he's been on he's a wrestler himself his son is heavily involved in wrestling that's how this whole thing got started he's you know he's in tight with Hulk Colgan

and the real American beer and just understands business and then he understands how to get the financing and how to spend to invest in the longer picture so all the ingredients are there and then the sport of wrestling

it's it's always had its own subculture and and um its own group of loyal fans and loyal participants and and its own stars within the sport like i when i go to one of these events i get geeked out because of all the wrestling um you know the wrestling um you know uh all stars that are there like the coaches that are there i'm seeing guys that i'm like oh man that's that's that's so-and-so and You know, these are guys that I looked up to when I was in junior high and high school, but no one's been able to put it on a platform and make it work. If you go to an event, these guys now to keep it fast-paced, they do the lights and the action, the wrestlers are stepping up, and now with social media, you're having guys

that are wrestling influencers, you know, Caden Henshaw and Georgia and even like an arm on, These guys are able to market themselves and have this following that's wrestling base. And so the sport is right. UFC, you know, you hear Joe Rogan and anyone talking about wrestling's role in mixed martial arts, the most important thing of mixed martial arts, the toughest guys in the sport are from a wrestling background. And so they found a right recipe, and I think this guy's the limit. The pay is important. How many guys have been able to be a wrestling personality?

and make money from it in the history over the last 100 plus years, it's none. Now, in the last year, all of a sudden it's a real thing where you can be a wrestler for a living. You can make as much as a doctor or a lawyer if you have four or five matches in a year. That's never been heard of, and that's why people are going to be tuning in, and there's going to be a bigger hype, and this thing's going to have a lot of success. Which entity do you think has a greater future, REF or GFL? That's a day. Don't do your boy like that. What? What? What? What? What? I saw they just posted an announcement. You didn't see it? Oh, I'm listening. I'll go back and check that out, man.

No, I'm not front. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There were some merit to what that guy was thinking. I've got some really great ideas, but you can't go against the UFC. You've got to go alongside it. You can't make up existing things. You've got to go things that already established. I've been having some really big talks, and I've talked to you about things I've been working on in the past. What needs to happen for mixed martial arts, and it's happening but slowly is just like baseball, basketball, football, there needs to be a clear path and route and systems in place to figure out how you get to the top.

The UFC is the top dog. It's incredible what they've done and how much control they have. You can't go against the UFC at this point. You've got to find ways to play along with them and add to the sport. youth mixed martial arts, junior high, high school, college that you know we did in the Combat U with Sacramento State, first ever of its type. Then I think the AAA League, and it can't be, you know, a bunch of little things that's got to be really set out.

I've got some real ideas how in the next 10 years this sport can really become more and more mainstream, but you have to have more guys with money involved. You have to have youth programs that feed up to, you know, to all-star, teams that feed up to high school, all-starves, to college, then the AAA leagues, and then the pinnacles, the UFC. So the GFL, I think, they're missing the boat on a bunch of different ideas, except for understanding, you know, how to get more money involved. And so at this point, that's the tweet, by the way. The groundwork has said our 2025 year-end report is now live highlighting GFL's transition to GFL's sports and entertainment, a cleaner capital structure,

and a year of progress across advisors, strategic partners, media partnerships, and capital. We are building through 2026, lean or stronger, more momentum than ever. The path to launch is underway. 2026 is about execution. So there's, and you can... Okay. Well, here's where I sit. I get guys that come into my gym all the time. And in my mind, I may think, man, this guy has no chance at all. I will never verbally say that because you don't underestimate people. You don't underestimate what the human mind can do, what the human body can do. And there's been a few cases where people have proved me wrong. And I've never heard of said a bad word because I don't want to mess with anybody's reality.

Because reality is the truth, you know, however you're interpreting it for yourself. But it's going to be, from what I've seen, a tough road. But keep trying, man. Why not? We only live once and it is what it is and bring some more money in. And I know out of that deal, a bunch of guys got some money. I know Paige got some money and, you know, Pettus got some money and probably a few other guys got some money, you know, get some more money involved. But who knows, you know, what do you think, Chale?

I mean, Air. Chale, what the hell? I think that on May 2nd at the Thunder Studios in Long Beach and the LBC, A1 Combat is back with their 35th show. What about Ethan Ewing? I feel like Ethan Ewing really helped put A1N. combat on the map, taking that fight on short notice, the success he's had. It's like, oh, wow, there's a lot of great talent coming from favor. That felt like a big moment for you guys. Would you agree? Yeah, Ethan was huge, Peyton Talbot, one of the biggest stars in the division.

Joseph Morales, with his second rebirth in the UFC. We've got, you know, Ryan Loder that won the ultimate fighter also, and the list is going on. We're really moving to become the the California-based you know breeding ground for the top talent and I've got so many stars in the in the in the makes Shane Collins

we've got our guy Frosty Eric Frosty Cortez he's you know been with us since he's 15 we've got you know a whole stack of of talent that's coming through the pipeline

and I've got some really big plans for A1 combat my partner I call him Dana whitish Mr. Tommy Anderson you know that guy's got the great he's got the grid of a champion, and we've been through some rough times because it's a hard way to make a living and really, really showed that we have the stay power to be one of these promotions that are coming up. But there's some things that need to happen.

The next event, you guys check out A1Combat.com, follow along. We've got to get these guys' opportunity to compete and be seen at top regional promotions. And we're California, baby. Ryia Faber's A1 Combat is taken over California. You California athletes come get involved. Hit us up on the website. Do you want to be a star? Let us showcase you.

I love that. And Tom's a great guy as well. He's always keeping me posted on everything that you guys are doing. You know, I'm looking at that poster behind you. And last week we were talking a lot. The other one, yeah, the one right there, the WC one. We were talking a lot about WC because Cub Swanson was the last WEC star left on the roster and he retired after his win.

For the newer fans, you're right? To me, you are WEC? When I think of WC, I think of you first in format, first and foremost. In fact, Ilya in an interview recently said that the first MMA fight that he remembers watching live was U versus Aldo and WC in Sacramento. It meant so much to so many people, including me. When you think back now to WC and the legacy that it continues to remain, what do you think? Man, I think misunderstanding. A lot of people who don't know the history versus sport, I know you do, but I didn't step into the UFC until I was 31, maybe 30,

32. That was against Eddie Weiland on the back of the first ever UFC fight for the title against Dominant Cruz, which I still think I won, but it is what it is. But UFC owned the WC. For anybody that ever watched the WC on TV, everything they saw was under the UFC banner, and they didn't have a weight class for the lighter weights at that time. 125, 135, 135, 145 didn't exist. So that was the pinnacle of the sport. So when I was a champion there, Aldo was a champion, Benson Henderson, you know, Pettus and Demetius Johnson, and Dominic Cruz, and the list goes on, that was the prime spot to be for our weight class. And I was, you know, 31, or 32, when they finally merged the UFC with the WC, but it was always under the

same umbrella, and that was the world championship for the weight. So I think people are misunderstood about that. I get a lot of, you know, a lot of, you know, backhanded compliments on being a, not being a world champion, but I know in my heart where I stood in the place, and I had four attempts in my 30s, you know, well out of my 20s chasing that title in the UFC. But what a cool, what a cool time in our sport, what an important part of our sport. It was the UFC providing more jobs for us at the time. It was another. TV station, another set of sponsors, another group of fighters that got jobs and were held on a pedestal and brands being built. So I have a lot of gratitude for the WEC times and love guys like

Cubs Swanson and, you know, Donald Seroni, another guy that is, you know, always associated with the WEC as a star, but went on to do more. It was such a beautiful part of my journey and I have so much gratitude for it. One more, if I can, you were just in there with him, with Armin. The fight that I probably want to see more than any right now in MMA is Armand versus Ilya to Poria. Who do you think wins? Man, I hate to say this, but I have not been watching, I don't remember watching one of Armand's

fights. I just haven't watched them, not because I'm hating or this and that. I was on the Jackson podcast, and they asked me about what I thought about Armand getting, and I just was unaware of it. it wasn't until after that podcast I started looking at his social media and being a little more interested, but I got to go back and watch him a little bit.

I have no idea what kind of fighter he is. You're sitting on the fence. Who's your pick? You're sitting on the fence. Bro, I honestly have not watched one of Armand's fight. I swear. What about Ilya?

Are you impressed with Ilya? I'm very impressed with Ilya. But I think, you know, from what I've seen from Armand, I love where his head is at. He's a very focused guy. And I think this wrestling is going to be massive for him. because he's focusing on the wrestling side of things,

I think that's going to be huge for him. And I don't know how it's stand-up, by the way. Armands? Yeah. It's good. I mean, I don't know if it's Ilya level at the moment, but I just think it's interesting match up. I would say that's kind of my thoughts is this wrestling progression

and him focusing on this wrestling is going to be so huge for him on a real chance to be a guy that's as dangerous as Ilya is in the stand-up. I know Ilya's got this great jihih Tjitsu supposedly. I want that match still, Ilya. We were talking trash back and forth in the back, and he's like, oh, how do you want me to submit you? I go, bro, I'm no bitch. When was this?

When was this? What was this? This is when I was in a, we were in a different country somewhere. I was cornering, and his brother was fighting on the card, and we were talking about rolling. He's like, how do you want me to submit you? I go, bro, you're talking to the wrong dude, man. I go, let's go.

and I tried to set up a match. It was friendly, of course. But I put my jih Tjitsu against anyone in the world right now. Wow. But anyways. Yeah, yeah. But anyways, what I'm saying is this focused on a wrestling, and I've seen it with guys like my guy's song,

no one gets to see his jihitsu or his wrestling because, you know, you get glimpses of it. When you spend time getting great at something and focusing a lot of time on something, it can pay a big dividend. So I think that this wrestling focus for Armand, is going to make his chances of being a beating guy like Ilya, you know, go up tremendously. Because he's going to gain so much on understanding how to win. It's not just about, you know, going out and having wrestling moves.

It's gaming the right timing and understanding, you know, you have a certain amount of time to do it. Like, that kind of stuff plays over into fights when you're up or when you're down or how to sit on a lead or how to come from behind. You learn a lot from wrestling. So I think this push on the wrestling side is going to be massive for Armand when it comes to getting that actual title shot. But I'd still lead towards Ilya because I know that Ilya's got phenomenal jiu-jitsu and rock-solid hands. He's a guy that has put anybody out on any given punch. So I would still lean towards him, but I'm excited for Armand to be in the mix. I love the stars, man.

always identified with guys like, like with Connor and O'Malley and the guys that they get kind of, they get kind of a little bit of hate because people like them and they've got the it factor. It's like, dude, these guys are putting it in work. These guys are dangerous. The guys are real deal. So both Ilya and Armand have that, that it factor. And I'd love to see that fight. You're the man you. Thank you very much. Great stuff over the weekend. Keep it up. And we'll check in with you soon. Yes. Great to see. You know that was all love. I know, I know.

I'm going to retweet it after the fact. I have no problem with that. I love you. All right, brother. I'll talk to you guys. Tune into RIF, guys. All you wrestlers, people that love our sport, get behind this because it's a great thing for combat sports. A great thing for wrestling.

It's a great thing for the athletes that are passion-first, you know, professionals. All right. Appreciate it. Thank you, Uriah. There he is. The one-and-only Uriah Fabor. All right. Let us move along.

to our last guest of the day and we say perhaps the best for last, the biggest. Of course, one of the best fighters in the world, currently the reigning defending UFC lightweight champion. I have been trying for nine long months. Nine long months. I have been hounding his team.

I have been asking. I have been re-asking. I have been texting. I have been doing all the things that need to be done to get us to this moment because he is rapidly approaching his next fight. As you know by now, June 14th, White House, front lawn, title fight, Justin Gaci, main event.

It's the slot that everyone in this sport wanted. He got it. He said he was going to get it last September. It's amazing. And we could finally welcome back to the program right here and now. The former UFC featherweight champion, the current UFC lightweight champion, El Matador, the pride of both Georgia and, of course, Spain. I'll be quite enough to join.

Is he there? There he is. Oh, there he is. I love the introduction. I loved it. I have been so... I have been bothering your team. You know I've been bothering your team a lot about having you.

You're never bothering. You're never bothering. I'm so sorry. I wanted to join you many, many times, but, you know, I was going through a lot of things. Sure. And, yeah, but here we are. Here we are, and we're very appreciative and grateful that you're here. How are you doing, Ilya?

How are you doing? Very good, very good. Finally, in Miami, finishing my training camp here, working as always. I'm very happy. Very grateful with everybody. that gives me life, you know. Of course. You know, sometimes in life you say,

how are you to someone when you see them, but it just kind of means nothing. I want to reiterate the how are you, because you have been through a lot recently, and I don't want to go into the personal stuff, but your fans were wondering and worried about you and wondering when you would come out. So, look, I'm out of all this.

I feel better than ever. Good. Better than ever. Yeah, I had go through a lot of things. I had my ups and downs, but now I'm perfect, ready to rock and roll. Do you feel like you have a new lease on life now? Exactly.

Exactly. I feel that I'm in a different point. And, yeah, I have grown so much in this last month since my last fight. I have learned so many things. So can't wait. Can't wait to fight again, to be inside that octagon. Do you feel like you've missed it? By the time you will have fought, it will be almost exactly a year between fights for you.

And you weren't injured necessarily. Do you feel like you have an itch? Like you really, really miss all. To be honest, I missed it. At some point, I missed it. I don't really miss the way cut and all that, even if at this point I don't have to cut so much as when I was fighting in the Fairway Division. But this is actually the, I would say, the only time that I've been able to enjoy the whole whole process.

You know, I'm so happy to going through this preparation with my team finishing the training camp in Miami, surrounded with great, great people. So I felt very happy, very happy and ready to go. You're still about two months away. Why come to Miami around two or so months before the fight? You know, I want to get used to to the timeline, to the weather, to everything. And I think that I'm going to move like I'm going to actually live in Miami for the next one or two years. So yeah. Okay. I had to come. I had to come here. I have a lot of things going on, you know. Yes. And I want to ask you about some of those things, but also last fall, you predicted, you wrote on Twitter, you will be on the White House card, right? You said it long before this fight card was

even made. Can I ask first and foremost, why did you feel so strongly that you would be on the card? It may sounds a little bit cocky, but I feel that I'm one of the biggest names right now that the UFC has, so if they are going to have one of the biggest events in their history, they are going to have their biggest stars in that card. So I knew it since the first moment

that event was announced that I will be in that car. I'm not surprised that you're on the card, but I will tell you I was surprised they Me neither. Okay, I know, I know that. But I will tell you I was surprised they put you in the main event and I'll explain why. Not because you're not deserving, but because as you know, this is the White House

and it's America's birthday and I think there's a very good chance you win this fight in a very violent fashion and I didn't think that the White House would want a non-American to knock out an American in the main event on the White House lawn. You know what I mean from a symbolic standpoint? And so they're kind of playing with fire here.

Do you understand what I'm saying here? And are you somewhat surprised? I understand it. I would love to give you the answer why they decide to put me as a main event. I don't have it, unfortunately. But what I know is that I'm going to be the main event. Yes.

That's the most important thing. And you're obviously pretty confident that you're going to win in pretty violent fashion. You've already updated your bio. I wouldn't even show up to that event. You know, I have a lot of confidence. I know that I'm going to win. I'm going to win. It's not only that I'm going to win.

I'm going to win in fashion. And I'm very happy to have an opponent like Justin Gage. He's a legend in the sports. He's the high glides. And I can't wait to share the octagon with him. I know that it's going to be a very entertaining fight for the fans. And hopefully they are going to enjoy it. Usually when you compete these days, you're the fan favorite.

Do you think on that night, because you're fighting an American, all the important people in attendance will be rooting against you? You know, I had a lot of place in this sport. I have been the underdog, the fan favorite. I've been in many places, so I don't care. I don't care what's happening in the external war. You know, there's no doubt. The UFC has said this isn't a political event,

and I understand where they're coming from where they say this, but you do represent Spain and Georgia. will you be able to do so at the White House? You know, the Spanish Prime Minister, not the biggest fan of the current regime. Like, do you get questions about that back home, about how you're going to represent Spain in such an important part of America?

I don't really understand the question, but no. Like, will they let you have the flag? Will they let you represent your country, even though it's all about America? Oh, I don't know any of those details, to be honest. I don't know anything about it. I didn't see yet that the whole schedule of the UFC normally they used to send us like the whole rules of the of the event, but I don't have any of that yet. Okay.

I don't know. When you were watching Justin Fight Patty, were you rooting for Patty because of your history so that he would be the next guy that you fight? Normally, I'm the kind of guy that in my head, whatever's going to happen is good for me. but yeah, at some point, I was ruling for Patty because I was thinking that that fight will be much bigger than the Justin fight. But everything happens for a reason. You know what I mean?

Were you surprised that the fight played out that way? I was a little surprised. Yeah, I was a little surprised of how bad Patty really is. You weren't expecting that. Were you expecting him to win? I was expecting him to win, to be honest. I was expecting him to take Justin.

down to, I don't know, to do a different fight, like to really fight, but of what he did inside the octagon in that fight, it surprised me a little bit. He, like, he really proved that he's a little sausage. Do you think he can rebound from this? Rebound from what? From a lose, of course, but how he's going to gain the skills, the technique in the sport. Like, that's basically impossible. He needs to die and be burned again. Do you think at any point your path,

you know, it seemed like you were so close to crossing paths and now, obviously, you're on a different trajectory. Do you think at any point you will meet him at this point? Now he's too far. Now, he's too far. We don't see Patty in the horizon,

you know what I mean? Yeah. We don't say him anymore. Bye, Patty. I didn't even have to go inside the Octagon to beat him. So that feels even a little bit better, to be honest. Obviously, a lot was said about the potential fight against Islam.

Could I ask you regarding that, were you going to have to give up the lightweight title in order to fight him if that fight came to fruition for June 14th? What you said? Were you going to have to give up the lightweight belt? If they were going to book you versus Islam, were you going to have to give up the lightweight belt or are they going to let you keep it? Not really. They would let me keep it.

Okay, because usually these days, like, yes, this is a completely different situation than the situation that I have when I was fighting in the featherweight division. Like, I was very honest to them. When I wanted to move up, I was like, listen, I want to live this belt because I'm never going to come back to the fairway division because I really want to change the way class. But if I will move up to the welterweight division, it's going to be different because after that fight, I would come back to the lightweight division. So we've heard, you know, you talk about your tweets. I've seen Islam's tweets. I've seen your manager, Malki Kawa's tweets, one of your managers. Leah Belizeez, Dana, what?

Can you tell, what is the real story? Why isn't this fight happening on June 14th? Listen, I don't know the real story. What I know is that since the first phone call that I get, it was, I had like two options. Islam and Justin Gage. And we said, like, we want Islam because it's bigger fight and all that. But then the day before that they were like about to announce the event, they called me in the middle of the night. They wake me up and they told me, Islam is injured.

He, something happens to with his hand or I don't know what and you are going to fight Justin. Like Malk, Malki, Malki Kawa, he had to go through a lot of negotiations like with every fight that we close. And finally, I'm fighting Justin. That's the story from my side. That's all I know. When you came to that realization, were you disappointed? Not really. As I told you before, like, whatever happens, it's good for me.

It's Islam good. It's just in good. The result is going to be the same. Were you told in the aftermath of this, hey, you win this fight, he wins his next fight, maybe we'll do this the end of the year. We still want to do this fight. No. No, no one told me anything about it. What is your plan?

What is your hope? My goal as a sportsman is always to achieve great things in the sports. So what bigger can you achieve as a sportsman to collect the third belt? So I would love to defend my belt against Justin and then have the opportunity to move up in the Walterweight Division and get my third belt. That will be my perfect scenario. But who knows? If you did go up and it goes well for you at one. 70. Would you want to say...

It will all well for me. I apologize. I apologize. Would you stay there? Or would you go back? Do you feel like 55 is your best class? Like, lightweight division is my best way class. Like, that's the way class that I belong to.

But you never know. You know what I mean? I never thought in my life that one day I would want to move up in the Weatherway division. but now you see the whole situation that is basically forced me to move up because we have a guy in the World Away Division who was fighting in the lightweight division dominating everyone and I think that everyone wants to see that fight

so no one knows what's going to happen tomorrow. Do you think he left the... The only thing I know is that I'm going to be prepared. Whenever the opportunity appears, I will be ready. Do you think he left the lightweight division because he didn't want to fight you? I don't know. I don't know. I don't want to blame him for something that I don't know 100%.

You know what I mean. I don't know the reasons why he moved up. But who cares? I don't care. Okay. Can I be honest with you, Ilya. That's a great fight. I really want to see you versus Armin.

Yeah. I want to see that just as much. So the idea of you moving up is great too, but I really, I think Armand should be fighting you on June 14th. I think he's the number one contender. What do you think of that? Listen, as I said in many interviews, I just got the call. They offered me Islam or Justin. I picked Islam.

Then they told me that Islam was injured. I was said that I was facing Justin. If they call me tomorrow and they tell me that Justin is insane, injured and I have to fight Armand. I will fight Armand. No problem. If they call me and they tell me that Armour is injured, I have to fight Ariel. I'm going to fight Ariel. Please don't. Like I can, I go whoever, whenever, just, I'm ready for whoever. Since you last fought and he last fought, Armand has done a great job of getting himself out there through social media and wrestling matches. Have you been impressed with, because I feel like now he's a bigger star, which

makes the fight even bigger. I'm really impressed of how dumb he is. Tell me why. He's a retard. I don't know. He looks like a kid. He's a kid. Like, he's a kid.

Like, he's a kid. Like, he's dumb as fuck. I don't know. Everything that I saw about him in the internet, it's embarrassing. A little bit. Like what in particular? What makes you feel like he's got?

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Just fuck on, man. Who cares about him? Okay. I don't think. Do you feel like the fight is bigger now, though?

The thing that I don't like is, like, when they play that they rich and they show all that money. And it's like, bro, you don't even rich. That poor, the only thing that you have is money. And you're spending your father's money, not even yours. So, you know what I mean. He's a fucking kid. You tweeted after his last fight, Armin, every time we see each other in person, you freeze up like a scared duck with no idea what to do. you know I handle you however I want

I fight with I fight whoever the UFC chooses and remember I slapped you and you just laugh so can you tell us about this interaction you posted a very quick clip but what did you feel what did you see from him when you saw so the day before of the video that I posted he he tweets something

and tweet or something like if I see you the next time I do this or that like you know how they play all but like they all gangsters they all gangsters and when we when we cross the pots they are like oh how are you all good they smile, they like humble, normal human beings. But in Twitter, everyone is a gangster.

Everyone is like, oh, let's solve this in the street and all that. I'm a professional athlete. I'm not a street fighter. I'm not a gangster. You know what I mean? And so you think this is all just kind of for show? Yeah. I don't know if it's for show.

I think it's because they are dumb as fuck. Fair enough. Do you feel that way to the point where you want to fight him and prove him wrong? Or do not feel like he's on your level? Because in that tweet, you said your level's below me. He's not on my level. If we cross the pots, like I'm going to break his job in the first round. Like what he's going to do?

He's going to take me down. Please listen to me. Calm down. Do your thing. Go to do those wrestling tournaments. Do your streams. And whenever the moment that arrives, just make sure to show up and I'm going to do the rest. A little weasel.

How do you feel like the fight against Justin plays out? How long do you think it lasts? If he's not going to start walking backward, I'm going to knock him out in the first round. Wow. As I always say, I feel that no one can match my level of skills inside the octagon. And when I say that, they start calling me that I'm cocky,

that I'm this, that I'm that, that I'm that. But prove me wrong. Like, prove me wrong. That hasn't happened yet. It didn't happen yet. What about the fight against Islam? In your opinion, how would it have played out? Like, when I get the opportunity to fight with someone,

I always used to think about what can I do to really shock the world. So with Islam, I'm like, to shock the world, I have to submit him. So this is what I think that's going to happen. I'm going to take him down and I'm going to submit him. Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. Early, late, what are you feeling? Wow, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Yeah, like your promotion. I know that. Listen, I know that inside yourself, maybe it sounds a little bit weird, like strange, like, listen, how you're going to take him down, how you're going to submit him. But don't be surprised when you are going to see that happen. I'm not doubting you, by the way. It's just not, you don't hear every day someone say, yeah, I'm going to go out and submit Islamahachav.

He's that good, especially on the ground. He's good. Everyone is good. Justin is good. Alex is good. Charles is good. Max is good. Everyone is good.

But I'm different. Fair enough. And so... I'm a boat. Are you? Do you feel that way? No. No, really.

I think you do. I don't like... I don't like... I don't like to claim myself as the goat of the sport. I always like to live those decisions to the fans. They are the people that happen, like the ones that take that decision. Do you think you're number one pound for pound? Of course. It's not that I think I know so.

A month after your fight, it sounds like we're getting the return of Connor McGregor. And one could argue that that would be the biggest fight in the U.S. by far, you versus him. Is this something that you're thinking about? Is this something that's on your radar? Probably, it's not on my radar, but if I get offered about that fight, we'll see where Connor's going to be at that point. If he gets a win, a great comeback, he wins his next fight,

and I get offered that fight, we'll see. It's not something you'll ask for? I never close the doors for those kind of opportunities, you know what I mean? Sure. Even if we are not in the same level right now, maybe on the popularity and all that, like, he's popular and a lot of people knows about him. But sports-wise, we all know that he's almost done. Do you think he beats Max? You never know.

I thought that Maxwell was going to beat Charles, and he lost by complete domination. So I don't know. With Conner, you never know. You never know. Sometimes he goes in. He makes it look easy. Sometimes he lost to Nate Diaz. When he lost to Nate Diaz, it's very difficult to make predictions about someone like him.

You don't rate Nate very high? bro he sucks he's a punching back this is 2016 8 Diaz 10 years ago he was in his prime it doesn't matter bro he sucks he's a fucking punching back really we've missed you

I miss you too we missed you congratulations on Richard Millie mile thank you very much oh my dear God that's a nice one right there How did this come about this deal? Everyone very impressed with this.

Yeah, it came. I don't know, my team. One day I got the call from my team and they were like, listen, we just had a conversation with Rich Amir and they are very interesting in you. And I was like, God bless them. Is this one of those, I mean, what a promo this was as well. Is this one of those where you kind of look back and say, man, I've come a very long time. This is a huge achievement, a huge achievement.

Yes. For me personally, it's a personal achievement, yeah, of course. They don't, they don't. To have a richer meal putting eyes on you. Yes. It makes you feel very proud. Yeah, it made me feel very proud and very, very grateful. I saw you have a deal with JD Sport and Hoodrich as well, Monorex that you're rocking over there.

It seems like, you know, all these, these blue chip sponsors are coming your way. Do you allow yourself to have a moment to say, like, man, I've come a very, very long, way in a short amount of time. Yeah, and I felt very proud about everything that I was able to achieve. I'm very grateful. How's Wow FC? I want to come to a Wow FC show in Madrid. I hear it's amazing.

I would love to have you there. You're going to love it. Your team, they don't roll out the red carpet for me like the other guys. You know, I don't get that kind of, you know? I'm just joking. That's not true. I know. That's not true.

You have a great team. You are great welcome. What has it been like for you to launch this? And you have Cristiano Ronaldo with you as well, right? He's a part of the game. Yeah. It has been an amazing journey, to be honest. I have learned so many things.

And we are growing little by little, step by step. You know what I mean? There are not elevators in life. There are not elevators in business. And I'm pretty confident that little by literally we are going to expend our brands worldwide. The last time I had you on the show, show before the Charles fight, I asked you about Ronaldo picking Volcanovsky, and

you weren't happy about it. Now you're a business partner, so how did you get over that? So, once I joined the WoHC, like two or three years ago, after like six months ago or seven, when he joined

the Woe, I got a call from Woe's team and they were like, listen, Cristiano wants to join a Woe, and I was like, listen. tell him that he's more than welcome. And then I had my first conversation with him. We had a meeting with his team and my team, with everyone,

and actually he was very, very nice to me. Amazing. I'm happy to see that, that you guys are on the same page. In September of last year, I had Terrence Crawford on my show, and I asked him about you, and he was dismissive of you, said he didn't know who you were, you'll never be McGregor. he did walk out to the same song that you walk out to.

And so when you saw that, did you... Congrats. Congrats. Hey, listen, now that he's retired, congrats to him for an amazing career that he had. He's one of those boxers that I like to watch. I have learned many, many things from his style. So I don't want to even talk or child.

him because he's retired. So I wish him all the best of him and his family. Do you believe he's retired? I don't know. He seems to be a serious guy. Okay. He seems to be the kind of person that says something and he backs it up. So I think that he's retired.

This boxing dream. Is this still something on your list? Of course. It's on my list. Of course. And it's going to happen. It's going to happen. at least one fight.

After I finish my journey in the mix of martial arts, I'm going to make that move for sure. I don't doubt you. If it's not Terrence, who would be next? Who would make the most sense? Who would interest you the most? I don't know. I don't know.

When the moment arrives, I don't know who's going to be on his top, who is going to be the war champion in the weight class where I want to fight. So we'll see that. You know, there are many factors. that matters before taking those kind of decisions. You know, I heard you say in an interview recently

that you've never taught your son any sort of technique, punching, things like that. But, Ilya, come on, man. I saw videos of your son. This kid is a phenom. I've never seen a young kid hit mitts like this. He's so good. Just from watching you?

He used to watch all my training session He goes to my brother's training sessions and after the training sessions he goes to the coaches actually and he asked them like, do you mind to hold pads for me or teach me something and he comes to me and he wants to repeat the combinations and all that. He reminds me like,

Dad, do you remember the last combination you did in this round? Do you mind if I repeat that and you watch me? And I'm like, look at this kid. It's unbelievable. How old is he now? It is six years. Six years old. Do you want, I mean... He's going to have seven.

He's got something. There's no doubt about it. He's got something. And the most important thing is that he has the willing, which is the most important thing, the willing to do it. Because I know many people that they used to force their kids to do, like, different type of activities and at the end like they get bored or they don't want to keep doing it and in Hugo's case, my son's case, he's like he's the one who is asking me to do it. So whatever he wants to do, I'm going to be happy with that.

If he said to you he wants to be a fighter, would you be like, you know, there are some people who live through the fight game and say, I don't want my kid to go through that. I know what it's like. No, listen, I don't put him, I don't put any limits on him. If he wants to fight, I will be happy and I would support him in any ways that I can. If he doesn't want to fight and he wants to do different things, I would be happy anyways. But one thing that I'm not going to let him do never is to don't do anything. You know what I mean?

He's a man and he needs to be occupied, like, occupied, he needs to occupy his mind. Two last quick questions if I can, and I want to remind people that you have a docu series coming out on HBO Max next month, right? Exactly. Three episodes will come out. Actually, I saw all of the episodes,

and I really think that all the fans are going to love it. I'm looking forward to that. I wanted to ask you very quickly about Marab. It felt to me, I loved seeing you and him, especially at the beginning of the year, together. You know, he was going through a tough time. You were going through your stuff. And it felt like he was really trying to, like, uplift you as a brother, as a friend. As a brother.

Yeah. He just called me. He told me, he knew that I was going through my personal things. He called me one day. He was like, listen, I want to be with you and spend a couple of weeks or days. and support you, I don't know. We can train and he came as a brother. We spent some time together

and I love him. Everyone that knows our relationship, they know that I respect him and love him as a brother. It was beautiful to see. Also, the relationship with your own brother who's doing great in the UFC now. So congratulations on that.

Thank you very much. And I know the fans have missed seeing you compete. Do you think you'll fight twice this year? Do you think you'll get two-in after the, you know, after the fight in June, do you think he'll get another one in? Hopefully, that's my goal. Actually, that's my goal area.

My goal is to fight in June and fight again by the end of the year. So we'll see. Maybe Madison Square Garden in New York in November? Maybe Spain. Who knows? Is that being discussed? Is that a thing? Don't let me like, I don't want to talk about it.

Fair enough. That would be, you deserve it. That would be incredible. At the Bernabé, are you kidding me? I deserve all the best in this world as you. Yes. You all deserve it. Absolutely.

But the fans over there deserve it too because Real Madrid not so good in the Champions League, you know? I'm just joking. You a piece of... I'm joking. I'm joking. Much love to you, I'm so happy to see you back. There it is.

Freedom 250 headliner at the top. Congrats on all your success, all the things you have going on. Thank you and your team for making this happen today. We really appreciate it. I appreciate it. My pleasure always, area. You know, have a great day. Same to you.

Thank you very much for all the fans. Okay, amen. Thank you so much, Elia. Much love to you. You're the man. There he is. The lightweight champion of the UFC, former UFC featherway champion. Tremendous stuff there, and he's returning to action on the 14th of June on the White House lawn against Justin Gachie.

He's got the HBO Macs documentary series coming out. He's got the Richelde Millet. He's got the Monorex. He's rocking that. He's got the J.D. Sport. I'm sure he's got a million other things too. What else does this guy have? Oh my gosh.

What do you think? What do you think? I love asking GC these questions because I know nothing about it. That little number he had on the watch. What do you think? What is that? At minimum, 500,000.

What is that? It looked sick. Yeah, it's just like, that's like the unique style of like a Richard Millie. Like, it almost looks like a, like a car thing. Like, look at mine. Mine's plain ass circled out.

That's Richard Millie, too? Fuck, no. This is. Because I thought you were saying, like, look at his Richard. Look at my rich. No, look at his. Like, it has that, like, style.

It almost looks like, like, a race car. This is, like, the closest I could find to it. What's the 11? What's the 11? I don't know. I don't know. I couldn't tell if there was the 11 on it or not. It was just, he flashed it real quick, and I saw it was, like, white.

It's a time. Is that the time? The 11? There's a 3? There's an 8, and then there's an 11. They won't let you buy this watch, Ariel, and so you can identify. Wait, oh, I see the 8. Wait, so what time would be?

1138? No, no, no, no. Ariel. Ariel, it's, it's, the numbers are, only the three, the 11, and the 8 are around the dial. Stylistic choice. The other numbers are not there. So picture, oh. Six at bottom, 12 at top, 9 at left.

Why'd they choose 11 and 8 and not 12? Because it's cool. It's different. It's not like, it's not just the 36, 9, 12. It's fucking sick, though. I would imagine he's rocking a custom something. It's not a digital watch for. sure or not. Can I tell you my biggest takeaway from that chat? I got one. You go, yeah.

Okay. I mean, what a guy. I mean, high and tight. The hair is fantastic. He looks more handsome. He looks more handsome. I was going to say something, but I'll be like, oh, look at this guy, glazing. I know, he looks fantastic. He genuinely seems in a good place, very, very happy. What did I say to your eye of favor before, and what did I say to him? I want to see Armin v. Zillia. I want to see Armin v. Dillia even more now. Yeah. Did you see the answer to Armin compared to the answer regarding Islam. And Patty and everybody else. And Gaichi.

Gaichi was just like, yeah, I respect them. Like, yep. Are you kidding? The Armin one was completely different. Very different. Amen. After Gaichi. Let's do it.

MSG. Here's the thing. I want to see that much more than I want to see Islam versus Ilya. Much, much more. Because I want to see Ilya at 55. Yes. Is the best, right? He is arguably the best fighter in the world at 55.

There's only one other person who could make that claim, in my opinion. Islam. Well, no. If it goes back. The Army, yes, of course. But I don't want to see the move up just yet because I don't, look, you don't know what that's a good idea, 15 pounds. It's a lot. Yeah.

If it was up to me, there's enough for Islam to do at 170. Gary, Michael Morales, Carlos Prachas, those are probably the top three guys. there's certainly enough for Ilya to do after Justin Gagee. There's really just the one that is the biggest. There's other guys coming up, BSD, et cetera. They get by those two, then we talk about it next year. Right? Sure.

We could talk about it whenever, but that's not the most interesting thing for me. I mean, they get by those tests, and then we talk about them. But like the tests here are not just, it's not like, oh, Tyson-Furi versus Mahmoudov. No, no. I'll go as far as to say given where they're at now and I've definitely said this on the show I think from a stature standpoint

call me crazy Ilya Armin is getting to be Ilia Islam level I think so it's not yeah I don't think so it's not Armin's on fire I want that fight more than anything

and even I will acknowledge it's not Armin is on fire if you're going by social which is where he is on fire Islam still has double the fall. Sure, but Armand's made up a lot of ground. For sure. But like, if you booked that fight and you were in

the buildup and the lead up, the star power that those two have, the legacies that's on the line between those two, it's still bigger. And star power is one thing, which I agree, like Islam is levels above. Number one and number two pound for pound, indisputably.

Like, these are the guys. That would be massive. Long-reigning champ at 155, now a two-division champion, like Armin is fantastic, and I want him to get his due. I want him to get his shot, but he has not even been a champion yet in the UFC. Wait, would that be the first fight between two division champions? I'm pretty sure, yeah. Between two people who had held championships and two divisions?

Yeah, I mean, it would be historic. Can we get, can we get I get I'msg? I feel like I'm at MSG, although he did drop a little Bernerbeahue there. How about that? But he doesn't want to jinx it. He doesn't even talk about it or speak into existence, unless they get jinxed. I was going to make a joke, but I wasn't sure if it was going to hit, like, I was going to say, what's it like rooting for a club that's not playing in Europe right now?

You know what I mean? Because as you all know, four still in Europa League semis. You got to be careful. He got testing. This is a guy who cheers for a club with, like, what, 17 Champions League titles? You know, it's kind of like a what have you done for me lately type of thing in sports these days? I think they've also won more Champions League as of them. I said I came to work today, and I was.

I was like, yo, man, did you see MGW with the hat trick against Burnley? I might as well have been talking about curling to G.C. He had no idea. Like, he's officially, I've closed up the group chat. It's done. I hit you with the MGW with the hatty? Let's come on. Between you and Frank.

What's Chris Wood up to? Just came back from injury. Let's go. Just came back from injury. Vitor Pereira has ready the ship. Seven in a row unbeaten for Vitor. Fourth manager of the campaign, you know? Aston Villa, Europa League semis next week.

Big one coming up this weekend as well against Sunderland. Anyway, I'm still here, guys. So for all those fans that thought I was going to jump ship, I'm still here. We've got a lot to get to, guys. We have a lot to get to. There's a lot of news and notes to get to. So can we do a little tour around the world of MMA? Can we do that?

What's that? I said, let's do it. Okay. Want to let you know. Last week we spoke to Carlos Elberg. I did confirm back into the week. he has had surgery. He snapped his ACL, his manager, Ashbel Castro, told me.

They said that he had surgery in Las Vegas. He is in good spirits, as you can see. He was actually at WrestleMania, sitting right next to Daniel Cormier. At one point, CM Punk took the, I don't want to botch what he was wearing, but he was there to support the OTC, tribal chief, his guy, Roman Reigns. He took it off. And I don't think Carlos was clued in on this. Punk is a big MMA fan, knew who he was, saw DC interacted with the son. And like, you saw Carlos try to snatch it.

I think if he had a good leg, I think he would have actually like swiped it as opposed to try to snatch it. Anyway, he's in good spirits. He had the surgery. They're saying that he's, you know, he's very eager to come back as quickly as possible. Let's see, it's obviously a little bit soon, but certainly wishing him the best and hoping for a speedy recovery. It sounds, according to Dana White, that he's going to remain in Las Vegas.

to rehab, PI, all that stuff. It makes a lot of sense. Yuri Prakaska is a father. Congratulations, Mazel Tov to him and his partner. They announced this last week. There you go. What a guy that Yuri. What a few days for him.

The highest of highs, the lows of lows, but there's nothing, nothing, nothing better than this. And this erases everything. Pure, pure power of love to the newborn. Eleonora, the firstborn daughter and her mother, who today showed immense strength. that I never knew she had. Second. Until the end of this week, I'll do some comment

for the bullshit I see here in social, but my last fight, other hyenas around and next step. Main point in fight and also in life, stay true to what you believe in and be ready to fight for it and sacrifice whatever you have to. This for sure was my title fight of life

and I feel like a champion. So I feel like he's referring to some comments from Carl Sahlberg, perhaps on this program. I did see some footage of him saying that he was a baby, sitting already. He's already being put to work. Look at Yerry out there. Let's go for that. A little smoothie? Oh, I know that feeling. A little smoothie. It's a big smoothie, yeah. It's a, uh, we all know that moment. You have the newborn,

you're like, don't even breathe. Just let this thing sleep and don't move. It all happened so fast. Speaking of the 205 pound division, Jan Behovich announcing that he is out of his UFC 328 fight. There you go. Don't count your chickens before they hatch. He was supposed to be in the States next week. Plans changed. He's beyond piss.

Torn meniscus. Golly. Jan's one of the good guys wishing him well. By the way, what a sick picture. The sweat coming off the brow? That is sweat, right? Or is that blood? Sweat.

Water? Yeah, I feel like it's water. Something? Not blood. Not blood. Definitely not. We spoke about Marab Duolishvili with Ilya. What about this scene right here?

Marab meeting fans, I think, on the streets of New York, or maybe Philly. He was in Philly. Check this out. Oh, come, guys. How are you? Respect, respect. That's a picture. Yeah?

He's coming down just to see. Wow. My amigo. Maybe I jump there, brother. Yeah. When he finished. You come? My goodness.

My gum is crazy. Yes. No problem, don't be nervous. I'm just regular guy like you. Seven years ago I was working construction too. I can take it. He's crazy. This guy is unbelievable.

Okay, don't worry. I'll be from him. He's a fighter. He climbed a building. He's like that guy, Alex Honol. Look at this. Look at this guy. Mirab. Easy, bro.

Easy. Easy. He wants... How can you know? I love the way Ilya spoke of Murab. But that is insane. He is one of a kind. He's fearless that Murab Duolish-Shele.

Amazing stuff. Speaking of the Bantamweight Division, you know, I didn't see this get clipped off or mentioned anywhere, but I was watching the Dana-Wa Post-Fight press conference on Saturday in Winnipeg. And honestly, he said something, it's like a 30-second clip, and I thought it was the most telling thing that he said and has said in quite some time about the state of UFC matchmaking. Take a look at this, and then we'll react. Amon Zobie was here all week.

And one thing he said specifically is he feels his fight against O'Malley is a title eliminator that the winner will fight Jan for the belt. is that the case or is that undecided? Well, I don't ever look at it. You know, these guys are, again, put in these positions with great opportunities. Let's see what the fight looks like and let's see how they perform and, you know,

just to throw out there, oh, whoever wins is going to get, that's not really what happens here. Perform, let's see how you look and then we'll make that decision. I thought that was incredibly telling. Number one contender fights don't exist anymore. Perform. We're not going to slap that. title, which they used to, that label on fights, were reserving the right to decide whether or not

we think that you're going to be good for it. Nasrudene Mavov, Kyobahalio, sorry, you're not getting it. Lorone Murphy, Aaron Pico, sorry, no, we're going to make the fight that we think will sell the most, that will be the most interesting to people. I thought that was the first time that he admitted that the thought of like a meritocracy, like you win X amount, that puts you at the top of the rankings, which means you're getting a title shot, that doesn't exist anymore.

If the New York Knicks win the next, what is it, would be 4, 4, so 8, 12, 16, you got to win 16. Yeah, 15 games. Yeah, if they, no, it would be, yeah, if they win, if they win the first, let's say, I don't know, if they win the first

They win the first 12 games Of the playoffs Yes Awful games Just like boring 76 points No one's saying like yeah You didn't earn it

That's a sport that has meritocracy This is different And for everything that they say about boxing There's more of a meritocracy And boxing than there is in the UFC right now Because at least if you put yourself in a position To be ranked and rank number one and be the mandatory in one of the sanctioning bodies, you can get that.

You can win technically 15 fights in a row in the UFC and not get a title shot, which has got to be deflating. Now, on the flip side, it's great for a fighter who may not be as skilled as some other fighters, but like, hey, I'm fun, I'm kill or be killed, I produce fun fights, let me throw a caution to the win. But that, to me, is the UFC in 2026. And it's good to have some, you know, like an admission of, hey, number one contender fights don't exist. We sit here and say, this should be a number one contender fight. This is a tailor-made number-worked tender fight. Media asks Dana, is this a number-contentor fight?

Don't do it anymore because that's the answer. Now that's fine. But at least now we know the answer. Because we would get upset and do these deep dives. Oh, he said, Hooker versus Armin is a number-contentor fight. Morales versus Brady's number, and they aren't. So at least now we know they're not number one contender fights. They don't exist.

Now, just to be clear, I wish they did exist. I think number one contender fights are very important. They make main events, co-main events, big fights, they make them even more important. I think if you get told that a fight is a number one contender fight, like you're watching that fight, oh wow, the winner of this fight is punching their ticket, they're getting a title fight, that's amazing. I'm in. That's stakes. I understand that as a sports fan but they're now going to reserve the right

in order to put together what they think will be the fight that will sell the most sexiest fight all that stuff and more we've talked a lot about Dana White and you know we want to see the fastball I believe it's there I believe it's there

it feels like the announcements the demeanor it's all 70s but I believe there's a 97 in there I believe that arsenal still exists you know how I know that arsenal exists? Do you know how I know he still has that in him? Because I see a video of him talking about Bob

Mennery fighting, and there's more pizzazz, there's more enthusiasm, there's more fire about this video that I've seen regarding any Zufa boxing or UFC fight that I've seen in quite some time. Take a look. So you guys have seen all the stuff that's gone on with me and Nelke and Bob Minnery over the years.

Minery is back and he is supposedly signed a deal at Aidan Ross's fight show down in Miami to fight Johnny Manzell. Okay? So Minery hits me up and says, who you're betting on? I said, I'm betting on.

You don't even show up. That's my bet. Minery never does anything he says he's going to do. I couldn't care less about any of this stuff. The point is, do you not watch that and say, there's no notes? You're not reading anything? That's the old Dana White right there. He's more excited about Bob Menry versus Johnny Mansell at Aiden Ross's fight promotion than any of them.

Am I not right? Menry is back. He is back. He is in-he's not reading any of that. That's off the cuff. That's off the cuff. I mean, he's saying simple sentences describing something he knows about,

so he should be able to do something. He's passionate about. When Armin Seruki in his back, he's going to be like, yeah, Armand, he's booked against BSD. That'll be Comain. Main event, Alex Brewery against X, Y, Z.

Am I wrong? No, I'm being serious. That's what he's going to be like. No, but when you saw that, Or maybe you didn't see that video. That was the first thing I was like, why does he seem way more excited about this nothing of a fight? I don't even know what it is.

Is Johnny Mansell really fighting? I don't know. He's fighting Bob Menry. Yeah. Menry's back. When he said that, I was dying. Who's Bob Menry? He's the voiceover guy.

Yeah. He would do like the voiceovers of like sports action, but really make it like raunchy and funny. He was in Roadhouse. And what's his connection to Dana? He was involved with Nelke boys. And then Dena. So he's back from what?

What is he back from? Him and Dana had a falling out. Nelt boys had a falling out. It's a whole thing. It's a whole thing. All right. He's back. I don't know if you guys are, but he's back.

You're fucking right. I heard he screamed it at the camera. He was the most hype we've seen him in an announcement of video in years. So why can't we get that? No, because he cares more about this thing. Yeah. It's very sad. What do you guys think about Zach Brown?

Singing the National Anthem at the White House? Didn't they, Dana? He's doing the National Anthem, too, and the Watchport? Oh, you didn't see this? I believe he said this to Entertainment Tonight. Yeah, shout out. Kevin Frazier. Yeah, yeah, he said Zach Browns, and Dana has definitely said of the past, you know, we don't do national anthems here.

Obviously, it's the White House. I'm sure there was a time where he never thought he'd be at the White House. So I'm not one to say like, oh, you said this 10 years ago. But A, how do we feel about the national anthem at this sporting event? And B, Zach Brown is the choice. I feel fine with the National Anthem. They are doing it at the White House. It's just like they do it at boxing events.

I don't mind it. Yeah, it's a one-off for the White House. Like, it's a celebration of the America 250. That's the whole thing. Zach Brown, sure. Yeah. I mean, it's a Zach Brown weekend, baby. If you're a Zach Brown fan, like,

he's performing the ellipse. He's doing the National Anthem. He's the one who sings, someone pour me out a double shot of whiskey. Oh, God, damn. It's got Shibuzi. We went over this last week. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Little bit of chicken fried. All right, right. Col beer on a Friday night. Yeah, I love that guy. Bear jeans, bitches. He's the man. Okay, he's the band. George his own. Wow.

Okay, do you think he sings it before the main or before the start of the main card? Like, before the main event? I guess there's no main card, though, because it's just the seven fights, right? Yeah. You do it before the main event, like you do it. Boxing? Yeah. Maybe not.

You don't think they do it to... I actually, to be honest, I think they... Mark it down. I've no one until Zach Brown starts the show Star Spangled Banner, all that. Josh Hokka walks out. All right.

That's what we're doing. Walks out from where? Who the hell knows? He's back. I was trying to lay that up for you. No, but you know what I mean? I could see it starting like, oh, beautiful force.

No. But you know what I mean? And then the fighters come out. I feel like it's... Is that an attempt at the National Anthem? No, no, that's the other one. Oh, that's the other one, right? America the Beautiful.

Yeah. Yeah. That's you. Why not? What are we also going to sing? God bless America, too? I think so. No.

That's what they used to do at, at WrestleMania. No, but at WrestleMania, they would sing the one that I, what did I just sing? Not God bless the other one. America. America. James Brown. America God

That's what they would say I would actually prefer that at the start than Star Spangled That's what I say I like it Oh come on Editorial By the way

Rick is so sick That he could only muster At this point At one point At one point earlier in the show He goes on an Eight sneeze street And then he's like

It's cold back here Man I gotta get my jacket I was like Oh you got the chills He's like yeah a little bit I was like yeah It's probably fucking fever and you're getting all of us.

I think you guys are misrepresenting. I feel great. Yeah. I feel it in the back of my throat. I always follow you get? You sure it's not the pineapples and the olives? Josh Hokit is looking for a corner. Is this a worker shoot here, what Josh Hokit said?

My coach Greg Jackson will not be coaching me on the White House fight for personal reasons. I don't have a coach now. Will the ring goes corner me please tag them for me? Do you think, so the thought was Greg's not coaching because of political reasons, or do you think it's because he's got, you know, other assignments or he's double-old? I believe this to be a shoot. You think it's a shoot? Yeah.

Okay. That's my, that's my ink. So what do you think happens? It just gets a new corner. John Jones? Shit, I mean, you could do worse than that. You imagine? He's been doing well for Gable.

Can you imagine John and Gable come out? Yeah. Well, no. Oh, wait, no. What if he turns heel on Gable and he starts coaching Josh And then Josh and Gable would But no, like imagine that story John wanted to be on this card so badly

And now he's walking out the dude Who's fighting in the first fight or whenever? Something. I'm sure he'll find a team. He'll be okay. Alex Pereira has been training for this fight. He's somewhere. I think he's in Minajirae, as they say in the business.

His son has been training as well with Glover-Chair. Look at Alex Pereira's son over here. hitting the midst talking about Sunt with Ilya toporea. Look at this young man. Look at that left hook right there. Ooh, you know yourself. Whoa! Look at this.

Glover eating these. Yes. Glover's like, yo, Gloria's like, yo, young man, chill. That upper cup bopped his head back. Oh. E. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. To the body, very impressive. Pereira, meanwhile, horseback riding these days. He's out on the ranch. Everyone loves a good horseback. Look at this guy. What is the Minijerese? Minizierrez. That's in Brazil. Oh, okay, okay. That's a beautiful part of, look at this guy. He looks like a, he looks like a real-life cowboy. I get

worried about the no helmet. I'm not going to lie. The no helmet on a horse? Yeah. Nah, come on, man. This isn't an equestrian contest. I just get worried, man. Nah, minus 10,000 aura if you go helmet. The complete opposite of Roman raids. Yeah, if you're rocking a fucking helmet on the horse, not. I always think of one, every time I see that, I think of one story. What, Christopher Reeve? Yes.

It's awful. Yeah, of course. To be a variety of horses every day, though. All right. Cyril Gunn's been training with Artim Vachitov. In case you're unfamiliar with Mr. Vachitav, he was the last man to defeat Alex Pereira and Glory. A bit of gamesmanship here. What do you think?

Bakhtoff was on our show. He was the guy that got the offer from the UFC after Contender Series. What do you have to say about this, Rick? He's just a, he's a fantastic fighter. He's exactly who you should be training with if you want to fight Alex Pereira. Very, very smart, right?

Incredibly smart, incredibly gifted. The only thing holding him back really was, like, injuries. His hands were a little bit fragile. Like, you think Shakor Stevenson, right? Like, how busy he could have been if his hands were a little sturdier. Like, this dude's, this dude's sad.

This dude is incredible. And as I said, exactly who you'd want to be training if you were fighting Alex Pereira. Speaking of fighters who have dabbled in both MMA and kickboxing, the great Chris Komosey announces retirement after a bare knuckle fight over the weekend. His face, a little bit banged up, has had a great run, a great career, great resume. Here's what he had to say after the fight. Don't worry. You know, I want to do this here in Denver.

tell everybody thank you. I decided this week win, lose, draw anything. I'm retiring. You know, my life is getting busy. I got a daughter on the way next month. I want to be a family man, be present for my kid. So I decided before this fight, even with my team here, I'm going out throwing.

This is how I want to go out. I would like to go out winning, but either way, I was going to go out, giving it all. And I'm good, you know. I can't see it on my right eye very. well. I couldn't see the punches coming and I wasn't able to get up, but hell of a fight and there's no other way I'd rather go out, you know, out of my shield. So thank you for my family. Everybody, don't worry. I'm totally good. Okay. I love you all. This sport is giving me so much. I've got to travel

the world fighting. So don't feel bad for me, man. I feel great, actually. I wanted to go. Much love to Chris Komosey. That was bare knuckle over the weekend. And, had a great run in the UFC, had a great run in MMA as well. He leaves the sport of MMA with a 27 and 15 record, fought for the likes of UFC, PFL, and many, many others, but really known as a UFC fighter for the vast majority of his career. Face banged up and yeah, how old is he? He's probably, he's 39, so same age as Gilbert Burns had that great run with Jacques, that every everyone always used to talk about online as well. Speaking of the fista cuffs,

so some big news on Friday, we found out that Connor Ben, as expected, has signed a long-term deal with Zoufa boxing. Now, the way it was positioned was five fights, two and a half years. I did a little bit of digging,

and here you go. Here's Connor Ben, Dana White, Nick Kahn, Lee, his lawyer. I did a little bit of digging, and I asked, okay, I don't usually hear these deals positioned this way. So is it whichever comes first, the two and a half or the five? In other words, if he only fights, you know, two times, so two out of the five,

but over the course of two and a half years is the deal up. My understanding is it's if the five come and go, great. But if there's only two fights within two and a half years, we still are getting those. three. So a little bit more like a UFC contract. You know, I thought it was really interesting. And I'm not one to, I don't like media on media crime. But there were a lot of really easy questions and obvious questions that should have been asked as he did the media rounds on Friday. And I just couldn't believe that they weren't asked. For one, you know, I saw him on first take and I got all the love in the world but you know to see him sitting there it's a big

spot that's his like big reveal to the American audience after signing this deal and you hear you know the last time I saw you in the ring and Stephen A asked this question I have a lot of love and respect for Stephen A and he's covering a lot and you can't know everything about everything but the last time I saw you in the ring was after the Shakur win January 31st in Madison Square Garden to me that's jarring because he fought six days ago by the time of that interview. Little banged up. Like, he just fought against Regis Progray. Then I saw him do other media.

Not a single question about Eddie Hearn. I don't expect that type of stuff on first take. They're not like deep in the trenches like we are, but not a single question about Eddie, not a single question about Mattroop, not a single question about like, did you talk to them? How did the deal come? None of that. None of that. Zero.

Zero. None of that. I'd love to have Connor on the show. I've reached out. I think we've always been very, very good to him. I think we've always covered him very fairly and with grace and love through his hardships. I would love to have him

and just understand the totality of the deal. I can't tell you, I met Keith Conley on Friday at the MVP show because he works with Alicia Baumgartner. It was great to meet him. The vast majority of the things that we spoke about were off the record, but I didn't extend an invitation for him to come on. And I would love to have him on to understand.

And okay, we've heard Eddie's side of the story. We have not heard your side of the story. We have not heard the Zufa side of the story. We see Dana talk about it here and there. But like, I want to understand what really happened here. I would love to. And I'm not saying there's a good guy, a bad guy. I'm not saying any of that.

But I just want to know the full story. Let's, we shouldn't just take Eddie's word for it. We should, you know, find out, okay, what's the truth? What happened? What could be done? You know, all of that. So it was a little bit disappointed. Eddie Heard was asked about this on Saturday.

It was a show in Liverpool. PT mentioned that earlier. And he was asked about the new deal. Because remember, there was the one-fight deal and then a lot of us suspected that there would be a new deal. Here's what he had to say. Eddie, just your reaction to the news about Conradar band, multi-fight deal with...

Unbelievable. It was so quick. You know, imagine doing a one-fight deal. Imagine no one from the organization even attending the fight. and then two days later you've already done a new deal it's almost like it was never a one-fight deal so yeah

you've said over the past few weeks that you've been seeking clarity on whether it was a one-fight deal just wondering if it does get to the stage where legal proceedings are launched of say Turkey is apart as if a boxing could that jeopardise your relationship there and perhaps the talks

and the Josh Tyson for your fight we'll protect our position at all costs at all times and there's been conversation you know ongoing legal conversations and yes we will absolutely seek clarity because all we just need to make sure of is that we wasn't like to and that you know these people involved Keith Connolly Lee m taj all these people had no other conversations with these people planning anything other than a one-fight deal for 15 million dollars against regis progray in a 10 round bout on an undercard I mean it sounds very believable So I would have to see. This battle continues. It is fascinating to watch. I did see Nick Con on the Bill Simmons podcast on Friday.

Great chat. They always have good chats, especially around WrestleMania. I've said many of times that I have a lot of respect for Nick as a businessman, as a strategist, always being three moves ahead, all this stuff and more. And I enjoy the Zingers. I enjoy, I see them. I noticed them, like when he was calling him Edward Hearns a few months ago, or this time where he's like, you know, essentially saying like, you know, rich kids can't, you know, they can't cut it. When you're coming, you know, and you're coming after your father, Barry Hearn or Shod Khan, when you're coming after your father, you can't quite cut it.

You don't have that grit. And so to me, the battle, I know, I know what we're seeing is Dana versus Eddie, but. To me, the brains behind Zufa boxing is and will remain Nick. Nick is the guy who grew up in the boxing business, who is really the mover and shaker as far as the TV deals are concerned. And so I enjoy seeing all of this. And I'm curious to see how it's all going to play out. And as I said, after the Connor Bend deal was announced, the first one, it was reminiscent of Cody Rhodes leaving AW. That's going for the jugular. That's taking the piece. out of the Jenga thing, like right in the middle there to try to hurt you. And we saw that play out a few years ago with Cody and then Jade. And now we saw this. And I just don't believe that Dana's like, yeah, get me Conner Ben. I would have a hard time believing, to be honest, if Dana White even knew who Conner Ben was before all of this. I'm just being honest. Maybe I'm wrong. I know Nick Con knew who he was. He watches all of this. He follows all of this.

every single, you know, every single big event, every single one of them. So it's going to be really interesting to see how this continues to play out. I'm going through the list here. Did I lose something here? No. So yeah, Conner Bent, we don't know when he is going to be fighting next. We don't know if it's going to be a Zoufa card or a ring card. I heard that they may be doing a show in Bournemouth for Chris Bill and Smith.

I think they're going to be doing a lot of shows outside of the apex, and that will be great, and then we'll really start to see what Zoufa boxing is. And as I've said, time and again, don't count them out. But I will also say they're going to have success. They're going to be out there. They're going to have deals. They're going to have shows. They're gathering their nuts.

But again, I hope that lessons are learned from WWNUFC, where, you know, I'll use that word soul again. Like, that's what the fight game is. The fight game makes us feel something. I want to feel something when I watch the shows. It's not just enough to put on the shows. I want to feel something. And as I've said time again, they're all very smart people.

Let's see what it all turns into when they take the show on the road. I mentioned Shadija Green, you know, and her post. Clarissa Shields was talking a lot about Shadija. Shaddaisha was talking a lot about her in the buildup to their fight. Clarissa on Friday was talking like, hey, you know, she's not on my level. Well, thankfully today she did post something that I thought probably should have been posted on Friday, but I'll give her the benefit of the doubt and say maybe she didn't know how serious her injury was. Boxing beef to the side real quick. Prayers up for Shadasia Green. The sport ain't just entertainment for y'all. This is our real life. We risk everything. Every time we step in that ring, respect to any fighter with the hard to do it, stay strong green. Love to see that. That was great. And yeah, I thought much needed and it was great to see her do that sort of thing. Armin Sarukian and Ryan Garcia went back and forth this week. And I don't really know what the Genesis is, but I think we have the beginning of it all.

Here's a tweet from Ryan. Ryan versus Armin, 100K if he survives, eight rounds if we give him the money on stream, time is ticking. Did it start here, GC, or did something else happen? Something that happened earlier. Like he was in a video and like they made something. back because they hung out. It was him, Ryan Garcia, and Ashton Hall, the guy that does all the running videos. And there was a video that came out on the 16th that said, they asked me to give back the 40K to count it. Then it disappeared. So, like, he gave him back 40K that he won

betting with Ryan Garcia. Ryan told me he will do a bank transfer and he gives me his word. It's been five days and he hasn't even asked for my bank details yet. So he won a bet because he made a post about how he won money from Ryan Garcia on his Instagram. And then I guess he gave the money back to Ryan Garcia and now Ryan hasn't paid him. And then they start started up in the ante and everything. So I don't know. It feels like Armand won a bet and Ryan didn't ban. Okay.

Well, there's more there. Going back to that original picture, first of all, he writes, I don't care about you MMA nut smackers talking about the real fight. There's a reason M.A. Fighters can't box because it's hard to just use your hands. Grabbing, rolling on the floor for hours

is something I'm not trying to learn, but go off. Was there more here from Ryan? And he did delete these, right? Yeah, he's deleted. Was there more or that was it? Okay, now we have an Armin reply. 100K for eight rounds, LOL survived one round of MMA sparring with me, and I'll give you a million.

That's five minutes? I'm not sure if that would. So let's see. Armand versus Ryan, that's big business right there. Armand did compete at the RAF show this weekend, although it did seem for a moment like it was dicey getting him there. He got, I guess, removed from an American Airlines flight. That's a bullshit. No, no, no, I think it happened.

But we're not really sure what happened, really. No, no, this is not my fault. Yeah. What do you think about this, Armin? What did you say to the... He seems to be in good spirits. It sounds like he was saying like, hello, hello, no? Hello, hello, I'm good, how are you?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's what it seemed like he was doing. There was another video that came out. I said this to the guys afterwards. I always try to wedge in these sayings when I'm doing the other job. And I really regret when Alicia Baumgartner said in the post-fight interview that she won on her period. I wanted to hit her with that. But I'm not sure if it would have went off as well as I thought it was going to go off in my head. You know, my wife stayed up to watch that fight.

I was impressed. She likes Alicia's style. And she was so like, what's the word? She was so proud. She was so, like, jazzed up that she said that. on the air she's like yes we should normalize this this is what makes baby she should say that and no one should think it's weird and uh you made a little joke afterwards no it's like all right damn yeah don't let her talk to you like that i don't know what do you think what do you think uh

do you know what i'm talking about andy so after the fight um are you mansplaining no no i'm telling her what happened that's no i didn't watch it i didn't watch it but i think it is you're such a little I'm not mansplaining. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Andy wasn't watching ESPN at 1 18 a.m. on Friday. Am I wrong? Okay. After the fight, I asked her about the fight. She's like, yeah, I did that.

And I did that on my period. Now what? And so everyone was like, oh, TMI, TMI. I'm not, go ahead. It's not TMI. It's real. It's life. You know, you all have mothers.

You know that this happens. Yes. Forget about girlfriends or wives. Why do you think the guys were acting weird about it? Yeah. Why do you think? I don't know. I know.

And when I say the guys, I mean the guys in the back, not like Frank and whatnot. Frank, tell her what you said. Guys in the back where? I was like, oh, Frank. Frank was like, oh, that's so weird. It's gross. Exact quote. All I said was thanks for that, because it gave me context as to how she was feeling going

into the fight. Can't be comfortable. I'll tell you that much. Yeah. Oh, my God. Imagine cutting weight, right? what I've heard from other fighters in the past, that it's the worst during the weight cut. Yeah, no, your energy levels have to be negative.

Right. And aren't you like, you're feeling, you know, the hormones are out of balance, yeah. When I used to work with Invicta, that was the number one culprit for missing weight. Right. What was that, Frank, back there? Uh, nothing, sir. Brigh. What did you say, Frank? Brang. I was talking to Andy. Oh, you're having side conversations?

I'm really happy that Rick is explaining period. Oh, they always did that. When they're not. hormonal. When it's that time of the month, they're just, you can't wrangle them. Is that what I was doing, Frank? They have their own woke front bench communication line here where they can, they talk to each other and it's in their own headphones. Oh, I'm sorry, I was just giving an insight from my time in the industry talking about what other female fighters had told me.

No, no, you were mansplaining, bro. No, sorry. Thank you, Rick. Sorry, your joke is more important, Frank. Keep going, please. Suddenly Rick doesn't sound so sick anymore. Yeah. What's a more overused term, mansplaining?

or what's the other one that you were gaslighting. Everyone says gaslight, you're gaslighting much more. Yeah? I did get to the bottom of the Ryan Garcia bet thing. Oh, tell me, tell me. Yeah, it was a body shot for $40,000. And everyone was like, you can't drop my boy with a body shot. And he couldn't drop.

Oh, wow. So, yeah, 40K. They shook on it on camera and everything. Really? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, all right. His boy took a stiff body shot and did not go down. Wow.

Wait, so whose boy? Armonds. Armonds. Armonds boy took the body shot. Yeah, from Ryan Garcia. And as a result, who should get the 40? Armin. Armin.

Why? It should be the boy. The boy should be either way. Either way. The bet was Armin and Ryan. And has Ryan explained why he's not giving them the 40? Yeah, he just tried to parlay it into a larger. He's like, forget the 40.

Let's box for a million. Double or nothing, let's do my profession. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, all right. I told you about Hamzot's tweet offering 200K. He also did post this graphic of Sean Strickland, who I guess was in the California area where Hamzad is training these days said he dropped his location

I'm not quite sure where he dropped it like did he send them a WhatsApp like a pin and say like I'm right here but I don't know if he's on texting basis with where did he drop this location then I think I think what Sean is referring to is just you can see me I'm here I'm here you see

you're so tough do something about it bro they're about the fight in a prize fight in like three weeks like what do you want him to do come find him and kill Do you want him to fight you on the street so that you don't make the money that you're sitting? There's definitely part of Sean Strickland that I do believe wants that actually, yes. All right, fair enough. Well, luckily it didn't happen for the UFC's sake because it sounds like Hamza didn't take him up on his offer.

We have seen, though, the two guys who headlined the last June 14th card. Do we of course remember this? Who could forget in Atlanta? Kamara Usman and Joaquin Buckley now training together. Who would have thought? They're now buds. Less than a year later? the boys have linked up

you'll never forget that night in Atlanta right g-see that's one of the all-time nights yeah sure won't six main card fights six decisions hell yeah but I did I walked into the arena with walking buckley you did yeah they wouldn't let him in the fighter entrance he didn't like his credentials yeah he had to go into a normal entrance

I explained this on the show I don't think you did yeah I was texting y'all I sent you all a picture because like I couldn't get in wait the day he was fighting Bro, it was like two and a half hours before his fight. It was like right before the main card was started. I have no recollection of this. You said this on the Monday after?

Said it on the Monday after, said it in the group chat. I was like, yo, I'm like trying to get into the arena right now and like they're giving Buckley a hard time. Some one of his teammates or like guys in his corner looked at me and was like, tell New York Rick, I said what's up? I was like, all right. This is before. That's where he's lying.

No, no, I'm dead serious. He said that. I texted this whole thing. Yeah. I do remember that, yeah. You do? Yes. You know, maybe I thought it was...

He was texting us in real time as this was happening. In my defense, it was my son's barmeets a weekend, so maybe I was in 100% locked in. But I think now that you mention it, I'm a little bit reminded, but I thought maybe it was like a joke of a guy. Like, you were like, oh, look at this guy wearing the... It's actually walking, Buckner. Golly. What was that, Frank? I missed that one.

Fuck no, man. Buck Connor. Oh, wow. I did not say that. weekend I'll never forget, but everyone else already has. It's okay. I haven't heard that one in a long time, Frank. We need more of the MMA hour drops. Like, when's the last

time we heard who the F is we? Or Marlins. I don't know, you tell me. Who the fuck is we? Yeah, that's a good one. What the fuck is going on, bro? That's one of my favorites. That's like real old school. But fight is a fight, you know?

Business! Guys, very exciting news, breaking news, Frank. MMA is coming back to Tachi Palace. Tachi Palace fights, which used to be a staple in the Northern California MMA region. Uriah talking about A1 combat being on the come-up in the California region. Well, they announced that Tachi Palace is returning.

They're going to be putting on fights. This is the great Nolan king of M.M.A. Junkie putting it out there. May 16th, they're back. Now, I always thought the UFC was going to put on a show at Tachi Palace because some of you may remember when the UFC was looking for a place to hold events. The very early days of the pandemic, they said that Tachi Palace had told them they can have the venue, they can have the hotels, everything. And then it didn't come to fruition because Disney told them to stand down. But Dana White did an interview with ESPN saying, whenever we're back, we are going to make it up to them. But last I checked, they haven't held an event there.

maybe this is it. May 16th? Counter-programming for the MVP MMA show? No, that's Tachi Pallas fights. It's just Tachi Pallas. Yeah. I thought maybe with the UFC overseeing it. No, maybe they'll do a separate event.

Dana White owes him. Hell yeah, that would be sick. Speaking of that MVP event, they've lost one fight on the card. Jason Jackson, Lorenz Larkin. Larkin out, but we did find out today that a young man named Jeff Creighton, a.k.a. Jazzy, Jefferson,

is his full name, is going to be competing. He's fought for LFA. He fought on the Ultimate Fighter. Solid record, 12-2-1, fought for A-1 combat. So a big opportunity for him. Who fought Max Rochkopf back in the day in Cage Warriors? So that's the latest addition to the card. The Larkin fight was a great one. People were really excited about that.

but alas, not to be. Valentina Schochenko has weighed in on the Ronda Rousey versus Gina Karano fight again. And this one seemed a little bit nicer, sort of. Ronda versus Gina's like competition between iPhone 6 versus iPhone 3GS. Excellent vintage models. Love them both. Physical condition come and go, but technique will stay forever. I didn't know, Schochenko was a certain iPhone fan.

Is that shade? Is that like a backhand? did? Yeah, she's saying their old models. Yeah. But it's still kind of love, too. No one has an iPhone 6 anymore. No, I don't know. I thought it was love. Um, uh, Tim Cook stepped down, by the way. Today?

Oh, for real? Today? Why? Just now. What? Yeah, like 30 minutes ago. Wow. Cook, out at Apple. Why? Why? He's stepping into a different role, but he's stepping down as CEO. So who's doing like the presentations and stuff? John

Turnus. That's all I care about. John Turnus. Big shoes to fill. Okay, let's see. this is from Apple, Tim Cook, to become Apple executive chairman, John Turnus, to become Apple CEO. This John guy seems very young in the picture. Apple announced that Tim Cook will become executive chairman of Apple's board of directors. John Turner's senior vice president of hardware engineering will become Apple's next chief executive officer.

Effective September 1st, 2026. The transition was approved unanimously by the board of directors following a thoughtful long-term succession planning process. Wow. Luke's young. He's 51. Oh, wow. Dan just pointed out that Tim Cook was at Coachella So having gone myself

I can understand why he would probably want a life change You think he was like parting it up too much? Wow You've been to Coachella thing? Oh yeah I'd like to go to Coachella When did you go? 2006

Who'd you see? Tool, massive attack, Daffpunk, Madonna Wow Madonna? Yeah. Alex Terrible? Say it again. Madonna was at Coachella, yeah, Dan

No, Alex terrible. As I just said, I saw her at Coachella. What the hell is going on? She went on stage with Serenic Corporateur Frank. Thank you very much. Wow. Dan, we appreciate you. What about Alex Terrible?

Did you see him? In 2006? You don't think he was... Frank wouldn't go to an Alex Terrible concert around the block. He was sick. Yeah, he was sick. Give the guy break. Well, we do wish the best to Tim Cook.

God bless him. You guys spoke last week about the whole Kayla Ronda back and forth. look, I was just asking a question, you know. I thought it was a fair question, a pertinent question. You know, sometimes in that role, some people go up there and just do the spiel and just kind of lay it all for the media. I like to think of myself as a question asker as well. And so I thought, hey, I've seen this quote. I'd love to get a response.

I had no idea. I swear hand on heart did not ask her beforehand, didn't see her beforehand. didn't see her beforehand, didn't plan that. I had no idea she was ready to go. She had ammunition, clearly. Can I just say I'd love to see that fight now? I would love nothing more than to see that fight. What a history that that fight would have attached to it.

That would be incredible. But my biggest takeaway was like, this goes to show that when you don't script it, when you speak from the heart, when there's a real personal issue, a grudge there, there's nothing better. Like, you see that version of her and you compare it to the version we got in WWE, it's a completely different person.

Now, not everything can have that kind of emotion and history attached to it, but it was like, man, Stella got a groove back, huh? Talk about throwing 90 again. 97. That was wild.

It's wild going up there. You know, when I'm up there, there's no teleprompter or anything. It's just off the cuff. I'm not trying to give myself the old, Barry H. But, you know. Good job, man.

Thanks. Appreciate that. Anyway, some other things that I wanted to touch on before we go. We have a pick of the new staging construction for the White House. What is this? What is this? Wow. It looks like the St. Louis Arches.

That's pretty cool. Looks kind of like a roller coaster. We keep seeing this in the renderings. So it feels like they're going to go ahead with that and that's going to be over the octagon. Looks pretty sick. Paulo Costa has said that if Derek Lewis pulls out of his fight against Josh Hokit He's in

I just let the UFC know if Derek Lewis It's actually misspelled it's D-E-R-R-I-C-K Lewis gets out of his fight for some reason I was stepping at White House at heavyweight No bullshit ain't lying You think Palo wrote that ain't lying? Yeah

I don't think Paulo has a ghostwriter That guy definitely writes his own tweets Just the back end didn't sound like him No, it's just Paul Paola I have a big mystery that I want to unearth. I saw pictures of Jack Delamadeleine promoting the UFC Perth event.

May 2nd, what a fight creeping up on us. May 2nd is a tremendous. And what is going on here? What, like, on the one hand, I think this did its job. We're talking about a promotional tweet from the UFC, Australia, New Zealand account. No, no chance.

You think in this context is how they intended us to talk about it? What's happening here? It looks like someone got on clawed, or chat GPT or whatever the fuck and they were like create an image of Jack Delamatta Madelena bewildered at the beach

and that's what it is it doesn't even look like him I don't know like I don't know what's going on everything is AI and I don't think this is AI because there were other photos right? I know it's not I know it's not. Then there's him looking up at the moon or what is that? Where's the one of him holding the moon? That's the moon man.

There it is. Yeah. What is going on here? This is like my vacation pictures laud 2004 Goddard, Goddard, act like the moons in your fingers. It does look kind of cool. What does happen? What the fuck is this?

His skin and everything looks different than the other one. It's almost like... It looks different. It's so much smoother. He looks shell-shocked. What's that movie where Tom Hanks is on a... Castaway? That's what it looks like.

It looks like Jack Della and Castaway, too. And you, you... Your theory is that the UFC and Zach team is like, all right, we're going to post this. People are going to go fucking nuts. Let me tell you. The moon picture, the AISC picture. Yes. And we're going to get buzz around this fight through this.

The real secret is the regional UFC accounts way better than the main. UFC Europe, banger. I've talked about this. UFC Canada, banger. Anzac, banger. Russia, banger. Quebec, banger. Japan.

There's a UFC Quebec. There is a UFC Quebec. Yeah, yeah. The NBA has consistently put out there. Yes, they have. I feel like this is another one. Yeah. This is another one of them being like, this is not big enough for the main.

Wait, what was that, what was that regional UFC account that put out the poster with Josh Van just last week? Or remember that one? No, no, no. What was that one? For Miami? That wasn't the big UFC? No, it was, like, satellite. Listen, people make mistakes.

That's what makes them great. It might have been the end. They're not afraid to make mistakes. So you don't think that there was any sort of... Forethought? Not forethought. Like irony? Like they were just trying to be cheeky?

No. Irony? No. No, I think they were just posting some pictures. They're like, Jack looks good here. Let's just do this. What about these Quill and sell keeled pictures at 7-Eleven? What's going on here?

Like, it just felt like there was a lot of fun Perth content pulled up to 7-Eleven. What's happening here? Do you think this is a sponsorship thing? No. Or did he just pull up to 7-Eleven? Yeah, I think he just pulled up to 7-Eleven. It says pulled up to 7-Eleven and then there's a pin. But why?

Because he pulled up to 7-Eleven. Was there another one or was it just that? I wonder is... He's driving a cool car. Does anybody know if Australia 7-Eleven is like unique in the way that the Asian ones are? Yeah, because it's in Australia. So they have unique things? He's got a slurpy on top of the car.

Like sushi and stuff? Yeah, the Slurpee's not a unique... Like they got a... They got the... the beef pies and stuff? Yeah, so I'm wondering. No, like, when you do the slurpy, it comes out in reverse rather than...

This is not good. I thought that was pretty good. That's a bullshit. I actually can't believe we're even talking about the pick. Why? I don't know. There's nothing to it. A couple picks.

I saw a lot of cool UFC Perth content. Okay, one last clip that I wanted to play, going back to the presser on Saturday. Danaway was asked about Connor Ben and all this stuff. Again, is this? Is this too much? I don't know. I just, I have to call it out.

We cover it. I listen to it. And I'm asking myself, what is going on here? Probably should have played this when I did the whole Bob Menry thing. But it still applies. It still applies. Take a listen to this clip and then we'll react. Dana, one more right here.

You guys sent Connor Ben to a contract extension. It was announced the other day. And Eddie Heard had some comments as well saying some people aren't as smart as they think they are. And he was talking about a lack of honesty. Just wondering if you can comment. done. First of all, extending Connor and then if you had any response to Eddie. Listen, Eddie says a lot of dumb shit.

I'm getting used to it. Eddie said that me and him are the biggest fight in boxing. There and lies the problem with boxing. And the fact that a fight promoter who's actually put on big fights and had a stable of good fighters would say something that fucking

stupid is starting to not be as shocking as it was in the beginning, but you're a fucking bum. By the way, I'm old. Pause right there, pause right there. The question was about Connor Ben. And now he's talking about you're a bum, I'm old, the biggest fight of boxing.

Still not answering the question. We continue. We don't even deserve to be on a card with a bunch of real fighters. Number one. Number two, you know, everybody's talking shit about Connor Ben and the deal that we made. I will say this, like I said, a few months ago. Sit back. watch what we do this year

and then judge us by our body of work at the end of the year. Now I said that a few months ago and look where we are now and what we're doing. Still doesn't really answer the question. It's funny because I knew how fucked up boxing was

but I never really realized how bad it was and how bad these guys that have run the sport are at what they did until I got into it. So, you know,

He said he never made any money with Jayao Bataya. And now, oh, they did this deal with Connor Ben. They'll never make money. And all these guys. And then all these guys on the internet. Oh, this is the fun. That are so smart and such fucking experts in the fight business, man. Apparently half these guys out here that have a fucking,

just because you have $35 and can start a fucking website and do a podcast, mean you're some type of expert, you guys should be running fucking Bellator and PFL and one F. Go help these guys out, man. Help these guys. You guys are brilliant. Geniuses. You know everything about the fight business.

Why aren't you running one of these other failing organizations? Because they're failing. I don't know if I answered your question, but. Like, he did not, A. What the hell did the back end have to do with the front end? B, you know, he loves to talk. I don't know who he's talking about there on the back end. That to me is the most interesting part of it all.

he loves to do this thing he's been doing this thing for a long time where it's like what the hell do you know I don't know we sit here we cover the sport

we talk to a lot of people we watch a hell of a lot of fights we talk about it for hours upon hours upon hours like at some point you become well versed in something it goes back to the thing

every political reporter do they have to run for president to know what's working and what's not every movie critic do they have to make a movie to know what's right and what's not

what's good and what's not, what's working and what's not, no, of course they don't. And so oftentimes when we're actually being critical of the product, we're being a critic, we're being critical coming from a fan's perspective. This works, this didn't. Me talking about WrestleMania earlier, I wasn't necessarily talking about the booking. Oh, this person should have wanted or that person or the lighting didn't look good. No, I'm talking about it from a fan. And guess what I am an expert in?

consuming products, buying tickets, buying paper views, watching. I've been doing that my whole life, me personally, and most people who are quote unquote critical who get under his skin. And so, dare I say we are experts in this. We don't talk about like, oh yeah, the food in your cafeteria shit or the way you guys do your spreadsheets are shit. No, we're talking about things that fans react to. Because we're experts in this.

We love this. We've devoted our lives to it. I could tell you what's a good poster and what's not a good poster because that's a fan opinion. I can tell you what's a good walkout or what's a good promo and what's not a good fight and what's not, a good card and what's not. So it's such a cop out. I'd say that, oh, by the way, nothing that he said there on the backhand had anything to do

with what he was asked on the front end. But that's just like the way of deflecting. And that's why I go back earlier and say, Nick Conn is the one who should be talking about these things because he's the one that's actually doing these deals. He's the one that's actually the brains in that operation. All this is nonsense. This is all deflection. It's total, absolute nonsense.

And you should be listening to fans, and you should be listening to the media, and you shouldn't make decisions based off of what people are saying. I'm not saying that. But all this is good feedback, I think, to a degree. You can't sit there and read everything. I get that. And I don't know who these $35 website podcast owners are necessarily. But I was just listening to that. I was like, A didn't answer the question.

B, it was a complete deflection. C, how did we get from point A to B to D here? And I skipped C. Because none of this even is like related in any way, shape, or form. But it's just, you know, it's classic deflection. And I wish it was the old pressers, the old scrums, things like. like that were a lot more insightful. They did announce that Shane Mosley Jr. is fighting in the main event of Zufa Boxing 6. He's going up against Sergei Boyichuk. And I think that's the best main event

that they put together so far. Boychick is very well respected. Mosley has the name attached to him. So that's in early May, right? What is that? May 10th, I believe. Yeah, there you go on Sunday. So they've seemingly done a few Sunday events. But I'm looking forward to that one. I think that's a solid early day's main event. One last boxing item, Nico Ali Walsh, who is of course the grandson of the legendary Muhammad Ali saying that he is going to testify in front of the U.S. Senate. Here he is announcing that the Ali Act Preservation Alliance announces its support for Nico Ali Walsh, Muhammad Ali's grandson, and Muhammad Ali, who will testify Wednesday, April 22nd at 10 a.m. Eastern in the U.S. Senate Commerce Science and Transportation Committee against the passage of excessive.

perceptions weakening the protection of boxers under the original Ali Act. As an Ali, I'm completely against altering the Muhammad Ali Act. My grandfather fought for it to protect fighters from getting screwed over, remove it, and promoters take control. While fighters get paid less, keep the act and protect the fighters who put their lives on the line. Oscar Delahoya, by the way, also announced that he'll be doing that as well. So that's on Wednesday. Stay tuned for that. Do we have any super chats, Frankie?

We do. And it starts off with thoughts on Brock retiring. Will you have Paul on? Paul Heyman or Leveck? I'm assuming it's Heyman, hopefully one of these days. As I said earlier, Brock legend. I think you can make a very strong case that Brock Lester is top 10, greatest pro wrestlers of all time from a skill, draw,

money standpoint, fought them all, beat them all, headline them all. Obviously, there's a lot there as far as his MMA career is concerned, you know, did a lot of great things. There's some asterisk.

There's some failed drug tests, all that stuff. There's controversies as of late. But if you're just, just, just looking at his impact, his drawing ability, the matches, the skill, the storylines,

his longevity. It's one of the great careers in the history of the business. I was actually at his debut, March of 2022, the Monday after WrestleMania 18, when he showed up at the Bell Center

and just killed everyone, Spike Dudley, all that. We'll see if it's actually the end, but if it is, and I saw him on spitting chicklets on Netflix, seems like he's really enjoying being a hockey dad. If this really is the end for him, I think that,

um, I think it's a great career. I think it's one of the all-time great careers. Again, not without controversy in both MMA and wrestling. No doubt about that. But I love the fact that he put Obafemi over the way in which he did. Thought the build to that match was great. Made a lot of sense.

Match made a lot of sense. There is Minnesota coming up, SummerSlam. Let's see if he's a part of it. What else, Frankie? What else? 24-inch dub says, Banner 19 loading. Trey Young still rent-free.

L-O-O. You know, I'm happy that 24-inch dub said this because he's saying Trey Young is still rent-free. To who? Not to me and not to most Knicks fans. Can I just say as a diehard New York Knicks fan, I fell in love with the New York Knicks in 1990. My favorite athlete of all time, Patrick Ewing.

I lived and died with those teams in the 90s, cried when they lost in 94, cried when they lost in 93, cried when they lost in 92 to the Bulls Game 7, Xavier McDaniel. 99 was awful, but kind of felt like the inevitable was happening when Ewing got injured. Nick spills my two favorite franchises, right?

Sports teams. I cringe. I cringe when I see those clips of those fans outside Madison Square Garden. I cringe when I see them after game one of the season on October. I cringe when I see them after game one of the playoffs. First of all, the original side talk was fine. I thought it was kind of dumb, to be honest. but it was fine.

The iteration now that we saw this past weekend that he's referencing from the New York Post was downright embarrassing. The vast majority of those kids know nothing have not suffered. They've been fans for five, six, seven, eight years, whatever the case is. They're just trying to get online. They're making us look dumb as Nix fans. They're making us look silly as Nix fans. Cloud Chasers, whatever the...

You're showing up with custom jerseys, pouring honey because we beat the hawks at home in game one. We didn't even sweep them. We didn't win the series. What are you doing? You're embarrassing all of us. You're supposed to be New York sports fans. Act like you've been there before.

I don't like any of the other New York sports teams. I'm not a Rangers fan. I'm not a Giants fan. I'm not a Jets fan. I'm not an Islanders fan. I sure is hell I ain't a Yankees fan or a Mets fan. And I know some of them suck right now. Nicks are probably the best of them all.

most of you probably heard or knew about when those teams were good. You're supposed to act like you've been here before. I know it's been tough sledding, but come on. It is embarrassing to see that. And I pray to God that my kids don't turn into that because they are Knicks fans. They're not New York fans of any other kind. Please stop with this. Stop perpetuating this.

It is so embarrassing to see Knicks fans act like that after game one of the first freaking round. Punch your ticket to the finals, go crazy. win the finals, I'm streaking naked down the block. Great. Game one of the NBA fathers, you'd even win the series. The Hawks could win tonight and then win the next. What? What are you doing?

You're embarrassing yourselves. And when you show up with custom jerseys pouring honey on you, it just goes to show that, like, you're just trying to get attention. You're just trying to do what you, like, when teams quote tweet, when they beat the Knicks, Bing bong, it's embarrassing. Bing bong was always embarrassing. Those videos were embarrassing. the Trey Young stuff is embarrassing. This is the 2020. Stop with the Nix tape.

That was like one year. Stop, enough. Those aren't real Nix fans. So please don't blame us for that, all right? I want nothing to do with those people. And I think that they are embarrassing. And if any of them try to come at me with Nix's knowledge, I dare you.

I dare you. There's probably nothing on this planet that I know more than the history of the New York Nix. I dare you to come at me with Nix, you know, trivia. Dairy you ain't outside the garden, like the real ones, you know? embarrassing me.

I was with... Go ahead, go ahead. You said it's a good point. It's a great point. I was at the Garden after game six against the Celtics last year, and that was a scene when we beat the Celtics and went to the Eastern Conference Final. And I wasn't mad about it because everyone was kind of having a good time, and it was a big win, and we finally went to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since 2000. So, okay, I got it. But that, that is embarrassing.

They're just... It is awful. First of all, the original side talk is good. The original side talk is good. It's incredible. It's good. The following up ones are also good. The New York Post one was set.

One, it should have been one side talk. As we get further from it, it's people. Can't. Original side talk is Connor McGregor. As we get further and further, it's people doing impressions of Connor McGregor. That is what... It's awful. It's so embarrassing.

The M&A equivalent is they are trying to do what side talk did. They are trying to be those characters that we discovered in side talk, and they are just not. They're derivatives of derivatives. They're not good. It's game one, man. It's game one of the eight. They don't actually care what game it is, though. They're just doing the thing.

They would do it after game 56. Yeah, that's it. They're doing the thing. It's awful. I have a bit of a dilemma, I will say, just as a quick aside, I don't know how tapped in you guys are on the NHL playoffs, but I will say, man, I'm having a hard time. Like, I feel a kinship with the good people of the great people of Buffalo, Western New York. We have suffered together, okay? I'm not a Sabres fan.

I'm a Canadians fan, but I have to say, seeing the scene yesterday, did you see this? two nothing third period, came back and scored three goals in the span of four minutes to win the game and the place went absolutely apeshid. I want nothing but the best for the good people of Buffalo. I want to let you know Buffalo Sabres fans. I am rooting for you guys. And if it ends up being Sabres cabs, I'm going to have a hard time because I love the good people of Buffalo. They have suffered for way too long. They deserve a winner. Sabers fans have suffered for a very long time. Bill's fans obviously have suffered and I feel that sort of kinship and I'm so happy to see them succeed. I was locked in on that

game, hoping that they beat Boston and hoping that they have a great run here. Canadians won as well, great win in overtime. I say great one by the Canadians still. Great win, great win. Canadians are young, scrappy, very, very fun team to watch as well. NHL playoffs are good. Frank's been talking Sabres the entire season

and then I walk in, he walks in this morning. I'm just like, how about those fucking Sabres man? Unreal and he's like, I didn't catch it, man. Wow. Wait, is he a Stars fan? I was a wife's the Sabers fan. Right, got whoop by Minnesota. I was drinking NyQuil because Connor showed up to sick. Oh.

Yo, Minnesota, Dallas is a great series as well. Obviously, Dallas took the North Stars away. North Stars. H-HL playoffs. Banging right now. Magic beating the Pistons. Anyway, what else, Frank? What else?

Please bring back Hawani nose-order trivia on Zoom. Also, Rick, don't get too comfy with the Raptors aren't done yet. Oh, yeah. Big win for the Cavs on Saturday. Yeah, the East all sucks. The East is trash. I'm really mad at the Magic because I think we would have swept the Raptors.

To be honest, I think the Raptors are a little bit soft. I think you guys are going to beat them in four or five. By the way, you might play the magic in the second round. This is everybody's food for the West. Could you imagine, though? I don't care. The East doesn't matter. The NBA Finals is in the West.

Knicks could beat the Spurs and- Absolutely fucking not. They will not beat the OKC Thunder. They will not beat the San Antonio Spurs. We just beat the NBA Cup final. No, sorry, I'm talking about real basketball. We also beat the Nuggets by like 40 points this year. Yeah, not happening in the playoffs.

We're kind of cooking. No. I can't lie. The East's consolation prize this year. The trivia was great. I want to do it. Live show? Trivia?

Oh. Derek Lewis? What else, Frankie? What else? Thoughts on WWE. Denying credentials to ESPN, right? Oh, yes. I did see this.

Andreas Hale, who's a longtime combat sports journalist, reporter, tweeting on Saturday that he has been denied. He had been denied credentials to cover WrestleMania in Las Vegas. Vegas. Obviously, this is something that I've, I've, I've been through. My story was a little bit different. It was in the middle of the event, but, you know, net result the same. I will say this, I did reach out to both sides and not willing to talk on the record about it. So obviously,

I'll keep those conversations to myself. I feel like there's a little bit more to the story. And my main takeaway from it all was, okay, what is ESPN going to do here? Because ESPN is in the rights holder business. And, you know, I've learned this. I learned it at Fox. I learned that at ESPN. I've learned it recently with DeZone as well. It's hard, whatever you want to call it, journalism, critical thinking, whatever.

It's hard to do that while also working for a rights holder. That's why I love this arrangement right now so very much. You're not beholden to anyone. There aren't larger deals hanging over your head. And so I know. Ain't that what journalism is? It is. It is.

But it's hard to do it, my good friend, Jamal, when you're doing it for a rights holder because I'm expendable, everyone's expendable, because there's billion-dollar deals hanging over our heads and executives who are, you know, very close and in good standing and, you know, they don't want things getting in the way. So I don't think Andreas has done anything wrong with any of his reporting. But, you know, if you're rubbing people the wrong way, if you're not, you know, in the best of standing with people,

then these things are going to happen. Not the first time it's happened, not the last time it's happened. I do think this is very interesting, and that's why I want to, I would love to know more about it. Do you guys remember Mayweather Paciel, 20, what was it, 2011, 2010 even? When the hell was Mayweather Pac-Yal?

No, wasn't it? Wasn't it? Wasn't it like 15? Yeah, 2015. Was Mayweather Pac-Ell, 2015? Yeah, 15 or 16 or something? Okay, yeah, 2015. Do you remember Rachel Nichols and Michelle Beatle

were denied credentials the day of the event? Yep. Their agent was Nick Khan. And so Nick has been on that side of the equation. Fought for them, everything got rectified. I think Michelle was working for HBO doing the fight game show with Jim Lampley. And so I don't know where, again,

I don't know where this came from, but he's been in a very unique spot in his career where he was the agent and now he's the executive. Did it come above him? Did it come from someone else within WWU who doesn't like it? PR. I don't know. But all to say, not the best kind of PR to have on a Saturday morning before WrestleMania,

and I hope it gets sorted out. I'd like to think that everyone's just trying to do their job. Everyone's trying to, you know, be as fair and objective as possible. And, you know, it's going to be very interesting to see how ESPN handles this. I know that WWE doesn't credential journalists to every show like the UFC does

because there's Ross, Smackdown, and maybe you can get a seat in the crowd, but I'm really curious to see more so than anything how does WWE excuse me, how does ESPN react to this? What do they do? That will be very telling

in terms of how this all plays out. So not the best, but it will always be very hard. hard? Again, happened to me, happen to many others as well to do that type of journalism when you're working for a rights holder.

It's just going to be, unfortunately. What else, Frankie? What else? Ariel, it was not a Canadian crown thing. We all remember the Burns-Omsat fight. We still remember the only one to drop homzad. He means crowd. Yeah, yeah, no, shut out. Everyone loves them. But, you know, they were happy for their guy.

They could have boot him. They didn't. They're menches. What else, Frankie? Back home from Vegas for a first mania experience. I'm more than satisfied. Bloodsport was my favorite event, but match of the weekend was Sandman's last match against the Invisible Man, aka Thin Air.

Oh yeah, I saw Sandman do his thing, but I didn't see much about it. I saw much about it. Kendra Lust was over there. But was it the same match? Yeah, she came out with the Sandman. Yeah, but was it the, because I saw her hit someone.

That wasn't an invisible man. I just saw Kendra Lust come out with Sam. Yeah, yeah, but my main takeaway... Yeah, I saw it. Kendra Lust was there. Kendra. She was there. Former guests on the Ariel Wani show back to the day, one of our best interviews. My main takeaway was

like all this stuff is going to go away next year. You know, all these indie shows and all this stuff unless they all do come together like P... What did Josh say? PWH? For a second, I was like, who's PWH? Oh, Paul Walter. Shout out PWAH. Yeah, shout out Sandman, too. Shout Kendra loss.

What else, Frankie? What else? I Amangelo Media sends a four-pack. Armin goes viral for the wrong reasons. Favor is twice as age and more legacy in his Piquito than Armand's entire career deserves more respect to follow it up with. Can you please detail the sale of WME to private equity firm Silver Lake that took place in 2025? The writing is on the wall for W.W.E. and UFC, in my opinion. Are there two more?

There are. Okay. Do you want to just keep going? I do. The fan's loyalty can only be taken advantage of for so long. That goes for the W.W.E. and the UFC. And lastly, favor is such a good sport. Armin does not deserve the grace he's been shown.

All right. So it's an armin guy. I like it. The equity question, yeah. I mean, it's 5.50. But I do appreciate it. We can talk about these things and do other reporting, but it is late. What else, Frankie? Shout out to Pizzi for the PFL pick last week. Amran Chabon putting Finland back. Okay. No, no, I actually think you nailed that. Why did you? Because I just... That was even like a nasal laugh. You took like a beat, which I thought was smart. So you laughed at it. Back on the MMA map. Also keep an eye on Abdulazin soon and tough.

Shout out to Finland. Shout to Ludwig Borga. What else, Frankie? What else? Do cornermen need security clearance for F-250? Ariel, I believe, leave the ball on the court for the next guy when you're done. Should athletes, all sports, work to put the next generation over? I mean, in the fight game, no.

Like, you shouldn't try to do, like, you want to win on the way out. So it's a little bit different. No, I think these are very proud people that don't want to, you know. What about for wrestling, though? Wrestling, you should. You're talking about pro wrestling? You should put them over. Time hard tradition.

Yeah, but John Sina, like, you know, man, he deserved to give those people a happy send-off. Man, you hate John Sina. I love John Zina. That's why I'm saying that. The Brock one was perfect, though. Brock was different. You're saying Sina should have won. Yeah, I'm saying Sina should have won.

Yeah, but John wanted to close his eyes. and smile and go to sleep and do the thing. Even the great Quintarantino doesn't get her right all the time. What was the thing about the security? Yeah, like he's sitting there telling me like, this is what I wanted. Well, guess what?

What you want? It wasn't right. You deserve better. What was the security question? I think it was security for the corner. Yeah, for the White House. Everybody's going to need security players. Oh, F-250, Freedom 250?

Every person who is even 10 miles away from that place is going to need security clearance. What else, Franklin? What else? What else? What else? Do you know? And lastly, Atomic Pasty says, any thoughts on the Jamie Lynn Horth versus J.J. Aldrich decision?

Oh, yes. Well, you know, Dana tried to say like all three judges had it the same, and two of them were Canadian, I think he said. Yeah. They didn't all have the same. Oh, was he wrong about that? Yeah. Oh, here we have. Wow, that was fast.

Jamie Lenn Horth also outstruck her every single round. Oh, no. I thought it was a bad decision. No doubt about it. But wait a second. Where's the, oh, the first round. Wait. Greg Jackson has a different.

They're not even, well, even the two and the three aren't the same. Oh, wait, they are the same. Yeah, they are. Excuse me. Is the same Greg Jackson? So he had the first round and the second round different. And where's that guy from? Well, I guess what he's saying, but didn't he also say that the two judges were Canadian?

But I don't think Junchiro is Canadian. I would assume he isn't. I don't know. Yeah, it wasn't a good one. That wasn't a good one. Hopefully she doesn't have a show win type of contract, you know? Yeah. The third round was very, very close.

All right, that's it, Frankie? Yes, sir. Okay. Tomorrow on the program, Yusif Zalal, Hanato Moikano, and others. Wednesday is going to be great as well, but I'll tell you about that tomorrow. We got to go. It's been a long day. What did we do?

We got to this point? Have you ever done that before? Yes. Can you imagine people logging on right now? Oh, what's Ariel cooking up on this Monday? Post-Resslemia. My favorite thing to do is that in the pool. I've ever done that in the water?

Oh, yeah, yeah. I do with my kids where I go like this. Watch this. And then it like goes super high up. So cool. That's good. That's good. Ariel's cooking up. Oh, there's other stuff here.

What do we got? It is crazy. That tweet, September 25th, 2025. Who wants to bet with me that I'm the main event at the White House? This freaking guy, he actually called it. Fine form, right? I mean, look at that. That's September 25th, 2025.

That's insane. Fine form, right? Would you guys say Ilytipurian fine form? Fine form. The one takeaway I forgot to say, like, dude, we need this guy back desperately. Oh, yeah. It's just the aura. Star.

Fucking believable. Yeah. Big business is what I think of one of the lateeporty. Yeah. And it will be almost exactly a year. Hey, we've got some exciting things in the works regarding some upcoming dates. So please stay tuned for that. Ariahuawani.com.

Just a few hoodies and shirts. I believe they've all been shipped out if you bought them when they first came out. So thank you to all who supported us with that endeavor and more to come as well. Big show tomorrow. Don't miss that. Thank you very much all our guests today. Oh, what a date has been. What a date has been.

Thanks to you. Thanks to them. Back tomorrow. Same time, I says, I'm out of here. Do I see them, then?