The Ariel Helwani Show - Ilia Topurias Fighting Future Jon Jones And Daniel Cormier Renew Rivalry More The Craic

Episode Date: January 11, 2026

The Craic is back! Petesy Carroll kicks off the new year alongside Uncrowned’s finest, Chuck Mindenhall and Shaheen Al-Shatti.First up, they discuss how concerned we should be about Ilia Topuria’s fighting future following the UFC lightweight champ’s recent court proceedings (5:20).Another UFC lightweight with no title-fight news is Arman Tsarukyan. The trio react to Dana White’s interview with Robbie Fox, where he shed light on why (17:30).The 155-pound division continues to make headlines, this time with title contenders Paddy Pimblett and Dan Hooker clashing in a social media war of words. The lads break it down (28:31).From one feud to another, Petesy and the boys dissect the latest developments in the Jon Jones vs. Daniel Cormier rivalry (48:45).Finally, the guys highlight their biggest stories to watch in 2026 (55:54), and answer your Super Chats (1:16:18).

Welcome, everybody. It is the first episode of The Crack in 2006. And look, there's a lot of people like, oh, nothing, there's no events happen. Oh, what are we going to talk about? We're going to talk about a lot of things. A lot of stuff is going down, ladies and gentlemen. I mean, Ilya, a lot of personal situations going down here. And one of the most hype fighters in the sport at the moment, someone that we are all very excited about. And we're starting to wonder, how long could all of this controversial stuff going on in his

private life, how long could that seem sidelined? What does that mean for the lightweight division? Speaking of the lightweight division, we've had an update on why Armin Sarukian has not fought for the lightweight title via Dana Weiss. We also have a simmering beef and it's got

pretty nasty between Paddy Pimblet and Dan Hooker. We'll talk about that a bit later and if you saw the boys in the back yesterday, you'll know they were getting pretty excited about the idea that Daniel Kormier and John Jones could finally bury the hatches, but unfortunately since that episode of Boys in the Back, there has been an update and it suggests, no, no, they are still, still bitter, bitter enemies.

I'm quite happy about that, but we will get into that too, and we are going to look forward to the biggest stories of 2026, and we have a very special guest to help us to do that today. But before we get into that, as some of you know, the Amma community lost a dear friend and colleague over to Christmas. Abby Subon was a talented videographer and editor. If you are an MMA fan, I'm sure you've seen his work on MMA junkie. The guy was everywhere. He was producing podcasts. Did a lot of work. He was one of my oldest and dearest friends in the industry.

He even helped everything with this podcast. Before I came under the Uncrown banner, he helped name the show. He was like, you know, you always say, what's the crack? You should call the show The Crack. You'll see you there. This is the first logo for the crack before we came over to Uncrown. and that was all Abbey. He was just pushing me towards doing this,

and it's one of the greatest gifts I've ever got, honestly. Right now, Abby's family on the process of arranging his funeral and putting together different arrangements, and there is a go-fund me out there to help them out. I know it's January. I know you just put the Christmas to bed, but if you can spare anything at all, it would be greatly appreciated.

And now on with the show. Rest and peace, Abby. And as I said, we do have a special guest today. We have a stalwart of the crack, of course, as well. Chuck Mendenhall is here, my beautiful, heart of friend. And we also have a man we don't see so often on podcasts anymore, but he has joined us to bail us out because, of course, big-time Ben folks couldn't be bothered to be on the first show of the year.

But we got an even better host. It is Shaheen Al-Shadi, the editor-in-chief of Uncrowned Shaheen. Welcome back, baby. How are you? Oh, it's beautiful. We'll be back. Yeah, take that, Ben. hate that yeah uh it's good to be back i'm you're catching me in the middle of uh it's uh quite an s storm in my house right now anybody with young kids can relate to this chuck no i i think we dodged that one oh god i'm so envious to you the three year old picked it up oh man and then the three year old gave

it to the one-a-half year old then today my wife woke up she has it i'm the only one still unscathed right now like this is just it's a terrible situation stay in the quarantine sean Stay in the quarantine there. Oh, so we're doing it. We're getting a lot. We're getting by. Good to be back, fellas. I need to know more about this rotavirus.

Um, because if you're ever going to get rotavirus, I would say straight after Christmas, after the damage I've done, uh, to myself via food, I would want rotavirus now just to get rid of a few kilos, you know, to, to get me at the new year. So I'm looking spelt on camera. Is that your general plan? Like, I'll just get sick at some point. Then I'll lose some weight. I'm thinking about flying to Arizona and licking chain at this point.

How does one get this first? Don't thread me with a good time, buddy. I mean, so if, you know, rotovirus basically things are coming out one ender they're coming out the other. So if you're looking for a weight loss situation, this is actually probably right up your alley, buddy. That's our sponsor for the show. Roto virus.

Chook, how are you now? Ask a doctor if rotovirus is right for you. How are you getting on, Chook? Has your Christmas brought you anything better than rhodovirus? Yeah, you know, it was okay. We come out unscathed. I will say that like this has been a little, it feels like this has been a while since we've put one of these on.

And I guess it's just my light, but it could be that I, I feel like I'm glowing or I'm just very pale. And that's in part because Connecticut is very gray and cold right now. And I look like a cavefish because of that, you know? Cave fish. Cave fish. You know,

I heard of a cave fish before. The cave fish, Chuck Mindenhall. That's right. A new nickname perhaps. But it might just be my light. I don't know. Yeah, well, um, you know, as we know, it's been

award central over on the dot com element, of course, and on the Ariel Hulani show all week. But lads, we do have some news to get into here because I don't know if you saw. I know we sent this out via the note for today's show, but Ilya, Ilya, in a very,

very well publicized civil court situation or custody situation for his daughter and her ability to leave Spain, absolutely mobbed by reporters outside a courthouse. We do have an update on that situation via Marca. I'll read from

this very quickly. It has only come out in the last couple of hours. Away from the Octagon due to a delicate personal matter, writes Marca. Ilya has seen the court rule in his favor within the context of his complicated separation from his now ex-wife, Georgina

I cannot pronounce her second name. As Marca can confirm, the two-time UFC champion left the hearing he attended on January 7th at the court for violence against women where all of his ex-wife's request were dismissed. The hearing was related to a family and an administrative matter linked to a trip outside of Spain taken by the daughter of El Matador. For now, his ex-wife will not be able to take their one and a half-year-old daughter out of the country until a divorce decree and a visitation for schedule for Tuporia are established.

This was the judge's ruling. The fighter, who has been unable to see his daughter for four months, despite numerous attempts, left the court hearing relieved to see that the court order. states it was the mother's unilateral decision to prevent the father Ilya topur from seeing his daughter. His ex-parent had just avoided leaving Spain by citing the harassment she was being subjected to on social media, but the magistrate denied this, pointing out that those exit tickets had been purchased 12 days before Ilya issued the statement that triggered the entire media frenzy. And just before we get into it, lads, we should note that the post that Ilya put out

is probably the reason that we are a bit concerned as to what we see in his future because he does cite a difficult decision to temporarily step away from defending his title. He says it wasn't a decision he took loyalty. But he does cite false allegations of domestic abuse unless financial demands were met. This is according to a post he put out on Instagram three weeks ago. Very heavy stuff for Ilya. we were really, really excited about and still are really, really excited about.

Shaheen, first of all, please, how worried are you in terms of this taking away from Tuporia's career? Because obviously this has to be a priority for him right now. Well, first let me see. My favorite part of Pizzi is always just when Pizzi gets to read, like, legally.

Which is every Friday, by the way, Shire. Yeah, it seems like that's just kind of what the Friday Shons are. That's the Pizzi gets to read some complex text. So like, so you asked me how worried am I for I for I? I mean, obviously this is not an ideal situation for anyone involved. I will admit, like, I'm maybe a bad person to ask about this, because to me, the, the, especially with like things like we're seeing today of like, here's an update on X-Num, X court nuance of, you know, whatever is going on. It feels gross

in a way to sort of be following it like this. Like, these are these two people's personal matters. There's a kid involved. Like, that, it just, I don't. it feels like we're peering into a window and voyeuristic in a way that like, I don't really feel comfortable if I'm being on it. So like, we don't know, we don't know, it's a poria person. We don't know his wife person. We don't know, you know, their daughter. Like, we don't know the intricacy of the situation. We only know what's being presented to us.

So for me to like make any sort of judgment on it, I can't really do that. I just hope that, you know, for the sake of the child, if nothing else, that like this can get figured out relatively smoothly. It seems like the Spanish press. Like, we saw the scenes of Ilya outside of the courthouse and getting mobbed, it seems like the Spanish press is really given the full court press on this in a way that, again, it's like, I don't know, man, this is a divorce proceedings, right?

Like, this isn't, nobody did it. Nobody killed anybody. Nobody, like, there's not any, you know, assault or anything like this. So, like, I don't know, it feels uncomfortable to me, and again, voyeuristic, but I do hope that for the sake of Ilya, for the sake of the life weight division, for the sake of the sport, I mean, Ilya is probably the biggest star in the sport right now coming into 2026. right. So we're just not going to get him until late in the year. Like that's going to be a big bummer of a year. So I think for his sake and for the sake of the division, I hope, you know, that this

works out smoothly. But I do feel like it's going to continue to get a little gross just like in the following of the coverage of it. Because again, you're going to see people cheerleading like every quote unquote victory for Ilya or, you know, things like that. And it's like, man, we don't know what's actually going on here. And he's had such a proud, like, kind of rise to his fame, right? Like he's been a guy who, you know, he'll out masculine you. He'll do all this stuff. Like he's going to go up. He's going to call a shot.

He's going to do these things. He shows up into a fight game where that kind of machismo and bravado is just everywhere. And he just transcends it, right? You know for him to even come public to release that statement, to try to get out in front of the storm and all this stuff, you know, had to have been very difficult on him. To step away, you know, and let guys fight for basically. the belt that you... And I know it's not... He hasn't lost his belt or anything like that.

But to watch two guys contest over a lightweight belt while you sit on silence, got to kill him. And then to be dealing with the situation, which like Sean was saying, like it's very difficult to really know the truth. And I guess that's why you go through this. But the fact that it's going to play out in public is very strange. And also, if anything, his absence is only magnified by seeing stuff like what you just saw.

him walking, you know, out of the court or into the courtroom there with all those, all that press, he has achieved that kind of tabloid fame, which is just incredible. Like for people in North America, and I think that he's a big enough star in North America, but when you really look at it globally and just what he means to the UFC beyond it and just his transcendent equality, every time he comes into orbit, like where he's got a fight week coming up and all that, he is the biggest star. And I think that that it's something that's very, we don't normally see, like we've had all the Connor McGregor stuff where you, you know, things keep happening. It's on the back end of his career. It's when he's not really competing for the most part. You get a guy like this who I think is at the very peak of where he's at and you still feel like he could still ascend even higher than where he's at. You don't want to see like it get derailed over something like this in a personal sense and who knows how this will all shake out. but the way it's played out to this point,

it should be a little alarming. You know, it should be a little alarming that there is a real threat there that maybe you don't see him anytime soon in the octagon. Yeah, it's, you know, it's crazy because everything's happened so quick with Ilya, including this situation that we've arrived at here,

of course, has nothing to do with his sporting career, but his whole, this whole meteoric rise he's gone on. It's very akin to McGregor, right, in terms of him calling his shot, moving up in white class, chasing down the biggest fights that are out there. And it does feel like what we've seen with hotbeds, which we've covered on on Crown of course as well,

the hotbed in France, I feel like we're just knocking on the door of that happening in Spain. And then we have this situation happening. And I agree with Shaheen what he's saying. It does feel gross and it's very difficult to talk about because we don't actually know what is going on here. We have bits, we have parsing through different pieces of information that are coming out. But you can see from that press card that are outside, I don't think I've ever seen a mixed martial arts fighter in that kind of situation where there are, looks like there are 20 microphones around him, trying to get a quick quote as he goes in to essentially like something about a child, whether they can leave a country. That is an insane amount of coverage to get. it just feels like a speed bump at this point for Tupuria is sad because of how quickly his career ascent was going.

And you also have this lightweight title situation where we have Armand Serukian. Everybody wants to see this kind of fight. We will be talking about Armin and his headbut on Dan Hooker a little bit later on. We have Paddy and Gaichi about the fight. It's just a crazy situation in that regard. It's also the conversations that are having. happening and this is probably part of the gross element that sheen talked about earlier when chale's son appeared on ariel's show last month and he was speaking about it

he did make the point that historically fighter stepping away from the fight game it's like you know with a title and making an interim title everything like that it's usually due to an injury or something like that in this this situation is not is incredibly personal issue it is a is a family issue and again um or maybe part of the gross element myself bringing this up but but chok do you think there comes a point where the ufc kind of tell iliad to to shitter get it off the pot for lack of a better term i mean and again you can't under emphasize what he means to the oc right now i mean they're entering into a new um you know partnership with paramount plus and you've got your biggest sar i don't know if they're

going to want to do that if they can keep him as the vital piece in that division the dangling carrot for whatever's playing out and like he's out there and that's going to be the guy that they're heading towards. I think you got to do that. But, you know, there is something about that. You know, and you look at the kind of history of guys who've been stripped of their titles. And generally speaking, I think that that is correct what Chale said because if you look back, I mean, it's either like, you know, like Barnett and Shirk and those guys back in the day were like steroids or they had some kind of legal drugs. You look at BJ Pinnis because he signed with K1 back in the day. Remember that?

But these are like ancient, like way back in the day. But I think John Jones has been stripped three times in a. has been vacated twice, so he's like the master it, this kind of thing. But the closest you really come to this situation is maybe what just happened and where, you know, John Jones is basically like, ah, it's not personal issues, but I'm just enjoying my life and protecting my legacy. And I'm just going to be hanging out until I'm told to do, until I'm forced to do otherwise. That's probably the closest we've come to a situation.

There aren't too many that are dealing with, lots of people deal with personal issues, but we don't know about it. You only find out about it afterwards. right like you find out though like hey i was going through some really crazy shit back then and uh yeah and you find out about it afterwards it's it's rare that you find out about something as it's happening and then it becomes a media circus as it's happening and that'll be new terrain you know and so i guess it really depends on how long this whole thing drags out and when does you know ilia himself feel like he's in the in the in the mind space to even give the full go back to fighting right so

a lot to be seen and uh it would just be speculating otherwise Yeah, that's unfortunately a big part of her here until more information comes out. It's a difficult thing to speak about. I wanted to give you guys that. Well, let me just say real quickly. It does feel like, because you're asking like, should he be stripped of the interim title? It does feel like there's an exception to the rule almost, right? Like the length of time that you get before you were a quote unquote stripped of the title,

it is different for some people rather than others. Like if this was Armand's Rukyu held the title, man would have already be gone. Oh, that'd be gone by us now, you know? Like, even if, like, this is Justin Gagey, like, that thing's going in, like, a month or two, right? But, like, historically, you look at, like, just what Chuck said, John Jones, man held the title for a very long time without doing anything with it. Even going back further, Connor McGregor. Yeah. Tony Ferguson doesn't have an undisputed title because Connor McGregor just sat there holding the lightweight title for, like, a year and a half, not actually doing anything with it.

I would have known you'd get Tony Ferguson's toil right now. I'm just saying, you just had the year of Tony Ferguson, man should be, you know, I'm just that. But no, but for real, like, that, that, that, that, that, how long. long did that situation last in 2016 range, 17 range, where it just stretched on seemingly forever and there was no rush to take the title off of somebody like that, right? Because Elliott's poor, again, he is the guy in the sport right now. If you're the OFC, he is more valuable to you with a belt than without a belt. If you strip him, then you got to go through the whole process we just did in June of having him fight someone, you know, just it's, I don't

anticipate that. I anticipate that giving him a very, very long leash in that sense. Well, um, you spoke about Herman Serruki in there. We all have mentioned him. We finally got clarity, guys. Everyone's been wondering, why is an Armand fighting for the title? And of course, he has given them a few reasons over the last few years. But we finally got to the bottom of this with Robbie Fox, speaking to Dana White, on Barstool Sports. I believe, do we have a video of this on Air Jordan?

I obviously am not one of these fans, but some fans thought Armand should have been the one to get a 155 title pound shot. We knew that would happen, too. Of course. Did the headbut play any factor in the decision to not go with him? It did, right? A lot of things have factored in, you know. Yeah. Yes.

Done. I'm done talking, he says. Chook, tell us. What is your reaction to this? This breaking news from Dana Boyd and Robbie Fox. First of all, when Robbie says that not him but other journalists, I think I was one of those guys that he's talking about. You know. But we speculating.

right like when we when we watched that way in and uh yeah and that headbut happened we were kind of going through this like dude what are you doing man what are you doing because we already knew you know that he was basically in the doghouse you know for the previous the way we kicked off last year you know it was like you know he drops out of that fight his title fight and even though they're billing this as like a number one contender fight or that he's going to get a title shot that factored in i remember we had this whole discussion because we're like, does this give you pause now? Can you trust this guy? Is the UFC just going to be like, uh, you know, we, we like Armand after he does something that jeopardizes

a fight, even though it ended up not really jeopardizing anything? It was all in play, and I'm not surprised even a little bit because the guys that the UFC kind of at some point circles and says, this is a problem child. They're not eager to give them title shots. I mean, I don't think that they wanted to give Marab a title shot. They did not like Marab for the longest time. They grew to like him later because he was like, oh, I'll just fight every weekend if you want me. You know, and he's fighting all these title shots or all these title bouts.

But he wasn't a guy that they were going to expedite. And I feel like that's where Armin is. And even though it was unspoken up until now, because Robbie is always able to kind of get Dana to open up and tell us these things. You know what I mean? But like, um, I think that that's what I suspected, right? Didn't you think that?

I mean, I kind of was like, this is, I'm sure this factors in. Are you surprised to hear this, Shane? and why are you one of those journalists, by the way? He is one of those, come on. Who can say? Who can say? I mean, am I surprised by this?

This is just Robbie, Robbie, I love, okay, I love like Robbie as a person. Robbie could have said anything right there and Dana would, yeah, that was, that's like, oh, Dana, all these food videos that Ariel really likes about with Armand. Does that play a part not giving Armand the shot? I'd be like, yeah. Yeah, Ariel likes him, you know, we can't. Like, he's just going to say yes to anything. That's ridiculous.

Like, no. When they're sitting there making this decision of like, hey, we're going to surpass the guy who we just proclaimed his number one contender and has been number contender for like a year and a half. He headbutted that guy on stage and nothing happened. Like that didn't go through their mind. That wasn't a part of any part of this conversation. It was, hey, Justin Gachie is like real fun and people really like Justin Gage. Yeah. Hey, people really like Patty Pimble.

That's a bigger fight. Let's do that. Like, that was the extent of it. I'm just going to tell you right now. Like there was no. Dana would have said yes to anything. This is so silly. This is so silly.

You know, it's funny you bring up that because I was speaking. to this with one of our colleagues today this interview and I went through it and I watched it. I kind of was hoping for a re-invigoration of Dana White with this paramount coming up, you know? Were you?

Really? I guess what? I'll already see what you're imagining. I want to. You know, he just didn't seem to be too excited about the goings on of the UFC at the moment, you know? I was like, maybe you come out here

and you're like, this is huge. You know, we thought we'd get a bit of reigning defending Dana from back in the day, you know? Didn't get a, didn't get a sniff of that boys. I was going, Jesus Christ, I mean, exactly as Shaheen said, it's just kind of like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, cool, yeah.

What'd you say? Yeah, no, yeah. He's under no pressure to expand on what he said, you know, it's just like, that's what it is. It is what it is. I think he did say that at several, on several points throughout the interview, it is what it is. And it's just like,

Jesus, you know, it's hard sledding out there at the moment to be buzzing for the UFC. And, like, he is the guy that we're meant to be conducting our enthusiasm through nearly, or something that out of effect. It's kind of funny, though, man. Back in the day, you remember how oven arms people would get, like, if there was a shrug-off like this, can you imagine, like,

because if so many people were like, if Armin was in the spot, like, in 2015 or something like that, people would be losing their minds, there'd be columns, there'd be, you know, people would be all over the place talking about this because it would undermine the that they've put in place for the title, right? But now it's just kind of like we get to like a decade later and these types of things are just par for the course, you know, we just kind of move on and... Dude, I mean, you, can you imagine like the Dana White scrum now? Like an old school...

Oh, God. Circa, like, UFC 160 Dana White scrum where like, I don't... People don't even know that exists at this point. Like, we're the old guys at this point talking about that. But like, we're 30 people just swarming and throwing questions at them and like kind of sparring with them in a way that just doesn't frankly exist. It was almost like a come here, we're barely on record. Come on, come on, guys, we're barely on record.

Let's talk about what's on your minds. Like those days are long, long gone. Him telling Luke, like, Nate dudes is bigger than you, buddy. I was like, no, man, what are you talking about? Is that when he impersonated cyborgs too? That type of stuff does not happen. Oh, Jesus. Yeah, they were not ever scheduled, though, but as a member of the media car, you'd be waiting for it, right?

Oh, God. You do the press conference, and you were like, nobody cared about the first. part. You're just waiting for the scrum. And you'd see Ariel coming around with Casey's trying to get the angle, right? Like, we'd always be in the front, the guy's right with the dictapones. And you'd see Ariel just coming around the back trying to get the angle for the one. Yeah, he would make himself very narrow. I remember that. Like a blade putting through.

But unfortunately, like, and I like Robbie as well. Again, I want him great. I go on my way to speak to him at every event. He's a really, he's a really talented dude. But these are the kind of interviews that Dana, wants to do now, right? Like, it's just like, it's not me, but what do you think of this kind of thing? And I don't know, man, it's just, I guess that's just the way it is. Like, these are the only thing he's opened it. We saw it, right? Shane, during the boxing, when he went into the, the Crawford-Conello, he suddenly was getting hit with questions that he didn't like. And you could almost, the shock, the shock was there and almost, it was a shock

to watch a press conference where questions like that were being asked of him. And he's really looking around like, hang on, what this is what we do here, buddy, you know? Security, get that son of a bitch out of here right now. That's basically what he wanted to do. Like, um, what does that, what does that say to you about the state? I know we've talked about this before, but in terms of like, how much lower is the standard of media here in MMA at the moment because we've been trained to be like this for, uh, for the most part, right?

We've been, we've been told like this is, this is what you have to do to be successful in, in this realm essentially now. Well, I think there's a, I think there's a, there's a point of like I think there's a there's two things that we're talking about right because there's a difference between like what we do as a team at on crowd and like what you know maybe the traveling media do that sort of thing right like because I think being part of the traveling media at that point like I'm not interested in that doesn't feel like you know I don't feel like Chuck and and Pete's I don't feel like any of you guys are interested in that either because there's not a lot

like there's nothing really that comes from being part of that that group at this point unless you're like specifically seeking out that type of thing of like filming the interviews and press conferences etc etc for me. that's not interesting anymore. The UFC's really like homogenized fight week in a way that's just really boring in a lot of ways. We can all feel it. Like I think

the fan base that's been around long enough can feel it as well. Whereas I feel like again, the state of journalism is kind of like a bigger, broader question where if we want to talk about that for a hour, we could do that. But I think there's something we said for that, what Robbie's doing is a very, very different lane

than I think what we do it over here at and crown, where we could be very critical, not. We don't worry about any sort of access or anything like that. We do more deep dive type of stuff. Like, I don't know. I think, again, it's the state of journalism sort of like debate is one that's worth having, but it is a little bit more nuanced than just like, hey, looking at this interview and like, hey, this is what it is now. Yeah. And that sounds if that makes it any sense. Yeah. And there's like there's no, there's no pressure to be critical if you're not really playing a role of a journalist. In those situations, I almost feel like the guys, it's like an entertainer

They're an entertainer. They're kind of a podcast. Hey, we're going to have our buddy Dana White on and we're going to talk to him. They're not trying to dig up some controversy. You hope that you get some out of it because that's where, you know, maybe he says something unprompted or you lead him somewhere, you know, and those are always going to be fine. But the premise is not to be scrutinizing stuff like that. It's more to be like if you had a special guest on your show and you're just trying to shoot the shit with him, right? Like that's more the way that those are arranged these days. but also I think too like if Robbie Bush is back on that it's like oh really you know like can you elaborate like at this point they're made men all of these people have succeeded right like UFC's one TKO is one you could even stretch it out

WWA's one Zuffa boxing without even starting or announcing a card for its first ever car That card looks good by the way Yeah right on the 30 23rd comes Zuffab boxing X versus Y is gonna fight fight a little world guys I feel like I'm can I say that I'm gonna go out there Sean is that like

I'm gonna go check this out. Well, you just did. Okay, so I'm gonna go out there. And the thing is, it feels like, it feels like those old grab bags. Like, you're like, here's a $5 grab bag.

Let's see what, like, you might get something that's really valuable in it, or you might just get some junk. Like, this is what it feels like heading into this thing. Yeah,

there's no, there's no, there's no need to try, if that makes sense for Danae White in any of these situations at this point. Like, whatever he's going to say is what he's going to say. And there's,

you're not going to get anything for, from him at that in that in like a real sense in a setting like that so the dana white media scrum is a casualty of the ufc's outrageous success is what we're basically saying here they are so successful they don't need to answer your bullshit questions guys all right they don't need to do that shit going fuck yourselves uh we are the ufc the most powerful entity in all of combat sports and we are here worshipping at their altar my friends made the new hit list that's going to come out in a few weeks there at pt we didn't get the hit list i got no black and white images for the last few years and it really made me as a journalist.

You know, people like, well, that, that Psy Carol guy, he's dangerous. Watch out. I'm missing my fastball. We need to, we need to talk about the lightweight division here because, man, shit has got really messed up here between Paddy Pimlet and Dan Hooker, you know? And it's not, it's really, it's horrible shit they said about each other here, honestly. We don't have the video of this. Again, Patty Pimlet said this, not me.

let's bring up the image here here is a tweet I'm gonna say this once again this is what Patti Pimlet said on a podcast with the MMA guru he said Dan Huger couldn't grapple a rapist off his mom and mother sorry I can't see that and yeah that's a direct book there I mean that's below the standard of good taste

I will say that that is well below it's crazy that this is what like is this a line that pops into your head you know like I was watching that and I was like now Or is this just something he's heard or like he's been holding on to? But I'm like, man, when you go into those, that type of thing, it's just, it's so, it's so like, even in the fight game, you know, where it's just like guys, a lot of times will go below the belt. It's just, it always hits so different where you're like, man, why are you going there? What are we doing here?

It's nearly like a, like a six points deep conversation you'd have with your mate, you know, when they're like, no one's around and he says something crazy. I'm like, what the fuck did you just? I know what the fuck did you just? But again, this is after you've like, okay, now I've lost all perspective on what's decency, you know, and like you might say some shit like that. But like, that's like, just to roll it out there so casually, man, I was like, it was, that's jarring.

I'll give him that. Like, that's a very jarring thing to say. It's, do you know what's shocking to me about it, lads? Paddy's kind of getting into that mainstream space in the UK. And the sponsors, like he's got a really blue chip, like underarmor deals, things like that. Like the press thing, the press kind of interest in him is kind of broadening out to more casual mainstream sports interest.

And then you say something like that and you're just kind of like, just from your own brand point of view, you know, like what were you thinking there, mate? Like you can't joke about this kind of stuff. But it's kind of common again in MMA, right? Like you kind of want to see these guys. You're John Jones with Nike, right? All this kind of stuff. And then you're just like, oh, there it is again. Are you surprised by this?

I'm not surprised by anything at this point, right? What we're talking about? Last year, some week, we literally had a ranked contender talking about Hitler was a good guy. I forgot all about that. That's right. And that speaks to the broader point, right? If that happens in 2016,

you're not forgetting about it by 2017. I think just the bar in general, whether it's the sport, the world right now, I think the bar for what is shocking and outraging is just been lowered to such a wild degree that it's not even recognizable to what it once was. And I don't know. I hear things like this and like you have the initial, like, ooh, that's, that's a little crazy. And then you just move on from it.

I think it's just, it's through osmosis of living in sort of this era that we're living in, like, it's just so hard to work up outrage, sustainable outrage at this point. It did help, uh, like, bring Dan Hooker into a darker space in his, in his response. I mean, yeah, we do have that here as well. Obviously, for those of you who don't know, Paddy Pimble, dedicated a fight in 2022 to a friend of his, Ricky who he lost to suicide. And Dan wrote back to the message that Paddy put up and saying, you know, oh, you're a good mate Patty, RIP, Ricky, which is the name of his friend.

You can see here, Patty, uh, replying here, thought we couldn't be made. because I'm ranked above you, you took a hypothetical joke about how bad your grappling is and responded by talking shit about my mate who committed suicide. Now, that's the lowest of the low. And onside is fine by me, your utter dog shit, at fighting. You know, I don't think it's one of these cases where, like, what, like, you know, one is not better than the other. Like, this is two horrific things people have said here.

You know, I don't think, I don't think anyone's looking at this from, like, oh, well, in fairness, this guy only said this. you know, it is just, it's just a horrific exchange, right? Like, this is just a horrible, horrible exchange between me. But the issue with it is, for me, lads, more people are going to want to see these fight because of it. Like, this is the industry we're in now.

They have both said these deplorable things about each other, and one a friend who he lost, you to suicide, another, like something about the guy's mother in a horrific situation. And people are going to be like, let's, let's get these two guys in a cage, A so why does buddy have to fight Keachy? Let's get Don Hooker in there instead, right, Chook? Probably. Again, now this kind of goes back to,

as our attention span, stay there. And then really it comes down to are they going to keep bickering? Because I feel like if they're going to keep sniping each other and make it personal, but they're going to drag that out, then yes, I do think that that could be the case. And honestly, it's not, regardless of how you feel about what they're talking about, the content manner and where they're hitting below the belt

and what's a decent and what's not, like hooker staying in the conversation is not a bad thing. I mean, Patty was one of those guys, I think, who had the kind of audacity that put him, you know, kind of expedited him a little bit in the UFC's eyes,

probably put in him as a better situation. Here he is. So I'm like, it's not a bad thing to stay close to a guy who could potentially be championing to kick off our year here and kick off a new era. So I'm not saying that I condone like what he's, what the content is,

but like if, if Hooker can kind of keep in his space, I don't think that's a bad thing. It is funny that, like, I think at this point, like, in sort of the way, again, the world works and the way our brains work within the fight game, especially, like, those of us who've been in this for as long as we have at this point. Like, I think that this exchange will be forgotten by next week. But the thing that will make us remember it is if there is some sort of physical hotel-style confrontation,

right? Because we still talk about, like, Ilya and Patty with the hand lotion or whatever that was, the hand sanitizer. Like, those are the things that stick in our brain is, like, Muhammad. the Makaya and Mano Kopp in the middle of the hotel. Like once it gets physical, then it's like, oh, okay, just elevate it a little bit. Now I'm kind of into this. But when it's just this stuff, it's hard to work up any sort of outreach for me.

Hooker, of course, is fighting BSD the week after. Paddy fights Gaichi. It's a tough fight, man. It's a good fight. It is a good fight. It's a great fight. But I feel like two positive results for the two boys that we have in this situation with Ilya on ice and Armin, obviously, the headbut is just.

ruled him out of ever fighting for the time. He's a few fights away right now. You know what I mean? He's in the Mendon Hall moment, as we call it. A few fights away. Permanently in perpetual. There's always an eight ball right in front of him. That is a fucking great fight though.

It is such a good, like you said it and it just tickled my, it got my brain working. That speaks to how, like we've always said, Lightweight Division's best division in the whole freaking sport. People would say Bansomweight, they're wrong. Like it's lightweight. A fight like this is like a perfect emblematic representation of why it sucks to have a sort of logjam champion situation at the top to start the year like we are with the Ilya. Because like Dan Hooker and BSD are what?

Like lower top 10, periphery top 10 guys right now. Maybe like top eight, top seven. But yeah, both of those men are like the type of just dogs like all out dogs that you know they would actually like let themselves die in the octagon to win this fight. fight and just like the idea of them to sort of pitting wheels against each other is just so like it's electric and that fight is almost not even remotely meaningful in this in the escape of like this division right let's frame it like this if if hooker goes in there like the following week right like they're a week apart like he goes in there he wins patty wins like where's armin in this scenario i was thinking that that's what i'm thinking i would not like does he get just push back like i mean honestly let's just say like you know that those two guys are ready to go. We don't know what's happening with, you know, with the champion. Like, what do they do? Like, would they just brush

him aside? He's out there in Russia eating like a giant cheese pizza that's like three times pizza's head, you know? Like, he doesn't seem very bothered by a lot of this. We're just probably he's got his dog dollar and his like Golden Gates and all that stuff. But it's like

what I'll shout he said at the very start. Like, why do we keep expecting something different here? Like, if they have a fight that people suddenly want to see because these two lads have been talking crazy shit to each other. They don't give a shit that Armand is the best for it. It's an interesting time though because you're almost like there would have been some standard trying to interject in all the previous years, but you get into this new era and the way they booked this first card and you're like, hey, the new era might mean that Armin Sarukin is just screwed perpetually. Like, you know what I

mean? Like the new era might just be like it doesn't include you, man. You know what I mean? It's just like one of those type of things. Who are we to say? Like, are they going to actually look at guys' credentials that they don't want in title fights? And, you know, I saw people pointing this out before, too. Like, some of the guys who are the Dagestani, you know, wrestlers and guys with the of Oz as the names and stuff like that, there's so many of them, they're so good. At some point, if you had nothing but those as champions, can you imagine what this sport would

look like? It would be a lot different, wouldn't it? So it's like, I think there's maybe a little reluctance. You know what I mean? to let too many through. Yeah, but like, no, I agree with you, but like it's nearly like every division has a situation like this now. Yeah.

You know, where there's a guy, there's an obvious guy. And they're just like, ah, I don't really like it. Like, Fedorway, that, that title's up for grabs. It's the same night, BSD and hooker fight. You have Lorraine Murphy there in the same situation. You have Evel out there. That's even more egregious. That's even more egregious than, you know, than the situation, I think.

It is very quite like funny and ironic, though, because you would think in this era where, like, hey, we're getting paid $7 billion to just do this. We won. It doesn't matter. Paper views don't exist. I don't even need to care about pay-per-view sales. You think like if there is one set of circumstances where it's like, okay, now the meritocracy, kind of just let's do that because that's all we have to do.

We don't have to sell these fights. Now we can make this like boring matchup that nobody wants, quote unquote. That would seem like now and instead it's kind of we're getting further and further. That is a great point. It runs contrary to where they should be probably, you know. Yeah, it's going to be interesting to see how. it all plays out. I'm not full of confidence. Like, you know, I am not like, oh, yeah,

this is, this is the way this is going to go. Yeah. Everyone get excited. Armand's finally going to get his shot. The fight is Aramond Villa, though. Let's be honest. I mean, the fact that Diego Lopez... Got a Dan Hilker, yeah. But the fact that Diego Lopez is getting this shot,

you know, a second shot of Okinawa. When Volcanowski's like, man, didn't I just beat this guy and you got like two ready-made contenders? One of them... who beat Diego Lopez. I'm like, that's when Riemann Reason goes out the window,

you know, it's like it doesn't make any sense. That one is particularly egregious because like, look, I can understand the Mosaar thing. I don't agree with it. I think Mopstar should obviously

be fighting for this title. Like I can understand. That's my guy. I know. I know. I know. I can understand like, hey,

we're not jumping through hoops to give this guy a title shot. The other side of that is Lerone Murphy who just won our knockout of the year for last year. who like, hey man, maybe he was in light in the world on the fire with highlight before that, but like you put him against Aaron Pico, who's a real MFer

and he does that and you come away with like, again, the knockout of the year. And then you, he has such an easy backstory. He gets such a story you can tell that like maybe these new fans at Paramount who are coming to Paramount are not going to know about like, hey, this dude got shot in the face, spit out the bullets and drove himself to the freaking hospital, man. Like that's a crazy, like, that's a one sentence

of like a backstory and you're instantly in if you've never heard it. So like, I don't, that's the most egregious version was to me. It's like, I can't believe that's the guy. But Diego's got like the dimples and stuff and they show him on like, the cool haircut. Yeah, the cool hair. Yeah. So I mean, you gotta go, we gotta weigh at all. Sometimes he wears a fun hat. Yeah. And that goes

a long way. Can't be understood. Funny you say that, Al Shady. My my big memory of like the first time covering Loram was us in Abu Dhabi and we're standing in the line to go into the press area and you're working for the athletic at the time. And you kind of have a few features right and you're going through with me like I need a

do this guy and do this guy. And he's like, yeah, and I've got one, like, I can just do whatever I want. And I was like, he's like, what do you think I should do? And I was like, oh, I don't know. You hear about this Lorone guy? And you're like, no, what's up with him? And I was like, oh, you got shot in the face. And you're like, oh, yeah, that's my own 100% doing that.

Immediately. I had just watched an interview before I left the house of him with fight disciples, Adam Cadrell and Nick Pete, where he's just standing there. And they're like, did you get shot in the face? And he's like, oh, shit. And I was like, Toll Al Jaddy, I think it must to go out around the media row. and suddenly you go in and there's a line of like

10 people in front of the Laron and it's just constantly shut in the face, please. We're going for that one. It was a good shot. It ended up being a good story. Yeah. Well, you wrote it, so I'm sure it was.

But isn't that a thing, though, that we used to really invest in the law of these fighters. We used to, part of the fandom was pursuing the shit. Like, you know, it's not like you were, you're watching all these guys and you just inherently knew the stories about them.

Like part of the fandom was chasing down these stories and understanding them on that level. I don't think there's that layer to it anymore. I think unless you're force feeding these guys the stories, the fan base in general, because it's become such a massive sport to compare to what it was, they just don't, they don't really go down that discovery lane.

They have so many fights every week. It's a different thing. It's forced down your throat. Also, I mean, the fighters themselves ladle out their stories through social media and stuff. Like, it used to be that you would kind of act as a as the storyteller between you know them and the in the public and that was you know in the in the days of magazine feature writing and things like that this was the whole point right

you're going to fill in to the public who doesn't know about this guy all the details that they need to know you're going to show them the nuance and the depths of this guy or woman but that really has changed through social media and you know just people coughing up their own charms over the course of time or or controlling their own narratives essentially in a lot of cases I think there's certainly an element of that but just like I find conversations like this fascinating because like again it's the evolution of the space

and like how a lot of this is consumed which is sort of our business it feels like fight week the idea of fight week used to very much be a thing right like Tuesday or Wednesday you start to feel it you start to feel it media the media day

all the different interviews would be a whole like you'd get a whole just barrage of content like all of it was different all it was interesting Thursday the press conference there'd be like a little bits and nibbles up to it. Friday, you get the final stare-downs. And like the whole week, you're sort of being like slowly spoon fed more and more. And there was interest in it. There was actually genuine, like it felt like the fan base followed the ebbs and the flows of the week. And there was a conversation and a dialogue throughout the whole week of like, oh, on Wednesday, this guy

looked like this. But on Thursday, he seemed a little more focused. Like, what do you think about that? It was just like there was very much like a, it was like a 24-7 press on the whole week. By the time we built to Saturday, it felt like an actual culmination. of like, oh my God, this whole week's been so electric. I can't wait to see what's going to happen tonight. I don't feel like that exists anymore. Like, it's just people can put through the paces. You get 10 minutes on Wednesday with whatever press conferences are never really like

that interesting anymore to a certain degree. And then like you get the way ends and that's it. And I feel like there's just not that story being told like just broader throughout the sport, not even just like through us, but just like through the sport throughout the week that people are following. Like people tune in on Saturday. people oh it's like oh it's a ufc pay-per-view week okay i'll i'll check out you know x y z on on saturday afternoon that's how it feels like it's consumed to me i don't know if you guys feel

no you're right and i'm not saying this now the brown knows you too lads because he's are here but you guys the feature go the long form features you used to do on fight week i would have specific times to read them you know like i'd have a it was part of my fight week on Saturday morning i'd get up because obviously the fights are on much later here they're not starting till 11 p.m and i'd read them then so you'd be living off the lifeblood of this feature that you've just read for the day, just going around like, oh, I can't wait to do this. You'd also, because I was writing myself, you didn't want to read your stuff and then just

like start trying to force it into whatever I was trying to do. So you'd read them on the day and you'd just be buzzing for it. And I don't know if that exists in the same way. I think going crowned, of course, I think we're doing a super job in terms of keeping the long form alive. But you're right in terms of... It's mostly like the voice, like keeping a voice alive. of just what we're talking about, you know.

There should be a certain amount of enthusiasm, skepticism, all of that stuff, right? There should be all of that, but that's what I feel like we do. We're probably the only place kind of dedicated to keeping that rolling. You know what I mean? Where there's just a voice in the sport, kind of, you know, kind of given, you know what I mean? Kind of given the goods in that sense. I don't really feel like everybody else is doing.

Like you mentioned, most people are just kind of doing it. more of the, you know, take the quote, plug it into a headline and, you know, this is kind of a form article at this point. See, I don't even, I think there's probably an element to that of like, hey, there's just, the media space has changed so vastly in the whole world, like, not even just in sports, but the world of how, like, stories are told.

That's certainly, like, a part of it, I think. But also, like, I just, I wonder if it's so, like, there are so many events at this point. And there were always a lot of events. Even back in 2015, 16, there was, a lot of events. But it just feels like it's been so deluded and so just like every week there's like five, 10 people on a card you've never heard of type of thing.

It just like, I don't know if it's the current mindset of sports consumption, the fan base, this particular fan base or whatever. It just doesn't even feel like there's a desire or an interest to like learn about these guys until, you know, they're even like a Michael Morales, right? Like, dude is like here. Like he's arrived. He is a genuine main player. He's probably going to fight for a tie with in the next two years.

If you asked like 95% of the fan base to name one fun fact about Michael Morales, do you think they could get a single one? That's a great example because we've two times now, right? Remember because I did the one feature and then I did a second one? And I was like, oh, shoot, I forgot I wrote about Mike Morales last time through, but it was kind of great because you could continue off of the original one. But neither one of those was really met with too much fanfare, even though he's kind of like this phenom.

This young phenom who is mostly undefeated, I guess, or I guess he's undefeated again. But he's like he's got this undefeated right. And he's Ecuadorian. He represents a market that hasn't had a champion. There was a lot going on. He was building this compound for his family. It was like all these really interesting. But nobody seemed to to latch on to that.

And there was a day when everybody would have. Everybody would have latched onto that. Yeah. So it's like. Catch onto it. You'd be pursuing it, you know? Yeah. It just feels like we don't, you know, we just.

don't probe like we used to like we used to really fixate on certain athletes it's harder and harder to do that i think yeah it's i think it's a generational thing too like because if i'm getting into new sports i still try and look for those features about yeah the guys that in the sport you know i'll try and find the equivalent of the mendon hall and l shatty feature to get the juices flown you know and there's no equivalent yeah there is just two of a kind um before we get into stories because i do want to uh finish today's episode off by looking what we expect to be the biggest stories of 2026, and Uncrown is a great article up with our bold predictions,

which I'll go through now in a minute. Before then, lads, very sad news. The boys in the back yesterday. Well, to be honest, the boys in back yesterday started off their segment, like, will there be a bromance between John Jones and D.C.? And then they started going through what had been said lately, and I think it was quickly established that air.

You know, they went from, like, maybe we can be cordial to, you know what, I think boxing is the best way for us to now compete against each other, wrestling, you know? But listen, lads, we got an update from John Jones, and unfortunately,

he says D.C.'s a dickhead. Can we play the clip, please? This season is against Daniel Cormier. Oh, man, what a, what a stuffy. Just dickhead. Cormier really is.

I think if you really get to know Daniel Cormier, he's really not. Yeah, he was a asshole. He's an asshole. He didn't really connect with any of the fighters here.

He's just an asshole. I try to make peace with him many times, and he made it very clear that he wants to be animates for the rest of his life because how lucrative it is. And he's just a, I don't know. Well, if takes one to know one, that's actually a John Jones I could get behind. That's what I was going to say to.

Yeah, that's like the good version right there. This is, you know, I love that he tried to start it off, like he was going to give it like a nuanced rundown of Karmier's personality, you know. He's just a stuffy, you know, dickhead. Oh man. Reminds me of myself so much

I'm on John Jones. So good. So lads, I'm sorry. No friendship between D.C. and John Jones. But John Jones once again in Thailand, and as we know from his previous... Is he back out there? He's back out there.

He's having the time of his love. He's smelling guys hair on the back of mopeds. He's having a great time. Here's the thing. These guys must pay a shit ton of money because it's not... Like, it's just a few months ago where Carmier was like,

I wouldn't go to Thailand and be on one of those Russian ultimate of fighter shows and that's exactly, that is absolutely exactly what he's done now. They must be paying a lot of money. We remember, we know that the aspiral fight in part John Jones' excuse was like, because I'm out here, having the time of a life in Thailand

and getting paid. Living my best life. Sorry, that is the quote. This is the end, right? Like, I know, I'm sorry for doing this again, by the way. Everyone's fucking sick of talking about this, but I mean, it's not going to happen. Wait, are we going to do

Jones Aspinall? Is that what we're about to do? No, I'm not even asking about Jones about Jones or whatever. The White House, all this bullshit. It's not happening, right? It's just not happening on Shady, is it? Jones and any form this year. This would have been your segue into the bold predictions because I think we addressed this very thing, Pizzi.

Well, we just jump in there? We just jump into bold predictions and we can take it from there. I mean, we kind of talk about your question right now, like this is. Okay. We'll slowly say. We're pros. We're pros. Okay, listen.

Two of you are pros. I am. I personally, I love this stuff, man. See, this is the type of thing I find so amusing. I want these two guys to be in wheelchairs at age 85 still doing this. Like, just pushing each other in the back from one wheelchair or the other. Like, this is the best. I love rivalries in the fight game in particular, but like all sports.

But like you still see like Isaiah Thomas shut on Michael Jordan right now. Like that's a story in basketball right now. It's like, that was in the 80s, guys. Like, all right. like I just want this to perpetuate forever. There's no making up. There's no making friends. I see Luke Rockhold and Michael Bisbing shaking hands.

I don't want to see that. I don't need that. Yeah, I don't need that. That's all they had was that hatreds between each other. That's all they had, damn it. That was all that was interesting, but God's sake. I mean, you know, Ollie and Frazier for the, they could be civil because they were so tied into history together,

but you always got the sense that they just didn't want to be around each other. I mean, that was, that was kind of the thing you're talking about. When you have that kind of thing, it's not something you turn on and off, you know? And I think that, why would we want it? I don't need that. Like, the part of the lore is that backstage exchange, whatever was behind the scenes thing, where they were going back and forth. And you saw the true John Jones.

You saw, like, Cormier, and you saw them and their true elements going back and forth. That sort of changed the way people approached how to talk to each other, too, and opened up the floodgates for that. kind of thing. No, I don't want to see them bromancing. What are we talking about here, man? I want them to have, you know, bad blood forever. I vividly, vividly, vividly remember the day where someone, it was probably an hour before it like went out to the public where someone sent me the backstage, like ESPN video. I know. I remember this, Sean. Very well. I know exactly. You know the story that it's in my head right now, Chuck, how this thing got out to the world. And like, I remember somebody

sent this to me and I'm like, oh my God, this is the greatest thing I've ever seen. Are we not allowed to tell the story of how this guy out in the world? Because I want to hear it. I'll let Chuck to make that decision. I don't, I'm not, that's not mine. Well, let's put it this way, guys, read the fight game coming up here in a little bit. I do mention, like, I just kind of talk about it. I mean, it's not that controversial or anything, but it's just, it's a funny story in retrospect.

And some people involved in this panel were probably the reason the world got to see that, you know? You're very welcome. Very welcome. Very welcome, guys. I appreciate it, seriously, that was nice. That stuff is so, I love that. That's the best part of the fight game to me. Because if you're Daniel Cormia, you understand, right?

Like, I remember back in the day when I was at The Athletic, I did one of my nightby face pieces on DC. And it was really cool to be able to talk to, like, all the wrestling, like, his old wrestling opponents and, like, his old wrestling coaches and just, like, who was Daniel Cormier? And the wrestler before we saw him as this preternatural competitor in MMA. And they were all saying the same thing of, like,

this guy's a total dick. He would just completely make fun of you while he's just destroying you all day, all season. He would just completely demoralize you to a level where you're like, I don't even understand how I'm in this sport. He's so much better than me. And like, that's who DC is. And then DC gets to hear. And there's one guy in the entire world. He can't do that too.

And then that guy pops for steroids after knocking him out on like on national TV. Like, if I'm DC, F that guy's too. I'm living with that forever, man. Like, you're the guy that would like stop me. And the dudes rub it in your face. even when he's telling you, like, I'm trying to make the piece while he rubs it in your face that he beat you, that he made you cry.

He's such, he's so like, it's so kind of barma. With the two of just like, there's a little bit like, yeah, we all know what happened to John Stewart. I love it, man. I love it. Do you know where, you mentioned Fraser and Ali. Do you know what Joe Fraser's voicemail was before he died?

Chuk? No. Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. I'm the man who did that to Muhammad Ali. Wow. Even at like older age? Hey Joe, just Chuck, give me a call whenever you get in. That is wild, man.

No, I didn't know that. Yeah, they had, there's a, there's a documentary about it and that's how it ends. They just play the voice mail at the end. It's, what it's, you're going to have to tell me, you're going to have to say me and I think it was an old Channel 4 one. Yeah, brilliant. I'll find it for you. But let's get onto these bold predictions.

We did a great piece, all of the, the brilliant minds of one crown combined at to put together our bold predictions for 2026. I love doing this because I'm always wrong. Well, first of all, no, no, wait, wait, we were, there were a few from last year. Sean sent us the link to, hey, let's do one of these for this year. And I just at first kind of glanced at it. I'm like, oh, we weren't too far. And then I started looking more deeply.

I'm like, I'm actually reading back through it. And I'm like, we were pretty damn close on several of those, you know. I think everybody hit on one at least. Everybody hit on one for the most part. Yeah. I think that's what I said. I said they get rid of McGregor what they did. Bins was really dead on because he was like

he'll retire and then unretire which is exactly what happened. Yeah. And then I pointed out that it would be of all the talk that we're with the heavyweighted it ended up being Cyril gone that's going to do something that's going to, I said that he would beat Aspinall. Like that's probably how and it wasn't quite like that but it was him who basically

delivered the anticlimatic blow, you know? So it's like it was all, it was in the same vein. Yeah. No, no, yeah. you're right. I'm just generally not. Usually in fact, you know, when I pick prospects of the year, it's usually like the death knell for their career. You know, like this guy, breakout star at 2026, don't fucking loses three times by brutal chaos. But here is our bold predictions for 2026. And men that haul up top here, it will be. This is freeze frame. This is good. Oh my God. Look at who is the handsome bastard?

You're trying to chase people away from our, Colin? What's a, that? That's a terrible idea. Who thought it is? It will be the year of unconventional things in the UFC joke. Tell me. Yeah. I just get the sense. And I mean, this is a little bit of just pure speculation that we might see some things that are just very unconventional in terms of.

I know that we've seen like James Tony, we've seen Seampunk. But given the fact that you have a Jake Paul pulling just stupid numbers with the Netflix, you know, boxing the generations of heavyweights and like, this is just kind of the way business is out there and you have a TKO group that is a larger thing now than just the UFC. I just get the feeling that we're going to see some cameo type things. You know, like we'll see like people who maybe wouldn't have been in the UFC who will end up in the UFC. Now, I hope I'm wrong about this. I just feel like that they're, if they can get, especially if you create a vortex with the White House where you have like six different title fights, what are you supposed to do with the months around that?

You know what I mean? Like, so I could see them going a little more gimmicky than they ever have. That's all. I just think that we'll probably see some weird stuff like that. Oh, sounds fun. You mentioned the John Jones thing. And I know that's another one of his predictions. John Jones will come back and lose, which means we'll be stuck with him as he won't be able to live with a loss.

That's quite a. We'll see. It's very specific, but it's not so crazy. First of all, he's a little longer in the two. and he's always out of there a little longer than before. And I'm like, so, you know, I can see a scenario where he returns. He loses, but then he wants to fight again. And I honestly, if he was able to come back,

I feel like this is, the chances of this happening are not as good as they, like they might have been at one point. But him coming in mid-year and losing would then prompt, I think, a second fight toward the end of the year. So not only would you get him once, but you'd get him twice, because I don't think he'd be able to live with it. I don't think he'd be able to, like, you know, he's been so protective of his legacy. He's not going to want to have a loss on his record.

So if that first part happens, I feel like the second part has a very good chance of happening. One thing I think is very bold that was predicted in this is Drake, saying UFC gets cool again. My biggest fear is like the UFC is completely ick because of the situation. You know, it's like, you know, people like say this, everything like this, political cycles, right? One thing was cool, then it's not cool. the UFC fans love Donald Trump and all this association and stuff and I'm like

if he goes people are going to see the attachment between the UFC and him and be like oh remember that like that's my clear and present danger fear for the sport and the perception of the sport so I really hope Drake is right me too that was the boldest of all predictions by the way when you said that I was like wow that is completely

counterintuitive to everything I'm thinking right now I would love if that happened I would love to be the optimist that is Drake Riggs. Yeah. My God. And my prediction, my Baldwin guys, as you guys know, is that the White House event won't happen. I just think there's so much that can go wrong there.

But like, I mean, you get me, right? Shane, like, you know, you're smart around the milk. This isn't Croke Park, baby. This isn't Croke Park. Exactly. And they couldn't fucking do that either. But you know what I mean? Like, there's so much shit going on there.

Apparently, you know, busy old lace that White House in Washington. if there's a crisis, if there's anything like that, it's gone. Like, I don't know. I just feel like we're talking about it in a far more like, this is going to happen way than we ever do about like

fights that were right in front of the UFC. Like Jones and Aspinall was there and Gano and Jones was there. And there was never this sense of like, well, that's definitely going to happen. We are 100% like, this is going to happen at the White House. And that to me seems crazy, Shane. Does it though?

Like, I don't know. To me, like, I think we're, equating two different things with that comparison, right? Because like Jones and Ghanu, Jones Aspenon, like those were always fights that relied on like individual fighters, mainly John Jones, making decisions that would be counterintuitive

to like everything we've known about him and how protective of, you know, he doesn't, he's not a risk taker. It took him like 13 years to go to heavyweight after talking about initially, right? This is more of like, this feels to be more like Dana talking about the sphere and then slowly materializing the sphere into existence. where like, okay, this is an idea we're going to do.

We're definitely going to do it. And it doesn't really rely on anybody else, like any fighter's whims to do it. It's just we got clearance with the sphere of people, so we're going to do it with the sphere people. This feels like the same thing where like Donald Trump's clearly in on it. It's clearly going to be a week that's just like very much celebrating Donald Trump for better or worse. He's going to, I wouldn't, Ben said this this week. And I think he's probably right. I wouldn't be surprised if Donald Trump gets a UFC title belt at some degree at this thing.

I mean, I'd be surprised if he didn't, you know, it'd be like. FIFA You know what though Like when you think about this Do you remember the whole like Fight Island We're gonna have a fight island There's gonna be a you know

Right on the sand You know this type of thing And you're like what I can't wait to see And obviously what they ended up coming to Was nothing like what he originally projected Is there a chance That they try to keep it A White House card

But it ends up not being on the lawn It's just some other place in Washington Where you know like You know what I mean? Or they just, they, they amend it and they do it, but it's not quite what was first envisioned. It just becomes a little bit different with it's more practical, you know, because some of the things that you're objecting to are the logistics, the nightmare of logistics that will go into that. And I wonder if that will in the end push it into some bastardization or something of the original plan. You know what I mean?

Where all of a sudden you're getting sort of a compromise. Is it a jump to shark moment, Chuck? Because you always talk about jump to shack moments. Could this be it? I mean, with the fan base, no. Because I don't, like, you know, it's sad that the Happy Days fan base was more sophisticated

than that of him a minute, you know, that they could understand when the shark was being, I'm like, hey, man, I'm not following on this one. But this one, I'm like, I think that they'll just keep rolling along, you know, they've had their moments where, you know, things don't come off the way they hope or they change plans or they never, do it and the fans the fans who love it love it you know they're just going to keep following it

see i think we're too far in the forest to see the trees in this one i think that like this will this will absolutely happen and it will happen in a way that like they're white and don't trump's very dead set on like making it a big spectacular thing and i think we in the sport are probably two inwards to like understand how like this is going to be the biggest event of the year by far definitely like it's not even going to be there's not even a close second or like the whole calendar is going to be a engineer number nuggets in the final And James, but anyways, yes, I take... You still don't make this an NBA to make.

So, most of the teams are going on. I don't see what I'm going to work about that. But no, like the whole year, for the most part, until we get to the summer and this happens, is going to be engineered around figuring out how to make this the biggest, most spectacular thing that they've ever seen. And I think for the mainstream audience who doesn't, you know, watch UFC Vegas 113 or whatever else, like, this is the one thing that that's on their radar and that they're going to be tuning into this year.

It's like, oh, my God, this UFC at the event at the White House? I got to tune into that. Even like for our broader, you know, like we work in partnership with Yahoo Sports. Like a lot of the Yahoo Sports people when they're talking about like, hey, coming to come to us and like, hey, MMA preview for 2026, can you guys talk about the White House? That's like the one thing that's in the ecosystem within the sports. Yeah, not to mention like some of the like whatever it is like podcast within the Yahoo Network have asked us to go on and talk about the White House things specifically. You know, specifically nothing else just that. So yeah.

I am like, and just for the record, like, I will be buzzing for this card when it happens. Like, I want to see what it looks like. I want to, this is crazy. You know, this is. It's probably going to be one of the best cards we've ever seen just in terms of like talent. And like, just think about when we started covering this sport. Like the idea of this happening is insane.

Isn't the fucking White House they're going to have a car. I mean, it's, it's totally insane. It's, it's mental. So like, I'm not. I mean, it wasn't even legal in New York City or New York for the longest time. What was it? What was it? What was it?

Yeah. Like, you're not even, you're not even, you're not even, decade back, for it to a decade later appear at the White House is one of the greatest juxtapositions and all of sports, if not the greatest. I mean, that's, that is wild to think about. It's crazy. You have another ball prediction joke, I believe, that you, uh, you brought forward for specifically for the crack, which we very much appreciate.

What was it? It was. Very well close. What? Does the product become diluted? Oh, so you're saying about this. So, in terms of. a story to watch, right, in

2006. I do believe that this is one. When Drake says something, like, you know, Drake's been right on a bunch of stuff, so any, and he won our predictions, like, the guy has a pretty good crystal ball. Oh, don't, I don't know, Drake Griggs he's got a pretty good crystal ball. That's all it is. You know what his bold prediction for last year was? Tony Ferguson's going to win something. What happened?

That's something. That's pretty bold. That was, it was very bold at the time. I hope he's right, dude. I hope he's right. I hope he's right. Fucking happen. I hope it's cool. But my bigger concern, okay, so when the UFC, it was a trajectory, it was a growing escalation. And I think that the way it was perceived was just like that.

When they went to Fox, it was like this legitimizing moment. It was like, okay, they're going to Fox. They're going to a mainstream legitimate thing, right? Like they're going to broadcast. And they also had, you know, they kind of, on the lesser channels, you know, Fox Sports One or whatever was, they could fill those out with UFC events. When they went to ESPN, obviously, this is the flagship, right? They're going to the, where everybody wants to. You're destined eventually if you're a real sport to end up with ESPN.

And they could become almost a flagship for ESPN Plus. Bring all this, you know, one stop shopping. You're all going to come to ESPN Plus. This is the first time where they're kind of entering more of just a general content. We're just, we're going over to Paramount Plus when you've got like Prime. You've got Netflix. You've got all the different streaming services. And you're just saying like, we're content.

We're just going over there. We signed a big deal. and it feels a little bit more like woodwork to me. This is more of a woodwork moment where you're like, this doesn't have the same magnitude as the others. And it feels a little bit more just kind of pedestrian and how it's going about it, right? Like you're even mentioning like Dana White,

not even trying to evolve in terms of, or not mustering a new kind of enthusiasm and stuff like that. I just hope that it doesn't become like this diluted, strange thing, especially with the loss of pay-per-views where the numbers now are just big events, but they're not pay-per-views. They're not like the rallying points they once were. I just hope it doesn't become like that, where it's just like it loses the vitality that's held in place,

even through the inundation of too many cards and all that stuff. There's always been this vital thing to it that has kept going. And I feel like that is a story we have to watch. Does it lose its steam? You know, like, does it lose some broader spirit of itself as it goes into this new, phase. I believe Mr. Alshaddy. Your point goes alongside Chuck's in that regard. It is about the state of the product of the UFC in general. Yeah, it's, I think Chuck said a lot there that I think I've been thinking about as well as we sort of turn the page on 2026. Let me ask you, fellas,

because I was, I was talking about this with someone else yesterday and I wasn't, I don't know if I know the answer. What was the biggest fight of 2025? 2025. I picked, I picked it. Like the biggest. When things felt the biggest. The fight. Yeah. A event.

Whatever. I said 317. Tepuriya and Oliverer because I had Roy Val and Van on it as well. I had. No, I'm talking about before. Just a specific fight? No, just like an event, an event where it's like, oh, this is the biggest card of the year. I think you're probably right that it was DePorea.

That's the one that's all the area. That's the one that comes to mind. That's the one that was specifically looking for it, right? Like, that was a task I had to do. the fact that it doesn't immediately come to mind and that we, there's not like a real consensus answer. Y'all, 2025 kind of was, kind of sucked for MMA.

I agree. Like, 2025 was one of the worst years of MMA that we have had in this space since we've all been in this space, at least in my mind. No, you're right. And I don't think that's, I don't feel like that's a jaded perspective. Like, again, it speaks to a lot of what we've just been broadly talking about this entire show of just like the state of promotion, the state of the game,

how much does UFC care at this point? I'm worried about that, man. I'm worried about that because it feels as if I don't know like how sustainable that is, right? So like these things always sort of trail a year or two behind where like if the same, if the product is really good and then cools down, the enthusiasm for it will take a bit before it cools down to the same level of the product. I feel like we might be about to hit a moment of downturn for the,

for the sport product-wise and then how soon afterwards is the enthusiasm going to downturn as well because UFC's already made its money they don't have incentive to care especially with this paper view list sort of space like you just said Chuck

like how long is it going to matter like if we get to October and it's UFC you know 340 is UFC going to be incentivized by that point to make that a good card or is it just another UFC Mexico City whatever

with you know like a random Brandon Moreno flyweight fight attached to the top of it. Like how, how, how, what, to what level does the degradation, like, to what speed does the degradation, I guess, happen? Because we all kind of know that it's probably going to happen to some degree or Paramount's going to pivot. And all these people within the space who are sort of the experts of media rights and things like that who are saying like, like, you guys crazy overpaid for this.

Paramount's going to sort of realize that and be like, hey, guys, we're going to do this really good special card for 30 bucks. Yeah. Because the fan base is still conditioned to be okay. with that. And in two years from now, that probably won't be the case. So it's just, I'm concerned about the state, I guess, of the overall health of the sport as we move forward in 2026. Because it's like, you know, I think that everything I just said holds true about like we just came off a very weak year. The star power in the sport's pretty rough right now. I think we have

the most lackluster number two that we've had in the space in a long time. And it's just, I don't know, man. It doesn't, it feels like a lot of red flags that could be, you know, maybe this is the year we bounce back, but also maybe this is the year where things continue to go towards that, to trend that way. And like, what are we looking at at 2027, 28 at that point? It doesn't help when Dana White, who's the face of the O.C is so distracted, right, with like the other pursuits, power slap.

It feels like he's bored by it, right? It's like power slap and now you got Zupa boxing and now you're like, okay, wait, Now we're now we're splintering to boot. You know, like we're not just solely focused on the growth or even the vitality. Now you're splitting ways with what's happening. Like you're splitting attention. That doesn't help at all. Yeah.

And it's also like we do have evidence based on the SBN deal what that happened there. You know, the apex came along. We are getting paid for these events no matter what. You know, the apex had a great function in terms of post-pandemic. Bringing back sports, of course, they know always. But then it's still. stayed because it was from a business point of view very lucrative situation for them. So I agree with Alshaddy in terms of him saying that.

And just for the record, big time Ben folks predicted that Paramount will dip their toe into the paper view waters, which Shaheen has just suggested might happen after the events continue to get diluted or if they continue to get diluted. Well, that's everything. Listen. Yeah. I will say, I will say too, because Ben had a really good point about that where there's no, like there's no other sports fan base outside the box.

and maybe like wrestling to some degree, even though WW doesn't do pay-per-views, AEW still does. But outside of that, there's no other fan base in the world who's conditioned right now to accept paying for a product on that level of like a monthly

single one-off type of thing. And that's like just ingrained within us. And I think it's going to stay with us for a while. But if Paramount, you know, two years from now decides like, hey, we're going to start doing a tiny bit of pay-per-view, I think then they get some pushback. Whereas there is a runway here,

before people forget that that's just how it was, where they could do that. And that's something that before Bennett mentioned it, it never really crossed my mind, but it makes a lot of stents of just like, at some point, man, Paramounts, I got to think, going to look at this and just like,

hey, we could squeeze more out of this. Just like ESPN. How many years of the ESPN deal was it where, hey, next year, going up five bucks, fellas. I know. Enjoy, hey, next year, going up another four bucks. Enjoy. Hey, the pay-per-view price, raise another $10.

Deal with it. Like, every year was squeezing more and more and more out of us because this is a very dedicated fan base. They will follow the UFC to wherever they go. They will pay the money they need to pay. I don't know. This feels, yeah.

Like, this feels maybe overly optimistic to feel like, oh, it's just going to be free. Boy house event's going to be a pay-review, let's be honest. If it happens, that's what that's going to be a fucking pay-review.

If there's six toils, six, seven toil points to where they're talking, you're going to ride off the rest of the year for this event. You're fucking paying for that. It better not do that, by the way. I heard John Hennick say that. Yeah.

That's just nonsense. Man, everybody said everything about it. It makes absolutely no sense to do that, but everyone seems to be completely in love with that idea. Even the times they've done three title fights, it's too much. It's like, first of all, it takes away. One takes away from the other. Like, you can't reach magnitude on them. Imagine six of them.

They're all potential. The pacing of the show. Oh, my God. We've had some three title fight events where like it's not a great watch. Well, that's what I mean. If it go, imagine six total fights going the distance. That's what I'm saying, man. It's the worst event.

of all time. What's 25 times 6? Someone who's better than math than me. 150. That's a lot of minutes. That's a lot of minutes. All right. Well, look, we actually love MMA, just disclosure, crackheads.

We do love the sport. We're just concerned, all right? We have worries. It's a time of shifting signs. We don't know what's going to happen, okay? Are you okay? We all need to be some perfect Drake rigs right now. It's going to be a cool sport again.

We're about to see it. Spike TV era. Let's go, baby. Yeah. cool, we're hip. Any super chats there, Jordan? Listen to that. Yeah.

P.T. It's your boy, Lansy. I'll be in Dublin with the fiancé, Feb 19th to the 23rd. What trouble early, should we get into? How can I track down Blancherdamas? Oh my God. You might catch a wild Blancherodamas anywhere around

Dublin at any given time. Just word to the wise. Blanchis sound not the kind of place to bring your misses, all right. Don't not. It's not, you're not missing. You're not missing much, man. But if you get into trouble, just name drop me obviously and they will stop doing whatever they're doing.

Obviously, you know. And bring some spray paint to put Ptzey as a rat on every wall. Yeah, like if in doubt or call someone a rat, he was here and just really frame it. Yeah. If and they'll call the person who's attacking you a rat in Blanchardstown and they'll be like, what do you mean? And just run then. As they're trying to go, did I rat on?

this person. Just run then. Get on their toes. Get out of there. You'll be fine. Your boy, Lanzi, you'll take this off, Lauren. I'll send you some recommendations for Dublin. No problem, my friend. Anything else there, Jordan? That's a no. Wow. That's one and done. That is what that means, right, Jordan? Is that music playing? The music's gone from my headphone. Oh, there it is. Well, listen, ladies, ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for joining us. You know, we're just being real about our concerns here, okay? We managed to go a whole podcast without Chuck and, uh, Al-Shti here breaking into an NBA

conversation. Look at that. Look at their NBA hats here now. Here we go. This is, the show is ending, boys. I'd love for you to get into this, but you cannot do it on this show.

And when the NFL ends, we can have you back on because then I'll have a vested interest. I'll want to know more about your wonderful bouncy sport. And we can talk about it then. 2026 is upon us, ladies and gentlemen. It's going to be a great year for the crack. It's going to be a great year for Uncrown. Thank you so much to Chuck Menhal.

Thank you so much to Shaheen Al-Hattie. Thank you to Honair, Jordan. Thank you to Oscar Losef. Thank you all for watching. We love you very much. See you next week. Mwak.