The Ariel Helwani Show - Is Jon Jones the UFC's $30 million man? Dana White joins Meta's board, more | The Boys in the Back

Episode Date: January 9, 2025

The Boys in the Back kicks off with Eric Jackman (NewYorkRic) and Conner Burks (GC) discussing Joe Rogan's claim that Jon Jones would need to be paid $30 million to fight Tom Aspinall... and the immediate retraction (11:52).Then, they touch on Dana White joining Meta's board (34:35), before turning attention to PFL slashing their tournament prizes from $1 million to $500,000 (42:08).Next, they preview UFC Vegas 101 (51:09) and Mysterious Frank joins to make their picks for the weekend (1:04:33). GC also reveals his 2025 futures (1:10:13).Finally, The Boys give their P4P rankings of months of the year (1:30:41) and answer your questions (1:56:28).EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal ➼ https://nordvpn.com/uncrowned Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee 

but but but but boys in the back but but but boys boys boys boys boys boys what is going on we are back after a long uh waited break i mean when was the last time we did a show uh the wednesday what's the date i'm gonna look it up december 18th december 19th december 19th is my guess on on the last time we were sitting in these seats. December 19th. I'm also not going to lie. Should we break the fourth wall here? I did not hear anything that Andy was saying about the show starting. I just heard.

I just thought we would make sure you're paying attention. Yeah, I just heard the theme song. I was like, alright, I guess we're going. I was like dead middle of typing something up. On the contrary, I heard everything. You kept giving thumbs up. I was like, alright, I guess they're going to come to me here to tell me whether or not they can hear me in the ears. So yeah, we're off to a hot start here.

It's been a great morning from here. We can get into that in a second, but how was your holiday break, man? How was everything? I feel like, you know, we've done several shows, but we haven't gotten into the pledges trees of, how were the holidays, man? How was your time off? It was great. Having worked in social for the last couple years, there is no time off because everything's happening around the clock and it's kind of

a 24-7 job. I actually got to enjoy a little bit of rest. I actually got to spend some time with my children. It was quite nice. It felt unfamiliar, but it was very restful and I appreciated it. So it was great. And also, not for nothing, I thought we put out some pretty good holiday content. It was nice to be able to just sit back and say, hey, we've got these things in the can.

Shout out to super producer Jordan and Pete C for putting together those shows. We all put together the look back, the preview show rather, and the flashback for Ariel Hawane.

And it was nice to just let those roll out, let the fans enjoy those, and we got to take some time off. So it was great. What let those roll out, let the fans enjoy those, and we got to take some time off. So it was great. What about you? It was good, man. It was good.

Went down to Atlanta for a while, got to see the family, the brothers, one of which we were just talking about at lunch. Shout out to him, Marine, plays the clarinet. Got to see my other brother from the Bay Area. Got to see his kids, my nieces and nephews. They're very young, five, three, and two. The five-year-old has started calling me bruh, which is a great

development. He's like, what's up, bruh? I was just like, hi, let's go. He's getting the slang down. Played him in chess. How'd we do? It was some wars, man. I mean, over the course of the holiday break, I probably went like 11 and 0. Never lost. But it's great that one day he will beat me. It'll be like him conquering me. I thought we had a Bobby Fisher. No, no, he's terrible. He's terrible. He just loves collecting as many pieces. I just lull him into these traps and he's just

got another pawn. Any mercy? Any thought to... No, no mercy. No, no, no. What am I going to do? Let the kid win? Give him a false sense of hope? No, no, no. You can't. gonna do Let the kid win Give him a false sense of hope No no no You can't like I had to drop a bar On him one day He was

He had like nine of my pieces And I had like one of his He's just like Oh Uncle C man I have so many more pieces Than you And I was like Yeah

Too bad only one matters Moved him into checkmate From there I was just like Yeah it's checkmate kid Got up You can clean this up Bruh

And then I walked off. Got to learn. Got to learn. It was a really fulfilling moment beating a five-year-old in chess. Got to learn. Yeah, it was great. Got to see my parents. How was your break, Frankie?

We haven't heard from you yet. Thanks for asking. It was great. Thank you. You could tell he was unprepared for the ask. I'm not going to lie. I was getting ready for work this morning. I was taking a shower and everything.

And I was just like, yeah, got to ask the boys how the holiday break was. I was taking a shower and everything. And I was just like, yeah, gotta ask the boys how the holiday break was, you know, really get to catch up and everything. It's like, I'm going to ask Frank and he's going to be like, yeah, you know, it was good.

And that was it. You predicted it. I predicted it. You predict these things. I nailed it to a T. One last thing on, on some, just getting up on,

on life and everything. Yeah. You know, I was getting ready for work this morning and then headed into the office, got on the train this morning, take the train into work, get about 10 minutes, 15 minutes down the tracks. Train kept stopping. It kept stopping, and then we'd go, and then stopping, and then go, and then stopping, and then it stops, and then we're just sitting there. And we sit there, and we sit there, and we sit there.

And then they start coming on. They're like, yeah, the emergency brake keeps stopping us. We don't know what's going on. Uh, you know, sorry so much for the inconvenience. Please be patient. Uh, end up sitting on the track for like an hour. They take us all the way back to our original station. And then I have to get on another train and ride it back in.

It was a, uh, it was quite the morning three hour commute, uh, for old GC this morning. Yeah. That's not easy. I hate to see it. And there's no worse feeling than like knowing that you're so close to where you could have just

like reset this whole thing. Yep. There's nothing you can do. You're stuck on it. I've been on the subway and just felt like open the doors and I will crawl up

a manhole cover into the street. I don't care. Just like let me get out of this thing. And like people start getting restless. Like a bunch of people were getting on the phones like yeah i'm gonna be late i'm stuck on the train

like can we just reschedule this appointment and they're like a no-show fee what do you mean a no show fee i'm stuck on the train and that was just your calls yeah exactly exactly but yeah and then a couple people were on just like so how's your new year man i'm like is this the time to have this conversation like we're all stuck on the train together uh so yeah that was a that was a nice conquest in the office and then i had to transfer it uh at a subway station i start walking down to it and i see the this is after being on the train to get in yeah for like two hours and 20 minutes and i see the biggest mangiest rat i have ever seen and it is the most fearless rat i have ever seen in my life it's a rat dude pizza rat to an extent all the other rats are like down on the track this one is on the

yellow guardrail where everyone stands and like no one's really noticed it train comes flying up into it dude doesn't move at all guy accidentally kicks it and he's like oh shit there's a rat and the rat is just like crawling along just like hair like he i swear at one point the rat just looked at him was just like like what's good man like are you all right it was it was a hectic morning for me man it was and i guess the news spread around the office that it was taking me so long to get in and then like when i got in everyone was like you made it dude we were worried about you well let me say one thing you did a good job keeping us updated there was a certain point in the conversations of you being like look i'm stuck

this is what's going on we're like people started to go into like full-on panic mode of like okay contingency plan we're gonna do this we're gonna do that frank's like do we need to call a car for you do we need to call the army is there gonna be like a fucking rescue what is your location i'm giving all these updates and frank's like is there anything we can do for you i'm like yeah you can come pick me up i just pick my ass up i couldn't understand why your problem was becoming our problem so it's like what did we do to help you time time time time you escalated connor didn't escalate we had already talked about what we'll do if he has to do the show remotely i know i wasn't the one

who at worst we can do a zoom i was just the show remotely. I know. I wasn't the one who escalated. At worst, we can do a Zoom. I was just like, okay, okay. We're getting a little bit ahead of ourselves. There was just one moment when I had been sitting on the train, and there was just no sign of movement, and we're just stuck on an island. You see somebody walk by the train? Yeah, I'd been sitting there for an hour and 10 minutes at that point, and I was just like, all right, guys, I'm not going to lie. There's a little anxiety now cranking up of like am i good to make it into the show because like some woman asked the conductor she was like how long and he's like i've never been in this situation i have no idea

she's like hours and he's like i hope not and i'm just like so there's two things that i think of instantly with this one is like when you're on an airplane on the tarmac and it's just like oh we're delayed again the difference to me though is when you're in that scenario you almost have to just like give it up to god you're just like there's there's nothing i can do there's not even anywhere i can move i am stuck in this seat i will just sit here and just be stuck on the plane and when this plane takes off it takes off you kind of just like resign yourself on the train you're kind of like i I could just like get up. I could go. I could like leave.

The train was also outside at this point. Yeah. So like I at least did have service and like I had my book and everything like that. But like you also, I'm like, I'm like outside is right there. You're so close to humanity, but you're stuck.

That's the, it's almost like worse to me than the plane because the plane you're just like, I got nothing. It feels like this control room. Yeah. Yeah. Frankie.

The other thing I thought was like how are you how many hours away are you from forming a tribe of people that is just like we're taking over this train okay ladies and gentlemen so like as the train pulled into the station og to pick us up at like 8 20 this morning it kind of like it's lurching yeah it kind of was like lurching i was like that's weird and there was some guy that like as we're about to get on he's just like he's standing by the door he's like they ever gonna open this door they ever gonna open this fucking thing up what was going on on the entry there they get shy what was that he's like i guess we don't know how to work trains anymore i was just like i don't know where that guy ended

up but i know he was fuming miserable he was was just like, I don't know where that guy ended up, but I know he was fuming. He was fuming. The people stuck in the car with that guy were having a bad time. That was the dude that was going to like tie his tie around his forehead and form the tribe. How long for you?

Another two hours? What would it take? It's a nice sports center reference. I don't know, man. Like the good news is I had water, I had entertainment, and there are bathrooms on this train so like i can go for a long time at that point but like man i do appreciate you keeping

us up to date every moment anyway returning to that though frank and others are the ones who are escalating that gc's just like yeah i'm late again because i'm looking at the clock and i'm like come to us there's like four hours before you have to be here like it'll be fine yeah we'll be good but like i was trying to keep you updated you know because i ended up getting here like 11 30 i mean like long there was somebody who kept seeing me check my phone like i was actually still on the train at this point if you can yeah frank wasn't even i know frank's saying all this shit i'm just like frank's not even there i know you guys were all me and jordan are sitting there like this lady was sitting across the train from me and she was like oh you keep looking at your phone is everything

all right i'm like oh my co-worker he's stuck on the uh on the train from me, and she was like, oh, you keep looking at your phone. Is everything all right? I'm like, oh, my coworker, he's stuck on the train right now. She's like, oh, my God, God bless. And then your train just shuts down. And then I was like, well, they're actually towing his train back to the station. And she's like, I can't believe they're doing that. I'm so sorry. Please give him my thoughts and prayers. I love that you never gave me those, though.

I could have used them in my time here. All of this story was completely fabricated. All right, last thing I'll say, after I saw the super mangy rat. We didn't even talk about the rat. I was like looking around if anyone was seeing it, and there's a cop right there, and I was just like, you see this shit, man? And he's just like, oh, yeah, man,

that thing's not moving at all. That thing is fearless. And I was just like, what's going on over there? There's like eight cops surrounding a dude, and they're just like, oh, yeah, we're trying to apprehend this dude with a knife. And I was just like, what is going on this morning? And then just like in the-

Welcome to the yard. Yeah, over the speakers, it was like dan name frank sinatra started spreading there was a busker doing that got a little with a little cup um harrowing i have uh completely tuned all that stuff out as a native new yorker like if i saw a rat that was six feet tall i wouldn't even like flinch i'd just keep walking my body like seizes like if i saw a rat that was six feet tall i wouldn't even like flinch i'd just keep walking my body like seizes up when i see a rat yeah not even registering all right so harrowing morning for me but we made it here we made it here that's why you leave so early that's why you get here in time because you know if we hadn't mentioned anything no one would be any the wiser

uh but let's get into mixed martial arts but before we do that i just have to let you guys know we are happy to partner with nord vp Why use NordVPN? Because it's the fastest VPN in the world. So no buffering or lagging while streaming and it stops your ISP from throttling your bandwidth. NordVPN protects your private information like bank details, passwords, and online identity, including while you're traveling and using public Wi-Fi. Plus, one NordVPN account can be used on up to 10 devices. It's premium cybersecurity for the price of a cup of coffee per month. To get the best discount off your NordVPN plan, go to nordvpn.com slash uncrowned. Our link will also give you four extra months on the two-year plan.

There's no risk with Nord's 30-day money-back guarantee. Let's go ahead and get NordVPN and protect yourself while you surf the web. All right, so a few days ago, I think the episode originally came out on the 31st, the Joe Rogan podcast, the mighty, the powerful Joe Rogan podcast. Joe Rogan said on his show, on episode 2249, he talked about a rumor about Jon Jones potentially

wanting $30 million. I think we actually have a video of that. We have it right here. We have the clip. I think it's going to be Aspinall. I think they're trying to come to some sort of an agreement. The rumor is that he wants $30 million and that UFC's going to pay it. So obviously that spreads like

wildfire. A guy like Joe Rogan is saying that on the biggest podcast platform in the world. I was going to say not just in the sport, but in the world. He obviously has very close ties to Dana White. He is inside as inside gets when it comes to the UFC. People are going to run with that and be like, $30 million, that's how they get it done. Jon Jones wants $30 million. The UFC is going to pay it.

That's like blockbusters. Of course it went everywhere. That is massive news for somebody, as you said, who has that close of a relationship with the UFC, being the broadcast commentator, and having his longtime relationship with Dana White. John Jones wants $30 million. UFC is going to pay it.

That's like, oh boy, this fight is on. This fight is going to happen. From there, it gets a little hairier. From there, he has Theo Vaughn on yesterday for the latest episode of the Joe Rogan Experience, episode 2253, and he had this to say to clear up everything. I heard a rumor that Jon Jones wanted $30 million

to fight Tom Aspinall, and I did hear that rumor. You did hear that rumor. I did hear that the UFC said yes, but it is not true. So Dana contacted me and said, that rumor is bullshit. So I felt obligated to tell everybody that was a fake rumor. I don't even remember who told me. Because we did that podcast, unfortunately. We did that podcast two weeks ago.

Yeah. I don't remember who told me that. What do you think the amount is that Jon Jones would fight him for? Or do you think it's an amount? Well, apparently Jon is thinking about retiring. Yeah. And he should. I mean, he's going to have to someday.

I'm not saying he should retire. I'm saying he should think about it, give the man all the time he wants. He can fight whenever he wants to fight. That's John Jones. He's the GOAT. All right. So first things first, I do love how he's just like, yep, that's not true. So I just kind of felt obligated to tell everyone.

And then also he's like clearing up a rumor, and then he immediately starts like, yep, that's not true. So I just kind of felt obligated to tell everyone. And then also, he's like clearing up a rumor and then he immediately starts another one with, apparently Jon Jones is thinking of retiring and he's not even going to fight. Yeah.

It is a funny thing how like the word is traveling, but it's only being like furthered by Joe. Like Joe Rogan is the one who said it initially. Then Joe Rogan corrects it. Then there's a new thing

that Jon Jones is going to. It does speak to just what you were talking about earlier of the power of Joe Rogan corrects it then there's a new thing that John Jones gonna it does speak to just what you were talking about earlier of the power of Joe Rogan and his platform it's incredible I will say

like transparently I don't really think of Joe Rogan having this like responsibility to be like you know newsbreaker capital J journalist like if Joe Rogan heard a rumor and

says that I'm kind of okay with that I'm not like holding him to a standard where I'm like what Joe Rogan says is the letter of the law and he has to be right on this like i hold ariel to that standard because ariel is the best in the world he is a capital j journalist he i was gonna say he is a journalist joe rogan is not i don't i heard this yeah i don't know if it's true or not yeah and and to be fair he's also kind of throwing it out very casually right it's not

like breaking news you know so i don't necessarily have an issue with how this kind of played out. But I do understand why people hearing this from Joe Rogan, as we talked about, like his closeness to UFC would go, wow, like, okay. And first of all, the thing that stood out to me was obviously the 30 million number. I think that stood out to a lot of people, right? Because we don't talk about that number when it comes to UFC purses. That's kind of like, that's Conor McGregor and nobody else. Maybe there's somebody else who's sniffed that for some major massive fight in the past, but in most cases, even pay-per-view headliners, the biggest names in the sport are not making that figure. And so it's a massive amount of money, but then it got me thinking like, is Jon Jones worth that? So before I go to, is Jon Jones worth 30 million? Let's talk about the second part where it's Joe

Rogan retracting it. I do wonder if A, whoever he heard the rumor from was telling the truth, and that is Jon Jones's number, because we don't know. We haven't heard from Jon Jones. Jon Jones has never said, I want 30 million or I want X. He's only said, I want to be paid what I think this fight is worth. And for me to take the risk against Tom Aspinall, it's going to be worth a lot. I think we can all agree with that. That is a factual statement by John Jones. He's not ducking. He wants to get paid to take the risk. I wonder if the number is 30 million. And do you know what caused Joe Rogan is like, nah, it's bullshit. Maybe it is. Maybe it isn't. But ultimately, like maybe something happened where Joe Rogan thought

better of the idea of putting that number out there. Because again, these negotiations happen behind the scenes. This is what we see with the UFC. Jon Jones is not negotiating in public. UFC is not negotiating in public. There's a benefit to that for the UFC in that now the numbers are not out there. Other fighters don't go, I want X number. And now there is a number out there of saying John Jones wants 30 million. I'm curious what will happen if this fight ultimately does happen. If people go, so John, did you make 30 million? Because now that number's there. Now that number is out in the ether. Now that number's out there. If this fight gets made two weeks from now, I don't think it will. If this fight gets made two weeks from now, the first question I'd want to ask Jon Jones is,

so Jon, did you make $30 million to book this fight? He might play coy. Maybe he's banking $30 million, but it's all happening behind the scenes. So it's kind of just this interesting thing that happens with the UFC and their negotiations and all of this stuff. But then it got me to the second part,

which is, is Jon Jones worth $30 million as a fighter? I'll ask you, actually. In my opinion, absolutely. I mean, you heard Joe Rogan talking about it, and it tails off in that one. And he's just like, and I'm hearing that the UFC might pay the $30 million. And he's like, hopefully. I mean, I hope they pay it. It's Jon Jones.

Like, we're not talking about someone who's fighting on main cards or even in main events on pay-per-views. Like, we are talking about Jon Jones, one of the greatest fighters to ever live, period, point blank. He is one of the biggest stars that your organization has. You talked about Conor McGregor. Like, and a lot of people, when they bring this up,

it's just like, do you want to set the precedent? It's just like, if the president is Conor McGregor and John Jones, who Bruce Buffer refers to both of them as the one, the only, your goat,

and then your biggest star to ever exist, that is the precedent to get this kind of paycheck, then set the precedent. Because if someone comes to you and they're just like, well, Jon Jones got $30 million. You're not fucking Jon Jones. The immediate response from Dana White is, well, you're not fucking Jon Jones.

Jon Jones is the GOAT. You've heard me say it a million times. He's one of the biggest stars we've ever had. He is one of the greatest mixed martial artists to ever live. You're not him. So you don't get that money. There's the negotiation right there. I have never thought of that. That's a great response. Cause I've never thought of there's the, the, the exception becoming Conor McGregor plus John Jones. I've never thought

of it that way, but it's actually brilliant because you're only probably gonna have to pay John Jones this once or twice. Like that's pretty much it. Like, and who knows if you ever have to pay Conor McGregor it again. Right. Like, so actually that's fascinating. I never thought like you would just expand the, here's the exception rule to include John Jones, but that's actually a fascinating way you could look at it. And I think the UFC could kind of skate and potentially figure that out. I was fascinated on Tuesday, Ariel spoke to Kevin Lee who had just recently signed with the GFL and he spoke to Kevin Lee. And in the midst of talking about transparency in MMA and MMA contracts, he was talking about the fact that the GFL has been very upfront with them, right?

These are the terms. Here's what we're going to pay you. Negotiating the same way with kind of everybody across the board. He spoke about how important that transparency is. And in the midst of that answer, he said something very fascinating to me that I wanted to play. So this is from Ariel's interview with Kevin Lee on Tuesday. We're kind of at a tipping point. If I'm a 16-year-old guy

who's an extreme athlete, I got some choices to make. Okay, do I go NFL where there's guaranteed contracts? Do I go UFC where there's guaranteed contracts? Do I go UFC where, you know, there's a hope and a dream, but there's a lot of storylines even today in 2025 that you see you got to be a number one pound for pound fighter for 10 plus years, be the youngest UFC champion ever, and fight all guys from Brazil and Ireland and, you know, Australia,

Europe, you got to fight everybody. And then you maybe be able to fight yourself for 30 million and people are going to drag you through the mud and say that you're not worth this. And you've been the UFC's top pound for pound fighter forever. Or do you go another route and you go you know down to mexico you have 18 fights against a a bartender and a plumber and then you come back to the to the u.s you have about three or four good fights and then you fight ryan garcia and you make 30 million and nobody bats an eye no people even say that you got paid that you got gypped on it. I'm talking about Dana Haney versus John

Jones. If I'm 16 years old and I'm looking at these stats and I'm looking at these numbers, at the end of the day, if you want to recruit very, very high-level athletes, the black and white's got to be there. These people ain't going to put their lives on the line and go through the pain of becoming a top fighter for what? I was stunned when he was saying this because it made me think so many, like it was such a thoughtful answer. Shout out to Kevin Lee. Like he's always been one of the guys I really liked when Ariel interviews because he really does think about the sport in a way that's just beyond like his own career. There's certainly the like, where does Kevin Lee fit into this stuff?

And whether you, what you think of Kevin Lee's ups and downs in his career and some of that. But he's always been a thoughtful person who thinks about like the business of the industry. And a few things. First of all, like how about the shade for Devin Haney? Just being like, you go fight some bartenders in Mexico and then you come back and fight Garcia and you're 30 million. At first, I thought he was talking just generally. And then he's just like, and then you come back and write Ryan Garcia. It's like, he's talking about Devin Haney.

The shade at Devin Haney was incredible. But there's a lot of things that you can really look at there. For one, there's him talking about the price tag for Jon Jones. Think of how crazy it is that Jon Jones, as he very eloquently laid out, Jon Jones is the GOAT of our sport. He is the best of all time. And he, it is a debate whether he can get 30 million. What? How is this a conversation to even be having the fact that John Jones can't make 30 million? John Jones should have been making 30 million 15 fights ago. Like there's just no planet where you are that good at your sport.

If LeBron James's contract, if Patrick Mahomes' contract, pick your favorite best athlete in any sport. If there was a debate whether they should be paid like 4X, like the middle tier, it would be comical. It would be comical to be debating whether this person should make this amount of money. If Shohei Otani's contract or Aaron Judge's contract was on the table, it would be comical if we were talking about these numbers when you do the comparison. So that's even within the sport. I'm talking just like Jon Jones versus Fighter X. He should be making infinitely more because of what he does for the value of the brand, what he does for the value of bringing people into the arena. It just does not scale that way in the UFC's model. That's one thing

I thought immediately. Second, I thought, okay, comparison to boxing. He's not wrong. The boxing headliners make infinitely more and are not nearly as good as somebody like a John Jones or a Conor McGregor at bringing people into the arena, selling pay-per-views, right? We look at Tank Davis. Tank Davis is kind of a pay-per-view star and a draw. He's selling like 300,000. In his prime, John Jones was cracking off million buy pay-per-views on the regular. Conor McGregor was selling millions in his sleep. And it's just like, these guys can't sniff the type of paydays that boxing is making. It's another reminder of that. Well, what's so crazy is that you mentioned this comparison of boxing and UFC. It's just like, not only are $30 million paydays, have they happened in boxing? They happen regularly and

people have gone way, way more than that. Like, I mean, Floyd Mayweather, some of these paydays, you're talking about nine figures, Eight figure deals in boxing is a regular where in UFC it feels like that would be breaking the bank. That would be changing the game

if that happened. And like you said, man, is Jon Jones not a bigger star than Oleksandr Usyk globally? Yeah. Jon Jones is putting

more asses in seats than Oleksandr Usyk and Oleksandr Usyk over the course of this year made generational life-changing wealth between two fights

against Tyson Fury. Also making generational wealth. Oh, and he lost both of them. And he made enough money for him to retire, his kids to retire, and his kids' kids to retire off of two fights. Why does Jon Jones not deserve the same? 100%. And what makes this conversation fascinating,

and even a conversation, is the shadowy element of the UFC's pay. Even the reported purses that we have rarely gotten in certain jurisdictions, right, that certain commissions release it, those are not the real pay. We all know this. There's no, like, you see the yellow numbers on Twitter. I was just about to say, the graphic with the yellow numbers is from an unverified account with Charles Oliveira as their profile picture and they have like 2,300 followers. Those aren't legit. You'll never believe it but those are fake.

I thought those came straight from the commission. I thought that was dollars and cents. We saw the checks written out. You'll never believe it but those are fake. Oh, wow.

But we know so little about what is actually being paid. The fighters are not incentivized to talk about it because they want to continue to get paid that from the UFC.

We really like, we actually have no idea. We know nothing. We have no idea. I believe Conor McGregor posted his check from one of the Dustin Poirier fights

and that's like the most kind of intel we've ever gotten on what, like, a superstar could truly make. But you look no further than Francis Ngannou who said, like,

the UFC offered me this. I made this to fight Tyson Fury as a direct point of comparison and it's just multipliers of what he was going to make now they had escalations for if you fight John Jones it'll be this much but we're starting to see just like this disparity and I wonder how long this can last the other

thing that Kevin Lee um his answer to Ariel made me think about is the talent in sports is going to stop coming to the UFC at some point. If the pay does not change, to his point, I can go box. Francis Ngannou just did it for a higher payday. And you don't have to be as good. Sorry, you don't have to be as high a profile star to make that kind of money. If I'm an athlete, why would I not go to the NFL or the NBA or even MLB where the contracts are just so much higher? The lack of transparency, the lack of structure around this to me is a detriment to getting the premier talent. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not about to tell you that the UFC is not doing good business. The UFC is doing incredible business. They are running this the way they need to run this as

a business. No doubt in my mind. There's a reason why this upcoming rights deal is going to be what it's for. But if you're an athlete, that calculus changes. As Kevin Lee said, if you are an athlete, you know what the ceiling on that amount of money you're going to make. If I become John Jones, maybe I can beg for 30 million. In any other sport, if you become the go to the sport, you're making hundreds, if not billions of dollars by the time inflation hits the contracts that we're talking about. By the time your career is over. By the time your career is over, your career earnings. It's just a bizarre scenario that we continue to find ourselves in. I wonder if the tide will ever change on it. I do think that if the UFC's amount of money, not even to say the UFC should be paying what MLB or NBA or whatever pay.

I'm not even going to go that direction. But if the UFC's amount of money that they are paying the athletes does not scale commensurate with those other sports. Meaning like if we paid John Jones 5 million and they paid LeBron James 100 million, 10 years from now, LeBron's contract is now worth 50% more. If they don't pay that 50% more, you're going to start losing premier athletes. You're not going to get a John Jones, which is crazy because they should. Well, think about the issues that they've had. Cedric Dumbay ended up signing with the PFL. Paul Hughes ended up signing with the PFL.

And I would attribute both of those to money. I think I'm almost certain that's why Paul Hughes did it. And then Dumbay, there was some medical stuff that got complicated as well. Anyway, what if you lose out on that star star that ends up turning into a star and you just missed out on it? Another thing that I did want to mention is just like, look at BKFC. Dave Feldman mentioned yesterday, we're finally in the black. The UFC obviously has no issues with getting in the black.

They're running an incredible business. They put on incredible shows week after week after week. I'm not trying to give any advice to the UFC on how they run their business because they are absolutely killing it. But then go from BKFC and look at what Riyad Season and Turkey Al-Sheikah do. They're putting together all these incredible fights by paying their guys. And if you're not going to continue to raise the bar and raise the number of these massive stars fighting,

we may start losing out on those big fights, and there's a danger of it becoming into that boxing territory. If we miss out on Jon Jones and Francis Ngannou, and then we miss out on Jon Jones and and there's a danger of it becoming into that boxing territory if we miss out on uh john jones and francis and gano and then we miss out on john jones and tom aspinall and what if it starts leeching into the other divisions as well and it's not just an issue with john jones it could become problematic down the line you another fantastic point by you i do wonder and i think i mentioned this at some point maybe in the last year i do wonder if saudi arabia changes that right if all of a sudden they go, I'm going to foot the bill, does the UFC actually want that though?

Does the UFC want Saudi Arabia to go, I'll give $30 million. $30 million? That's a discount from what I'm paying in boxing. $30 million to get Jon Jones versus Tom Aspinall? Take it. Because as Ariel laid out also, I believe it was yesterday when he was answering questions on On The Nose, that's $30 million for John.

What do you got to pay Tom? Five? Ten? Yeah, most ten, right? Like he's not making the paydays that John Jones is getting. Because you know why? Because if he went into the office and Tom was like, I want $30 million too, John Jones is getting paid $30 million.

Yeah, why would he be like, you're not John Jones. You're not John. That's what he would say. And also, I get the sense that Tom is the type of guy that he'd do it for free because he knows he's going to beat John Jones

and he just wants to do it. But, and that's kind of a problem with the economics of this, but. Because, don't get me wrong. From my standpoint,

the only thing that is keeping this from happening is money. Yeah. So just pay him. I wonder though if the UFC wants Saudi Arabia to go

we'll foot the bill because now John Jones is worth 30 million, right? Now all of a sudden, but do you want John Jones, Tom Aspinall in Saudi Arabia? We've seen some of those. I'll take Tom Aspinall.

I know. I know. My basement. We've seen some of those crowds for, for like the PFL, you know, I guess the UFC will garner bigger attention. Yeah.

I just, I, man, the whole thing's got me thinking all these different directions. I mean, the fighting landscape is just crazy right now. It's an insane space. How are you getting involved? And now you've got guys like Jon Jones demanding $30 million.

Potentially, that rumor actually is not true. Who knows what he's actually demanding? Exactly. This is all a theoretical, hypothetical conversation. I think there's a few things that I do know, though, with 100% certainty. Jon Jones will make you a profit if you pay him $30 million. The UFC is going to profit. The UFC is going to profit.

The UFC will make money on paying Jon Jones $30 million. The gate alone, let's say it's not in Saudi, right? Let's say the UFC just flits the bell. If you take this to Vegas, if you take this to MSG, you take this to Cowboy Stadium, Raider Stadium. Yeah, Legion Stadium. This is making you the money, guaranteed. And so it's almost this farcical thing of like, is Jon Jones worth 30 million? Jon Jones worth 10x that. It's just crazy. But the economics are so off. Either way, ultimately, I'm thinking about that.

But my bigger takeaway was actually two things. One, I think the UFC is about to start running into a star problem, which is, and people have said this before, when GSP and Anderson Silva were on the way out, it was like, how are they going to ever replace them? And then it's like, oh shit, Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey just came. Whoops. Like there is no star problem. I think they are going to start running into a star problem this time. If the economics don't scale, as I said, if you start losing out on those premier athletes, if you lose out on the next John Jones because they could be a boxer instead or because they could play in the NBA or the NFL instead, that is a real problem. That is a true problem. And especially right now where there's a lack of American, top American fighters, which is something that's important to the kind of infrastructure of this industry inside the United States. Now, the UFC should pride itself on how global a sport it is. Wow, I just called the UFC a sport. On how global a sport MMA is and

how global the roster is for the UFC. But it's also an important thing to bring the people to those markets. You bring the people to Australia, you bring the people to the other markets that you're trying to open up. The US is your main market still. And so you need American stars as well. The biggest American star has got to be Sean O'Malley, maybe, or like… Sean O'Malley, Sean Strickland, and Michael Chandler? Yeah. Top three American stars? John Jones, of course, obviously.

John, but he's one or two, right? We're not going to have him for much longer. You really need to refresh that. You really need to think about how you're going to court these next American stars. Well, think about Ilya Teporya. Imagine if they do go to Spain. Imagine if they do a stadium show in Spain. How long is it before Ilya Teporya, especially if he keeps winning and he's an undefeated champion

and he has this unbelievable aura and he puts asses in seats like no one else. How long is it before he's like, all right, I need $30 million to fight? Not long. He seems to be following that Connor plan. Hanging out with Sergio Ramos. He's just like, what were your contracts like, Sergio? That's the other thing. They're hobnobbing with these other athletes in other sports.

And it's just like, wait, you get paid that? You get paid that? You're going to lose. Francis Ngannou and Shohei Otani sharing the belt. Shohei's just like, it's a dollar, bro. $700 million for Shohei. So I think to wrap it all up. Yeah.

Pay him. Pay him. That's my vote. But even more than that, for the long-term health of the UFC's company, but also the sport of MMA, something needs to change in order to continue to court the top level athletes that exist. Also moving forward, does it not give an inspiration to a new generation of like, I'm going to become the next John Jones and I'm going to be getting paid $35, $40, $50 million a fight? That was Kevin Lee's point. If I'm 16 and I'm like, damn, John Jones the GOAT is begging for $30 million? And it's just like, meanwhile, I could go to this sport and I'm guaranteed $30 million?

It's just different economics. It's just crazy. There's a guy, Richardson Hitchenson, in boxing who loves Floyd Mayweather and everything. everything and it's just like i want to be like floyd i want to be money mayweather i want to get better than that guy like to be your own promoter and to be the fighter nobody's done it better than that guy absolutely economics wise uh i said how crazy the fighting landscape is and how wild combat sports is it's just this ever-changing landscape uh we saw dana white joined the board of directors at meta obviously. Obviously, they own Facebook, Instagram, Zuckerberg. They are a powerhouse in the pocket of Dana White. Dana White is very quickly becoming one of the most powerful men in sports, one of the most powerful men in American business. He is now close to other

powerful people, Mark Zuckerberg being very powerful, the other people on the meta board obviously being powerful, the TKO, the executives being very powerful, his proximity to Donald Trump, his proximity to Joe Rogan. His proximity to Elon Musk. His proximity. He was walking out with Elon Musk at 3.09. Trump friends with Musk. Right.

Trump friends with Dana. He has to be fairly close with Zuckerberg to not only do this, but they had that night at the Apex a few years ago where Zuckerberg rented it out. Yeah, it is crazy how powerful he is becoming and not only just the the power that comes with just you know being around other rich and powerful people but also the control of not not the control of um but the influence on platforms

right joe rogan is a media platform unto himself at this point meta Meta is a social media platform. X, you talked about Elon Musk, X, and he's two steps removed from that. Dana White is positioning himself in a way that is very close to all these different powers within the global landscape and the influence that could be on that. It's just a fascinating story.

I don't think we'll know much of like how he will day-to-day be involved in the meta business and things like that. But from a meta perspective, Dana White is a super hot property right now. He's a great person for you to say, hey, I'm announcing that this guy who was the first person to speak at Trump's victory speech is now part of our board of directors. There's a lot of interesting things that could come from this. It's too early, much like it was when Elon bought Twitter

and turned it into X and everybody was like, what does this mean for the platform? It's just too early days to kind of know, but it's an interesting story. We talked about

how many people he's hobnobbing with that are just like so high up and powerful in this sphere of space, tech, whatever. Yeah, like all the influence he has. And I have no idea what the answer to this is.

Is there any world where he just becomes so busy and entrenched and passionate about these other projects that he's eventually just like, I'm going to be an overseer of the UFC, but I'm going to hand off the presidential duties to Hunter Campbell or someone else? Are we not already there? Like he's still the mouthpiece, right?

He's still the promoter. mouthpiece right he's still the the promoter he still comes out in front of the cameras and answers the questions but like the real business at this point is being done by hunter campbell yeah um the stuff behind the scenes the x's and o's that's not glamorous the man in the trench coat smoking cigs in the shadows he's he's doing that and and that's not to say like dina i i'm not trying to uh suggest that dana white doesn't do anything he is very valuable to the ufc of course there's a reason he's in the position he's in and continues to be but i do i i i don't think it's any secret that it feels like his passion is elsewhere right with with the power slap stuff and now he's getting on a board of directors for another

like it just seems like he has he has kind of mastered mma at this point like dana white took this from he and the fortitas took it from something that was about to go out of business into a multi-billion dollar monopoly at this point. And so, well, not according to the courts. Not according to the courts, but they own the MMA space. And so, yeah, I wonder how much motivation there even is at that point. He still provides a lot of value to the UFC, in my opinion. He's such a recognizable face. He's one of their biggest stars. I talk about a star problem. He's one of their stars. He is one of their biggest stars. And so he still provides a tremendous amount of value. But he doesn't need to be doing the deals and doing the contracts and let Hunter Campbell handle the negotiations with Francis Ngannou and let Hunter Campbell do these things. And so, yeah, I don't imagine that his passion is as high for this as some of the new things. He kind of conquered all that already. So I think we're already there.

But it would be fascinating to see if he ever even goes further away from it. Now he's not at the press conference. That's what I'm saying. Instead, he's focusing on other businesses. That would be a fascinating kind of move. Right. Does he get to that point where it's just like, all right, Hunter Campbell's doing the press conferences and stuff like that? Or is it going to be like Bob Arum or like Dana White's TV5?

Yeah, he's just there. He's still just there. Like, what's up, everyone? We'll have to? Or is it going to be like Bob Arum or like Dana White's 85 and he's still just there like, what's up everyone? We'll have to see. It's going to be a fascinating year. That with the rights deal coming up. Oh man, the rights deal. Talk about getting more power players involved. Dude. If they have a split of Netflix and Amazon and ESPN

Plus, it could get really insane. Yeah, and we just saw the launch of WWE on Netflix, which in the u.s is going to have raw and everywhere else it's everything every wwe property globally is with netflix um tko owner uh owners of wwe tko owners of ufc you have to think that there's a relationship there now they can have a nice cushy landing spot on netflix like there's a lot of interesting moves that are going to happen business-wise in this next little bit the only question i don't have

or wonder about is i know business is booming business is booming you'll see at an incredible they're doing they got one john jones fight and no connor mcgregor fights and they've had the most incredible business year in history and i guess like the the thing is like we talk about the stars but it's just like, look who emerged. Ilya Taboria has now blown up. Alex Pereira, as hot as the sun right now. And it's just like, it's just kind of like people step up. The brand is so strong that they will find ways to manufacture those stars.

Even if they are not, but my focus when I say they're going to have a star problem is not necessarily that I don't think that they'll have somebody that they can say, you're our champion, carry our belt. It's truly in the idea that like John Jones is a once in a lifetime type athlete. And if you miss out on enough of those guys, it's going to hurt. You need to get those types of guys. LeBron James should have to think about, am I going to go play football, basketball, or be an MMA fighter? You want that to be an actual decision that somebody has to make. Francis Ngannou, his dream was to box, but going to MMA and signing with the UFC was a way that he found a way to it. He should be thinking, I want to be in the UFC, not I want to be a boxer and

I'm going to use the UFC as a leverage point to go into boxing. It should be the desire. It should be the location that you want to be if you are somebody in that spot. If you are an elite, elite, elite athlete, Gable Steveson, Gable Steveson, Steveson, wow, should not, I want to say should, so I'm slipping it in there, should not be thinking about WWE,

Olympics. It should be, I'm going to the UFC. And know that it's possible as a league. Look at the NFL. Any good football players going to the NFL, alright, you can say that's it's possible as a league. Look at the NFL. Any good football players going to the NFL, all right, you can say that's because it's mainly American sport. Look at the NBA. The best players are in the NBA, whether you want to admit that or not.

International right now. No, it's the NBA. That is where the best players dream to go. That is where the best players go. That is where the best players play. Same thing with the MLB. Look at Shoya Otani. He's not playing in the Japanese league because the money is insane.

The star power is insane. Just the growth you can get from coming to these. The UFC can be the same. The UFC can absolutely be the same way. You can run it like that. Their rights deals are going to be on the same platforms as these other rights holders. The talent should be commensurate. And we should be seeing the best of the best athletes in the UFC.

Or if a competitor emerges, if the PFL is able to get it together and become an actual viable competitor, I want to see them there too. I want to see them across this sport. Perfect segue. As we're talking about pay, you mentioned the PFL. Last night we got a confirmation, originally first reported by Al Zolino, then confirmed by our team over at Uncrowned, that the PFL will now be cutting their tournament winners checks in half from a million dollars, the big gold million dollar check, down to $500,000, which is understandable from the sense that it didn't feel like giving out $6 million checks year after year after year was going to be something that was sustainable for a promotion that's, like Dave Filmon said, trying to get into the black, trying to become like a profitable organization and really build your legs and become a competitor to the UFC. But man, in my opinion,

this is a tough look just because A, now from the fighter standpoint, it's like, damn, you want me to fight four times a year and now you're going to cut the winnings in half instead of doubling them? You're going to do that? And then B, from a marketing standpoint, that is like a pillar of their marketing is that, oh, it's the richest night in MMA. We give out $6 million checks, million-dollar winner, million, million, million, million. $500,000 does not have the same cachet to it.

Completely agree with you. I have a proposal for you. Let's hear it. If they had said to you, we heard you, we're listening, tournaments are done. No more tournaments. tournaments tournaments are out Bellator PFL

join the rosters together we're gonna put on the absolute best fights you've ever seen nobody would have said a word about those checks nobody would have batted an eye

about those checks not only do you go from a million to 500,000 scrap them all together scrap them gone we don't do tournaments anymore. Don't need them. Know what we do?

Our business is putting on the absolute best fights with the best fighters in the world. From an optics standpoint, that would have been the way to go if I was doing it now. I certainly understand. They might have some

contractual obligations where for ESPN's broadcast rights, it has to be in this format. It has to be in a tournament. There have to be ways to creatively kind of solve these problems. I don't understand why these tournaments even exist i truly don't need them you don't need

what do you need to got i want every athlete to get paid the most amount of money they they can but from a fan perspective from somebody who is watching these products and and consumes them i don't care about these tournaments. I don't care. And the fighter getting 500K... We don't care. Thank you, Frank. The fighter getting 500K is just kind of like bad optics. It's a slap in the face.

As you said, if I'm a fighter who previously competed, now my only opportunity is to get 500K, just get rid of it. What does Dakota Ditchewa say to that?

It's just like, so now you want me to fight four times again for half? Yeah. Like, why would I do that? Meanwhile, she's already got her eye on the UFC and these bigger fights and sees that eventual payday. Every fighter believes they're going to be the Jon Jones, and every fighter believes they're going to get that payday. It's not always going to happen for them.

But when you're somebody like Dakota where it feels realistic, where you could be one of the best ever, you can't just abide by that. And so if I was in the shoes, I think the way I would have solved that problem is just get rid of it altogether. Make that check zero. I'm going to pay you your purse, but we're going to up the purses. You're going to fight against this guy. The biggest fights on the biggest stages, we're going full bore into 2025, and you're never going to believe what we're going to put on for you. You solved all the problems right there.

No more tournament, no more separation, no more patchy mix being like, while you guys are doing this stupid tournament over here, I'm on the sidelines. I can't even get a fight. Great. We're going to fight you four times this year because now we freed up the entire roster to do it. As I said, I'm sure that they have their own business problems to solve. I'm sure there are some potential contractual obligations where maybe the tournament is how they've sold these things as separate products and it's tied to the broadcasting. It feels

like handcuffs at this point to me. It feels like golden handcuffs, right? You're getting the broadcast money, but you're hurting your product. You're hurting your brand. You're hurting it bad, man. When was the last time the UFC did a tournament? When was the last time boxing did a tournament? There's a reason it's not a mainstay. You don't need it. Not in this format. Not in this way. It's also like the matchups that we get from the tournament are not intriguing enough.

It's not like, oh, well, we're getting this and that. Well, that's the downside of the tournament. The positive of tournament is it's a meritocracy, kind of. Again, they get to choose some of the matchups, right? They say, oh, we're going to match these people up before the playoffs. So they do have some influence. But it's a meritocracy. The best wins.

At the end of the tournament, the best wins. That's the positive. The negative is if the one that everybody wants to see loses in the first round or loses before they even make the playoffs. Shane Burgos. Yeah, you get no fights from them.

And then bending the rules to get Shane Burgos in. Yeah, you don't get their fights. And so that's the negative. That's the downside. You can't manipulate who's fighting who. It just doesn't make sense anymore for me.

And so this drop from a million to 500, doesn't make sense anymore for me. And so this drop from a million to 500,000 is kind of academic for me. It's not academic for the fighters. And I don't think it's a great thing that they're going to potentially not be able to compete for another half of that million. Peanut gallery real quick? Yeah. Please, Frank. Doesn't it almost make the million dollar purse that much more valuable now? The people who were grandfathered in, like, oh, I remember when I got paid a million for that.

Do you want that? Do you want that at your organization? I don't think it's good for the future, but I have to say from Dakota right now, it's like, damn, I'm glad I got in there when that iron was hot, because it certainly isn't anymore. Yeah, but Dakota's still on their roster, and now if you're Dakota, you're looking at 500k potentially. You're looking at

Kayla Harrison, who was just like, yeah, back in my day, we got the million dollar checks, and now I'm in the at 500k potentially you're looking at kayla harrison who was just like yeah back in my day we got the million dollar checks right it's like i was about to fight for a title yeah right it's it's it's not a good optic look again i mean i don't know how many times i could beat this drum i would just scrap the whole thing with you man if they had just scrapped everything and just been like we're starting with pfl1 and we're just going to start putting on great cards from here like it's just like not only does the tournament everything everything gets so convoluted how could you remember that it was just like well you remember that great fight on the prelims of pfl europe 3 in 2022 it's just like there's no like you can't like attach yourself to any of these events or anything it's all just so discombobulated and it's just like kind of just like random fights

thrown together at times it's very don Don Davis has been criticized, right? Don Davis has been criticized as not being necessarily a fight fan. He put himself in hot water in certain scenarios where he said, like, I don't watch fights. I only watch the PFL,

and I don't... He's done a little bit of damage to his reputation within the fight space with that, but it feels more like a business than a love letter to MMA. You know, the PFL structure right now feels more like a business than a love letter to MMA. The PFL structure right now feels more like we've got all these vertical integrations that we can market in this. It feels like

running a corporation as opposed to running a fight league. That is my outside perspective on how I view what is happening with the PFL is like, we've got all these different levers that we can monetize. That's great, but you're not going to be able to monetize them for very long if you don't make the best fights, and if you don't pay your fighters, and if you don't figure out ways to get fight fans to care. You can monetize all those individual things all you want. You've got six different options that you can monetize. If people don't care about it, you can't monetize it for anything. It's worth zero. So you need to figure out as a fight product how you are going to improve it. And so that's where I stand with PFL.

Meanwhile, BKFC just quietly banging the drum over there about to sell out 18,000 at Wells Fargo for Knuckle Mania 5. Yeah, Ariel's talked about this recently. Who is he talking to? He was talking to, it might have been Kevin Lee again. He was saying how the Strikeforce model in the early days was you sell local athletes who are going to move the tickets, and then you put the big headliners that you have to pay the most money on top so that the TV product is great, and you've figured out this kind of thing. The thing that made Strikeforce ultimately valuable in that regard is they're kind of just

walking until they can run, right? You don't have to come out of the gates and sprint and say, we're acquiring Bellator, and we're going to give them seven fights each and everybody's going to get their contract. It just feels like a lot of putting the cart before the horse at the moment. I am optimistic that if the PFL can figure this out, they have a very strong roster. There's a, outside of the UFC, you're looking at the clear number two, in my opinion, I just wonder what being the number two is worth business wise. It's going to be interesting. So I don't know, maybe the PFL will shove it in my face. They might be in the black this year and have a super successful, successful business year, but I'm concerned about, I'm concerned about the optics of the $500,000 tournament checks.

When that's not the problem. The problem isn't that you're paying these guys an extra half a million. That's not the problem. The problem is that there's a tournament to begin with. The problem is that the fighters like Patchy Mix, the ones that people are dying to see, can't even get a fight. Patricio Pitbull can't even get a fight. It just feels like they can't get out of their own way.

You're picking the wrong thing to focus on. This is not the solution for anything. The solution is whatever money you did save, that should be going to Patchy Mick so he can get in the damn cage. That should be going to Patricio Pitbull. Hopefully. Maybe it is. Maybe that's the answer. Maybe they were watching this laughing and they're like, ah, we got a plan. Little did

they know. And I hope they do. I truly do. Me too. Me too. You love to see the competition. All right. UFC back this weekend. Scale of 1 to 10, how excited are you for this one?

UFC Vegas 101. We returned to the warehouse in the desert for the first time since November. UFC Apex 100. I was going to say, 100 felt like a lifetime ago. So I was surprised that this was 101. Yeah. So like they said that they were going to do renovations, but I don't know if they're done yet.

I think they're doing like $20 million in renovations. And Dana's like, you're going to start picking up on what we're doing here. I don't know exactly what they got planned, but regardless, we're back in the Apex. It is not over. Yes, we're back in the Apex. I'm excited about this from the perspective that like

it's a signifier of like, yeah, return to normalcy a bit. Like it feels like it has been a very long time since we've had a UFC card, but the card itself,

I'm not exactly like thrilled about over the moon, but next week, I mean. Oh my goodness. This is just like an appetite.

This is actually like you're at a fancy dinner. You know, you're about to get a, a 24 ounce Porter house, like a fantastic meal, everything, all the, all the trimmings,

everything you could ever want. And right now they're just walking around with, with some orders before, before the meal gets started, before you have your seat, because that's fine. Yeah. We got fights back.

We're going to get to watch live fights this weekend. And then next week we're going to get to watch live fights this weekend. And then next week, we're going to get an absolutely unbelievable card. I almost wanted to sit here and spend time talking about 311. But we can save that for next week. We can save that for next week.

Because we have a rematch that we have been waiting ages for since 2019. Mackenzie Dern taking on Amanda Hibas. Mackenzie Dern, yes, coming off a win, but a fairly bad run of late. I think she's three and four in her last seven. Amanda Hiba has kind of been hot and cold, winning, losing.

But she did beat Mackenzie Dern back in 2019. Not a ton of stakes attached to this one, but a solid main event. It's always interesting when Mackenzie Dern gets in there just because of how skilled she is grappling and how tough she is. You usually get an exciting fight when Mackenzie Dern's in there. Yeah, totally skilled she is grappling and how tough she is uh you know you usually get an exciting fight when mackenzie turns in there yeah totally what's you you mentioned the first fight what's important to note i'm looking at the at the records now i'm looking at the typology she was that lone loss um when mackenzie darn went on that run when mackenzie was like at her at her apex when she was really firing on all cylinders so that says nice words there yeah when

uh that says something about where rebus is at and and you know how i'm kind of viewing this matchup i think she's a decent size favorite and so um i'm i'm interested you know mackenzie duran's one of those that like no matter where she falls in the in the standings in the rankings like people want to see her fight she's first of all she's an incredibly exciting uh fighter from both she's willing to stand there and trade with people on the feet, even though that's not her expertise. And when she gets on the ground, it's like watching a magician kind of do tricks. And so she delivers regardless of kind of like what you think about her championship aspirations. I know there are a lot out there.

I believe on Crown's very own Shaheen Alshadi was one of those people that was like, Mackenzie is going to be the champ. I don't think we're ever looking at that. what i do know with every mackenzie durn fight is like you're gonna get a scrap like we will see a decent fight and she delivers in that regard um and he must is kind of the same like he must as an action fighter like she's not just gonna go out there and make it a boring uh competition so i'm i'm like decently excited about this fight but i recognize like i don't think there's much on the line here. I'm not expecting big fallout. Right.

Hebus is eight. Mackenzie Dern is six. But if you look at the rankings, Dern has losses to five in Lemos, four in Andrade, two in Yanjiao Nan. And then you have to think Tatiana Suarez is next. Mackenzie Dern is several fights away from fighting for the title.

So I think it'll be fun. It'll be fun. I mean, Amanda Hibas will come in there and throw as well. Any intrigue, I mean, I am a known Dern fader, but mostly because we would get Dern at big favorite rods.

You get it at a nice price. Yeah, right now, Hibas minus 189, Dern plus 164. I mean, could be interesting. On which side? I mean, the only way I'm betting this is if I'm betting the underdog.

There's no way I'm taking Amanda Hewitt as a minus 190. Especially against McKenzie Dern because every time I've bet against McKenzie Dern, it literally gives you, well,

that's the best part is that people are like, they always demand that you bet McKenzie Dern sub when she hasn't had one since April of 2021. But like, every time like the Yan-Zhang Nan fight, the amount of times that like it almost looked like Yan was about Dern subbed when she hasn't had one since April of 2021. But, like, every time, like, the Yan-John-Ann fight,

the amount of times that, like, it almost looked like Yan was about to get subbed. And then, like, Jessica Andrade kind of gave it to her sort of to Mandela much. But it's always scary betting against McKenzie Dern. So I'm not taking a minus 190 against her. I get it. I totally get it. It feels like one to sit out probably, but. A co-main event? Yeah.

Big Santiago Ponzinibbio taking on carlston harris uh you know good to see carlston harris back man he's he's a solid mixed martial artist uh you know rough outing in 2024 got knocked out in the first round but first time i remember watching him was actually against shopcott and like people were like this might be the guy to give shopcott his first loss uh ended up not happening um as we know uh but he put together a couple wins after that and then panza nibio is just always down for a scrap as well. Yeah. He's kind of like a man to he-bust.

Like, he'll just come in there and just throw. And been around for so long. And just one of these guys that continues to kind of just be in that, like, mix around the bottom part of the rankings. A bit of a, you know, a clash of styles in this one. I feel like I lean Ponzinibbio, but I don't know. What do you one. But I feel like I lean Ponzinibbio, but I don't know. What do you think?

Yeah, I think I go Ponzinibbio. They're about the same size. They're about the same age. They're kind of old. They've both kind of been on bad runs. Like, Ponzinibbio's one and four

in his last five. Carlson Harris, two and three in his last five. But, yeah, I'd go Ponzinibbio to get it done. And in terms of

who they face over their careers, though, obviously the experience edge is with Ponzinibbio. Oh, it's far, far, far with Ponzinibbio. You in. And in terms of who they face over their careers, though, obviously the experience edge is with Pantinibbio. Far, far, far with Pantinibbio. You know, a couple other interesting ones. I do Razak Alhassan versus Cesar Almeida.

It feels like it could be exciting. Could be. You know, sometimes I used to just only bet unders on Razak Alhassan. Yeah. And then he went to several decisions, and then you kind of start realizing there's a real chance these go these go to decisions yeah it's one of those things where it's like you know that he's gonna empty the gas tank early and you you think maybe he'll gas out and get finished but then sometimes the level of competition isn't equipped to make him kind of like get

finished um and so yeah that that's a dicey game but i could also see a world where he just comes in there and throws one haymaker and it lights out because he has that kind of like nuclear power. One that's actually a real, a real scrap is Chris Curtis versus Roman Kapilov. I mean, like if these guys just, just trade on the feet, then this should be a pretty exciting fight. I mean, Chris Curtis, a lot more of a counter puncher, but like, I think Kapilov will bring the fight to him and, and both these dudes can get finishes. What's the current line on that one? Like, let me tell you right now. Curtis is the dog. Copy Love minus 251.

Chris Curtis plus 211. I'll be honest. I feel like there's probably some value on Curtis there, right? Like it just feels like this is closer to a coin flip for me. Maybe I'm off there. Maybe my read's a little bit off. I know Copy Love. Remember, Copy Love was hot going in to the Anthony Hernandez

fight. Yeah and uh then obviously i mean hernandez is just a different type of yeah and like and gave him a loss but he bounced back against cesar almeida got a got a split decision one chris curtis has a way of just making really good guys not look good though sometimes like he like as you said really good counter striker can be patient if you're pressing the action he's gonna come back and look pretty decent. So I expect that Kapilov is going to try to come at him. I kind of like Curtis as a dog. I don't know if I like him outright, but I do feel like dog, he's decent there.

Well, I mean, I believe it was either, yeah, it was 2021 when he returned to the UFC. He came in against Phil Hawes, cashed as a massive underdog with a huge knockout and then fought Brendan Allen and cashed as a massive underdog again, plus 280. He was in the running for most profitable of the year at the MMA Awards that year.

So, like, he is no stranger to being a dog. Yeah. And then fought Brendan Allen again last year in a rematch, went all five rounds with him, thought he won that fight. Yeah, close. As another big dog, lost a split. So, like, I wouldn't blame you for taking Chris Curtis as a dog. It's kind of like McKenzie Dern.

That's like where you want to be betting him at. Yeah. And as I said, he, he tends to make like fights that are this way on the betting odds look closer. You know, Brendan Allen was as hot as hot could be at the time that you're talking

about. Six by one street. Chris Curtis was plus 200 going into that one. Yeah. Like he, he, he has a way I might be getting talked into. I like it.

Uh, Christian speaking of big dogs, man, Christian Rodriguez, after he got the win over Raul Rosas, seemed to be the darling of the division. Now, against Austin Bashi, he is a plus 225, Bashi minus 265. Damn, I wasn't familiar with your game, Bashi. Like, that's massive to be over Christian Rodriguez. I mean, he's undefeated 13-0, but man, he's making his UFC debut.

Yeah, dude. He's coming off the Contender Series four months ago. Rodriguez is a sneaky dog. I don't know about that. I mean, this is one of those where when I was wagering more, one of the things that I pretty consistently did was stay away from debutantes. Like, I just, it's impossible to kind of know. And especially at that type of money, I'm not sure. But Christian Rodriguez is a good fighter I'm I'm curious to see how that goes uh

yeah I mean it's just like it just feels like apex first card of the year debutant big underdog against like a guy who's got some good wins in the division it's just like that feels that stacks up to maybe lay a little cheddar on that one uh puna soriano versus euros medic if you don't know the doctor you should get familiar uh 12 pro fights none of them have gone to a decision like he's always in exciting fights um and then puna can crack too man i mean leaned a little bit on the wrestling more lately but like he can he can throw if they exchange and he's got a chin on him you know it's hard to get him out of there. I think this one will come up later, but he's got that Hawaiian chin.

I like this one. This is one of the ones that I feel like could have been higher on the card. A couple other guys going. Ihor Potieria. Taking on Marco Tullio. Shout out to the duelist. A little Preston Parsons action.

Love it. Gotta love a good Preston Parsons fight. You got Victoria Dudakova. Shout out to the duelist. A little Preston Parsons action. Love it. Gotta love a good Preston Parsons fight. You got Victoria Dudakova. Shout out. Yeah. Fatima Klein. Yeah, Fatima Klein. Ernesta Karakate.

Shout out. Joe Selecki and the Curtain Jerker. I was just about to say that. Yeah, man. Curtain Jerker for Selecki? How the mighty have fallen, bro. Selecki can pull that dog out, man. He's had some tremendous fights.

Getting the undefeated Tajik Ego, Nurul Alif. Just putting it out there. Not the best card, not the best offering, but we got fights back. And we got UFC 11 next week. 311, yeah. What did I just say? UFC 11? We have gone back in time

UFC 311 next week So I'm glad that fights are back Man what a card 311 is But let's not We go down that road We're gonna get Amber is the color of your energy

Next week What was that Frank Amber is the color of your energy Is that like a band 311 reference What is that That's the song Oh okay Amber is the color of

your energy yeah uh is that how that song goes right yeah yeah oh okay just put it on let's get let's get demonetized um i was actually watching some i was watching the raw the wwe yeah it was it was at where ufc 311 is going to be. That's right, the Intuit. Yeah, the Intuit. It looks like a sick arena. Yeah. But I was just like, man, this place looks sick. This is where 311 is going to be. And they were just like, oh, the band's performing there. And I was just like, nope.

UFC 311. No, UFC is going to be there. Sorry, UFC 11 will be there next week. All right, so that's UFC Apex 101. Yeah, it's fine. We got fights. It yeah it's fine we got fights it'll be fun we got fights it'll be oh ufc's back this is a nice little thing the card has a few finishes you feel great and then you hit 311 fight week and you're like oh my god and the second someone gets knocked out someone gets tapped out or someone gets hand raised in the mckenzie turn

of manda he was fight it's like, 311, my sights will be turned to Armin Soroukian. I don't want to be morbid or inconsiderate. I actually think maybe I'm being considerate. I do have to wonder how the wildfires out in California are going to impact that. That's not being morbid.

That's forward thinking. But there are some real things being delayed, canceled. They're just like people who live in California is my priority going to watch UFC at this? I wonder how many people were holding tickets

lost their home. This is a crazy kind of thing happening and I just wonder how that's going to impact the event if at all. Right down the road. Up on the highway you got the apex if needed. Yeah, I don't think it'll ultimately come to that but I just do wonder if at all. Right down the road. Yeah. Up on the highway, you got the apex if needed. Yeah. I don't think it'll ultimately come to that,

but I just do wonder like where the focus and the priorities for the state and the city are. Me too, because it looks bad out there, man.

Yeah. That's impressive. Yeah, I was going to say. That is scary signs. I've sent a hundred texts to people in California. Thankfully, everybody I know

is kind of, you know, doing well and okay and healthy and happy and healthy and safe. But like, there are so many people who have lost their homes and lost all their possessions. I actually saw a clip of Joe Rogan before, like last year. And he was talking about how a firefighter was

telling him, I guess, similar to how someone told him about John Jones 30 million, but someone was telling him like, it really just comes down to how the wind catches on these fires. And if you catch the wrong wind, then LA can just completely go up in flames.

So yeah, that is something to monitor, man, for real. Yeah, we're thinking of everybody out there, though. All right, so that's UFC Vegas 101. We have to make some picks.

The Parley Bows are back in 2025. We're here to take everything this year. But are the Parley Bows the Parley Bows? What do you mean? Tell me more. We got me, we got you. Frankie, you're still in? Woo-hoo!ley pals what do you mean tell me more we got me we got you frankie you're still in okay oh you were asking me no no i was asking you i thought you were like

saying you're still in and i'm like woohoo thanks guys for picking me all right so over the holidays there there came into question whether or not juliana pena was going to continue into 2025 now i'll say this is my fault she. She's obviously a very busy woman. The Bantamweight Champion of the World has things on her plate. Okay. Not to mention she's super nice. Yeah, she's the greatest.

She's absolutely the greatest. We've done nothing but blindly support her for the last two, three years at this point. Willed her way to that champion. And I'd like to think in the back of her head, deep in those championship rounds, she was just like, got to do it for the Barley Pals.

Yeah. I did send her a text though. I said, are we going to do a pick for the first event of the year? I sent a great, I sent one of these too. You know,

really, really just like coming up, you know. The fingertips. No response yet. Okay. When did you send that? Yeah,

I didn't send it till lunch. I'm not going to lie She could be in training right now Could be in training, could be in wrestling I feel like we give it some time And then maybe we can update on social And be like here's the Do we call in Pete Z as a backup

If there's no response from the channel Absolutely Ben if we get no response How the mighty have fallen The The Parley Pals can't even get a text back. She's got a text back. No, no, no. She's just busy. Don't catastrophize. She's still here. But yeah, I mean, PT. He's been good for

us so far. PT's good to have on the bench, you know? Yeah. Yeah, he is. He called that zero-gone robbery. He did? He did, and he also had the marab out in Vegas. That was a great pick. That was a great pick. Alright, let me throw the names in the randomizer.

It's good to hear the randomizer again. Frank, you go first. Oh, nice. I'll go third. Alright, well, to start us off here... Start us off, man. Yep. I'm going to go with Thiago Moises and Trey Ogden going over two and a half rounds. Okay.

Lock it up. Thiago Moises versus Trey Ogden over two and a half minus 298. Ring. Wow. Did we add new sound effects? Nice. Oh, wow. I love it.

I'm also going it over. I'm going the over one and a half in the Soriano and Medich fight. Sick. Wow. That was an option? Yes. Yeah. Of course it was, man.

It always is. Most of these fights, they're going to have an over. They're going to have an alternate over. Man. Maybe. They're going to have an under. We're using draft kings, right? I'll go.

No. That's the problem. All right. I'll go over as well in the Christian Rodriguez, Austin Boshy. Yeah, look at that three overs. I will go alt over minus 475, over one and a half in Christian Rodriguez versus Austin Boshy. So right now we're at plus 154. Is that what you told the producer?

Nope. I changed it. All right. Well, you know, it causes a lot of problems back here when you just change things on the fly No, it doesn't There's no problem, Frank is making a problem On Air Jordan, thank you

Was that to Air Jordan? Yes Wow, On Air Jordan getting on air Love it Wow We don't even have Juliana's pick so we couldn't even fill it in Yeah, doesn't matter Thanks for for trying to shame us, though, Frank. We appreciate that, man. Yeah, Frank, what was that? You broke

the fourth wall just to kind of shit on us. I'm staring at him, shaking his head profusely right now. He's like, I can't believe these guys. Yeah, it changed it at the last minute, man. It changed it at the last minute. I'm unbothered. I think we're having a great show just until this moment when Frank decided to throw us under the bus. Can we see the control room real quick, Andy?

Let's get back to having a great show. Look at the control room. Look how upset he is. That's the international sign for I can't fucking believe this. Let's go Knicks. Big win last night? Yeah, I watched none of it, honestly. Oh yeah, against the Raptors.

I was just pulling that out of my ass. I had no idea they even played. This is a bit concerning though because now, Ariel, obviously, Jordan, we're starting to get surrounded by these Knicks fans. What's going to happen when they lose again? I'm concerned. Of course they're going to lose in the playoffs. I mean, there's no question about it,

especially with your Cavs rolling at 30-24. That's not even a competition at this point. Did the Thunder beat the – I mean, did the Cavs beat the Thunder? Oh, yeah, they did. They sure did. They sure did. That's sick. Donovan Mitchell. Well, you know who's beat the Thunder? Oh, yeah, they did. They sure did. They sure did. That's sick. Donovan Mitchell.

Donovan, well, you know who's sneaky to MVP? It's Evan Mobley. Shout out. Shout out. Shout out to USC. Oh, yeah, that's right. You did go to USC. I used to be a college hoop side.

I used to do things like that. You know, speaking of getting old, Jordan, you said you're getting old back there. Back always hurting? Been having some knee pain lately. Uh-oh. And this is just old man knee pain right here. Did 100 floors on the Stairmaster. Next day, I could barely bend my knee. The moment

I hit 30, the creaks just started. Earlier, Andy was like, guess what, guys? My PT trainer said that I'm succeeding. I'm actually getting better. The old people talk is just getting a little crazy. No, I'm ancient. I'm going open up a celsius here and just enjoy the heart palpitations

shout out to celsius heart palpitations because it's so good frankie positive sparkling watermelon what else we got oh sparkling wild berry back there might have to get some might have to get some uh yeah my knee i just had to just pop that boy. All right, let's do my bets right quick as we get it going on the year. Right now, we're going to give the official record going into the year, third-party tracked on BetMMA.tips, and I am currently sitting at, I want to say, I started tracking

this at the beginning of- I was just going to say, remind me, where does this go back to? Okay, so I started tracking on the MMA hour, and we hit 100 units, but it was like a year and a half in, everyone was like, oh, you me where does this go back to okay so like i i started tracking on the mma hour and you know we we hit 100 units but it was like a year and a half in everyone was like oh you giving your picks out on wednesday and then reporting back on them every single monday and also tweeting them out and like completely being transparent and never charging anything from anyone is not good enough you must

use bet mma.tips to third party track everything Even though they can't do specific bets And they can't do futures and they can't do boxing And they can't do any of that So I started doing it Every single week just to prove that I am a profitable MMA bettor Right now we are 49 units up since we started using it Which is actually

Quite good because at UFC 290 I was down 32 units Oh so you dug out of a hole Oh big hole so at UFC 290, I was down 32 units. Oh, so you dug out of a hole. Oh, big hole. So since UFC 290, we're up like 81 units. So across the last 20 pay-per-views, we're up like 80 units.

It's all third-party tracked. Can't enter it even the day of the fights. Anything like that. Can't do boxing. Wait, so you couldn't even do a live bet? No, you can't track live bets. Yeah, I live hedged on Alexa Grasso. I had Valentina Shipchenko finishing a bunch of parlays on the first one,

and I hedged like two units on Alexa Grasso, like plus 600. Wasn't able to track that. We're not going to get into it, though. We're still at 49 units. You know, whatever makes the people happy. No excuses. You're killing it. It's transparency around these parts, folks.

It's transparency. I just want to do what makes the people happy. So let's dive into it. I had mentioned it when we were doing the breakdown, but the first one I'm going to take is Mr. Christian Rodriguez. Uh, just him at these dog odds. He is accomplished UFC fighter. He's going against the guy coming off the contender series. We're fighting in the apex. It's going to be a close fight. Christian Rodriguez at plus two 30. That's good enough for me to bet on it. Next one. Kind of similar in the fact that like Cesar Almeida,

I'm not sure if I really trust him, Abdul Razak Alhassan. Yeah, he's not on a great run right now, but like he's been in there with some good guys. I think he's shown now that like he can go the three rounds. Like he's not just like knockout or bust. Again, at these big dog odds, first one of the year, I like Abdul Razak Alhassan.

Keep it close. Maybe score a knockout something like that um next up santiago panzanibio we kind of hinted at like would you take him i i'm going to take him carlston harris uh i just rate panzanibio higher the the level of competition that he's had to fight i know he's on a bad stretch right now but i think this is going to be uh not easy but like one of the biggest imbalances of level of competition that he's had recently to date. And then I'm going with your parlays pals pick.

I'm going to go with Medish and Soriano over one and a half. I took that one at minus one 50 Soriano five of his last six have gone over the one and a half and Medish. Uh, I mentioned how like he's never been to a decision, but sometimes they go longer. Three of his last four have gone over the one and a half. It'll probably be a little bit sweaty, but I like that one. Uh, yeah, he's never been to a decision, but sometimes they go longer. Three of his last four have gone over the one and a half. It'll probably be a little bit sweaty,

but I like that one. Yeah, he's a finisher, but he's a late finisher, so that's interesting. And then I have a parlay. Magomed G. Magomed Gadsi Yasulov with my parlay pals pick, Bashi Rodriguez over one and a half. That one pays out at minus 118.

Keeping it kind of light, five picks to to start the year i'm sure i will be much more exposed for ufc 311 next week uh can't wait to get into that one but that's not the end of the betting talk okay because we are right here right now thursday january 6th entering this new calendar year for the ufc And that means we got to do some future bets. Yes. Who will be the champion at the end of 2025? And so I've been doing this since 2022. So 2022, 23, 20. Or this will be my fourth year doing it.

I have learned a lot over the years on how to play these futures. Okay. Chances are, you're probably not going to hit that super long shot. Yeah, there's been times like Sean Strickland, if you had that. Wow, yeah. That would have been crazy. There's been times like Sean Strickland, if you had that. Wow.

Yeah. That would have been crazy. There's, there's been times where like you, you can really get lucky, but a lot of the times, man, like there's so much that goes into these of like, you need to get lucky with, with schedules. You need to get lucky with, uh, like them matching up within the calendar year. Like sometimes things get pushed, uh, the politics of it all. Like there's a lot

that goes into these. And I, I used to get like, I would take like two or three per division, even if they were just sprinkles and like, you end up hitting like two of the like 18 that you placed over the year. So now I started keeping it much tighter. Like my big one last year was John Jones at plus four 50 to stay heavyweight champ. I cashed that one. Uh, there were a couple others that I missed. Um, I believe I had Yuri as stay heavyweight champ. I cashed that one. Cashed that. There were a couple others that I missed. I believe I had Yuri as light heavyweight champ. I have two questions. Yeah.

One, in that change in strategy that you're talking about, is the thought, though, these ones that you are going to tell us, you really feel like they're going to cash. It's not a dart. No, these are not darts. I'm calculating. I'm sniping these. No, these are not darts.

Yeah. Okay. I feel very good about both of these. And's a, it's a, I'm calculating. I'm sniping. Yeah. Okay. I feel very good about both of these. And like the biggest thing is just like the, these people have to have paths to a title shot. And it also has to be worth the price tag. Got it. So I'll go ahead and give you one example of Tom Aspinall.

I think right now he is currently, let me pull up the futures. Obviously it depends on what book you go to, but, uh, I am, I am seeing him right now at at minus 130 to be UFC heavyweight champion. I just can't take that because A, the path goes through Jon Jones, whether that's through retirement, whether that's through him actually fighting him, and there's just too much up in the air with that. months between UFC 285 and UFC 309. Like, we had to wait a long time to see him fight. And who knows if he's going to fight in 2025?

Who knows? Is he going to retire? He could fight and not fight Jon Jones. Like, there's all kinds of options. He could fight Alex Pereira. And, like, they're likely not going to make him vacate the belt. Interim championship does not count when it comes to these bets. So, like, minus 130.

And if they do fight, like, it's also going to be, like, you're going to get essentially the same price tag as well. Right. You can just take that then. And honestly, I think Jon Jones is probably going to get bet up there. Like I bet Tom Espinel will close as like either very close to being an underdog or the underdog in that fight. It's like minus 130.

I just like, I don't love that. And then you've got like Kayla Harrison at like minus 300 to be champion. Not on our watch, baby. Juliana Pena is going to be champion anyway so it doesn't even matter uh like an Umar Nurmagomedov at minus 120 it's just like at that point it's just like he needs to win like multiple fights he doesn't even have the belt yet uh just like there's just things like that but that Tom Aspinall one I obviously wanted to support my guy Tom Aspinall and bet on him but the the price tag wasn't there so I will start off with the man we just saw him fight recently against Ian Gary.

I thought he should have been there for the title anyway, but unfortunately an injury due to Bilal Muhammad. His shop got rocked when I was taking him at plus 150. The way that I lay this one out. Plus 150, yeah. So is Bilal a minus number to retain? No. What was the championship features?

So Bilal is actually sitting right now at plus 200. So he has the shortest odds. He has the shortest odds. And actually right now on the book that I'm

looking at, Shopcott has moved all the way down to minus 150. Oh, so you've got a nice line. I do apologize if the lines on these two

are gone. I know the other one is long gone and I do apologize for that. And I actually really apologize because I wrote up a text to you about this next one.

Oh no, you mother. I forgot to hit send and the line moved like three days later yeah i actually feel really bad on that you bastard um just just to lay out the path though shopcott i mean he's next for the title he already had the title shot yeah and then one fought ian gary and one he is next for the title and like there's a world where you could luck out. I saw a report that Ali said that Bilal is looking at fighting in May. There's a world that if he fights in May, he has one more fight at most the rest of the year. Or maybe doesn't fight. Who knows? That's the thing about this politicking thing.

That Jon Jones one, I really lucked out with. He only fought Stipe. And it was in November. Now, you lucked out on that. But one of the things I was going to bring up in the beginning was you also got kicked in the teeth that one year with the yuri prohaska and he vacates right before the end of the year oh that was so bad i had like a yuri in 2022 like plus 650 to be champion by the end of the year. He wins in incredible fashion against Glover. And then he was about to-

Face Hill or something? He agreed to fight. No, he agreed to do the rematch against Glover. Okay. And then it was off. And then I was like, oh, sick. I'm just going to cash this. And then he vacated it.

And then I had- And then Glover and Hill. And no, and then Glover and Magomed. No, Jan and Magomed on Goliath. Oh, yes. And I had a Magomed on Goliath plus 1,000 ticket. I was like, I'm still going to hit it if Magomed wins. And then they got the draw and it ended at Vegas.

Yeah, you can really get unlucky. Yeah, so you got lucky that one, but you really have gotten unlucky in the past before. You're always going to get unlucky. You're always going to get unlucky. All right, so Shafq Raghwanov, plus 150. And I've obviously, I'm putting the slips up with this. You know, people like to not believe on things. You mentioned a really interesting thing,

which was you also have to factor in, let's say they only fight once or twice. You could just wait for that line. If you think like Shavkat is going to be X amount against, you have to imagine that Shavkat will probably still be a favorite against Bilal. Maybe there's even a line, like he's probably going to be a favorite against you have to imagine that shavkat will probably still be a favorite against balal i may maybe there's even a line like he's probably going to be a favorite against balal um and so you do have to think about like if they only fight once or twice maybe i'm better off like

waiting on it i can get a line but my even minus 150 for shavkat to be champ by the end of the year seems decent i know you got plus 150 which is like that's that's a great uh the second one i got an even better line on okay i really that's a great uh the second one i got an even better line on okay i really that you regret not telling me about because i literally i literally wrote out a text i i think i was on the trainer i got busy yeah uh this is gonna kill me the only hum hum oh no i got him at plus 200 the weight champion of the world yeah as you can see right there yep place that on december 22nd uh yeah i really do uh i apologize for not for not telling you but yeah the path is clear man i think he just waits to

the winner of uh ddp and strickland and there is just the realest of real chances that we only see this man fight once in 2025 and that is for the title what is that line now what is minus 200 yeah yeah and so i imagine that the the future odds on hamza against like ddp are probably around minus 200 as well yeah he he was going to be the favorite in that one i i actually let's see if they have those uh let's let's see if they have hamza verse ddp or uh or strict one um but yeah those those the only two that I place. That's what I'm sticking at. Oh my Lord. I knew you would love that. That's what I really like. I really, I can't apologize more for, for not sending it to you.

The future King. The future King of the middleweight division. Yeah. All right. Actually, they don't have a lineup for it right now. Yeah, so, but you, you have to think in less, I think there's a world where if DDP goes in there and just like obliterate Strickland, right? Yeah.

And he's just on this run where he's just destroying everybody. Maybe that line is closer to even the minus 200. Maybe it's like, you know, I could see a world where let's say DDP goes in there and just obliterate Strickland. I'm talking like first round what he did to Robert Whitaker. I could see a world where that line ends up like maybe Hamsa minus 160, 170 and DDP, like coming in at, you know, plus 140, somewhere in that range.

I could see that line. If he comes in and has that type of performance, if it's another decision, if it's another close one, you have to think Hamsa is going to be minus 200, minus 250, something crazy. Just go back and watch the Robert Waker fight again.

If you want to, let me throw out some other ones that are kind of interesting. Yeah. Like, Ilya Tepory is minus 175 to retain a feather weight. Moe's star plus 200. But there's the thing with this one. He's talking about, I'm going to vacate and go up to 55. Who knows what the hell this guy's about to do? You could get

really unlucky, especially on a minus 175 that you're going to have to wait out the entire year. Moe's star plus 200. Diego plus 400. Volk plus 800. Oh, that's 400, Volk plus 800. Oh, that's fascinating. Volk plus 800. Volk plus 800. Does he get the rematch? He's going to get the rematch.

Like Volk at plus 800, Holloway at plus 1,000. I feel like Holloway is 10 million light years further away from the title than Volk is. I don't hate that Volk one.

Plus 800, I don't know a guy Volk. Because he gets a rematch. He beats Ilya. I guess you do a trilogy. If you don't, let's say Ilya needs some time off. He's shown that he can beat it nearly every other featherweight pretty handily. That's not bad.

Islam minus 175 for lightweight. Yeah, that feels like a foregone conclusion. Armin plus four. Oh, shit. He's fighting Armin Sarukin next week. Charles plus six. Ilya. It doesn't feel like a foregone conclusion as much.

Ilya plus 800. Nah, man. I love... Oh, my... This Ilya to lightweight thing. I do think that Ilya could fight at lightweight. Islam Makachev is a welterweight. Like, it just doesn't...

There's no world where Ilya Taboria is beating Islam. If Islam is a champion, I just... There's no path to me. Man, Armin. That would be disrespectful for me to think that it's a done deal. Yeah, these are tough. These are tougher ones.

Shafqat minus 150, Bilal plus 200, Leon plus 350, Joaquin plus 350, Ian Gary plus 400, Islam plus 500. Yeah, Islam's a sneaky one. Islam's a sneaky one. That's stacked up. Islam plus 500 is sneaky, sneaky. Sean Brady plus 2,000,

JDM plus 22. Oh, sure. Boy, Sean Brady, a little more love. Let's see Sean Brady. Carlos Roches plus 5,000. That's one that people would be like, oh, let me take it.

He's red hot. He's got four straight wins. He's not going to get that shot in 2025. Too many fights away. And the top of welterweight is just way too stacked up. Sean Brady, though, it would be a longer shot, but I could see a world where Sean

Brady could fight for a title by the end of the year. I don't think that's impossible. Now, do I want that at plus 2,000 or would I maybe wait a little bit, see if he does kind of set himself up? But let's say he's calling for Leon Edwards, Kamaru Usman. If he came back and beat one of those guys, you could do worse than Sean Brady title shot as the next thing after.

So that one seems possible, but it does still feel like a long shot. Pantoja plus 100. Who's next? Who's next in line and what's their odds? Kaikara plus four. Yeah, that would make sense that the next person would be

that far away. Moreno plus five. Kopp plus five. Brandon Royval plus 600. Figgy plus 650. That's kind of tasty because

that's not bad. Kai Sakura plus eight. Tagiro and Beckhoff plus 750. You couldn't, you couldn't pay me that. Of all of those,

Figge definitely feels the most appetizing on that one. But with that, you're not guaranteed that he's even coming down to that weight. But I don't hate that one. Shevchenko, minus 125. Fierro, plus 200. Blanchfield, plus 3. Natalia Silva, your girl, Natty Ice, plus 600.

Yeah, nah, that doesn't feel like it's going anywhere. Hamza minus two. Tariq is two plus C, plus 120. Sean Strickland plus three. Imavov plus six. Israel Adesanya plus 18. Yeah, wow. Anthony Hernandez plus 11.

Anthony Hernandez, Hamza would be a wild fight. To the point, I think DDP is going to be a bigger than plus 200 if you fight, a bigger than plus 125 if you fight Hamza. You could just wait on that line. Kayla Harrison minus three. Juliana plus three.

Let's go, Juliana. Amanda Nunez plus 500. Oh, that's tasty. Rocco Pennington plus 1,000. Amanda Nunez comes back and wins the belt in 2025. Could I interest you in Carol Hoso plus 7,000? Amanda Nunes comes back and wins the belt in 2025. Could I interest you in Carol Hosa plus 7,000? No, you cannot.

Not a chance. Gianna Santos plus 7,000? No. Alright, Tom Aspinall minus 130, John Jones plus 110. Jailton Almeida plus 300. Wait, John Jones plus 110? Yeah. How do I feel about John Jones plus 110? I don't know, man. I got him for plus 450 last year. Yeah, it doesn't feel great because he could just sit on the sidelines

and then they go right at the end of the year, they go, all right, Jon, it's finally time. I can see the scenario playing out right now. Jon Jones does not come back. Tom Aspinall is going to fight for the undisputed championship. We've stripped Jon Jones, MSG card, November, and then it's just all for nothing. Jailton Almeida plus 300. I love my Jardino, and then it's just all for nothing. Chilton Almeida. Those fighting words.

Chilton Almeida plus 300. I love Mahadino, but I don't know about that one. Serial Gaunt plus five. Is that a last performance? I don't know. I don't know how you do that. Alex Pereira plus 1,000. Oh.

Yeah. Okay. Blades 13. Volk. You know, I fall into, I'm such a like basic biatch at this point. Like the falling, I fall into the like, I like the long shot ones. And I'm like, yeah, Alex Pereira at a thousand. I love it.

And it's just like, yeah, you had never had a shot. You never had a fucking shot. Alex Pereira minus 120. Magomed Onkelia plus 195. Jamal Hill plus six. Olberg plus seven. Hamza Jamal Plus 5000

Yeah see that's the thing I'm gonna get Yeah I'm glad I don't play these futures Cause I will get sucked in I'm calling for Hamza Double champ status If you play those tickets

And you get both That plus money And it happens It would be like It would just You never You retire You just retire

Well yeah I retire in Chechnya Jean-Way Lee minus 150 Tatiana Suarez plus 140 Your girl Vierna plus 6 I retire in Chechnya. Jean-Way Lee minus 150. Tatiana Suarez plus 140. Your girl, Vierna, plus 6. Not impossible. Andrade plus 16.

It's just such a fall off on some of these. Gaston Bolanos plus 50,000 for bantamweight. Merab plus 130. You can get a Parker Porter plus 100,000 in the heavyweight division. Might have to throw a nickel on that just in case. You never know. I can't believe he still has odds if I'm being honest. He's not even in the UFC anymore.

I mean, you can bet on Austin Lane plus 70,000. How is Austin Lane plus 70,000 and Parker Porter's only plus 100,000? Yeah, that doesn't make any sense. Jamal Pogue's plus 70,000? How are they putting, like, Dontel Mays is above our guy Parker Porter? This is disrespectful. Like, how do you even put odds on some of these guys?

Walt Harris is plus 70,000? He's retired, unless I'm mistaken. It's impossible. It is literally impossible. Melissa Gatto plus 70,000? Do you think there are people out there who just spray and, like, have some of these? You can't, right?

Who's betting Hayley Cowan to be Bantamweight champ at plus 50 000 jamie linda horth plus i'll say this if you were somebody who bet sean strickland to be champ after he just like ended the year that the way he did and no and also coming off the... He would have gotten knocked out by Alex. Knocked out by Alex, yeah. And lost to Jared Kananier. Yeah, people will call you crazy. You would also have been like, oh, how could you bet this?

And then they somehow did it. Shit happens. Chris Wyland plus 200,000. Yeah. Wait, is that serious? Yeah. It's not happening though. No, that's an actual line.

They have a plus 200,000. What the fuck? If you want to throw uh if you want to throw a one dollar on that five on it when you 10k gerald mearshart plus 70k yay uh marina morose plus 70 000 it's actually more fun to look at the super duper long the super longest i'm actually going jamie lynn horth plus 100 000 to be a flyweight champion i think she cuts down to 125 and takes the belt. These are crazy. Some of these... Kong Wang plus 4,500? Remind me.

Somebody remind me. Hopefully Jordan. Remind me. Or maybe you, Connor. At the end of the year, we need a list of the longest futures that somebody hit. I need to see a plus $100,000 No, because none of them are going to hit. I need it, though. Whatever the longest is, there has to be a contest. Tyson Nam plus100,000. No, because none of them are going to hit. I need it, though. I need the, whatever the longest is,

there has to be a contest for this. Tyson Nam plus $100,000. Isn't Tyson Nam, like, fighting on the regional circuit now? Like, I don't even think he's in the UFC. Neil Magny, this is disrespectful. Neil Magny plus $500,000 welterweight champ. Oh, how are some of these numbers generated? Disrespectful.

But somebody has to have a ticket that's like six digits. If you have a plus six digit ticket, please. Like I need to see it. What are Bo Nichols odds to win? Middleweight. Plus 2,000. Makes sense. Like he's probably not going to get to that.

He's not going to get it this year. All right. That is that. Those are my futures. Just the two. Just the two. 170 and 185. We'll see if those happen. Hopefully they do. Just the two. Just the two, 170 and 185. We'll see if those happen.

Hopefully they do. Knock on wood. Those are also my bets for UFC Vegas 101, Parley Pals, all the recaps. But because we were looking at the futures, because we were looking ahead to the calendar year of 2025, our pound-for-pound rankings for this very first episode of 2025, the boys in the back, we are going to pound-for- pound rank the months of the year i think this one's gonna get contentious i think this one's gonna

get hot i think frank's gonna have some takes what i think you're gonna have some takes here frank that i don't necessarily what is the pound for pound what are we ranking the months of the year okay well i have mckenzie dern as five. That's not a month of the year. Can you guys just give me a heads up? We're still continuing with this bit, eh? I just give me a minute. I thought we left that in 2024. You need to go first. I need to rewrite the months of the year.

I thought the New Year's resolution for 2025 wasn't going to act like we were confused. Just want to make sure I have this right. The 12 months of the year, we're going to pick five of them. Correct. In order of our pound per pound. There's a clear hierarchy. Oh, so you feel like your list of five is like the obvious top five. Or something close to it.

Okay. And in that order, are you kind of like, if you have these five, you're good? There's a few that if they make your list, I'm going to be appalled. Okay. I'm going to be enticed. Okay. Let me ask you this before we start. Do you feel stronger about these are the top five or these are the bottom five? I'm going to be appalled. Okay. I'm going to be enticed. Okay, let me ask you this before we start.

Do you feel stronger about these are the top five or these are the bottom five? Which are you more certain of? I feel like there's a bottom one that's inarguable. And if any of you guys have it on your list, there's going to be problems. Frank, are you kicking us off? Tell me how we're going to do this. Yeah, Jordan. You have to do that.

I need a minute to actually, What are the month? January. Can Jordan... We're still continuing. So Andy picked out of a hat back here. It's going to go Connor, then Frank, and we're going to end with super executive producer Eric Jackson. He's now super executive. Jordan, you just got a pay bump. They were like,

Connor, do you want anything on the credits or anything? Any names? I was just like, no, you guys just put whatever. You guys just put whatever. Titles don't mean anything to me. I did not say that. I was like, I need to be second. Eric said, E-X-E-C.

All right. My number five. I'm actually going first here. First time I'm going first. This is a new thing for 2025. I love it. I'm really feeling excited about this. Number five, for me, shockingly, I'm going to go with a winter month.

That is December. The reason for that being it's the holiday season. There's a bit of cheer in the air. There's lights everywhere, families gathering, parties, a lot of just joyous occasions. You're not working as hard. You're working less. It's kind of like, yeah, we'll get to that next year. You're not working as hard. You're working less. It's kind of like, yeah, we'll get to that next year, all right?

We'll circle back in the new year. Just a lot of joyous things to be happy about in 2020. And December, just because I feel like the holidays mask how gloomy December actually would be. You know, it's got the shortest day of the year. It's cold. It's dark because you got the holidays because you got all these occasions to celebrate uh new year's uh christmas hanukkah kwanzaa whatever you may celebrate there's a reason to get together and enjoy yourself december number five gift giving all that number four we go to the inverse the summer months june uh warm longest day of the year. Ariel said that July feels like the Saturday of the year.

June also feels like the Saturday. It's kind of slower days. You're taking things easy. Sports calendar is pretty good. You're getting the NBA finals, the NHL finals, or Stanley Cup finals, excuse me. It feels like life is just going slower plus the weather. Even if I'm in Georgia, I love it. I am adept with the heat. What are we talking number-wise?

June in Georgia, what temperature are we at? You're getting into the 90s at that point. Oh, wow. Okay. August is when you're touching triple digits. Okay. June in Georgia is still a scorcher. August is just like, we might as well not go outside.

Got it. June is still, yeah, very warm. You're chilling in the high 80s, low 90s. Oh, wow. Okay. Okay. Yeah, yeah. There's rarely a 70 degrees.

Plus, days are long, man. You get that longest day of the year for the summer solstice. I love sunlight. The longer the day can go, the better. June, number four. Now we get to number three. April. Oh.

Just because. There's this one day. There's just like that one day when you feel it, especially up here in the Northeast. I'm not to number three. April. Oh. Just because. There's this one day. There's just like that one day when you feel it, especially up here in the Northeast. I'm not saying it's a Monday. I'm not saying it's a Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Is that about 420? I'm not saying it's. That's one reason.

I'm not saying it's April 6th or 10th. There's no specific, but there's that one day. You leave in work. You're going on a walk. And you walk outside and you're just like, wait. It feels pretty good out here. And the sun's hitting you, and you just, oh, it smells like spring out here, and you kind of remember why you choose to continue to live. You're like, we're here. Spring is alive and in the air. The flowers are blooming. It's just like,

you're just refreshed and rejuvenated. You've made it through the winter. Daylight saving time has already hit. The days are starting to get longer. The sports calendar, you've got the Masters. You've got the Final Four. You're going to get a nice UFC pay-per-view. You're going to get the NBA and NHL playoffs starting. Baseball is just starting. It's just great. Maybe take

the cover off the grill. Start grilling something out. 420, like you said, Frank. What allergy medicines do you take? I'm not a big allergy guy. The way that you were able to breathe in on April, like you said, Frank. What allergy medicines do you take? I'm not a big allergy guy. The way that you were able to breathe in on April, I'm like, damn. Allergies are all just mental.

Allergies are all just mental. I forgot the planet is flat. Here's why I said it's not definitive. If you said May instead of April, I'd be like, yeah, I respect that. I respect that. Start of summer, Memorial Day, Cinco de Mayo. True or false?

There are some that are kind of pairs, right? There are some that are like- If you said June instead of July, I'd be like, yeah, I get it. Okay. I thought so too, but I just wanted to confirm that. Number two, I will go with the aforementioned July. Just a great month. Like how Juan said, it's just the Saturday of the year, man. The life is moving slow. You got the 4th of July here in the States. You're grilling, you're pools, you're vacationing, you're just lounging. The weather is nice and warm. You're deep into the warm weather now.

Like, you're just like, you're used to it, man. T-shirt, shorts, you know, if you're getting dressed up, you're doing slack. Short sleeves, though, you know, suck down a couple hot dogs. Things are looking good for you. International fight week most of the time as well. And then you're getting in like the real degen sports to bet on. Like you're just doing some weird stuff, tour to France, hot dog eating contest. Wimbledon is on, uh, you know, if it's one of the years you're getting an Olympics, you're getting

a Euros, maybe a world cup. Uh, you know, July is know, July is just great, man. If you can't tell, I like warm weather, so July I do love. And then number one for me, unequivocal, undoubtedly this is my favorite month of the year. Okay. And I will explain why. It's October. Nice.

I am not only just an enjoyer of fall foliage, I seek it out. I'm on the foliage maps. Absolutely love when the leaves start turning. It's similar to April. It's similar to April. In fact, that like you walk out one day and you just get a slight chill. You're just like, oh, there it is. Like it's no longer hot. Now it's getting a little bit cooler. September is still pretty hot. It's getting a little bit cooler. Fall is starting to be in the air. And like, there's nothing like that feeling of fall. You get the first pumpkin spice latte. You get the first apple cider, like there's the flavors of fall. You get

the activities, you know, you go to the pumpkin patch, maybe a little apple picking, maybe some hay rides, uh, you know, your pumpkin carving Halloween spooky season, the horror movies, everything like that. Uh, there's just really no time. Like a daylight saving time hasn't hit yet. It's, it's colder, but it's not too cold. There's nothing like the jeans and a hoodie weather in the fall. Plus, the sports calendar is just impossible to be beat. You're getting a UFC pay-per-view in it. You got

college football going on. You got NFL going on. You got MLB playoffs going on. You got Premier League going on. You got NBA and NHL starting. It's just as good as it gets. It's like the most stacked sports month of the year. October. I love you. Solid list. Solid list. There it is it gets. It's like the most stacked sports month of the year. October. I love you. Solid list.

Solid list. There it is. Damn. That's my five. If I had known there was this much passion, I would have made a better list. Oh, we're in the thick of it right now. I see that. We're in the thick of it right now.

I can feel Connor judging you already. I made a list already. It took me a few tries here because I couldn't remember all the months, but I think I got them down now. Let's see. It is kind of interesting that you chose to do this as the pound for pound this week because I've been wanting to tell you guys this little factoid that I thought was always interesting. Do you know, we're going to start small here, like what the Daves of the week are named after? I did not know. You don't know, right?

No. So they're named after the planets right so like or just celestial bodies in general so like you have monday is moon day saturday is saturn day sunday is the day of the sun okay miraculous that's mercury also known as wednesday so i always thought that was pretty cool so when you think about a month a month is actually a month like it's the cycle of the month or of the moon I thought that was cool I see that you guys are also extremely into this no it's just core thrills making my list here no doubt the other part of this that we need to know is that I rank them based on my favorite i mean from my least favorite to my favorite yeah um right using

the 12 months of the year as my data said so at number five what are you talking about right now what the fuck is um for number five we've got april okay apr April's a good month. Do you understand what any of that buildup was for? No. I have no idea. All right. He was just explaining what we're doing in more technical terms. I ranked the 12 months of the calendar year from my least favorite to favorite. Okay.

Sorry. Frank, I just had to say I didn't understand what any of that buildup was for. As my data said. I'm going to let you go now. I'm not surprised. Coming in at number four, we have August. It's a good month. I like it.

You know, the funny thing about August is that's actually when I would go back to school. When you would think you would dread going back to school. But it's like... It's kind of fun. I'm with you there. You start to get excited. It's like it's a new time. New beginnings.

You know, new beginnings, new semester. That's August. That sort of thing. Yep. Coming in at number three, Februaryary oh love it why yeah i mean it's named after the festival for purification in the roman times shout out it's also valentine's wait what is the name of the festival how to like tell me the february february i don't know i don't speak uh latin do you but that's the name

of the yeah that's actually what it is okay it's a roman festival of purification good month solid month also my wife's birthday is in february that was it don't care about birthdays if you mention that it's your favorite month because it's your birthday your opinion you don't care about my pound for pound i care about your pound for pound don't care about anyone's birthday being in that month oh okay i also like february because it seems to really upset you for some reason i don't know i have a rivalry with the month of february visceral reaction to what is your problem i'm at war with myself the entire month you wanted to rank the months just so you could explain why you hate one month i hate it so here's your chance shortest month of the year why do we need it why why is it so short why is it so short why is it so cold why is it so dark and

there's nothing going on and you're gonna hang your hat on on valentine's day as as the as the one holiday in it give me a break man give me a break i mean it's also a historical month it's based on you know a whole festival for pur. We had to have a month that we can do a rounding error because there's too many days in the year. We always have to have something like that. I feel like that's actually a point in Connor's favor. The rounding error month's not the...

Groundhog Day is there. One of the best movies of the 90s. I love April because I got April Fool's Day. Yeah, great. Groundhog Day is what we're hanging our hat on. Good God. I'm going to Pennsylvania this year, and I'm going to punt one of the groundhogs. That's what I'm going to do.

I feel like the answer to my question earlier of do you hate your bottom five more than you love your top five is definitively that you hate your bottom five more. February is all about survival for me. It's all about survival. I'm just trying to get to March 1st. Surviving. I'm just trying to get to March 1st. I'm just trying to get to March 1st. When we go to PKFC in Philly, I'm just staying in Pennsylvania

so I can go to Groundhog's Day. And me and Punks and Tony Phil are boxing. Me and Punks and Tony Phil are going 10 rounds. I swear to God, if he sees his shadow, we're going 10 rounds.

We're going toe to toe. Somebody Photoshop Connor boxing the Groundhog. Come on. Let me at him. Let me at him. But is there any leeway? Is there any grace given to the fact that it's getting close to spring?

Like we're almost there? Here's the argument that I'll make. I hate February so much, but because I can't stand it, it brings me so much joy when we're in the Junes and Julys. Okay. Got it. It's just so dark and it's so cold and there's just nothing going on i just hey try not to get cut on all that edge february hater you said edgelord a couple times last yesterday as well i didn't even say the word edgelord if that's what you thought about when i said that though we should tell you something

we'll talk about it in fe. Coming to number two is May. You know what I'm afraid is going to – sorry, Frank. Before we move on to the next one, I just want to say I'm afraid that this is going to become a thing. Now we're frank in February. It's going to be insufferable toward you because of – I'm going to become insufferable. He thinks this, and then we're going to get to February, and he's going to be like, oh, man, I forgot how terrible this month is.

I still can't believe the whole genesis of this pound for pound. It's just because of your hatred for one month. No, it's actually, if you see back there, Dosebrack, shout out. He's actually on my shirt as well. Incredible artist in the combat sports space. He did a calendar, and I have it hanging up, and I just saw it, and I was like, oh, we should rank the months. That makes more sense.

All right, I appreciate you explaining that. Coming in at number two is May. Yeah, great month. Great month. Solid month. Yeah, you got to respect May. You got to respect May. more sense all right i appreciate you explaining that coming into number two is may yeah great month great solid month yeah you gotta one of the best you gotta respect me number two on my list one of the best um somebody a great celebrity that we all enjoy his birthday is in may great who would that be oh that's me um and then coming in at number one Is October Wow I love October If you had gone with January I was walking off the set

I had already made a decision if you went with January I just hate these cold dark months I hate them It's not even that dark Like it's staying pretty light out now We've mentioned this but anyway 430? I will agree that October is cool because there is that, you know,

oh, there's that little bit of chill in the air. Yeah, it's great. That's how – the problem is, like, I lived in Arizona for 15 years where, like, there were no seasons. Each of the months just kind of felt the same. Right. Where you live is an important factor. That is a huge factor.

However, Halloween, solid. Solid. And also just – this is my favorite part. So the reason that I was kind of talking about where they got the names of the months and the days and everything is they're all named after, like, July is Julius, August is Augusta. Like, it's pretty neat. Then you get to October. They're like, it used to be the eighth month of the calendar, right? So it's just October because it's the eighth month.

It's like, what the hell? You just guys got lazy. You couldn't find anything else. So just like this list. Can I see your list again? What were the OG months? Here they are. No, no, no.

Do you know what the OG months were? Like when October was the eighth month? Yeah, it's called October. Okay, but what are the other ones? Give it an order. I don't believe there was a December. I don't think there was a January and February. I think they were like, you know what?

We don't need those. Let's go back to that old calendar. Okay, let me just say something, though. Can we show Frank's again? See, Connor had February. That's like we're coming out the end of february sorry uh frank had february thank you frank um we're coming out of the end of the cold right you had december yeah that's a cold that's a right december was five solely for the celebration the holidays the

parties it just offsets it okay yeah yeah it's like january it's like oh yeah new year and then like but then you're right back to it. You had the most wintry month so far. I will say that. Okay, but people think that, but people sleep. January and February, much worse weather-wise

than December and November. All right, all right, maybe. I mean, go outside right now. Last night when I was walking home, I was like leaning into the wind. No, January's a son of a bitch. It is a son of a bitch. February, I feel like we start to creep toward warmer. I don't

know. I also fear the coming of the December cold more than I fear the I'm already in the February, and so then we can push toward it. Don't get me wrong. Do you feel February is colder than December? I feel the opposite. Yeah, that's what it, but like March is still pretty cold.

February is the colder one, but in our minds, because I think it's that initial chill, like when the cold fronts start coming through, like we associate it as colder. Yeah. Two coldest months, January and February. Also, I did just get confirmation, time to go back to the early Roman calendar. It did not have January and February in it. There you go. Connor's a Roman at this point.

Because they were like, you know what the calendar needs? Common Roman copy love. Two banging calendar, or two banging months months we're just going to add them here I like your list too I feel like you did good especially to do it in like Three minutes on the fly What did you think was on Melvin McKenzie I don't even want to talk about it I had to erase

A couple of names McKenzie Dern 5 Who was number 4 Jessica Rose Clark What were we ranking here Frankie I thought we had talked about something else. I wrote down names. I don't know.

What were you ranking, man? Just pictures that are in the studio. I don't remember. It's just on my notepad here. All right, Rick. What are you ranking? Yeah, let's get this back on track. Let's go to my months.

There's going to be a theme here. There's going to be a real theme. You're going to sniff it out pretty quickly. We're starting number five. We're starting with June. Weather is fantastic. Great month. Just a great month.

We're creeping toward that summer heat. Now, here's the thing. I love summer. I love summer. As I said, this theme is going to be clear. I love summer. If summer was as hot as Georgia, I'm not sure I'd love it as much.

I'm used to the new york summer right like when if you said you said uh june we're already in the 80s 90s i'm like oh god like that that's rough that was born in the heat i love the heat so i like the heat but i don't know if i was built for that but and it's a i assume it's a humid heat yeah it's a very human heat are you do you talk about the heat when it's hot no i'm not like a oh it's so hot kind of guy so you, you know, we all know by now, I stayed with my parents in Atlanta over the summer. It was a hot summer, man. It was not raining at all. And I was going for walks all the time, just like enjoying being outside and everything. And just everywhere I went, everyone I talked to was just like, man, it's a hot one

out today. Yeah, I'm not that guy. Yeah, I know. I was just outside, man. We don't need to talk about it. If you talked about it less, you would stop thinking about it so much. I think it's because you and I both enjoy the heat. So we're not thinking like the dread of the heat. I do think I talk about when it's cold a little more than that. I definitely talk about it more, but I also do try to avoid it. Me too. Because I'm just like, I'll be out of it in a minute.

Me too. All right. June, just like we're creeping towards summer. We're getting NBA finals. I'm a like, I'll be out of it in a minute. Me too. All right. June. Just like we're creeping towards summer. We're getting NBA finals. I'm a big NBA fan. It's just a good month. Sports calendars are important to months. February doesn't have shit.

Sports calendars are very important. Next one up. May. Similar kind of vein, right? Weather's about to get nice. Here's a very important one. This is very specific. I'm going to go very specific here.

It's the shoulder season for Hawaii. Meaning if you are somebody not in Hawaii, that's the best time to go. This is the optimal time that you want to go to Hawaii because it's not their busiest season. It's not going to be the most expensive. The weather is still fantastic. I mean, the weather is fantastic all year round, but you're not creeping into when it's like holiday time summer the kids are out everything's packed nice quiet great time to go to Hawaii April May that's that's okay so this is like the oppo like you don't want to go in December when like everyone don't want to go when it's like crazy you want to go when it's quiet kids are still in school everything's kind of like low-key slow I'm a chill guy i like to go to hawaii chill out not do anything i didn't say that as like a meme um may next up this was your both of your number one i have

october here it's great month it's just a great month it's a great month disrespect putting in a number three honestly spooky no no you'll see top two not too spooky spooky season horror movies i mean i love candy so like halloween would be i live in amityville um nba season starts back up the weather's cool but not freezing cold it's a it's a real nice one i will say i'm not a big like foliage pumpkin spice how can you not be how can you not it's not part of my oh give me out the foliage maps let's go on a nice long drive, grab some PSLs on the way and just be like, look at those fucking leaves.

You're alone there, but I'll join you with the spooky season and the candy. Yeah, Uggs are great. Uggs are comfy, man. They've been up in their game lately. This one was on your list, July. July's on there.

Summer, summer. This is like, you know, we're getting into the real pit. The depths of summer. Summer blockbuster movies. Oh, nailed it. Nailed it. Deadpool this year. This is when they come out. There's a problem though

and it will be clear when you see my number one. And my number one is August. Stay on the mic. Because it's your birthday? No, not because it's my birthday. I was going to say you are like the antithesis of being like, it's my favorite month. No, don't care about the mic. Because it's your birthday? No, not because it's my birthday. I was going to say, you are like the antithesis of being like, it's my favorite month. It's my birthday. No, don't care about the birthday. Here's why.

Number one, I know people like July more. Ariel Helwani said, July number one, how could we even have a conversation? To me, superior month. He's the like, it's my birthday month. Yeah, it is his birthday. Respect for Julius Caesar, clearly. I feel this is the apex of the summer. This this is the pinnacle of the summer okay what happens in july is people go ah it's summer and what you do is you front load your summer with all this bullshit that you didn't

get to do because it's summer now it's finally summer i didn't get to do this i didn't get to do this you're spending all this time all this energy there's no chill there's no chill in july because now you front loaded everything we're going to the beach 15 times by the time the end of july comes you're fucking beat you did july 4th you had all these people come over you barbecued you're spending all this energy i like to chill i just want to chill i want to sit on my pool backyard august nobody bothering me all that other bullshit that you just rushed to do because it was finally hot again out of the way august is the chill august is the chill and like you guys you mentioned this i'm not worried about the return of school most of the schools around here homeschooled

i was homeschooled most of the schools around here return september but even if it is late august i'm not i wasn't fearful of that i was like okay we're back to school i kind of enjoy that august is the is the calmest and here's the here's the biggest one most important no holidays okay nobody bothering you nobody occupying your time it's a great point oh i have to family over i have to do this i have to do that I can't think of a single holiday There's no holidays No federal holidays No other holidays August I am in that pool

In my backyard every single day And nobody's bothering me I don't have to worry about the fireworks I don't have to worry about the bullshit of July You're Jehovah's Witness right? I'm Jehovah's Witness as well. Jehovah's Witness and homeschooled. Frank has just added like six different layers of untrue facts to my mythology.

What? That's why you're like, no holidays. I actually have to say, this is actually a great take. You look up August holidays and the number one is National Water Mountain Day. And there's nothing I want to do more than nothing. There is nothing I want to do more than nothing. I do love doing nothing. I'm sitting in the pool all month and chilling. July just has too much energy. It has too much

of the stuff that you were like, I can't wait for the shackles to be off. It's finally summer. Oh my God, I'm going to do it July 4th. And it's just, I need the relaxation. I need the calm. All right, I'm with you. This is a great take. This is a great take by you. By the way, I was comparing our lists as you were doing it. Ours are very similar in terms of that. The only difference was I had a May, you had an April. Those are kind of like, I felt like those are pairs. I felt like those are the same. Here's the big distinction. Very respectable. I mean, you took all the summer months and threw in October. I respect it. That was it. I love October, but here's our big key, December trading for August. You had no

August. I feel strongly. Can I be honest with you? I was flip-flop in August and December. But then I said, I'll show a touch of love to the winter and the holidays. We would have had the same list practically. Yeah. Yeah. These are good lists, man. August is a slept on because people think of July.

That explanation, that breakdown was great. You had me wishing I had put August at five. It's a great month. It's a great month that people don't respect enough. It's tremendous. This is going to be like real deep. I know we both had it like growing up in school,

like the calendar, like the kids' calendars in the elementary schools and everything. So because of that, I always associate all of the months with colors in my head,

like February is pink, March is green, July is like blue. They're holiday related. June is like a teal color in my head. I see colors when I hear months. It's very Rain Man of me. Synesthesia? Yeah, I don't know what it is.

But yeah, there it is. Powerpoint rankings of the months. I'd love for people to weigh in. I wonder what the chat's name is. I can't wait. We only had 12 options. I cannot wait for like we're going to post the graphic of all three of us and people are going to be like, well, for starters,

all three lists are just dog shit. So like we'll just get that out of the way now. And then they won't give us their list. I wonder if Frank finishes his other list. I would like to see that. Yay. Number one, Mark Goddard. Mark Goddard at one.

All right. Now I lost. Now I don't even know what this list is. Who's two? We got a couple of super chats we got to get to. Oh, yes. Let's nail the super chats and let's get out of here, huh? Yeah.

So 24-inch Dubs writes in. Legend. May is the winner and the end. July is too hot. I respect it. I understand it. Shout out 24-inch Dubs. Go Celtics.

No. No, go Celtics. I ain't going Celtics. Is that it? Oh, Benjamin Turk writes Love the list But when are we going to get a boys in the back Boxing reflex ball competition Oh I need to buy one of those

Off of Amazon I almost bought one I'm going to buy one I'll actually order one right now With those $5 I'm ordering it right now Benjamin Turk We might have to go with that Because how five dollars I'm ordering it right now We honestly might have Benjamin Turk We might have to go with that Because how bad you're smoking me

On the bike Yeah Benjamin Turk We might have to change the competition Yeah here we go What's the one that Tom Brady uses I don't know Tom Brady

Iwani Boxing baby Iwani Boxing When is the The barbecue at the Jack Mansion Rick It's going to be in July Because it ain't in August

I'll tell you that We're really going to do that this year Huh Yeah He has invited us every Summer to come Okay but here's the thing And I proposed this Jordan has to cook He has invited us every summer to come. Okay, but here's the thing, and I proposed this.

Jordan has to cook. If it's up to me, I'm not doing it. He's already pulled a list together. What do you want? Frank wants a freaking lasagna for his birthday. That's in May. What? So, like, if you want burgers, I can make burgers. Oh, you're saying, what do I want? Okay, he didn't want the lasagna.

He wanted that in May. He's already demanded that I make him lasagna for his birthday. Respect. No, I don't want anything crazy. Just come over and flip some burgers, grill some hot dogs. That's fine. Nothing crazy. By the way, Frank, I don't know if we had this discussion on this show,

but you say barbecue, but it's really like a grill. I don't want to confuse anybody. We're not coming over. I'm not asking Jordan to make me some ribs. I'm asking him to throw a few hot dogs and some hamburgers on the grill. I'm more thinking of hanging out in the backyard. You got the bouncy house still? Bouncy house is still there.

I can see it now. Hanging out in the backyard. Frank has one hand in his pocket, beer in the other. Just like, nice place you got here, Rick. I can see it now. I can see it now. I would love to invite you all over. Ariel Hawani will be invited to not show.

1000%. But everybody's welcome. Let's do it in July, though, because August, I don't want to see any of your faces. I'mwani will be invited to not show. But everybody's welcome. Let's do it in July though because August, I don't want to see any of your faces. I'm just going to be chilling in my backyard. That is cool with me. All right. I just ordered this and it will be at my apartment on January 13th. I guess I have to order as well. Shout out.

Box Ballin is the brand that I... J.R. writes, pay the goat Johnny Bones. I'm with you, JR. Listen, it's not my money to spend. I'm not the one writing the checks, but give us the fights we want. Give us the fights we need. Pay the goat, man. And to the point we've

been trying to make, it's at a discount. Anything else, Frankie? Yep. We've got Snash101. What up, lads? Do you think UFC would pay an extra premium for Ditcheva because it has that extra added bonus of dealing a blow to the NFL? So you're saying, like, would Dana White be petty? Also, by the way, thank you, Snag 101.

Would Dana White be petty just to get Dakota Ditcheva on the roster? No, I don't think so. I don't think Dana – I'll be honest. I think he legit does not give a shit about people. When Dana White says, like, I'm not thinking about them, I fully believe fully believe them uh fully believe him i don't think he's thinking about the competition because the competition is very far in their in their rearview mirror um i think the pfl needs to hold on to dakota with both fists and not let her go thousand percent um and and just fulfill the obligations they have and again the way to do that is not through a tournament,

but we will see. Maybe she ends up on those super cards. Then Chris Martin writes. Chris from Coldplay? That's correct. Wow. Yellow, yellow, yellow clocks. All right.

The biggest robbery in 2024 MMA was Alexandra Teporia not being coach of the year. The game plans to beat the greatest featherweight of all time is amazing. It's not a bad shout, if we're being honest. Like, to hold the two wins that he has, you do have to have the right strategy. I will say, I feel like that's an inflation of the coaching and maybe a deflation of the skills required, the performances themselves by Ilya. Also, was Alexandre the head coach?

That's obviously his brother who's about to join the UFC as well. Was he the head coach? I'm looking at a picture now, and it looks like he has a whole squad around him, obviously, as all fighters do. So I don't know if it was just a sole performance by us. Transparently, I have stopped kind of really keeping as close tabs on this because as a point that Ariel made during the show and you're making now, like it's kind of coached by committee. People bounce around a lot more than they do. It used to be a lot easier for it to be like John Jones trains at Jackson Wink and Greg Jackson and Mike Winklejohn are his coaches. This guy trains at Black Zillions. These are his coaches.

We've kind of lost that. It just doesn't happen that way anymore. Conor McGregor and Jon Kavanagh are always linked. And it just doesn't happen that way anymore. But we do know the head coach at Fighting Nerds. And so obviously that one was an easy one for me to kind of push in that direction um but the the larger point of the coaching of uh ilia taporia deserves a shout for two of the biggest fighting nerds yes

oh wow the man shama hit the hit the drop, Frankie. Shama. Yeah, shout out to Alex Pereira. I mean, Rick's just going on this full explanation breakdown of coaches and everything. And he's just like, speaking of fighting nerds. Here is Alex Pereira. Jordan, I just sent you something on old Slackeroonie. It's actually a picture of Ilya Tepory's coaching staff. I don't know if we can get that real quick.

It's Alexandre with Ilya Tepory's coaching staff. I don't know if we can get that real quick. It's Alexandre with Ilya Tepory and his final coach. Wow. Holy shit. No love for me. I am Ilya Tepory's coaching Oh, they don't even shout you out? I mean, it's ridiculous. I go in there, I coach him every single day right alongside Alexandre and I can't even get any love. It's ridiculous. All right. You know what I was going to say was a good question. It's now a bad question because he didn't even include you in the coaching. It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. Anything else you know what I was going to say was a good question? It's now a bad question because he didn't even include you in the coaching. It's ridiculous. Anything else, Frankie? Yeah, I hope you brought your parachutes because this one is

like a rush of blood to the head. I love this. Alec in the Slice writes, been dying to ask where the boys in the back bumping that new jello ball. Oh, he might swerve. He might cross. Yeah, I mean, yeah. If you know game, you got to be bumping the cello ball.

Okay, I'll be honest, confession. I've not heard the song all the way through. I've seen all the clips of people listening to it for five seconds and then making fun of it or like the Cavs were bumping it in the locker room. I've not listened to the song all the way through. Yeah, it's weaker, man. It goes hard. Grammys are up next.

I actually saw a hilarious video that I pulled up. It's the guy in the corner one and it says uh they have no idea i might swerve and then the other people and it's and it's leangelo ball and then the other one says he looks like he might bend that corner and then someone says he might yeah uh frank do you know who who this is and what we're talking about right now i stopped paying attention okay yeah i mean balls, they'll never go away. Shout out to Tweaker. Generational content creation

from the ball family. He might swerve. It is going super duper mega viral. Shout out. He may have not found his career in hoops. Here's a legitimate question for you. I feel like you're more tuned into this. Is it a good song?

Is it a bop? Will you listen to it's catchy and viral will i be listening to it in two or three years now well but right now is it in rotation would you actually listen to it or is it only a meme it's just if you bring it up it just all it does is make you think of memes yeah it's only and like yeah but people are bumping it man it's fun i'm on a boat it's fun yeah i guess it's kind of like i'm on a boat but more bumpable than that like okay that's what i'm trying to get a gauge of if it's like how much of a song is it actually and how much of a just a meme is it yeah i mean they're saying most importantly it's only and it's only january 9th elijah one dream writes can't be the boys in the back show on the 30th happy birthday brother i hope you have a fantastic day man shout out one of the true ogs welcome to the 30th birthday. Happy birthday, Happy birthday, brother. I hope you have a fantastic day, man.

Shout out. One of the true OGs. Welcome to the 30s, 95 baby. Nailed it, Frank. This is me playing live. Happy birthday, dear Elijah Wong.

Happy birthday. Man, Elijah Wong dream. I thought maybe he would be older than 30. Yeah. He was born when Hakeem was over. Okay, here's the thing.

We don't know if it's related to Hakeem Olajuwon, even though you would assume that because Olajuwon and his nickname was The Dream, I would hope that it is. What's that? Yao Ming? Yao Ming. Yao Ming? Young Men.

Oh, Young Men. Young Men. Do we see that? Are there anything else, Frankie? No, that was it. That was a good run of Super Chats, man. That was pretty good. Yeah, shout out to you guys.

A few housekeeping things. Yeah, let's keep the house. We talked about PFL and we talked about Dakota. Tomorrow on The Crack, PT's going to be talking more about PFL. The thing that we just talked about in terms of the 500K, but what this signals for the PFL and their future and things like that. So tune into the crack tomorrow at 1 p.m. right here on this channel.

And then I believe next week you're going to get a members-only chat. So we were talking about the super chat. I think Helwani, after our show, after the boys in the back next week, is going to be doing a members-only chat. Shout out. Shout out. That's big. That's big.

That's going to be a lot of fun. I mean, when we did it, it was an incredible amount of fun. Yeah, we really enjoyed that. One other thing, 24-inch dub says Wallace and Gromit. I said I was going to do a breakdown. I did watch it this week.

Wallace and Gromit, Vengeance Most Foul. They're back with another banger. It was fantastic. If you haven't watched it, watch it on Netflix.ace and gromit vengeance most foul uh they're back with another banger it was fantastic if you haven't watched it watch it on netflix uh it is so good uh the gnomes uh norbot uh and they got to go against feathers mick whatever i gotta give you your flowers real quick yeah um i did watch klaus over the holiday break. And I found it to be extremely entertaining. Watch it again. I didn't know Norm MacDonald was in it.

Oh, yeah. It was Florida. Watch it again. I might have to re-watch this because I really liked it. But every time somebody talks about it, they're glowing. I need to re-watch. It's approaching. It's approaching one in my life.

We like to celebrate holidays, Rick. So maybe you were lucky. Yeah, that's it. You know what it is? I'm a bit of a Grinch. It's the lack of holiday thing with me that probably dropped it down to not that epic level.

Tech gave us another super chat for $4.99, $4.99 quid, I think. He said, happy the boys are back. Great show. Shout out to Tech. Thank you, Tech. You're the man. Thanks for watching, brother.

We love all you guys. Thank you so much. Anyone in here like Mr. Bean? I like Mr. Bean. Not as much as i like wallace and drummond dude i love mr bean rowan atkinson is a is a genius and when i was a kid i used to my dad put me on to mr bean shout out to my by the way shout out to my dad our number one dad not my dad yes collectively our dad you're right shout out to mr jackman Shout out to dad, William Jackman, an absolute legend, our number one fan,

watches every show, and I love you, dad. How about that? I love you too, pops. We love you too, dad. Yeah. He is everybody's dad. Dad knows ball. Red Dwarf, big fans, Red Dwarf.

The star? That too, yeah. Red Dwarf, the British show. No? Okay. No, I don't know it. I know Mr. Bean, though. Rowan Atkinson, legend. All right. No, I don't know it. I know Mr. Bean, though. Rowan Atkinson.

Legend. All right. Wait, I got one more thing. Yes, please. I want to give a shout out to a very special person. I want to give a shout out to Chris Earl Jones

who sent me two copies of this. Maisie's Marvelous Mistake. Maisie's Marvelous Mistake. It's a jujitsu-related holiday tale. I want to read this from him because I don't want to mess anything up here. So Chris Earl Jones is the author.

It's illustrated by Carl Davies. It's available on Amazon. So you can get this book on Amazon. Maisie loves training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. It's her favorite thing. After making a mistake at her competition, causing her to lose, she feels all is lost.

With some wise words from her coach, coupled with her own determination, she discovers how each mistake teaches a valuable lesson. And there's an Instagram account as well. Maisie's underscore marvelous underscore mistake. Um, so shout out to,

to Chris author, um, of this book here that I plan to have my seven year old daughter, Avery read to me. Shout out, man. That's a great one. She can read like that,

huh? Oh yeah. Love it. She's a vociferous reader. Wow. Soon she'll be saying words like vociferous. Yes. Did you join the GC Book Club? Yeah. She's not far away, I'll be honest.

Come on with it. I finished Dark Matter in a matter of days. Can we get an early sneak preview? Is the speed at which you finish a book indicative of anything? It's indicative of how good it is. Yeah, because you don't put it down, right? I'm flying through Project Hail Mary right now.

It's fantastic. Got The Hobbit, the OG. I'm going to go through Lord of the Rings after that. Hey, hey, hey, buckle up. I know you like Interstellar. It would be like same kind of vibes. Yeah, I can't wait. I can't wait.

Yeah, 25 books in 2025 for your boy over here. Just two more shout-outs. Matthew Helms, Super Chat, $1.99. Tyson Fury to the UFC in 2025. Love it. Fuck February. Love it even more. Shout-out, Matthew Helms.

Tyson Fury to the UFC? It's not a... No, you know why? Tyson, you want to fight in the UFC for $6 million? That's it. Just made $100 million losing to Oleksandr Usyk. Jon Jones is, $30 million seems like, oh, is he going to get it?

Is he going to get it? Tyson Fury is not rolling out of bed for less than that. So, yeah, don't see it. Bean Jones says that Groundhog going to fuck Buddy up. Yeah, wait and see. Wait and see for GC versus. Somebody needs to do a really good and c versus pp is gonna is gonna change lives man peter is in the chat right now the very display from from hunger

games okay here's an important thing that i need to say right now not ai yeah i asked for somebody to do this i want some old school photoshop shit i don't want to see Connor have 17 fingers on his hands. I want to see a true Photoshop, Connor Burks, what's his name? Poxitani Phil. Poxitani Phil, the groundhog. Life took from hell,

Poetan S is going to put Poxitani Phil's lights out right there. You're going to get us canceled. Connor versus the groundhog. No, you're going to get us canceled, Frank.

Yeah, you're going to get us canceled, Frank. And then lastly, shout out to front of the program and to get us canceled, Frank. Yeah, you're going to get us canceled, Frank. And then lastly, shout out to front of the program and fan of the show, Michael Chandler using the...

Yes, Michael Chandler. Oh, I love that we have this. Michael Chandler in a tweet. You got it, Frankie? I do. Let me get to this first.

Let me read Conor McGregor. We are bad motherfuckers in Bare Knuckle. Who the fuck is we? God damn it, Frank. I'm saying i want to read this until we get to it there's a little flow on the reading connor mcgregor we

are bad motherfuckers in bare knuckle end of watch the content below see you soon philadelphia home of rocky bubble by the way we're setting up plans to be there we will um we're coming in with no gloves and closed fists and with the heavyweight world title on the line real madman shit made for philly course and then there's a continuation he must have seen uh ariel interviewing um dave feldman president of and founder of bkfc michael chandler quote quote tweets this and says who the fuck is we who the fuck is we the line used by dustin poirier talking about michael chandler you are a suit and the ones you wear keep getting cheaper and cheaper you'll be flipping through the clearance rack in no time at notorious MMA actually not a bad like clap back by

Michael Chandler they're not bad at all uh using the who the fuck is we is the funniest thing ever the vitriol with Dustin which with Dustin Poirier says that is so good I like how Chandler also like is is I guess you know letting it roll off is back to the point that even though dustin is like rubbing his like turning his nose up at michael chandler and saying we're not in league with each other chandler's like all right fine that's funny and then uses it himself shout out to michael chandler uh all right house has been kept done all that we did a lot we did a lot here i honestly for ufc vegas 101 fight week and we went two hours and 12 minutes, bravo to us. Whoa!

This was the... Greg, did you just hit the hydraulics on this thing? No, you activated it when you started clapping. Yeah, you forced the mic off to end the show. It's clap activated. Alright. Crack tomorrow. Pete, you have a full breakdown of PFL, and we'll see you next week. UFC 3

11 Fight Week, baby! Thanks for watching. See you then. have a full breakdown of pfl and um we'll see you next week ufc 311 fight week baby thanks for watching see you then Outro Music