The Ariel Helwani Show - Jake Paul vs. Anthony Joshua aftermath, Eddie Hearn, Nakisa Bidarian, Andrei Arlovski, Harley Cameron in studio, weekend recap, news & notes

Episode Date: December 22, 2025

Ariel Helwani starts the final live show of 2025 with a recap and reaction to Jake Paul vs. Anthony Joshua, including the big winners and losers, before The Boys in the Back and Petesy Carroll join him to further break down the aftermath and forecast what’s next for both Paul and Joshua (04:07).Matchroom’s Eddie Hearn is back to provide his perspective on Joshua’s knockout of Paul, Paul’s game plan and toughness, Joshua’s rising star power, potential bouts for Joshua against Tyson Fury and Rico Verhoeven, Katie Taylor’s next fight, the brewing Zuffa Boxing rivalry, and more (1:04:01).Andrei Arlovski returns to the show to give details about his run-in with streamer Jack Doherty, including who was involved, how the whole thing kicked off, his reaction to Doherty’s comments after the fact, and more. Plus, he previews his upcoming BKFC heavyweight title bout against Ben Rothwell and gives thoughts on the Paul vs. Joshua fight (1:42:49).Most Valuable Promotions co-founder Nakisa Bidarian provides an update on Jake Paul’s health after being knocked out by Anthony Joshua, and discusses Paul’s next move, how the loss impacts Paul’s stock, the main event purses, accusations of fight fixing, Netflix’s reaction to the event, and more (2:08:27).One-half of the AEW Women’s Tag Team Champions, Harley Cameron, joins Ariel in-studio to talk about her ascent in 2025, her early life and knowing she wanted to be an entertainer, WWE facilitating her early wrestling training, the AEW locker room, working with Mercedes Moné, before showcasing her ventriloquism skills (2:35:17).Ariel touches on a few news items, including Andrew Tate falling short in his Misfits debut against Chase DeMoor, and answers your Super Chats to wrap up the show (3:32:56).

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Eriya-Hawani Show. Back in your life on this Monday, on this Monday, December 22nd, 2000. And 25, hello again, everyone. you're doing well. I think this actually might be the latest show we've ever done in a calendar year. Usually around this time, we are on a break. Usually around this time, we're on vacation, we've shut it down, we've got some pre-recorded shows. You know, we don't usually leave you hanging, but once they announced that not only Miss Fitzmania was going to happen on December 20th, But of course, Jake versus Joshua on December 19th, we all said, all right, we've got to do a Monday show.

We've got to do a reaction show. And yes, I did react on Friday night in real time. But there is a lot to discuss. A lot has happened, my friend. So just to let you know, this is our last live show of 2025. I don't know. What is going on? What is that?

What was that? I have no idea. You just decided to play the gym. GFL music, just like that? I thought that was coming from you. You decided to play the GFL music at a level that was so low that I thought maybe it was coming from my computer. So it was like, it wasn't, it wasn't loud enough to be funny.

It was just low enough to be annoying and to throw me off. Like, I'm in the zone, I'm getting ready. Last show of the year, we're feeling good about what transpired over the past week. And you decided to hit me with the GFL music, which didn't really pertain to anything. Like, did I say something to prompt the GFL? film music or was it just a total mistake? I'm not, I'm still not sure. Is it comedic timing? Who's a total mistake? Okay, okay. I just wanted to know. I just wanted to know. I just, you know, I wasn't sure. Anyway, here we are. Last show of the year. We have a lot to discuss.

A lot has happened since we last spoke. A lot has happened since we last spoke. We've got another great show. We're not going to leave you hanging for two weeks. Do not worry. There's more content to come. But as far as me sitting here, boys in the back, the crack, last live show of 2025. And I want to keep stressing that in case someone didn't know that we were doing this show live because it does seem like a few members of the team didn't know we were having a show today. And perhaps, perhaps that's why I'm a little bit on edge here. I actually don't think that's why. I think it's just because Frank thought he was being funny to play the GFL music.

I'm still not quite sure what happened there. But my friends, nothing that Frank can do can put me in a bad mood on this Monday. afternoon here in New York City. It is, of course, the holiday season. Hanukkah has come and gone. We did light all eight candles. Christmas Eve is in two days. Christmas Day is in three days. It's a great time to be alive. It's a great time to be alive for multiple reasons. Of course, on Tuesday we said goodbye. And there was actually some breaking news that happened Tuesday evening. Terrence Crawford out of the blue decided to retire, and we will weigh in on that. but I was I was preoccupied you know in retrospect we probably should have thrown up a reaction video

we probably should have done something about it but I was preoccupied because I was getting locked in not only to pack for my trip to Miami very early flight 6 a.m. flight the next day but I had to lock in with my boys to watch the New York Nekobockers take on the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Cup finals and what has seen it was what has seen it was as we hoisted our first cup trophy since I was emotional. I was happy. Wow, look at this. This is amazing. And so, yes, I haven't spoken to you all since. I mean, we did do the live show and I'll get to that in a moment, but it was a very big deal. So in case you are wondering, I bought the hat, I bought the shirts for myself and my two boys. I bought some sort of like framed collage thing that I'm going to get in January. I watched every single video a million times. I saw Josh Hart stick his thumb of Jalen Brunson's butt. I mean, it was amazing. All of it was amazing. No, it was amazing. Sorry, what? Did you see that? Did you guys see that?

I saw it, but that was like a high point for you? This was like something worth noting of the festivities? Well, first, let's address the elephant in the room. Sure. Hello, Rick. Hello, Pizzi. There he is. Georgia Berks, right over there.

Live from Georgia. It's reminiscent of the summer of 2024 as he's joining us from the Man Cave over there. There's a great collection of trains, I do believe, all around you. yeah yeah we're back but we are not in the same location we're in papa burkes's train cave as he calls it this is just this is actually the small part of it the other half is is even crazier with the lanterns i mean you got a you got a nice model train right here we can actually fire this thing up right now it can do a little does it actually go chew chew chew oh if you can hear it this is amazing actually moving as well if you can see that oh my god yes

I could see it. Yeah, it's pretty incredible. Yes, you have told us. Shout out to Pops and the train museum. Big pop upstairs from the nephews right now, getting to see this live on air. So, yeah, we are in Georgia. Home for the holidays, of course.

Happy holidays to your family, everyone. You didn't forget there was a show today, though. No, no, no, I mean, you know, some people show up. Some people don't. I'm not referring to you. I don't know. Who are you talking about? Come on, name and shame them.

Not you or you. I mean, you're all here. You're all here. You're all here. Who forgot? I'm not naming anyone, PT, all right? They have been... They should be ashamed of themselves.

They should be ashamed of themselves. They have been spoken to, okay? They have been spoken to. Reprimand them. I mean, I only went through the lineup like 48 times over the past week, but, you know, neither here nor there. I guess people don't watch the show. I guess people don't watch a show,

and then others want to drop GFL music in the middle of the intro as I'm trying to like... It was an accident. What happened, Frank? You press the button? By the way, Frank, there's no accidents around here, okay? Everything is calculated when it comes to you.

Everything, there's a reason behind everything. Okay, anyway, I was very happy about the next win. Josh Hart, thumbing the ass, the fuck is this. The fuck is this, Frank, I swear to God, I will walk over there. Nothing to do with that. What is that? You had nothing to do with that? What is that?

Who is controlling the music back there? If only you knew. No, seriously, what was that? Well, while I'm trying to fix the issue from the beginning, I'm told to track. Freddie Kruger? What is that? What was that? Is that not the beginning of the GFL?

That's the beginning of the GFL. song. Yeah, bro. You got to know ball, man. You gotta know. Perhaps the story of 2020. Frank, I have this fucking glitter thing. I'm going to shove it so far up your ass the next time I see you just like a chale

with my phone story from last week. Just like Josh Hart with the... You guys didn't see that when he had the thumb up Jalen's butt. Oh, I saw it. We all saw it. We all saw it. I love it. I thought you stuttered for a second.

You said NBA, there was NBA championship? it? NBA Cup. Oh, Cup. NBA Cup. Yeah, I got the merch. It says it. It's a big one. It's a big one.

Hey, look, we've got other things. We've got bigger fish to fry. We've got other plans. Appetizer, as the New York Nike billboards said outside MSG. But we've decided not to hoist the banner. I feel about it. I feel like we should. I feel like the NBA should make them.

But anyway, that happened on Tuesday. I hardly went to sleep because I was so excited. I watched all the footage. It was amazing. You think I'm joking. I was legit emotional about it woke up very early flew to Miami

did the presser met up with the boys late night Wednesday the whole team not just the boys Andy in the house we had Rob and Pat there Matt Pat was also there but we did have Matt and Rob and Rob

we had a whole crew and everyone was there on air back at the HQ PT doing his thing it wasn't I mean other than just doing the crack a day earlier, that was the Pici doing his

support. But it was great. It was great support. We felt it. What thing was Pizzi doing? I'm curious. Just he did the show day earlier. So I'm sure that was some kind of- Everybody was there. Yeah. Oh, and then I met everybody. Did you meet everybody? Because I was

I wasn't there. I was here in Dublin, Ariel. That's what I was. That's what I was. It was a great time. It was a great time. Hold down the fort. Because the boys didn't want to do the show. Yeah, no, you're right. You're 100% right. Great crowd. Capacity crowd. Shout out to Hard Rock Cafe. Miami. Shout out to Celsius. And most importantly, shout out to DoorDash, who teamed up with us to do

this. Hopefully we'll do more with them in 2026. Peace and love, peace and love. Did a whole meet and greet afterwards. My parents were there. My sister was there. Andy Mayer was there. We had a great sushi meal afterwards. Shout out to POG. Open the store for us. Open the restaurant for us. Late night, midnight. I mean, the time was had. John the barber was there. John the barber was there. in on the, on the nose. A dude flew in from Toronto just to attend, which was unbelievable. And did the wandsvadole, Kayla Harrison.

Oh, he-Mazvedo, Kayla Harrison. You can watch the whole thing, by the way. It's up right now on the channel. Then came Friday. Then came the fight. Then came the aftermath. And then came Miss Fitzmania on Saturday afternoon. So certainly a lot to discuss.

That was the last few days. Let me go through today's lineup. And then we'll get right into things, shall we guys? We will speak to Harley Cameron, who is one half of the AEW tag team champions at about 3.30 in studio, fascinating individual, hailing from Australia. She's a musician. She's a performer. She's a ventriloquist. She's a wrestler.

Great story. Great vibe. Great success story. She'll join us in studio. AEW was here over the weekend to do two shows at the Hammerstein Ballroom. So I'm looking forward to talking to her in studio. I think a very fun and nice way to end our 20-25 slate of live shows. That will be the last interview of the day.

Prior to that, we'll be joined by Nikisa Badarian, CEO and co-founder of Most Valuable Promotions, obviously to talk about Friday. Prior to that, we'll be joined by Andre Arlofsky. You may have heard he was in a bit of a melee of fracas, more on that in a moment. But we'll talk to him at around 240. And then prior to that, the man, Eddie Hearn, CEO of Matchroom Boxing, the face of Matron. Let's be honest, we'll join us to talk about his guy, Anthony Joshua. So there's the four-pack of guests, but we must start today's program talking about Friday night.

And there's so much to say about Friday night. There's so much to say. By now you know Anthony Joshua defeated Jake Paul in the sixth round via knockout, a vicious right hand, which broke Jake Paul's jaw in two places. He had surgery later that night, early Saturday morning. he appears to be in good spirits and he appears to still very much want to fight

a lot of people have had their say a lot of people have weighed in I've weighed in briefly online but I actually made a point I don't know if you guys noticed but I made a point not to ask anyone on the team what they thought of it I don't know if the rest of the guys

Frank everyone I don't know if you hated it loved it thought it was a sham thought it was incredible thought it was great theater I didn't want to know I wanted to react in real time I actually went out of way not to watch other YouTube videos. You know, you see clips here and headlines, but I really wanted to go in fresh. And so I'll tell you some of the things that I thought, and then we'll get into a bit of a discussion. First things first, I do believe that the way in which you feel

about this fight on the Monday after depends on how you felt about it going in. And what I mean by that is if you were expecting Ali Frazier, if you were expecting Gadi Ward, if you were expecting Canelo Crawford, if you were expecting the best of the best, perhaps because you don't know much about boxing, or perhaps because you fell for whatever promotional tactics or anything like that, if you were expecting high-level boxing, a firefight akin to some of the great fights over the past couple decades, Leonard Durant, stuff like that, Hagler-Herns, if you were expecting that, you were obviously disappointed because there was no way that this fight was going to live up to that. There was no way. Just given who was fighting, given the fact that Jake

has going into the fight 13 fights on his resume and Anthony is who he is, there was a massive discrepancy in terms of skill, size, height, weight, reach, resume, years in the game, everything. Everything was in Anthony's favor. So if you were expecting that kind of fight, you were obviously disappointed. The other group of people who are disappointed, so there's two groups. There's fans who maybe were convinced that this was going to be something else. And then there's media who, for whatever reason,

every time Jake Paul fights, feel like they have to virtue signal either to other promoters or to a community and fan base and say this was a sham, this was fixed, this was a black eye, this was the demise, this was the death, this, this, and the other.

That's what they have to do. And then there's another group of people who knew exactly what it was from the get-go. Who knew that, you know, Jake Paul is still a novice boxer, who knew that he was biting off more than he could chew, who knew that, hey, he wasn't forced to fight Anthony Joshua. There was no matchmaker who said, hey, you must fight this guy next or else. No, they knew that he picked Anthony Joshua for whatever reason. Obviously, he can't fight Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. on Netflix. Netflix isn't going to be interested in that.

There's only a certain caliber of fighter that they're going to be interested in. So, Ryan Garcia and Anthony Joshua, Terrence Crawford versus Jake, Hank Davis would make sense. So he only has, you know, a certain amount of fighters that he could choose from. The pool isn't as deep as if he was fighting on the zone. So you knew once he picked Joshua that, okay, the deck was stacked against them. The odds should have been greater. We said this all week long.

We said this all throughout the buildup. It should have been, you know, negative 20,000 in favor of Joshua to be the favorite. and it was going to take, you know, a real crazy circumstance for Jake to pull off the victory. If you are one of those people who knew exactly what you were getting, I would actually imagine that you walked away from that fight on Friday thinking to yourself, you know what, I actually think that delivered. I was actually okay with that. And I will say, and yes, I was working the broadcast, and yes, I was working for Netflix,

and yes, you may say I'm flying a little bit too close to the sun and that's totally okay. I walked away from that thinking, I thought that that was. was entertaining. I thought that Jake actually earned people's respect. And again, again, I don't really know what people are saying online, but he hung in there for six rounds when most people said he's not going to make it past the first round or 30 seconds or one minute, two minutes. He went six. Were there moments where it looked like he was hanging on for dear life? Absolutely. Where there are moments where it was like, yeah, you shouldn't be trying to take the guy down or you shouldn't be hanging on as much as you were hanging on? Absolutely. Were there

moments where he actually cracked him with a couple of shots? Yes, as well. In the end, he lasted six rounds with a former two-time heavyweight unified champion with an Olympic gold medalist with someone who may not be in his prime, but is not so far out of his prime to where it's like one of those fights where it's, you know, Jake versus Mike Tyson from last year. And so as I'm watching it, I'm sitting there ringside and I actually watched it yesterday on Netflix and I'm thinking to myself, it's actually two different fights. When you're sitting there ringside, and I know I'm blessed to be sitting there that close, I was captivated the entire time, because I thought at any moment, AJ, who is built like a Greek god, as he said, could take his head off. Some of those

right hooks, some of those left hooks, some of those uppercuts, some of those jabs look like they were that close to making him fly, make Jake Paul fly into the fifth row. And so the whole time you're just sitting there waiting for it to happen. And then there are moments where Jake's hanging on for dear life and he throws a double jab or he throws a right overhand and you're like, oh shit, could this happen? You then start thinking about Andy Ruiz. So because of that, because I wasn't expecting Hagler-Herns and because I wasn't expecting, you know, Holyfield and Tyson or Lewis Tyson or any of those great fights that I mentioned before I felt like I was locked in the entire time

and then of course it ends the way in which it ends but you then you then start talking to some people and you see some stuff here and there and of course you can't ignore all of it you can't escape all of it it seems as though and I said this before the fight anything other than a knockout in the first or second round people weren't going to be happy with

and if it was a knockout in the first 30 seconds they would have said well this was a waste of our time and if it was a knockout in the fourth or fifth round they would have said oh AJ was playing with his food or AJ carried him or AJ pulled his punches I definitely saw some of that and so it seemed like he had to knock him out in like the second or third around the same time that he knocked out Francis and Gano and people aren't recognizing the fact in my opinion that A.J. pulled his punches I don't believe he pulled his punches B it's ludicrous to say this was scripted obviously it's not scripted you think it was part of the

script for Jake Paul to break his jaw? Insane. How could he be pulling his punches and break his jaw at the same time? They're also ignoring three big things about Anthony Joshua. Anthony Joshua was coming off a 15-month layoff. I do think significant. Anthony Joshua had been knocked out in his last fight. I do think significant. Anthony Joshua was dealing with the pressure of the boxing community coming up to him at every turn saying you have to knock this guy out. Please knock this guy out. If you don't knock this guy out, your legacy is shot, you're dead, you're done, no Tyson Fury fight, no fight in February, that's a lot of pressure as well. And so you don't want to take certain chances because you don't want to slip on that proverbial banana peel. He knows what it's like to get knocked

out. He knows what it's like to get cracked when you're least expecting it. Just go back to the Andy Ruiz fight. And again, I'm not comparing Jake Paul to Andy Ruiz, but no one expected a short notice Andy Ruiz who was replacing Big Baby Miller to do that at Madison Square Garden. So he knows what it's like when you're looking past someone and you get unexpectedly cracked. The other thing that I think was significant is Anthony Joshua had a new team in his corner. We've seen like, remember Ryan Garcia against Oscar Duarte and he fought very weird in that fight. Sometimes when you have a, and that was just a couple of years ago, sometimes when you have a new corner, a new team, and he wasn't with those boys from Ukraine all that long, you know,

there's a feeling out process. You don't have familiar faces and voices and, and, you know, personalities around you, that takes some time as well. And so I think AJ walks away from that and his team saying like six rounds in the bank, we didn't slip, we didn't get rocked, we didn't embarrass ourselves, and we didn't go the distance, which would have been viewed, I think, as sort of like a moral loss, if you will. We broke the kid's jaw, and now we're on to bigger and better. And oh, by the way, Anthony Joshua is on this Monday, and in the immediate aftermath, a massive star here in the United States. And I was actually surprised to see how many people didn't know who he was going into the fight. Like, you see the reaction online. And in particular

with the females, it seems like people are just like enamored with the guy. And I get it. He freaking owned the week. His interviews were great. His press conferences were great. He looked fantastic. He comes across very likable. And you just got the impression that people are like, who is this guy? And it's funny for us because we've known him since the Olympic Games. We've known him for almost 14 years now. We've known him as the guy who beat Vladimir Klitschko and had the fights with Usik and Ganu and Dubois and all the stuff recently.

The stadium shows and the Fury rivalry and all that. Madison Square Garden and Uri's rivalry. We've known this guy, but it seems like here in America, not a lot of people knew who he was. So that's why I don't expect these numbers to be as great as Canella Crawford because I think Canella Crawford

are way more well known here in America and the vast majority of the viewers are going to come from America, probably the next day viewers in the UK will be greater because they maybe wanted to see Anthony, you know, spark Jake Paul. But he's a massive winner in all of this. He comes across as a superstar, as someone that people are really interested in. And I bet his team is trying to figure out ways on how they can capitalize on this and maybe get him back to the United States at some point. Because remember, this was just his second fight in America. The first was Andy Ruiz in 2019. I think Jake didn't embarrass himself. I think

Jake took the beating like a man, answered the questions afterwards, even in the aftermath, didn't get knocked out cold, is smiling, is sticking out his tongue. He came across like a lunatic, like a madman, but I think in a respectable way, seemed to have enjoyed it in a weird way, and seems to want to keep fighting. And so I think that he comes across as a sort of unofficial winner, if you will. I think MVP comes across as an unofficial winner, if you will, as well, because that was their that was their third Netflix card in the span of 13 months there have been four Netflix boxing cards and in the day and age when we hear Dana White continue to say that

we Zoufa boxing are the only ones with a network deal MVP has now put on three in the span of 13 months TKO the other one and two of those were with Jake

one wasn't the July card with Taylor and Serrano and if you look at these cards these aren't influencer cards the only fight on that card that you can deem like somewhat influencer E is Anderson Silva versus Tyrone Woodley and they're two legends and you think they're upset about being a part of the MVP Netflix era they're getting big paydays in their 50s and

40s Anderson all of a sudden is is having this like revival he comes across looking great the knockout was great um the rest of the card you know multiple title fights five title fights total one undisputed on the prelims bomb gardener in the in the comane you got up-acomers like all this is good for boxing. And so you'll have people on this Monday say this was a sham, this was, you know, this was a black, you know, all the usual stuff that we predicted they were going to say afterwards, ignoring the fact that boxing is on the biggest platform in the world, Netflix, ignoring the fact that Jake took on the biggest challenge he could possibly take on short notice.

After Tank falls through, he goes and he's like, where's Francis? Okay, I'll go for the guy who beat Francis. I'll go for AJ, ignoring the fact that, you know, I think some people's stock were elevated on the undercard, some of the fights on the undercard were really, really great. And ultimately, like, there isn't that much to be upset about. There isn't that much to be mad about. Netflix being involved in boxing is great. Jake stepping up and taking Anthony's best shots were great.

I don't think Anthony looked bad at all. There were times where I felt like he was head hunting. There were times where I felt like he was, like, trying to knock him out because I think he wanted to get rid of him. but you have to understand when you have a guy who's running as much as he did and take shots at him or not for the game plan

that was his best way of surviving it's like trying to chase a wet duck you have to get him and I think Anthony did actually a good job of pinning him into the corner sometimes cutting off the ring but it's hard to get a guy

who's moving so much who's clinching you who's trying to do the antics that he was doing that was the best chance for Jake to survive and then hope that he could crack him he got tired

the ring was big it was 22 by 22 as opposed to 20 by 20 there was a significant difference and ultimately he did what he had to do to survive he tried to sneak in some big shots but in the end the better boxer was going to

systematically break him down and that's what he did and he got the victory so I left that show on Friday thinking this feels like a win for everyone involved this feels like a win for Netflix a win for MVP a win for Eddie and AJ and matchroom

that's their guy a win for Jake and then a win for all the other fighters I actually thought in a way it was the best of all the Netflix cards so far as far as the three MVP cards people were a little disappointed with Taylor Serrano

and the main event and the lack of action people had their say about you know Jake and Tyson and the streaming issues and whatnot this was one that I felt like it was like if you are looking at it you know with a clear mind clear conscience

no bias check check check check check that was my view now let me ask the team what did you guys think Rick I'll start with you I've not asked a single one of you what you thought. Rick and G.C. were in attendance. You guys were watching it. Didn't see you guys. I saw my mom and sister. I was looking for you guys. Couldn't see you. Was hoping for a wave. I was hoping for a little, how are you? Didn't see you guys. What did you think? I think everybody did their part.

I think you kind of touched on the fact that it seemed like everybody involved one. I don't know if I say that. I think I think you could kind of debate individuals, but I think everybody did their part. And for that, I mean, for the longest time we've been hearing and the outcry has been, Jake Paul doesn't take real fights. We have to see Jake Paul in a real fight. That's the only thing that I care about. He doesn't take real fights. He only fights old people.

He only fights this. He only fights that. He delivered. He put his nuts on the table and he said, I'm going to take a real fight. Not only am I going to take a real fight, I'm going to fight a heavyweight, former heavyweight champion with knockout power

who just dispatched of Francis Ngano two fights ago in a way that was quite devastating. I'm going to go in against that guy. So to me, Jake Paul held up his side of the equation. I kind of view these, like, I didn't have high expectations in terms of the boxing product. I kind of, like, I think of this, like, the way that some people used to say, like, I read Playboy for the articles. I don't watch Jake Paul fights for boxing. I watch Jake Paul fights for spectacle. Like, if you came in thinking that this was going to be a display of the greatest

boxing you've ever seen, you're just misinformed. Like, I don't, I don't know what you could possibly think that for. That's my only, that's my only takeaway when I hear people say, This didn't deliver. This was a sham. This was this because I'm thinking to myself, what did you expect? Yeah. What do you think he is? What do you think? And I'm not knocking him when I say that is, but yes, it is a spectacle. You see that walkout. You see that crowd. You see the energy in the building. That's what it is. Jake Paul is fighting on Netflix, right? There is a certain expectation. There's a certain understanding there. I don't think Mike Tyson is currently one of the best boxers on the planet. But to put Mike Tyson in a ring and be opposite that, you have presented something that is intriguing to people. In this, case, the sell for this fight was Jake Paul telling everybody, yeah, I think I'm going to die as much as you guys do. He's going to hurt me. So let's see it. And I was in for that. That hooked me. That got me going because that's what I've kind of wanted from Jake Paul. I don't care about, like, I've said this long, many times on the show, I don't care about Jake Paul

fighting the 13th ranked guy in his weight class. I could not care less about that. I don't watch Jake Paul for the boxing. I watch Jake Paul for the spectacle. And as far as the spectacle delivered, I don't think, like, Anthony Joshua deserves a ton of criticism. for anything because he was again there's a lot on the line for him he has to fight a little bit cautiously and in the end of it he ended up knocking him out pretty brutally too he broke his freaking jaw

so let's not act like this was some nonsense where it was just like theatrics and show in the way that I thought Jake carried Mike Tyson Anthony Joshua was just trying not to get hurt and hurt Jake Paul and he did a pretty damn good job of it so yeah ultimately I think everybody brought what they needed to bring to the table the promotion was great I thought Jake

and Anthony were great all week. And it delivered in that perspective. I was not watching to see a competitive boxing match, nor was I watching to see the highest level of boxing. G.C., what do you think? You mentioned the Mike Tyson carrying one. When you go back and watch that, it really did feel like he was fighting against the 58-year-old man,

and he realized he didn't want to hurt him a legend in the sport, and it felt like he kind of knew he was going to win the fight. He took off the gas, and he carried him for the later rounds of that fight, so it went to a decision with this one. It did not feel like I see a lot of people claiming that, oh, AJ, once he got through the contractual side agreement and they needed to go four or five rounds or whatever, that's when he really started fighting or anything like that. I think Jake Paul just came in with a game plan, like you said, Ariel, to survive. I think he knew that he was up

against it. He was going to have to land a massive shot if he was going to win the fight. So he just came out there to survive to last longer than Francis and Gano put on a show and then eventually he ran out of gas. He couldn't run around the ring anymore and he ended up getting knocked out like we all thought he was going to by Anthony Joshua. So I give him respect for taking the fight for going in there and taking the shots from Anthony Joshua and trying to make, you know, as Rick said, a spectacle of it and go out there and go out on a shield. But at the end of the day, it was sort of what I expected just in a different way. It lasted longer, but it was never competitive, you know, scoring it. I had AJ up five rounds of the nun with a 10, 7 in the 5th, so 50-43 and then he knocked them out in the

sixth round. So uncompetitive, but, you know, I guess it's like you said, it's still a win for both these guys, especially AJ, because anyone that's going to fault him for going longer is just going to say that Jake Paul was running around, shooting for takedowns, everything like that, and he ends up getting the knockout, massive payday, and breaks his jaw on the way out. So I think at the end of the day, I'm in agreement with you that everyone kind of comes out of this winning. Like, as history goes on, people will forget about the running around, and the next time Jake Paul fights, they'll be just as interested as the last time. What do you think, PT?

I thought the spectacle was great. The broadcast was great. I think, you know, outrage and controversy are the lifeblood of these events. If we came away being like, that was good, everyone's happy. That isn't what a Jake Polvoid is. This debate, this kind of sifting through the debris of an event is part of this. There is still an element of, you know, what do we want to see this guy do next? What do we want to see?

I think the problem, I agree with G. he said, you know, he was trying to last in there. I think that's where the boxing purists are getting upset about this because it did seem like he was in a escape room for as long as this was going on. He was just trying to get away from the fight. He did catch him as you said on a number of occasions, but I honestly think, right? So we were talking about Joshua's position here, you were at the start, where he was at in his career. He was going to come back and according to match room, they were looking for like a top 100 heavy way for him to fight, like just to get him going again to get him um you know boxing again i think if he had a fought that like a level of

that kind of guy and this guy came in and he was shooting these takedowns or whatever you want to call him that jake paul was on i think he would have won a lot of controversy would have won a lot of criticism for that but you know that's the thing is we're watching a jake paul for this is millions of eyeballs if that had happened that wouldn't have been happening on netflix you wouldn't have all these people watching if it was a fight like that The sell of the event is like, look how crazy this is. And it did seem crazy as long as it was happening. I'm not trying to say for a second that Jake Paul doesn't deserve respect.

He does, as we've pointed out here, he's broken his jaw. And that's a horrific injury for a boxer. Kelly Pavlik, Amir Khan are just a number of people who've had their careers completely altered by breaking their jaws. They were never the same again. Even MMA, Brendan Shob, Noggeron knocked him out, broke his jaw, wasn't the same. Chris Wyatman, I believe it was Rockholt, broke his jaw. It wasn't the same. This is a very serious toll he's after taking on his buddy to do this. But I can see why people are upset about it. But at the same time, I really can't. I can't see what you're upset about it? Then what do you have to say about some of the other performances on the card? Were you upset about those? Were you upset about the spotlight that was put on the likes of Alicia Baumgartner, or Jamal Harvey or Yocastavaya? Or Sharnik? No, or are you upset because? you feel like, oh, people paid attention to this, but they won't pay attention to Naoya Inouye on Saturday. Are you even going to pay attention to Nauia in a way? I don't

mean you. So it's like, it's all just kind of like this song and dance. It's all, as our good friend, Jamal Hill will say, it's disingenuous. It's disingenuous. Because it's, it's just the thing that you have to say if you're in the, if you're a boxing media member, especially the ones in the UK who drive me nuts, you have to say that to curry favor with the public. This was a sham. This was a joke. This was a black guy on the sport. Really? Was it really? Was it really? Was it really? What was so bad about it? And then you see people coupling, this is the one that I find hilarious. They're coupling Jake losing and Andrew Tate losing. They're putting Jake Paul and Andrew Tate in the same category. Now, I understand they're both quote unquote heels. But in terms of like what these two individuals have been accused of or what they've actually done in society, they couldn't be further away from each other. What is it? Jake done to actually deserve the hate that he has received? Here's KSI and of course KSI is going to spike the football because

Andrew Tate took his job at misfits. We all know that that's not true, but this is part of the work and he doesn't like Jake Paul. But let's be honest, Jake stepped up and fought someone that KSI has never fought. Like the caliber of fighter that Jake Paul fought on Friday is on a whole different strategy, a whole different

level than anyone that KSI has fought. Jake Paul has never been accused of the stuff that Andrew Tate has been accused of. All Jake Paul has done over the last few years, correct me if I'm wrong anyone, correct me from wrong, is build a promotion, give an opportunity to many women, bring the sport to Netflix three times, like where's the heel in all of that? I don't get it. Now I know, you say I'm going to beat this guy, you say I'm him, you say, I'm going to do this, you're annoying, you've got an annoying haircut, you've got an annoying YouTube, and all, I get that. But like, we're comparing it to Andrew

Tate? That's crazy to me. It's not, it's like, it's not even on the same level. There's real life things and then there's promotional things. And the real life things for Jake Paul don't quite stack up. They're not, they're not the same caliber of what you're discussing in terms of Andrew Tate. Like that's, it's just different. Like saying like, oh, this was a great weekend to see bad guys lose. I'm like, yeah, there's levels of bad guy in the world, right? But the KSI thing is what, the CEO of Misfits now. And then Jake is like his quote unquote rival. Sure. I really think the only reason people are comparing it was because it was like the, the hate watch of the weekend was. Yeah. The one, the one area I do want to push back.

little bit, a tiny bit. Go ahead. I'm with you on nearly everything you're saying, especially as it relates to the event, right, the promotion. But as far as Jake Paul's performance, I do think there's some criticism warranted. I agree with that. I expected something completely different.

He did not try to win the fight. And I don't think you could argue that. Survive the fight, fine. But if you think that desperately that your only chance to win is to just run, plant your feet, throw a bomb, and get knocked out. Like, if you're Jake Paul saying, I'm going to slay Goliath, show me that. That did not look like trying to slay Goliath. I think that it was his only chance.

Why? Well, is it a good performance? No. And especially, like I said, the takedowns, they were sloppy. It was frustrating. The, I think it was the fourth round where things got like screwy and the referee got mad at them. The first four rounds were an abomination. I thought-an abomination.

I mean, we're talking about takedowns in a box. By the way, I actually thought he won the first round. They both landed the same amount of punches, and I thought his punches were more significant. The two, they landed two. But the thing is, what did you expect? You expected to sit in the pocket? Yes. No, there was no way.

There was no way. So how is he going to win the fight? Is it a fight or is it not a fight? This is the problem. This is the problem that Jake Paul will have in any future endeavor. After this, people are going to still be claiming it's rigged, it's fixed, because they're going to say, oh, it took too long for Anthony Joshua. you cannot he will never defeat that by with that performance right because if he was just trying to survive then you're not selling me a fight right the whole thing is i fight in legitimate fights

and here's what and here's the the the horse i'm riding in on you're not going to see any fixed fights you're going to see me fight in real fights and i'm going to go up there and slay goliath you did not show the performance that tells me that that's what you were trying to do and i think that will have people calling it into question if you truly were trying to slay goliath and the best path was either to do that running thing or plant your feet and actually throw some hands, show me the version where you plant your feet and throw some hands.

I thought he did that. What do you mean? He landed those punches that he had to land and that he could land. When the guy's moving around and he's moving around. I'm talking about Jake. Yes, that's what I'm talking about. Anthony Joshua didn't move an inch.

He was plodding forward. I'm saying he's trying to catch him and he's moving around. Jake is moving around. At some point, as you say, you have to plant your feet. Did he hit him with a couple of, again, I'm not saying he hit him with like a hundred punches, but we have

seen fights where people have historically had very low output. Very recently this year, right? Canelo Skull, the Ryan Garcia fight, the Devin Haney fight. People sometimes don't throw the Brian Norman fight of just a few weeks. So my point is, that was the only chance that he had.

If he would have stood there, like Francis did, he would have got knocked out in the first and second round. That's what I wanted to see. Because Francis, to his credit, was trying to beat Anthony Joshua. Francis had a bad game plan He did He was switching fences

The game plan for both Is to beat Anthony Joshua Jake's game plan made a lot more sense To me going into the fight There was no chance When I found out that the ring was bigger Oh of course he's going to run The problem with running

Is that he was going to gas himself out Which he did because he has bad cardio Run and then what though Run and lay a Hail Mary bomb That was it And it's what he tried to do But he's not good enough to land that And AJ is too big

There was too much distance between them But even AJ was throwing out a distance, too. You saw him whiff a couple times. And so the two of them were playing this cat and mouse game, which led to a bad fight. And by the way, if you want to blame the fight on anyone, you could blame it on Jake. I am believing it on Jake.

I understand that. But that was still the only way that he was going to win the fight. Yes, it was. No, it's not. That is not a winning strategy. That was the way he was never going to win the fight. Exactly. So if there was one chance to win, it was like that.

And even with that, he was a negative 20,000. And then throw a punch? No, it was to run around and hope that you could count. him. And that's what he did. Ariel, do you think that if, in the example I used earlier, if Anthony Joshua fought some known name guy, top 100 guy, just a tune up fight, and it went like that, what do you think people would say? If Anthony Joshua fought, it was not Jake Paul, it was any other guy. Yes. I mean, the eyes of the world aren't on this. Sure, sure, sure. And the performance was the same for Jake, exactly the same, for the Jake opponent, like the guy

who's playing Jake. And how many fights does the, the Jake guy have? 13 as well? Same, yeah. yeah that's the only chance the guy has what would the reaction be yeah that wasn't a great fight and they'd say Joshua's fighting booms now what's going on here they probably say yeah but it's not the same it's not the same

you can't say that because he's getting paid 50 million to do this fight where we disagree is I don't think that's the only the only way he could win that fight is in the first round when he's fresh you try to do it and like Francis Ngano did I'm gonna stand here I'm not scared of Anthony Joshua

I'm gonna fight him and by the way that was the sell, right? Jake Paul was, I'm going to slay Goliath. Again, like, the words that he was saying was, I'm going to slay Goliath. He didn't. He didn't try. He ran. And there was no chance to win. Wait, so Jake is the first guy to say, I'm going to knock someone out and, like,

have a different type. No, you know what I mean? But, but, like, we're going to hold this pre-fight talk. It's different. It's different. Because his, his cell is only the pre-fight talk. The boxing is not the cell. As I've outlined, and everybody knows now at this point, his cell, if you're somebody who can go

in and put on entertaining performances and You're like, I'm going to kill him, but you don't, but you actually are a competitive fighter and you can, in your next performance, show that, that's fine, but he can't. That's not what he's at, that's not his level. That's not what he's capable of. His cell is the cell, and that was the cell. So show me, show me that. I can feel perfectly fine.

My response would be it's up to you whether or not to believe the cell or not. So when he says it, you could be like, oh, yes, I'm expecting it, or you'd be like, no, you're not. That's a problem for him moving forward, I believe. I don't believe the cell anymore. every single Jake Paul fight we talk about in the lead up to it like don't be fool guys this guy is a real boxer we shouldn't be shocked when people suddenly hold him to the same standards as a boxer like that that's what's happening here every other fight it's like this guy is a real boxer this guy is for real and I'm completely which aerial the disparity is crazy Joshua was one of the greatest heavyweights of the last decade of his generation like this was only ever going to go one way but I think that's where people are like you've been telling us like this guy is is a real boxer. So we need to hold him to the standard of a boxer to some degree, I think. Rick is also making the argument for why people are upset,

because there were a lot of people online that were upset through, especially through the first four rounds of the fight. So to Rick's point, I do understand why some people are upset with the fight. I think Ariel's right, though, that there are some who are upset just to be upset. There's not people who are upset because Jake Paul had that game plan. They're the ones who are like, Jake Paul needs to fight a real fight. And then when he does, they're still mad. Like, they're still finding a way to be mad about it.

Make no mistake. I respect Jake Paul for taking this fight, especially on the short notice that he did, for salvaging this and trying to make a spectacle, picking one of the hardest opponents he could possibly pick. Also, it sounds like Terrence Crawford was, you know, in the mix and things like that. Like, Jake Paul put his nuts on the table with this thing. And so I respect him, but I also did not appreciate the performance.

There are different levels to 13 fights, right? There's a Moses, the Tauma who has around the same amount of fights. There's like the David Morels who have the same amount of fights. So just because you say, because Pete, you're giving me the example of, all right, so some dude would, like, there's different levels. We all know that. There's someone who's coming out of the Olympics. There's someone who's coming from the amateur. Some dudes have 100 amateur fights.

Jake has done. And I guess I just, I don't view him. I kind of view it as, I was trying to think like what's the best example, but there isn't a great example. There's a spectacle element to it. And the escape is, could this guy who has no amateur background, who doesn't come from a boxing background, could this guy who has taken a very non-traditional path throughout his career, fighting MMA fighters and all this other stuff, could this guy pull off the impossible? That's really like, that's really the story here for me. Could David slay Goliath? And in this, in this particular fight, it looked like that, right?

the face-offs and all that stuff. And so to me, all the pressure was truly on AJ to be like, no, you little twerp, you're not going to make a name off of my back. I'm going to go out there and squash you. And he did. And I thought, given what we know about Jake, given his skill set, given his size, his reach, his weight, all that stuff, he had no chance other than to try to play the sort of, you know, cat and mouse game.

And so that's why when I'm watching it, I wasn't like, Morrow was getting very upset. I'm like, in my mind, I'm like, Morrow. What, like, what did you expect? Like, what are you getting so mad about? This is exactly the type of fight that I thought it was going to be. I thought my official prediction was that AJ was going to knock him out in the third or fourth. And so it took a little bit longer than that. But in the end, I thought he was going to try to run around.

Once we found out about the 22 by 22 ring, that's why I asked AJ about it at the press conference. I was like, oh, of course, he wants more space to run around. But I thought to myself, he's going to get tired. And then eventually he's going to, you know, he's going to get caught. All to say, again, if I'm trying to. trying to win someone over on boxing. I'm not putting this one into the VHS. My question, though, is, and I feel, I feel like his stock has gone up. I feel like people are like, all right, respect, you bid off more than you can chew, now go back down to the cruiserweight division, and, you know,

take a step back. Maybe you're fighting the Tommy Furies. Maybe you're fighting the freaking KSIs or the Andrew Tates or the Chase the Moors of the world. Obviously, he's not at that level, and he may never get to that level. Does anyone feel otherwise? Does anyone feel like the fight was so bad, the knockout was so bad, that actually now he can't be on Netflix, he can't get these big fights, he won't get the attention to the people like he did on Friday and last November against Mike Tyson. What do you think, Rick? No, I do not. I do not think that this was embarrassing or devastating. And I do think there are a lot of people out there who will give him the brownie points for, hey, you stepped in there. You got your jaw shattered

by Anthony Joshua. Like, respect, tip of the cap, right? I just criticized his performance. but as I said, my respect level for him remains the same or went up. I've always thought Jake Paul is doing something admirable as far as this goes. And so I will give him that respect. And I don't think this was embarrassing to hurt the stock. The question I would ask, there's two things. One, I think it's going to be harder to sell Jake Paul from the perspective that the veil has fallen. You talked about, hey, the story is, can this guy who has no amateur experience beat Goliath?

And the answer is, like, definitively no. We know that now. There is no question about that. There is no mystery. Well, for now, let's not pretend people haven't been knocked out and come back and rebuilt themselves to become a... Again, this is where the performance itself matters to me, right? The performance itself was not good, and you pair that with the idea that this was the outcome.

I do think you... But we watch a sport all the time where people lose fights and then come back and go on 10-fight winning streets. I'm just saying, let's not pretend that a loss is definitive, right? You could. Do I think he will have it in him to go on a 10-fight winning street? now and work his way up the rankings? Probably not. He doesn't need to do it. He's a multi-millionaire. But I don't think that a loss and a performance should be the definitive right-off of someone. It's not a definitive right-off. I'm just saying it's harder. It's harder to sell that.

Take a step back. Yeah. When you lose, you take a step back. When you get knocked out, it's an even greater step back. Would you want to say, G.C.? I was just saying that this is the first time we've seen him at this level. It's not like he's like a UFC fighter who has four or five UFC wins and then he lose a couple in a row and then he goes on a run afterward. This This was his first step into championship level. And obviously, I understand the size disparity, everything like that. You know, maybe it's different at a lower weight class. But this is the first time we've seen him go up against a world-class boxer.

And it was non-competitive. Yes. But then the question, now the question to you is, and the question to everyone is, do you now have zero interest? No, I still have interest. In watching it continue, do you now feel like he has lost? What is it? The moral victory. Is it boxing?

Yes. Does it have to be boxing? more interested in Jake Paul competing in MMA at this point. I don't know about that. I mean, I guess Is this a loss? Like, everybody's talking about this. Everybody. Everybody, like I was in a barbershop to say, everybody's talking about it. Like, yeah, it's not

positive. Everyone's like, oh, blah, blah, blah. Isn't this what, like, this is what the product is? This is like it's not like Joshua, as we were talking about, like, in some heavy way for it and some rebuild. The always of the world are on this thing. And I agree with you in terms of the performance, Rick.

But like, are we talking about the product here? As far as Netflix are concerned, they'll be like, this is brilliant. Everybody is talking about this event. Here's my fear, though. I agree with you to an extent. Here's my fear, though. What are the names, the list of names has shrunk for me? I was willing to entertain a Canelo fight prior

to this. When Canello was the name instead of Anthony Joshua, I am no longer willing to see a Canelo fight. When Terrence Crawford's name was thrown around in this, I was willing to entertain it. Let's see it. I am not entertaining that any longer. So the list of opponents has shrunk

significantly. I don't think there's anything wrong. Like, he went from Tyson to Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., right? So I don't think every time they're going to be blockbuster names. Yeah. So, if the next one is Tommy Fury, I'm not interested. If the next one is KSI? I'm interested, but I don't think it's real. Lots of people are

interested. Not what's the... What do you mean it's real? Do you think it would be scripted? No, no, I just don't think they'll ever fight. I'm just saying that caliber. That caliber, that caliber, yes. Yeah. That caliber, yes. He's going to say, I'm going to, the ring is going to be tiny. I'm going to be fighting this guy, my jaw's just been broken.

This is what it is. Like, he's going to, he's going to sell it again. I'm going to be sitting there watching it again. And everyone's going to go fucking mad after it. And everyone's going to be like, oh, I can't believe this. Can you believe this happened again? I'll be like, yeah, because it's happened loads of times. And again, I'm going to watch.

Like, that's the way it is. To me, it's an entire story. It's an entire package. And, and again, if you want to call me biased, fine. I don't give a fuck. Call me bias. But to have this spotlight get shine on other boxers, on the sport of boxing while everyone cries that boxing is dying.

Meanwhile, this dude brought boxing to Netflix three times in the past year. How could that be bad? No, Jake is the performer? If you want to turn it off after Baumgartner, go ahead. Turn it off after Baumgartner. No one's turning off. But you know what I'm saying? So is it a net positive or is a net negative?

And I don't think, look, if you want to buy into the, I'm going to knock him out, then, okay, good for you for eating up the wolf tickets. That's fine. I still think that he has come a lot further than a lot of people thought. And I think, of course, you can't sit here and give praise. You can't, because then you're on the take. But this guy will beat, he will beat a lot of these dudes now. He will beat KSI.

The last version that we saw of KSI, he would beat Andrew Tate, who was in talks to fight him not that long ago. He smoked both of those boys. It's a different game. It's a different thing. Okay, so then we find out, now we're going to find out truly how much he loves it. Because as you said, you come off a broken jaw, it's hard to come back, period. So we're going to find out. You come off getting knocked out.

It changes you. We're going to find out. We're going to find out by the opponents that he's going to choose. We're going to find out a lot about this guy. But I think you walk, I walked away from that on Saturday, or on Friday, Saturday morning, thinking to myself like, yeah, it could have gone a lot worse. We could be looking at memes today of him just completely knocked out cold in 30 seconds. Didn't happen.

And I don't think, you know, in 10 years from now, the minutia as to, you know, how long he lasted or him running is going to be remembered. I think it's going to be that, like, hey, he took a loss. And he took a knockout and then he got up smiling and he got up looking like a lunatic. I think ultimately that's why I think it's a win for him, also the million dollars. I actually thought that that was the biggest win is that the punch that ultimately put him out, he goes to the ground and is like, whoa, that was crazy. I can't believe I just took that. Like he enjoyed it.

Everything like that. Yeah, it was like he was enjoying it, loving it in there. And then in the interview with you afterward, he's just like, think my jaw's broke, huge glob of blood. He's like, yeah, that thing's definitely broken. Like, he's taking it in stride, you know? like he's taking it like a real fighter, which is admirable and will gain respect of a lot of people. To Pizzi's point, he said it earlier in the show and he just said it again about the

barbershop. You can't do a Jake Paul fight without it being shrouded in controversy, without people having all these hot takes and getting angry about it. And that's why people watch it. That's what gets people to tune in. And that's why I think Netflix loves it so much. But then also to Rick's point, I do think that the list is starting to shrink. Because now if he goes and he fights another world-class guy and he loses again in a similar fashion that he lost to AJ. That's where I think the interest will truly start falling off where it's just like, how can you even sell this because people just know that he's going to go in there and lose? There is an element, I think I actually saw PT, you referred to it as like a jackass fight, an episode of Jackass.

Knoxville against Borrame. There is a certain element of like he takes the punch, he smiles and he's like, whoa, that was nuts. Almost like he's doing like a stunt and he wants to see, and that's why I think he sometimes doesn't play by the same rules as a traditional boxer who is trying to climb up the ranks and eventually get to a contender fight and win a world title. He defies all those rules that we have been beholden to as far as fight fans and fighters. And so he has that smile and you're like, oh, his motives are different. Obviously his motives are different. His career path is different. And again, I go back to the fact that I think that he has lasted a lot longer than a lot of people ever thought. The guy who made his debut in 2020 against a

Nissan Gibb certainly lasted a lot longer than I think most boxing fans thought and most of his fans probably thought as well. And even his critics, the likes of Dana White who would use to say like, Jake, Jake, are you going to fight someone your size? Are you going to fight? Well, now he just fought someone who is like 40 pounds bigger than him, way better than him. What can you say now about him in terms of like, does he have the balls? And that's why I think ultimately you have to at least tip your cap to the guy because going in there against Anthony Joshua's nuts. Can I just talk about the interview for a second? First of all, The fight ends.

There's so many damn people in the ring that I swear the thing was collapsing. Like you can feel it. It was almost like you were in quicksand. The thing is collapsing. And I'm like, what's taking so long to read the damn, you know, the damn announcement, to make the damn announcement? So it's taking forever. It's taking forever. Everyone in their mom is in the ring.

The thing is collapsing. I want to get the interview. Obviously, this is the big moment. It's collapsing. It's collapsing. Finally, then I have to like weave through everyone to get there. I'm having the time in my life. I'm not going to lie.

I'm having the time. This is exactly what I used to dream of when I would watch Larry Merchant on HBO boxing. Like, this is the dream. This is exactly where I wanted to be in my life. And I get those opportunities few and far between. And finally, I get to A.J., I ask him a question. The first question is, what do you make of that fight? And he puts his arms on me.

Well, first he pauses, almost like, I don't know if I stumped him. I don't know if he was expecting that. I don't know why he paused. And he thanks everyone. And then he tells me this whole story with his arms. on my shoulders. Now, a lot of people mocked me for this, saying that it was a moment that I'll never forget, but I'll be honest. Like, the guy is staring into my soul. It's Anthony Freak and Joshua. I've told you forever how much I admire this guy. I've been watching him for

years. How could you not have great admiration for his story and for what he's done? He's sweating all over me. And he's telling me in, I think, a very sort of thoughtful and candid way, what he thought of the fight, what he thought of the performance, what he thought of Jake. And there's a moment where I'm like, how the hell did I end up here? How the hell did I end up here? What is going on right now? My mom and sister are in attendance is one of the great highlights of my career. And I'm sorry if that makes me sound suss or anything like that to you weirdos, but it was a great honor. I didn't view it as him sunning me. I viewed it as him having some sort of comfort with me and just sort of feeling like that was the appropriate thing to do. And then I'm being told

my jacket is being grabbed saying, go to Jake, go to Jake. And I'm like, how can I move away from this moment. This guy is talking about Tyson, like he's willingly talking about all the things that we wanted to talk about. Again, I thought it was a great week for him. And then finally, I hear, we're leaving if you don't go to Jake. So I turned to Jake. I was hoping AJ would stay.

He's long gone by the time I talked to Jake. Jake, I thought, handled it well, made no excuses, revealed that his jaw was broken, ask him a bunch of questions. The ring is still sinking in as we are speaking. Turn, AJ's not there. I asked Eddie a quick

question and that was in and I walked out being like man I'm fucking lucky like again and so if you want to sit here and be like Ariel's looking at this through rose color glasses or he's flying too close to the sun I am very grateful and thankful that I get these opportunities I feel like I have always kept a real I feel like I've always kept it honest again I had that public long before we even got to this point Jake and I got into that little Twitter spat and he was talking about Rock Holden Costa and I asked him about the fake belt that he walked around with like it could have all ended there. So I feel like I've always kept a real and I feel like I've always tried to be honest with my relationship, with the opportunities and how much they mean to me as well. And so an

opportunity like that, I hope you understand for someone who has had to, you know, eat a lot of shit sandwiches and take opportunities taken away from him to be in that ring right there. I'm sorry if this bothers you that I say it is a big freaking deal for me. From a career standpoint, from a life standpoint, that is a huge honor and a really, really big deal for me. And so I'm very appreciative. I'm very grateful that I get those opportunities as few and far between as they are. They're not a consistent gig for me. I don't have another show next week or in two weeks or in three weeks or next month. I don't know if I'll ever have another one, to be honest. I have no deal with them. It's just one-offs. So, yeah, it's just a big deal. And I hope that if you've been along for

the ride, I hope that if you've, you know, watched us and are aware of the ups and downs, the trials and tribulations, that you can at least appreciate that. I try to keep it honest as far as the performances are concerned. Like I said, I don't think it was the greatest fight. I don't think it was the greatest performance. It was what I expected to a degree. Obviously, you didn't know when the knockout was going to come specifically, but I thought it was going to come and it did. I thought AJ handled the week great. I thought AJ looked great. And I thought he worked with what he was given in that anyone who was saying, why couldn't you have knocked them out in the first round, doesn't really quite understand how hard it is to catch someone as they are running away. I want

to see AJ fight again. The fight that I was referring to, we could talk about it now at the live show is the Rico Verhoeven fight. We'll talk to his promoter in a moment about, you know, whether or not that's still going to happen in February. But that is the left field fight that I was referring to. So let's see. I would love to see him fight Fury next. I would love to see that fight next. I feel like that's the fight that we've been waiting for and have been teased with. That's the fight. I'd rather not see them fight anyone else first. Can we see everything after that? Just do it now. Do it in April. Do it in May. Do it in June. But make it next so that they don't slip on a banana peel. And I want to see Jake continue this. And I think we're going to learn a lot about who Jake is and how much he loves boxing if he does come back and fight anyone. Because if you come back and fight anyone after suffering a knockout loss and a broken jaw, you told me something. How you can sit here and describe him as just a YouTuber and not a fighter is beyond me. You step through the ropes. You fight 14 times now. You have 14 times as a pro. You take shots like that from AJ, as few

and far between as they may have been, you take shots like that from AJ, you have earned my respect as a fighter. And that's it. That took titanium plates in his jaw now because of it. Here, Ari, you did a great job, by the way. It was brilliant. It's a buzz seeing you doing that. Thank you. Really is. It's great. And don't worry about it.

I think you're going to get a call up soon. Well, I don't know. I don't know, but it's a great. I think you'll be obvious. I hope the audience understands. In MMA, the reason you've never seen me do that is because you have to work for the promoter to do those jobs. So everyone that you see on the UFC broadcast gets paid by the UFC. Everyone who you see on a PFL broadcast gets paid by the PFL. Everyone who you see on a one broadcast and on it goes gets paid by the promoter. That's how MMA has been

structured because that's how the UFC kind of set the rules very early on. In the NBA, in the NFL, like you watch the NFL and CBS, they're not paid by the NFL, they're paid by CBS. NBNESPN, paid by ESPN not. So you get it. The fight game is different. Boxing. though, at times, not every time, but at times, is structured in that the crew, the broadcast team is working for the network, not the promoter. So in this case, we were all getting paid technically by the production company that is hired by Netflix. If you really want to know, it's a production company called Ever Wonder. They're also producing the Christmas games on Netflix this week. So I wish them the best and wish them the best of luck. They're the most

professional production company slash network that I've ever worked with. They're unbelievable. They're the ones who pay, but it's not the promoter. And so if I wanted to work, I don't know, a matchroom card in the UK on DeZone, you would have to get paid by Matrim. And on and on it goes. And that's a problem for me because I want to do this job as well. And I want to do it without any bias and not compromised. And you could say just because you're on the broadcast, that's already, you know, a knock against you.

Fine. But like, I want to do that gig too. And you only get one life. and I want to try to do it as many times as possible. I wish there were more opportunities like in the NFL, NBA, NHL, Major League Baseball where you can do it. Unfortunately, they're not.

And so that's why I relish those opportunities and enjoy them very, very much. I really do. There's no greater thrill than being in the ring with someone who just had a huge win. And to try to ask them three, four, five questions, you've got to keep them quick because they're trying not to let the shows drag.

Did the broadcast drag, Pizzi? Did it feel like, did it feel like a long night? And look, in terms of, of like MMA fans people that are tuning in Anderson silver come on that was crazy oh my god it was insane um bomb garden i think came across a lot better this time around i was very really really in that fight i don't think she kind of used the platform as well as she might of the first of first time around um i thought it was a really really good fight and yeah it felt really pacey and really fun you know like as you say like there is a spectacle element there's an entertainment element to this and it felt

like that and it was a lot of fun um we didn't have time to speak about andrea i lost but low-key moment of the night, maybe. Oh, my God. Can I tell you something quickly about Andre Rolovsky? Andre Rolovsky, I'm leaving the arena, and I see him in a sort of like, not a holding room, but like kind of in between security. And I see him, and I'm like, house taste, house taste, my friend, my old friend. Hi, Ariel, how are you?

Oh, hey, Andre, how are you? Hug. This is my son. Oh, the baseball player that you told us about. Yeah, I'm like, hey, bud, how are you? Who's your favorite player? I don't have one. what position do you play catcher he's like you want a picture with him and I'm like wow why is everyone so subdued

and then he's like this is my wife hello how are you so nice to see you she could not have given two shits about me I'm like Andre is everything okay and he's like yes I just got into a fight and she broke her phone I'm like oh man I'm so sorry what do you mean fight and he's like oh I got into a stupid fight and she's like stupid fight she's like yelling back at him you know like a like a husband and wife like who was this stupid but you broke my phone and I'm like oh I'm sorry well anyway guys I'm going back to the hotel, see you later. Go online, and I see the fucking fight. I was like, oh, shit, this is what happened.

And I'm walking like, how's taste? How are you, bud? It's great to see you. I was like, oh, shit, okay, my bad. Now I understand why everyone was so damn subdued and not happy to see me. But nevertheless, we will talk to Andre about that moment with Jack Doherty.

I don't even know who Jack Doherty is. I've heard of him. In 20 seconds, who's Jack Doherty? Who's the wanker? I don't even think we need 20 seconds. What Pizzi said, he's just a wanker, man. Any video I see of him, he's like a streamer on kick or party or something like that. And he just goes around picking fights, hiding behind bodyguards.

You ever see six dudes immediately just go, oh, God, no. No, we're not doing this. I'm just like, I don't fucking believe this. I'm going to have to fight Andre Halovsky. Well, we will talk to him about that. So stay tuned. Gentlemen, thank you very much. We'll talk to you soon.

Much love, much love. Peace and love. Peace and love. Still to come, Harley Cameron in studio. Nikisa Badarian will join us. Andrei Arlowski will join us as well. But in a matter of seconds, we are going to be joined by AJ's best bud, his right-hand man, the man who has been by his side throws it into his entire pro career since the moment

he won that gold medal for every single pro fight. And you can see the love, the appreciation, the loyalty, the respect that AJ has for Eddie Hearn because every opportunity that he has to speak on the microphone, he shouts him out, He shouts out matchroom. He shouts out all, you know, the crew that he's been working with for his entire career. It's actually very cool to see some loyalty in the sport of boxing because we all know that, well, that is not the norm. And so on Friday, he was very happy. I wanted to have, I asked him a question very quickly at the end there because AJ left and I didn't realize he left,

but I wanted to have a little more time to digest what we saw and process it all. And so Eddie Hearn is kind enough to join us before the holidays to talk about what transpired on Friday night in Miami at the Casillas Center. Do we have, Eddie? Yeah, I'm here. Okay, Eddie. Where is he? I don't see it. Sorry, yeah. Okay, there he is. Sorry about that. Hello, Eddie. How are you? How are you? Thank you for doing this. I really appreciate it. No problem. No problem, my friend. No problem. Back home from Miami? Back home from Miami. I'm just actually in the car at the moment doing a bit of Christmas shopping.

We've only got a few days before we have to head to Saudi later in the week for the Anouye card which we're promoting in Riyadh. So yeah, a very, very short time in the UK and then off again for what will end an incredible year. And there it is. The great

Naoya Inouye fighting Alan Picasso and I will ask you about that in a moment. By the way, you could have just got your loved ones, some of the new matchroom merch that I saw you guys came with that would have been an easy present no i saw you modeling that you know what i actually gave my daughter a hoodie there it is uh this morning it wasn't her full christmas present just one of but look at that what a handful guy there wow wow yeah i mean that's why we're shifting so much

product at the moment look at that guy i can understand i can understand uh very easy question to answer very easy question to ask off the top and i'll ask you the same one that i asked a j what did you make of that fight what are your impressions of that fight I mean, I thought it was much better than I thought it would be. I mean, I know that people are going to say, well, Jake was running and Jake was held. But listen, I mean, at the end of the day, Jake had one job, and that was to try and survive. I mean, he was never, ever going to win the fight ever, ever. And if you would have said to me, do I think he'll go six rounds?

I would have said absolutely not. I mean, I felt that it would take AJ a couple of rounds to get hold of him because I knew Jake can move a bit and he'd be moving off the back foot and he'd be holding. but it was the way that he did it I think was actually quite impressive like not that particular part but the way that he would you know the way that he was strong in the clinch you know he wouldn't let AJ get his shots off in the clinch

he made him miss a few times and obviously AJ's been out of the ring for a while but to be honest I think the most fascinating thing of the whole night in terms of the fight was how he didn't get flatlined by that right hand I mean I said I said going into the fight

he's probably going to take AJ a few rounds to get hold of him. And I also said, as soon as he lands clean, the fight's over, right? He landed a few before, but the first that he landed really clean was the final shot. But, you know, he never flatlined Jake. I mean, he did break his jaw in two places, which is a disaster. But there are a lot of heavyweights that would have been out cold from that right hand. I mean, one of them was Francis and gone in a pretty similar shot, really.

so I actually give Jake unbelievable credit for doing it in the first place but his performance as well I stand by the fact that I think he's just a decent cruiserweight but he did go in with Anthony Joshua and the world is full of criticism and opinions and negativity who else he's doing what he's doing

at what is he late 20s I mean quite phenomenal I mean the guys are completely madman I'm watching him come out to that ring walk and he's just an incredible entertainer. And I'm sort of standing in the ring going, is he for real? And he did all right.

I mean, I know people will talk about the holding, but his job was to survive. And he survived for nearly six complete rounds. By the way, you just, he's remarkable. You just refer to him as a decent cruiserweight. So I'm wondering, has he officially graduated? We all remember that face-to-face many, many moons ago.

I was in the middle. You called him an average fighter. right? Yeah, he's definitely graduated. Okay. He's, I did say it before in the buildup to that fight. I said, I used to think he was an average fighter. Now I just think he's a decent cruise weight.

In my opinion, nowhere near world class, but how many are? I mean, you know, he's obviously got a really decent chin. Maybe not anymore, but he did have a decent chin because the shots that he stood up to and the final shot, like he, he was conscious, he was trying to get up. do you know what I mean so I actually I said before like he's he's dedicated himself to the sport he's having serious training camps he's got the best facilities he's got the best training he's got good sparring so he's definitely definitely improved and you know it's probably a mixture of a little bit of rust from AJ just you know and the fact that he wasn't overly rushing

like could he got him out of there sooner maybe but he was never going to go in I said that before to fight and just start swinging away, you know, throwing 100 punches around. So I actually quite like the fact that we got some rounds because he's got a chance to work with a new team. And all in all, it was a wonderful experience for us. I mean, AJ made a fortune. His star power in the US has gone through the roof. I mean, if you take any note of notice of the internet right now, I mean, he's just become like an icon, especially amongst the ladies, which he, he's been an icon over here amongst the ladies for many decades, but now in the US as well. And people are kind of coming across him for the first time, which is quite strange when I see that on social

media, you know, because obviously from here, he's one of the most recognizable figures in sport. So, yeah, wonderful experience. It ticked every box, right? Profile, money, activity. And it couldn't have gone better for us. Okay, so there's a lot I actually want to ask you about what you just said, but I was just talking about that how I've been watching AJ since the Olympics have admired. I think I've watched every single one of his pro fights. It's an honor to work his fights and to see online

Americans and American women almost stumble on him like they just found it like he's a rookie. Yeah, I know. Who's this? Who's this? Oh my, they're like infatuated with him. Does that, obviously it makes you chuckle because you've known him for so long, but does that change any sort of future plans from like, hey, we need

to bring him back to America. There's something there. I mean, look, I think Obviously, the American sort of strategy took a big blow in the Andy Ruiz fight, and I think if we would have won that fight, I think we would have returned several times since. Obviously, the size of the audience on Saturday, a Friday. And also, you know, we've even seen it on a much smaller level with our documentary. It's a different audience, right? It's not boxing. Even every American boxing fan knows you, Anthony. These aren't boxing fans that are suddenly going, oh, who's this guy? These are just casual fans across various different demographics who don't really know a lot about boxing and have come across this guy who speaks so well who looks like he's carved out of stone and it's like, wow.

And the answer to your question, yes. I mean, it's all day I've been thinking about our US strategy and how we can capitalize on this. This changes everything. You know, people don't like it when I say that AJ was already arguably the biggest star in boxing. Now, by far the biggest star in boxing. right now, there is absolutely no question that Anthony Joshua is the biggest start in world boxing, right?

But how does that strategy change moving forward, particularly in the American market? Because, you know, I know, and you know how personable is, how likable is. You know, his brand has just been so easy to build, obviously, with all his attributes over the years. And we can do the same thing in America, and it's a big market. So it's going to be an interesting couple of weeks. when you were watching that fight and it's ticking away second round third round fourth round and jake he's not landing a bunch but there are a couple moments you know double jab here and over right hand uh there are you thinking like holy shit man please please please is there any

moment any moment at all can you tell us in the aftermath where you're like a little bit nervous just a little bit thinking of the worst no no no i mean i knew there was no way he could lose but it was just the nerves were more like oh hurry up you like you know we're not we need to grab old of him here and cut him off. And, you know, he was moving so quickly around the ring. It's very difficult to cut a fighter off like that. So AJ was really patient. Like, he almost had a go at me after. I got in a ring after. I was like, well done, mate. He said, stop rushing me. I'm like, I know, but I just wanted it over with, you know, and done. And the more rounds it went, I felt like, you know, the more kind of detrimental it would be to him in the

end, because of the way it finished. I mean, that's what everybody's talking about. That's the virality of it is the, you know, the double broken jaw and the huge right hand. And, you know, Jake playing along after with all his, you know, his social stuff. And no, I mean, never, never worried, only worried about how long it would take. And I thought it would be inside three rounds. I did, you know, but Jake, Jake was smart. It was smart in there. I'll ask you this question not because I believe the question, but just for the record, just so you can say it. Was there any discussion, any agreement about, hey, you need to get the fight into this round, you need to carry him for X amount of rounds,

you need to do your part to get it into the fifth, six, or whatever. Absolutely no way ever. I mean, if you look at a couple of the right hands that AJ missed with in the first couple of rounds, like they would have done the same job on Jake's jaw if they would have landed. And Jake did very well to avoid them. So I always said going into the fight, AJ's not the kind of guy that's going to come out like a train, just start swinging away, he's going to take his time, and that's what he did. you know, the fight definitely went a few more rounds than anticipated from Anthony, but it's like even now, it's like, oh, yeah, it was definitely a fix. Some guy commented today on one of my posts, yeah, it was definitely a fix. I go, you do know that he's broken his jaw in two places. Like, he may never be out of fight again. People aren't really talking about this. People just think, oh, you just get your jaw wired, bolted together by a couple of screws, and on you go. There have been many fighters who have had their jaws broken that never boxed again.

And, like, yeah, oh, no, no, that might have been real that bit. But the other stuff, we're not actors here, you know? Like, it was 100% real. There was never any strategy, any deal, any script. AJ wanted to land clean as soon as possible. Unfortunately, the only time he landed really clean was in the sixth round. And unfortunately, that happened to Jake. We didn't want that to happen to Jake.

You know, ultimately, we wanted to win and get it over with. But that's the dangers that he took and the risk that he, he was in the in the fight and um you know we hope he can heal up what do you make of jake's stock at the moment my theory is it actually went up in defeat because of how we took that last punch showman smiled broke his job but didn't you know make any excuses afterwards some say i didn't like the performance he was hanging on he was going for takedowns he looked like he was scared what do you make of it well is there a market to see him fight after this no i think i think i think i think he stock went up you know again going back to the negativity of people it drives me

Like, how can you not give him credit and respect for what he did? Like, we've all moaned the community, you haven't we, for years and years. Oh, you've never fought a real fighter. When are you going to fight a real fighter? He fought Anthony Joshua. I mean, he was literally 50 levels out of his league, right? And it was a complete mismatch. It was always a mismatch.

I never marketed it as anything else. But it was a spectacle. And it was quirky and it was weird. And, you know, and look at the way he walks out with, you know, the rappers and low, I mean, these guys, they're entertainers. You know, and there is an element of WWE to it. That walk out with Logan and the music and Jake, that was WWE. He's dressed as Hulk Hogan, for God's sake, right? But everyone's talking about it.

And, you know, whilst I am boxing through and through is my absolute life. and I love the sport. This is a guy that is dedicated to. That, for me, wasn't a YouTuber. That was a professional boxer that has a massive following and a huge platform. He's just not world class.

That's just my opinion. But he still, he's improved the hell of a lot and he's earned the right to be a professional fighter. It just so happens to be very smart, have a huge following, and be able to, I mean, look at, look at, you know,

the money that was generated in the fight from Netflix and the gate and the sponsorship. Look at the brands that are on the ropes that you never see. How can this not be a good thing for boxing? This isn't misfits. This isn't, you know, those guys did their own thing and it's cool as well. But that was professional boxing. There was just a huge golfing levels. But like I said, for us, it couldn't have gone better.

If you were his promoter, would you tell him, okay, enough is enough. You broke your jaw, you're worth millions of dollars, multi-millions. That would be it? Or would you like to see him fight again if you were his promoter? You have to see how he comes back. Like I said, that injury is a very serious injury. Like, you can come back from it. There's no, I mean, Jayaa Pettaya broke his jaw.

Connor Ben broke his jaw inspiring. There's loads of been loads of, but there's also been a lot of fighters that haven't come back from it. You know, I think the next step's really important now for Jake. Like, he's made a lot of money. and when you get injured like that you should look at the fights that you come back into like do you want to you know i mean he i think he'll be out for close to a year i mean that's around the rough kind of time when you break your jaw eight months nine months 10 months you know so it's got a long time to to recover and and decide what

he's going to do but you know MVP's not just jake paul they've got a big roster of fighters now, and they do, I enjoyed working with them. We've had our be, you know, I put a post out today thanking MVP and Nekisa, and he messaged me saying, look, thanks for the, and I'm real. If we're treated well, you have no problem with me. And I will be honest, and I will tell people you've treated me well. It's not, you know, and there's loads of shows that I go to where we get treated like shit still. And Friday wasn't one of them. We enjoyed working with their team. I thought they'd done a great job. And, you know, we will sit down myself and Nikisa in January, and we'll talk business.

Loads of business to do together. What else? Well, I mean, look, he's got a huge roster of female fighters. You know, and when you look at the crossover fights that can happen between the stables, you know, they've got fighters at 140, 147. We've got Sandy Ryan. You've got Sky Nicholson. He's now mandatory for Ellie Scotany in the Undisputed Championship.

You've got Elif Turhan, who I believe beats their whole roster at 1,000. 130 and 135. She's a world champion and Caroline Dubois' weight class as well. So yeah, obviously Katie Taylor. I mean, we've got loads of female fighters.

So that and who knows what other business can be done together. This 92 million number has been thrown around. Is there any validity to that? 92, what's that? The new 6-7? No, no, no.

Saying that they both made 92 million each for this fight. I've seen this number and it seems quite high. I'm not going to talk about the purses, but they both did very well. It wasn't a career high payday for AJ, but it was one of his substantial paydays. Okay. There has been talk about February. What could you tell us about February and the Rico Verhoeven talk?

I'll be honest, that's what I'm hearing. That's what other people are saying as well. Rico and February, what can you tell us about this? so we are moving forward obviously with our plan now with his excellency that would be a fight in February stroke March and then hopefully to fight Tyson Fury so I will plan to sit down with his excellency when I get to Saudi later this week February the 14th which is a you know a proposed date my gut feeling and we'll talk to the doctors and the team over the next 48 hours it's seven weeks this Saturday obviously we've just done and some people go well you know that was an easy fight he just had AJ's just done eight or nine weeks in camp

right he's going to come home and see his family for Christmas so there is a chance we'll try and push that into sort of middle end of March um Rico is a fight that that has been mentioned by certain people

I mean we're straightforward I mean ultimately we'll field offers we could do with a fight that's going to prepare us for Tyson Fury it's quite a difficult thing to do style-wise

so we might look at other opponents as well but you know we're open at the moment we're in a wonderful position obviously we'll talk with the zone because the zone were one of the principal reasons why that fight took place you know without their blessing

we would never have got it over the line so AJ remains exclusive with them and we'll talk about a plan but you know unfortunately, well not unfortunately for AJ because he's in a wonderful position but those conversations will start quite quickly and that's always a difficult

thing to do because the fighter normally just wants to chill out for a week or two but we're red hot right now we've got offers coming in left right and center and we've got to do business why not just do the Fury fight next why because Fury is going to fight

right so he's going to fight in April so we don't want to sit out until September. Why not scrap that fight. Why not try to come together and say, let's do Fury AJ in April? I don't mind doing that, but I don't think Tyson Fury will take the fight straight off the bat. As I understand it, he wants to fight and probably we'll feel even though it was Jake Paul that we fall, you know, we don't have to fight. We don't necessarily need another fight before Tyson Fury, but we're not going to wait until September because right now, AJ's message to me was, I want to get back to

work. Let me have this week and then I want to go back to Spain, go with team who's sick, keep learning. Don't forget that was his first fight with completely new people, with a completely new team. And he loves working with those guys. And I think he's going to get better and better and better with them. So we're happy to fight, but happy also to go into the Tyson Fury fight. To be honest, we're Ariel, anything could happen. But, you know, we've told his excellency, we're in for that fight. So, you know, we'll get with him and, you know, focus on those finer details and then get the plan together for 2026. Do you like the idea of the Rico fight for him?

I mean, I understand it, you know. I don't think it necessarily prepares him style-wise for Tyson Fury, but, you know, Rico's, Rico's a pretty dangerous guy. I mean, he's a big, big man, he can punch, like, he's probably going to be a little bit unorthodox, but, you know, just a name on a big pool of fighters. I think we, there's part of what you said is very much correct. We don't want to, if we sign into fight Tars and Fury at the same time, the risk element, you know, you've got to weigh it up because we're there. We don't want to lose it on the line like Deontay Wilde getting beat and we lost that fight, you know, when that was supposed to be announced in a ring.

So I don't know a lot about him, to be honest with it. It's just the name that's been mentioned over the last week or so, and particularly like the journalists seem to have run with it, I think prematurely. But we'll see. Okay. I want to let you go in a moment, but I'll hit you with some. some quick ones, if I can. Are you and Shakur back together? I know you're promoting this show on January 31st.

Are you his promoter now, or is it just because you are the principal promoter for the event? I mean, I guess contractually, no. But once we were all moving forward with the show, so, you know, I think if you ask us the question, are we working together? I think the answer is yes. Do I have a contract with him? No, I don't.

I have a contract to promote the ring show on January 31st in Madison Square Garden, as I do in Riyadh this week, and as I do on some others moving forward. So that's an honour for me to do that. And that was the focus, to be honest with you. I never went to Shakur and went, you know, I'm promoting the show. You need to sign with me. Or, you know, it's just we know what we're doing for this fight. We'll talk after the fight. I'm in his corner a million percent.

He's my guy. I'm Team Shakur. Right. Love Tio, but I'm Team Shakur, and our principal focus is to deliver a historic event with Ring Magazine and Turkey Al-Ashek at Madison Square Garden on January 31st. That's what we're doing. We're finalizing the undercard at the moment with His Excellency. There'll be an announcement soon, and it'll be a huge event. Has there been any talk of Katie versus Ronda Rousey? Not from me. No. I believe that, you know, Brian is always going to chat away to people, and, you know,

I can't tell you there hasn't been a conversation between, I don't know, manager to manager, but nothing with any legs at the moment and nothing in the pipeline at all. I feel like if Holly Home wins January 3rd, that would be a huge fight in Ireland. Do you agree? Yeah, I agree. I think that could be a fight. I mean, Holly Home is a very good fighter. She has a very tough fight against Han.

You know, that's not going to be an easy fight. But I think if she was to win that fight, become world champion, then I think Katie Taylor against Holly Home could have some legs. And there's another one, MVP, you know, as we talked about earlier. Yes, that's what I was referring to, Holly versus Katie in Ireland, I think would be gigantic stuff. A couple of weeks ago, Nick Khan of TKO was doing a lot of media ahead of their congressional hearing. And I don't know how much you paid attention to any of this stuff. But there were a couple of interviews where he was like, what's the British gentleman's name, Edward Hearns, stuff like that? He knows who you are.

When you hear that stuff, do you laugh, do you chuckle? How do you take that? It makes me feel great. Because why would you do that? I mean, you know, like, if you don't know who I am, you're banging trouble in boxing. And of course you know I am. But obviously, there's got to be a reason for doing that. You know, and the reason for me, most respectfully, as I could say, because he won't, you know, these guys are very, very bullish, is almost mild fear.

Right? They know I'm a problem. And because they know how good I am, you see. And they are very bullish. They're like me. They're arrogant. And they think they're going to come in and dominate boxing. But it's not going to happen.

And haven't they got a show on January 23rd? That's the first show, right? Yeah, what are you hearing about it? I mean, it's a month away. So, I mean, I have no idea. You've got to come out of the blocks with a bang. You can't come out with something lame. What are you going to do, do a show in the apex to launch TKO boxing?

It's got to be a monster. And I just, with four weeks to go, how much of a monster can it be? So, you know, as I've said before, these guys that we're up against, and I say up against, I mean, I want to be up against. them whether we are product wise we'll see very soon but they're very good they're very smart they're very connected and and you know boxing's boxing it just i can't explain it but if they come out week on january 23rd they are going to get because everybody's waiting right to give them an absolute shellacking they are there aren't they i mean they they they they

So many people in boxing want them to fail. And I don't think they will fail. But if they get it wrong and it stinks the place out in January, the worst thing they could do is come out with something poor. A rushed poor product because they don't actually understand boxing at all. And I'm intrigued because, as I said, these are smart guys. But where we are position right now, Matrim, I mean, coming off that win with Anthony Joshua, you know, our TV contracts, our stable, our brand identity globally, our schedule that's already

lined up now till the end of the year, what we've just come off as well, and January and February, we are absolutely cooking on gas. 2026, we are going to smash it, smash it, bet on Matron. We are going to be unbeatable in the space Two quick ones to round out Terrence Crawford, true or false? He fights again True You don't believe any of this

I do believe it I just think he'll fight I just you know I just know like he loves it And he's such a competitor And he loves a dollar bill Loves it And I think sometimes you can make that play I don't know I mean that he could have injuries It could be a contractual play

actual play, or he could just have had enough. I mean, that's more than reasonable. But if you ask my gut feeling, you'll see him in the ring again. And last one, the last time you were in studio, you hinted at some MMA ventures, potentially for you. Is there anything more you can tell us about your interest in this? No, listen, only that I've been approached to look at something and something substantial. But, you know, again, like I say, I can't tell you that I can just go into the MMA space and just blow it out the

park. It's something you have to have a passion for. It's something you have to have a deep knowledge for. And like I said, reversing the roles, that's why these guys, they just, they can't sit up there and talk boxing. They don't know that they're commercial smart. They're in outstanding marketers. They just don't know boxing. And it's not something you can just go, we're going to do boxing. And we're going to do a new ring and change the color of the canvas. And, you know, we're going to do this league. It just don't, this is a history. This is a historic sport that stems centuries of legacy and victory and defeat and narrative and storytelling. And yeah, don't fuck around with it.

Appreciate you, Eddie. Thank you so much. Happy holidays. Sorry for taking away from the shopping. That's all right. Great to talk to you. Thank you so much. All the best.

And good luck this weekend as well. There he is. The man, Eddie Hearn, the CEO of Matchroom Boxing, off to Riyadh for the Naoya Inouye card. That's really the last big show as far as combat sports are concerned, and that is this weekend on DeZone. We showed you the poster against Alan Picasso. So if you're looking for something to watch, that's on December the 27th.

If you are looking for something to watch, there is something to watch on Saturday. There was all kinds of action as far as combat sports is concerned this weekend. There was an RAF card, RAF card, a Real American Freestyle Wrestling card, which featured the return of Yuel Romero to the wrestling mat, rocking the singlet, going up against the much younger Pat Downey. We don't really know how old Yowell is. I think he's 48, but here he is against someone who's 33, accomplished wrestler named Pat

Downey and mauling him. Yol Romero proving that age is but a number. Look at this. Look at this from Yowell. The man's not real. He is absolutely not real. he was supposed to fight Bo Neckle or compete against Bo Neckle on the card

look at this look at this and they announced after the victory look at this backflip they announced after the victory that he is in fact going to be competing against Boe Nickel on January 10th in South Florida there it is

for the Light Heavyweight Championship of the upstart promotion Kobe Covington is on the card as well and I do believe there is some breaking news On this card, they've just announced Lance Palmer against Armin Sarukian. Would you look at that?

Kobe Covington, Luke Rockhold, Bo, Nicol, Yoel, Romero, Lance Palmer, former PFL champion against Armin Sarukian. Are we in now? Rick, are we in now? I'm interested, but I'll be honest. Like, Armin, that is interesting to me, but I'll be honest.

what the thing that actually got me Yoel Romero I said I like I'm not that interested that mother effort like he is just a freak he is just a one of one there will never be another like Yoel Romero I'm going to watch his next

RAF match like did I'm in I'm freaking in so you're you're you're finally in I'm in and it was Yoel that did it now don't get me wrong now this little arm and cherry on top like now we're talking Wait was that GC who said he was into? Yeah he's there. I am also in, I think. You're in now too. Yuel gets this massive win, you know,

you know, and then he immediately calls out Bo Nectil, and now we get to see it in, what, 18 days later, 19 days later after we, after we got the call out, I'm in. And Armin. Armin is like a complete out-of-left field addition to this. Armin actually competed this weekend, guys, and was successful. This is like Armin's eighth grappling match. I know. The guy is, so I think he was in a, he was in a BJJ match this weekend, ACBJ-J-20. He went up against Medi by Dulev. Here he is, getting the RNC.

Armin competing all kinds of, you know, completing all kinds of side quests. Look how fired up Armin is here. Kind of love it. I like it. I do wish we had the main quest, but I like it. I'll take it in the meantime.

Yeah. Armand, in the midst of all this, engaged in a little back and forth with Ilya. Let's go through this rather quickly here. here's an interview in which Ilya Teporia is speaking to El Doberdan MMA. He says, Armin had his chances, but he refused to compete. All fighters face arm pain, leg pain, yet we still showed up for the fight. Maybe he needs to change his underwear, Armin.

From here, you can go F yourself. I think that's what the four stars mean. And then Armin responded to that interview saying, you talking about taking time off from fighting to fix your family issues but it looks like you have plenty of free time for all these interviews you're a joke El

Ponacha or Panacha Panotcha? What does that mean? I don't know we need Andy here. Who is to check? I think it's all still from the same event by the way all the interviews the wow event from a couple of weeks ago and was there another one or maybe there wasn't

oh okay here's here's Ili is it Ilion Islam or Armin on Islam. All right, let's see it. Let's see Ilya on Islam. Here's Ilya saying when you have me in the octagon, you start to realize I'm not Jack Della Madalena, I'm not Dan Hooker, I'm something very different. And when I put my right hand on you, you'll see that you're going to have a very, very long sleep that is Ilya Tuporia on fighting Islam Mahachev, dominate him standing up, give him three or four punches, then submit him in front of Habib. And if he wants a pass, I'll gladly step on his head too.

The three-way dance between Ilya, Armin, and Islam right now is just one big tease. One big freaking tease. But there they are going back and forth. Armin partaking in some new food quests as well. I think there's one of him, do we have him eating the pancakes or something? What is he doing? He's in like some exotic locale. What's happening here?

I think he's in the red square. He's actually in the red square. It's snowing. and it's captivating why is it so captivating I don't know who's the guy filming all this stuff by the way

also a nice awesome this one was a bit more tame yeah it was tan you're right it's just like but Armin is the man of the people over there he is interacting with everyone

I saw that he was chatting with some kid outside of a restaurant and he's like mean Joe Green and the Coca-Cola commercial. Here he is, looking all very festive. Hello, hello, how are you? How's everything? That was a nice meal. Did you have the shrimp cocktail? Yes, I did. Did you have an ice coffee? Oh, hey, kid. How are you? Well,

it's nice to see you. How's life? Well, happy holidays. Let me see that one, two, two, okay. Let me see that one two, little kid. Ooh, let me see that one, two, three, three. Hit him with the hook as well. Oh, oh, with the leg kick too, yeah, with the one, two, three, four. Okay, another one. Oh, look at this guy. making dreams come true. That's lovely stuff. Can we get more aerial dubs on these videos? You like that? Yes.

I think we need that always. All right. In a matter of moments, guys, we are going to be joined by the one and only Andrei Alofsky. Let's show the people the footage. Ander Alofsky was at an event this Friday. I believe it was the Jake Paul versus Anthony Joshua card. And I told you what happened when I saw him afterwards. But he crossed paths with one Jack Doherty, who G.

G.C. says is a super-duper influencer of sorts, who the kids love, in that sort of Aidan Ross ilk, would you say? No, I don't know. I've never seen a stream. I don't know what he does. Anything that I see of him, people are just hating on him. I've never

seen a man more universally hated. Wow. Okay, so what do we have here? Let's take a look at the footage here, because I believe he is saying that he is not to blame. Here's Jack in the Blue shirt, and there's Andre, and there's a crossing of pass, and then one his jabroney friends starts punching Andre and now it's like Andre versus four people and it's like

it's like a giant versus a bunch of umpalumpas look at this with the broccoli haircuts a kick there a one two there there's Andre's wife i know exactly who she is because i saw her wearing that exact same outfit later in the night uh and now it's just complete chaos do we think that these jabroney broccoli heads do we think that they had any idea that they were crossing back this guy's Do we the double burr to Andre Arlofsky, the pit bull? I mean, like I said online, you have to be a generational dumbass to step to Andre Arloffsky. I don't care if he's 40, 50, 60, 70, 75, 85. Who the fuck do you think you are?

Now, what do you think? Now, I do believe there are some people like Rick who think that this is all a work. Is that true? And will you say that to Mr. Arlowski? No. What's the payoff for the work? I don't know. They had a moment?

I don't know. And they're going to fight? I don't know what it is. Doherty versus our loss? My thing is just like, why did they even decide to mess with Andre? There was nothing there. Like, it could have just moved on, you know? I don't know.

I really don't know. This is the thing that this guy does, though. He gets into a lot of fights like this and then hides behind the bodyguard. There's another angle, right? There's another angle. I think the angle we just showed is the best angle. I've definitely heard of him. I've definitely seen him.

Here's the fight happening. and Andre by the way throwing the punches while holding the phone is very impressive and he's like who the hell that look that he gives after that last punch that he throws where he kind of gets

his bearings he looks ready to kill someone see the dude walking around with the lob mic thingy on his shirt is a little bit weird so that makes you think that they were trying to start something but I don't think for a second that

he's in on it I don't think that's him that's Doherty. That's Doherty That's the guy streaming. Yeah, yeah, that's what I mean. But, like, the fact that he had it on him, that means he was shooting content. But, like, you don't do that to Andre.

Andre, he's just, you know. Andre, thousand percent had nothing to do with it. Yes. I think Doherty definitely was trying to get that moment on camera. That's all that was. I think the bodyguard recognized Andre O'Lofsky. It was like, oh, shit, what are we doing him? Come on, kid.

You don't pay me enough. You don't pay me enough to save your ass. Doherty getting some hate online responding to some people, including on Crown's own. Ben Folks. He quote tweeted, Blue Sky Ben, who was calling into question his behavior. Here it is. Ben Folks says, who the hell saw Arlowski backstage and was like, I should antagonize this giant man whose face bears a record of all the times he refused to back down. Jack Doherty says, it's funny how people think we did anything to start this, like watch the footage. I do believe

he said something else regarding that. I think he called the Twitter people, criticizing him Twitter, old Fs or something like that. We're trying to minimize the curse words here. How did I start the Andrei Alofsky fight? Watch the video, you old Twitter Fs. You guys just point the finger at the kid who's half your age and way richer than you. I would do the same, though, L.O.L. LMS. He's getting ratioed into oblivion on every one of these.

Well, let us talk to the man that he is talking about in that tweet, the former UFC heavyweight champion, the man who is fighting. Ben Rothwell at Knuckomania in February, the living legend, the pit bull, the original pit bull, the one and only Andre Arlowski. There he is, my old friend Andre. Andre, it's great to see you again, and I say again, because I saw you on Friday night, and I have to admit, Andre, I saw you, I was so happy to see you at the end of the night and meeting your son for the first time and your wife for the first time. And I couldn't quite understand why everyone seemed very subdued. And then I went online and saw the footage. I was like,

Now I understand why your wife seemed a little bit mad. And so I totally get it. I just want to know, are you okay after that big melee that went down? Everything fine. Okay. All right. So, Andre, can you tell us what happened? And can you tell us at what point?

Because I saw you at the very, very end of the night as I was leaving. When did this melee happen? On my way to the parking lot or to the garage. Oh, so was at the very end, too? Yeah, I worked with my... my wife, my son, my other friend, and his pregnant wife. Okay, so what happened? I saw people like going and recording something,

and I tried to avoid, like, because my main, main guy, character, he walked like kind of, like, he just lived a lot of weight, walk. And I try to avoid all this bump into my wife. and shit happens, you know. I turned around, I ask what's going on and boom, bam, bam, bam, bum, boom, boom, boom. End of story. Did anyone hit you, touch you, push you

to lead to all of this? He bumped me as a guy, what's going on? And his friend jumped on me and bodyguard and video speaks for itself. So listen, I want to get more footage from different angles and so, and that's it. pretty much. And I went to downstairs to report stolen or missing phone because my wife she tried to stop the fight. I'm very proud of you. My son also tried to be involved and actually

how young kids supposed to be acting. And shit happens, yeah. We went downstairs, come back and that's it. I woke up in the morning. I said, what's going on? Fuck, text, messages, phone calls, some messages on Instagram, you're a hero, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. I was shocked. Listen, I didn't have so many attention after some fights in the UFC. And I was saying the kind of, I started like radio, like, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And I was surprised. Video was edited already.

It's like, I guess it's, I was so lucky to be picked for some video content. And it is what it is. And I'm again on Ariel Havani's show, wow. Otherwise, he wouldn't fucking invite me, but because of this shit, happened. That's not true. You know that's not true. It's the second, second time in the last, I believe, like three or four months, right? Or six months, where I'm super happy.

No, and you know that's not true. You know, I love you. I was so happy to see you. I couldn't understand why your wife was so mad. I thought she hated me or something, and now I understand why she was mad. Yeah, because she was upset because she thought, like, you know, it might cause some problem. She got some important information, like some contacts. She does real estate.

And she's supposed to have closing on Saturday. So everything was missing. So closing didn't happen. So I might get some fines wherever. It is already. So new phone is supposed to, I guess, come today or tomorrow. So you never found the phone. What?

You think someone took it? I am pretty much somebody from that crowd. who was around and walked an accident because maybe not because I'm not so good with electronics but I'm checking that app find my phone on this still over there I come back like next morning I come back actually yesterday and I said like it shows here what's at least it was last time where the phone was seen here but it's not there anymore I said okay so I guess it's It's going straight to voicemail, but she done all stuff, like, cancel and whatever, I don't know, block.

Yeah. Right, right, right. Do you think they knew who you were? No, if you see, pay attention closely to the video, it says, oh, guy, walking like, like an actor from 300, whatever it is. So, boom, bam, beam, sucker punch, this and that. Yeah. I didn't want to lose my phones It's actually might be a good commercial for iPhones

You know, so I saw you throwing punches while holding the phone It was unbelievable. It was very impressive I just got my new phone You know, iPhone say when it's me in Pro Max wherever I don't know like my son forced me to update it And remember that That video when I built in Texas

It was not hurricane It was a tornado whatever is And it was a Shevich truck flipped and back so if you have connection with the Apple company let's look okay okay okay I just want to show you one of the angles here because I thought it was impressive how you held onto the phone while still like defending yourself and you have like three four people coming after you which you know obviously puts you in a tough spot I know they're much smaller than you are I felt like the kids and we could show it guys while while I'm talking here I felt like the

kids here here's the guy the main character jack with a blue shirt yeah yeah yeah and then his friend comes in and rushes you i felt like the kids had no idea who you were but i think the bodyguard knew because he wanted no part of you he wasn't coming in there to save anyone yeah but he at the same time he threw a couple punches on me at the beginning and then he backed off what do you think when you see this Andre I think a lot of fucking shit, but you know, video, video, video speaks for itself and let me get more angles and if you want, we can get back to the subject. Okay, for sure.

Can I play you a clip of this kid, Jack, he went online and reacted to it. I don't know if you saw his comments, but here's the clip and I wanted to play for you because he's saying that you started. This fucking guy, Andre, who's the fuck? This video here. Can we play this for Andre? all right so everyone's talking about that andre whatever ufc fight that we had at the jake paul fight i did not start that and i don't know why everyone's putting the blame on me like oh you're hiding behind

your security guard well duh this man walks by me bumps into my cameraman and throws a kick at us for no reason and then my friend stepped in and yeah then everything else happened but like bro i'm not trying to fight this guy like i'm not trying to instigate a fight i'm not trying to stay out of trouble i'm on bond right now you think we're trying to start fights like hell not like that guy started the whole thing you can see it it's all on video so i don't know why everyone's trying to blame it me i was literally just walking by and this guy goes boom and then a little karate kick but it lagged when he did that but yeah you can see i did nothing to start the fight so if you think i started it i would love to know in the comments down below how you think i started it because i did

nothing all i try to do is deescalate the fight and get everyone to stop freaking fighting because i'm like yo we can't be fighting i got to stay out of trouble so what do you think of that he's saying you started it everybody if i can blame old dog old old old guy listen uh And I spent some fucking time to read those comments, and 99% think you're full of shit, my guy. So. I love it. What do you? Andre, you're a, you're a, yes.

Listen, like 25 plus years in the business, you think I don't have enough fighting time in an act again in a cage in the fucking ring in the practice. And I'm fucking stupid enough. I understand if I would be fucking by myself and I would be drunk, shit can happen. But you know, video shows clearly like, come on, guy. I tried to ask him what's going on and got fucking punch raise away. It is what it is.

I've always known you to be a very no-nonsense kind of guy. What do you make of this new generation of kids who are streaming everything, causing trouble, you have a young child? Yes, like I said, I'm super proud of my son. He was next to my wife and ready to jump in. Since God, he didn't do shit. That's how he fucking supposed to act.

At my, how old, the Dorothy guy, like, 22, 23, 25. I think younger than that. Okay, I was at this age. I was in Chicago. I was working with Polish and Ukrainian people at the construction from 6 to 2, first workout at 5 p.m., second workout at 8 p.m. And, you know, like, so if tomorrow I'm going to work with my mother and somebody going to punch you in the face or I have to turn around,

I said, nothing happened. I don't get what's going on, be honest with you. All this, and you know what kind of, like, upset me? When fight starts, nobody tried to stop the fucking fight. was fucking on the phone. Make sure we're going to get fucking content. That's fucking scary, be honest. I thought, be honest, that shit only happens in Russian,

Belarus. They call them Zoomers, I believe. Everybody, like, filming, filming, film, they need content, content, everybody going crazy about those fucking likes. It's not healthy, in my opinion. I agree. I agree 100%.

I was lucky enough to get enough to get to get involved in this situation and somehow became famous again. Not again. You are still famous and I want to get to what's actually next for you. But I also wanted to ask your wife and son, did they get hurt? Did anyone hit them, punch them, kick them? No, that's why I tried to, like, you know, that's why I'm going to some once in a while. It's called Wolf and Orlando protecting, protecting situation, like tried to avoid situation like that

stop the threat and of course my first thought it was about if my wife and my son and my friend with his pregnant wife safe okay good for you

I kind of like put them against the wall against the elevator and yeah is this going to lead to Andre versus one of these guys Andre versus two of these guys Andre versus the bodyguard

is there anything that's going to come from this you have more connections please hook me Yes, we'd love to, especially with that bodyguard guy. Okay. But he said he's a, he's a, brookly, yeah. Yeah. Another thing, everyone who wrote those like support to message is really like helpful and

fine, and thank you very much for your support, thank you. You got a lot of love for that, but just to just to be clear and I have to ask the question, this wasn't some kind of stunt, right, because he pulls stunt, stunts of some kind online. you weren't a part of it, right? This wasn't some sort of thing that we're going to find out that you were a part of. I know, how old are I?

I know, I have to ask the question. I don't believe it, but I just wanted to ask it. Of course not. Okay. Of course not. Listen, if it's like, if it's

some, some, some situation where you're playing and acting, why I would put my face and get some, and got some soccer punches on behind my head, so of course not. Okay, so what is...

I have a lot of extreme in my life besides fighting and do the stuff in public and in front of fucking other people, which is embarrassing. And actually, Dan Lambert and was something. I said, I'm so sorry, don't act like if I can... a fucking professional athlete because I should fucking avoid this situation and like

leave it it is how it's supposed to like okay bump and walk away but you know I got punched him and it's it's you know

it shouldn't be like how fucking professional athlete is supposed to act but shit happens it is what it is. What is actually next for you February 7th? Knucklemania

you versus Ben Roth for the heavyweight title. Could I ask, how are you feeling about this chapter of your career? Because I saw you do the misfits fight, now the bare knuckle as well. There it is, big, big fight for the heavyweight title. How are you feeling about what's happening right now in the state of your career? Very excited, so hopefully, hopefully everything going to be smooth, yeah. What is the motivation at this point to keep on fighting?

Keep fighting. prove everyone who said old dog cannot learn new trick so I want to prove them and everyone again that at age 47 you're good to go and thanks to the Arlowski method that's what's holding me like on a be alive and keep motivated me in training and do etc etc etc just just doing what I love to do And actually, I don't know, it's my luck or my experience.

Some, like, head movement, some footwork might save my ass at that night. By the way, can I just ask you, what is the Arlovsky method? What is that? The Arlowski method, it's about mindset, personal training, people who went through some who had cancer. because actually next next year of February 24th, it's going to be exactly one year when I got a tumor removed from my kidney since God it's everything fine

but months later I was had my debut on my dirty boxing fight so I'm very happy and now I try to put everything together like put their last method and like how is my experience 25 plus years training and stay, stay healthy, stay motivated, stay, stay focused all the time

that it's going to be all about. So I still have a lot of work to do, but it is what it is. Wow, I didn't know that. I didn't know that. Are you okay now? I'm like 90, just do it. Okay, wow.

Okay, I did not know that, that you went through that, but I do wish you the best, and I hope that everything is okay and continues to be okay, and I think that you're an incredible inspiration, that you're able to compete after that. So much respect to you. Can I ask you, Andre, just before I let you go, you were there for the Jake Paul fight, of course.

What did you make of the fight, the way it played out and the way Jake fought? Because of traffic and security, I just get in when Anderson Silva wants his fight, and it was a female, one female fight, I believe, and that was Jake Paul against St. what did you make of the actual main event jake versus joshua what do you think of the fight good fight you enjoyed it no okay do you have respect for jake for for fighting anthony or

did you think that it was uh silly all around uh you know what i definitely i do have respect for him because uh first of all he had uh great cardio for six rounds He got fucking balls, actually, stepped in the ring against Joshua because, come on. He's fucking not a joke. And everybody, actually, I saw some comments, everybody saw his fight against Gano. Plus, don't forget, guy much taller, half longer reach, and he's not Joe 100%. For those kind of money, money, are ready to fight like any day. any time with one or another or somebody else

if he can like serve the fight against those YouTubers and the bodyguard would be happy. Okay. All right. Well, hopefully he hears that message. Much love to you, Andre. Thank you so much. It was really great to see you.

I'm sorry that it was right after the fight. Great to meet your son and wife as well. I could tell something was wrong right away because they seemed a little bit they seemed a little bit... You're a good psychologist, you know, and I have that feeling, you know, like, what's good, what's bad, but...

And at the same time, I was upset because she kind of looks rude. Yeah. My son, he said, listen, I hope you understand, but thank you very much. Ariel. Happy holidays to you and your family, to all your viewers, to your family,

to your friends. God bless. Amen. Hopefully, I'm going to talk to you soon again. Of course. And a good, thank you. On a good reason, not because of some assumption habits. Thank you, Andre.

All the best to you and happy holidays as well, my friend. There he is. The great Andre Arlowski, kind enough to join us after a hectic night for him. And yes, I didn't realize that it was actually at the end of the night as well. So it really probably was like 10 minutes later that I bumped into him and his family. Yeah, let's see. Let's see what happens. I hope it just remains as it was and everyone can move on.

and some of these younger cats can realize that guys like Andre aren't to be messed with. And you should, yeah, you should probably be careful about who you bump into. Probably the best kind of advice that I could give them. There was a Sean Merriman Lights Out fighting event that happened over the weekend as well. I did stumble across this one because it was interesting. It seemed like they had like a memorabilia section. And then it seemed like, what is going on here? What is this?

Well, Sean Merriman posted it. Was this at a football game? What's happening here with these two guys? They're fighting over memorabilia. Look at this. Some dirty boxing here, too. A little takedown, had him in his guard. Overhand, what is that?

The right hand? Yep. He's still holding on to the shirt. So nice clinch work there. I can't tell if this is one long fighter, the same clip over and over again, but I'm enjoying it. Just all kinds of madness.

What do you guys think they were fighting about? The price of the jerseys? What was going on over there? 30 million for the kitchen scrap. Ah, that's what it is. That is what it is. Speaking of perhaps unique fights, I did happen to see Marab Diwali-Schvili

and Mark Zuckerberg have a little 30 million for the kitchen scrap themselves. I was actually quite surprised with the takedowns of won Mark Zuckerberg. Did you guys happen to see this? Look at this right here. Mark, working the body?

going for the double leg. Now in half guard, going for the back, trying to lock in. No, it doesn't get the hooks in. And there's a slap. There's another slap. There's another slap. I think it's the same slap.

Multiple slaps, perhaps, from Marab. By the way, is Marab medically clear to fight this soon after the loss of Puritan? Look at that sweep. Oh, Aljo's there too. Wait, can we hear that? I want to hear the slap. The slap is actually quite loud

that Marab landed on Mr. Zuckerberg. it is here it is beautiful here it is getting the hooks in what marad you're supposed to go easy on him open hand slap would make nick dyes proud Nate as well what is going on what's happening in the world you what he what duck ate that well the the slap there I thought so too I thought he took it like a champ. There was a fight. We're going to shoot on the takedown. Who's to check?

Who is to check? Who is to check? All right? Let us not go there. All right? I did see that there was a fight in Ghana, guys. There was a fighting Ghana last night. My good friend Adelaideppo was there.

There was a great scene. It was the Lawrence Ocoli fight. Did you guys happen to see this scene with the referee doing the little like, you guys are going to touch gloves, but they didn't want to touch gloves? And it was almost like when I'm in between my kids and their friends. fighting and I'm like you're going to make up right now you're going to stop fighting enough of this never quite seen this before they either touch or don't here's the clip in case you missed it it it's very fun stop stop obey man from us defend all the ever so times any question freezing

no good luck and shake hands come on come on come on come on shake hands man you have to shake hands you must shake hands I don't care how you feel about your opponent. And by the way, speaking of boxing collabs, did you guys happen to see who the big oos saw over the week? I saw Mr. Joseph Parker at the event on Friday. He came up to me. I wasn't expecting to see him in Miami of all places. And then all of a sudden I see on social media that the big ooze had a nice little tete-a-tete with the tribal chief. Look at this. Look at these two guys. Looking like long lost brothers. That warm my heart. look at the big goose over there

he calls Roman the big goose oh no it's good it's good look at that living his best life in Miami God I love Miami isn't Miami great isn't Miami unbelievable it's so great

I was just walking around oh thank you Frank actually had a horrible time over there why do you keep saying why were you in such a bad mood I was busy oh geez busy doing what

we going back to the Friday night Thursday night bad mood yeah yeah You noticed that, right? Who didn't notice it? Yeah. By the way, I spent the day on Saturday, instead of taking the first flight home, spent the day with my family, which was a great treat,

and they couldn't stop singing your praises, G.C. Oh, my dad was like, the skinny bald guy, he was such a gentleman. He walked us out. He walked us to the car, to the, he was, I was like, that's Southern hospitality right there. That's why we love him. The feeling was mutual. your family was lovely your mom especially she was she was giving great conversation on the way down a big big fan of all the hell wonies well thank you yes i've always said that i get my work ethic

from my mom and my interviewing skills sorry work ethic for my dad interviewing skills from my mom she's a great conversationalist but they kept i could see it they were all great i was like oh did what did you think of frank would you think of the guy with the beard oh which beard with the bald head no no no the other guy with the beard oh he never said hi oh i was like what do you think of andy oh she was lovely Rick, of course, you've known for over a decade. Wait, so everyone on the team said hi, but Frank? You know, I'm mysterious, Frank. I'm not out supposed to be out capitzing with the audience.

Capitzing, great word. With the audience. There's that word again. Yeah, with the audience. Wow, Frankie, with the audience. Just saying. They were like, wow, this guy walked us out. What'd you do?

You walked them out to their car. They didn't have a car. They had an Uber, right? I walked them down to the Uber, wait for them to get in, and, you know, bon voyage. Thanks for coming. We should have got them a black car. I'm being honest.

Didn't think of this. But it was nice thing. We'll know for next time. Yeah, next time. Yeah, next time. There might not be you next time. Who knows? Who knows?

They enjoy the fights. Actually, my mom and sister enjoyed the fights very much. They too only arrived for the, they arrived at around the Woodley Silva fight, I do believe. So they saw the last three. They liked it very much. They stayed till the very end because they wanted to see,

you know, they wanted to see me in the ring. So I think by the time the interviews ended, it was pretty empty. I was looking for you guys all over the place. I couldn't find you anywhere. I mean, I thought. First of all, I have to go back to what you were saying earlier about the interview. How it was so crowded in the ring.

You could see up on the big screen, you know, you, like the outside of the ring, like they were showing the Netflix feed. And I was blown away by how many people were in there. And I was like, where the hell is Ariel? Where the hell is Ariel? And then at one point when they got Joshua, there was a pause of maybe four or five seconds before like you finally came in. There was like a moment.

I was like, oh, my God, is he not in the ring right now? So I feel you on how many people were in there It was madness It was a lot It was a lot And it was definitely It was definitely sinking a little bit And that was making me worried

I was worried that we were going to be part Of some like a viral moment Could you imagine on Netflix The whole ring collapses But in the end It was It was all as well That ends well

And we will talk to the man now Who put on that event The CEO of Most Valuable Promotions The co-founder Of most valuable promotions as well His guy was there front and center on Friday night on Netflix on the biggest platform in the world 300 plus million subscribers and unfortunately he didn't go his way but some including myself think that it was

a moral victory of sorts for Jake Paul let us ask the one and only Nikisa Badarian about that and more he is kind enough to join us just a few days before Christmas thank you so much Nikisa I appreciate the time congratulations to you and the whole team on the event and so could I ask right off the bat was that a moral victory for your guy Jake Paul on Friday. Ariel, thanks for having me and thanks for being involved in the event through Netflix. I think he did a great job as usual. I don't think it was a moral victory because he expected to win.

I do think he showed who he is as a fighter. I think he deployed the strategy that he was very clear about going into, that he was going to look to make AJ miss and AJ missed a. missed a number of times. And ultimately, I think the weight of AJ caught up to Jake Paul. If you look at the first three rounds, AJ wasn't really able to touch him. But when AJ wasn't a clinch with him a couple of times, pushed down on the back of his neck, pushed down on the back of his head, got him to the ground. There was a few times where Jake looked like he was going for a takedown. Again, that was Jake trying to engage in the clinch.

and AJ smartly moved back. In one instance, I think it was the fifth round, Jake engaged for a clinch. AJ moved back and started punching down on Jake's back. So all of those things kind of deteriorated or emptied Jake's gas tank a lot earlier than I think he expected it to. But overall, I thought he deployed his game plan well for the first five rounds and actually had some success. he even moved AJ back a few times one by just jabbing in the air and two when he caught him

he moved AJ back AJ came right back in and swung but he did move him back when this fight was first announced you said to several media members that like initially you weren't down for this fight you thought it was just a little bit too much too soon to paraphrase

did he do better did Jake do better than you thought result aside obviously you wanted him to win you thought I think by the end that he was going to win but did he actually do better than you thought initially back in march yes by the time we got to fight week i was always very clear high risk high reward either man could win you know i was getting ridiculed online for saying you don't believe in your guy at the same time people were saying this is fixed and jake paul was going to win i just faced the reality of what jake was trying to take on at such an early stage of his boxing career and it was a monumental task

And ultimately, you know, I had said to my wife and my brother during the week that I think round five or six of where Jake could be in trouble. If you made it past round six, I actually thought it would have gone the distance. But kind of given how I saw the fight going, it kind of played out in that scenario. But I did believe Jake could win. Absolutely. And I think the funny part is online. People are saying, oh, Jake was totally outclassed. Sean Wheelock, the score for the night on the Netflix broadcast, gave round four to Jake Paul.

I thought you could have made an argument that Jake Paul won the first round and the fourth round against Anthony Joshua. So that would have meant, you know, three, two for Joshua heading into the sixth round, which again, a lot of people thought that he would dispose of him rather quickly. Can you give us an update on how he's doing? We know that he broke his jaw in multiple places, two places. to be exact. And I believe he has revealed that he's had surgery since. How is he doing? How is he feeling? He's doing great. Obviously, you know, there's periods of time during the day where there's a lot of pain, periods of time where there was no pain actually. Recovery process is five to six weeks. And he's focused on coming back as a boxer in 2026. This is a sport that he loves.

This is a sport that saved him from the path that he was on in the past. And I think in a funny way, I'm kind of glad he didn't win. And I know that may sound harsh. But imagine if Jake Paul, five years into the sport in reality, probably three years into the sport in terms of three and a half years, in terms of fighting top-level competition who are fighters, beat Anthony Joshua. What would be the motivation to continue to get better? to double down on your training, to grind even harder. How do you beat Anthony Joshua? So Jake always says the best lessons or the best wins are from your losses,

and I believe that happened with Tommy Fury, and I 100% believe that happened here. Because if Jake is truly passionate about this sport, he now realizes that he has to even commit more time, more resources, more days into elevating his craft. So, you know, the entry obviously is different than your typical injury, because obviously it's right there. That's where you're getting punched.

And as we were talking about with Eddie earlier, like that could sometimes change the trajectory of one's career. And there are some people who don't come back. Some do. Some have had great careers after breaking their jaw. Is there any part of you after seeing that that says to yourself, hey man, you've made millions of dollars. It's been incredible.

We built this thing. It's lasting far longer than your career. Right. MVP can be a thing with or without Jake. We saw the event in July. We don't need to do this anymore. You proved your point. I don't want to see you get hurt.

I think that's ultimately his call. I don't view a broken jaw as career ending or defining. I think there's plenty of examples. You know, from my past in MMA, Los Anos, broke his jaw, had plates put in, came back and became champion after that. And I think Jake very much showed the kind of chin he has, very much showed the kind of movement that he has in the ring and very much showed the heart that he has. And so I'm looking forward to what defines him going forward, not what we've done in the past

five years. Has it been disrupted? Yes, have we done massive things for the sport inside and outside the ring together? I believe we have. But I think there's a long, long path ahead for Jake Paul within the boxing world inside and outside the ring. In the immediate aftermath, he told me I want to keep fighting. Is that still the sentiment a couple of days later?

yeah i mean i think he made a post yesterday saying i love this i'm recovering and who do you want to see me fight next right and i think now it's more important than ever for him to tell his story of who he is as a boxer because he did take on a massive challenge and he fell short and i think that is an important transition point to say okay here's how i go on from here and and as far as the you know i know you said that he um he didn't have any sort of moral victory that it doesn't work that way he wanted to win the fight, but would you at least acknowledge, and maybe you feel otherwise, so tell me, that his stock has gone up? Do you feel, in other words, that he has earned the respect of way more people than perhaps, you know, after some of his other recent fights?

I think definitely he's earned a lot more respect. There's, of course, the naysayers out there still who are spreading either lies or just being defamatory for no reason. But, you know, social media is a perfect stat. And he's gained over 600,000 followers on Instagram for a guy who is a social media influencer to begin with and fairly saturated after a loss. He is the most followed American athlete on TikTok. He's added over 320,000 followers on TikTok. So people are following him, even though he fell and lost in his biggest fight of his career. And that speaks to his his brand, his profile, his quote-unquote stock going up. And I think you have to now respect them as someone who's willing to take on the biggest

challenges in the boxing ring. Today, you could argue people have said outside of Tommy Fury, the fights have not been even or someone's been smaller or older or not as experienced. There's no such excuse for narrative here. And again, I want to be clear. Jake Paul did better than almost every single person out there who wasn't a Jake Paul believer. said he was going to do. He did better than Eddie Hearn said he was going to do. He did better than Anthony Joshua said he was going to do. He did better than 99% of the media,

99% of the boxing community said he was going to do. So I'm, I'm proud of him for what he delivered, but we're not satisfied. It's not like, hey, yeah, we lasted six rounds with Anthony Joshua. We should be cheering. No, he got knocked down. I will say, and this isn't talked about enough, even after taking that massive blow, he got up back on his feet. And if the rev said, go, he would have gone, right? This guy didn't quit. After round five, many people would have said, I am making massive amounts of money here. I've been knocked down.

It's been great. I'm going to call it. Round six, before the ending, he was knocked down. Again, he could have said, okay, I'm going to take the knee here, count me out at 10. I'm out. Didn't do it. And after he took such a massive blower, he said, whoa, he still got back up to his feet. And it was only then that the ref called it. Not because Jake said I'm done, but the ref called the fight. What is your response that he said to people who say there was too much running, there was too much clinching? It wasn't an entertaining fight. I would say Jake told you how he was

going to deploy his strategy. I would say Anthony Joshua, I looked at the stat in round four against Daniel Dubois, right, year and a half ago. He got knocked out, I think, in round five, threw less punches than he threw in round four against Jake Paul. Like, think about that, right? He was more active against Jake Paul than he was against Daniel Dubois in the fourth round of what was one was a five round fight one was a six round fight i will say that jake paul lasted longer than 18 of anthony joshua's opponents some of which were heavyweights that were 24 and oh 25 or no 26 and oh there was no world jake paul was going to come to anthony joshua stand right in front of him and say let's throw down blow for blow even though i walk around at 207 to 209 on a regular day

and you walk around at 250 to 260 let's just go ahead and meet in the middle of the middle of you middle. He deployed his strategy and he did a lot more effectively than people thought. There was a lot of comments around, oh, a 22 by 22 ring. That's unheard of. Very common in boxing. Canello's deployed that ring many times and Conello's a much smaller man. So all the all the talk is is expected. I mean, that's part of the brand. It's part of disruption and it's part of what gets people talking. So it's ultimately fine. I know what what we did. I know what Jake did. And even Anthony Joshua was very clear that he respected the performance by Jake Paul. Speaking of that talk, it always seems like after Jake's fights, there's the, I've seen the

script, rig, this, that, and the other. Do you think now at the very least that talk goes away, broke his jaw, went in there against Anthony Joshua, at the very least, do you think that you guys can move on from that? Like, that won't follow you. Oh, I don't. I actually, you know, our lawyers are actively going after a number of people, one who claims to be a lawyer himself online. I don't remember the name or the handle.

but it was something that had like 200,000 likes. And basically this post said there was an agreement for AJ not to knock out Jake, but AJ disregarded the agreement and decided to not get his payday, but knock out Jake fall. So it's pretty astonishing what people say. Your dear friend, Lou DeBella, saw him put up a bunch of ridiculous things and even said, Nikisa, go ahead and sue me. But this wasn't a real fight. He was pulling punches.

He wasn't giving it his full effort. And so for the people, you know, again, just to clear this up because I want to, I asked, Eddie, this question, I'll ask you the exact same question. Once and for all, was there any sort of arrangement as far as it should go this many rounds? Because that's the one that I've heard. Oh, Anthony agreed to three rounds, four rounds. Can you tell us in black and white if there were any talks of any kind between the network, the promotion, the fighter? There has never once in Jake Paul's career in any talk of that sort of anything to do with the fight being anything but a real fight that has exactly the same situation as any professional fight. And that's exactly the same thing here for the Anthony Joshua fight.

It's just beyond mind-blowing that people would think that Anthony Joshua was on record saying that if he didn't finish him in the first round, that would be disappointing, that it would be a failure. The narrative changed as we got closer to fight night and obviously post-fight, and I understand why, but they were pretty adamant. It would take max two rounds to knock out Jake Paul. What, if anything, can you tell us about how Netflix felt about Friday night? I think we were all happy with the numbers, with the performance. You have to remember, Jake Paul put on the performance that he did with five weeks, four and a half weeks preparation for one of the best fighters in the world. And most time when fights fall apart, as you know, the replacement opponent isn't as exciting, isn't as dangerous, isn't as viable of actually beating the guy who didn't or a girl who didn't fall off the card.

So you couldn't be anything other than amazed that what we were able to pull off and what Jake was willing to do to keep the entire card together. Alicia Baumgartner, Jamal Harvey, Anderson and Tyrone Woodley, Nix and Amanda Galeigh, Caroline Dubois, Kino Marley, Avious Griffin. All of them got that opportunity that night because this young man said, yes, I'm going to take on this challenge. I believe I can do it. And lo and behold, his strategy worked for five and a half rounds, and he landed some pretty good shots and won a couple rounds from my perspective.

So I think Netflix was very happy. MVP, we're very happy with the outcome. and I think they'll have numbers either today or tomorrow in terms of viewership, but it was a very successful night. In the aftermath of Saturday, there have been some people being like, hey, what a great weekend. Jake Paul gets knocked out, Andrew Tate looked not so good in his fight. Seeing him put your guy being put in the same category as Andrew Tate,

who I personally don't think is a very good person, does that bother you? I don't think, look, it's internet chatter. obviously Jake has shown who he is inside the ring he's shown who he is outside the ring whether it's within the boxing community whether it's as an entrepreneur whether it's with the boxing bullies charity so it doesn't it doesn't bother me it's just shows the world that we live in what about you know early on i feel like MVP and misfits were kind of compared to each other you guys were on friday night they were on saturday you were on netflix they were on rumble you had five title fights they had different type of title fights to see the two events

juxtaposed against each other do you feel like this was a great weekend for the MVP brand i never think about misfits as being in the same business that we are right i think they've created a w dwe like product that is boxing but isn't really elite level boxing i know they've started a new pro division that is going to be different to the product they currently put up I have nothing but, you know, appreciation for anyone who gets into the boxing ring at any level. I do not think that we're in the same league of promotion or in the same sport effectively given the product that they put out. What about your place in American boxing? Top rank still doesn't have a TV deal. Golden Boys deal with DeZone is coming to an end. And as of right now,

to the best by knowledge, they don't have any events scheduled for 2026. Is there a case to be made with your Netflix shows and your DeZone deal that you are the number one American promoter right now? I don't look at it that way. I look at it as we are the number one brand, A, for women's boxing, unequivocally, and B,

in terms of doing the biggest, most impactful mainstream events that increase the awareness of the sport, bring new eyeballs to it, and create opportunities for other athletes. That is where we are right now. now. We're not looking at Golden Boy and Top Rank and PBC. We're thinking about how does our brand affect an entire sport. As far as the women's division that you guys have created, it's obviously

robust. You just added Caroline Dubois. Are we going to see in 26 more women's only cards, like the one that we saw in July? What could you tell us about the brand that you are building with the women? Yeah, look, the objective is to have a singular brand that represents the best in-class fighters unequivocally within the sport. Very hard to do on the men's side, given the number of promoters that exist, the network dynamics, and the egos that are roaming around within it. On the women's side, people don't have the belief maybe or the vision or the trust that there is value in women's boxing.

And I think the WMBA is a perfect example. It took 30 years for the investment to pay off, but boy, has it paid off. And MMA took a long time for Lorenzo to convince Dana White to have women's MMA. But Ronda immediately paid off. And I think women's boxing will pay off. If you look at January 3rd, what we're doing there is a main card that is all women and a preliminary card that is a mix of men and women. And I think that shows the power of the women's brand to be able to carry a card

that is positioned, yes, as a woman's event, but also has men fighting underneath them. And that's part of the vision of how we see it going forward. And I absolutely see more of those happening in 2026. Speaking of the future, and I'll let you go in a moment, I do want to know, as far as Jake is concerned, obviously he moves back down to cruiserweight. He's alluded to that. But would you like to see him maybe just take a bit of a step back in terms of opponent now? like does he go back to the furies or maybe even finally the KSIs of the world or do you think

now that he's gone in there with AJ he's swimming with those types of sharks what would you like to see when he heals up i think look one KSI is is not anything to do with boxing that's just like a nice to have if and when KSI ever you know comes back into boxing and wants to do it i think that's something that would be great for the fans but i but i do think at this stage jake's skill set is way too advanced for KSI and he'd be smart not to do it in terms of who he fights next we haven't had that conversation I have certain ideas Tommy Fury is not it I don't think he's reliable to do that but it's it's really up to Jake I need to hear from him how he sees it going and he does want to win a belt and so I think there's ways of doing that in the right way to allow him to

get back to that top of the mountain in terms of getting a belt and also continue to do big spectacular events. Realistically, do you think we see him again in 2026? Very much so, yes. Okay. And one more before I let you go. The Zufa Boxing debut is exactly 32 days away from now. We don't have a card announced just yet. It sounds like the debut is going to take place at the apex,

the night before UFC 324. Eddie was saying earlier, like, you know, what's going on? Where are the announcements, why aren't you coming out with a bang, that type of thing? What do you make of the state of Zoufa boxing as of right this moment? Biggest thing I make of is Saturday, January 3rd, Amanda Sala is back on DeZone. Yes, sir. Long more Zufa boxing. And Stephanie Hahn and Holly Holmer are fighting.

And both of those fights are three-minute rounds. That's what I'm most excited and focused on. In terms of Zufa boxing, to make your debut in what appears to be the apex, it's a similar playbook to what they've done for their slap fighting league is they have a UFC event on the Saturday they're going to fly in a bunch of VIPs give them a free hotel give them a free dinner and have them show up at the apex center and make it feel like it's a big event I hope it's you know I hope it's a successful debut for them I know they haven't announced the card is yet but they're extremely intelligent extremely extremely well capitalized and they're not going to go away

easily right so you have to take them seriously And it'll be interesting to see what it is. But I know the playbook. I see exactly what they're doing and hopefully it's successful for them. One more quick one. Eddie, very complimentary of you, of MVP, of the whole week, the relationship. I know there were ups and downs. But as far as working with him in the future, is this something you want to continue to do?

And did you feel the same way as far as how everything went since the fight was announced? Yeah, look, we operate how we operate, right? It wasn't this week. We've operated the same in every single event that we worked with match. it's more it's more about when we agree and negotiate on certain terms those are the terms that we deliver on and here this was the first event that we've done together where AJ was truly bringing a lot to the table and they negotiated in that fashion and we delivered in that same fashion I've said the entire time you have to respect Eddie Hearn for delivering this fight on

short notice and I hope to continue working with them absolutely we're going to see each other in January there's lots of business to be done and this is a moment to be strategic within boxing the landscape is shifting there's promoters who don't have TV distribution there's promoters who are entering and want to disrupt we've been disruptive Eddie has a promotional capability like very few to have within MMA or boxing I believe he's the best spokesperson for his boxers of any spokesperson out there or fighters, right? Dana White isn't a promoter anymore. He's not promoting athletes in my mind.

So I have a lot of admiration for what he does as a promoter. And I think they have admiration for what we do as a brand, as a company, as a executor of big events. I mean, if I look at our way in from last Thursday, I was thrilled with the outcome, the vision that came to life and how we produced it. And I think people see that and appreciate that. Last one, sorry, I lied. Is it true they both made $92 million?

They both made a lot of money. Where did this number come from, this random $92 million? I can't figure it out. I think Eddie said it wasn't Joshua's biggest payday, but it was a pretty good payday. I can't speak to whether it was Joshua's biggest payday or not, nor can I speak to that for Jay because that's confidential information for him. But they both made a lot of money as they should have. They put on a massive event that had the world talking.

positively, negatively indifferent, if you are able to grab attention and have people take their time away from their phone or their family or their sleep to watch, you deserve to be rewarded. Congratulations. Thank you, Nekisa. Happy holidays to you and your family. Great event, great way to end the year. Looking forward to what you guys do in 2026.

Thank you, Ariel. Have a great one. There he is. Nikisa Bidarian, the CEO of Most Valuable Promotions, co-founder as well, of MVP. And that was their third event on Netflix in a little over a year, 13 or so months to be exact. Of course, it was going to be almost a year to the day if the tank fight would have remained. I said it, I like this fight a lot more. When you're someone like Jake, you want to be, you want to kind of be going, you know, up against the big dog.

In his position, it's much better to be, you know, David versus Goliath, as opposed to you being perceived as Goliath. my kids see the Jake fights and when they saw the tank face off they said like what is this he's going to beat this guy they don't know who tank is they see the AJ face up they say wow he's taking on a giant and so those are the types of people not just kids but a lot of young people trust me there is no other gig that I have in which my kids friends and now I'm at an age and they're at an age where their friends are online and seeing things to where I get questions about, you know, what I do for a living. And to them, it's like, wow, he just took on a giant. And so that's, you know, that could be perceived as a good look and an interesting hook going

into the fight. Now we wait and see, A, when he comes back, A, how long it takes for him to heal and to come back. And then B, you know, what kind of route he takes. That's always the big question with Jake. There was that brief moment where he was fighting the Andre August of the world, the Ryan Borland's of the world, as we've discussed. And you wonder, okay, where's he going here and then he takes a detour and he goes to Mike and then he tries to get the Canelo fight. It's kind of all over the place and so it's really hard to predict. But one thing I know is that we will be watching and talking about it and I look forward to seeing how it all plays out. All right. Still to come by the way, more news and notes. Still to come by the way your super chats as well

as we round out 2025. What a year it has been. And there's more content to come before our January 5th award show. end as far as our guests are concerned. I wanted to end on a very fun and lighthearted and a high note and an inspiring note because our final guests of the year is joining us in studio in a matter of seconds. She's one half of the brand new AEW women's tag team champions, the babes of wrath. Her name on AEW is Harley Cameron. But I saw her a few months ago doing a lot of interesting things that you don't see wrestlers, and in particular women's wrestlers doing, singing, doing ventriloquism, I do believe it's called, as a ventriloquist, just doing off-the-beat different kind of stuff. And this caught my eye, and I thought it was very interesting.

And so I wanted to have her in studio to talk about this because they're in New York over the weekend to do a bunch of holiday shows at Hammerstein Ballroom, which is an incredible venue in its own right. And then I started to learn about her backstory, and I was like, wow, this person needs to get her story out. This is a great story and it's actually quite inspiring. And so without further ado, let us say hello to the aforementioned Harley Cameron, who is here in studio with the belt. Wow, with the actual belt. I've had to bring them up to you guys. Hello. How are you? Hello, lovely to meet you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. Amazing. I appreciate it very much. Welcome, welcome. How are you? I'm excellent. We're very festive here, as you can see.

I love it. It's the holiday season. I feel like that. In New York, the festive season is fantastic. It's full swing. Actually, you haven't been to New York that often, right? Because I saw an interview with you and the great Renee Piquette, where you were talking about being in the city for the first time. And that wasn't that long ago. Yes, I think it was around this time last year, actually. But she took me on the tourist journey.

She took me to see the tree. And then we went to see the, what's the show called with the kicking? The Rockettes. The Rockettes. At Radio City. Yes, we saw that. And then she took me to Magnolia Bakery. Oh, my God.

You had the banana pudding. Yes, the pudding. Oh, my gosh. Amazing, right? Yes, it was excellent. So it's funny. My parents are here right now, and I was walking them around to literally all those places. I was like, and here's the tree and here's the putting.

Yes, yes, yes. And that was only a year ago. So your first time in New York was a year ago. Yeah, I think I've been back maybe once before, but it was literally to do, I think, a signing. So it was in-out. I didn't get to explore. So I do like it here. And over the weekend, you were at the legendary Hammerstein Ballroom.

Yes. And what was that like? Oh, my gosh. It was fantastic. I actually was very lucky this time last year. did have a match here and I got to perform last year. And the audience is just electric. And it's just such a beautiful, like, set up there. It's really special performing there. Some legendary ECW shows and then WW had Raw there and whatnot. So great to have you in studio. This is wonderful.

Like I said, I saw a few months ago you doing some very different type of stuff. I was like, who is this person? Who is this person with the puppet or doll? Yes, the puppet. And I don't want to get to. I want to build up to it. Yes, puppets don't like dolls. It's a controversy. Yeah. So what is like the PC term for? Oh, I mean, do you know what?

I'm not one to get offended. You can call it whatever you like, but I call it my puppet. Okay. You're my puppet buddies. How would you describe your 2025? Because this feels like a really transformative sort of kind of turning point in your life and career. Definitely.

This year has been, you know, it's hard to put into words. It's been a huge year of growth for me. I have had some amazing moments. And I definitely, I'm looking back at it, feeling really proud because I think I had just a transformative year. I had a lot of fantastic opportunities. I got to, you know, wrestle my home in Grand Slam at the start of the year against Mercedes, which was amazing. I was in the first blood and guts. And now, you know, I'm babes of wrath, the first ever AW women's tag team champion.

So looking back, I'm just, you know, very, very proud. This time last year, what were you expecting as far as 2025 was concerned? Where were you at? I think this time last year my focus was just to grow and be better. This time last year I was in a completely different situation and again I was here in New York performing to Hammerstein and it was one of my matches actually where I was like, wow, I'm really hearing for the first time the crowd was behind me and it's interesting looking back at that now and how that has helped me evolve, you know.

This year was like I just want to do better, learn more. And looking back, if I spoke to myself this time last year, I probably wouldn't believe the things that have happened. Yeah. Okay, so you grew up in Australia, right? You don't grow up in Gold Coast, but you move to Gold Coast. Correct. New South Wales? Yes.

So I was, I'm originally from this tiny little town called Austinville. Okay. It's got like a population of like, I don't know, like less than 2,000 people, like itty-bitty. Wow. Yeah. And when we first moved to the Gold Coast, I didn't want to go. My parents, my mom and stepdad moved me. And I was like, no.

But I'm glad it happened now. because, you know, I love growing up on the Gold Coast. That area is just gorgeous. And I know a little bit about Australia, so please correct me. Obviously, awful story last week at Bondi. Anyone you know affected or I don't know how far that is from gold? Not close, right? So it was in Sydney, and I have a lot of family in Sydney.

So I will say it's just horrendous and awful and disgusting to see. And I'm very thankful that I don't personally know anybody there. But where it happened, Bondi Beach, like a lot of my sisters, like, lived there for a long time. I got a lot of siblings, and most of my siblings live in Sydney. Wow. So it definitely was really heartbreaking. And it's also really sad because Australia was notoriously known for, like, multiculturalism and also safety and non-gun violence. So it's really disappointing to see.

Awful scenes. Obviously, it affected me as a Jewish person as well. And I love Australians, and I always compare Australians to Canadians. I'm from Canada. I feel like we're kind of peaceful people. and we don't like gun violence and all this nonsense, I will have to say that the response has been lovely to see the people show up, donate blood,

to see the tributes, it's been very nice. So I hate that it happened, but I think the true spirit of Australians has shown up in the aftermath. Would you agree? Yeah, I definitely think so. And again, too, it's really shocking because I agree with your comparison

with Australia. We're very, you know, easygoing, like happy people. So it's heartbreaking to see, but I am proud that, you know, Australia is now rallying to, like, show that love and support at least. So, the only good thing that is happening from that. So you mentioned siblings, seven, eight? Eight.

Eight, eight siblings. How many boys? How many girls? So there's me, Alex, Cindy, Laura, Renee, Matt, dead. Wait, is that, yeah, that's all of them. Did I miss a sibling? That's all. Oh, my gosh.

The fact that you're asking yourself that I miss a sibling needs you have a lot. So you're the oldest? No, I'm the second youngest. You're the second youngest. Yes. How old's the oldest? The old, oh gosh. I don't know. Forgive me. They're in their like late 40s.

Okay. Yeah. So, oh, Tian and Michelle. There we go. You forgot too. Oh my gosh. Are you guys close? Yes, we're all very close. Even though I forgot on their name. Oh, my dear. Hopefully they don't see this. Yeah, no, they'll see it and then they'll grill me later. But it's okay. I deserve it. No, we're all very, very close. And that's the hardest thing about being here is that I had to say goodbye to all of that because my family are like my best friends. Yeah. And forgive me for asking, but all from the same.

same parents? No. Okay. I was like, Holy. Mom, you had quite a time. No, she, we've got, I've got half siblings and step siblings. I've actually, out of all of them, only one brother is from the same dad.

Okay, okay, okay, okay. But we never grew up saying half or anything like that, like families. Did you ever grow up all under the same roof? Yeah, there was a time. There was a time where there was five of us, yeah, there. Okay. So there was always a very full house. And my mom at the time was a single parent.

So my older siblings definitely helped take care of me and everything like that. So we're very, very bonded. We talk, like, all the time. We're very close. We're very loving, big, crazy Australian family. I've heard you say Christmas time always very crazy. Is it hard not being home around this time? Oh, it's so hard.

I always say, it's America's wonderful. And I'm so lucky that my career is doing so well. I'm so thankful because saying goodbye to that has been very difficult. and I missed. Christmas was like huge for us. We'd spend all cousins, everyone. There was like a house full of 40 people and that's my life was growing up and then all of a sudden I'm over here and I like, you know, at the moment I live alone with two dogs and it's very, it can be very lonely but like AEW has honestly been like a family to me and it is my family like I feel like I have a family at work now which is cool. So when you were a kid, when you were growing up,

what was your dream? What did you want to become? I think from a young age I just knew I wanted to perform and I wanted to entertain people. I wasn't sure the avenue that it would lead me down, but when I was in like school, I was singing and dancing and trying to like make people laugh, that kind of thing. So my mom always said she knew that I'd be a performer of some capacity, but I never knew that I'd be a wrestler. I loved watching wrestling as a kid, but I lived in Australia and it's very difficult to come and work in America, like as you I wish I would know. And you kind of think there are certain careers and you think, okay, well, I watch this on TV, but that's not going to be my reality because I live in Australia. And how would I get to America and work there? So I never thought to myself, well, how could I go be a professional wrestler on that level? Because I wasn't in a town with it, where it was a big predominant thing. And additionally, I was like, well, how would I get there and do it? I wasn't until I moved to America. I was like, oh, wow, I'm in the land that I can do it now. How old are you when you move?

Oh, goodness. I think I was 25. Okay. I mean, we could even see your singing chops there. Like you sung the answer there for a second. I saw the levels. Wait, so you're 25. Why do you leave?

So my partner at the time did come over here to pursue wrestling. He was a wrestler. And for me, I had a great job. I was performing in theater and I was very happy with, you know, life. but I was in this relationship with him and I thought well like he wanted me to move and I initially was like do I want to leave like I've already got this great set up and then I was like I can't work in America I can't do anything but I thought to myself if I go over there and maybe I could figure out what my life would look like so I did initially come here with no workability

at all and that was a hard thing because I came over here thinking okay well maybe initially I was like maybe I'll be able to do Broadway because I was in theater in Australia. And I came over here and I saw an independent show and like a wrestling show. And from that moment, I said, this is what I want to do. And even though I know that that was his journey, I was at the time, I was like, I want to do this. And I hope that it's okay that he doesn't mind because I was like, I want to do this. It's everything that I've done and I didn't realize I had the skills for in different capacities because I was like, it's athletics, it's entertainment. I used to be a bodybuilder and I did personal training and nutrition.

That was one of my backgrounds and my careers. And then I've been an entertainer my whole life. And I was like, this is athletics and entertainment, attainment together. So the light bulb went on there. Did he mind? Initially, he was kind of like, why do you want to do? Are you sure you want to do this? Like, he was more worried, I guess, about my safety.

And he's like, it's rough. It's harder than you think. And I think he was very much Maybe like, I don't think you can do it Because like I'm, you know, I'm a pretty small framed gal But then when I said, no, I want to do it He was like, okay, supportive of it And I will say when I begun it, I was like, oh my gosh, now I wake up call

This is very challenging When you were in Australia, you ever take a bump, ever do anything sort of physical like that? No, never, never like had been in a wrestling ring of my life, yeah So the first taste that I had was at Flatback's wrestling school in Orlando Okay. And my first bump, I instantly thought, ooh, can I do this? Big wake-up goal. How long ago was that? Just over three years ago. That's nothing. Yeah, I'm still in shock that everything has happened in the speed that it has for me because

I've been very blessed. It's all fallen in his place very quickly. So I heard a story, you're living in a hotel, I think, and you see a brochure about like a sort of like an open mic night of sorts? Yeah, yeah. So when we first came here, we're living out of a hotel. And I knew that when I came here that I couldn't work. I didn't have any friends. I didn't have anyone to talk to. But I thought, well, if I come here and I network, because I'm used to that from entertainment in Australia, it's all about, especially as a musician, I was like, it's just about like being around musicians and meeting people. I thought, well, at least if I can

have a hobby, I'll like find my people. And I saw a brochure for this Orlando Rock show. And I saw it. So I went there, I think, the next day. And I went in. and saw the show, and it was an impersonation show. And I went to the management, and I said, hey, I'd like to perform here. And they said, well, like, who do you impersonate? And I'd never done it before. But I was like, I can pull off, like, Christina Aguilera or Lady Gaga. So I said, these two people.

And then I said, but here's the thing. I said, I can't be paid. I can't work, but I can volunteer. So I said, I would just like to perform here. You don't have to pay me. And they were like, okay, well, you're on this Friday. Like, they didn't audition for me. And I just, like, got up and sang and, like, plank.

played a bit of piano for them, whatever. They liked the Lady Gaga, and I went to, I think it was a Spirit Halloween, bought Lady Gaga costume, and I was on that weekend. Wow. And how to go? It was great. And then I, like, again, like, from that moment, I met other musicians and other performers, and I started, like, you know, finding my people, like, in the respect of, okay, I have something to do here now. And then it's, like, how do I now figure out a way to get paid eventually because I've got to get a visa somehow. So I initially, for a long time,

was just doing a lot of like performing with bands and at this show and like anywhere that would take me but I had to do it for free because you know obviously legally couldn't do it but I'm so glad I did that because it is very lonely leaving your country and coming here and I think that if I didn't do that I don't know if that would have given me the drive to just you know progressively do other things I don't think Americans realize how hard it is to work here as a foreigner so that's why I went through that as well a year I couldn't get paid that whole thing And so I, when I hear stories of this and then I see someone break through and persevere it, because unfortunately there are some who just can't stick around.

They have to go home and that's a bit of a sad ending. It's very inspiring to me and I relate to it. At any point did you think to yourself, I don't know if this is going to work out. I might have to go back home. I'm a failure. Like, did you have that moment and how close were you to actually breaking and going back? there. So I was fortunate that in Australia, you know, I was good with my finances and savvy. I had savings. I had enough to like, you know, survive and get me, get me through. And I also, obviously,

I had a partner at the time who was taking care of rent and everything. But I was, I had my own money to a tribute from back, that I bought from Australia. There was definitely moments where I was, I was trying to seek initially out an agent to just support me as an entertainer because you need a petitioner. I'm sure you know, like, you need someone to back that. I was having a difficult time, like, finding in Orlando the right people. I didn't know anyone. I didn't have the connections. And I think that there was definitely times where I was like, well, this is all well and good that I'm performing and that I'm doing it, but I can't get paid. How long is this money going to last? Like, is this realistic? Like, I left this great job in Australia. Should I go back?

I was very lonely. Like, it's very difficult. I didn't have my family. And then, I think the hardest part was when I found that passion for wrestling, that was a new challenge because when I was like, this is what I want to do. I want to wrestle. It was then, well, this is even harder because at least with entertainment, I had the backgrounds. We could have done like, the visa could have been supported through my body of work. But with wrestling, I was like, unless a major company picks me up, I'm taking a huge risk here because I'm going to put all my eggs in this basket and hope it works out. And I think there was definitely moments that I was concerned it wasn't going to

but I'm very lucky it did work out and that I persevered because now I'm just living my dream but there was a lot of times that I was like failure is not an option for me because otherwise I've left everything for nothing you know how long into that wrestling training do you start to think I've got this

like there's something here I might turn this into a career my coaches breeze and spears from day one they said to me you they said You need three things to make it in this business. You need to be entertaining.

You need to be good in the ring. And you need to have your image, your look, your persona, like whatever that may be carved out. They said to me, if you have all three, you'll make it. They said to me from day one, they said, well, your image, you know who you are, the personality, the promos, all that. That's your background. You've got it. If you can pick up the ring work, you could make it. So I think from day one, they kind of said to me, like, just know that you've got the things.

If you work on the one thing that you don't have, if you don't give up, like, it's probably inevitable you'll be successful. So I definitely had their voice in the back of my head. And again, it wasn't until I was, you know, given my contract that I was actually like, holy crap, it worked out because, like, there's a lot of trial and error and especially finding your feet when you've never wrestled before. And, you know, I did find the wrestling very challenging to pick up. It was, you know, brand new to me.

And I still am to this day Like working on my ring It's something that I will forever be working on Because it's the newest thing But it worked out and I'm very very lucky I think like as of now You only have like 65 or so matches under your belt Is that accurate?

I think so I think the other day I did I'm up to 89 Okay okay okay I don't want to sell you short No no I'm climbing Nothing, that's nothing Yeah and the vast majority have been Like how many were on the Indies

I had had And when I got hired at AEW, I'd had 21 matches. That's it. That's it. The second match of my life was AEW Dark. Wow. Yeah, against Willow, funnily enough. Wow, your current tag team partner.

Correct. Very full circle. Second match of your life. Yes. How nervous were you? Surprisingly, like, I felt confident because I, again, had these coaches that were fantastic and prepared me for everything. They kind of hyped me up a lot.

I will say I get, I was as nervous just then, like, the butterfly. are still the same to this day. That's how I feel about wrestling in general. It's why I love it. It's like I feel alive and like the butterflies and nerves and all kinds of wonderful emotions. But I knew that like the wrestling is the, the moves, the process of that is new to me. But being on camera holding a microphone, that's the stuff I'm very confident in. So I wasn't shaken by, oh, we're on television now.

We're filming now, that kind of aspect. It was definitely like, I just want to make sure I do good in the ring. But with the camera work, I'm like, hello, like I'm good at this part. Is it true you spoke to WWE very early on? Yes. Okay, so what happened there? Here's the music again. The vocals.

That's my thinking sound. I will say thank you to them because thanks to them, I have my green card. Okay. Okay, interesting. Thanks to them, I learned to wrestle. What does that mean? They helped me with my wrestling training to flatbacks. Ooh, sorry.

Okay. I believe there was some, they went through transitional stages where I think in their office, certain people were perhaps, I think, released from the company. They went through some big changes. A lot of people were in, a lot of people were out, that kind of thing. And I guess just fate didn't lead me in that direction. and I, in the interim of not knowing what was going on, had an opportunity to be at AW Dark,

and then I had another opportunity there, and then I was offered, you know, the contract with AW. And after, you know, being in this country for so long and knowing that I want to be a professional wrestler, and this door open for me, I went to AW, and I'm so glad I did because I feel like it's where I was meant to be. So, yeah, no, definitely no dirty, greasy story there or anything.

But they definitely helped me with my wrestling journey. I just, just AEW snatched me out. Did you train at the performance center? No, because I didn't have the ability to, I couldn't legally be there because I didn't have, like, a working ability. Okay. But they sent me to flatbacks when I was initially kind of chatting with them. and I had fantastic training from Breeze and Spears.

And then again, I don't know where the interest was lost in the journey, but AW found me and I'm very, very lucky they did. How close were you to actually signing with them? I mean, it's hard to say because I was in communications back and forth, but it's not like I got a contract offer. I'll say that much. But I initially was like that was my initial, our first goal

was definitely going that direction I think AW has allowed me to showcase who I am as a performer Tony Khan has given me so many amazing opportunities and I am so lucky that he took a chance on somebody he'd only had 21 matches because I'm so proud to be working there and I am so proud to be a belt holder now

first ever tag team champion with Willow so I think that sometimes when you think the universe is saying no to you, it's because it has other plans. And so that process of getting signed by AW, what is that like? How do you, how do you go through the process and then the moment that you were offered the contract? Yeah. What is that moment like? It was surreal, honestly. So I knew that there was a faction being formed because I had been training with Spears and also Billy Gunn, who they had told me that there was an opportunity coming up for, they were looking for a female for this faction. And I spoke to QT, Marshall, and

he met, we had a phone conversation and then I had the like dark opportunity and they decided that I was the right fit for the role. I had a match and I cut some promos. So I owe a lot to QT Marshall. He definitely, he's the one that chose me to be the right person. I like the way you say Marshall. Yes. I usually hear Marshall. So is it, am I saying it wrong? No, well, I mean, I said Marshall. I'd said that I was told it's Marshall. Oh, wow. I had no idea. Okay. So I mean, I add the little bit of flare. Sure, sure, sure, sure. But, yeah, so QT definitely gave me the opportunity to be in that faction, and then, you know, the rest is history, really.

Wow, wow. And so when that contract comes your way, that day, after everything you've been through, the doubts, leaving home, how do you react? Where are you when you finally come to terms with the fact that this is actually going to happen? I rang my mom right away. I think it was like 5 a.m. Australia. But I was just so, like, I can't explain like the mixture of excitement, but also relief because it's like this terrifying journey leaving everything you know and hoping that this American dream works out. And, you know, again, when it happened, I was just, I was just so

ecstatic. Like, I can't explain. I still feel like very thankful to this, to this day and very lucky to be here. There's not a day that goes by that I'm not like appreciative of it. We have the shuttle that takes us to the show on times and I literally will sit there and kind of like stare at and just look at the different towns we're going through and be like how cool is this? I'm feeling so much

gratitude. Because you're relatively new to the game and I know you said that as you were a kid you watched wrestling by the way did you get into wrestling as a kid because your siblings were into it or were you just a fan? My little brother Alex and I used to watch together all the time he was obsessed with the

Undertaker and John Sina and he to just like, kind of like just beat me up. Do you watch some of the old, older, not I don't want to call them older, but you know, like the Trish Stratuses of the world, the leader now, you know, maybe that was a period that you weren't watching, I don't know, to, you know, kind of catch up to speed on the grates of women's wrestling and how to like learn from them and all this. Do you find yourself doing that now because you're so into it now? I definitely will say so I watched from a young age and then when I went into my teens,

I probably fell out of it a little bit then. But then when moving to America and immersed in that atmosphere again, because again, my ex-partner at the time was on that journey, and I just naturally started watching everything and catching up, like you said. So I definitely think that when you're in it, you just become even more excited to learn more and more. So I definitely, like, dive in deep now and, like, love to watch everything I can. And what about this bodybuilding?

What kind of a bodybuilder were you? I just did fitness competition, like, competitions. So I did that for like, oh gosh, probably four years. Yeah, I did multiple shows year after year after year. So I was very, very into it. I was a personal trainer at the time. I studied that in nutrition. So I was very focused on that for a long time in my life.

And then again, I was doing that in theater at the same time. But, you know, never in my wildest dreams that I think that it would attribute to wrestling. But it did teach me a dedication, like anyone that, that's done, a bodybuilding show can definitely tell you that it's like, it takes a level of, like, focus and grit, which I will attribute to, like, the level of focus I have with other things today. Did you also have a cup of coffee as a BKFC ring girl? Yes, yes, I was a BKFC ring girl.

Was it just once? No, I did it. I did it for quite a while, actually, yeah. How did that happen? One of the, gosh, how did it happen? There you are. Oh, there I am. I can't tell which one you are.

I'm the redhead. I used her red hair. Oh, wow, all right, yeah. Actually, I wanted the red hair back, but it was, I had to diet twice a week. It's not worth it. Twice a week to keep it up. Yeah, it bleeds everywhere. It's crazy. And my apartment was red, but oh, look, there she is. Oh, there I am. Yes. I, yeah, no, I had a great time. And I'm still very close with the girls there. And Dave, who's there.

And, gosh, I think one of the girls, like, just, like, found my Instagram because, like, I did a lot of modeling. And they, I think they just found me on Instagram. They were like, hey, we like your look. Do you want to come do this, you know, kind of thing? So I was doing that for a while, which was really cool. The wrestling is cool, the singing, all the stuff, the competitions. To me, what's most impressive, did you not study journalism as a youngster? I did.

I got a collegiate scholarship, actually. This speaks to my soul. Okay, so what kind of journalism? So I got the scholarship to go to Bond University. I don't know if you're familiar with it. Is that Bondiabia? university? No, no, no.

No, no. I just, that was a good... Is that, is that in Australia? Yes, yes, it is. It's a private university, and so what they do is they allow you to, they allow you to fast track it, not fast track it, I shouldn't say that. They don't have like a holiday system that's similar here so you can do your degrees much quicker.

Okay, okay, okay. Yes, I, so I went there and unfortunately, actually, while I was studying, my father became terminally ill, so it was, yeah, it was a difficult time, but I did, for a while I actually hosted a car show and I knew nothing about cars. Okay, okay. But yeah, it's funny. I didn't really enjoy the process of it. Why not? I think obviously because my father was really sick at the time. But again, it's funny that it didn't work out because I didn't continue with it because I wonder if I would have had a different path. Sure, sure, sure. Yeah, but I did have, like if you, I'll have to show you later. I did a host a car show for a while and like that

was my first taste was doing these reviews on cars and I had no idea about any of these cars. How did that even happen? Like how do you even get that gig? They gosh, I can't remember how the man approached me. I think in Australia we have like this thing called Star Now and it's like an online criteria for like entertainment acting like presenting all that kind of stuff and you kind of like upload your resume and past works, and I think they scouted me from there. Yeah, but gosh, it was so many years ago. But I think that's how they found me, and then I auditioned for it, and then started hosting that show.

But it was, it was a fun doing it, but I definitely, I felt like my personality was a little too quirky to fit into most molds, if that makes sense. So when I read that you were a journalist, I'm like, okay, like, are you doing investigative pieces? Are you writing for the newspaper, you know, like... Yeah, no, I never did anything like that. And I also found, like, there was a certain part of it that I didn't enjoy with what came with, like, the investigative side of things. Like, I didn't like a lot of the, to be honest, the work towards the approach for it.

It wasn't something that resonated with me. I very much realized I'm a performer more than I am someone that likes to do. Because, as you know, a lot of it is a lot of work behind the scenes for a very short amount of work on camera. Sure, sure. And I found that I thrive more in like a live performance setting. And it's a lot of work. You want the attention. You want the spotlight.

Yes, I wanted that spotlight. And I think it was a big wake up call that I was like, okay, 90% of the work is behind the scenes. And it is, as you know, it's long and it's strenuous. And I said to myself, I don't know if I want to do this. I think I want to do something more forward facing. Okay. Yeah. Because when I first went into it, I initially was like, okay, I want to be like presenting the news and that kind of thing.

And then it's the hard reality of like, oh, wow, it's like a lot that goes into this behind closed doors that you don't see. You know what I mean? So I definitely was like, I think that I would prefer to pursue something on stage as opposed. So one thing that sticks out to me as far as your current character. And by the way, who came up with Harley Cameron? I did, yes. Okay. And why?

Oh, gosh. I just like the name Cameron, to be honest, because I was like, that's a fun name for a girl. And then obviously I like Harley Quinn. I like the personality type. I was a big comic book nerd. So I liked the name Harley in general. And then I just like, I think Cameron Diaz is great. And I was like, I love that name.

Australian? Cameron Diaz, no. No, no, she's not. She's American. Who's the one that's Australian. God, they're going to make funny. Margot Robbie. Margo Robbie.

And then older, maybe Nicole Kidman. Nicole Kidman. Yes, okay. A few blonde ladies. Yes. They allow you to show your personality on television. And obviously, you have the chops to do it. And I hope you take this direction.

way, you remind me a little bit of Chelsea Green. Oh, that's a huge compliment. I'm a big fan of her work. Because I think that you don't mind offering comedic relief. I feel like historically in wrestling, the woman is either supposed to be like, you know, the valet and serious or be sort of like flirtatious, things like. But very often not funny. Yeah.

I think Chelsea's very funny. I think you're funny as well and you don't mind sort of laughing at yourself or being that sort of comedic relief. Are you the one who comes up with that? or was that something that was sort of like molded as far as what people saw of you backstage and said you should go down this path? I think when I began wrestling,

I was really fixated on who I was as a character and I dabbled with a lot of things and it wasn't until I did RJ Cities show Hey, EW, where we just kind of had like an organic conversation and he's so great at what he does. He like really pulls out, you know, your background. He's fantastic. And on that show, you know, we had a lot of back and forth

comedic banter and then like I sung, I got the guitar out and everything. And it was actually QT who saw that and said to me, he's like, he's like, this, you organically, I think is entertaining. And he was like, there's not many people that, like, there's the old saying of your wrestling persona should be you times 1,000. I don't think that works in every scenario. He said, but I think for you, it's the right avenue to go

because you're a natural performer and you're like naturally quirky. There's like, when you're just yourself, it's, I want to watch it. Like, it's like, so I definitely will say doing that show with RJ allowed me to dive into that and then I realized, okay, maybe I should be more of who I am because I have been a performer my whole life. It just kind of comes out naturally. Why did they end that show, by the way? I think a magnitude of reasons. He has gone through a lot of people in the roster. It's a show that rotates the talent obviously. And it's been going for years now. So I think that it's like one of those things where it's like, okay, let's end this on a, on, on his terms where like as opposed to

well who's the next 30 guess we've got to figure that out and everything like that also he's you know one of the hardest working people i will say in the company and i think that he's probably like you know ready to see what's what's next for him in what he can present and i think that he was like okay it's time to wrap this one up but he's very talented i'm sure he's going to do something great next to fellow canadian as well i do yes yes so as far as like you performing the singing the guitar stuff all that stuff how much of it is your say and how much of it is them saying we know you could do this we're going to put you in this spot. Like, are they open to you pitching ideas?

So I will say, honestly, I've been given so many opportunities and spots that originally I kind of said, I can do this. Could I maybe do this for it? If that makes sense, I've kind of brought it forward. And then when it's gone well, then I was given the other opportunities and they said, hey, can you do this with the guitar? Like, for example, like the first thing I ever did with the guitar was on RJ's show. And then everyone was like, oh, she plays guitar.

And then such things as I did half-time Harley once on Collision, that was TK's idea because he was like, well, she can sing and she can perform live, let's get her to do that. Like, I think some people saw me do the ventriloquism online in some capacity because I do that and I do stand-up. And I think that's where I was given the opportunity to then do it on TV and then that picked up. So it's a mixed bag. I'm definitely given the platform to do it. And as long as it goes well, they're definitely like, hey, let's run with it. stand-up as well. Yeah. Like stand-up comedy. Yeah, yeah. Really? Yeah, I've actually got to, we've got to show this Friday coming Chicago at the Lincoln Lodge. We do a, it's all-elite comedy. Myself,

RJ and Colcabana. What? Yeah. So you're actually going up there and like doing a set. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wow. What kind of a comedian are you? Like, who would you acquit yourself to? Oh, gosh. Honestly, I like to think that I'm unique. Okay, okay. Fair enough. Because I, the first me. Yes. I do vary my act. Sometimes I do it. with the puppet. Sometimes I do comedic singing. So I think it's hard because I don't know anyone else that does those together. But it's a bit adult, it's a bit risque. But yes, I love doing it. It's very fun. And so let us talk about this puppet. Ventriloquism. Yes. Ventriloquism. Is that it? Quism. Quism. What a word. I will admit, this is how I first, I think it might have been

the Mercedes Monet one when you popped up with it. That might have been it or maybe a little bit before. and I was like, okay, I've certainly not seen this in pro wrestling. And quite frankly, you don't see a lot of ventriloquists in the year 2025. It feels like a very sort of like 90s thing, at least for me, because as a kid, I was always, like, fascinated by ventriloquism. Yeah. I told you, I had a doll. I would do it in front of my parents. I was horrible at it.

And I always thought it was like, how do these people do it? Like, Pee Wee Herman would do it. Yes. And I was just, I was blown, I was legit blown away by how good, the good ones were, right? Yes. A, how do you get into this? How do you even discover that you can do this properly? So I performed at a cabaret for years called Dracula's Cabaret in Australia.

The people that work there notoriously had a puppet act every single year, but on a grand scale, I'm talking like huge. Some of the puppets were like five people on one kind of deal. And I started doing puppetry for them, for the years that I was with them in certain acts. And as I was backstage, I was a singer on the side additionally. and also at the cabaret. And I was just mucking around with it and realized that I had a knack for it.

So I just started studying and I just kind of taught myself. And then the rest is history. I picked it up and I've just been obsessed ever since. But yeah, I would credit Dracula's to getting me invested in the idea of puppetry. And then the rest of it, I just kind of became like personally obsessed.

And how do you tell AEW that you have this skill? And what's the process of sort of like introducing this part of your character on television. So funnily enough, I think I actually just posted a video one day on Twitter to do cameo because cameo reached out to me to do stuff and I was like, well, I have a puppet. Maybe I could do that. And I posted a thing. And then I, it kind of blew up. And then funnily, enough at the start of the year, I had the feud with Mercedes. And Mercedes had mentioned, like, I'll imagine if she had a puppet of me. And that's kind of where the idea sparked. So I made a puppet of

Mercedes. Where do you make the puppet? So I bought the base, and then I, like, just kind of, like, literally purchased every other, like... You did it yourself? Yes, well, I can't credit the base. The base was, like, I bought from Amazon. Okay, okay. But, like, the outfits and the, everything like that. And Chris from Wardrobe made her gear, I will say.

But we didn't know, like, how everyone would feel about it, but we did the first one, and people, like, loved it. And then we just kept rolling from there. So I have to say thank you to TK, too, for allowing me to do it. It's very unique. You were very good in that. that spot. How many do you own? I own a few. I think I have about six at home, actually. Okay, okay. Oh my gosh, you have one here? I have. Wow. Maybe. This is huge. We've never had a ventriloquist in action here on the program. We didn't mic, we didn't bring a second

Mike Frank for the, uh, the pup. Oh my dear. Yes, good-day. You're going to say hello? Yeah, good-day. How you gone? Wow. What's your name? Earl. Well, it's very nice to meet you, Earl. Are you excited to be here? Oh, yeah, it's excellent. And what have you been doing while you're here? You know, just a bit of this, a bit of that, exploring New York. Well, this is Earl. Hello, Earl, this is amazing.

I can't, like, stop looking at your mouth. I'm being honest, and to see if you move it, and you don't move your mouth. Yeah, she's good. I'm sorry for trying to break the fourth wall here, but I've never actually seen it happen in front of me. Hello, Earl, how are you? Oh, I'm doing fantastic. I'm sorry that we didn't mic you up. Our audio guy was sleeping on the job.

earlier today, so we should have had a second mic for you, but I appreciate you working through the kinks with us here. You should fire that guy. I agree, actually. I don't think they should fire him. No, no, no. I actually, sometimes he gets a little bit too mouthy. Earl, thank you.

Thank you for coming to the show. How do you like New York City? It's fantastic. A little cold. Yes, yes. It is a little cold. Actually, we went out for a walk before, and I didn't have a coat for him, so he had to stay back, and he's a little bit upset.

Yeah, he didn't get to see the things. He wanted to see. What did you want to see? Chicago. Oh. Yes, well, I went and saw Chicago without him. And then I came back and I said, there was a whole act with a puppet in it. So he's a little bit jealous.

But we actually, we have something for you. Oh, wow. Yeah, we've got a little gift. You got a gift for me, Earl. Yeah, do you want it? Is it for the holidays? Yeah, it is. Oh, I would love to see it.

Yes, please. All right, stay here. Okay, we're staying. I'm not going anywhere. Earl bearing gifts. I know. He's the puppet that keeps on a game. Oh, my dear.

Look at this. Wow, an actual gift, really. Yes, we got you an actual present. Oh my god, should I open it? Yeah. Oh, my dear. Thank you, Earl. Is this from Earl or is this from you?

It's from Earl. Oh, Earl, what a, what a minch you are, as we like to say, Earl. Thank you so much. Wow. What do we? Wow. That means a lot. Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow.

What is it? This is Earl and Harley. Oh, my buddy. Wow. That's one of the OG puppet kind of things. Well, he's on a puppet, but he's... To be honest, like the wave of nostalgia. that is like washing over me right now

because I told I told Harley that I used to have this exact guy this was, do you remember this guy? My buddy. My buddy and me. And then he had a kid's sister. Kids sister, kids, and this was huge in the 80s

sort of around the time that like, you know, Hulk Hogan was big, you know, mid-80s, rock and wrestling, dusty roads here. And I had this guy and this was my guy that I would use as my fake because I didn't have one that you could put your hand up your butt. This was your version. Yes, this is my guy.

Wow, and it's the exact same one. Do they still sell these? Well, apparently so, right. Okay, well, I didn't know if you got like an old school one off eBay. That means a lot. You're welcome. Thank you so can I tell you my version? I want to try to do it.

Can I try to take it out here? Yes, please. Let me try to do it with you, can I? Oh, my God, yes. I want to see what you did. Well, I haven't done it in like 20 years if I'm being on. Oh, the pressure is on? The pressure is on.

The pressure is on. The pressure is on. How do you deal with the pressure, Earl, when the lights are bright? I don't get nervous. You don't get nervous at all? Never. Seems like you've been around the block there. I mean, I see the white hair.

You're losing a little bit of it. Yeah, spilt my coffee. Spilt your coffee? Where? All over my face. Oh, my gosh. Well, you look fantastic, girl. And this is my friend Buddy.

I'm trying to do it. You see? I don't know. It's hard not to smile. And I'm telling you, like, you don't know. Hello, buddy. How are you? I'm doing okay.

How are you? Oh, that's actually kind of good It's so nice to see you again It's been like 30 years since I last saw you Yeah, it's great to see you too Ariel Hey, you know what? It's actually not bad You're actually pretty good I'm actually impressed

Ariel, I missed You can't move the lips there, right? Right What's the key? How do you not move the lips? What's the key? It's a lot of trick I mean, for me personally I will

Kind of like the tighter I pinch I feel like I can Pinch what? like my mouth in a... Oh, you have to keep it there. Yeah. Yeah, if I do this, like this. You have to just leave it there.

It's a lot easier, yeah. And then also, it's like you practice the tongue work, you know? Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. You know, I got to get it, then I got to go, and then I got to sit it, then I got a show it. Okay, that was super impressive, but you don't move your teeth. Yes. Well, I will say this is why it's an art form, you know?

It's a lot of practice. I'm very... No, see, now I'm sucking it, now I'm sucking. I'm very, no, it's really hard. It's actually really hard. Wow, it's been a while. Hey, I still rate you a good seven out of ten for that. Seven out of ten?

I feel like I could do better. I think I'm a little nervous in front of you guys. Well, I'm so happy to see you, Ariel. I mean, it feels like it's in a really long time since we last spoke to each other. And look at these cool people in front of us. Isn't it great? No, it sucks. I suck.

I suck. No, I absolutely suck, Earl. You're fantastic. And actually, you know what the other thing is that I'm not thinking about. You have to move the mouth. Yeah. At the same time. Yeah, it's a lot of stuff.

Wow. It really is, isn't it? Yeah, we're a good team. And so which is your favorite one? Which is my favorite? Oh, I can't do, I can't pick favorites, but it's, I will say, Earl is actually one of my OGs when I first started picking it up back again. He was the guy that we, what video, what did we put it on? Twitter.

Oh, yeah, we put it on Twitter. And that's when people were like, oh, we like ventriloquism. So we were very honored. I saw a great one. We have one. I think it might be with a beaver. Yes. You know the beaver?

My beaver. Let's show it to the people. Was this on, was it on cameo, I think? Yes, possibly. Possibly or Twitter or Instagram or something of that name. And who is the beaver as a character? Barry. Barry the Beaver.

And why? Gary, sorry. Gary, wow. He's going to be offended the next time he sees here. I know, just like my siblings. I forgot their names. Jesus. I thought that one was a really good one, that one.

Thank you. So they all have their own person. They all have their own, like, sort of gimmick. They do, they do, yes. Okay, so we've got Gary, we've got, oh, here he is. Look at this one. I like this one a lot. He's my big boy.

I can't travel with him because he's too big for the suitcase. He gets very, he gets FOMO, you know? Yes, no, I understand. He's not the good one. Okay, that's why you're here, okay? This is the big time. You made it to the big leagues, my friend. Do you get a lot of people asking for cameos with the dolls?

Yes. That's the main thing, right? I want to see. Earl. Yes, obviously. Yeah, no. You're a star. You're a star. I know. I'm not the star. I know. You're the star. I know. You're the star. I know. How often do you bring them to the wrestling shows? Like how, I know the Mercedes one has popped up before. She lives on the truck. She likes to travel on the road. But the Earl stays with me most of the time.

This is a little, actually a big Earl. It's like a bigger version of Earl. He's also called Earl. Okay. I don't like me. Yeah, you don't like him. because he's the big version of you. And he's sad because he's little. Okay, okay, okay. Earl, can I ask you, are you a wrestling fan? Of course I am.

Okay, can you give me your current Mount Rushmore of women's wrestlers? Oh, hardly Karen. Okay. Thank you. Tony Storm. Ooh, I like that one a lot. Like that one a lot, big fan.

Willow Nottingale. Okay. In Christiolander. Wow. Coincidentally, all working for AEW right now. I know, do you know, he's a good taste. You got good taste. Well done, well done.

What about your all-time Mount Rushmore? Oh, Trish Radis. Okay. Yeah, I don't blame you. I don't blame me. Gayle Kim. Okay, legendary Canadian as well? Yes.

And, wait, are we doing all women? All women, all women, Mount Rushmore. Oh, okay, in the old school only. No, no, all time. Oh, of all time. Yeah. Oh, okay. Tiny storm.

Okay, yes. And do you like, you know you like Mercedes. Oh. Okay. Okay. interesting choice there because you know she's kind of mean to me sometimes yeah I don't care oh well I guess I can't I can't judge his choices you know could I ask what was it like working with her um honestly amazing she uh has taught me a level of hard work and she has taught me

that it doesn't matter how successful and accomplished you are certain people will continuously put the work in like and that is a standard I'd like to hold for myself because I think the things I see her doing, I think to myself sometimes I'm like, oh, you don't have to be doing that and you are. Like some of the training sessions that I've gone to, like in Orlando, like in warehouses that have no air conditioning and everything like she's been at. Like she's constantly wanting to get better. When we do matches, like she's pushed me to new levels. And I think that working with her has made me go, okay, this is the level of professionalism and the standard that I want to hold for myself in this industry. Wow. Okay. And Tony Storm, I feel like,

correct me if I'm wrong, you guys have a lot in common. Like, as far as performing, what she's done with her character, timeless Tony story. I mean, it's really, it's unbelievable. What do you think of her? I think Tony has just revolutionized women's wrestling. I think that she is so talented. She, I would say, like, personally, like, in my opinion, she's, like, the, she is the woman.

Right. Her character ability, everything she brings is so unique and refreshing and different. She's also just like the greatest down-to-earth person you've ever met. We're actually from the same area in Australia. Yes, yes, yes, yes, of course. But you didn't know each other. No, we didn't know each other. And by the way, my audio guy is going to be so mad that Earl is on the mic and you're not right now.

He's stealing all the... You want to go to bed? Yeah, I'm tired. Okay, well, do you want to say goodbye? Thanks for having us. It's a pleasure. It's an absolute pleasure. Thank you so much.

And thank you for the gift, Earl. You love it. You really, you really blew me away with this one. Thank you. Happy holidays. You too. Okay, go to bed now. Thank you.

Oh, sorry, he's hogging the mic. He does that. He hogs the mic. No, I understand. I understand. Naturally, you want to put him up against the microphone, but I don't want Frank in the back to get mad at me. Yes, yes. We need to make sure I can talk.

So she's from the same town as you, and what she's done is unbelievable. Right now, which promotion would you say has the better women's division? A.W. Okay. I can't, you know, I'm just biased. But I just think that our locker, it's funny, I was talking about, I was talking about, about this the other day. Our locker room is just so strong and we have so many people from different walks of like experience in life. We have a lot of new people that have come in like

from Japan and so on and so forth and there's a lot of different styles going on. But everyone is like really close knit and there's a lot of talent there. I think Blood and Gus was a good testament to that. I think that was a good showcasing of the women we currently have. The the game we play, the lengths we go to. And I think that I really feel like our division feels stronger than ever. What do you say to the people who say, it's like a little bit too far sometimes, some of the blood and guts type of stuff, some of the antics? I mean, well, the reality is, it's in the name, it's blood and guts.

If you want to watch my pony club, then we'd call it that. I think that that showcasing in itself is exactly why it's titled as such. And I think, of course, certain people are going to, like, have limits of what they'd like to watch and everything like that. But it is one of those, like, special rare occasions where it's this, like, it's unique. It is called that for a reason. And I think that that's what kind of separates us sometimes is it's like, you know, we aren't afraid to push boundaries and go a little bit further. And sometimes the things we do are shocking and they go above what some people have seen in the past. but that's kind of like what makes us unique.

How would you describe the locker room right now? Really strong. Really strong. And again, too, it's, I'm not just saying it to say it. Like, it's like a family to me. Like, there is, there is, I come into work every week excited to go to work. We train together before work. We hang out after.

Like, there is a really strong sense of family there. It's really nice. And again, too, like I'm getting to work with all these amazing athletes who have so much more experience than me. and I feel really lucky to be around such talent. Has it evolved since you've been there? Absolutely. And what was it like when you first came in? When I first came in, I wasn't wrestling,

so I wasn't able to give too much of an input because I wasn't in the thick of the wrestling side of things. It's completely different when you're in that ring. My buddy! I saved you, bud. I saved you. Sorry about that. He wants to lie down to him.

He's jealous. He's got a very heavy head. He's got a very, so it acts as a weight. A tilt, you know? Yeah, so obviously I think for a good year I didn't have a match in the company. I was in QTV and I was just managing and doing promos. So I didn't, it's hard for me to make an accurate comparison because I will say it's different when you're in the thick of it with the locker room.

But everyone was always pleasant. When I started wrestling, obviously that's when you become closer and you bond and you find out what people are really like behind closed doors and everything. But honestly, I've just had a really positive experience. Was there a point where you thought maybe I should just be a manager? No, there was points where I was, there was points while I was just a manager that I was like, I really am worried that I'm only going to be a manager. Okay.

Because I wanted to wrestle from day one. Like, it's all I wanted to do. And also I had a lot of people when I begun say to me, like, you should just be a manager. You know, just, you know, stay there, do that. That's your lane. But that kind of stuff just made me want to be better and it made me want to train harder. When you won that belt, not that long ago, what was that? that note like yeah it was amazing i think that it represents uh faith in you as a as you know

as a competitor as a performer um also it was definitely a moment as you were referring to before like are there moments where it kind of clicks that you're like oh it's like it's it's it was worth it it's made it this uh you know being with willow who i absolutely adore um getting to make history together and being the first ever a w tag team champions is something that I am like, wow, it's going to, like, there's ups and downs in life and there's ebbs and flows in the business in general, but there's monumental moments like this that you go, well, no one can take that away from me. And that no matter which way the journey goes, there's moments that you can look back and be proud of. And I'm so, so elated that I

get to have that moment, you know. It's incredible. You're the first ever. Yeah. What an honor. Before it's all said and done, dream matchup, dream opponent, a match that must happen in your career? Oh, gosh. It's, I will say, truthfully, we have World's End coming up, obviously, Willona against Mercedes and Athena. I think that our first tag match against them was one of my favorite matches I've ever had in my life.

And I genuinely am so excited for that. When I had a taste of it the first time, I was like, it was one of those matches that stays with you and again makes you go, oh gosh, like I'd love to face them again and like now it's happening. And so I will truthfully say that I am very, very looking forward to that. That's a good answer. Yeah. That is a good answer. When is that, by the way? It is this Saturday. Coming up, yeah. Coming up the 27th, December at the Naurina on Chicago. Woo! The night after. Night after the All Elite comedy show, the link alone. I will be honest, I did not know about. Yes, well, we do them often. So we're trying to do them more often.

We do them in Chicago all the time But we're trying to do them Perhaps more often in different cities But it's great We do a lot of fun stuff It's really, really fun Yeah again Colt Cabana and RJ City hosted and kind of run the night

But I will always be there doing stand-up Are there other wrestlers who are doing stand-up as well? So Tony Shibani Sometimes Tony Shavani? Yeah The legend? He called me a very mean word On Twitter one time

What? Shall I say it? It's a little bit He called me a slap dick, and I don't even know what that means. I don't even know what it means, but I don't think it was a term of endearment. Oh, gosh, you know what? I'm going to ask him. But I love Tony Chivani, by the way.

I love him. But also, he's a legend. He's a legend. I was watching him when I was, you know. Yes, he's one of my favorite people, again, too, when I talk about how the workplace feels like family, like he's like, I'm very close with him. He's a wonderful person. I'm close with him and his wife.

They're wonderful people. So he's doing comedy. Yes. And he is funny, man. Oh, yeah. Okay. Wow. Tony Chavani, I have no idea.

So it's like a rotating cast of people. Yes, so it's usually always myself, RJ and Colt. And then we have people that are rotating. So for example, this week we have the Outrunners and we've got Marina and Roddy there. Okay. But in the past, we've had like Tecla, we've had Willow. We've like had like all kinds of people. So we usually do certain people, like I'll do stand up, the boys will do stand up, like Tony

Chivani, people like that, he'll do stand up. And then we'll play like an improv game, which is the rest of the comedy show. But it usually is pretty wild. All right. Well, one day I'd love to see it. This has been phenomenal. Thank you so much. Really appreciate you coming in.

I think you had to stay a little bit longer, so thank you so much for that. If not, you know, really, really appreciate it. Thank you for this, too. You're welcome. Thank you for bringing in, Earl. Congrats on all your success, really. Thank you so much. It's a lot of fun.

And in my opinion, you've broken through. And I think what's tough in this day and age is to kind of stand out and be unique and sort of not fit into a certain mold. And it feels like you are getting to be who you, want to be, and you're having great success doing that. So, bringing in all these other elements of your personality, I think, really comes off the screen, and it's

very fun to see all these different... You're playing piano one day, you're playing guitar, you're singing, it's really impressive, so... Thank you, so... Well done. Continued success. There's a show this Wednesday, right? It's Dynamite on TBS this Wednesday. That is correct. Is that the New York show? Yes, and then we have the Thursday

as well. On Christmas. On Christmas. Golly. The Christmas show. And then the Friday, and then the Saturday show, excuse me. That is correct. The Saturday is well, then. So we've got a really big week coming up. It's going to be excellent. Good luck. If people want to check you out on cameo,

we just put that up there moments ago. So people can check you out, perhaps, for the holidays. Yes. I've got Earl with me, you know. Earl's here. She can do it on the spot. And again, thank you so much for coming in. There it is.

There's the cameo. Oh, there I am. Look, I usually do it in my pajamas, so don't expect anything glamorous. Listen, a thousand dollars did I see there? Or was that for a business? One million. No, no, no.

I don't remember what its price. I'll do it. person's discount. Okay, perfect. Thank you so much. Really appreciate it. All the best to you. We will take a quick break.

Say goodbye. I keep calling you Harley, which I, yeah, that's fine. Call me Holly. K-Fave name. Absolutely, yes. I'm sort of not really in the business, but I try to pretend. We'll say goodbye to Harley. Be back to answer the rest of your questions and wrap up the news and notes as my

Canadian flag goes down. Do not go anywhere. All right, back on the program. That was my conversation with Kayla Harrison from our live show in Miami. Hard Rock Cafe. In Miami, right next to the Kasea Center. Go check them out. It's a beautiful spot.

And they were very kind, and I want to do it again there. I want to do another one. Jorge showed up, Kayla showed up, the fans showed up. We had some great banter. You can watch the whole thing up on the channel right now. Shout out. Well done. I think Frank's mad at me.

Yeah, what do you mean by Mouthy? I mean, sometimes you get a little mouthy. Mouthey, like when you were moving your lips while you were trying to do the ventriloquism? Frank, don't he's such a nilly-nilly, okay? I just can't, have all the things you could have said, mouthy, that hurts. You got to change the voice a little bit when you do it. Yeah, it's your voice to your voice. It is, you know what?

On the spot, it's tough. Frank, don't see such a nilly-nilly. Oh, so now all of a sudden, who's this supposed to be beatty? Frank, stop getting your hurties in a hunch, you little, Shana have a gun. $20 million for the kitchen scrap. Yeah. Wow.

Wow. It's like. And Frank, we all know you don't kiss your horses, us. You just kiss your vonsors. Jesus. Is it not the holiday season? It was the buddy. It was not me.

It was the buddy. Let me get a hold of that buddy. The mouth is not moving at all on the My Buddy doll. It's tough. It is tough. I actually used to have a My Buddy doll. It was a blonde one. I used to have bleached blonde hair when I was younger.

My older brother showed me Chuckie. I got so scared of it. I've forced my parents to throw it away. Was that like a wish version of my buddy? No, they had blonde version. They had blonde versions? I just remember this one, like this specific one. This guy's a legend right here.

This was like back in the days where you'd watch Saturday morning cartoons and you'd see something on TV and just beg your parents to get it because you thought it was the cool. I mean, like, even, I haven't touched one of these. It's got to be like 30 years. No, it's got to be more than 30 years. I'm 43. I haven't touched one of these. So like I feel the nostalgia.

Do you know what of mine? buddy is, right? Do you see? Yes, I just said that I own... Well, I know that you had, like, I know that you had the blonde one. I don't know what it was called. Was it called like, you know... You just called me broke for having a blonde my buddy. I'm just saying.

I don't say broke, I'm just saying. Sometimes, you know, they had the blonde version for sure. You know what? Blonde... The blonde buddy was pretty prolific. Oh, I see a blonde. Ninety-one. Oh, okay.

Prolific might be a stretch. maybe it was after your time rare 1986 blonde my buddy wow how about that actually had the exclusive bro you had the exclusive damn

all right well that was a lot of fun hope you enjoy what about Tony Chivani doing stand-up comedy who knew I'm there if we can get tickets

I'm there by the way I knew he was a comedian when he called me a slap dick that one time the son of uh in any event um

I do like like Tony Chavani. I don't have any hard feelings towards them. Frankie, do we have any super chats? You might have one or two. Can you please stop here? By the way, that was our last live interview. Unless there's breaking news between now and December 31st, that was our last live interview of 2025. How about that? How many things, how many interviews do you think we've had in the year 2025? What do you say? I think Rick knows. No. Rick, do you know? Over 500. for sure live interviews Rick how many

I see okay and is that including today I think it's over 500 Who's to check All right Rick Thanks for your contribution You know Jake Fall really Fesson taught me a lot

I'm not interested in seeing Jake Paul Oh Oh Jake Paul He's just not interesting to you at this point You know guys Buddy he's not here to defend himself No this is him calling in for outside He's just not that good, you know?

I'm just not interested in his career. You know what I are interested in? You know who is here? Ask I BMW. Oh, okay, yeah. Says, hit that GFL sound again, bro. Ariel. Swear to God.

I swear to F in God. I don't mind if I know it's coming. Mysterious Mr. J. By the way, can I just say, did you guys realize that the GFL draft was almost exactly a year ago, January of 2025? yeah 2025 isn't that crazy

it's been a long year man it feels like it's been three years since that right but then in a weird way it feels like it was yesterday I don't I don't really know how to put my finger on it okay what else Frankie what else Mysterious Mr. J 921 says I won my first MME fight by second round sub this past Saturday thank you guys for the great content all year

your show helped motivate me during camp shout out that's awesome yeah congratulations Well done. What else, Frankie? What else? Leblanc 8073 says, Hi, Ariel.

Ever thought about inviting long neck for an in-studio interview? We need that neck to nose face off. First of all, if it's blonde like French, you don't pronounce the C. You just can't help yourself. And who's long neck? I looked it up. It seems like some influencer with a very long neck. Oh, okay.

Well, we'll work on that. What else, Frankie? What else? Describe in vivid detail how the AJ and I have never been more jealous of another man in my life. Just ask my wife. Well, I asked him a question. The question was, how would you describe that fight, AJ? And he said, well, first, I want to thank everyone. And then he puts his arms or his hands on my shoulders. And he just kind of kept them there. A couple of movements here and there.

I don't know. Like, G.C., what did you make of it? Because some, like, I was talking to someone he was like, oh, he was trying to big brother you. And I was like, no, I just kind of felt like he was comfortable in the moment and happy. What did you think of it? Yeah, I feel like he's typically kind of reflective and in the moment when he's having these post-fight press interviews. So I think that he was just doing that again and he saw a familiar face. You had been there in the lead up to it. It seems like he's grateful, happy on Cloud 9 and he was just taken in the moment. I can't lie. I was dying laughing. Like he was looking through your soul. You said it in the reaction video after I had already said it as well. Like we were on the

same wavelength there. Yeah, he was, I saw the memes where it was like, get you a girl that looks at you like, AJ looks at Helwani. Yo, I have to say, there's a moment there when he's talking and I'm thinking to myself, how did this happen? How is this happening? Why is this happening? How did I get this, you know, this lucky?

How did this moment materialize? It was just all very weird. It's Anthony Joshua. It's not just some like regular Joe Schmo fight. It's Anthony freaking Joshua staring into my soul, arms on me, on Netflix. The ring is collapsing. He just knocked out Jake Paul. The whole thing was wild. And he's sweating all over my new suit. And I loved every minute of it. I absolutely loved every minute of it. It was great. And I think some people are clowning on me for saying that, but it was really a career highlight. I've always wanted to be in the ring interviewing the big fighters after the big fights. And so for that to be not your typical post-fight in-ring interview, for it to be that kind of interview and be that memorable was really, really special. I enjoyed it. I'm sorry. When clowning is a hater, it was a big moment you should soak it in. Also, you've mentioned it, and Eddie Hearn mentioned it, the discovery of American women to Anthony Joshua.

Crazy, right? I mean, we were with one of our coworkers, Nicole, and she saw the face off for the first time, and she was like, oh, my God, that's Anthony Joshua. And I was like, yeah, the 6'5 guy, she was enamored, as many other women have been. Every time I went on threads, on X, on Instagram, it was some woman just absolutely glazing Anthony Joshua. Could you imagine what this guy's like? But it is true. They really, you know, I know there was some talk of the RICO fight, and let's see if that materializes and him fighting in Saudi. They really need to consider bringing him over to America more because, you know, he's not going to fight forever.

And clearly there's something there. He is exclusive to DeZone. But if I'm Netflix, I'm like, let us make this. Tyson Fury fight and let us put it on Netflix and just watch all the people tune in. Like this was the perfect appetizer to the Fury fight. And now, dare I say, AJ becomes the A-side, right? Anthony Joshua is way more beloved in America than Tyson Fury because of what transpired on Friday.

And I don't know if that was always going to be the case. Speaking of which, a lot of people are asking me, who did it better? Me and AJ, AJ and I, or Tom and Sergey back in the day, what do you think? What do you think? I mean... The main difference here is AJ is going double-handed. Sergei and Tom are each doing one.

You're not doing it back to Anthony? Sure. I can't think of a proper comparison for this one. It's pretty close, though. Oh, it's very close, especially the fact that you guys are in a ring as well. It almost looks as if your hands

should have been around his waist and you guys were at a dance. That would have been too far. A prom dance. That would have been too far. Has Eddie ever been happier than in this photo? Can we show it again? Like, look at this match.

I mean, you're right. You're right. Cheek to cheek. It is amazing. There was a picture of a meme I saw of Eddie being compared to Fred from Scooby-Doo with the, you know, the Union Jack around his neck. What do you guys think? Is that a fair comparison? Like a miniature flag?

I thought it was an ascot at first. Yeah. I mean, with the white shirt, it's not a bad shout. It's not a bad shout. Eddie Hearn, somehow even in December, has the sun. A perfect hand. By the way, we showed some of the highlights when we were talking to Eddie, but I just want to go over them.

Could we go over them real quickly? Here are some of the highlights that we're allowed to show from the fight on Friday, the Jake Paul versus Anthony Joshua highlights. If we have any of these, yeah, here we go. Here's some, you know, cracks them there, got cracked back while trying to throw the overhand. Here's one of the single legs. Well, I don't know what it was, really. By the way, shout out to Christina Poncher.

I thought she did a marvelous job. That was a significant moment. It looked like Jake may have rolled his ankle or tweaked something. And you could tell he was very, very tired. The ring was massive, no doubt about it. And again, some of these shots, that one was ruled the knockdown. And here's the finishing blow. That punch right there could have ended it.

He's absolutely insane for doing that in response. here's the knockout blow, that shot. And it's wild. When they showed the replay, that moment when he's, you know, he's shaking his head. Yeah, right here, he's like, wow, I can't believe that. Like, look at that look on his face. Whoa. I don't know if I've ever seen someone get knocked out and got his jaw broken and have that kind of reaction.

Shout out to Christina Pontcher. I thought she did a great job. David Hay did a great job as well. It's not easy in those booths to have three people work together who have never worked together before like HBO boxing showtime NBA there's continuity there's camaraderie there's there's like some sort of unity between the booth and there really wasn't and I thought they did a really really nice job so shout out to them uh Anderson Silva by the way we haven't really talked much about him but he is uh he is an amazing talent 50 years young look at this look at this

look at this right here this is second round after he was booed a little bit in the first round but I think he was just downloading the Intel. Uppercut. Man, 50 years young to be doing this. And I know Tyrant took the fight on short notice, and I know he's not a traditional boxer, but that is a 50-year-old man knocking out a UFC legend. The part that was probably most impressive about it,

could we go to the very beginning of this clip, just back to the very beginning. The touching of the ankle. the fake leg kick is something that I've never quite seen before and then he kind of level changes and then he nails him with the uppercut Anderson Silva is unbelievable he really is he is timeless he said afterwards that he wants to fight Chris Weidman bang

someone posted a photo of Anderson and I on Friday and Anderson and I from UFC 126 which I do believe was in 2011 when we were dancing yeah shout out to Abe 209 fights. Look at us. Have an aged a day. So what is that? It's almost 15 years ago, believe it or not. And yeah, I feel some sort of way when I see Anderson. He is, he is unbelievable. And he also revealed he's studying to become a Beverly Hills cop. Beverly Hills Cop 5, perhaps for Anderson. I stole that from Jedi. What else, Frankie? What else?

It's a great franchise. glad you asked we have another chat here saying saying this is bringing this eyes to boxing is like people saying milk boys are being eyes to MMA not true I am proud of you getting the job from what I have saw

Rick take as the people's take surviving does not equal fighting That is an awful comparison If you want to say surviving is a fighting That's one thing But the first like knuck boys don't fight That's the thing Why is there such an aversion

To just giving the guy props We're not talking about if he's good or bad he makes the walk, he steps into the ring, and he's fighting people. The knellk boys aren't fighting anyone. What are you talking about? It's completely, it's like, I do think that there is something to the fact that people can't quite make out how this guy who we saw grow up on Vine, on Disney channel, on YouTube, how he's turned into this, and he has actually the Cajonis to do this, because for the longest time, we convinced ourselves that he doesn't have the Cajonis, that he's a con man, and now he's actually doing it, so you have to come up

with some sort of fa cocked a reason as to not give him his props. You could not like him. You could say that the fighting style sucks. You can call him a novice. You can call him X, Y, and Z. But he's a fighter. He is an actual fighter.

He steps through the ropes and he fights other people and he gets cracked in the face. So no, it is not comparing it to the Nalk Boys. And I also think you're a thousand percent wrong if you say that he is bad for boxing. How could he be bad for boxing? Ask Anderson, Sylvan, and Tyrone Woodley

if he's bad for boxing. Ask Lela Baudouin and Alicia Baumgartner if he's bad for boxing. Ask Jamal Harvey if he's bad for boxing. Ask Sharnika Johnson and Yocastavaya if he's bad for boxing or Kino Marley. Is he bad for boxing? No. How can he be bad for boxing if he's giving all of these other boxers an opportunity?

And by the way, speaking of Kino Marley, it's crazy how these things kind of like stumble on your feed. I saw one clip go viral because he wanted to say one last thing in the interview with me. And in my ear, I was told one question. All right? Because they wanted to keep it moving because those are the prelims. we have to get to the main card. I asked him two. I snuck in a second. So then when he goes, I have one more thing. I'm going to get my head cut off. I'm going to get my head cut off if I give him the mic for a third time. And so you have to understand, there's people

talking your ear. They have a show to produce. I have to stick to the rundown. If I start going rogue with a live microphone and asking questions when they're telling me to rap, I'm out. So it was a weird thing, but it's not me. I'm not the one who's trying to like, and no one in the usually you say goodbye you say thank you you say congratulations that's that and he wanted to have one more question and and I feel bad about it obviously but I wasn't trying to be a dick I wasn't trying to clown him I was trying to mock him I just didn't really know what to do like and I could see that we were still on on on the screen so I was like I don't even know if the mic is working at that point it's tough it is tough but uh it's tough on the Jake Paul thing I actually don't think like

milk boys or any of those like comparisons but I actually think he's kind of like pro wrestling in the sense that people don't want to admit that they watch it and then they watch it but it's this kind of like there's almost like a shame to it that they don't want to admit that they have participated in this or watch it or feel like it's for kids or whatever this is but I agree with you that the lack of kind of understanding or the lack of admission about what Jake Paul has done is bizarre

like there is a clear effort to say like he hasn't done anything or he's bad for this or yada yada yada and i don't i don't quite understand it it is baffling to me in the way that the wrestling one is one thing that warm my heart was al faran our boy oh yeah that was great getting the spotlight at the post fight interview that was tremendous excuse me at the post fight press conference he went on this whole thing and you know it was great about it eddie and a j were like egging him on eddie and a j were asking him to play the hits if you missed it here's a snippet Eddie and AJ asking the comedian Alpharan who's been on the show before to do his best Tyson and John Fury

and as you can see they were loving every single second of it Tyson what are you saying about maybe going straight into the fight with no warmer well I'll tell you what I'll do it right now 100% back into that Casillas Center put that ring together and put me in with him 100% and what's John Fury saying how's he feeling about the fight I tell you what know it. We all know it. Everyone here in America knows it. It's the biggest fight in boxing. Let's do it. 100%.

It's so damn good. He really nailed it in a big spot. My one complaint, no Katie Taylor. Yeah, you would think maybe Eddie could have teed him up. Yeah. But God, he is so talented with that. So good. So good. And AJ was loving it. Again, I think AJ throughout his career has been like perfectly crafted. What's so funny? Conner's late just like Went out or something Oh what happened what happened I don't know man I'm in the base

It's tough I got a mother motion censored He AJ's been so perfectly PR crafted And so to see him this week Kind of shine on his own I thought was really really great

Speaking of Tyson Fury He did Take some issue With some of the things AJ said before the fight He didn't like that AJ said like look If I want to kill him

I could kill him and Tyson went on social media and said basically, hey, AJ, you're a classless loser for saying something like this in case you missed it. Here's what he had to say. You know what? He's a little bit longer the tooth to be talking shite like that. It's 37-year-old at the end of his career fighting a YouTuber, a Disney channel guy,

who Tommy B, and now he's talking about killing him and all that to try and sell, please. Barking up the wrong tree, idiot. Here's a fun fact. If I ever come across you bum I'm knocking you dead spark out I ain't a YouTuber Or I'm on half your size I am him The man

You're a classless loser Coming off A 15 months Knockout defeat to a local lad Imagine if someone from Morecam knocked me out You big bum Useless Dosser Get up

And I can't wait if Jake Paul knocks your spark out You big bum Well that didn't happen I do love the I do love the comparison To getting knocked out by Daniel Dubois local because of London to someone who's from Markham

I mean it's not quite you know the same doesn't quite produce the same type of talent here's the thing that fight needs to happen it should happen and it's mind-blowing that they would do this warm-up thing when it's right there it's right there make the fight happen everyone wants to see it we've been doing this dance for I don't even know the better part of five years if not more enough is enough what's that has to happen put it put it at Wembley please

Wembley and no tune up Need it Come on guys But Eddie said Tyson wants to take a fight And so Joshua has to stay busy In the meantime too Tyson is known for this

Because Tyson retires And then he needs one fight And then he goes into the big fight This is just the The Tyson Fury cycle Here we go again Oh what else What else?

Oh go ahead It looks like he's in like a Caravan Like getting ready to go Like whitewater rafting or something It looks like he's dropping the kids off at school or something Right

There's like kids talking behind him and laughing. It's a weird place. If you see one of the kids, they have like their head up against the window, like they couldn't be bothered. Like, oh, there's dad going again, telling someone who's going to the center room. We don't care. We don't care. Yep.

We don't care. What else, Frankie? What else? Sensity Los says, I doubt Paul boxes again. He's mentioned M.A. I doubt he does box again. I'm not saying he will never do MMA, but no, he's got something with... Wait. You said you doubt he would.

will box again? Oh, did I say that? I don't know. I mean to say, like, no, I, I doubt he doesn't. Okay, got it. Two negatives? Yeah. He will box again, yeah. I agree. I hope he does MMA, though. At some point, I'm not saying it has to be next. I want to see in MMA. Against Usik? What? Well, that's the one. Hell no. Nate Diaz. Oh, wow. Okay. I say that because Usik called him out in an MMA. I don't want to see Usik do anything of the sort. What's harder for him?

A.J. in boxing or Nate Diaz in M.A.? AJ and boxing. What's harder for him? Because I think Nate would probably throw hands with him. Like, I don't think Nate would be gung-ho about, like, trying to take him down. So I think it'd be a boxing match, essentially, with four-ounce gloves. Could he beat Ussick and MMA? Yes.

I don't think it's likely, but yes, he could. He definitely could. In the way that I had no... He would never have beaten Anthony Joshua in 10... They could run that fight for eternity every single day. He will never beat Anthony Joshua in that fight. He could conceivably beat Ussick in MMA. I say no.

What if he just shot like a double leg on Usoc? Is he that much better than... Well, we've seen some of his take-down skills, right? I mean, yeah, I guess he wasn't able to pull off any against stage yet. Oh, yeah, you're right. I mean, he was kind of like, you know, 40 pounds bigger than him. Yes. What else, Frankie? What else? If Lopez wins the title, Murphy is getting skipped again

because they will make Lopez versus Rodriguez in Mexico. Oh, yeah. I wonder why this gentleman wrote this today. It's not like we were talking about any of those people. But yeah, no, it's possible. I hope it doesn't happen, but yes, it is possible. That is a weird one. I mean, I hope they do Lorone Murphy versus Mosov in London in March. And hopefully the winner of that fight gets a title shot.

I think that's the most fair thing. What else, Frankie? What else? You don't want to know, G.C., what's the story behind your right ring finger? It's actually my right middle finger. Jammed it in a door, real, real bad. If you open up my window in my apartment, it kind of creates a wind tunnel, and I was closing the door, and it closed behind me right on the lock.

Yeah, jammed it bad. This is like a month in now. I don't know if I'm going to have to heat up a needle and pop this sucker, but one of the worst pains I've experienced in years. I was, I was writhing in pain. I was legitimately screaming on the ground. I can't believe how bad just like your nail can hurt. It was, it was unimaginable.

I've been there before. It's awful. It will fall off. And then it'll be fun to kind of play with it when it falls off. I'm just going to straight up have zero nail here. No, no, no. By the time it falls off, there will be another one kind of like halfway through that will grow.

And then before you know it, it will just pop up. It will just be like. It's a very odd look though, yes. It will be like a sort of like little nubbin. And then it will just kind of grow. So right now, the new one is growing. What's that? Said he thinks he has questions from people now.

Just wait until you have. Although I will say. Everyone thinks that I painted it. Everyone keeps asking about it. You know, it's 20-25. Sometimes it doesn't fall off and you might need to do the... No, no. If you need help.

It's happened to be a lot. It's happened to me a lot, but I also have had ones that stayed and then the blood kind of stayed underneath and you got to extract. I actually couldn't sleep the night that it happened. I almost went to the ER. That's how bad it was there. Yeah, that's when you pop it. Now it's just dried up.

Anyway, Merry Christmas, y'all. Hey. Broccoli heads are the worst hairstyles ever. I'm ashamed of my generation, comma, jinsey. I try to... It's a bit of a broccoli head. I try to steer my kids away from it. Uh-oh.

That's interesting. Why don't you show us your haircut, Frank? Go ahead. Yeah, it's right here. And shout out to Nick for filling in for us. an OG of the Helwani show from way back in the Vox days shout out to Andy as well

who's not here with us but Nick's sliding right in like he's riding a bike in 2018 or 17 maybe 16 even perhaps it's been that long Yeah Frank you were just in your father's nutsack when he was doing the show back then

Better there than Never mind all right That was good Frank I was thinking that I needs a 99% Thank you fool of shit my guy dropped well put it in the drum wait what is that i don't even know what is he referring to

oh oh i think andre said 99% think you full of shit my guy fucking and i like the big bang boom i i love the big bang boom bomb he's incredible and what else frankie what else uh happy holidays frank frank favorite da

what is that a digital audio workstation oh wow my all time i'm sorry we're moving on no no no i just what a what a What a dorky question. He's a big Volvo fan, too. Go ahead, Frankie.

Okay, so my favorite is Reaper. I use Pro Tools daily for this show, and then when I'm mastering, I use Sequoia. But Reaper, Sequoia, then Pro Tools. All right. Lastly, what's your favorite and least favorite Christmas movie? Home alone. Wait, is that the last one, or are they prematurely lasteeing? Yeah, how would they know?

Well, they have sent in messages before this one. Are you guys not paying attention? No, I know. This is also the last one. This is the last one. Okay, so they did hit the last one. Good for them. I would say Home Alone and then worse.

I mean, there's a million worse. I want to see the Hallmark Buffalo Bills one with Mario Lopez, but I haven't come around to it yet. I don't know. How do you even like, how do you even? Christmas story. Christmas story is the worst or the best? No. The worst.

That's my least favorite one. Frank, we're trying to do worse right now. That's your favorite. Is Christmas, who's in Christmas story? I don't know anything. A little kid with the glasses. Shoot your eye out. It was a Santa Claus in it.

Is that the one where, no, that's a, it's a wonderful life, the one that they always play. The kid gets his, Christmas story gets a lot of heavy rotation too, though. Too much rotation. Oh, yeah. On T and T or whatever it was.

Yes, they play it all year. It used to hit hard. Now it doesn't. So it went from favorite to least favorite. Christmas vacation, number one. Oh, wow. More than Home Alone. I do like Home Alone, but Christmas

vacation. That's with Chevy Chase. Yeah. Are you asking? What's that? Are you saying one or two to Christmas vacation

or to Home Alone, Frank? Home Alone. I love too, but the OG is the best one. I am with it. I'm OG. I think actually Home Alone 2 gets a little weird

like with the Central Park turtle doves and the... Oh, that's the best. Or like the dad is yelling all the way from the apartment you can hear it in Central Park at the end. I thought what got weird was when we turned into

hitting people in the head with bricks and flamethrowers and shit. It was no longer like pranks with a paint can or like little matchbox cars. It's like, no, we're going to kill you. We're going to actually kill you. Listen, you come for the king,

you best not miss. I do appreciate the questions. There's just a couple other things that I wanted to get to before we go. A slew of UFC 326 fights have been announced and it's shaping up to be a really, really good card. Kind of flew under the radar, I think, because of all the madness over the

weekend. It happened later in the week. UFC 327, no, excuse me, 326, March 7th in Las Vegas, Kyle Bahalio versus Reneer to Ritter, that's a really important fight. Both guys coming off tough losses. I mean, there's a world where this fight was either happening for the belt or was a number one contender fight, not that long ago. So big bounce back fight for both guys, Cairo versus RDR. Paolo Costa versus Bruno Ferreira? That's a really nice fight as well.

Costa looking to go in a bit of a run. Some when was it in July in New Orleans? We also have our old friend Henato Boycano finally going up against

Brian Ortega. The finally isn't because he's finally fighting Brian Ortega it's because Brian Ortega is finally moving up to 155. Long been in the work. It's about time.

Very important fight at 55. Important, maybe crossroads fight for Ortega. Important fight for Mercano. Looking to bounce back after a tough year. Very good fight as well. I like this one. And I believe there is one more to discuss. Yeah.

Chow Long against Cody Garbrandt at 135 pounds. Nice little card. Main event for that card, of course, is the BMF title fight between one Max Holloway champion. And Charles Dubronk's Olivera, two legends of the game going toe to toe for the second time in when was the first fight. We've talked about this a million times well over a decade ago, that's for sure. Speaking of legends, what about Tony Ferguson winning that middleweight title over in Dubai against the mechanic? The mechanic had no business being in the ring with Al Kukui. Great win for him, winning that middleweight title at the misfits card.

How would you guys describe Andrew Tate's performance? And is it fair to say, guys, legitimately, is it fair to say that of all the discussions we've had over this topic over the course of the year and throughout our lives as combat sports, whatever you want to call us, pundits, journalists, whatever the hell it is you want to call us? Is it fair to say that the greatest fraud check of all time happened on Saturday when Andrew Tate lost to Chase the Moore? it's it's an interesting philosophical question because if you wrap in the persona part of it then yes then yes like that's pretty this might be the quintessential fraud check because his whole thing is yes alpha male the man commenting on other fighters and the best part is the cope and look I have respect for everyone who steps through the ropes I don't care if it's misfits amateur pro you're a veteran you're a rookie but him

trying to break it down like what he did against Chase and what Jake did against Anthony are two of the same things is hilarious to me like to describe Chase in the same breath with all due respect as Anthony freaking Joshua like you went in there against Chase the Moore Misfits champion Jake went in there against Anthony Joshua these two things are not like each other completely not like each other it was he should have never taken this fight If there was any sort of doubt about him winning, he should have never taken this fight. And now he's going online and he's doing the baby face thing of like, you have to live. And I'd rather try and fail.

No, that's not who you are. Your persona has nothing to do with failure. Your persona is about winning. Your persona is about achieving wealth and success. Your persona is not about trying. And hey, if you don't succeed, you gave it the old college try. That is the antithesis of everything that you have spewed over the past five or so years. So, miss me would be like, I'm proud of myself for trying.

And I went in there against the champion who's really good. No, you didn't. You went in there and you looked awful and you failed. And so just be honest about that. Because you have spewed all kinds of venom over the past five years about how you are the best and how you are the alpha male and how everyone else is a step below and all this other nonsense. and then you go out and fight like why would you do that

unless he really needs the money I am shocked that he did that knowing that the fight could turn out like that I am shocked that he did that I'm truly shocked that he did that I'm shocked that it wasn't an easier opponent is what I'm shocked about like I'm shocked that

it wasn't just somebody who really was a cupcake right total yeah a total can't don't get me wrong I don't think Chase Damore is like something to write home about but he at least has a pulse and he's big and he can kind of hit pretty hard. Like, I'm surprised it wasn't just cupcake number five, you know, they pick some dude out of the crowd and just throw them in there. I do agree with you that like it feels like a little bit of a miscalculation in terms of that. And also like, you would think that there would be a reckoning

due to what the commentary has been. But I don't know that anybody's going to really hold them accountable. I feel like the, I'm the man in the arena. I gave it a shot. It's not about, you know, this it's get up you know fall down uh eight times get up nine or whatever the dwayne way nonsense is like i think that will kind of work actually i don't think there's going to be any accountability on it like i don't think people are going to be like oh man he was the top g but now he's not anymore i think his fans will still be his fans honestly i think this was a misstep yeah i mean like the the stick kind of kind of doesn't work when you go out there and you lose to a chase them more like he posts the video of like i sparred 50 guys in one day and i knocked them all out and it's

just like, that's, it's all like a genuine question. You guys are saying like it's not going to work. I don't, I don't think that's true because the only people it worked on are the same people who this is going to work on, right? The initial thing, the initial cell of like, I'm this alpha male apex predator, yada, yada, yada, yada. Like, there's people who have seen him kickbox many years ago, myself included and many others who know that that's not true, right?

I know that the same way I know Jake Paul is not going to beat Anthony Joshua. I'm aware of enough of combat sports to understand that. the people who believed that and supported that are still going to probably be okay with seeing him lose and go, ah, he's this age, he was this long out of the ring, he's got this going on in his life. I don't think they're really going to, I don't think anybody who is in is going to flip,

and I don't think anybody who is out cares. So I think it's going to be the same. But how do you, how do you market yourself the same way? I tried. I gave it up. Oh, he's trying to do that. Yeah, no, he's trying to do that 100%. I think it'll work.

And it may work, but to me, why? Why did you do it? I do agree. I feel like it was a miscalculation. It should have been a guy with no pulse that you could have just walked in there, knocked him out. His hands would have been at his side and just ride off. You know what I don't get? You know what I don't get?

I mean, clearly, KSI is still a part of misfits. And clearly this was an angle. And fair play, they want to do it. It's fine. I'm not offended by it or anything like that. But if you were doing all this, and I think they were to try to build up to a KSI Andrew Tate fight, right? Sure.

with the CEO spot, give him a freaking can. That's what I'm saying. Chase DeMore is not a well-known commodity to a win over Chase-a-more means anything to the general public. Give him any sort of Gibroni. Have him win, right? Hopefully he would win.

I'm not saying script the fight, work the fight, but I'm saying if you give him a gibroni. And then he calls out KSI, and now you have a quote-unquote big fight on your hands. To have him fight, chase him. And by the way, maybe he's so bad that they thought that he was going to do that to Chase-a-more, and he didn't, clearly.

But he gassed out, I mean, it was just not a good performance. It was not a good performance. And don't you dare compare that performance to Jake performances. I'm sorry. You cannot do that. You are a hater if you're doing that. You have Anthony fucking Joshua standing in front of you. That is not the same as Chase DeMore.

It's not. It just isn't. You have to be cognizant of the fact that he can knock you out into the fifth row. You just do. Chase Amor ain't doing that. And especially when you've been talking, all this shit for the past five, six years, you have to have a better performance like that.

You just do. Your whole persona was built off of being the alpha male, being a man's man who only succeeds, and everything you do turns to gold, filled with wealth in your life and success and riches and all this stuff. And then that's the performance. That to me, if we ever had a fraud check, that was the one. Was it not?

That was the one. I agree with everything you're saying, but I also still feel like, like, how often do we see, I have to be careful how I phrase this and how I word this. How often do we see some people that many people consider to be grifters or not what they claim to be or propped up by this and that? When they stumble, how often do we see the people that supported them come to lift them up as opposed to go, no, you are not what you told me you are? I feel like we see it significantly more. I feel like we see more of them getting bail and excuses made for them

as opposed to the alternative when they do stumble or when something like this happens. He'll still have supporters, but it's just like the stick just doesn't work as well. When you say you're the alpha and you're going to win every single fight, the stick just doesn't work as well when you go in there and have that performance against Chase the Moore. I will say this.

Like, if he didn't have the stick, if he didn't have the prior persona, the way he's handling it is the right way. He showed up, he spoke to the meat, media, he did everything that you're supposed to do after a loss. And I always respect fighters who do that. The problem is you had just told us for the past, how long has he been famous for, five, six years?

You've just, or internet famous. It's been a bit, yeah. Infamous. You've just told us for all this time that you're this guy, and you look nothing like that guy. And this has nothing to do with the stuff he's been accused of, his legal issue. I'm just talking about the persona. I'm just talking about you saying that you are the man,

the alpha male, you're commenting on other fights. all this stuff, and then that's the performance that you put out? I don't know. It's a bad look. Now, he could come back and he can say, hey, I had to dust off some of the rust and the cobwebs and all this shit, and I'm going to look great in the next fight and maybe he does look great. But in the moment, I just thought

it was a bad look. It was a tough look and especially if you're going to try to build up to the KSI fight and do this whole CEO thing, it puts misfits now in a weird spot. I'm still unclear as to why that card was on Rumble and not on DZone, and the only thing that I could think of, and I haven't asked anyone this, but the only thing

I could think of is they didn't want to err an adjutate fight. That's the only thing I could think of. Again, I'm not reporting that that's the case, but it just seems weird because I know Misfits has this deal with DeZone. But anyway, on a positive note, I was very happy for Tony Ferguson. And I do think that he should be in the running for Comeback Fighter of the Year. And speaking of comeback fighter of the year, right now over on Arialawani.substack.com, I have posted a form in which we want you to fill out who you think should win our awards. Again, the awards are on. I screwed something up here, didn't I?

I have the wrong date. January 5th, I will correct that. I copy-paste it from last year, and I forgot to change the date. Last year was January 6th, this year, January 5th. In any event, January 5th, our awards. we've got an incredible amount of categories male fight of the year female knockout fight round submission breakout most improved comeback fighter

comeback fight upset rivalry coach event crowd walkout promo poster photo story feel good moment and there's also some awards that gc gives out there's a social media award as well Frank do you want to do an award like mysterious fighter of the year mysterious fight of the year anything

or maybe another MVP fighter of the year anything like that Yeah, I got a couple of things in the old... In the old hopper? Yeah, exactly. So you just let me and on-air Jordan figure that out. All right. Oh, I like this.

I like this. Wait, so just to be clear, you and On Air Jordan are coming up with your own thing that you're going to then debut on the show. That sounds like a frank endeavor. I don't want to be a part of it. I can't wait to see this. Okay.

I can't wait. I can't wait. We all remember, of course, Ptze's big tux reveal last year. That was tremendous. Absolutely incredible. So I want you to go on there right now. now because I always like to give the the temperature of the people. Go on

there, let us know your picks, and then I'll give you the people's picks when we do the awards. So January 5th, January 5th, we are going to have that show, the Halwani Knows, prestigious Halwani Knows MMA Awards. On January 6th, our old friend Adeola Depot is going to come back

for the second annual Ariel and Adde Boxing Awards. Looking forward to that. And then on January 7th, we will have our 2026 prediction show. We'll make picks. Paramount Plus, White House, all that stuff and more. Paramount Plus, by the way, right now, $59.99 for the essential plan, it's going to, I'm told it's going to go up at some point, but you can lock it in for the year right now if you want and you'll get all the

UFCs. So that's something to look out for. They're going to hike it up at some point, But right now, if you buy for $59.99, you will get the entire year of UFC events. Every single one is going to be on Paramount Plus. Some might air on CBS. It seems to be a little bit up in the air right now. But yeah, that is to come. January 24th. One last thing before we go, we didn't really talk much about the Terrence Crawford retirement.

I do agree with Eddie Hearn, who says that Terrence is going to come back. We don't really know the motive, but it seems like he is still. Still young enough, still successful enough, still thriving, and making the most amount of money of his career, I don't understand why he would walk away now. Especially with his relationship with TKO and Turkey, he is finally catching in. In that retirement announcement, he said that TKO was the first promoter that he's ever had to believe in him. And he's only had one fight with them. I would be very, very surprised if he walks away and never fights again. I'm not saying that his announcement was not genuine

but something is going to pop up like a Jake Paul fight my understanding is he wanted to take that Jake Paul fight timing wasn't ideal he had just fought all this but like there's going to be an opportunity for him to fight and I think he does fight again does anyone disagree

no absolutely he will 100% be back if the offer is made and it's a compelling offer there are no retirements in combat sports one of two things happens one you come back or two nobody wants you to come back those are only two options that's why every time one of these guys goes I'm retired and then they come back a year later it's because there was an offer on the table that somebody was willing to make them that they're still relevant for

terence crawford is an undefeated all-time great that there's still mileage that somebody could get out of them even three to five years from now down the line like we hear about andre war coming out of retirement every so often it it will happen if if the off if the right offer is made 100%. I agree. And also, it doesn't hurt him at all to just walk away right now. Like, there's no looming fight that he needs to take. Go rest, go relax, go enjoy your life. And then when the offer comes, you come back. What was that, G.C.? I was just agreeing with Rick. Combat Sports retirements are typically not real. It's not real. So I think it's real right now. I just don't think it's sticks. But real right now is not real. Well, I mean, it's not a retirement.

Then it's just going on vacation. When Michael Jordan retired, I believe he was sincere in his retirement, but then it didn't stick. You know what I mean? You're talking about the Bulls one, the middle of his career one? Yeah. Yeah, come on, man.

What? I'm retired until I get a better off. You think he really retired to go to baseball and was never coming back? That's what you think? Uh, 1999. Jordan, I think, was done. Oh, 98?

Yeah, yeah. I'm talking about the middle of the career one. Uh, you're subscribing to all the conspiracy theory nonsense. Is it conspiracy? And the 98 one? Yes, I believe Jordan thought he was done. Yes. But I don't, like, the Wizards comeback was kind of.

of just like a treat for the fans. Like I don't consider that like a real like genuine. I'm just saying I do think sometimes people retire and then they have a change of heart. I do think sometimes... Give me an example. I love G.C. sitting in the dark. The light is phenomenal. I appreciate you fighting through this. I cannot wait to get back in the studio for the reason of these lights are like motion activated and now it's getting dark outside, but also

credit to Pizzi, trying to have like a three way and four-way conversation on Zoom while you guys are in person is incredibly difficult. and it's hard to tell when you guys are done talking so I don't know when you jump in and there's a bit of a delay I'm very excited to get back to do. Yes, yes, yes. Now you're fighting through it. You're like A.J. Hawk back there.

Just the smile. I think he comes back. I wouldn't be surprised if it's against Canello, to be honest. I would love to know what prompted him to do it when he did it. It just kind of came out of nowhere on a Tuesday night. It was a great video, by the way. They put together an amazing video. It was really actually like well produced.

and it seemed thoughtful and it didn't seem like it was cobbled together at the last minute like it just seemed like it was nice it was high quality it was it was a good job as far as like

you know actual you know retirement videos and announcements are concerned it was a good job it's a good way for him to get his flowers right now right because he retires

and then everybody can celebrate you when it's not sad right Terence Crawford's retirement is holy shit this guy's one of the best of our generation go out on top second

he doesn't have to worry about holding these belts He doesn't have to worry about the sanctioning bodies. He doesn't have to deal with any of the politics and any of the bullshit. And when it's time to come back, he's so far above belts at this point. It doesn't really matter. It's calculated. It's brilliant.

There's no reason for him to be around right now. Go enjoy your life. And then when that offer comes, he'll be back. The main thing is, the main reason why I think he's coming back, this guy's been scratching and clawing for acceptance, for big paydays, for big fights, for having a promoter who believes in him and pushes him as a superstar. He finally found it. He tasted it.

on the biggest platform in the world and then he's done. Only one man has ever turned it down to my estimation. Who is that? Abib. He's the only one who said, oh, you want to pay me more for my next fight? More than the biggest fight in UFC history? Oh, you want to pay me double, triple, quadruple, whatever?

I don't want it. That's the only guy who's ever done it, in my opinion. And Terence probably made like three, four, five times what, Habib. And now he's going to make even more than that the next time out if somebody can make that offer. Yeah. Plus, now that he's a champ at 168, I mean, he's got opportunities at 68, at 60, at 54, at 47, he's got the pick of the litter. So, yeah, I think he comes back. I'm not sure what the motive is.

Hopefully we'll hear from him soon. There are some fights coming up over the next two weeks, like I said. There's the Naoya Inouye card. It's called Night of the Samurai, and it's happening in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia for some reason. It's featuring a lot of great Japanese fighters, Naoya Inouye up there. The promotional material is always top-notch. Juno Nakatani, and if he wins, we're definitely going to get Nakatani versus Inouye. Both will be 32-0, and that would be incredible.

So this is happening Saturday very early in the morning on DeZone. So check that out. If you are so inclined, there is an Octagon card on December 28th. It's actually a pretty big one for Octagon. Will Flurry against our boy, Martin Boudet. I know G.C. is going to be locked in for that one. You love that one. Are you kidding me?

Got to end the year right. That and then rising on New Year's Eve. And then there it is, Risen on New Year's Eve. Technically, Tuesday at December 30th, it begins at 11 p.m. It bleeds all the way into December 31st with the time difference, the big Risen show, which I think is going to look great, by the way. I think it's going to look really, really good because Risen's had quite the year

and they're on quite the run and then it's a little quiet and then RAF is going to be the next big show with this card headline by Kobe and Luke and I think it should be a headline by Yuel and Bo to be honest at this point. Like that's the best one and then Armin's on it so that is very exciting stuff.

All right, we're out of time. How about this guys? Yeah, can I get a little more? what a year it's in an what a year it's in or the show I'm not sure

I just want to try to keep what was that look at that slow phase what was that what a year it's been an MMA what a year it's been for our show

on crowned dot com the number one on biased sight in combat sports Mysterious Frank brings the quips and laugh the audio technicalities

aren't great but what about on air Jordan and his cooking skills? He became a dad in 2025A New York Rick is holding down the fort. What an E.P. He is. And G.C. is there with all the memes

representing the great state of Georgia. And he is our fearless leader. What an element she brings to the show. But don't forget cameraman Brad and And his beers and dears and bears, oh my, in the snow. Almost had that one. P.T. Carroll is our Irish Firecracker. We love him so very much. And as well, we love Shaheen, Casey, Chuck Ben, and the whole crew over on the site.

I am running out of people to talk about Shout out Pat Spencer and the rest of the crew James Tahoonah, you are the man I will never forget you and I salute you Sorry about that. Sorry about that. All right, we're done. You can play my music. Oh, we're actually playing it. The music's already playing. Okay Thank you all Love you very much Thank you for a great year

More content to come Next week you did it too soon I wasn't quite done But next week We're gonna have We're gonna have We're gonna have a studio tour on Monday Some other content

Coming up But it's gonna be relatively quiet around these parts Thank you for the support An incredible amount of subscribers What were we hoping for at the beginning of the year 350 or so I think we were hoping for 350 I looked back at my goals.

My goals for this year was $3.25. We smoked that. We're at $3.81. $500 coming in 2020. Who is saying that? Who's speaking right now? That is the Man of the Shadows. We did a live show in Miami this past week.

And thank you to everyone who came out. Much, much love. We did our great show, International Fight Week. We've got big plans in 26. Uncrowned films. Three films so far. If you haven't seen, what is Fight Circus, that came out? on Wednesday. Thank you to all who checked it out. Appreciate you all very much. The whole

crew, the dot com, the website, the social media on crown.com, baby. Everyone in this game is biased. Everyone in this game is compromised, but not here. Not here on this show. Not here on this platform. Not here with this crew telling it to you like it is each and every day from not only the world of MMA, but the world of combat sports, MMA, boxing, pro wrestling, BKFC, kickboxing, whatever it is. When it comes to Fista Cuffs, we talk about it. it here, and I'm so proud and honored, and I just absolutely love doing this show and working with these people each and every day. I love the community that we've built. I love everything about it. Feel so blessed, so grateful, so thankful for all of you. It's been a great year filled

with blessings. I wish the same for all of you. Happy New Year. Happy holidays. I hope you get to spend some time with your loved ones. Hope you get to relax, have some eggnog, lift your feet up, And then we'll see you right back here, January 5th for the Halwani Nose Awards. My friends, peace on earth. And peace! I'm out of here.