The Ariel Helwani Show - Kofi & Austin Creed break their silence, Bella Mir, Alex Apodaca, Mayhem Miller, Ronald Humphrey, news & notes

Episode Date: September 1, 2026

Ariel Helwani quickly previews today’s lineup before being joined by The New Level to talk about their recent AEW debut. Kofi and Austin Creed reveal behind-the-scenes details about AEW negotiations, their first time interacting with the rest of the roster, reports of WWE asking them to take a pay cut and the decision to part ways, their continued relationship with Big E, the positive vibes around AEW right now, and more (04:45). Alex Apodaca makes her show debut, discussing the shocking upset of Bella Mir, being a massive underdog in the fight, how she got her start in MMA, her accounting job, getting awarded the UFC contract by Dana White, her reaction to Mir’s mother’s comments on social media, and more (1:05:29). Ronald Humphrey joins on the heels of his impressive win on Contender Series, talking about the experience on the show, as well as the fighting career and death of his father, Abongo, his thoughts on the rest of the UFC welterweight division, including champion Islam Makhachev, his goal of being an all-time great, and more (1:34:36). Jason ‘Mayhem’ Miller is back to discuss his episode of Vice’s Dark Side of the Cage and reflect on his career, overcoming legal troubles, his recent growth and evolution, and his time on Bully Beatdown. He also touches on his coaching career, his girlfriend, how to support fighters after retirement, and more (2:12:00). Bella Mir looks back at her first career loss, detailing the preparation, the fight itself, and the aftermath. She goes into her weight cut, whether there was additional pressure, how she felt during the fight, her mother’s comments after the fight, expectations for her career, whether she has a UFC deal, and more (2:44:03). Ariel announces the return of The Uncrowned Beat, covers recent news items (3:22:03), and then answers your Super Chats (3:31:26).

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Earth. Tuesday, September 1st, 2000, and 26, hello again everyone. I sure hope you're doing well. It is great to be here on a beautiful yet rainy Tuesday afternoon in New York City. Actually, we're playing two today, and I'll tell you more about that later in the show, because we have a lot to get to right off the bat. We have a very, very busy show, a loaded show. A lot discussed yesterday.

We had to recap the wild and wacky world of combat sports. There is more to get into on today's program as we inch closer to another very busy weekend. Coming up, UFC in Paris, once again, Croke Park, all that stuff and more. Can't wait for today's show. A little something for everyone. I'm very excited. Back end of the show, Bella Mir is going to join us for her first interview since losing to Alex Apodaka just some seven days ago at Contender Series. She has not talked since.

She didn't do an interview in the immediate aftermath. She didn't do a post-fite press conference. She put up a couple things on social media. That's it. So a great honor for us to have her on the program. Prior to that, old friend of the show, Jason Mayhem Miller is going to join us. And why is he joining us on this particular Tuesday he is joining us? Because tonight, on Vice, his new episode, episode one of the newest

season of Dark Side of the Cage. We all know about Dark Side of the Ring, critically acclaimed series about the dark side of the world of pro wrestling. They have since started to produce a spinoff about MMA. He is the very first episode of this new season, which premieres tonight on Vice at 9 p.m. Eastern. I've watched it. It's a great episode.

Obviously, we've been covering him for so long. He'll come on the show to talk about all of that and more. Ron Humphrey had a great debut last week on Contender Series. Everyone very excited about his prospects at 170 pounds. We will talk to him about all of that and more. Plus his father, his father fought in Strike Force, the late Abongo Humphrey, talked to him about his journey, getting signed by the UFC now where he goes from here. His post-fight interview with Laura Sanko, that was very memorable.

So we'll get to all of that with Ron Humphrey. I suspect a name that we'll be talking about for a very long time. At about 2.30 at 2 o'clock, Alex Apodak is going to join us. So the woman who beat Bella Mier is going to join us at 2 o'clock to talk about all of the craziness of the last week for her. What has her life been like? Beating Bella, biggest upset, win in the history of contender series, arguably in UFC history, whether you want to consider this UFC, all that and more with Alex Apodaka. I will tell you very quickly, today's program is brought you by our good friends over at Kalshi.

Think of Kalshi as a marketplace where the price on something is basically, the odds of it happening. Sports, politics, whatever's going on. That price moves in real time based on where people are putting their money. So you aren't playing against the house like you would on traditional sports books. You could trade right now $25 with the code Helwani and they add another $25 into your account right away. Trade responsibly, K-A-L-S-H-I. There's the code. There is all the information that you need to know. Okay, I'm rushing through things here, guys, off the top. No time to waste. No time to Dilly Dally, no time to Kibbitts with Frank about my new computer that he helped set up for me.

Late last night at 7 p.m. We're here very, very late. We'll talk about all that and more. Yogurt Gate to come. So much to get to, but we are very, very excited. We are honored and privileged to, I do believe, speak to two individuals for the first time since a lot has happened in their life. Not only this past Sunday, but dating back to this past May as well. They are arguably, the greatest tag team in pro wrestling history, 13-time, WVE tag team champions. They have seen and done it all. And on Sunday at AEW, All in Wembley, they showed up. And to some, if you take part in the internet wrestling world,

to some, it was the worst kept secret in pro wrestling. To others, it was a great surprise. They showed up at the very end of the buy-in show leading into the pay-per-view, and they showed up as a trios team with Swirf Strickland, formerly known as the new day. Now the new level,

Kofi, Austin Creed, formerly known as Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods, they show up and they win the AEW Trio's championship. They are now the Trio's champs, and they will be actually competing tomorrow on Wednesday Night Dynamite in Texas as well,

defending those titles. There's a lot to get into with these two individuals, And so without further ado, let us say hello to Kofi and Austin Creed, who are kind of to join us on this Tuesday afternoon. Fellas, there's the gold right there. Yeah. Just let it feel the cam. Oh, that's nice. That is nice.

It's like riding a bite, Ariel. Yes. But I need to say this before we do anything. Please, please. On these titles, they are incredible. They are glorious. They are beautiful. As you see, there's just, there's one very serious issue that we're going to have to deal with.

Okay. It's, these side plates are the young bucks. Oh, damn. That's a problem. That is a problem. Is that always there? Is that always there? Since I've had them.

Okay. I didn't know if they change it. Like, once you get it, they give you like a new plaque on there. They need to have your, a unicorn, something like that. You know what I'm saying? Something. Anything, anything but that. You know what I mean?

Anything but that. Fair enough. I would agree with you. Guys, thank you so much for this. Huge honor. Really a big deal for us to have you and to be able to say that, you know, we're one of the first people to get a chance to speak to you after all the craziness. I'll start with you, Kofi, if I can. It's been, what, 48 hours or so since you guys debuted. Great scene. The freaking entrance was amazing. The music was amazing. The outfits were amazing.

The match was everything. I mean, felt like a 10 on 10. You're probably still on a high of sorts. You're probably still on Cloud Night. Can you describe this new chapter after 20 years with the same company to start fresh? all the excitement, the new faces. How are you feeling two days later? Still on Cloud 9, man. Still on Cloud 9. It was, you know, like I said in the press conference and I've been saying all day,

it seemed like this weird dream, right, where you see so many talented individuals who I've been watching, many who I hadn't met. But then you had so many people that we used to work with who were there both on the roster as well as behind the scenes and the crew. And everybody's just there having a great time, loving wrestling.

Tony Kahn's there. He's super excited about the show. You know what I mean? High energy, positive vibes. It was amazing. It was amazing. And it really took a long time. I mean, it probably took until the plane ride home yesterday for it to really settle in.

You know, it was such a whirlwind. I mean, you know, you talked about it being like the worst kept secret. But the funny thing is, is it didn't really solidify and become official until less than 20, hours before the show. We didn't sign until less than 24 hours before. So whatever, you know, we know what we wanted.

We know what everybody else wanted, but it wasn't like officially official until very soon before the kickoff time. You know what I'm saying? So, yeah, it was incredible. We've wanted to mix it up

with all these tag teams for a very, very long time. And to see it all come to fruition, it's shit, like I said, just like a, a weird, bizarre dream, but the best dream possible.

Okay, so, Austin, can I ask that video of the two of you shaking hands with Tony? Is that when you actually signed? Because I noticed there was something in your hands, I think like an iPad or something. Is that when you signed? Was that the night before? Yeah, yeah. Wow. So that's actually like a minute and a half video that is very funny to me.

But then when we went to posted, I was like, I wish we would have just laughed for like 30 seconds. So what, okay, so Austin, can I ask you, what took so long? Or was that always the case? Were you always going to sign in person the night before, or were there things that you had to agree upon beforehand? It's just making sure that everything is copacetic for everybody all the way around. And it was a very, very smooth contract negotiations, you know. But being able to actually get on the plane, go to London, see everybody in person

because we had video chatted a few times. But being able to sit down in person and actually talk was incredible. So to do it at the same time to signing the contract, it actually worked out pretty well, I would say. I'll keep, by the way, going back and forth between you two, but I'll always address you so you know who the question is being asked to. So there's no awkward stumbling over each other. So you're there the night before, Kofi. Are you able to see people or is like the big unveiling, if you will, on Sunday? In other words, was that kept very secret?

You didn't really run into anyone? And then only on Sunday, because I heard you guys talk about like seeing people and feeling so welcome. When was the first time that you got to meet your new coworkers? I mean, we got to meet a handful of people the night before. And really, you know, with all the different things going on, obviously huge night, but all in. So a lot of different moving parts. And then we stayed like 40 minutes away.

So everyone was at one hotel. We were like 40 minutes away close to the airport. And so even like flying in, we, well, I flew in and I only had like an hour in the hotel before going right to the building. So, yeah, people just kind of kept, it was a trickling process, right? Like, it seemed like every time we turned the corner, we'd see somebody else that we were, like,

super happy to see, you know? So, yeah, I don't know when the first time it was that we started seeing people, but it was really from the time we got to the building for the contract signing and then just non-stop all the way through to the flight home. Austin, you mentioned a smooth contract negotiation 16 years or so for you with WWE, about 28 years or so with WW for Kofi. You've been a vet, and it's been a long time since you've been a rookie, so to speak.

And so what are those jitters like? What are those feelings like as you're walking around? I'm sure backstage is a little bit different. There's similarities, of course, there's familiar faces. But can you describe what you're feeling as you're sort of the new kid on the block walking around and trying to meet everyone for the first time? and some people, you know, you're meeting again for the first time in a long time. Yeah. Honestly, it's a really crazy feeling.

And we talked about this a bunch. So for me, I was, what I was still in college when I debuted in TNA. And I debuted as Artreuse, like, random friend. And then I had the same exact debut at WWE. And so to be coming in here, having all those years of experience and all those years of time and being able to build what we've built already coming here is very much like being the kid at the new school. but everybody, down to the people that we knew, obviously, down to people that we had never met before, people that we met on like the crew in catering,

anybody. Everyone was so welcoming. And that's such a good feeling to know that you are in a place with good people who just love wrestling and everyone just wants the show to be so good and they were just happy that we were there and we were happy to be there. So I don't know, man, just it felt right.

Looking back on how everything went, Are you happy with everything? Is there anything that you wish you could have done differently? Hmm. I don't think so, man. I wanted us to have that music for so long, and the entrance is something that I've, like, dreamed about like that. So for us to not only be in a place where everybody was so cool, so nice,

but we've got brand new gear. Me and Cove haven't been in the ring in months. To go out at Wembley in front of all those people with everything. I don't know. It just, I don't like to say perfect. because nothing's perfect. There's something going on, and you can always improve.

But that felt perfect, man. It was unbelievable. When's the first time that you spoke to Tony Kahn? I feel like it was, what, maybe like a week before, Kof? He actually dropped off, so he's not here. We're trying to get it back. So you're flying solo with me, at least for now. I know you're usually a tag team, but that's why I didn't say your neck.

Oh, you're splitting us. No, no, I want nothing to do with that. But for now, you're the man. You're the man in charge. Just a week ago, was the first time? I feel like, and I'm bad with time. I'm bad with days. I thought you were going to say like a couple months ago.

No, man. We kept everything very close to the best as far as like what we wanted. When we quit, that's the first time that I've been able to be at home for the summer and actually hanging out with the kids and being dad. And so it kind of worked out perfectly. Like we quit. And then summer I started. So we've been out the house just hanging out with the family.

and like engaging in that part of life, you know? And it's been really fulfilling, really rewarding. But for a while, wrestling wasn't even on the brain, you know, just wanted to take a full break, like a sabbatical, like we're in our PhDs. To the point where like, were you not even watching the business? Were you not watching any other shows? No. Like, did you need a full break?

No, definitely watching. I actually was probably watching more wrestling than I've watched a very long time. Okay. And it felt good to kind of like just reconnect as a fan, because, you know, when you're in it, I think sometimes we can become so, nitpicky's not the word, but you watch it with a different eye, you know, and I kind of forgot what it was to watch wrestling with the eye of just the lens of a fan, you know. And so it was really cool kind of reconnecting with that side of it for me.

And then, like you said, when we were there, and feeling like everybody is connected with that side of them, like throughout the whole company. Like, at one point we're watching the show, and we can hear Tony just screaming because he's so excited about the stuff that's going down in the match he's popping just like we're popping and like oh this is really cool environment

I love that and by the way we do have Kofi back welcome back Kofi we're back we're back you left your guy by himself but he was fine for a couple of minutes he did a great job can I ask you another follow up there to something you just said Austin and and if I can I'd love to go back to the beginning of all

this because I do believe you guys haven't really spoken about it you said the cue word there You said when we quit. And that's a really interesting way of phrasing it. And so can I just ask you bluntly, what happened? We find out on May 2nd, you guys are gone. You're leaving WWE. And then we find out more information that they offered you a pay cut.

You guys said, no, thanks. We're out. And you mutually agreed to part ways. Can we all hear the real story? What happened in early May, late April? So who's that one for? That's for you. Because you said the word quit, so I'll go to you first and give Kofi a chance to catch up.

I don't know, the way that I've been thinking about it is like, it's like personalities, you know, personalities shifted, personalities change, and eventually you feel like you don't want to be in that relationship anymore. You don't feel like it's really helping you grow. And so that's kind of the conversation that Kof and I had when, how do we say this? Kof, you want to give them, how do we give them everything? Give us everything. Give us everything. Hey, yeah. So look, man, we'll be 100% honest and blunt and whatnot. But being vague at the same time.

Yeah, that's not. Don't cave me, K-fabe me, as they said. No, man, it's like, look, man, we just thought that the terms that they wanted us to perform under, were not fair based on what we brought to the table, based on what we're worth, based on the knowledge and, you know, prowess that we have as performers, as wrestlers, what we can give back to the younger people, what we can do from a point of entertainment, being able to go out there and garner a reaction as good guys or bad guys, no matter what the situation, we took a lot of great pride in being Swiss Army knives in the sense of we could,

whatever the situation was, we will make it great and we will make it entertaining. So the terms in which, you know, compensation was definitely a big part for sure. But more so, we just wanted to work, man. Like, we wanted to go out there and showcase our skills and want to showcase our talents. We want to do what we love. You know, we love going out there and messing with the fans. We love going out there and threatening to ground kids, you know what I'm saying? And really garner reactions from people and send them home with incredible memories that they never forget.

You know, people talk about, oh, man, we just had a convention, a GalaxyCon, and someone brought up a pancake that they had. It was like 10 years old. Wow. You know what I'm saying? So, like, we really take a lot of pride in being able to give the people their money's worth and what they came for. So, you know, we wanted to work. And when it came to, like, tag team wrestling, you know, it really wasn't a priority, so to speak. So we look across the pond and we see, you know, the Bucks, we see FTR, we see coping Christian,

we see private party, we see the dogs, we see all these tag teams going out there and having bangers and just sitting there thinking like, man, what if we could be involved with that? You know, they look like they're having so much fun. You watch AW pay-per-views and they're literally, I'm jumping out of my seat like a fan. again, you know what I mean? It excites me to watch that show. So Woods and I were thinking like, hey, man, what if we could be a part of that? What if we could add ourselves into that mix as one of, if not the greatest tag team in the history of this industry, you know, and be a part of something special that they've built over here at AW. And that was really like the determining factor where

it was like, hey, let's go. Let's go and try to do what we love to do. Let's, you know, feel passionate about our craft and feel like we're able to give in a way that is significant that matters, you know, to be able to go out and have bangers every single night. That's what this is supposed to be, you know? You're not supposed to go to work and be frustrated with whatever's going on. You want to be able to, like, have time to have matches that are incredible and entertaining, you know? So that's what the goal was. And four months later, after that, here we are.

You know, manifesting and believing in yourself. To me, like, that's the major message, right? I think, like, this is, you know, being able to walk through the curtain at all end for AEW was, like, super emotional. Like, I'm kind of getting emotional about it now is because we just believed in ourselves, you know? And you would think that when you,

when this is so arrogant to say, but I'm just gonna say it. Please. I'm not, like, I don't mean it in like a cocky way, but when you are, you have the caliber, you have the career that we've had collectively as a group. You feel like, you know what I mean, you would not have to be in a position

where you'd have to like go and bet on yourselves again. But here we were. We found ourselves in that exact position. And as a father, like, if we didn't try to do this, If we didn't follow our hearts, how can I go back and tell my kids to go follow their dreams, you know, to believe in themselves, to not, you know, to block out what people are saying about you or how they feel about you and believe in yourself? Like, if we didn't do that, it's just, I would feel like such a hypocrite. And I know Woods feels the same. I mean, I know Creed feels the same way. That's going to, that's going to take a while. I know. That's going to take a while. I was too. Everyone earlier. At least this time I caught myself. This time I caught myself. You know. We stumble. We don't fall.

I had to change his name in my phone and everything. Like, bro, it's been a process, man. It's, like, really, like, trying to recalculate and recalibrate. But that's also a beautiful part of the whole process, is being able to, like, be reborn in a way. From a career standpoint, from a standpoint of having fun, from the standpoint of the uncertainty of, you know, we were, this is probably the first time that I was unemployed in almost 20 years.

It would have been 20 years that I was with WWE. It would have been 20 years in September, you know? So to face unemployment and to not know, even though everyone knew that we were coming here, we legitimately, we didn't know what the future held. And that was exciting. Betting on yourself is exciting. So I'm glad that we did.

I'm really, really excited that we get to go out there and do what we set our minds to do. And like I was going back to, like I was saying, like manifestation is a real thing. We saw this. We had this vision. We believed in ourselves. We had the affirmations.

every single day doing everything to work towards getting to this point now. So anyone out there who has dreams, again, anything is possible. And it doesn't matter where you are in your career, you can make those dreams happen if you believe in yourself and you keep on pushing. So very long-winded answer to your question. I appreciate it. Can I ask you? We're glad that we did it.

Can I ask you a follow up bluntly? It was reported that you were asked to take a 50% pay cut and that they kind of wanted to wind things down and you would do community stuff in addition to some appearances. Is that all accurate? I don't know exactly what's out there. That's what's out there. Yeah, I will say it was more than 50%. More than a lot of people don't know.

Wow. It was more. But even so, like I said, like the compensation is a big part of it for sure. But again, the bigger part of it is being able to go out and live your dream in the way that you want to live it out and be appreciated for it, you know? So, yeah, we took it all into consideration, and we knew that this was the only path to take, you know, and it was scary at times, like I said,

with the uncertainty and everything, but sometimes you got to do, you just got to go through, you know what I'm saying? You got to face the fear, and you have to keep on going and believe in yourself, and no matter what happens, like you, we feel like we did it on our own terms, terms, right? So whether we would have made it to this point or not, at least we did it

like on our own terms. That was like the main thing. Austin, can I ask you, are you completely blindsided when they come up to you? I mean, you are legends, you're beloved. Did you have a feeling something like this was coming? Or are you completely shocked when it's offered to? Okay, I do like, this, the story is funny. So I met my kids football game and my phone rings and it's a two or three number and I'm like oh why would I not have this number in my phone that's weird I haven't seen two or three number like that I don't have it a long time and then maybe like 15 minutes later my brain goes hmm it's very close to after mania usually there's like releases we're not getting released like we've been we've been helping out we've been pulling our

weight and doing all of the stuff so like that that was a flicker of a thought in my mind that it would be like a negative conversation point two seconds that it was not a great conversation And then I ended up getting a call from Kofi. And he's like, hey, they just called me. And they said this, this, and this. And I was like, how was that the conversation? It doesn't make sense to me because of what we've been able to do, what we're getting at the table, how much we have left to provide for what we believe

the landscape of pro wrestling is. And so called him back and then end up calling Kofi. And that was the first time that we had the conversation. We realized, like, hey, like, we got to. go, right? Like this doesn't work for us. This isn't what we want to be doing. To Kofi's point, like we want to work. We want to be able to have these matches and fulfill these goals and dreams. When we made that decision, for me, I was excited, of course, for myself, but knowing, hey, Kofi's never really been on the independence. Kofi's a WWT 20 years. I was on the Indies.

I was in TNA, so I've been in these other places. So first thing was like, hey, when we feel like wrestling again, we're going to get to do some cool things. I'm not only going to just get to experience those things again from those times when we would sleep in the cars, when we would be driving around all weekend, just packed inside a tiny car, then we're all packed inside a tiny hotel just because we love wrestling.

We're doing it for like a hot dog and gas money, you know? And to see Kofi get the chance to come into that type of environment or just even a different organization or going to wrestle in Japan or Mexico or anything like that anywhere. I get to see Kofi Singh and doing those things for the first time. And I feel like as a tag team wrestler, you really understand. It's about you and it's about your teammate. So you guys get to experience these things together.

And then you're in a tag team division. And everybody has that kind of really, very, very real brotherhood where you're going through this experience of pro wrestling with somebody that you have that bond with. And that flipped everything for me. and it just became so exciting. And then that tells me that we're doing the right thing, right? Maybe like a week or two later,

I'm changing my three-year-old, and he was asking me about wrestling because we were running around, rolling around. And I was telling him, like, oh, you know, this is like me, Kofi, and E's thing. He's like, oh, yeah, just Kofi like to get hit hard? Like, yeah, sure, sometimes, baby. He's like, but E, and I was like, oh, no, E's not wrestling.

you know, we've talked about this. And he was like, why didn't he talk to us? And I was like, what? He goes, why didn't he talk to us? Like, what are you talking about? He's like, you talk to Kofi? I'm like, yeah. He's like, you talk to E?

He's like, but he didn't talk to us. He was remembering at mania because we're at mania. We walked past E on the red carpet and I like pulled my family along. Wow. Yeah. He's three. And I said, I cannot do that. We cannot do that.

We have to go. We, that's not okay. So being able to to leave and be in a space where we will never do that again. Feels awesome. I appreciate that very much. And people talk about wrestling being real or not. obviously the emotion very, very real. And it's tough when it's coming from your child

who doesn't quite understand everything at this point at such a young age. What Kofi had told you on that call, was it the same thing that you had heard from them? Are they telling you guys the same thing or are different things being told to the two of you at separate times? This is for Austin?

They're telling the same thing. Okay. And is E a part of this as well? No. Okay. Yeah, he's on a completely. completely different contract, yeah. And so, Kofi, when you get that call, how long before you say, we got to go?

Is it a day later, that day? How long does that process take? It's kind of funny because this is weird being asked these questions because it feels like it was such a long time ago and everything was a blur. So when I got the call, it was actually my son's birthday. Wow. And we were out celebrating. We don't do a whole lot of technology and screens and all of that. So he wanted a special day.

We went to the retrocade here in Asheville and we were playing video games. And same thing. I got the call. I'm like, why is he calling me right now? You know? So, you know, pick it up. Hello. And then, you know, he says what he says.

And he's like, you know, like offering like the terms and the renegotiation and all that. And like I'd hung up. And the most bizarre feeling was like, like, there were so many like just like the world had just been flipped upside down getting a call that you never thought that you would ever have to like field or like make a decision with um but it's my son's day you know what i'm saying so i can't emotionally like let myself go or fall apart or be pissed off or like be worried or whatever because it's it's his day you know so um i i'm actually out this i was playing uh teckin five uh so soul caliber five excuse me with my with my daughter for the first time you know and that's when we got

to call. I'll never forget that moment. So then I'll call my wife or whatever, but allowed my kids to have their day. And then the next day, he had a lacrosse game. And the next day, we're like back into like our activities and everything. And I hadn't told them yet. So it's like just because something life-changing happens or something devastating might happen in your life doesn't mean that the rest of the world stops. So we had to, you know what I'm saying? Like, had to like keep on, keep on going. So when I called Austin, got it, when I called him, it was pretty soon after that, I think we were probably still at the arcade or maybe it was after. I'm not 100% sure. But it was almost immediately that we knew. Like we kind of have what we call the hive mind where if I'm

thinking one thing, he's also thinking it, he's also thinking it. You know what I mean? Like we're always, always on the same hive mind. So we knew that we couldn't stay. but at the same time you want to do your due diligence, right? And, like, weigh all your options. Am I okay financially? Do I have to take that? You know what I mean? There's, like, so many, is my family going to be okay?

But we have these investments going on over here? Do we have to pull out of here? Do I have to, like, sell a house or do you know what I mean? Like, what do I have to do to be okay? So, like, the next couple days was, like, talking with the financial advisor and making sure we were okay. And then, like, like, Austin was saying, like, once we realized the freedom that we had,

it became very exciting, very, very quickly. Being able to go to these galaxy cons has been amazing because at these, it's almost like, you know, number one, obviously people come there to see all these different celebrities from all over, but they know that we're going to be there and we're able to have extended conversations with people. I would talk with people for like, you know,

10 minutes, 15 minutes at a time. time, you know what I mean? And people are happy to wait because we give them the same experience, but it's a lot more, it just felt a lot more intimate. And then what it also did was allowed people to, you know, it really, the reception in person, but then also online was amazing because we realized that people actually cared, you know, because at the time, we showed up in the arenas and they were telling us how much we sucked and how much they hated us, you know? So I was like, all right, is anybody even going to care or what I? Like, does anybody like realize, like, the reality of what happened?

Can they comprehend? And people came to us and really kind of had our back. So I'm really grateful for our fan base and the people that rocked with us throughout it all. And even at All In, you heard the reception. You've seen the reception online. I think the video of us with Swerve already had over a million views in less than 24 hours, you know.

So I'm like, all right, you know, they care. It's pretty cool. But yeah, man, it's really, really exciting to be free, to be able to, like, dictate your own schedule and have a lot more freedom with regard to your, like, passions and whatever it is that you want to do. Like, we can just go out there and do it. So it's really cool. Austin, do you think the powers that be wanted you guys to take this route? Do you think that they were for, because the reports are that there were a couple of years left on your deals, right? And so you either have to quit or take the really, really bad deal that they're offering you.

Do you think that they were happy that you guys chose the former? Honestly, I don't know. I'm not sure because I don't know who makes the decisions. You know what I mean? So we didn't really have a conversation with anybody, like super, super high up. But again, to that point that Kofi made of now all the creative things that we want to do or that we've thought about doing or tried to do and we're told, no, we can't do them, there's just too many of those on the table to continue to be in that same position.

So the fact that now the world is kind of our oyster and we get to pursue those interests. Like I have a ton of interest obviously in video games. And so now the opportunities that are available to me are, you know, we got them tenfold. You know what I mean? Now that we have all these things, all these irons in the fire, we've been cooking. We've been cooking random meals. just to see if we want to do that, you know. And that type of creative freedom and creative energy is what we've always been chasing

and always been about. I think you can really tell that from the stuff that we've been able to do in wrestling. And just to follow up on that, you said in that process, you didn't speak to any of the higher ups. Surely by the time you made your decision and it was time to leave, you spoke to the higher ups, Austin? Nope. Come on, man.

You didn't get a call. You didn't get a thank you. Didn't get anything. Come on. No. a text no I have a

I mean I don't think you're lying to me but I have a hard time processing that yeah I mean I mean unless did you get one did I if I said something Kofi that I forgot about I got him then no no no no I was just going to speak

to my experience but you know okay yeah go ahead if you're yeah yeah no no no yeah no I was I was gonna say like so I think like sometimes when people do these interviews there's all this like angst and like bitterness and like, oh, these guys, oh, you can't stand. And I don't want to come across as that you're asking the question.

I'm asking. It's on me. Blame me. Blame me. Yeah, no, no. It's totally fine. And I just want to say, like, I'm super grateful for the time that we had there. You know what I mean?

Like, living out my childhood dream, it would have never been possible if it wasn't for WWE. You know what I mean? Like, we had so many great moments as a team, myself individually. Before a new day, like, it's been a dream job, you know? So one of the first things like I did, like I reached out and I said, thank you to a lot of different people for, you know, once the information started to really come out, because I'm super grateful for it. You know what I'm saying? Like, I think everything happens for a reason. And like Austin said before, about doors closing and opening. My mom also says the same thing.

She said, when one door closes, seven doors open. And the opportunities have been amazing. And the universe was just telling us that it was time. It was time to move on to bigger and better. it was time to, you know, to level up, to move to the next level, you know? To move to a new level. Yeah, all right. I get it. I get it. Yeah, how it works.

So that's, you know, like. And I'm not trying to get you to talk negatively about them. I just want to know how it all. So, not just me. The world wants to, you know, because it was such a shocking piece of news that came out. You guys were fixtures and beloved in the company. Of course. And it is your job to ask those questions.

And a lot of people have been asking, we have by design, not been answering any of those questions until this point. So I'm not like getting on you for that. You're doing your job. I'm just saying like I don't want to set the tone that like, oh, like we're so mad and angry and pissed. It is what it is. You know, like it happened and then we move on. You know what I mean?

Like we can't dwell in the past. I would never allow anything to have that kind of power over my emotional psyche that I'm brooding and thinking about like the bad times when 99% of the time there was great. you know, the house that I live in right now, my kids, you know what I mean? Like the life that we live is really, and we wouldn't have been able to do that without WWE. A lot of it is because of that. So super thankful for that part of our career. But again, very, very, very, very excited for the future because we get to continue this wild ride. Like how many people can say that they can, you know, they can do this for this long, you know, on such a grand stage.

We're blessed to be in this position. We're blessed to have these problems. We're blessed to have people care that we lost our jobs. There's people to lose their jobs every day. You know, there's people that were really upset that we were out of work. And they wanted to see us back in work. And now here we are. We get to give them what they want.

You know what I'm saying? So, yeah, man. Yeah, it's all good. It's all love. It's all gravy. And we're happy to embark on the next chapter. Austin, can I ask you, how are you feeling about things maybe over the past year? Was it your idea as a group to turn heel?

And how did you feel as though that was going? It felt like we got a really cool opportunity to tell that story with E being able to be in that segment was incredible. And the thing that I really enjoyed about it is like they kind of just gave us us time to do it. And they let us put it together and bring that to the screen, which I thought was received really well. One thing that really sticks out of my mind is after the segment, we're walking to the back, and there's a girl and a guy, and they both got, like, old new day shirts on, and the girl has tears in her eyes, and she's just looking at me. And I stopped and we're just stared at each other for, like, 10 seconds, and she just starts, like, quietly just tears. And I'm like, oh, this is,

this is wrestling, you know, this type of a level of emotion. So I thought that was awesome. And then we got to do some really cool stuff, you know, right after that, being able to turn and changing the look and, you know, adding the little mohawk and the braids to the action. You know, you can see those up close right there. And then I think that the show just shifted some, you know, a little bit less of tag team stuff on there. And so we don't have, you know, a ton of big tag team stories on the show at that point. So we're not as involved as we wanted to be. And so we're really excited to be able to turn and to be able to do all the stuff and show a new leaf. And we just talk about it like onions.

We have to keep peeling back layers so you can, you know, learn new stuff about yourself and the character and how they vibe with everybody there. But we just, we weren't involved in a bunch of stuff at the time. So being able to focus on tag team wrestling now is an incredible feeling because that's where like the heart and soul. of this is, is tag team wrestling and being able to put that on a pedestal and have everybody who watches wrestling be able to see that this art is so different from whether it's singles or trios or anything like that. They each have their own heartbeat and the one that we have for tag team wrestling and being able to do that with everybody or at AEW is such an exciting thing to be able to come to realization. A few weeks ago, Kofi, you guys posted this amazing short, animated film

if you will, the unicorns breaking free, leaving the circus, all that stuff. And there's one moment that I think, and this is it right here, that I think, you know, really touched a lot of your fans. It's when you look back and there's a unicorn there with his horn broken off. And we all suspected that that was, you know, E watching you guys go out and, you know, take on this new challenge. And so can I ask, what is it like? I don't want to say leaving him behind, but he is now in a different company.

I did see that he wrote a nice comment on Instagram saying if you're two living legends that are undervalued, sometimes you have to go to London. And I suspect that was him. I don't know who the cotton ball is, but he got the scoop right there from E. What is it like, you know, kind of breaking free from him and not being able to go on this new journey without him by your side? Yeah, it's, I mean, it's kind of been this like slow diversion. obviously we talk every single day but in terms of like

you know we went from can you guys hear this lawnmower by the way or not at all not at all okay there's a lawnmower that's like this dude he's right in front out of all that we have a big yard bro I feel you I'm 10 acres right now I feel you and he's over here doing this right in front of the window man I don't hear a thing honestly

okay good good thank you but I hear it's it's aggravating me but it's okay he's doing his job I'm sure it looks great anyway But yeah, man, it's kind of this slow, like, diversion where obviously we were a trio for so long and spent so much time together. And then even when we got put on different shows, now E is over here, we're over here,

and then, you know, he gets hurt. Now we're active wrestlers. He is commentary, so now we're like seeing each other less, and now we get this call. and E's still there. So it really has been this like, like slow, like just diversion. And again, like the universe kind of putting us on different trajectories. And, you know, with that video, it was amazing because so Jonathan Davenport, he is our designer.

I mean, he's another Swiss Army knife who does everything. But it's like so creative and conceptualized this whole thing. and, you know, we got together and when he was telling us about it, it was like, oh my gosh, like this is incredible. And he said he thought of it on like a ride. He was like driving his family, like on vacation,

you know, and he just had this thought. So when he articulated it to us, we were like, oh, my God. And then we kind of start, we all start throwing ideas in the pot in the cauldron. And this is what we came up with. And it's really great because much like the heel turn that we had, you know, the heel turn was a turn that had no violence.

violence, right? Very different because it had no violence. We didn't drop E. We take a lot of pride in being able to use our words and say things that were so like made you react so viscerally that it was almost like an assault, you know? And in the same way, this video, not a single word was used. It was a, it was a, well, not silent film because it had the music, but there was no, there was nothing verbal that was said, but you got exactly with every single shot, you understand. And even the music that was played, it was, so I think we had found it somewhere, but it ended up being the perfect music, and it said, are we close to paradise? And every time it says, are we close to paradise? There's a different aspect in that short, you know? So everything is just so perfectly laid out. You really understand what we're trying to say, and we didn't say anything. So, yeah, to circle back to your question, it's like we've been on different trajectories career-wise for a very long time. And now this is the official like, hey, man, now we're going over here, we're going to be over here, you're going to do your thing over here.

We're always going to be together, you know, but, you know, we've had that conversation in real life, you know. And it's okay. We all want the best for each other. So that, yeah, him just giving us his approval, like it's okay, you know, you guys do your thing. We would do the same exact thing for him and we always want him to have the most success in whatever it is that he does. And he does a lot of things. Yes. And he's doing a great job.

Austin, can I ask you when it was time to talk to people and decide what the next move was going to be, was it only AEW that you spoke to or did you speak to other promotions as well? Well, we talked to AEW. Yeah. Just them. Yeah. How come? So obviously, so we have a lot of friends over there, a lot of good people who said a lot of good things about it. But again, I know we probably sound like broken records to go back to the idea of having such a robust tag division.

And that being what our real focus is in this, it just made a lot of sense to us because watching those matches, watching the stories they get to tell. nobody is really doing it like that for tag team wrestling so it really just makes a lot of sense for us in that respect you didn't want to see what was out there see if there was a big offer from someone in japan another promotion in the u.s that was the place that you wanted to be and you loved everything that you heard yeah that's really really it and like i said it's it's that tag team wrestling aspect like i genuinely believe that this is is the best tag team division possibly ever like that shot at the end or it's it or it's at all in of all the tag teams in the ring. Like that's some of the greatest tag teams, I think,

of our generation. So possibly when we're all done, maybe of all time, you know? And when are we going to get a chance to do something like that? Again, when has anyone ever done that in actuality? So it really feels like for the next, you know, duration tag team wrestling is going to be, they're eating well if they love tag wrestling.

Very clearly, Kofu, you guys are into the tag. team seen over there. I'm wondering what your take was on AEW, even when you were in WW, were you watching it? And in particular now, I'm sure you're watching it even closer and you were there backstage and a part of the show on Sunday. What are they doing right, in your opinion? It seems like they have a lot of positive momentum. That show on Sunday was phenomenal, the entrances, the whole setup. I loved it. The show back in May here in New York was incredible as well. It just seems like they have a lot of momentum right now, a lot of goodwill and vibes surrounding them. be happy, any of the issues in the locker room seem to be gone, at least from what we're hearing.

What are you liking about what they're doing aside from the tag team divisions? Yeah, I just love the positive vibe all around. And I think when you have a group of people who are coming together to put on the best show possible, this is what you get. And it starts at the top. Like, you know, we talk about like what, or Awesome was talking about like Tony and how he's like literally jumping up and down. like a true fan of what is going on after every single match is like true excitement so that's what it starts at the top and that level of passion trickles down you know uh to everybody else and everybody

brings that same level of passion to to their performance you know to the matches and it just when you do it that way like it just it feels different you know what i mean it feels authentic it feels real is real emotion behind it and it's because it is the passion is real and i think to me i mean gosh like omega and osprey wow what incredible incredible athletes being able to tell stories through body language and you know what i mean like they do so many little things uh and you you know you just can't help but to be drawn into the matches and and i think that's really what stands out for me is that I think that people are given freedom to allow their passions to dictate what it is that they do in the ring. You know, there's no shackles, there's no restraints, and we're able to go out and give it all.

You know what I mean? Like, leave it all out on the table and leave it all out in the ring. So it definitely shows, it definitely shows in the way that the feel of the show presents. And, yeah, it just, like, Wembley felt larger than life. Felt larger than life. Awesome. I want to preface this question with the sentiment that I'm not trying to get you to speak, you know, poorly on your previous employer. But I do feel like it's a fair question to ask because you guys were such a big part of WWE pre-TCO and then obviously post-TKO.

Has the company changed? Have the vibes in the company changed? Is it a different place now than the one that you guys started in? Yeah, I think a little bit. But I think that, I don't know if that is specifically, you know, TKO being a part of it, or if that's just kind of the natural evolution of the company, you know what I mean? So I don't think that it's anything like with the people, like the boys in the back, everybody loves wrestling and everybody wants to put on the best show and everybody is working so hard. So I definitely don't think that it is anything to do with, you know, talent at all and talent's desire to go out there and put on the best matches that they can and make the best shows that they can. I think things have just changed some.

You mentioned Kofi's never been on the indie scene before. You obviously started in a different way. As part of this deal, can you do other things in the world of pro wrestling? Are you guys able to go elsewhere and do other things or is it exclusive to AEW for Austin? So we're, we're, uh, we're, uh, yeah. Go ahead. Go ahead. Oh, would you say me or cove?

Uh, I said Austin, but if Kofy wants to say something too, that's fine. No, go. No, no. Uh, yeah, we can, we can jump around and do some other things. So we still have opportunities to go to other places and to wrestle people. So, um, so that fact that tag team wrestling, uh, is all across the world is something that's really exciting to us. Kofi, can you tell us more about that?

Are there like specific places that you're really looking forward to going? Are there places that you've talked to? What can you tell us about that? Yeah, anything and everything. Everything is on the table. I'm still getting used to being able to have so much freedom to be able to, again, just do what we want to do. So, yeah, like Austin said, there's opportunities of plenty.

As you see with a lot of the AW wrestlers, doing all kinds of things on the roster and then internationally as well. I think Khan, I don't remember who the promotion was he was wrestling for, but somewhere in Africa he was wrestling. He was the champion there in Africa somewhere. You know what I mean? So the possibilities are endless. And yeah, it's very exciting to have those opportunities. It seemed at least from my position, Kofi, you guys weren't slowing down. You're still very much in your prime. You may be late 30s, mid-40s. I speak as a 44-year-old. I don't think I'm slowing down. I don't think you guys are slowing down. And so I'm

wondering, though, before you went out there and spoke to AEW and you make this decision, you get a call saying, hey, we want you to take a pay cut, that's got to be a blow to the ego. And you don't know what is out there. If the people like you, if they don't like you, if they're going to give you an offer or not, was there ever a point where you thought, is this how it ends? Am I still as good as I think I am? Like, did you have a crisis of confidence at any point? Before you actually heard from AW and saw clearly they were interested, what was going on internally, mentally, about your place in this business that you devoted so much time to? Yeah, yeah. No, it's a great question. I don't think it was a crisis of confidence per se, but I was like, I did have those questions, like, well, is this it?

Like, do I want to keep doing this? If I would have known that my last match with WWE was going to be the Smackdown before mania, then I might have like taken it in, you know what I'm saying? Or like, you know, it just seemed like an abrupt end when I still have a lot of gas left in the tank. And I knew like that this is not the way that I wanted to. my career to end. So I'm sure that I would have gotten in the ring somewhere to do something with somebody, right, like to not have that. So I could actually have like an actual last match. But like I said, I have a lot of gas in the tank. So yeah, it wasn't really a matter of like

of confidence. I was just sometimes you want to write your story your way. You want it to finish the way that you want, not the way that something. somebody else tells you that it's going to end, you know? So, yeah, there were definitely those. That was one of the many emotions that were swirling around when we got the information. Austin, earlier you told us about that story with your son and the emotion, and you said something that I didn't follow up on that I just wanted to ask you quickly about. You said, we're not going to do that ever again.

Were you referring to being heels or were you referring to something else? Oh, good Lord, no. Okay. No, not at all. That's ridiculous. No. Never be healed again? What are you talking about? Okay, so what were you referring to when you said,

we're not going to do that again? I mean like, like, K-Faib with the family. Got you. Okay. Okay. He's my guy. That's my, that's my family. It's me co-fing-e.

We traveled together for so long. Like, we were spending more time together at points in that than we were with our family because we just weren't home. We were just together. And so the, like, the bond that builds, you know, over time, over car rides or house shows. international trips. Like, these are my legitimate brothers.

Like, that's not a gimmick. And I want to make sure that my son understands that this is how you are with your brother. You don't turn your backs on them. You don't shuffle by them. You give them a hug and talk to them. You ask them how their day is. You see how their life is going. You pay attention to them.

And I'll tell you, it bothered me in the moment. but when that happened, it shook me to my freaking core. So we won't do that again. Do you feel like you're a rookie again, Austin? Do you have jitters for tomorrow, your debut on Dynamite? Do you feel like you have something to prove a chip on your shoulder? How are you going into this new chapter in the early days?

I was thinking that it was like something to prove, but I really don't think it's that. I think it's like, I'm just so excited to be able to have like those like wrestling matches. again, you know, it feels like every single show, that's what there is on the show. It's you are wrestling, you are getting out there and you are getting in it just like it was when I started. So, you know, I was in college and I'm at Fermi University, the Harvard of the South, and I started training wrestling right out of high school. And so I'm going through college while I'm working at a daycare to pay for wrestling school to pay for gas.

And I'm going to shows, you know, three, four days a week for the duration of that four years of college. And that's because I love this. Obviously, the goal was always to become, you know, however high up in wrestling you can, have whatever awesome moments you can. But like we're doing this because we genuinely love doing this, you know? It's like it's kind of like when I found ECW for the first time. And remember how it was like, it's like grimy and kind of dark,

but like everybody in there's like hot, it's sweaty. It's just like gross, but everybody's just loving, watching too cold Scorpio, beat the crap out of somebody. It's two colds, Corpio, Shane Ducks. You know what I mean? Like just watching a good wrestling match. And so I'm excited to be able to be in that type of environment where that's what the standard is. That's what everybody wants in the crowd.

That's what everybody wants in the back. And so it doesn't feel like I'm a rookie, but it does feel like I'm returning to something to the thing that brought me here in the first place. That's a really cool feeling. Kofi, I'll let you guys go in a moment. This has been great. and I really appreciate the time. Can I just ask the name, when does it come to you guys?

New level, the music, the chant is perfect. It all fits. I mean, it really does fit like a perfect glove. When does it hit you guys that this is the new vision for the team? Well, so Austin had the vision. And this is probably like maybe a month and a half into the unemployment phase. And he's like, hey, next time we come out, I've been listening to Aesap Ferd, I want to come out to new level. And, you know, sometimes, like, you throw things out in the universe that are just, like, so far off.

And it's like, ah, that would be great, man. But you don't actually think that it's going to happen. But then again, like, I was saying with the manifestation, we're talking about it, you know, we're going back and forth with names. We have a couple, you know, that are okay, you know. And then when Austin he had brought up a new level again

he's like I'm listening to New Level right now I'm like I go hey wait a minute is that the name is that the one and then Austin's wife was in the background was like yeah I like it I was like yeah

and then you start like visualizing it and you know we knew at that point like that was it and it's just the thing about it was that it's so it's multi-ontontontamination You know, we like a good double or triple entendre out there, you know?

So the new level for us is obviously being gamers going to AEW. This is like the new level to try and conquer, you know. We are the greatest tag team in the history of planet Earth. We are bringing a new level of tag team wrestling to AEW. You know what I'm saying? There's just so many, it's so multifaceted And it just felt right. And like you said, you know, it all was very, very synergistic.

And now with regard to like how we got the actual music was really, really crazy because when we were starting to negotiate the contracts, this is something that Austin says like, yeah, just ask him if we can get a new level as an entrance song. And they're like, oh, yeah, I think we can. Yeah, Tony said he thinks he can do that. I think he can make that work. We're like, what? Okay, so now it's real.

So now we got to figure out, like, how do we make this happen? So I think they had contacted Sony, but they were having some trouble, like, getting in touch with them. So we put in some calls. As a matter of fact, we called E because E is Mr. Hip Hop and Mr. Rap, you know. So we figured he might have a connection, you know, several people in the rap industry. And he's like, hey, who should we talk to to try and see if we can get this music? and he didn't know Asap Ferg, you never met him

but he was like, you know, ask Kaz, who used to be a writer with WWE and now he does everything under the sun, you know, big New York Knicks fan, congratulations, blah,

yeah, but, and then he said, talk to Peter Rosenberg as well. So we contacted Kaz, and then we contacted Rosenberg and we were talking in for a little bit, explain the whole situation to him.

He's like, all right, I'm going to make some calls. He knows Ferd. He's like, I'm going to call for, Ferg, I'll call his manager, and literally within like 20 minutes, he's like, yep, they're down, they're going to talk to the right people, you know, and he linked up Ferg's manager with AEW,

and then we made it happen literally even less than 24 hours where we debut. So again, everything just kind of like happening the way it should. It's a miracle. What started off as like a little thought that Austin had on the treadmill listening to music on his workout ended up coming to reality because he put that into the universe. Wow, wow. I love that. And it's amazing, really. It's unbelievable. One last one for you, Kofi, if I can. Your post when the news was out was amazing. I loved it. I read it on the show. I read it again this morning. Really felt like it was from the heart and Austin's yours as well. I wanted to ask you about one thing

that you wrote here. You said, this wasn't supposed to be a novel. So let me wind it down with some advice. Do your best to live a life without regrets. Control what you can control. Always give it your all and fight hard for what you believe in. Do not ever compromise or accept less than your due when it comes to your worth. And that kind of felt like a nod to what you guys have been through. That line beforehand, living a life without regrets, control what you can control, always give it your all. That part right there. Do you feel like you have heated your own advice? Do you feel like you have done that as well? Do you look back on your last chapter without any regrets, feeling like you did all that you can do, and now you go with a, you know, with a fresh start and

and proud of everything that you've left behind. Absolutely, absolutely. And, you know, a lot of people who no longer work with the company have a lot of bitterness. And I've mentioned this before. And I always try to tell them like, hey, you know, everything happens for a reason and whatnot. But then I think I'm like, man, this is coming from a position of somebody, myself, and Austin and E, who have done it all. Right? So it might be different for some other people, but we have literally done it all. You know, we're longest-raining tag team champs. You know what I mean? Being able to have the number one selling shirt at a WrestleMania outselling the likes of Sina and Orton and the Rock even that year, you know, hosting a WrestleMania, going toe-to-to-to with the rock on the microphone. You know what I'm saying? Like we, there's not really a whole lot that we can be mad at. You know what I'm saying? So yes, yes. because we have adhered by all of those terms that you just read,

we're able to walk away and be fully satisfied, to have our cups be completely filled and have no regrets and have no remorse or have no ill-will towards the company or towards anybody in there, you know what I mean? And it's a great feeling to have. It really is. It's great to be able to walk away from something and to be able to do what it is that you want to do

with a light heart. You know what I'm saying? Like, it just, it's a, the endorphin rush is something special. To be excited about the future is a beautiful thing. Guys, I can't thank you enough for this. Honestly, really appreciate your time. Appreciate you guys coming on and talking about

some of these things that maybe aren't the most fun things to talk about, but a lot of people had some questions, and I appreciate you being as open and honest and transparent as possible. Congratulations on this new chapter, on an incredible debut, on winning the belts. Can't wait to see where this takes you. And just on the fresh start, I see the smiles on your faces, the excitement, it's oozing off the screen.

So very happy for you guys. Congratulations and enjoy every moment. Appreciate you so much, man. Thank you. Take care and all the best. There they are. Kofi, Austin Creed, the new trios champions at AEW, All Elite Wrestling. They'll be competing on Dynamite tomorrow defending those titles against the rascals.

Two really great guys. I would never claim to say that I know them, you know, on a personal. level, but obviously I've been watching them for so many years, part of the greatest, or one of the biggest tag teams in the history of the sports, certainly 13 tag team championships would put them in that discussion. You know how I feel about the Heart Foundation. Shout out to Big Ye, who I have so much respect for, speaks about mental health, speaks about, you know, the trials and tribulations of life very openly, very honestly, from the heart.

And you know that's a topic that I feel very strongly about. In fact, when we relaunched the channel, the very first interview that we did on the Ariel Hawani show, myself, Jordan, TST was with Big E. The second was Pat McAfee. Way back when August, late August of 2021, which is crazy that we're in 2026, exactly five years later. So a wild five years, at least for this channel. Yesterday, actually, by the way, as I'm going on this tangent here, I got a notification that it was 17 years ago yesterday that I started the YouTube channel. And of course, we didn't touch it for like, I probably didn't touch it for 11 years because we used it until like 2010 and then MMA fighting and then ESPN and then back to MMA fighting. Anyway, I'm happy for those guys.

The entrance was great. I'm on a new level. And also the new level. That works as well. It all seems to work. So I'm excited to see what they do. And I'm wishing then nothing about the best. Still to come on the program, Belamir going to join us,

Mayhem Miller going to join us, looking forward to that. Ron Humphrey going to join us, but it was exactly a week ago today that Alex Apodaca shocked the MMA world. She's on Contender Series. It's the Belamir show. It appears to be all set up for her to win,

her family's in attendance, and she's about to go and start her UFC journey and fall in the footsteps of her legendary father, former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir. A funny thing happens along the way. Alex Abidaka comes. in there with a massive smile on her face and just has a great game plan, stuffs a bunch of takedowns, keeps the fight standing, does her thing on the feet, and wins fair and square

via decision. And so now she is in the UFC. She got that contract, and she also owns the biggest upset win in the history of contender series. She's kind enough to join us right here now to talk about it all, looking forward to this very much. Hello, Alex. How are you? Thanks for doing this.

And sorry for keeping you waiting a few minutes there. Oh, no, you're good. I'm good. How are you? doing great. Great to have you on and congratulations on everything that has happened over the past week, but also everything that led to the past week. If I could ask you, what has life been like for you since last Tuesday? How would you describe it? Different. Pretty mind-boggling, right? It's been really busy and a little overwhelming. I'll be honest. In a good way, though, overwhelming sometimes

could be a little much. Okay. No, no, no. Like, I love the chaos. Okay, okay. So this is where I want to be. How long ago did you get this offer to fight Bellamere? And where were you when you got the call? So I was in New Orleans fighting with Fury. And I literally was walking down the stairs of the Fury cage. And Eric, President of Fury, because he's like, come here, Alex.

He asked me to come sit down with him. I go sit down with him. He's like, you want me to put your name in for a contender? I was like, yeah. He's like, it's Bel Amir. I'm like, okay. Did you know who she was? And that was like three weeks before, three or four weeks before the Contender Series fight.

So that was July 25th, I think, or 24th. 24th, yeah. So not that long ago. Did you know who she was? Had you heard of her? Yes. Okay. I knew her because she was, Olivia had called her out.

Do you know who Olivia is? Livierly. She's out of Texas. She's going to be in Contender Series coming up. And I'm friends with Olivia. And Olivia had called her out. And, you know, she's Frank Mir's daughter. And I was like, ooh, big.

call out, you know. Didn't expect me to be fighting her like a month later, but yeah, that's how it happened. Okay. And so surely thereafter, you know, there's the announcement that she's going to be on Contender Series. We get the matchup, the odds come out. Yeah. When you see these odds, are you, well, first of all, do you even see the odds?

Are you someone, do you have any idea how big of an underdog you are? Not before the fight. So, like, I told my coaches in the car. I remember being like, yeah, have you seen the odds? And I said, don't say it right now. Okay. Talk about it separately because I felt like I really don't need to know. Like, this is, the odds are not the fight.

And I just wanted to keep focusing on, like, the fight. So when do you find out after the fight? Yeah, like, when I was getting interviewed by Laura Sanker. No one told you? No. Wow. I'm shocked that, like, no one wrote it to you or said it. Okay, they didn't, like, say the number.

Like, everyone behind, like, in the corner when I was going to go out, they were like, like, I'm betting. my life on you, I got like some DMs that were like, bet my savings on you. And I was like, oh, shit. And then, yeah. And then it was like, I didn't know the actual number. And honestly, to be honest, I don't really know anything about betting. So it probably wouldn't have meant that much to me. But now that you understand that it was so big in her favor and that it's the biggest upset and all that stuff, do you feel like that's crazy? Do you feel offended by that? How do you process that? I feel like people thought I was fighting Frank Mere himself. Like, I don't understand why a women's MMA, they're like putting that much betting on that kind of fight, right? It's women's

MMA, you know, and like, it's Contender Series. And we don't really know that much about the fighters going into Contender Series, you know? So I thought it was just kind of insane. I don't really think it was fair either, you know? Like, if you went and looked at my fights, I was 3 and 1, she was 4 and 0. I think the biggest thing was the name and also that she has mostly finishes and I have decisions. Also, not a bad college wrestling career for her as well. I guess, yeah, I don't want to downgrade her accolades, okay? Like, she's great grappler and wrestler, so I said that before the fight. Like, it isn't just a name.

Like, I was like, I know there's a skill difference there, you know. You have, of course. You have a great demeanor in that it's always very clear that you're smiling. You seem to be in a good mood. You have a positive spin on things, for the most part. I know people go through ups and downs, but I'm wondering, like, when you are at the apex, when you're there and it's Contender Series and Dana White is there, are you handling all of this? Like, it ain't no thing? Are you freaking out inside?

How are you dealing with all of that internally? I think it's just really exciting. I always say, like, I'm pretty much a nightmare up until I'm, like, in the spotlight and there's these, like, big moments happening. And then I'm just, like, really excited and present and happy to be there. What do you mean by a nightmare? Like, I'm really, like, emotional. like an anxious and concerned. I want to make sure I've covered all my bases.

I'm like over-training. You know, I kind of get into like this like a little bit of a, you know, a little overwhelmed feeling before the fight. But then once you get to the venue and all that, yeah, yeah,

then I love it. Then I love it. And then there's like all the people around. There's the other fighters. There's the cut men. And it's just fun at that point. How did you get into MMA? Who introduced you to it?

My dad kind of like he was a big fan of MMA growing up. So he's been like a fan before it was really UFC or anything. And I remember watching it in the living room as a kid. And then I was doing like door-to-door salesman like business to business selling advertisement space. And I walked into a UFC gym was like selling to the manager there. And then I was like watching a promo video of like Ronda Rousey and all these fighter chicks. And I was like, this is kind of sick.

And then I was like, I could do this. you know, and then I just went into cardio cake boxing class. So I was like, I just want to like work out and at least like get in shape. And I started doing that and then I had a moitai coach there that was like, I think you actually could be pretty good at moita. And so I picked a moitai first. Okay. And how long goes this? 2015. Okay. And prior to that, no martial arts experience prior to that.

No, not at all. Were you an athlete? Did you do other? I was a gymnast. I was a gymnast. like that definitely helps right because like that's the gritty sport as well so like being able to use my strength and my agility like all those kind of things kind of translate into like the rest of the sports i feel like so you said that that was around 2015 or so your your amateur debut

according to tapology is 2021 yes so what are you doing in those six years Okay, so I was just doing cardio kickboxing, right, until I graduated college because I went to UT Austin and I partied a lot there, right? So it wasn't like I was serious into sports at all. I was just trying to get in shape. And then after that, I moved to Dallas for one year where I was working at my company. I was working, working. And then eventually when I go back to Austin, I started doing moitai, like competitively. So my first Muay fight was the TVA classics. It's like a moit Thai tournament. in Iowa in 2018. And then it took like forever to finally get MMA going.

Because in Texas at the time, there wasn't MMA gyms. It was just like Maitai, boxing, jiu-jitsu, wasn't really altogether. And then I was like, okay, once I moved out to Denver eventually, I kind of finally started to put it together. And I was already a blue belt and jiu-jitsu at that point. So like it kind of helped in that way. Did you move to Denver because of the MMA training? Yeah.

So why Denver? Why did you choose Denver? It's like there was like a few hubs for big gyms, right? So it was like there's Arizona, there's Denver, there's Florida. I mean, sure, there's more there I don't know about. But that's kind of why. It was like Denver sounded the best out of all of those. For any particular reason? Like is there a coach there, a fighter there?

You know, as you said, there's a lot of great places. So why there? it was mostly just the gym and the coach mark okay um and so once you're starting to do that are you feeling like i can make a career out of this when do you start to believe that this is something you can actually do no like i think that's the thing is that i was doing it because i was like this shit's awesome and super fun um and then i just honestly love the grind of the training so it was like i did my job which um we can talk about but it's like a full-time career, right?

And I was making money that way and fighting kind of like for enjoyment and fun. I don't even think that I really was like believing I was going to make a career out of it until I turned pro. And then I was like, okay. I had a huge break between my first pro fight and then the second one. And in that time period, I was like, I guess I'm done fighting. You know, I guess I'm never going to do this again. And then my second pro fight when I won, I was like, All right, we're going to run it all the way.

We're going to see if we can do it. And what's that job that you're doing? It's like consulting. So I do IT consulting pretty much at audit firm. I started an audit like 10 years ago. And then now I'm just doing consulting work because audit isn't very fun. Okay, so that's the accounting thing that you talked about. Yeah, yeah.

Okay. So you're not an actual accountant per se. No. I'm not an accountant. I did audit for a while. don't have my CPA. But then after like three or four years, I was like,

I'm just going to switch over to this consulting role because it's different clients. It's more enjoyable to me. And there's not as like horrible busy seasons. So like audit is like working. I was working like 10, 11 hours straight a day. And it was just too much for me. I know nothing about taxes.

I'm very bad when it comes to finances and whatnot. But to me, like the scariest word in that world is audit. Like when they say, are being audited. Are you that person? Are you the person that comes? That's an awful job. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Why do you want to do that? You're such a, like, happy person. You're bringing such negativity to the world. No one wants to be audited. Or I make it fun. I make auditing fun, like, you know. So, like. You enjoy this?

I just, you're asking people for receipts from 20, 23? Like, what about this laptop? Honestly, I think about that to this day, because now I'm on projects where I could get audited. Oh, wow. You know, and I'm like, that sounds so bad. Like, having to dig through files to find.

Yes. Yeah, I know. I know. But I think it was just kind of where I landed. Like, I went to McCombs at UT Austin, and then it was like, when you graduate from there, it's like, big four, big four. Like, that's what they push, you know. It was like, go big four. Go big consulting firm.

Like that kind of idea. So it was like, okay. And I just sort of did. And then it was like, I mean, I. I told you, I wanted to get out of it so badly. Like, I remember, like, I just wanted to get out of it because I wanted to do more of a consulting type role. And I knew that was my goal, right? But, like, audit itself is kind of brutal sometimes, but it's also kind of fun because you get closer to your coworkers.

And so do you still have that job? Yeah. So that story that you told after the fight, like, you have a 7.30 a.m. call. Yeah. All legit. I would imagine you didn't make the call, right? So my boss texted me after the press conference. It was like, don't join the 730 call.

Okay. But have you been back to work since? Yeah, of course. Yeah. That's what you're in the UFC. Okay. Come on. I want to like, I want to like have like a 401K and like, you know, good insurance and like that kind of thing.

Sure. So will you always have the job while you're in the UFC or at some point do you think you'll have to make a decision? I think I might have to make the decision or change how I do it, right? Like maybe it's not a full-time position anymore or maybe, you know, the hours are more flexible. Like, they've really provided me a lot of flexibility. I have this thing called an alternative work arrangement. And like for two hours of the day, I get to just go leave and train. And that's so cool.

Like, I don't really know any other companies that would do that. And it's one of the reasons I've stayed for so long is because, like, they've been so flexible. They've been so cool with me. And then they're like, okay with me showing up to work looking like this. Yeah. How did they react? Like your coworkers when I'm sure they were all watching and supporting you. Yeah. Yeah, it's actually kind of exciting. Like the leadership at the firm has like reached out to me and been like excited about it and congratulating me. And that's really cool because like for a while I was like, oh gosh, like I'm pouring so much into this MMA thing, I hope that they don't think that I don't care, you know, about my work here.

So you want to stay with them? As long as I'm working outside of Biden. Sure. And if it wouldn't have worked out for you last week, do you think you would have kept going with the fighting? Yeah, I think so. Okay. The whole idea was like, okay, when I took this fight, I was like, I'm not going to

like let anything deter me. and I know that this is a big challenge, right? Going and fighting Bel-A-Mere and, you know, they've been, she's got all the accolades in the world, and she's a good fighter, and I was nervous, but I knew, like, if I go out there and I just make some statement somehow, right? Like, if I go out there and put up a fight, like, that is, that's a lot. You know, that's saying a lot. So it's like, I wanted to see, like, I always say, like, every fight is kind of like a test a little bit. It's like, what am I capable of?

It's amazing. So I knew, like, if I could prove some stuff to myself, then I would just keep going. By the way, you lost your pro debut, right? Yeah. It was bad. Did you feel at the time, like, man, maybe this isn't for me? Yeah, I just thought, like, okay, we're getting hit too much and, like, got so much crap going on. Like, I'm, how old was I?

Like, 29? Yeah, it was pretty rough. to lose that one. It was really rough. And I think I got knocked down like twice, too. So it wasn't like a casual loss. I mean, it was a split decision, but it still sucked. What was the, like, what gave you the courage to keep on going after that?

I don't know. Like, I guess I'm just a lunatic because I just don't, like, stop. I really don't. Like, I have so much perseverance. Like, I think the thought of saying or. quitting just like kills me like it would just eat at me right i wouldn't be able to like sit on my deathbed and be like man i don't want to be like i wish i kept going i wish i saw you know um what i could do i want to just be like i gave everything my all and then if it

didn't work out that's fine what kind of vibe did you get from bella before the fight as you faced off just in general. Did you feel like she felt like she was just going to steam roll right through you? She was pretty casual. Like, so maybe. Like, I didn't really understand it. To be honest, like, I felt like I got the vibe that she'd been in the spotlight before and had done big things. You know what I mean? That was the vibe I got, where it was like, this was just another day in the office for her. Okay. And so I don't know if it really had to do with me or if that was just because you know, she's done so much already. Sure.

Do you recall a moment in the fight where you're like, oh, I think, like, I think I got this. Like, this is going my way. And, you know, from what I remember, I remember scoring the first round for her and then two and three for you. Three was close. Two wasn't as close. But is there a moment where you're like, oh, this is like, I'm stuffing her takedowns. Like, do you feel your confidence growing and hers not?

I think the moment when I first broke her hands off. She had like a body lock around me and I broke her hands. That was a big moment for me because I was like, okay, like I got out of the first attempt. And then the other big moment for me was at the end of the round when I ended up on top. I was like, okay, I'm actually a pretty good grappler. So like, you know, I was like, all right, sweet. That kind of like stole a little momentum. And I think that that might have been the moment she felt that way, too.

I'm not really sure. Okay. Is your eye okay? Your right eye? I don't know. I didn't go get it looked up by a doctor, but I think it's okay. I mean, it looks like red in the eye. Yeah.

Yeah. It's kind of crazy looking. Does it hurt? No. Okay. Any other injuries? No, I didn't get any injuries. Okay.

No. Like, I feel like I've been through so many three-round wars. I'm like, my body's just used to at this point. Did you think you had done enough to win? Yeah, I think I did damage-wise. Okay, so before they get the scorecard. You know, I think like sometimes the judges can look at it and be like control or damage, sort of, you know, but I think that if you went off of damage, I think I did all the things.

No guarantee you win that fight and you get a contract. What are you thinking in that period? You were the last fights. You didn't have to wait very long, but when they have you guys sitting there and whatnot, what are you thinking? When we were sitting on those chairs and Daniel was, like, I don't know if you noticed, but my legs are like shaking because I was like, I actually don't know if I'm going to get the contract. But then I was like, well, why else would I be sitting on the stage right now? Well, they usually have all the winners sit there.

Yeah, exactly. So I was like, okay, oh, just the winners. Just the winners, yeah, but it's no guarantee you get a contract. Oh, see, I'm terrible. I didn't know that. Well, that's good. It's good you didn't know that. So you probably were thinking you were.

in a good spot. Well, I was thinking I was in a good spot, but I was also like, there is a chance, right? And then, but then I was like, you know, that was such a big upset and I did have to, like, face a lot there to, like, even get in that cage with her. So I was like, maybe it's fine, right? But when the lights were on me and it was like Dana's talking and I'm the last one in that cage, I was like, this is insane. That was definitely the most, like, surreal moment by far. And then when Dana came up and like shook my hand and talked to me. Did you say anything to you that you can share that you remember privately? Oh, he was just talking about how my phone's probably blowing up. Okay. Yeah. Was he right? He was so right. It took me like four days to even

get through all the messages and calls and stuff. How many texts did you have? Like in that moment when you picked it up for the first time? I think it was like 400 something. Serious. Holy shit. That is incredible. It was crazy. Like, it was people from like, I don't know. It was like way back way. All chapters of your life. Yes, exactly. And like, I'm 32, right?

So I've been through a lot of chapters. Yeah. That is amazing. Wow, what a feeling. Did you speak to her at any point? Did you see her? No, I mean, we shook hands after the fight. Didn't talk to her afterwards.

I mean, she was super, like, respectful and the whole time, too. Like even before the fight and then after the fight, she was respectful. Like, I never got any negativity or anything from her. It does appear as though her mom may have written some things on social media and I saw that she has since apologized. Did you see those things in real time? How did you feel when you read some of those things? I didn't really see those things in real time. I think I was like hanging out on my dad and his friend, some teammates in Vegas the night of the fight, which I'm pretty sure is when she was commenting all that.

stuff. And then the next day I flew back to Denver, packed my stuff, flew to Texas, and on the flight home from Texas. So, like, Wednesday night, I finally opened up, like, Instagram and start looking through all the stuff. And I was like, oh, shit. This was, like, kind of a big deal, kind of blew up. I didn't know in real time that that was happening. So it was, it just, like, didn't affect me at all. Are you cool about it all? Like, she came out, she apologized. She said, I think she said she was drinking, is taking a break. How do you feel about it now in the aftermath? I feel like Mrs. Mears, not Bella.

And so I just kind of held on to that. Like, it's not, it's not a big deal. I mean, when your kid is fighting, I know that's like a heightened emotional state. So it is what it is. We're all human. Obviously, when someone of that stature with that kind of hype surrounding them, loses in their big sort of debut, if you will. I know it was in her actual debut, but you get my point.

There's a lot, you know, fraud, all this stuff. How do you feel about the way people reacted to her performance? The only thing that really bothered me about that was that, like, she is a good fighter. And then when you're saying that kind of thing, it's like, well, that means that I'm not. Like, or maybe I just did a good job, you know? Like, maybe I am better than people are, like, if you're not giving her credit, you're not giving me credit. That's kind of how I feel about that.

Okay. And I understand that. I can respect that because a lot of it is focused on the loss and not perhaps enough attention was given to the win. Yeah. I mean, I've got attention. I'm good. You're happy.

Okay. But, like, I'm also like, okay, maybe let's just go see. Like, let's go see in the UFC. Yeah. Okay. And so when do you think you will debut in the UFC? I was thinking like maybe end a year, beginning of next, because, you know, I've been through five fight camps. So I'm like pretty like beat up a little in some ways. Like I just need some rest. You know, like I've been cutting weight or training my ass off for like a year now. So I'm like, okay, it's time to just take a second without like a fight date. And then get back in. I mean, that doesn't mean I'm not going to train. Like, I love training.

It's, like, the only thing I ever want to do. So I'll just go back to the gym, and then maybe if I, like, present itself. And seeing where my body's at, like, where my mind's at about the fight, then I think we can go from there. Have you processed the fact that you're a UFC fighter? You're in the actual UFC. Absolutely not. Like, I don't think I'm going to process that until I'm, like, I, like, win my first UFC fight.

Wow. How was your dad handling this? Longtime fan of sport? Dude, he's so happy. He was literally, like, the other day, he's like, I have to stop scrolling. I have to stop. Oh, my God. This must be surreal.

It is surreal. It is surreal. Like, when I first got into this, I don't think I expected to get to this point, you know? Like, I wasn't, like, growing up, like, 10 years old, like, I'm going to be a UFC fighter. Like, I never thought. that. But then I remember, like, as the years have gone on, I've just been like, I'm kind of like made for this in a way. Like, I just feel it. Like, when I first got hit in the face, I was like, that shit was awesome. Like, that was crazy. I want to do it again. So, like, I love sparring.

And I was like, I like all of the aspects of the training and the grit and the hard, like, the hardness, like how difficult it is. And, like, the focus on the body and the focus on the mind. Like, I love all that. Do you have siblings? I have three. Brothers? I have a younger brother. I don't have older brothers.

Everyone thinks that I would. I was kind of the older brother. Okay. To my little brother. I have a younger sister and an older sister. How do they feel about their sister being in the UFC? I mean, I think everyone's really excited. Like, I think when I was living over in Denver and I was just training all the time and not getting to see my family, like, for them, it's kind of

of like, God, it's like, when is she going to stop doing this? You know, like, plus I'm 32. It's like, how long is she going to keep going? And now that I got into the UFC, it's kind of like, okay, that's sick. And, like, why she should keep doing this, you know, like, because she's actually really good at it. So it's like, even my mom, it's like, she's always like, people are like, how do you handle your daughter fighting? How do you handle your daughter fighting? She's like, well, go watch her fight.

And you'll see that, like, how much she loves it. And then you'll feel like, okay, she should do. this. You said you wanted to bring joy and personality to the bantam weight division. What do you mean by that? I just mean like, I just think it's such a crazy thing to be doing. Like, I think that it should be, like, fun, you know? Like, that's what I mean. Like, like, I want to make it more fun for everyone involved. Coaches, like the UFC staff, like my opponent, like the crowd, you know, just everyone. Who's your favorite fighter? I gotta be honest, I don't really have one.

You watch fighting. I like to. Sometimes. Okay. I do because my teammates fight. I love watching my teammates fight. Now I'm hoping to be able to request tickets to go to their UFC fights. You know, I can do that now.

Yeah. You're part of the family. I know, I'm so excited. It's a fascinating thing because Ronda, who you mentioned, who got into the UFC as a band, phantom weight and sort of blazed this trail for all of you. Yes. For the longest time, it was all about the bantam weights. And now you can make a strong case that other than Kayla and Amanda, who we hope will fight at some point.

Like, bantamweight division is kind of at its shallowest right now. Like, it's not the glamour division in the UFC, 115 and 125? That's kind of what I mean that. Okay. You know what I mean? Like, bring something. Excitement. Bring, like, you know, excitement.

Yeah. Okay. Exactly. Because it's like, it's so lacking, right? Like, it really is. Is that your drum set behind you? It's my dad. Okay.

Wow. I wanted to use his studio because if I'm in the house, it's really loud. But, yeah, my dad's a drummer. Look, it's a huge set. He's a drummer as well. Wow. Is that his full-time job? It is, like, it was when we were growing up.

Now he does, like, some more sound stuff with people around Austin, like events at places. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And he built this massive drum set. Like, it's huge. Yeah. But he's like one of the best drummers ever.

Okay. For real. Like it's Travis Barker and him. Yeah. It's like, yeah, he's right below him, right. Respect. Wow. Sounds like a great guy.

I was like, this is a really entertaining background and I didn't even mean for that to be. No, I dig it. I dig it. It's unique. It's different. I appreciate very much. Appreciate you very much as well. You have brought joy in personality to the band and weight division already.

So well done. Good. Congratulations. Thank you. It's going to be a lot of fun to see this journey. And, yeah. It's nice to see someone who's just kind of being themselves smiling along the way and pulling off crazy upsets. Enjoy everything that comes with it, Alex, and great to meet you.

Thank you so much. It was nice to meet you. There she is. Alex Apodaka, who is one of the newest members of the UFC. She joined after the win over Bell Amir, who we'll talk to later in the program as well. A week ago today on the Contender Series. That was a really fun show. A lot of exciting things happened.

And I have to say, we were quite excited about the contend. Tender series debut of one Ron Humphrey. What a fight, what a finish, what a post-fight interview. He did it all on that Tuesday night exactly a week ago. And so wanted to meet him for the first time as well and learn more about his journey. He's kind enough to join us right here now to talk about it all. There he is. Hello, Ron. How are you? Yo, what up, bro. I'm chilling. How are you feeling? I'm feeling pretty good. Nice to meet you for the first time. We just spoke to Alex, who was there last week.

Now, great to talk to you. It looks like you just woke up or something. I feel like I'm bothering you here. Did you just wake up from a nap? Nah, I am tired, though, bro. I'm kind of fat right now. I just went to First Watch. So I got like two waffles, two little sandwiches,

so I got theitis. What is First Watch? Is that a fast food stop? I don't know what First Watch. Breakfast restaurant. Okay, my bet. And are you in Georgia right now? Oh, yeah, for sure.

I'm in Atlanta. You're in Atlanta, okay? And is that where you're born? Yeah, man. Atlanta's the best place ever, dog. Is it really? Why? Man, what?

Bro. Tell me, tell me. So we got the vibes. We got the food. We got the girls. Right, right. We got everything. Right, Atlanta's lit, dog.

Like, you got to come out here, bro, I'll show you a good time, bro. It's lit. I can't really explain it to you. It's really evolved. Okay. You know, one of our producers on our program, Connor, he is from the Atlanta region.

Which part of Atlanta, Connor? Originally from Alpharetta went to Milton High School and then my parents live in Vining's now. You know these spots, Ron? Yeah, see, I know he gets a lot of smack because everybody from Atlanta will say Alpharetta is not Atlanta. Yeah, they will say that, actually. How do you feel about that, Georgia? Connor, how do you feel about that? Is it not Atlanta or is it Atlanta?

It's a suburb of Atlanta. It's like 25 minutes outside of it. Ron, do you look at someone from Alpharet and say you're not really from Atlanta? Like, do you look down on people like Connor? Nah, bro. That's retarded, bro. If you're from, bro, if you're from close to Atlanta, for real, bro. What about the wings?

How good are the wings? Trash. What? Right. Yeah, they're low-key trash, bro. They gas up the wings for real. What? Yeah, bro, we got a lot of good stuff, though.

We got good soul food. Mac and cheese, greens, cornbread. We got mad waffa houses. Waffle houses is the spot, bro. Like, if you want good food, Woffa House. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, so wait a second. All I hear about are the lemon pepper wings.

Yeah, man. Trash? Overhy? That's just black people trying to hype up the food, bro. That's really trash, for a real dog. Okay, all right. Well, I'm glad that I asked you.

Okay, so we've learned a lot about you over the course of the past week, Ron. Had no idea. I remember covering your father, Abunga Humphrey, Strike Force fame. I remember when he fought Brett Rogers. I was there, and I had no idea. In fact, I watched last week's episode.

I don't remember them even mentioning that you're his son. Maybe I missed it, so I apologize if I did. But I'm wondering, is that how you got into MMA because of your father's career? I mean, I would assume so, bro. You know, you can't really escape. You know, there's like a really big debate over,

like nature versus nurture and all these things. You know, like, obviously my dad fought in strike force, and I've been just around the gym my whole life. I wasn't always competing, you know, but just watching him as he trains the jihitsu and in MMA, I can't deny the influence that it has. You know, and then once I dropped out of college, I was like, you know what I don't want to do? Work a regular job.

Well, my dad fought. I guess I'll do it too, and I get paid for it. So that's kind of how I'm here. Why did you drop out of college? Man, because fuck school. That's why. But kids stay in school. Bro, like, I am subjectively lazy.

Okay. I think there was a person, whichever one it is, right? Like, I pick and choose what I want to work hard with. And, like, for the life of me, bro, it made no sense. how I'd have to be in college, do work in class, and then I got to go do homework when I want to relax. Like, that doesn't make sense to me, but I get it because I do the same thing with fighting now.

Like I said, it's subjectively lazy. But it wasn't the best for me, bro. Like, I'm very free-spirited. I'm kind of rebellious, and I don't like to listen to authority to a degree. So I was like, yeah, I'm out of here. I'm going to go fight. Which school did you go to?

Iowa Central. And what were you, what were you studying at the time? Dog. I was studying wrestling. So there wasn't a lot of class taking. Yo, bro, you know what they say? You're supposed to be like a student athlete?

I was an athlete, athlete, dog. Like, I would wake up for the morning practice at 6.30. I'd go get breakfast right after. I'd go to sleep. I'd wake up for wrestling practice, eat dinner, chill with my friends. Like, there was no students. Bro, there was even one time. I kid you now, bro, I tried to be studious.

Because I'm smart, like, I don't like overly working on things that I don't want to do. I, bro, I didn't go to class from January up until March. Wow. Right. Probably let me on campus dorms. And one day, I think I must have watched like an inspirational YouTube video or something, maybe on Instagram. I was like, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to be studious today.

Dead ass, bro, is like the middle of the winter in Iowa, which is like negative 25 degrees, got mad wind chill and all this good shit. I walked across campus and I went to my first math class of the semester. I went inside. I had my notebook. I had my paper at my book bag. I'm like, you know what?

I'm feeling math studious today. I'm going to do good. I'm going to get like a C plus in this class. He was like, so who are you? I'm like, oh, I didn't even know you're still here.

I was like, yeah, you know, I'm here. I want to be studios and blah, blah, blah. And he said, so where's your computer at?

I was like, oh, no, I don't have the computer, bro. I got my pen and paper, though. Like, I can take notes on that. He said, no, just do me a favor. Go back to your dorm room, get your

computer, and then come back. I said, bet. Never show back up again. So I was like, you know what, bro? This is just not for me, dog. Like, that was just one chance to have you and he blew it. He told you to get the computer. You were out of there. Yeah, yeah, it's his fault. I didn't go to school, man. It's his fault. It's his fault. He had you and then he got greedy and he asked for too much, so I don't blame you. Yeah, how dare he, bro? Yeah. And so you grew up, your, you're You're a wrestler. Do you do any other sports? I try to do football, but football's retarded, so I stop that.

You don't like football? Bro, football is dangerous, dog. Like, yo. So it's fighting. Yeah. All right, so let me articulate this better. I'll fight anybody, any size, any height. I don't care.

When it comes to football, though, bro, you expect me to take my 200-pound self and run full speed against a guy who's 6-4, 320, that momentum in math, that doesn't, that doesn't equal out, bro. Like, that doesn't seem too smart to me. There's no defense. Like, no, man, it's crazy. That's an easy inccussion. No.

Did you get into a lot of fights as a kid? When I was a small kid, man, like when I was in elementary school, not really middle school. I used to get upset at the kids when they, like, make fun of my mom, which every kid does when, like, you're fucking 10 years old and half-retarded. better than that. Now, I used to play fight a ton, though. Middle school, high school, I would play fight a ton.

Oh, a whole lot. But it would never be anything malicious. It's just, for me, it's fun. You know, like, for example, me and my dad's love language since he was a fighter, there's a lot of grappling, a lot of play fighting. So imagine I'm growing up in a house where me and my dad is showing each other love,

he's, like, grabbing me, and I'm, like, trying to hit him as hard as I can. I'm trying to grapple with him as hard as I can. I'm legit, like, just trying to fuck my dad up. And so, like, that's our love language. So I go to school and I have my friends. I'm like, yo, let's play fight. And I'm actually hitting them as hard as I can.

They're like, yo, chill out. What's wrong with you? I'm like, yo, my bad, bro. Like, I didn't know you. I didn't get down like this. I believe you were 17 when your father passed, right? I think I was 18. 18.

Yeah. My apologies. How did that affect you? How did it affect me? looking back at it it's going to sound weird to say it I want to make sure I word this careful

because I don't want to like put out the wrong message affected me later on in life not actually when he passed right so when my father passed it was a very surreal moment you know like everybody has those thoughts of oh this can't happen to me or all this only happens in movies and yada yada yada yada and when my dad passed away

I was like, oh, wow, this is, this is real. I'll never forget that feeling. But one thing that my dad was very good at was preparing me for life without him, you know. So when he passed away, my first thoughts was, fuck, this suck, followed by like two to three weeks of like depression, naturally because he passed away. And then I went back to school, I wrestled, tried my best due state, all this. And I just tried my best to move on. How it affected me later on in life, people may say I'm lying. but I'm not, I'm very grateful for his passing.

Not because I want my father to pass away, but because with him not here, I've grown to learn myself through him with my memories, if that makes sense. Right? So I'm almost, how do I word this? You know how everybody has like that fear of becoming their parents? And they're like, oh, fuck, I'm becoming my dad and my mom and this isn't that.

Well, I don't have that gauge now because he's not here. So I can only engage with him through memories right now. So I'll do certain things, have certain mannerisms, speak certain ways. I'm like, oh, my dad did this. Oh, my dad did that. And I'll pull on certain memories that he told me from the path. I'm like, okay, my dad said, don't do this. He said, do this.

You know, and so because of his absence, I have to pull even more from the things that he taught me. And I would if he was here, if that makes sense. I don't know if that makes sense or not. It does make sense. I'm wondering, Do you think you would have gone down this path of being a pro-MMA fighter if he was still here? Or is there any part of you doing it to follow in his legacy? No, funny enough, man, I didn't want anybody to know that my dad was my dad because I'm very aware of the word legacy.

Right. And if people's like, oh, your dad's a bungal, this isn't this. They won't allow me to be me and grow in the sport the way that I want to grow. Right. So for a while, you know, I would just chill and fight. But then my coached Cal and then I started telling everybody about that was my dad and everybody in Atlanta got word of it. And I was like, oh, shit.

But do I think I would have fought if he was here? Probably do I think I would have fought at America's top team? Probably not. Man, who knows, man? Those are what it could have should is and I'm here now and bro, legitimately without my father, bro. Man, I'm so grateful for that, man. It's ridiculous.

Like, just looking back at all the things that you're doing. stilled in me and taught me and showed me, wouldn't choose another man. Ultimately, you make the decision to go down this path a few years back. Why do you do that? Why do you decide, all right, I'm going to become an amateur, I'm going to go down this path, I'm going to become a pro, I'm going to go for this. Why do you actually go all in? It's fun, bro.

That's good enough. Think about this, bro. Like, let's be real, dog. Like, I can make a million dollars, right? working some corporate job or freaking doing whatever the fuck, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know I don't really care. Or

I can make a million dollars breaking folks faces. Like, yo, one of those is way cool than the other. Like, I don't know, I feel like a professional hit man, bro. Like, UFC calls me up, yo, come fight this dude. I'm getting paid to essentially kill folks.

Like, yo, what else what I want to do, man, with my time? Like, this is, this is a sick job, bro. Like, it's dope. Did you think that this would happen so soon? Four and O getting the contender series, five and no, you're in the UFC. Did you think this would happen so fast in your career?

No. Definitely not. Bro, I think I suck as a fighter, to be honest with you, right? Why is that? I guess it's like the struggle of being an artist, right? Like, you can only admire your work so much when you want to attain perfection. But, bro, I'll be honest. That's why I think a lot of the UFC fighters suck, though, because I'd be looking at my

And I'm like, yo, I'm knocking these folks out in the first round. And it's taking y'all three rounds, five rounds. Like, y'all are fucking trash. Like, I don't even, like, y'all, give me the belt, abandon it all, bro. Like, stop fighting in that. Like, you might as well just give it all to me, bro. But that's just my criticisms. You know, I'm not going, you know, whatever.

What about the higher, you know, echelon, the upper echelon of the Walterweight division? Surely you think those guys are very good. I mean, like, they're straight for the. straight. Like, bro, really good is hard to get. You only got a few really good dudes. You got Jones, Connor, and Demetri Johnson. Other than that, everybody's average. And I'll tell you what, I'd be damned if I'm a dot average. So I'm nothing like them. I think Islam is pretty good, but pretty good isn't exceptional. And I'm going to be exceptional. I think the top 10 dudes are good, but they're not exceptional. And I'm going to be exceptional. And bruh, just wait. Like I said,

bro, give me some time. Let me correct my skills. Let me find some what I got. It's a rap for these dudes, bro. Like, it's a wrap. Like, happy brother, strike. Yo, did you watch my last white? Yes.

All right. This isn't me talking about myself. This is just like me being fully honest. I still think that was a very bad performance on my heart. No, I appreciate that. I appreciate you. How many parts did I throw on the feet? How much what, sorry?

How many punches did I throw standing up? I don't remember. Tell me. Bro, I threw probably six punches. I threw three jabs that missed. The first punch that I actually threw was a jab, it dropped them. I hit him. Boom, boom, boom.

Cool. He got up. I made some mistakes. I cut him up with like two elbows. The rest was ground and pound. I touched the dude essentially three times cleanly and he was out of here, bro. With the help of ground and poundages or brutal malicious techniques. If it's taking me three hits to do that and it's taking these dudes fucking three rounds,

a hundred or something significant. So I actually do that, we're not the same. We're literally not. Like, I don't, am I, am I tripping here? Like, I don't. Well, one could say, like, let's talk about Islam. Islam's fighting Ian Gary.

You're not fighting Ian Gary. Well, who cares? Well, there is a difference in the opponent, right? Not really. There is no opponent, bro. It's me. It's me in there. My opponent is myself.

And whoever's in front of me, oh, well, bro. That it is what it is. They are an obstacle to help me discover something within myself. And whether that's Islam, Ian Gary, or whoever the fuck else is in the top 10 of the UFC, you're locked in there with me, bro. I'm not locked in there with you. You're locked in there with me.

And that's their problem. They're going to figure that out real soon. So those guys, the higher echelon of the Walterweight Division right now, Islam, Ian, Gary, Carlos Pratchez, Michael Morales, Shafkat. I think most people would consider them the five best. Do you think you can hang with them right now? Right now? Right now.

That'd be stupid. Okay. How far away are you from being able to hang with them? How much time do you need? Give me a year more. A year or more? Like, what are we saying? Two years? Definitely a year. Anything past year, it no longer becomes competitive. What do you mean? What do you mean, Ron? You were talking about the best, Islam al-Chachev is the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. Right now. Sure.

There's your answer. Right now. I love it. I love the confidence. That's honestly not confidence. Like I said, I think my life performance suck. But again, if I'm doing this with dudes and I'm hitting them three times and I'm getting them out of there and I'm only four, well, five pro fights in now, if I keep growing, man, I think it's pretty undeniable and inevitable that I will be legitimately one of the best

ever do it. Legit. Like we're talking GSP levels. you mentioned DJ, those guys. You're in that conversation. Nah, bro. Respectfully, I'm trying to start something new. I'm not trying to compare myself to GSP,

and I'm trying to create a whole other category. So literally the greatest of all time? Yeah. And you believe in your heart, you can achieve that. Yeah, 100%. Wow. Have you always been this confident? That's what I'm saying.

Bro, like, I don't think, maybe I'm retarded, bro. Maybe like CTE is kicking in too quick. I hope not. Oh, yeah, me too, right? I don't know if it's confidence, bro. It's more like it would make sense. And I guess that's a very delusional thing to say.

But I see all these videos of famous people saying, oh, man, I knew I was going to be famous when I was younger and this isn't that. And I just have the feeling and it makes sense on me being the greatest of all time. I don't know how to make that make sense other than just literally that. like it makes sense. I'm going to try my best to work towards it.

I'm not saying I'll never lose either, though. I'm not saying I'm unbeatable because everybody has holes. But I'll tell you what, if anybody can be the legitimate greatest of all time, oh yes, I understand. You said afterwards, my fucking existence is a declaration to war to anyone and everybody. To anybody and to anybody. Or I screwed that up. To anybody and to everybody.

I wrote that wrong. But you get the point. you said it way better than I just read it. And so what were you trying to say there? I was trying to say that my existence is a declaration of war. So if you have a problem with me, if you don't like me, too bad, fight me about it. If you want to fight me, then shut the fuck up. Because guess what, we're in the fight business.

If you don't like me, we can make our fist talk. It's not that hard, man. You got a manager. I got a manager. We can really run it as fast as you want. So literally just that, bro. Is there anyone out there? there in the welterweight division whose existence bothers you that annoys you that makes you feel

like you want to punch them i want to punch everybody yeah because i know you were asked like five different ways like who do you want to fight and you basically said we're going to fight everyone like i don't care just so i'm just wondering if there's anyone out there who you like you feel like okay this is going to be tasty you know it's going to be tasty bro it's going to be tasty when i achieve my dreams and goals who's in the way of that is completely irrelevant to them. And the dreams and goals are what? Greatest of all time, champion. What else? In terms of fighting? No, life. My life goes, I'll keep personal. Okay. Because I'm also very aware the more you talk, the more ears listen. And I don't need everybody to my goals right now. But

first step, fuck everybody at 170 up. Demolish them, demoralize them, make it look not even competitive, get the 170 belt, and then we'll move on to the next steps. Okay. Maybe 185. You're a big guy. Maybe. You posted, so your birthday's coming up, right? You're turning 26 in September or later this month? Yeah. On your 25th birthday, you posted something that you said was very meaningful, but you didn't actually post the audio of a video that was of you talking. You posted music over it. Here it is. And you said you wanted to post this video for a very long time. You waited years to post this video, but you can't tell us what's being said. It's for you only. So you guys can like the video or not like the video. I could almost, I can almost hear you saying this as I'm reading

it. Can you tell us why you did this? Why post a video of you speaking, but we can't hear what you are saying? And it's clearly a younger version of you. I made that video. I was on I made that. I would have had to been 19. No, I probably was 20. That was the day that I decided to start my MMA journey. Okay. Yeah.

And I said some things in there. And some of the things in there are my goals. But like I said, I'm not going to let my goals necessarily be heard by everybody. Okay. But find a good lip reader. Hey, boy, you'll know exactly what I said in there. Maybe one day when you achieve some of these goals, you will play that video with the actual sound on.

Oh, so I kind of tell you what I'll do. Okay, okay. Part of the goal, I'll unmute part of the video. Peace by piece. Piece by piece. I like that. Why is your nickname The Career Ender? Let me take some of it.

I'm not proud of how I got this name, man. Oh. So I have a background of wrestling. Right? I wrestled in high school. or rest of that, Riverwood International High School, right? Then I went to college, Iowa Central, and Ellsworth, too. I got kicked out of there, you know, but whatever, right?

And from what I'm told, a lot of wrestlers don't, or beginners, for that matter, don't really understand their strength when they come to spar. And so I'd come to the gym at ATC Atlanta. I would spar with people, and I kind of hurt a lot of people. You know, I'd break some noses, give people concussions, give them black guys. I'd be training with other fighters. I'd hurt them by accident. I'd had to pull them out their fights.

And so eventually, one of my friends came up to me. He was like, man, you know, you're really ending people's careers. I'm like, no, not really. Say, yeah, man, you're a real career ender. I'm like, oh, dang, well, that sucks. He's like, yeah, I'm going to call you Career Ender Humphrey for now. And that's kind of how I got the name Career Ender Humphrey. Okay, I like it.

How are you with fame, Ron? you're getting famous now. I'm sure people are reaching out to you. I'm sure people want a piece of you. How are you dealing with all of that? Am I getting famous? Hell yeah. First of all, you're on the number one

combat sports show in the world. So congratulations. You just won in the contender series. You're in the UFC. Things are happening. Things are happening. Well, maybe there's different levels of fame. So maybe that's where I'm thinking of.

I mean, sure, like if you're in the... I'm on a very good podcast, number one, like you said, right? But not everybody's going to know me just because I'm on this podcast. You know, not everybody's going to know me just because I'm in the UFC. Not everybody's going to know me because I won the contender series. Bro, legit, how do I handle fame? I kind of don't care. Like I said, man, like, I fight because it's fun.

I don't fight for fame. To a degree, everybody fights for fame. So I'd be lying about I said I didn't. But like, I legitimately fight because I think it's the coolest job on the planet. You know, so fame is a part of it. Is it going to be fun at times? Yeah, it'll be fun. It's going to be irritating at times. Yeah. But I don't really care too much about it, unless it benefits me. Then I care. But other than that, I don't really care about fame. And to be clear, I'm not saying because you're on this show, you are famous or because you're

a lot more is going to happen as a result of your success. And if you achieve these dreams that you're talking about. And so look at all the great stars of the UFC, the best. patties, the Ilias, the Connors, these people are now, you know, very, very, very famous, people know them, love them, want a piece of them, and we've seen highs and lows and people crash and all that stuff. And so I'm just wondering how you think you'll be able to deal with all of that. Are you someone who could deal with that attention? Do you have the proper people around you to ground you when need be? Are these things that you even think about, worry about? Do I have the proper people around me? A hundred percent I do. I don't think I have a single yes

man in my corner. So I've, like I said, man, that video on my Instagram has been there. I had the video, the raw video clip for about five-ish years, not five-six years. I've been preparing myself for what could possibly happen with fame. And one of those things is having people around you that will always be honest with you. And if I start to act lame or forget all my day ones, which is like a very popular thing now, right, they'll correct me very fast. So I brought I think I'm in a pretty good position to handle everything that's gonna come to me. When you-

I got friends that'll help me out. Okay, that is great to hear. When you got back home to Atlanta, what was your celebration like? Did you celebrate or was this just kind of like, all right, we did this, we're moving on. Business as usual. Yeah, business as usual, bro.

I mean, celebrating what? Like, I think of winning Dana White Continu Series is a very good checkpoint. It's a very good checkpoint in where I want to go. But by no means, is this like, we made it like nah bro like cool I'm where I need to be

now I got more work to do more people to fuck up and some more goals to achieve do you think we'll see you again this year I mean do you want to have me on your podcast again no no no I don't mean me you can come on tomorrow if you want

it's been a very fun conversation I mean fighting in the UFC do you think we'll see you in the cage again this year possibly is that something you want no it's September now I mean, yeah, I don't see why not. Okay, I don't know.

Some people, yeah, I'm good. I want to take the rest of the year off. Maybe you're banged up. I don't know. Nah, man, I'm not banged up, bro. No. This is fun. It's fun to have a new, like, character in the sport.

I feel like you're a great character. Your... Yeah, your post-fight interview was great. I would say the post-post interview, like the second one after you got the contract, was a different version of you. Like, you were... I don't know if you...

like the adrenaline dump hit you or you were just tired at that point. You were very nonchalant about getting the contract. You were like, all right, cool. You were more fired up right after the win than you were after getting the contract. Well, yeah, because there are different questions, right? So, Laura Sanko was asking me, yo, what's going to happen now that you're here? Oh, I'll say exactly what's going to happen. I'm going to fucking cause carnaging chaos and I'm going to start dominating these dudes

in a very non-homorotic way, you know? but when they ask me stuff like, oh, how do you feel about the UFC contract? It's like, yeah, man, like, I'm cool. I got it. You know, like, I'm here now. I'm at a good checkpoint. So it's just different questions. But the best way to get information out of me is to ask very specific questions. The more specific the question is, the better I can answer it.

No, I have learned that. And I think you're a great interview. You are entertaining, as I said. So I've enjoyed this very much. It's great to meet you. Congratulations to you and your family on this, I think it's a big milestone, you're a UFC fighter. That's where every MMA fighter wants to be.

You're now in the UFC. And I know the work has just begun and you have lofty goals, but I do think that that is something to be proud of and appreciate and celebrate as well. So great to have you on, my man. Congratulations and hopefully the first of many conversations throughout your UFC career.

Hey, God bless, bro. Appreciate you, man. All the best. Go, what do we, what are we, are we Georgia Bulldog fans? What are we? Do we like Georgia Sports, Atlanta? Braves, go Braves, Thrasher.

All I do is fight, man. I'm telling you I don't watch sports. I'm trying to connect. Falcons, maybe Falcons. Michael Vic? I heard about the dog beatings. I heard about that. Oh, and hell the dog beatings.

Geez, Louise. Dirty Bird? I don't know what that is. All right. Thanks, Ron. All the best. All right, bro. Take care.

There he is. Ron Humphrey, the newest member of the UFC's Walterweight Division. What a character? Is he real Atlanta, G.C? Is that real Atlanta right there? Like where he's located or how he's acting? Just how he's acting, his vibe, his...

He's great. Vernacular? He's great, yeah. He's not down with the wings. I don't know if he's been to the right spots. Jared Ricketts, Magic City. Right. If all he does is focus on fighting, he definitely hasn't been to Magic City.

Right. Definitely not on a Monday. Yeah, that's right. Why Monday? Is that the... Come on, bro. Magic City Monday. I-Y-K-Y-K.

K-Y-Y-K. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know. You know what it is. You know what it is. What a character. What a character. All right, in a couple minutes, we're going to be joined by Maham Miller. Mayhem Miller is the subject of the first episode of the new season of Dark Side of the Cage.

This is a series that has been airing on Vice. We all know about Dark Side of the Ring. I keep looking at my computer, by the way, Frank, and it's like throwing me off. I'm sorry, man. Just close your eyes. In case you're wondering out there, here we go, I've had this computer,

my previous computer, the one that you may have seen yesterday, for about five years. And it pretty much coincides with when I first met Frank. And for about four and a half of those five years, Frank has been complaining about my computer. He said it was too loud. The fan was too loud.

The battery was too loud. All kinds of issues. And so finally I decided, you know what? I'm going to be a nice guy to Frank. I'm going to give him this gift. I'm going to buy yourself a computer. I'm going to do this so that he can sort of get off my back.

And so I finally bought the computer. And he was very, I have to say, Frank laid it all out for me. He checked all the box. I was worried. I didn't know RAM, CD-ROM. What am I getting, you know? And so he finally checked all the boxes off for me. I get the computer.

And it's a daunting thing. How am I going to get, you know, the documents over? How am I going to update it? Is my Slack going to work? Is my email going to work? My important files and documents? Are they all going to be there? All on my desktop the way I like it.

What I didn't take into account was a couple things. Number one, it's a bit of a different shape. All right, fine. It's a little lighter. The shade is a little lighter. Most importantly, though, you may recall, I had decorated my previous laptop with all these beautiful Nix patches. Well, right now I'm unable to take them off because it's like sticking too much and I wasn't expecting to do all this.

And so I feel a little bit naked. And there's just some new like bells and whistles that I'm not quite used to. For example, the battery isn't working right now. But that's okay because it's a new computer. So I'm still at like. I mean, obviously it's not working if you haven't unplugged, bro. No, it was plugged and it wasn't working. So I unplugged it and I plugged it back in.

There's a lot happening. Ron Humphrey is here talking about all kinds of things. So I'm trying to, you know, remain focused. But I do have to publicly thank Frank for his self-asness. Finally. Because he stayed with me till about 7 o'clock yesterday, was working hard. I told my friend, so please stop saying. He was a little ornery throughout the process.

You know, there's some people who kind of do nice things favors with a smile. And there's some who just kind of remind you along the way that they're doing nice things. I'm not saying Frank was, you know, column A or column B. I'll let you all decide. But there were comments. You were the oldest 43-year-old that I know. I just want you to know that. I don't get it.

I need someone to set up my computer for me. Oh, I'm actually 44. That's what I didn't quite get. So what you're saying is I'm incompetent. I'm a computer illiterate. Talk about the new guest here. So what you're saying is I just can't really, you know, I, oh, wait, now it's working. Now it's not.

You complete me, Frank. Can I cook back here now? You are that sort of security blanket that I've never had in my life when it comes to technology only. Let's not get crazy. You compare me to Bob Villa. Yes, I did refer to Frank as the Bob Villa in my life. My mom used to tape, what was, this old house hosted by Bob Villa, a tremendous program. and she used to watch it every morning as she worked out.

My mom was militant with her workout. Still is till this day, if she's watching, Hello, Mama, I love you very much. She would work out every morning at around 3.34. She would go on the Nordic track, on the elliptical, on the treadmill, and she would watch this old house. Then there was a little Martha Stewart and some other things popped up over time. But I always viewed Bob Vila as a Swiss Army knife,

as was discussed earlier by the new level. And Frank, to me, is that. And I feel like that's the greatest compliment I could give Frank. Because not only is he an audio engineer, he's also an audio producer. No. He's...

Okay, you've gone too far. No, you're... You've diluted the thank you. It was going really strong. You're the head of IT at Encrowd-HQ. You are the head of IT. Are you not? Anyone has a technological problem?

They come to you. If you think there's a CD-ROM and that new computer reviewers, I have failed you. I have been looking for it. I don't see it. How am I going to watch my DVDs? It's a floppy drive.

Yeah. Where's the Blu-ray? How am I going to watch? Just close your eyes again. All right. In any event, I do appreciate Frank. And yeah, you know, that's what friends are for, right? Keep shining.

Keep smiling. What the fuck is going on, bro? God bless, God bless. Okay. In a matter of moments, but in all seriousness, Frank, thank you. to say one more time and I'll always remember the time that we spent together

when everyone was gone because you were breathing down my neck when everyone was out doing their thing living their life you were here with me helping set up my new computer you didn't tell me about the patches

the problem you know I didn't know you put melting tape on your laptop literally mounting tape designed a hold appliance of the walls I went to rebuy them and now they're all out of stock It's a huge problem.

But I do have my nice trophy here. Okay, Mayhem Miller, joining us in a matter moments and Bel-A-Mere as well, news and notes after that. And do I have time to tell them about the two for Tuesday? Maybe not. Maybe I should save it for later. I do have an exciting announcement to make that I will make after our last interview of the day. How about that? But we are back to taping two shows on Tuesdays, which is reminiscent of our first year here at Uncrown.

Remember we would do the show on Tuesdays and then the Aeroon Adi show, which was live. This particular show will not be live, but I'm going to explain all of that back into the program. We have a little teaser clip of this Mayhem episode. I don't think we could play it with the sound up because of some music, but I watched it this morning. There are cameos from GSP, Randy Couture, T.J. Thompson, his former promoter. Who else is in that? Rich Chow, former roommate slash promoter as well. Mayhem's mom, dad, sister is in there. That is his dad. It talks very openly about his trials and

tribulations, about his childhood. That is his sister. They do a great job. Vice does a tremendous job. And they've been continuing to do a great job with their combat sports coverage. Erring LFA, BKB. They're really amping it up. Who knows, you may see us on Vice in the very near future. Stay tuned for that. But I love Dark Side of the Ring. And you may recall that we had Jeff Jarrett in studio. When was it? Back in July to talk about the TNA episode.

I've been watching it since it came out. A lot of great episodes. The Dino Bravo one, the Screwjob one, the Owen Hart one. A lot of great episodes. And they've now since done a couple seasons of Dark Side of the Cage about, the wild and wacky world of mixed martial arts. And I am being told that mayhem is here, and we are going to go to him in a matter of seconds.

Let's go to Mayhem. Let's say hello to my old friend Jason Miller, who I did get a chance to speak to back in July. But now he is here to talk about very exciting things. Hello, Jason. How are you? Great. Just kicked in from the gym, man. How are you guys doing? I'm doing great.

What's cool? Is this your house? Well, I mean, it would be funny if I was somewhere else than my house wouldn't be. No, but I like the setup. I like what you have back there. I, well, yeah, I know. You want revenge and you want to knock over my teenage mutant ninja turtle. No, I do not want revenge. We are well past that. Although... I'm not good. I'm glad that we're at no odds whatsoever. I appreciate that, Errol. One, you're very important man in our sport. I love you very much, and I was very happy to see this episode. It spoke about a lot of the ups and downs of your life.

And I was wondering when they approached you to be a part of this, to be the subject of an episode of Dark Side of the Cage, were you into it or did you have to be convinced? That's what they're calling it, Dark Side of the Cage? Yes. They told me it was called The Amazing Rise of Mayhem Miller. Well, I think the overarching sort of title of the show is Dark Side. Talk about that title, Dark Side of the Cage. Ding. I didn't know that. That's not the greatest marketing. it's a happy ending. The mayhem of Jason Miller.

How about that? Oh, buddy. Now you're just getting poetic, okay? You're using that literary arts degree a little too liberally. Okay, so tell me, what was your reaction when they approached you? No, go away.

Okay, and then what happened? Well, initially, you know what I mean? They could joll me, this guy, Robin Black. Yeah. On the surface looks kind of cartoonish, but so do I. So, you know, I was a little bit put off by him, but then this guy really loves the sport and is invested in it emotionally, you know, he loves the guy. Like you, Ariel, you know, men who didn't compete at the highest level who have a passion for it despite the fact that they, you know, didn't touch that mountaintop.

That's something beautiful to me. If you guys really connect with the fighters and realize that we're not just two-dimensional figures on the screen, robots, automaton's, we're actual human beings, then I appreciate you. Okay, so he reaches out, and I know Robin actually fought a couple times, so shout out the camera. Hung up on him. Hung up in his face. Wow. Yeah, yeah. He's like, no, the minute I heard the title, that's why I did that little joke for you.

Okay, okay. You know, to me, I was on a path of climbing. and realizing my mistakes, realizing how not to make those mistakes again, you know, and fighting is pretty simple. You step this way why he's got his hand cocked and he gets you and you go, ooh, don't do that again. Don't do that again. But life is a little more nuance.

There's all this human rules that, you know, it's not like the gym. And you have to learn those rules. I don't think there's anyone there to teach me that at the end of my career or guide me through a complicated maze of medications and legal structure and women that will say anything. You know, it's sort of a path of the martial artist is to figure out life outside of the arena. And so how do you come around to it? You're climbing. Hey, my wig was messed up, man. I have 50 professional fights.

I had a couple more losses and a bunch more wins. I'm kind of mad about your Chiron. Oh, what's that? What's that? Did they make a mistake over there? Well, look, I fought before the records were kept. You know, the underground forum did a good job of that. Sherdog was Olympic level.

But, you know, when you're fighting Barnes for 500 bucks or you're fighting a warehouse or underground lab, you know, they don't record them all, but I got paid for that. I made weight for that. You know, we had our own regulatory bottle, excuse me, body in North Carolina, you know, it was the streets. And so all the martial artists would agree, you know, we wanted to be blood sport, for real. Yeah.

What it would be official, you know, I wish I would have won a golden dragon at some point in my career, but it never happened. Okay, so going back to the question, how do you come around to it? So you say, like, you don't want to relive the past? Yeah. Look, like I said, convincing and charismatic guy. You know, a lot of people like them. I think Canada likes them.

You might want to meet this guy, actually. I know him. I know him. I've talked to him a bunch of times. Oh, okay. Well, then there you know. It's easy. Now, I realized, okay, there's,

there's a way to tell my story here. You know, I got to trust that they're not going to just do a hip piece on me. Because to be honest, if you just look at headlines, TMZ stuff, you'll be like, yeah, yeah, oh, this is a bad person. And you can make a hit piece. You could like, oh, and then he texted this at 3 a.m. You up? But the reality is, you know, I'm a good person.

I only know this because I'm looking out through my eyes. Have you seen it? Have you watched the episode? No, I haven't. The kid that played me in the series or whatever said, Hey, may have, I'm playing you. And I was like, what? He said, in a movie, there's a movie and I'm playing you. And I say, oh, man, you are ripped. Sick. Bro, you are handsome? God bless America. Thanks for casting. Well, it's like kind of blur. They recreate some stuff when they don't have to put it. Oh, whoa. They had to blur that out there, Erohuani.

it's a little blurry, but you never see his face, and he's got the hair like you and all that. Maybe the good stories then. Will you watch it? Do you have any interest in watching? Yeah, you know, I have to. Previously, an old version myself wouldn't. I never watched an episode of B'd down. Wow.

That's wild to me. Yeah, you know, I was there. I did it. So to me, I'm like, all right, well, that information is encoded in my brain somewhere. so may as well just like live with that good memory you know and then uh let's not glaze myself over it right like oh wow you're so funny so people tell me my own jokes back to me and i'd be like ha that's a good one and they're like you said it i said oh all right well you know i'm out here firing a lot of shots i'm not going to remember every one of them yeah but

don't you want to see how it's put together you know there's there's editing there's music there's a whole bunch of stuff that. Of course. I'm a big fan of filmmaking and I'm sure they did a great job. The only reason I really agree to it was they hammer that vice thing home. Good branding. The guys like are known for putting out

fantastic documentaries of the highest level. So I can't really say no once they hit me over the head. Some dude from Canada with the funny voice. Okay great. I love Arrow Hawani. From Michael cool. So

but, you know, vice, I said, okay, now you got some gravity with you. So it's one thing to watch Billy Beatdown. It's another to watch, you know, there's some heavy stuff here. And your family's involved, your mom, your dad, your sister. I heard. I heard my sister is still after me or like still mad. Wait a second. Your sister is a big part of it.

Do you not speak to her still? No. I mean, she got me on a Facebook group text, but good Lord. wordle, I'm like, dude, no, I don't know. I love her very much. My sister was one of the most important parts of my life, my first audience. My first like, okay, is this funny? And then, you know, or are you going to get mad if I say this? So thank you for the test audience, Megan Miller. But now she's Megan Akavashian. She's like tapped into her Cherokee roots or something and has like a new name. I don't know.

You know, I love her. Hopefully we can hang out pretty soon, but she's a big energy. How do you feel about your mom and dad and sister being a part of this? Did they ask you, like how you, you know, do you want us to be a part of it? Do you want us to speak about your life? Did they... What? Dude, how are you going to tell him Miller what to do?

Like, dude, they just told me that they were going to go do an interview about me. I was like, all right. My sister was champing at the bit. I think she just... She was like, yeah, I'll talk to the cameras. You know, we have a confrontational nature and we're very loud people and we're very, you know, and my mom is a Ray originally, which is more like a Polish sort of Russian person. And, you know, it's like she's more cold and analytical and very chatty.

So she's going to give her two cents. You know, she shuts down an errant nerd. nursing homes. That's what she does. She's like the sheriff of North Carolina. Wow. I didn't realize, by the way, that I think the first incident that you had with the authorities that it was your sister that alerted TMZ, is that accurate? I mean, she called the cops first. Okay. But then she told TMZ about it. She made her silent husband, driver to police station, even though the whole damn UFC party saw her take a good old swing at me. Oh. Overhand right, she telegraphed by pinching her nose.

I saw it. And then we almost went over 10 foot embankment. The whole story is bananas, you know, honestly. And I hemmed her down into Casca Gatami and waited for her to chill out. And she was pretty embarrassed and mad at that. That's my account of the details of that incident. Now, she ran to TMZ afterwards. Maybe they paid her a finest fee of 20 grand.

Well, good for her. I'm glad she bought a new damn. Dodd Dots and something. You know, but, hey, that's Hollywood. But did you feel like you had been betrayed? Nah, I mean, I've got it. She can't whoop my ass. She calls the cops.

She tried. It's one thing to call the cops. It's another to tell the media about it. I mean, look, man, a socioeconomic position of my sister is none of your concern. No, I know. But I was, I. I don't talk bad about my sister. What's that?

Don't talk bad about my sister. No, I'm not. I just couldn't believe that it was your sister that told the media. Well, I mean, what's you going to do? It was hard times out there. No, I get it. I get it. These are one of the things that I learned.

I didn't know about your childhood. I didn't know about your relationship with your dad. You know, we learned a lot about you. And I felt like I knew a lot about it. I chased you all over into it, Dome. Yes. I try to get one of our new key chains. You think Labubu was hot, bro.

this thing is on fire in Los Angeles right now. It's Amici from Japan, LA. Okay, yes, I've heard about Japan, L.A. That's the store that you have with your partner, right? Or are you married? Damn, am I a lesbian now? No, I don't know what to call it. Your girlfriend, your fiancé?

I don't know what to... Fiancee is such a damn four-syllible word, isn't it? It is, it is. So what are we calling her? Jamie? Okay. I also didn't know that you had a stepdaughter. I learned that as well.

I, what? Oh, damn. Lulu showed up. the duck. Yeah, I mean, I watched the whole thing, Jason. We told her we were going to record her. She held it over my guy. I had an air one ice cream, bro. Airwant smoothie, like a $75 smoothie. Yeah, yeah. I'd buy this little baby. So she would box with me at the LeBrea tarpitz. It was nice. That's the fighter I ever met. It warmed my heart. Oh, man, God bless you, man. Yeah, me too. You know, it's an interesting journey. You know,

my guide fighters through their lives. And, man, it's a tough business. But a 10-year-old girl, you have to do a special sort of code switch where you have to talk very gentle or, you know, coach mayhem, I get right in the boy's face and scream at him like a maniac so that he'll get in in his head to win this fight. But 10-year-old, you have to take a different tactic. Do you like being a dad?

Yeah. I do. I feel it's a big honor and it's sort of fulfilling in ways that my fight career never was. What about being a coach? Are you enjoying this part of your life? Oh, you mean psychological, tricking guys into doing stuff that's good for them? Yes, hilarious. You know, it's weird things. dudes are so stubborn in the sport that they will fight against themselves.

They'll fight against their best interests because they think they're right. And, you know, intelligence is an underappreciated asset in this sport. And so I'm glad you're doing the interviews. And so right now, is that what is taking up the majority of your time? Like, that is your job, being a coach. Man, I have a few different gigs. You know, the Mayhem Miller shows back. We're recorded in season.

It's like six episodes or something in the can. It's crazy. It's crazy. It's amazing. That is taking over at Seven Echo Studio where, oh, Bobby Lee, I have to clean his pubs off the toilet. Okay. Now, it's a good production.

So far, I've just been blown away by the professionalism of the crew over there. I didn't think that that existed outside, like, Hollywood sets, you know, but everybody is real sharp and focused. so we make a really good show. But yeah, coaching takes up most of it. It's 24, it's 2972. You know, you're always doing it. It's 24-7, 365, but times 1,000.

The guys have to be watched, you know, you have to, some dudes are self-sufficient, no problem. They're just soldiers. They're doing their job. They know what they, they're not hanging out. all late. They're not not cavorting with the ladies of the night or falling off

into a drunken stupor because Los Angeles has so much temptation. It's the best city in the world. I love Los Angeles. I also learned in the in the in the show that you actually spent some time on Skid Row. I didn't know this. Nightmare bro.

Nightmare. You know, whoever told me to go to that shelter was trolling me. It was like, dude, yeah, go to the shelter on Nightmare on Elm Street Avenue and Maine, or MLK. Because, dude, I was running down with my Izzy Malaki freaking suitcase getting chased by like 16 crackheads at one point. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerated, but they were definitely hunting me. And during my whole term in prison, I never was as on point and like eyes on head on the

swivel. Then I've been on those nights on Skid Row. yeah it was a night and a half really i mean the day was blurry that was it just a night and a half i mean i i i bet it felt like you know 10 weeks but overall you only spent the nine and a half day it was like a rapid fire i don't know man uh listen errier you don't fight so i mean have you ever drove a go-kart sure yes okay you're paying attention right yes have you ever like been close to like dangerous obstacles sure you're like ah ha ha ha ha it's like that before like 72 hours.

Damn. Where did you sleep, if anywhere? Yeah, no. I mean, look, I found a dilapidated mattress that had a clean spot on it. And I did lay down for about four to six hours and started raining. Hilariously, like, Dodd came down from heaven just to like squirt one at me like Chris leaving. Oh, man.

What an old reference that was. David reference, ma'am. So could ask at any point, Is anyone saying like, hey, aren't you, Maham Miller? I love you. I watch you.

You're... Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. No. I looked like 75-pound Mark Coleman. Okay. I was not myself. You know, when you get to a downtrodden state such as that,

right? You don't really... That's why it's so beautiful. I got a guy right now just came out of MCJ Men's Central jail. Okay. For a 100 days.

He was a 155-pounder. is a beast of an athlete, you know, now 220 pounds. I said, man, all right, if you lock in with me, I'm going to help you up. So he's my current project. I'm sure I'm going to detail it on my blog. This guy's going to come down. He's going to get to his fight weight. That's what he claims. Hell, I'll be happy with your fight at 170. Okay. Going back to that time, just curious, Did you always know that at some point you would figure it out or the life that you have now? Was it the furthest thing from your thought? Hell no, bud.

Hell no. Hell no, man. I was living moment to moment, to be honest. I was confused. I didn't know why I was like here. How did this happen? And who's going to help me out of this? And ultimately it was me.

and of course my partner she's like but MVP merging veterans players you know I went from Skid Row to quickly a job as a children's MMA or a jiu jitsu coach

right quickly and quickly I went to MVP and started being human again you know because we never talked about the criminal justice system I was just I mean dehumanize you but every man in there is being dehumanized. You know, you sit there in a concrete box. It looks like the stalls at Venice Beach,

you know, that's your whole world that you live in, right? And then all you have to do is maybe do some drugs that somebody smuggled through their butt, right? And then, look, the California penal system is just a whole probation scam built into like, oh, yeah, we're going to court, we're going to help you. Not helping anything. You're just sending dudes to a freezer for three months at a time and then getting them in your underground economy buying chips and snacks and drugs

that you sold anyway, that's my little dissertation on that. I'll digress back to me. But you said you said you were the one that got yourself out and your partner as well.

How did you guys meet? Oh, man. Look, an interesting story about that is we met 21 years ago because of Joe Rogan. I was hanging out with Joe Rogan a lot. And then we went over to a comedy store and we're like being funny guys in the parking lot,

whatever. He said, you want to go to Skybar? I said, yeah, what the hell is the Skybar? You know, mind you, I'm like a hayseed from Atlanta who's just smashing dudes with Jiu-Jitsu all the time. So Rogan's pretty pumped. He's like, damn, yeah. He said, get me over there. Man, this woman walked up to me and said,

I love your camouflage shorts. Now, yeah, I was in a swanky nightclub wearing camouflage shorts, but this woman liked them for some reason. I thought she might have been trolling me after I was like, oh, thank you very much. And then I went, wait a minute. Is this a joke?

And she's the most beautiful woman I ever met, most interesting. Oh, man, clever and intelligent. And I had a thing for her for sure. In fact, the next night, we went back to the comedy store and then the sky bar and i was so bored that i jumped off the second level onto the first because oh my that late wasn't there this time then i called her and spent the night with her and i pretty much didn't leave her side for a couple weeks now that was when we

were real young and i went on to be mayam and do all this crazy fight stuff and you know all over the world and bad we reconnected i i guess four years ago now i don't know it's been a few it's been a bunch of christmases by now yeah i can't remember exactly but facebook thanks a lot zuckerberg you know because she reached out talked i was doing the MVP thing where i was getting back to human mvp just so happened to be real close to her house so we have dinner all the time and reconnect. It's sort of like a banal romantic comedy now that I'm talking it out loud, but there was like a lot of beautiful moments and funny like times and we went to crazy places and laughed and talking. You know, she has Japan, L.A. So that's the most, she's a CEO. So that's her

focus. I don't know. I love the business so much 20 years ago when she started it that I like brought Dr. Drew to the Hello Kitty art show. Right? So I've been part of it as a whole adventure, and she's been part of mine, and we've always stayed in touch. But now it feels so happy to be home. And you live together. Yes. I love it. Look, I made her for you clear out the massive amount of plushies.

Now, mind you, I love plushies. I love hangy don. He's the funniest Sanrio character, like, smoke cigarettes, and he, like, owns a shop. He's just, but Hello Kitty is the big star. and my melody, they were all back there. I wish you would have kept them. I know, but she said, oh, we're going on Ariel Hwani. It's a boy show.

What? Delineated America is now. We cannot have some femininity behind mayhem whose wife to be owns a plushy shop. When's the wedding? Oh, geez, man. Hey, heard that woman. Can we meet her? Are you serious?

dude. I would love to do. She looks beautiful today, so I would love her to be honest. I mean, I feel like I've known you for so long, quite frankly, I'm offended by your reaction to my question. You got to meet my family, huh? I mean, I'm offended that you wouldn't want. I mean, I feel like. Hey, look, you know what, man, here's what we're going to do. This is the other thing I was trying to get you over there. This is a bop-box. This is a hipper, right? A hipper is something that goes on the back of your phone. these are the most popular items in the world right now. Sunny Angels. They're everywhere.

There's a bootleg market of these fake ones, but these are real and legitimate from Japan. Oh. So the whole point of it is you don't know which one you're going to get. Oh, yes, a surprise box. Yeah, we love those. Surprise box. My daughter loves that.

Okay, yeah. Five three, buses there. They're supposed to give some magic like, please give me a good one. Okay, okay, here we go. That's my method. Here we go, here we go. You can define the tab, but I do, oh.

It's not a setup. With the, not a setup. This is just pure luck. Oh, wow. What is that? What is that? It's an ape, I'm pretty sure. I love the wings.

What is that? An angel? It's a sunny angel. Are you not listening, man? You don't have comprehension down because you've been hitting the head too much? No, I was trying to connect with you. I have the guy that's behind you. Well, listen, you took it out of the box.

It's worthless. I know, but it's actually been through the, look at this side. It got a little, but this has been with me through all my stocks. That's me? Did I do that to him? You might have. I was wondering, yes. Did you do that?

I was wondering why. Did you draw? I remember I see that specific pattern of Sharpie, and that looks like my handwriting. Is this from the Lucky Patrick one? Oh, shit. Lucky Patrick's back? No, no. Please, God, no.

I hope that guy don't show up, man. I just want to let you know that I have brought you. along to all my different stops, all my different shows. I've never forgotten about you, Jason. Man, I'm glad, man. I hope you keystered it. I what? Forget it. Round five. Best ones ever, though. Do you guys sell this at Japan, L.A.? Correct. You do? Yeah, but it's in the dumpster of the back. We're like, I'll sell it to you. Can I ask you? You know, we've seen some fighters, Anthony Smith recently, Dustin Porier, go through some stuff. What could be done here? This concerns me.

You need a whole guidance. Need a whole shamanistic retreat, I believe. I think these guys need to go from the career quickly to a re-education camp. Like literally, the minute you say, oh, I'm going to hang it up for real this time. Well, okay, cool. Then we're going to teach you how to be a human again because we've asked you to be an animal for so long. now my career went 20 years and the minute I got out and they tried to make me a normal guy like what are you going to do man gonna put this ape in a suit and parade him down the street for

and then he's what gonna go buy brand flakes in a quiet supermarket dude it's it's boring it sucks you you need excitement man you've seen all those uh uh documentaries on the performance forming apes, they have so much social interaction during their movie, they're doing, they're hanging out with Tom Hanks all the time, right? Yeah. And then when they go back to the farm in Ohio, they bite someone's face off because they're so stressed out. They're so bored and lonely.

What happened to my friends? And I mean, look, it's a natural condition of a to be social. So once you like stop being social and then, you know, I don't, I don't. don't know the particular's old Anthony Smith. God bless our. I hope he figures it out. I really do. I really do. It's tough. He's in it for a long haul right now because a criminal justice system won't let you take it back. They can't say the wrong things. You know, you cannot discharge firearm, allegedly. You know, you cannot do this type of behavior, even if you live in Texas. But what can be done to help these guys, to help all of you post-fighting?

I just told you, man. No, but I know, like, but that's, that's, that's, that's, that feels pie in the sky? Like, is there a responsibility? What do you mean? But how is it pie in the sky to require the largest organization, the world making billions of dollars, Saudi money coming in? Everybody wants

to invest. Everybody wants to be a far as and so on Paramount to put these guys off with, oh, oh, a pension? No, no pension. How about just a simple network like MVP is where the overhead is low,

but you get people like back on track. Like, okay, now your fight career is over. What are you going to do next? Oh, do you have enough money to ball out of control on your yacht for the route? No. All right, what's up, man? You think you could hack it being a plumber? You think you can hack it being a carpenter?

Oh, what? Do you work your way up to master a carpenter? Fucking auto mechanic? Nothing? You can't do anything but beat people up? All right, cool. We got a job for you, too. go over there.

Do you see this coming? Do you see this happening? No. That's why it's pointing the sky. Unless somebody with the passionate love for the sport and the reverence for all the characters and the men and women who do this sport, unless they get motivated.

And I am. And I am. And, you know, now I'm garnering enough attention and focus and sponsors and, you know, the legal way to do things. that, you know, here I am. So you're going to work on this? Look, I already am.

MVP has begun, okay, it's for veterans. Yeah, and for those that don't know, you're not talking about NBA. You're having fighters in there. Yeah, you're not. Yeah, more and more. Randy Couture, arguably the greatest of all time, heavyweight.

He's involved, okay, I'm involved. So, all right, fighters who didn't make it that far are in there from the crash out over to MVP chatting with the huddle. We're sharing our experiences. You know, PTSD is like recently recognized some strange numbers.

It's a mouthful word, but it's been with us for time immemorial. And now that we're all isolating on our phones and computers, oh, well, you miss that part where humans are supposed to hang out together and look each other in the face and be like, dude, I understand your pain.

you can get through this. Without someone to give you a pep talk, what are you going to do? Watch Arrow Hawaiian all day? No. That's not good. I like your content. Honestly, I can't believe that you can talk this long with this many dudes. I appreciate that.

I love you, Jason. I love you, Mayhem. I'm waiting for my save-the-date, by the way. Am I going to get that for the wedding or what? Hey, listen, I don't know how to use the emails. Okay. But I'll get it out to you. All right.

congratulations on the episode. I do suggest you check it out. I think it's well done. It tells the story in a nice, succinct, 44-so-minute package. It premieres tonight on Vice. I already agreed to a live watch party tonight about it. Oh. I think it's at 4 or 5 p.m.

Okay, where? Where can people partake in this? Leave it's vice. I don't know. Google it up. All right. Start with the cage. All right.

Six, I think it should be because it's at 9 Eastern. I'll get there early, back of lunch. All right. Thank you and congrats, my man, and good to see you. And let us know when you're in town. God bless you, man. Thank you very much. There he is.

Jason Mayhem Miller, kind enough to join us on this Tuesday afternoon to talk about his Dark Side of the Cage episode that premieres tonight on Vice at 9 p.m. There's eight episodes in this particular season. Check them out, Don Frye, part of an episode that's coming up, I think maybe next week or the following week. Okay, very excited to talk to our next guest, our final guest of the day. It's been a very, very busy day, but very much looking forward to this chat.

It was seven days ago. We were watching Contender Series, and obviously a lot of people, including myself, thought that it would be a great night for her and her family. Obviously, the game of fighting, very unpredictable, and it did not go as so many of us thought for Bellamere, but she is here to talk about what transpired last week in Las Vegas and, of course, talk about the future as well. She's kind enough to join us right here now to discuss it all. There she is. Hello, Bella. How are you?

Hey, I'm good. How are you? I'm doing great. From Jason Mayhem Miller to you, going from someone at the tail end of their career to the very beginning of their career. I know a lot has happened over the past week, and I'm sure a lot of people have wanted to talk to you, so I appreciate you coming on to talk to us. How would you describe how you're feeling right now a week later, how you're dealing with

everything that happened seven days ago? honestly I feel like I've moved on I honestly haven't really thought about it in the past like a couple days I'm just thinking about the next thing right now there's only so much I could dwell on it and there's only so much I could go over what I did wrong and how to improve so it's honestly just to the next best thing and it's just what I'm focusing on that is great because sometimes we see fighters we talk to fighters who dwell on losses for a very long time maybe two or long and it affects them. It doesn't seem like it affects you. In fact, I saw on your social media yesterday, I think you were back at your college stomping grounds, maybe, with your old friends. It seemed like you were having a great time, so it seems to be out of your system. Yeah, I feel like that's just,

it's honestly, that's just what life's about. You know, there's ups and downs, and there's only so, so many ups that I can live on, and there's going to be a lot of downs in my life. And, you know, just creating memories, I feel like that's just the what most important thing is and going to hang out with my friends, one of my old colleges. So that was fun and get my mind off it. And now I'm ready to get back to work. So I know you're past it now. I apologize for having to ask you questions about it.

But I do think this is the first time we've heard from you. So appreciate you coming on. Can I ask, leading up to the fight, how are you feeling about everything? Because, you know, there was so much excitement, so much hype surrounding your contender series fight, eventual debut. It kind of felt like your UFC debut in so much.

many ways. Were you feeling good? Were you feeling confident? How would you describe the build-up to the fight? Yeah, I mean, I felt confident. I felt good into my training. Obviously, there was like certain parts of my training that we had to adjust during fight camp. But I felt good. Obviously, the weight cut, I'm still trying to get that down. I'm still trying to feel good on fight day after that. But no, I felt good. I didn't think anything went wrong before the fight and, you know, just is what it is and I just didn't have a good night. Were you feeling the pressure of the moment? Because when you had fought prior in MMA,

some of them were not broadcast on a Paramount Plus or being talked about or previewed as much. Were you feeling all that pressure, Dana being there, all that stuff? Honestly, no. I think the pressure and all of that, it feels honestly the same for everything else I've ever done. I'm always going into tournaments and I'm like the most hated wrestler because of everything I do and people doubt me and I can't balance all three and everything what haters say. And since the day I can remember of, I've always had a target on my back because of my last name.

So I think now just more people are starting to realize that pressure and I guess like trying to put it more on to me. But nothing honestly changed. I feel like I thrive in pressuring situations so no I didn't really affect me and you feel like you are hated like you truly it's not like people just kind of rooting against you

you actually feel that way about the people surrounding you oh yeah like honestly like after the fight and people like a lot of fighters were texting me on Instagram or texting me on like if they had my phone number and trying to like I guess I keep my hope

up or just tell me that everything's going to be okay. And I was kind of confused. I was like, I feel like this is pretty known. I'm not really liked in every sport I compete in. I go into, you hear at NCAA finals, there are more booze than there were cheering. I feel like that's just what it's been like my whole life. I feel like I've never been the one that's being cheered for. So honestly, the hate after the fight, it didn't surprise me at all.

And then my mom commenting about stuff. that didn't really help the situation. But she honestly kind of took the fire off of me. Everyone started hating on her more than they were hating on me. So I thought that was, it's crazy. It's like, Mom, you literally protect me in every situation I've ever lived in. And literally, you protected me more in this one. I don't even know how you could have done that, but she did.

Do you think that's why she did it? I don't know. I think just the heat of the moment. My mom's very emotional. So when she saw like, like obviously she's seen hate in my comments before, but like to a level like that, she's never seen. So I think she just, it just took the best of her. And then obviously drinking that night that didn't really help. So I don't think she really had like any kind of mission.

I think she was just raging out. Right. And yeah, and then she obviously apologized to everyone. Yeah. Yeah, she admitted that she made a mistake, and that's the best that anyone could do, honestly, after making a mistake, is owning up to it. So that was just a crazy situation. Did you reach out to her and say, like, yo, chill, you don't need to do this? Or did she kind of come to that conclusion on her own?

No, I reached out to her, and I was like, I didn't realize how bad it was until I woke up the next day. and I saw it all, like, all the messages, and I saw people posting about it. And I was like, oh, my God, I did not know she did all that. So, yeah, I definitely told her. I was like, I was like, Mom, we need to delete these. We need to apologize to Alex. We need to apologize to social media. Like, we need to fix this because this is not okay.

And then eventually she did. Okay. Going back to the fight, how much did you know about Alex prior to the fight? I mean, as much as everyone else did, some YouTube videos on her fights and just watching her or not train, watching her fight through UFC Fight Pass and YouTube, just watching her film. I feel like that's kind of how all of my opponents are. They just have fights online and then you kind of study them for a little bit and then train about it. And yeah, pretty much as much as everyone else did.

I thought you won the first round But I'm wondering if early on there was a moment where you were thinking like this isn't going to be as easy For lack of better work Because I know no fight is easy even though it may look easy to us as some of my previous competitions fights matches Is there a moment where you started to get frustrated and think like this isn't going my way In the fight no I was just I honestly wasn't really thinking a lot

When my like when my brain goes dead and I'm not not thinking it a bunch and I'm not really being responsive like during the breaks. I've had so many matches like that too in wrestling where it's not like me. And I could definitely like tell during the fight like I was just having one of those days where I wasn't like firing how I usually do and I wasn't thinking about like my setups and I wasn't wrestling a lot. And that like I think that what frustrated me to frustrated me the most is I wasn't like taking my normal shots and I wasn't setting up my takedowns and it wasn't like I wasn't taking her down

like I was catching her kicks and I was getting onto her back. So I think that's what frustrated me the most is that I tried to like stand and bang with her and that's like not me at all. I don't think I've ever watched a sparring video in my entire life of training MMA that I've ever stood and banged with somebody like that before. So I think I just had a bad night and I think that That's really what it was. Why do you think you got away from what you do so well? I don't know. I was trying to figure that out with my coaches, like, after the fights,

they just kept asking me, like, because obviously they knew something was wrong. They were just, like, what happened? Like, you've never looked like that ever. And honestly, I think I just crashed after the first round. Like, I felt fine in the first round, and the second and third, I just like, I just had, like, it wasn't that I wasn't out of shape. Like, I felt like I was in shape. I just felt like I had no energy.

Like, my muscles just weren't, like, doing what they're supposed to be doing. How did you feel like they supported you, spoke to you after, obviously your dad is there? But, like, that moment when you get to the back, what was that like for you? It was definitely quiet at first. I don't, like, after, like, losses, I kind of like to be by myself for a little bit and kind of just. and kind of just like think about like what just happened um and then obviously afterwards like we were like going over certain things and like we were just trying to figure out like what went wrong and don McGregor my uh the other not my dad the other coats that's in my corner um he's

been my wrestling coach since i was like 13 years old so he knew like immediately um what happened and after like uh certain like he's after certain wrestling matches and he's after certain wrestling matches like how I've like wrestled and like I don't um like I'm not doing what I'm supposed to be doing especially like if it's right after like a really bad cut um he just knows that like you're uh you're just not wrestling like yourself and um I think that's and that's what like we um really thought that what really went into it um and uh like we just like talked about like what we got to do and I just need a walk around lighter I think that's like what the and uh, uh, discussion was and like the end result of solving this problem was I just need to not get up to

165. I think I need to stay down and just have my walk around be like 148. I just, I don't know why I just cutting my whole life. It's just hard for me. But you will still stay at 135, right? You will fight at 135. Yeah. I mean, that's, I mean, yeah, we don't really have any options. since I can girls we only got with three weight glasses so sure but like 125 is too much oh my god no like when they did my when they did my in-body scan at the the PI they they even said like because obviously like your body's only able to go down a certain weight and when we did the inbody like going down to 135 was even pushing it and like getting through muscle tissue so um so I just got to be lighter but yeah 125 would be literally impossible

there's no way. Did you break your nose in the fight? No. Okay. It's actually so funny that people were like, oh, like, she broke her nose. Her nose is bleeding so much. Every single teammate of mine in college wrestling and in high school, they were texting me. They were like, that's so annoying.

They think you broke your nose. Like, they should watch your wrestling matches. You bleed every match. Like I literally, my nose, I've got my nose cauterized. My nose bleeds so bad. Like, every single practice, someone touches. as it starts bleeding. So that's never been something new. You probably have heard this by now, but maybe not. And for the audience, the similarities

between the beginning of your pro career and your dad, pretty amazing. You both started 4-0, now 4-1, but the fact that both of your first wins, unanimous decision, then sub, then sub, then lost, like, the exact results as well. Same age, too. That's crazy, no? Yeah. It's all part of my plan. No, I'm just playing.

Did you know that? Did you know same results, too? Like, the same finishes. I didn't know that until I watched someone on a video, post on Instagram, and they were talking about it. And I was like, that is so weird. I hope that we don't have the exact career all the way through, because I want to, I I want to fight for a long time and not have so much brain damage, so I hope.

Oh, well, he had a pretty legendary career. I mean, heavyweight champ, like, not bad. Yeah, but he's been in so many wars before. Like, his brain is not good today. I feel like it's really been catching up to him, and I, like, do not, like, trying to get fast finishes and not have wars like that, like how he just did in the last fight. Obviously, if I have to, I will. And he also had like, how many fights did he have? He was like, he had like 50, 50 fights?

Was it that many? What was his record? Was his record 36 and 19 and 13? 19 and 13. Yeah. 32? Yeah, I don't know if I want to have 32 fights. Okay.

How is he doing? He's doing good, but he's had so many surgeries, his body is so, is so beat up. He's had his neck fused. He's had his lower back fused. He's had his hip replacement, his knee replacement. Both his labrums and his shoulders are completely gone. That's why I said I do not want to have his career. I want to be able to not have that many surgeries and function afterwards. Completely normal. He's like, there's times where he's like needing a cane because he can't walk that much. Oh, man. So, yeah, it's just, his body's beat up and just, yeah, no.

So seeing that and knowing that that could happen to a fighter, and like I said, legendary fighter, that still makes you like okay with all this. Like, you know how this story could end. You know what happens to fighters after a long career. Does that ever make you think twice about going fully into all of this? I mean, no, because you see, like, you. like a lot of other fighters, like they have like different ends to their stories and they don't get beat up as much as other people and have as many surgeries as other people. So, and also too, like just like taking care of your body like while, while being in the on the ride. Like I feel like that's what he, I guess like could have done better as take care of his body while he was training. Okay.

And I feel like that's just part of like all sports. I mean, the NFL, like football is like one of the most popular sports for boys growing up. And it doesn't really stop them seeing like NFL guys having injuries and basketball players and baseball, having UCL construction because of throwing the ball all the time. So I think just the love of the game kind of distracts you from all that. Was there anything that he said to you afterwards that stuck with you? I mean, what a great guy to have by your side. What a great person. What a gift to have him guide you.

So, you know, he has seen and done it all. I'm wondering if he said anything to you that stayed with you afterwards. Yeah, he said, you're only as good as your last fight. And I think that stuck with me just really well because you see, like, the fight before this, people were calling me all over, like, oh, she's a person. Prodigy. She's the next, she's the next champion of the bandweight division. She's going to save the division and like hyping me up. And then after this, it's fraud check. And she's not good and she's horrible. She sucks. So I mean, and then I'm going to go when my next one is going to be some crazy finish. And then they're going to go back to what they're saying before. So what he said, you're only as good as your last fight. I feel like it's so true. And I know you said that you're used to the hate, but to read that stuff, like the next day, like, you know, because this was such a big deal. I don't know if the hate was as loud back in the day. Did it affect you at all? Before this fight? No, like the day after, like last Wednesday, the day after the fight, you wake up, you're probably a little banged up, a little tired, sore. And as I said, I know you say that you're used to the hate. You've been surrounded by it for so long. But to go on social media and everyone's talking about you. you and having an opinion on you and saying these things that you probably don't agree with.

Did it bum you out? Did it get you down for a minute? I wouldn't say the hate got me down. I feel like how I performed got me down. Just like I wish I could have proved what I actually fight like. I think that's what like upset me the most. The hate, no, the hate didn't upset me at all. And honestly, like, seeing as viral as it went, it honestly, like, it made me realize, like, wow, I'm not even in the UFC yet and I'm going this viral.

Like, I can't even imagine 10 fights from now, like, how big my fights are going to be when I'm fighting and fighting for a title or whatever it is. I just think it's crazy, like, how viral it is that I'm only five fights in. was only on the contenders and how much the contenders blew up like how that was like the most uh watched fight on contenders and like seeing all these things it's just like so crazy to think about um how viral went and it was off the loss like i can't wait how viral i go like when it's off a win yeah that is a that is a very good point um does it change your trajectory does it change the way you view things like it my read on you right now is like you are not deterred you're confidence isn't shaken, you're going to get right back to it.

Like, we're here talking about, oh, she needs a year or two, all that stuff. It feels like you are thinking the same thoughts about where you're going and how your career is going to play out than you thought before the fight. Am I accurate in reading you this way? Oh, yeah, for sure. I don't want to wait a whole year to fight again. I think out of everything, I feel like this, what's really only changing when it comes to, like, my goals is I just want to, like, be more active now that I'm not in college.

So I want to see if I could fight like five times a year and like get that experience that I should be getting that that helped me with wrestling and jitsu, like how I have to get a lot of experience and being at a high level with that. And yeah, like I think when it comes to like bouncing back, I feel like I'm like one of the best at it. You see throughout like my entire wrestling career and even my jitsu career, like my first ever world championships in jitsu at blue boy. I didn't even place. I didn't even get top three. And then came back and won and I blew and purple. And now I'm the fourth-ranked brown belt in the world right now and wanting to go win Browns this year.

And same with wrestling. Like, I never made a world team ever until going to college when I committed to wrestling a little bit harder and made U-20 team and U-23 and not winning and losing to Macy Kilty in the now. national finals and then coming back and winning NCAA this year, I feel like every time I lose, I don't let it deter like my goals. And it's just part of the journey. Like we're supposed to be

losing. We're supposed to go through really bad hardships. And that's what makes these wins so much so much better winning NCAAs and seeing like my entire teammates and running into like my family's arms, it makes it so much more sweet because of all, like, the losses that I went through before. We have seen some fighters go on Contender Series and already have UFC deals, and it's just kind of part of their journey to fight there, and then you get into the UFC, but it's already kind of agreed upon. Is that your situation as well? Do you already have a UFC deal? I'm honestly not quite sure. Dana talked to me after the fight, and he was just asking me if I was okay.

Just because I think that's what everyone else's reaction was. It's asked me if I was okay. As of right now, my next step is wrestling right now and trying to get these world team spots and Raff and whatever else I have coming up soon. And obviously, I would like to fight after. I generally, I don't know. I feel like I want to get more on the regional scene and fight more of those before I get to the UFC. Okay.

But I don't, like, I generally, like, haven't talked to Hunter Dana about, like, that specific topic. So I'm actually not quite sure what their, like, thought is on that. Have you or your team mapped out? Okay, we're going to try to do X, Y, and Z. this many fights are the course of the next year we're going to go here, we're going to go there or is it still too soon? Not to that specific, no.

Me, I just I want to just try to fight as much as I can this coming up year and try to fight one more time at the end of this year and just try to get as much experience I can before getting up to the UFC because that is always going to be the main goal.

We don't have experience. specific organizations that we have in mind or who we want to fight. I think it's just something that we'll probably talk about in the next week or so. What about the Olympics? Is that still in your mind? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Nothing else has changed.

Wrestling's still the same. Jitzi is the same. I still want to knock off all those goals. You still want to get to the UFC. I think maybe the timing is just going to be a little bit different out. like maybe not going to the UFC this coming up year or maybe next year or I don't know I think it's just whatever uh however my fights go and how many fights I need to do if I need to do 10 fights and that's what I have to do and there's no one in your life and far beat for me to limit you

but who's saying like let's just focus on one and not all these things that's a lot to put on your plate is there anyone trying to steer you in that direction uh no I don't think uh I really don't think a loss is going to be changing back at all. I think it's the same. Like, we go back to wrestling and jitsu. Like, I would have never thought after losing my first every year and getting fifth place at NCAA's and someone telling me, maybe we should just focus on wrestling since you're not really winning anything.

And then I kept winning a bunch of things. And then I finally win the U.S. Open. and now I'm the second best girl in the country behind Kennedy Blades, and we haven't wrestled yet. So I think it's just all part of my path. If my path happens to be a little bit longer because I'm doing three different things, then so be it. I'm only 23, but I don't think any of those losses before wrestling would have made me quit just because I didn't win anything. And then in the end, I started to win other things like NCL Blaze in the U.S. Open. So I don't think this loss is going to deter me from that.

that I think it's just going to make me better and stronger. How about fighting Alex again, the thought of fighting her again? Would you like that? 100%. Okay, I see that's my... 100 million percent. When I absolutely love this story of one of my losses that in my heart I shouldn't have lost. And I wrestled this girl named Alexis Gomez.

I wrestled her at this duel in November of our season. So earlier in this season, I attacked her. I don't know how long it took, but I checked her, and then I had to wrestle her in Raff two weeks later, and I just didn't wrestle how I usually do. And I lost, I forgot the score. I think it was like seven to four or something like that. And I should have not lost that match. And then a couple, a month later, I had to wrestle her at National Dules, and we won National Dules as a team that year. And we had McHenry in the final. and we're wrestling and I beat her 9-0,

almost teched her again. And I think that's like, I think that is what I relate most to this fight with Alex. Like I think I just had a moment where I wasn't myself and I'm definitely going to come back and people are going to see what the fight should have looked like. How do you think she does in the UFC? I think she'll do well. I think a lot of the girls, I think they'll have a problem with her. Her striking's good, and she's a little bit older, so she has a different kind of experience.

But I honestly wish nothing but the best for her. I don't have any hate towards her, but I hope she does. I mean, she does know I'm going to want that rematch. Yeah. And I feel like a lot of the UFC girls think, I feel like this is a good thing for me because a lot of people now are going to overlook me. And I think that was what happened in wrestling. People started to overlook me because I wasn't winning anything until I started doing. And then people started to respect me a little bit more.

So I think that's just what's going to have to happen with this is people are going to start overlooking me. And then I'm going to get my respect back and show the world what I am. Okay, last thing, for anyone who has jumped off the Bellamyer bandwagon, who claims you're a fraud, who says that you're overhyped or it never was, what is the message to them? Just keep watching. That's what Tate McGray said, so that's why I walked out to that song. I think it just, yeah, I just, it just, I feel like explains me so much. It's just, I just want people to keep watching. What is the name of that song, by the way?

I don't I'm not familiar with it just keep watching oh is it okay wow okay wow I've just exposed myself as a non-tape McCray fan more of an Aver Levine guy are you familiar with her work Aver Levine Yeah yeah 25 years prior

Maybe your parents are fans Yeah You are the same age as though Wow wow how old your dad 47 Okay well yeah Pretty much Forty six

Golly Oh wait, no, no, no, 47, because my mom's 52. Okay. Good for Frank. Well done. What's on your nails, by the way? Oh. What does that represent? It doesn't really represent anything. I just like getting my nails done. Oh, is that supreme? Oh, yes.

Yeah. Did you do it yourself? Oh, my God, no. Okay. No, no, I go getting done. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not good with like artsy things like that. But what's, what is the, is that a monkey over there? What is that?

What does that represent? Yeah. Nothing. Oh, it's just nice pictures that you like. Yeah, they're just cute. Like I just, I'll get like flames sometimes. I'll get like different things like whatever. But yeah, it's always on my Pinterest.

I just like scroll and I'll just see like cute things. And I'm like, oh, yeah, I want to do that. Respect. And massive respect on how you're, handling all of this. You know, like sometimes with fighters, you don't know how they're going to come on after a loss. It's dark. It's depressing. It's sad. If someone didn't watch last week, they would have thought you would have won. Like, you have a smile on your face. You have the right perspective. So very impressive. Well done. I have no doubt that you'll be back. None of us

are doubting that at all. We haven't jumped off the bandwagon. And I find the story now even more interesting to follow in covers. So wishing you nothing about the best. And thanks for coming on in doing this. I really do appreciate it. Oh yeah, thank you. And thank you for having me on. And yeah, I feel like a comeback story is a lot more fun to watch. Absolutely. Looking forward to seeing it play out.

Thank you, Bella. All the best, too. We'll talk to you soon. Thank you. See it. There she is. Belamir. Coming off that fight, it's going to be really interesting to see how she rebounds. You learn a lot about a fighter, as we know, very well. You learn a lot about how they they handle adversity

who they are, what they're all about, what they're made of after traumatic moments like that, stressful moments like that, the world is out to get you, everyone's calling you a whole bunch of stuff. It is wild for me,

I have to say, it is wild. I mean, like, we've had Frank on the show after some of his biggest fights, and I'm talking to his daughter about some of her biggest fights. It is wild.

Am I officially old? Is that what's happened? That's the theme of the day. You're washed, Uncle. I, like... Ben Unk. Rick, there's a moment where I'm like, I remember talking to Frank. Yeah.

At like, we're in Memphis. We're in Memphis. We're in Memphis. UFC, what was it? 107. And I'm standing next. I remember talking to him and his kids are running around. Yep.

And now she's fighting. Yeah. Not just fighting. Yeah. She was the story of the week. Yeah. UFC 107. Crazy.

The next one is UFC 3.3. 31. Wow, man. Yeah. 224 UFCs. Numbered UFCs. numbered. How many actual U.S.

And there's only like 12, 13 a year, so. What'll beat the allegations is if you keep saying like, you know, I love Averill Levine when somebody says Tate McCray,

like that'll help if you keep it. It's usually the direct comp. Yeah, yeah. Tate McCray versus Averilliv. He's just a skater bull. Isn't that like, isn't that Tate McRae 25 years ago?

Yeah, for sure. No. Who's, Who's Tate McCray 25 years ago? Brittany Spears? Oh, for real, okay. She's like a pop, very big. Tate McCray is not that big.

She's not. She is not Britney Spears. Okay, but that's a different era. She's huge. Taylor Swift is Britney Spears. Taylor Swift's an actual musician, though. She's in her own. Yeah, Taylor Swift's also,

is bigger than British. Olivia Rodriguez is Britney Spears. And Britney was way bigger. I think, like, this is an unc-ass conversation, by the way. No, Britney Spears was. Kate McCray to Britney. Is that true?

I'm saying style-wise. She's like dancing. No, but I'm talking about, big on the dancing. I'm talking about, she's also very famous. I'm talking about, like, famous-wise.

I don't think Tate McCray is at, Britney Spears, walked down the street back in the 90s. Yeah, she was a global pop star that most these stars cannot reach. Tate McCray could also not walk down the street. For real, really.

No chance. I actually learned of Tate McCray, no joke in February. When I landed in Italy, we went to Livino, and I was talking to my, colleagues at CBC and they were so fired up that Tate McCray had done a commercial for NBC for the Olympics and they're like, we can't believe she did an NBC commercial and I'm like,

who's this Tate McCray? She's like, she's Canadian. She's Canadian, right? Yes. And they're like, why would she do NBC? She should be doing CBC. I'm like, I'm pretty sure CBC ain't paying Tate McCray, like based on what you're telling me. I never heard of her.

And then she was dating Jack Hughes, right? Or maybe before from the Devils? That's all I know about her. Can't name you a single song. I guess I can name you one now. Well, that happens, you know. That happens. But yeah, Brittany's definitely bigger.

Brittany's definitely bigger. Brittany, bitch. Are you kidding? The best is when you can hear Andy in the back. When I could get a pop out of Andy, then I know I did it. I did something right. Andy, rank them for me. Avril Tate Brittany.

These are different styles. different eras. Am I exposing myself when I'm comparing Tate to Averill? Yes, 100%. For real. I think Averill is so great. I love Averill back in.

I would say Olivia Rodrigo is closer to what Averro Levina is trying to. I was just about to say that. I was just about to say it. It's like emotional. Rob. Sabrina Carpenter? Emotional Rock.

No, Sabrina Carpenter is again like pop. Hmm. Wait, but wasn't Averill pop too? No. What? Pop-ish. Papa Jason. She was much more like rock.

I'm with you. I'm with Ariel. What about Don T. Oliver? Don T. Oliver? What do you know about Don T Oliver, bro? Drake showed up yesterday. You don't know, Don't know, Don't know. You saw that at the Scotia Bank?

Did you see that? Don T. Oliver. No, I didn't see that. What do you mean? It was huge. He played his songs. Janus STFU. Kiss me, baby. Wow.

I could just sense my sons like just dying inside. I'm like, I'm not that bad guys. I'm not that dorky. When I said, did I mention this to you guys? I said to my son Walter, I said, I YK YK YK YK, and he will, he, so I said it to that. I said, I YK, YK, YK, Y, K, I forget what about? And he goes, he like, he took a second to like register what I said. He's like, don't, please don't ever do that.

Please don't ever do that. I was like what? I-Y-K-Y-K. Yeah. That makes sense. I mean, people use that acronym on the internet. It was never a saying. Also, similar reaction to the Aver-Livine comparison.

From, oh, when I said it. Yeah. Oh, wow. Actually, like, to the point where if someone said I-Y-K-Y-K-Y-K, in, like, the boom of I-Y-K-Y-K-I-K, I'd be like, why did you just say that? And now we're 10 years removed. I have to say I'm actually struggling. Like I never, I'm not saying I'm having a midlife crisis,

but I am struggling with this because for the longest time, I was the young guy, the young guy, the young guy, the young guy. And now all of a sudden I'm being mocked for being the old guy. How did this happen? It's all sick. Let's get you back to bed. I know. Soon enough, what your kids think is cool will no longer be cool.

No, it just, it really hits you. It hits you. Like, it really hits me hard. I'm struggling with it. I have to say. I'm struggling watching it happen. Today was a particular one because you have. fighters like Ron and Bella who are like so young in the game and like...

Ron was something, man. Ron was something. Ron was saying the words that I say to try to sound cool, but he's actually saying them as part of his vernacular. Wait, you talk like Ron when you're... No, and he was saying... A couple words. A couple words.

He was saying. There was a couple words. No, no. No, no. There was lit. There was another one. What did you think what he called Esam mid and shit? What were you thinking that?

When he was like, you sound's good, but he's not... No, he said... He said, Islam's pretty good. The rest of them are good. I was like, yo, man, you're on your, you're on your own island here. I mean, also when you said, well, just to remind of Islam Makashv is beating Ian Gary, you were beating Alexis Miranda. Yeah.

And it was like, doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. I'm like, I think if Islamakashv fought Alexis Miranda, he'd be like a minus 25,000 favors. Yes. It does kind of matter. Does it not? It does, but I love the mentality. of. It matters a lot. If Islam Makashv fights me, he's going to win the fight no matter what.

If he fights Ian Gary, it's going to be a good fight. The opponent matters, of course. I have faith in UGC. That's why any time these guys come up, it's just like, well, who's he fought yet? We've got to find out. This is his first real time. Yes. Moses is Thomas is best we go. Moses Atama. But that delusion is what's going to either make him an all-time grade or a flame out, and I'm interested to see what happens. I can't wait to see what happens. We need a great representative from a lot. I felt like I was trying to make a connection there, but you guys weren't... What do you want us to say, man?

What you mean? Oh, what's up, man? And there's this stranger in the back. I got your back, yeah. Well, first he was like, are you really from Atlanta? I felt like that was a bit of shade. That isn't when he said, he said, people from Atlanta would be like, oh, you're not really from Atlanta.

Yeah. There was a whole song called That Is Not Atlanta by some woman a few years ago, who essentially said every single part of Atlantis is not Atlanta. Atlanta's like a sprawling city. Sure. Like it's just like, what do you tell people you live? New York. Yeah, no, I understand.

Where does these people say they live in New York? No, I get it, I get it. These guys live two and a half hours away. I mean, you've got to take six trains, two cars. Careful. Three automobiles can get that. Careful. I'm still born here.

Careful. Guys, we have some breaking news. I said at the top of the show, we're playing two today. So let me explain. Can I explain? I'm very excited to announce to all of you that the beat is back. The uncrowned beat is back.

This is very exciting. And it will be airing live and exclusively on Amazon Fire TV. Every Wednesday, new episode will drop. We will record them on Tuesday, so I'm being honest with all of you. It won't actually be live, but it will go live. On Amazon Fire TV, we are very excited about this. Another new show from Uncrowned HQ, Uncrowned Studios. Every single week, it will be myself and three other.

members of the media focusing on the big stories in the world of combat sports. You know what the hell the beat is. It first started many moons ago. Actually, it first first started versus.com. That was the name of my weekly article. It was called the B, the MMA beat, I think I called it. And then when we went to fan house slash MMA fighting, SB Nation, Vox Media, we did the show, the MMA beat, did it for many years.

and it was sort of, it was born off the idea of the sports reporter show that I loved so very much. Dick Schapp and all these great reporters, loved it every Sunday. So I loved the idea of combat reporters talking about combat related items, media covering the sport, all that and more.

I did a version of it at ESPN called the, I think we called it the fight reporters or the combat reporters, something like that. And then it kind of just fizzled out. We brought it back a couple of, times since we've been back here doing everything at Uncrowned. But now it is actually back as a weekly show. But I want to tell you, it's a Fire TV exclusive. So you need to have a fire stick to watch this every Wednesday. We'll post some social clips and whatnot, but it's not going to be a

YouTube show. This is a deal that we've done with Amazon Fire TV, and we're very excited about it. And so each and every week, you will get that program. This week's show is going to be myself, Chuck Minnhal, Shaheen Al-Shadi. And, of course, New York Rick joining us just to piss everyone off. And we'll be talking about a whole host of things related to the world of MMA. So the beat is back. A lot of you have been asking about it.

Yes, it's not always going to be the four of us in the same studio as it was back in the day. It's just not quite the same setup these days, but the spirit of the show is the same. I know a lot of you enjoy it, like it, and we're excited to resurrect it. Once and for all, we've got a snazzy new graphics package, in fact.

Can we even show that? I didn't ask beforehand. Does that screw you guys up if I know everyone gets upset when I spring these things upon you? Do we have it? Do we have the intro? Possible? Maybe? I don't know.

I like it. It's very, oh, here it is. So, you know yourself, that's big time stuff. Young Crown beat every Wednesday on Amazon Fire TV. That is why we are playing two on this Tuesday. So I'm very excited to announce that to all of you. A couple more things before we go. Dan Hooker, Saladin Parnas, faced off in Paris earlier today.

That main event is this weekend at the Aco Arena. I can't freaking wait for that. I cannot freaking wait for that. What a fight, the debut of Saladin Parnas against the vet, Dan Hooker. That is going to be incredible. And that's a great faceoff right there, courtesy of our friends over at Engage. Sonia Dong has commented on the Usman-Magamatov controversy, him jumping into the cage.

Here's what he had to say. If someone suddenly runs over like that, you definitely react that way. He is sort of defending Usman's reaction, basically saying, like, look, we bumped into each other, all good, no harm, no foul. Let's move on with our lives. Here's Darren Till reacting to Daniel Kormier's comments regarding Usman jumping into the cage and the whole hull-blue post-Umar getting knocked out. Why is D.C. always on the defensive of the Numeraga Madoffs?

Baffles me. You as a company man, should he shouldn't have. should know maybe he shouldn't have stormed the octagon like that the guy's celebrating his big knockout against a huge name bit somehow but somehow you have found a way to defend him you little potato head why why why i'm going to be honest as much as i think you're one of the best fighters in the ufc history the way you are a company man and your views are fucking shit stop commenting and go be an ambassador ambassador for fat camp you effin potato man constantly finding excuses for that side you little potato okay a lot of potatoes there everyone stop chatting shit

let's not forget. He's also very good friends with these guys. So it's not like he's just defending the company or anything like that. It has nothing to do with the company. He's their former teammate, coach, mentor. And so that is that. Here's Hamza Shamaev telling the world, he wants to fight. And for the first time, he's saying, hey, if it ain't going to be Sean, it's going to be Drichus, Nasurdin, Kayo. Sounds like he's not just focused on that title, which I do like, because quite frankly, I think it should be Nasrudeen next for the belt. Sean Woodson was victorious this past weekend and look at the staff infection that he is dealing with

this is crazy stuff right here yeah that is gnarly that is not good fucking out yeah oh my dear what the hell ah too close earlier today press conference in Dublin

Katie Taylor Flora Pili title fight this weekend Croke Park you know by now They faced off next to Eddie here. There's Brian Peters behind Katie. Eddie going to join us tomorrow on the program. Can't wait for that. Eddie also doing the media rounds

and saying AJ has been paid for the prang of fight. Let's take a listen. Is AJ been paid yet? Yeah, we're all good from the last fight and we're moving forward amicably. We don't want to do the fight in the US, but we also understand it has to work for everybody.

and at the same time we're basically being told if you don't do the fight like we only want to do to fight in the US which we don't agree with we don't understand we're banging our head against the war on that for the last two months

so like I said we've set out our position mainly in concern to the tax situation that will deplete his net purse by going to America which can be rectified and I think they're happy to do that

everything else is, there's no un, abnormal requests. It's up to them. There's nothing else to discuss. Are you confident you'll get it over the line? I have no idea. I mean, I think, I think, I think so. But our dream and our hope is they just turn around and go, this is too messy, we'll just do it in Wembleau.

But they're adamant, adamant that they want to fight in America. When did they get back to you? found two or three days ago two days ago two days ago okay so some some movement there

Eddie did some other interviews that I saw where he says it has to be finalized this week let's go here's Tyson Fury reacting to it all

on Instagram saying what a place NYC and what a venue MSG and what a fight Fury versus AJ

the land of opportunity what a weekend away for the lads on the piss in NYC, iconic. Not long now, guys. So it sounds like he is hopeful as well. Some audio has emerged from Moses and Talmas Corner.

Found this to be fascinating. A lot of people, you know, going crazy about Ben Davison and saying that he let him down the wrong path and wasn't there for him, didn't have him prepared the right way, all that stuff more. Take a listen to Ben speaking to Moses on Saturday night. You don't need to try to finish him, mate. It's another two rounds of that He's ready to go. The body will stop him.

This is what Hergovich's corner is saying. Then they go back to Moses. Don't chase his head. Arms by your side. Take a few deep breaths. Control it. In through your nose. He's telling him to breathe. Telling him to relax. Compose yourself, he says. Relax. Exactly how we started the last round. Listen to me. All you need. Keep him guessing with that bodywork.

That will push him around the ring, okay? Don't get carried away. Very important. composure. He wasn't telling him to head hunt. He wasn't telling him to go for the knockout punch. But that's what happens. That's youth. That's inexperience.

Much more to come. Tomorrow on the program, we're going to be joined by Eddie Hearn. He's going to be in the U.S., in Newark, to promote that Andy Ruiz show. He was on the show yesterday in studio. That was great. Balal Hassan is going to join us to talk about his big win on Saturday. Cheeto Vera is going to join us and probably one more as well. well, OTN as well.

Arialawani.substack.com is the place to be for all your questions. Speaking of questions and comments, we do have a couple of super chats to get to photo today. Hard out 434 today, guys. So we have to get to that number. Here's Mohammed, who says,

the rant on Usman jumping into the cage to check on his brother that has just been knocked out as ridiculous. You really had no justification for that anger. Yet you deny that you. you have a bias against Ali fighters. Come on. Is that you, Ali?

Rant. What are you talking about? Who's the check? What are you talking about, rant? That was a rant? If you think that's a rant, you are new to this. That was not a rant.

You're okay with fighters just jumping into the cage and threatening to hit the guy who just knocked out your brother with a spinning back elbow. You're okay with that. Mock loop clips says Yogurt Gate plot twist.

Security was the one who devoured it, so they decided not to investigate. It's impossible. It's a great point. I don't think it's possible because I was literally in the other room for five minutes. How did someone get there that quickly? And there's no sign of it anywhere. And there was like three people there.

I still don't know. And I'm starting to come to the realization that I may never know. Jake from the Windy City says, Ariel, got a Brett cue for you. How fondly do you look back at his heel turn in 1987 in the Canada versus US angle? I thought it was some of his best work. So I will say, I didn't actually live through a lot of that because, as I've said in the past, I actually really started to fall in love with wrestling again after Survivor Series.

My friend Jason Tackuffman told me Survivor Series is coming to town. Paperviews never came to Montreal. That was the first one ever. And rarely to Canada. And I was like, wow, I got to go. But I wasn't following wrestling. And so he smarted me up as to what was going on. And then I went back and watched it all.

And so I'd be lying if I was like, oh, I loved it. Now going back, I thought it was brilliant because of the way Brett was a heel in the U.S., a baby-faced in Canada. That was amazing. The Heart Foundation. The double turn with Austin, incredible. So yeah, greatest of all time, nothing more needs to be said. Don Carlo, one, three 45 air show to, two. Ayer. What was he saying? What, what? Tell me what this says. One. Yesterday's show. Okay. How do you get yesterday from that? Ayer is yesterday in Spanish. Oh, okay. Sorry, Don Carlo. I got a lot of work to do. Ayer show.

Ice cream laughing? I believe that's frozen yogurt. Okay, fair. To Quintaran? What does that mean? Quentin Tarantino? Oh, the Mongo Beef ending is Quentin Tarantino-esque. This is fun.

Mr. Pink, Mr. White, Mr. Blon. Reference to Reservoir Dogs. Okay. Who are you sparring? Chill. Grasias for the UPD highlight on men and women What is going on here, Don Garlo This is like hieroglyphics

Thank you Thank you for the update On men and women? Yeah Like just in general? Yeah Men and women boxing And what about the darts?

What about the darts? Nailed it. Bullseye Fat Monkey says Super chatting for the tremendous New Level interview Ariel please never stop interviewing wrestlers

You actually ask good questions which so much of the media and wrestling doesn't, all the best. Thank you, Fat Monkey. I do appreciate that. I know a lot of you out there may not like them. I love them. I find them to be fascinating people and there are fascinating stories to be told and the business is fascinating. I'll never pretend to watch every single show each and every week. But I have a great appreciation for what they do, the men and women, the business, the behind the scenes, all that and more. And I hope that you find value in the conversations. The K-Fabe conversations don't love, but the real ones, like that one, that was amazing. And I really, I want to thank Kofi. I want to thank Austin. I want to thank Adam at AEW. Want to thank everyone at ADW for giving us that opportunity first. And hopefully we can have more of that. I love those chats. I don't care who they wrestle for, who they work for. I just love, I love doing, if I could do chats like that every single day for the rest of my life, I'd be very, very happy. You guys, hard out 436. So we have to go. I'm sorry, two for Tuesdays around these parts. Mayhem was great. Check out the

The Vice, Dark Side of the Ring. No, Cage. Premier. This evening. What's this I see? Tate McCray? According to who? AI Overview says Tate McCray frequently draws comparisons to 2000s pop icons like Britney Spears

because of her high-energy choreography, sultry vocals, and a Y2K-inspired. visual aesthetic. What does that mean? Why 2K inspired? She's close. Her aesthetic is like the 2000s. Modern day spears.

Is she still dating Jack Hughes? I don't think so. On the market. Frankie? No. Excuse me? What kind of First you have me out all night

last night fixing your computer and now you're insinuating that I'm on the market. Teach me, baby. That was great I saw Drake show up yesterday I sent it to all my friends I was like whoa guys Drake showed up at the Dante Oliver concert

in the TDOT In the 6th are you kidding me What a scene that was First time you performed those songs Live guys live live live live Very excited about our Fire TV partnership Shout out to Yahoo For helping making it happen as well

Shout out to the new level Shout out to Alex Abidogga Shout out to Ron Humphrey Bellamier Mayhem Miller Shout out to all of you back to all the same time. This is a piece of money.