The Ariel Helwani Show - KSI, Eric Nicksick, Bubba Ray Dudley, UFC antitrust settlement news, International Fight Week headliner, more

Episode Date: February 11, 2025

Ariel Helwani and the gang kick off the show by discussing UFC's impending media rights negotiation, Top Rank Boxing and ESPN parting ways, and PFL's upcoming schedule (05:07).Combat sports lawyer Erik Magraken discusses the resolution of the UFC anti-trust lawsuit, how fighters can get their money, TKO's recent comments about boxing's Ali Act, the tragic situation with Lei Zhenhuan and more (18:16).Bubba Ray Dudley, WWE Hall of Famer, discusses his role on WWE's new "LFG" series, Jey Uso's decision to challenge Gunther for WrestleMania 41, who should win Elimination Chamber and face Cody Rhodes, the greatest tag teams ever and more (48:34).KSI discusses his March 29 boxing match against Dillon Danis, the notable opponents who turned him down, Jake Paul's failed pursuit of the Saul "Canelo" Alvarez fight, the profitability of Misfits Boxing and more (01:06:41).Eric Nicksick discusses Sean Strickland's unsuccessful title rematch against Dricus du Plessis at UFC 312, Strickland's poor performance, criticism Strickland has received since the event, the latest on Francis Ngannou and more (02:07:04).

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R. hope you're doing well. Welcome back to the program. It's a lovely Tuesday here in New York City and so much to discuss with so many great people. What a show we have. A little something for everyone. I love these eclectic shows. I like when we touch a little here, a little there, a little there, so everyone can get in on the uncrowned combat fun. and that's what we have today on the program man we have a lot to discuss and i love i love the uniqueness of this lineup back into the show we're going to be joined by the one and only eric nixick one of the best coaches in the game head man over at extreme couture he was in sean strickland's corner on Saturday night, Sunday afternoon in Australia. He was very much on his case each and every round.

They kept going back to him. I need more. I need more. It's too predictable by the end. You need to finish. He didn't get the finish. Kind enough to come on the show. And that's what I respect about Eric.

He'll come on, obviously, when the times are great, a big Francis win, etc. But he'll come on as well to talk about the not so good times. One of the great guys in the sport and I'm looking forward to having him on at about three o'clock. At two o'clock, we're going to be joined by KSI. Yes, Olajid Oleinka Williams Olatunji, JJ, aka KSI. I mean, he really needs no introduction. He's returning to Misfits. He hasn't fought in a boxing match since October of 2023, the prime card, when he fought Tommy Fury. He was supposed to fight twice since then, didn't compete in 2024.

But he is, in fact, returning to action on the 29th of March in Manchester, England at the AO Arena against Dylan Dennis. Yes, they were supposed to fight some two-ish years ago. They had an incident where Dylan

Dennis had a cup of coffee and threw it at KSI. It was in Austin. Wade was there. Wade was there. Ade was there. It popped off. Yes, here it is. This is them in Austin, Texas

back in November of 2022. They're going back and forth. They're going back and forth. Everyone was wondering what's going to happen. Cowboy had it all. Let's go right now, right now, right now. Right, bang, bang.

Venti to the face. or was it a grande cold foam not sure sweet cream tbd i think it's just a venti black you think it was black okay i wasn't sure if there was any foam there um this was right before by the way anthony taylor almost knocked out dylan denn. You guys remember that scene in the parking lot? It was a very eventful day over in Austin. That was before, I think, Misfits, like, 2 or something like that. Anyway, KSI back to talk about that fight on the 29th of March and a whole lot more. Bubba Ray Dudley, yes. I don't know what song that is.

I don't know what... No, that's the old raw music. Anyway, Bubba Ray, Mr. 3D, Mr. WhatsApp himself, host of Busted Open Radio on SiriusXM Fight Nation, but also one of the hosts of the brand new show WWE LFG. Yes, Legends and Future Greats which premieres this Sunday on A&E February 16th

my son's birthday at 8pm it's a show that kind of it's very much like the old school Tough Enough show where a bunch of hopefuls pre NXT talent go in there try to learn the ropes taught by great coaches legends legends, Bubba Ray,

Undertaker, Mickie James, Booker T, and they pick someone who they think is going to be great, and they're well on their way to get an NXT contract. Bubba Ray going to join us. I've never had the opportunity to speak to Bubba Ray before. I've never interviewed him. He's phenomenal on the radio, and I'm looking forward to that chat. At 115, Eric McGracken, who is a lawyer based in Canada, he's a dual citizen. He's been all over this UFC antitrust settlement and all things regulation as far as MMA and combat sports are concerned. I thought it would be good to have him come on the program to educate all of us on what's going on with the settlement and not just myself and not just you guys at home, but the fighters. Because each and every day I'll get a message from a fighter, from a manager, from an associate,

a coach. Okay, so what's going on? How do we get paid? How much are we getting paid? He'll break it all down for us at around 115. I'm looking forward to that. We need to get smart around here, all right? We need to get smart. Now, there's a bunch of news that I want to get to before we get to our first interview of the day. We had a great show on Monday, by the way. Do check it out if you have time after this show. Zhang Weili was great. Dean Thomas, Roy Carpfin Studio, tremendous.

Luke Rockhold brought it, I thought, in a very strong way. Didn't mince words as far as his feelings towards Sean Strickland. Woke up this morning, though, to some news courtesy of John Orand, who's one of the best sports media rights journalists in America. He works for the Puck. He has a newsletter called The Varsity. And he revealed that the exclusive negotiation period between the UFC and ESPN expires, that window expires on April 15th. So it's not just tax day. It's also the end of that window.

Meaning between now and April 15th, UFC can't talk to any other potential suitors for their contract, which will kick off in 2026. The deal with ESPN ends at the end of 2025. Crazy how fast these last seven years have gone. And so they can go out and speak right now only to ESPN. April 15th, though, if that comes and goes, they could speak to anyone else. I said at the beginning of the year, this is my story to watch. This is going to be the most fascinating story to watch in MMA, especially if you're a United States resident, you want to know where the UFC is going, and this is where they're going to get a massive chunk of their revenue.

And so he reported that they're going to let that period lapse, that they're not going to do a deal between now and April 15th, that they want to talk to others. They want to talk to other suitors. Don't be alarmed. If you're someone who is hoping for whatever reason, perhaps you're an ESPN employee and you're hoping that the UFC doesn't leave, I don't think this is alarming. I don't think this is a surprise, to be honest. The UFC should talk to everyone. And obviously there's the Netflixes out there. There's the Amazons out there. There's perhaps the WBDs out there as well because they just lost the NBA. I would say Netflix and Amazon are the two big dogs. They're going to want to talk to them. They're going to want to see what's out there. They're going to want to play the field. But I still maintain that some portion of this deal is going to stay with ESPN. Will it be just the pay-per-views? Perhaps. Will it be 15 shows, some pay-per-views? Perhaps. But I would be very surprised to see the UFC leave the ESPN ecosystem. It's too valuable. It's worked out too well.

It brought them to the mainstream. It brought them into the North American sports conversation. And Netflix is tremendous and Amazon is great as well. But this is where you want to be if you want to be in that conversation. There's the NBA finals going on and you see an ad for UFC whatever. That's big time stuff. That's great real estate. They talk about you on SportsCenter. They cover you more, all that. I would be very surprised. And so not surprised to see them say, hey, we want to talk to others. We need to wait for this period to elapse. Maybe they waive it between now and April 15th. Maybe.

If not, don't be surprised. And also don't be surprised if they go back to ESPN. But I still maintain they're going to cut it up. I would be very surprised if it just goes to one place, one outlet. That's not the way sports are going in 2025 and beyond. So there's going to be some cutting up. But I still say they stay with ESPN. Now, other ESPN combat sports news this morning, this courtesy of Ryan Glasspeagle, another tremendous sports media reporter based here in America. He works for Front Office Sports, and he reported that ESPN has told Top Rank that they are out.

Their deal expires in August. This has been heavily rumored, but this could be the end of ESPN has told Top Rank that they are out. Their deal expires in August. This has been heavily rumored, but this could be the end of ESPN and boxing unless they do a deal with someone else. And does that mean Top Rank goes to DAZN? And does that mean that DAZN is the home of Golden Boy, Queensberry, Matchroom? They got the MVP prospects.

They got Misfits. They would essentially Have everything Almost PBC On Amazon Or are they going to try for You know

In his article They said Ryan reported that Top Rank has Has talked to Netflix Has talked To To Amazon

But there's not a lot of interest there I'm really curious to see Where Top Rank goes So they have some You know What Six months to figure it out, but that's going to be an interesting one.

So that is really big news. And perhaps ESPN has come and gone with its boxing coverage. Are they getting out? Are they going all in on MMA? Do they not want any boxing? Do they want a smaller deal with a smaller promotion? We'll see. But I thought that that was very interesting and interesting to note. The business of combat sports in 2025 is fascinating

to me. MMA, boxing, and pro wrestling. Absolutely fascinating. Okay. So there's your TV news to start the day. Let's go back to 312 for a moment. This courtesy of Australian MMA, they reported regarding Jack Jenkins, who obviously fought on the card and was hospitalized after 312 due to a serious injury. I'm going to read the report that they put out, Australian MMA, after initially being discharged from the hospital after his bout with Gabriel Santos, Jack Jenkins' team was later informed that a critical detail had been missed during the initial scan review. As a result, he was promptly readmitted and remains in the ICU.

The injury occurred towards the end of the first round when Jenkins suffered a fracture to his thyroid cartilage, leading to an air leak into his chest and neck. Following the round, he reported numbness and a loss of strength in his left arm. Jenkins is currently under medical supervision, but pending positive reports, he's expected to be released sometime tomorrow. So we want to wish our very best to Jack Jenkins, who obviously, you know, suffered a loss on Saturday to Gabriel Santos. And that wasn't obviously the worst of it. So scary stuff and almost sometimes surprising that we don't hear of more of these crazy incidents. That's a unique one. Hoping the best, hoping for

a speedy recovery and hoping that he is discharged as they report it sometime tomorrow. So good luck to Jack Jenkins. Tatiana Suarez has broken her silence, as they say in the business. She did not really speak after 312, but she did post this today. Champions don't show up to get everything they want. They show up to give everything they have. And that's what I'll do every single time, no matter what. I love it all, win, lose, or draw. I'm right where I want to be, doing what I love to do every single day of my life. I have the best people around me that love me for me, living the dream. It's all about the right mindset and life has taught me time. And again, I've experienced

it all. Thrill, agony, happiness, heartbreak. That's what life is about. I'm blessed to have this life and I'll share these experiences with my children and the future generations to come. Thank you to my friends, family, teammates, coaches, and fiance for being there every single time, no matter what. Love you guys. On to the next.

So a positive outlook from Tatiana Suarez and we do certainly wish her the best. Certainly a lot of talk regarding Zhang Weili and Valentina Shevchenko and the state of Zhang Weili's career, and does she move up to 125? Tatiana will be back. She is that damn good.

And by the way, if Zhang Weili moves up, you know, I don't see many of the top strawweights beating Tatiana Suarez. The biggest challenge is her remaining healthy, and hopefully from here on out, she can remain healthy. Woke up to some PFL news this morning, my friends. They announced that the start of their 2025 PFL World Tournament will be on April 3rd, then April 11th, then April 18th, and then May 1st. So they've already announced the first four dates.

They also announced that these four events are going to take place in the same spot at Universal Studios Florida in Orlando, Florida. Yes, if you're a pro wrestling fan, this will sound like WCW back in the day. This will sound like TNA Impact Wrestling back in the day. And it's not too far off from the apex other than they don't own it. I hate this. MMA events shouldn't be on soundstages at Universal Studios. It will be void of any type of energy,

any type of excitement. It's tourists there. They don't sell any tickets. Maybe like a couple hundred. They give them away. It feels like a TV show. No one has any allegiances. PFL has been around too long to be doing this, in my opinion.

They're calling it a residency. They've been around too long. This is what you do during the pandemic. This is what you do when you're an upstart outfit. You need to build stars. You need to book events based on where those stars are from. You need to build markets. You need to build things so that you can get revenue from tickets.

I don't like this. It makes all the events look the same. I'm not a huge fan. They did announce the welterweight roster. So remember, no more season, no more standings no more points it's just a single elimination tournament winner wins five hundred thousand dollars uh florim zendeli is on there jason jackson the former bellator champion another former Bellator champion. Another former Bellator champion, Andrei Koreshkov on there. Magomed Umalatov.

Mahmed Berhamov. Yanis Bakhar. Logan Storley. Masayuki Kikuri. There it is. There's the welterweight roster. That's the only one that they've announced so far. And by the way, I'm looking at something real quickly.

Yeah, so we'll see what's on the rest of them. I guess some of those are going to be on the, well, I guess the, the, the majority of them will be on one of those four dates, but I'm not, I'm not enamored with that. I'm not enamored with that. I will say this. I do love the change to the tournament. I like that a lot. I like the fact that they are tinkering. I thought the season playoff point system had run its course. So I like this single elimination. Best fighter moves on. Nothing more, nothing less.

It's easy to follow. It's a sports tournament format. I get it. I love it. I just don't like that all these events are happening in the same place. Now, they may have their reasons. It may be cost, you know, cost effective, all that sort of more.

But from like an atmosphere, look at the buzz in Dubai just a couple of weeks ago. Look at the buzz when they're in Europe, when they're in France, when they're in the UK. And then you compare it to some of these American events and it's just, it's void of anything. It's why we hate the apex, right? It's void of any sort of feeling,

soul, excitement, hype, buzz, hoopla, all these things and more. So there's your PFL news. The UFC, by the way, has announced the date for International Fight Week. We get this a lot. June 28th is going to be the date of International Fight Week, that event. International Fight Week will be multiple days, the Hall of Fame on the 26th, and then the two-day immersive fan experience on the 27th and 28th, and then UFC 317 on the 28th. So they're sticking with 28th.

They don't like the July 4th weekend. There has been some talk of another June event earlier in the month. They did the same thing last year, by the way. They had the Newark event on June 1st, and then the 303 event later in the month. They did the same thing last year, by the way. They had the Newark event on June 1st and then the 303 event later in the month. Probably do the same. And that leaves July 5th open. You'll recall Jake Paul tweeting not that long ago, July 5th. So look out for that. So an interesting time. But yes, if you're making plans, a lot of people have asked me,

it's June 28th. And later in the show uh we'll we'll debate what we think could be headlining that ufc 317 card for now though let us go to our first guest of the day a brilliant mind a must follow on social media and in particular when it comes to the the world of combat sports regulation uh all things legal matters, and most specifically, as of late, the UFC class action lawsuit, which is about to be wrapped up. You know, they had the settlement.

It was approved very recently. And as I said at the top of the show, we have a lot of fighters who reach out, or their management or their partners or their coaches. Okay, so how do we actually get this money? And how much money are we getting? And there's a lot of questions that quite frankly, I'm not smart enough to answer. And so I wanted to call upon my fellow Canadian, Eric McGracken, who is a dual citizen, just like me, to answer some of these questions. He's been on top of the story from the get-go himself,

John Nash, there are others as well, all doing a tremendous job. And so, Eric, thank you so much for coming on and educating us on this Tuesday. Appreciate it, my man. No, no, thank you, Ariel. Thanks for having me on.

So, okay, so there's a lot, and I'm going to ask you some questions that you may deem like kind of dumb and simplistic, but I think that there's a lot of things that, I'll be honest with you, a lot of things that i'll be

honest with you a lot of a lot of fighters reach out to me and they still don't really quite understand how this affects them how they get their money where they go to try to get their money all these things and more and so first let's start with this we saw one time a few months ago the fighters and and the ufc agreed on a settlement then the the judge, Judge Boulware, came back and said, no, I'm not down with this settlement. Go back to the drawing board. He finally has put his stamp on it and said, okay, I'm okay with this.

Were you surprised that he did that? Were you expecting him to push back once again? No, I wasn't. And for two reasons. The second settlement was significantly better than the first. A lot of people focused on the numbers. I forget the numbers on the first settlement. There's something like, you know, three hundred and fifteen or three hundred and forty million dollars. And the second was three hundred and seventy five million dollars. So it wasn't a whole lot more money, but it was more money.

But that wasn't the big difference between the first proposed settlement and the second proposed settlement. The difference was the second lawsuit, the Johnson case, gets to keep going. So the fighters in the first class action get to enjoy all of that money, that whole $375 million less legal fees and expenses ends up going to just over 1,100 fighters in the first case. And the other fighters still get their kick at the can. So the UFC is not off the hook in this litigation. There's still the chance that they're going to have to pay a lot more money to fighters from 2017 onward. And there's still the threat of injunctive relief. So the lawyers, and let me just be clear for your audience, I'm not a lawyer involved in this case at all. I'm just a dude up in Canada who's followed this case, who has some views on it. But the lawyers involved in the case

have done a phenomenal job being able to get the first case settled while still having the fighter's rights preserved for the second case, and that has to make its way through the court still. And the first case, that's Lee versus Zuffa, Kung Lee versus Zuffa, that includes all fighters from 2010 to 2017. You mentioned that Johnson, Cajun Johnson versus Zuffa is 2017 on. Does that have a cap? Does that end at some point? Is it 2017 to 2022 or some other year? Well, that case still has to get certified. So there's no clarity on exactly what that class is going to be. But just to give you the exact dates on the Lee case, it's December 16th, 2010. So the very end of 2010 to mid-2017, June 30th, 2017. And I'm told there's 1,121 fighters in that class.

Okay. You mentioned the initial settlement that was rejected by Judge Boulware, and now they've all agreed on this $375 million. Taking a massive step back, I remember the day that the first settlement was announced, that they never actually went to trial. And there was a part of me that was surprised for two reasons. A, they had been at this for so very long. And B, it didn't appear as though there were any sort of changes that were going to be implemented in the contracts and the way the sport is structured. Are you surprised that this never went to trial, that they didn't get any of that stuff that they were talking about at the very beginning that they wanted to change in the sport? Well, I think I'll circle back to the first answer I gave. So that case is settled, but the second case still has the ability to achieve all that. So they've got the right to get injunctive relief, which basically means a court order. Like if the judge

is of the view that the UFC is operating as an illegal monopsony, that they're abusing market power, the court has the rights to make the changes needed so that doesn't keep happening in the future. So that's still a very live ball in the game. Okay. So let's see what happens there. And what do you, this might be a tough question for you to answer, but I'll ask it anyway. What do you predict happens with the Johnson versus Lee case? Do you think that one goes to trial? Do you think they settle that one as well? Yeah, that's a great question. I don't know is the short answer, but on the sidelines looking in, I'm supporting the fighters here because I think in the first case, especially when the certification decision

came out, it was really clear that the fighters had a strong case and they were able to point to a lot of really nasty business practices that the UFC was doing. And so I think it's hard to say that the UFC's market position has weakened in recent years. If anything, it seems stronger. And I imagine the evidence that's going to come out will be fairly strong in the Johnson case. So just from the sidelines looking in, I certainly support the fighters and I hope they could get the injunctive relief and the damages that they're looking for and to change the sport for the better to make it a little more fighter friendly. Okay. So now that this has all been agreed to, and that's Lee versus Zufa, what's the next step? If I'm a fighter who fought in that time period from December of 2010 to June of 2017, what do I do now? Because I'm telling you, it's almost every day I get a message from someone saying like, okay, so like, is this gonna just appear in my mailbox? Like, how do I actually get paid here? What do I do? Can you inform? Yes. So the answer to that is, will it just appear in your mailbox? No. Fighters actually have to do something to claim their money. So as this case made its way through the court, most fighters were just along for the ride. They didn't have to proactively do anything. But to claim your money, fighters have to proactively take a step to get the money.

There's going to be a claim form that is supposed to get sent out to all of the class members, and they have to review it, verify it, sign it, and return it to the claims administrator. My understanding is those claims forms have not yet been mailed out, but should be going out in the near future. But if I was a fighter, this is what I would do. I would get in touch with the lawyer actually running the lawsuit. So Rob Macy is a lawyer and an attorney in the United States, and he's been involved in this case from the very beginning and continues to be involved in this case. He's got a website that he created specifically for this purpose. It's called uscclassaction.com. And what fighters can do, if they go to this website, they could not only contact Rob directly, but there's a

form they could fill out to basically give Rob their contact information. What Rob does is he then passes that on to the claims administrator, and the claims administrator is supposed to mail out a form to all of the fighters. Well, the claims administrator can't mail you a form if they don't know your contact information. So the first proactive thing I would do if I was a fighter, I'd get in touch with Rob. I'd ask him any questions I had, get legal advice from the guy because he's the attorney actually working on this case. He could answer all of your questions. And I would, for lack of a better word, I would pre-register with Rob and have him assure me that he's passing that information on to the claims administrator. The second thing I would do right on that website, UFCclassaction.com, is the link to the formal claims administrator's website. Now,

there's all sorts of long and somewhat dry legal information in there. But if I was a fighter, I would click on that and I would check regularly for updates because that's the court approved messaging to all of the fighters. So if you're a fighter, you need to know what's being said there and you need to know, you just want to be up to date about when these forms are going out. And there's a timeline to get the form back. If you don't get the form back within the timeline, you risk losing your money. So I'd want to keep my finger on the pulse of information, both by being in touch with Rob. And I'd also click on the claims administrator's website just to keep an eye on all the information that's flowing from there. Ariel, actually, if you don't mind,

can I take one minute to read something that Carlos Newton shared with me this morning? So in many ways, Carlos Newton is the unsung hero, or one of the unsung heroes of this anti-truth law, because he's one of the people behind the scenes that helped get this off the ground, along with Rob Macy. And I told him I'm going to be on your program, and he asked if I could read this for your audience. This comes, these aren't, I don't think these are Carlos's words, but these are the words of some of the fighters that were involved in the lawsuit with him. So just bear with me, this will take about one minute. Sure. Quote, if you haven't heard, the UFC has settled their lawsuit with

the fighters. If you fought between December 16, 2010 and June 30th, 2017, you are entitled to a portion of the settlement. Go to UFC class action dot com and enter your information so our team could reach you and you can get your share. Please do not hesitate. The UFC's lawyers stated in court that they want every eligible person to claim their portion. If you have a teammate or know of someone that fought in the class time period, please share this message with them. There are still hundreds of fighters that haven't signed up to get their share. So these fighters are basically asking their colleagues from those years to say, don't be shy, don't be scared. The UFC wants you to have this money. Their own lawyers

have said, so get in touch with us, give us your information so we could give it to the claims administrator. And so you have a better chance of getting your form. The other thing I want to mention is even if you sign up and give Rob your information and he gives it to the claims administrator, the way I read the court documents, the onus is on the fighters. So if for whatever reason the claims administrator's forms don't get to you, maybe it gets lost in the mail, maybe they made a typo in the address, the onus is on the fighters to make sure they get the form in time and return it in time to that administrator to claim their money. So go to both those websites, get up to speed and talk to Rob if you need formal legal advice. I think that's the smartest thing any fighter can do is actually hear it from the horse's mouth, actually hear it from the attorney involved in the case. It's a great point because I've also heard from people who seem apprehensive, who think they'll be blackballed if they collect this money. But you're saying,

and you've said this before, I've heard you say this, that the UFC's lawyers have said, no, please, there will not be any repercussions. This money is owed. We've settled. We're at peace with this. Come get your money. So every fighter should know that. Can you explain how they will break down this 375? How does it get divvied up? I should have known you'd ask me that, and I don't have the answer. There's a publicly available formula, and basically fighters get a certain amount for every single bout they had, and they get a certain percentage of their earnings as well. And so each fighter is going to have that formula applied to them. In terms of what's anticipated, I'm just going to give you a really broad stroke here.

What this court filing says is that they anticipate fighters may receive between 40% and 80% of the total amount she or he earned from the UFC for participating in bouts during the class period. So it's not peanuts. It's a lot of money. Forty to eighty percent of the money they earned during their fights during that period. That's a lot of money. For some fighters, it's tens of thousands. For some, it's going to be hundreds of thousands. And some fighters are getting millions. But every fighter is going to have a unique number based on how many fights they had and based on how much they were paid during their years or during those years in the UFC. And so I did see, I believe it was last week, it might've been two weeks ago, there was a report, I think I may have saw it first via John Nash, where it stated that Carla Esparza was filing some sort of like objection to all of this

for two reasons. Number one, she, and I'm simplifying this, I know, and so please correct me where I'm inaccurate and wrong, that the lawyer's fees were too high and that she didn't want Nate Corey, who doesn't fall in that 2010-2017 range, to get his share. And he was one of those guys who kind of spearheaded all of this way back in the day along the likes of Carlos Newton. Is that accurate? And if so, why was she the only one? And where does that stand? Well, I think that's come and gone. So she withdrew that objection against Carlos Newton. Nate Corey. And the court proceeded in approving the settlement last week. So whatever objections were raised, and that's the only one I heard of, the court wasn't persuaded that the deal

shouldn't go through. Okay. All right. I was curious as to why it was just her, but it's come and gone. So no problem there. What about those lawyers fees? What percentage of that 375, to the best of your knowledge, go to the lawyers involved? proposed settlement and then a lesser percentage on the money that was negotiated after that first proposed percentage. But I don't have that exact breakdown with me. I do know this, though. I know those lawyers did 10 years of work unpaid, and they put up millions upon millions of their own dollars. So I think this is a case where the lawyers did a good job and they've earned their money. I don't really have any critical words to say there. And I'm glad a lot of fighters weren't objecting to that as well, because I think there's a recognition that the lawyers did a good job. I'll tell you the other thing that jumped out at me. The fact that somebody like Rob is working so hard to collect contact information from fighters to make sure no fighters, or as few as possible,

end up not claiming their money. That's going above and beyond because lawyers could say the case is settled, the administrator is going to do their work, if some fighter doesn't get their money, we don't care. But here you have Rob who started the case and is still working on the case. It's just going above and beyond to try to touch base with every fighter to make sure they've got the best opportunity possible to put the money in their pockets. So I think they've done a very commendable job. And just curious, if let's say 30 fighters are nowhere to be found, they don't file their forms, it's impossible to reach them. What happens to the money that was allocated to them? Where does that go? Well, there's a formula.

And basically, the plan is that money goes back to the other fighters that did claim their money. So it does not go back to the UFC. And again, if there's any fighters that are either scared or they think they're doing the UFC a favor by not claiming the money, if the lawyer's words aren't good enough that the UFC wants you to claim the money, if you're one of the class members that's entitled to the money, the fact that the money doesn't go back to them should tell you all you need to know. It's going to go to your former opponents that were punching you in the face. So claim your money. Don't give it to the people that don't deserve it. You should pocket it yourself. But in class actions, there's always a few people that end up not claiming the money,

but there is a plan for that. It should get redistributed to the fighters that do claim their money. I want to ask you about a few other legal related topics, but regarding this class action lawsuit, anything else that I missed that you think was important to share? No, I think you've covered it. Just the main message is, if you're one of those 1,100 some odd fighters, pay attention because you actually have to do something. You will have to get and sign and return a claim form. You should get in touch with Rob Macy. You should let him answer any legal questions you have. And you should also go to the formal claims administrator's website and read all of the court approved messaging for you. So you could make sure you check all the boxes you need to get your money in your pocket. So after 10 years of

slow moving lawsuit, things happen pretty fast now. So just buckle up and make sure you get your money. By the way, on that note, realistically, when do you think they'll get their money? If they do everything, if they go up to the site today and they sign up, is this like a five-year process? Is it a six-month process? Is it a three-year process? How long does this take? I don't think it takes long, but I'm sorry, Ariel. I don't know the exact timeframe. If I had to guess, it's within the year, but I just don't know. Okay, that's great. You know, sometimes

these legal things take like four or five years and you're like, oh God, I may not be alive by then. So good to know that it won't be dragged out because this has been

a very long process. Another thing that I wanted to ask you about was Ari Emanuel, who obviously is one of the heads of Endeavor, which owns TKO,

which is the parent company of the UFC and WWE, was on the Pat McAfee show last week and talked a little bit about their interest in the boxing business and then made a comment regarding the Muhammad Ali Act, which is just about the boxing business, not the MMA business, despite some efforts in the past that, you know, who knows where it will be in a few years. Could I ask you, A, do you ever foresee a day where the Ali Act extends to MMA? And B, what do you think he meant by that? Do you think that perhaps, you know, given the UFC and the boss's relationship with the current president of the United States, that there's a chance that the Ali Act will just go away, thus dramatically affecting the boxing business. Well, Ari is very well politically connected.

And let me ask you this. Do you think he just let that slip for no reason? Or do you think he's up to something? Yeah, I think he knows a lot. He knows a lot. Yes. Yeah, yeah. That surprised me because a few years ago,

there was real movement for the Ali Expansion Act. And to answer your question, I'd love to see other fighters get the same protections that boxers get that, that, you know, could flip things on its head in terms of fighter pay that the top stars of MMA could enjoy.

There's a reason why, uh, you know, a lot of these MMA stars go to boxing or try to go to boxing and make that boxing money because of the legal protections that boxers have. And so for me, it was surprising. I never envisioned a world where boxers lose that protection. I thought it was going to be the other way around.

So if that's a threat, the boxing world really needs to pay attention because the MMA world envies the rights boxers have. You guys don't want to end up having the fewer rights that MMA athletes have. So pay attention to that comment and pay attention if there's any real lobbying going on to strip away your rights under the Ali Act. I think this should be a big story in the boxing world, but I haven't really seen anybody cover it. Mm-hmm.

I'm curious to see what happens, especially with their increased interest in potentially getting into the boxing business. Do you think that the UFC brass would get into boxing if the Ali Act was still around? Or do you think that's the hurdle that they're waiting to get over? In other words, they don't have to adhere to any of the rules and regulations that come with the Ali Expansion Act. Do you think they would be willing to play by those rules if it was still in place, meaning going into the boxing business? Um, I think, I think what's happened is a good way to answer that question, which is they haven't gotten into boxing yet because I'm guessing because the Ali act exists. And so if Ari's cryptic comment is correct, that something might be happening to the Ali Act,

I think the UFC would very quickly be getting in on that sport. You have been a very vocal and a staunch supporter of a GoFundMe to support a kickboxer who was seriously injured. Can you tell us about this and where things stand? Well, big thank you to you for letting me talk about this. And if your audience doesn't know, Ariel shared this before and has donated to this. So publicly, I want to say thank you to you for donating this. So look, we're at $41,000 and change right now. I've got a goal of a quarter million dollars. This is a really sad

story. It happened right here in British Columbia, Canada. This man was a PhD student at the University of British Columbia working to get his doctorate. Smart young man. He's not a fighter. He's just a hobbyist. And he showed up to one of these hobbyist level karate or kickboxing tournaments. Call it what you want. But they were doing continuous fighting. And it was advertised as a light contact tournament. It was advertised as a controlled contact tournament. So he walked in the gym to have his bouts. He never walked out. He came out in a stretcher. He suffered a subdural hematoma. He was taken to hospital. They removed part of his skull to let his brain swell and try to recover, but he never recovered.

He's in what doctors call a persistent vegetative state, so he needs 24-hour care. Lei Zhenwan is his name, and his mom provides him 24-hour care, so he can't feed himself. He can't walk. He can't meaningfully communicate. He can't toilet. He needs assistance for everything. So this man went from earning his doctorate, about to earn his doctorate, to basically being an infant. And his mom is giving him around-the-clock care. She is so grateful for the $41,000 that were raised. And I'll just explain. The money's gone to really good use. It helped fly him back home. It's helped pay for hyperbaric oxygen treatment. It's helped pay for stem cell therapy. She's working hard to not give up hope and to give this young man any benefit of the

doubt to recover. She tries to get him the most nutritious food, and she gives him 24-hour around-the-clock care. If we could reach this goal, it's far from what is going to be needed, but it's going to give his mom peace of mind for the next few years. So big thank you to every one of you who donated. I'd love to see the combat sports community get together. Let's get this thing over the finish line. I administer this myself. I can tell you every last penny raised goes straight to his mom.

Nobody's taking anything off the top besides whatever sliver GoFundMe charges for their services. I think they maybe take a percentage or something off the top. But every penny donated ends up in her hands. This is a good cause. And Ariel, thank you so much for giving us some airtime. I appreciate it. Of course.

Thank you, Eric. I appreciate what you are doing. You're also doing great work with the Fighting Foundation. This is a lot of stuff that kind of goes under the radar. What are you doing with them? Oh, geez. So I'm going to bring some props here. I've got them right behind me. Super proud of this work. So one of the first things we did, Fighting Foundation is a 501c3 charity we registered in the state. I didn't start it. My good friends Rose Gracie and Carla Duran started this. And as they got up and running, they asked me to join. And I realized we were sort of independently working on many similar things. There's a lot of overlap in what we were trying to achieve.

So I was more than happy to work with them. And I've been volunteering with them for the past few years. So big shout out to Carla, big shout out to Rose. And you probably know this, but Rose is the daughter of Furry and Bracey, who's one of the founders of the UFC. And Rose is the daughter of boxing hall of fame, Stitchman, Batman, Stitch Duran. And Rose is the daughter of boxing Hall of Fame stitch man, and both of them are basically, I'll call them children of the fight game.

They grew up around fighters their whole lives. And what comes with that is they've seen the harm fighters have on the back end of their careers, whether it's friends, whether it's family. And they've seen some very sad stories unfold with people they care about. And so they're trying to make things a little bit better in the fighting community. And so I'm on board helping them with some of these projects. The ones that motivate me the most are the educational products, projects for health and safety projects. So we lobbied hard for the Association of Boxing Commissions to create a fighters committee. In all the years of existing, they never had a formal fighters committee.

And after hundreds of fighters signed an open letter asking for this to happen, it happened. Mike Mazzulli helped get this across the finish line. And it's called the Athletes Voice Committee. We're working on two projects right now, which are pretty near to my heart. The first is we want all athletic commissions to give CTE and concussion information to everybody they license. So if you're giving somebody a license to be a fighter for a second or a manager, you should give them information about the biggest occupation hazard of the business, which is long term brain damage. Because a bit of information goes a long way in helping people make better decisions. about the biggest occupation hazard of the business, which is long-term brain damage, because a bit of information goes a long way in helping people make better decisions. And another thing we'd like to see is for combat sports protective gears, we're talking about gloves and headgear, to be labeled that they don't protect users against brain injury, because

talking to the community, too many people are mistaken that when they put the headgear on in the gym and they spar hard, they think they're protecting their brain and they're not. So we got the athletes voice committee to formally publish these goals of ours. And then we've collaborated. We're building up, we're building up a swell of support. So we got Dr. Burnett of the Cleveland Clinic to throw his weight behind this project. He's the person that studies the fighters' brains and comes up with all sorts of useful data that are going to help future generations make better decisions. Legacy Foundation. These people work most closely with football players, but athletes across the board, they do incredible research in spreading awareness and learning more about CTE. We've got Brazil's branch of the IMMAF throwing their weight behind these initiatives. We've got Brazil's

Boxing Federation throwing their weight behind it. We've got the International Mixed Martial Arts Federation throwing their support behind it. We've got several state athletic commissions that now, for the first time ever, are actually sharing CTE and contusion information with fighters. And to make everybody's life easy, because people say, hey, you should do this, and they say, well, where do I start? To make things easy, we teamed up with the Association of Ringside Physicians and we created a very simple CTE poster and we created a very simple concussion poster that's designed for fight gyms.

We've got them for free on our website, fightingfoundation.org. You could print these up, put them on the gym. If your gym does not have a concussion protocol, you needation.org. You could print these up, put them on the gym. If your gym does not have a concussion protocol, you need to get one. There's nothing special about combat sports where you should treat your brain less seriously than all the other sports out there. So get a concussion policy in your gym, follow the concussion policy. You're going to look out for your own well-being. You're going to look out for your teammates' well-being. And leaving professional fighters aside, for all the hobbyist martial

artists out there that just enjoy this, make sure you take care of your brain because you do what you love because you want to get fit, you want to get healthy, you want to have fun, you want to have friends. You don't want to walk out of there with long-term harm and long-term brain damage. So look after your brain. And Fighting Foundation, yeah, big shout out to the people that helped do this work. I couldn't do it without them. So thank you, Carla. Thank you, Rose. And Ariel, thank you for letting me spread this message to your very large platform. Tremendous work, Eric. Thank you so much. Great to have you on for the first time. Keep up the great work. Your feed is invaluable. You're doing great stuff. So really, really appreciate it. And we'll have you on very soon. Thanks so much. Your feed is invaluable. You're doing great stuff. So really, really appreciate it.

And we'll have you on very soon. Thanks so much. Awesome. Thank you. There he is, Eric McGracken, a tremendous follow on social media. I have pinned the GoFundMe that he talked about regarding that young man who unfortunately suffered that horrific accident. It's in the YouTube chat right now.

It's at the top. There it is. Let's try to do our best. Let's do some good. And by the way, speaking of the YouTube chat, I've seen a lot of people complain that it was members only. We've gone back to sub only. We're figuring it out. We're working through the kinks. All right. We're working through the kinks. Thumbs up to the chat. What we're striving for is just a nice, positive place to talk sports, combat sports, to come together each and every day at 1 p.m. Eastern. That's all we want. And so we go back and forth because there's nonsense, there's trolls or stuff like

that. But I know at its core, the community that we have that we are building is only getting better and is only getting more enjoyable enjoyable and so let's keep that going and so we're back to sub only all right thumbs up to the chat also thumbs up to the chat what's that just wanted to give a shout out to our two moderators elijah and brandon keep keep it up okay yes they're doing a tremendous job all right uh very excited to speak to our next guest a wwe and tna hall of famer i've've never had the chance to interview him before. I never had the honor of having him on the program. I've been watching him for many, many years, and he's a part of a brand new show which premieres this Sunday, February 16th on A&E

called WWE LFG. Himself, Undertaker, Booker T, Mickie James, legends and future greats. That's what LFG stands for in this regard. It's essentially, to me, it reminds me a lot of Tough Enough back in the day where hopefuls come through the system and try to win an NXT contract. He is one half of one of the greatest tag teams in the history of pro wrestling. The Dudley boys. He's Bubba Ray Dudley, and he's kind

enough to join us for a few minutes on this Tuesday. Hello, Bubba Ray. How are you, my man? Good to have you on. Ariel, this is a very, very big day for you. Oh, no, it is. You said it. I know. Yeah, I know.. How are you, my man? Good to have you on. Ariel, this is a very, very big day for you. Oh, no, it is. You said it. I know. Yeah, I know. I was going to say it myself, but I appreciate you saying it. This is a big deal. You're putting me over here by coming on my show.

You're damn right I am. I'm glad you could admit that, Ariel. No, I know you've been a lot... You know what? I said to the guys in the back, I'm like, I'm not really sure if Bubba Ray actually likes me, but I appreciate him tolerating me for a few minutes and coming on the program. Have you spoken poorly of me? Never.

Well, then I like you. I appreciate that. And you do a great job on Busted Open Radio. I listen almost every day, taking my kids to school. You and LaGreca and Mark Henry and Tommy Dreamer. I'm a big fan. Um, so it's great to have you on. Was I accurate in what I said? Is this sort of like the second coming of tough enough this program? Um, I can understand the comparisons to tough enough. I think this is a more realistic, um, approach and a more realistic, um, look behind the curtain of what goes on making a future wwe superstar somebody had asked me about the comparison i felt tough enough was mostly about just you know beating up the beating up the students and you know how they coexisted in a house uh lfg has nothing to do with that l LFG has to do with how the WWE brings along

a future great, a future superstar from day one, and how they're molded, sculpted, how they are taught, educated, both mentally and physically in the wrestling business, the do's, the not to do's. And when you have The Undertaker, when you have Booker T, when you have Mickie James, when you have myself, when you have that wealth of knowledge at your disposal, plus the Performance Center, plus Shawn Michaels, plus all of the coaches that are down at the PC, when you see everything and everyone and everything that these future greats have to make something of themselves, it truly is a great opportunity for fans out there to see what goes into this process. I think it's a very honest, fair assessment of how the WWE goes about things. And so are they all fighting for one contract?

Like one NXT deal? Is that the premise? I believe that the prize is one contract for the men and one contract for the women. Okay. I saw a great clip, and I'd urge people to check it out. It's on social media of a young man who essentially extends his hand to shake your hand,

and you say that you have to earn it. Here's the clip here. And then he kind of cuts a promo on you. And I'm not sure if he's like, quote unquote, like in character there, or he's legit. And I couldn't tell if you were truly pissed at him or not. Can you tell us the backstory here? Well, the kid is BJ Ray. And you know, when, when I met all the future greats, I could tell instantly that he wasn't extending his hand to me in a genuine way. He was extending his hand to me in an ass kissing, trying to get himself over way for all the wrong reasons. It takes me a second to read somebody. And I read this kid and I told him, you earned the right to shake my hand. And everything that he said,

he's one of these young, brash, he's almost like a Logan Paul-esque or Mike the Miz-esque kind of personality where just says whatever he wants, has absolutely no filter, and you can't wait to see him get smacked in the mouth. Not only was I genuinely pissed off, but he pissed off the undertaker. Oh, like you pissed off undertaker day one. And when I say pissed off, Ariel, I'm not kidding around. Like if the, if the cameras weren't rolling, I wonder what would have happened to this kid. That's how honest this show is going to be.

Okay. By the way, have you been in situations like that legit in the locker room where a quote-unquote kid came up to you and shook his hand in this type of way this type of demeanor and you were like nah you have to earn that ariel have you heard stories about me uh yes i have that was me just trying to tee you up to give us a yeah nobody and i nobody, screws with me in the wrestling business. Nobody. But every once in a while, somebody has to get educated. Somebody's got to get smartened up. Somebody has to be, you know, sat down and you explain to them.

You try to educate them as to why they should conduct themselves in a better way. How do I know this? Because I remember the night in like 2001, where I cracked The Undertaker with a chair in the back of his head, and I split him open. And they had to give him eight staples. And when I got back to the locker room, I fully intended of having to fight The Undertaker and defend myself. And you know how he handled it?

He sat me down like a gentleman and he explained to me why mistakes like that could not happen anymore. So I always tried to handle my business the same way. Okay. Much respect to you. I would love to ask you a couple of things about the business if I can. Yesterday, we found out that it's going to be Jey Uso against Gunther. Do you like this? Do you like that the winner of the Royal Rumble, I don't want to say is going to go after the secondary belt, but let's be honest, as far as a hierarchy is concerned, the Cody belt is the one that is viewed as the more prestigious one at this current juncture. Do you like how it's all playing out? I think Jey Uso made the right choice. I think if Jey Uso would have chose Cody Rhodes, that would have told me that Jey Uso had no confidence in himself and did not think he

could beat Gunther. Yeah, Gunther got the better of him on Saturday night's main event. He power bombed him, got the one, two, three. If I'm Jey Uso, I'm looking for that win back. I want to get my win back. I want to beat Gunther. Gunther is this, you know, wrestler's wrestler. And after what happened on Monday Night Raw, when Jey Uso came out and Gunther attacked him from behind, like Jey didn't even seem like he was ready to make the decision, but he made the decision. And I love the decision that he made. And Vegas is going to be going absolutely ballistic. If Jay is able to beat Gunther, become the new WWE world champion with about 70,000 people yeeting in unison as they were at the rumble. And so what do you do with Cody now? Who does he, who does he go up against? He goes up against the winner of the elimination chamber who do you think that's going to be i could make an argument for cm punk and i can make just as strong of an argument

for john cena okay who would you like it to be from a personal point of view or from a business point of view business john cena why because john cena is known all over the world if on a scale of one to ten if people know cm punk like let's just say an eight or a nine they know john cena's name as a ten cena is known all over the world whether it's because of movies because of wrestling because of make a wish everything that he's done and to see Cena and Cody. Listen, Cody has followed the Cena playbook. If Cody Rhodes ever wants to become as big as John Cena, he's going to have to beat John Cena. And I love the story of Cena trying to break the record. It's all there. There's, there's, there's a lot of drama there. There's a lot of very,

um, honest, real, personal, um, factors that go into this match. Can I tell you why I disagree? No,

I would like to see John Cena versus Joe Hendry. Well, that's because you listened to busted open. No, because I had Joe Hendry in studio. We had a tremendous chat a week ago. Face to face. He flew in just to be on this program.

A couple of days ago, I said that on Busted Open. And as you admitted at the beginning of your show, when you're driving your kids to school, you listen every day. And much like everybody else who steals my ideas in this business, you just stole that one. He literally said, I am going to manifest this. In my studio, he skipped the Jericho cruise to come here instead because he knew this was the number one combat sports show in the biz. All right, Ariel, since you're not in front of me and I can't mafia kick you in the face, listen. I love the idea, not only because I came up with it. I'll give you the little backstory. Okay, okay. When CM Punk, before CM Punk went to AEW, right,

I thought that CM Punk could mean more to the wrestling business if he went back to Ring of Honor. Like, the way me and D-Von went back to help ECW that one night, or how Taz went back to help ECW that one night. Punk going back to Ring of Honor could have helped the health of the entire business. That's why I think Cena challenging Hendry for the World Championship could help the health of the entire business. Do I think that's going to happen? No.

But would I be on board if it did happen? Absolutely. Breathing life into TNA that nobody ever thought could possibly happen. And that's why I like it. I'm a big fan of shock and awe in the wrestling business. And that would be quite shocking. Yeah. And to be clear, it could happen.

Just maybe not at WrestleMania, right? Like, do you think there's a chance it actually could happen on a regular show? Listen, TNA has a huge show coming up at the USB Arena. UBS. In Long Island. UBS Arena in Long Island. UBS Arena in Long Island. That's a big arena. I know that they have it scaled to about maybe 5,000 right now.

But if somehow, someway, John Cena found his way onto that card against Joe Hendry, they could probably open that whole place up and do 15,000 people. They put a lot of stipulations on this interview, Bubba Ray. I mean, I wanted an hour with you. I wanted to spar with you. But they said, no, it's got to be 15 minutes. So we have to. Why don't you invite me on your show?

You never had the balls to invite me on your show. No, that's not it. That's not it. I have no way to get to you. You're a very elusive guy. How do I get to you? That's true. I'm like the Pai Mei of the wrestling business.

You've got to seek me out. But you know what? I'm going to hit up Heyman. Heyman's the one that's going to get me to you. And so I would love to do this. We're in New York city. So don't hide from us. All right. We're right next to the, uh, the hammer sign ball. The keyboard warrior that you are. Don't hide from keyboard warrior. I do a show. Let me ask you this top four before I let you go just for fun. Cause I'm sure you've never been asked this question. Top four greatest tag teams. And obviously, number one, we can both agree it's the Hart Foundation, the greatest of all time, Brett and Jim D'Anvil. So you could go two through

four if you want. Your number one is not the greatest tag team. Really? Your number one might be my number four, but here's the way I look at it. The greatest tag team of all time are the Road Warriors. And there's a very, very, very valid reason. So take your fandom out of this. Here's the valid reason. You could put the Road Warriors name on the marquee and the place would sell out just on the Road Warrior name. You see, you couldn't do that with the rock and roll in the midnight. You had to put rock and roll versus the midnight, you couldn't do that with the Rock and Roll and the Midnight. You had to put Rock and Roll versus the Midnight. You couldn't do that with the Hard Foundation.

You couldn't do it with the Dudleys. You couldn't do it with the Hardys. You'd have to put these names next to each other. You'd have to do Hard Foundation versus the British Bulldogs for the place to sell out. The Road Warriors were the biggest drawing tag team in the history of the business. Number two, obviously, the Dudley Boys, and then the Rock and Roll in the Midnight and the Hart Foundation. Round out the top five.

It was a pleasure for you to talk to me, Ariel. Maybe one day I will grace you with my presence in your studio. And I would shake your hand in the most sincere way possible if you did that. An honor and a pleasure. Did you kneel before Zod? Good luck on the show. Thank you, Bubba. Appreciate it. your hand in the most sincere way possible if you did that uh an honor and a meal before zod good luck on the show thank you bubba appreciate it thank you you're the man there he is bubba ray dudley uh all-time great what a legend and uh that was fun i felt like uh i felt like i was being i was being anointed there i mean that's that's that's a living legend right there frank

he won he came ready to spar but i was I was here to shower him with love and praise. I think it worked out. You think it all worked out? I think it worked out. I was very happy with that. I don't agree with his top five, though. What was interesting about the top five, Road Warriors were LOD in WWE. Then he said Dudleys.

Okay, they were WWE. Then he said Rock and Roll, Midnight, and then Heart Foundation. So technically, like only one true blue WWE tag team, although the Dudleys are more WWE than ECW at this point. No mention of The Demolition. The Nasty Boys. The Nasty Boys. How could we forget about the Rockers?

And what about the Usos? What about New Day? A lot of people like to bring them up as the greatest of all time. So interesting. Old school. But that's an old school guy. Usos. What about New Day? A lot of people like to bring them up as the greatest of all time. Interesting. Old school. But that's an old school guy. You don't want to cross Bubba. Could you imagine crossing Bubba in the locker room, Frank? I wouldn't want to, that's for sure. There's unwritten

rules in the wrestling business as far as the locker room is concerned. You've got to go up there. You've got to shake everyone's hand. You've got to talk to everyone. You've got to look them in the eye. You have to say hello. You have to say how are you. There are unwritten rules in the business. Now, when someone enters the locker room, do they play the music and do the lights and all that? No, they absolutely don't.

You wouldn't last 30 seconds with that attitude. Imagine crossing them on LFG. Oh, yeah. I'm just going to give someone a heads up like, oh, look who's coming, and then do the whole lights and everything. No love for Techno Team 2000 as a best tag team. Techno Team 2000, shout out. Legit never heard of them. What era is that? Late 90s.

Okay. What's going on with the hood situation? I didn't expect this to come on. It's a little bit chilly back here. Is this what happens? I'm toasty as heck over here. I know. They got the sauna on for you. They got the Arctic back here. This is like the episode of Dumb and Dumber where he has the two pairs of- Oh, there we go.

Nice. Rick matching. Yeah. I like this, guys. Rick, that was pretty great. Bubba cutting promos on me. Dude, we got to get him in. We got to get him in.

That was incredible. I was like, Bubba, please, cut more promos. Yeah. Insult me more. You guys would do a great job. That would be great. That would be great. He's a Queens boy. He's a Queens boy. I don't know if he still lives inos. Yeah. Insult me more. You guys would do a great job. Oh, that would be great. That would be great. He's a Queens boy.

He's a Queens boy. I don't know if he still lives in Queens. Yeah, I don't know where he's based out now. He's pretty tan for a Queens boy in February, you know? Yeah, probably not. Maybe he's somewhere warmer. Oh, man, hot in there, and you got the hot tea going on? And I got the hot tea, yeah.

Must be nice. Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention, we're rolling here on a Tuesday. We do two shows on a Tuesday. So we've got the Aeronautics show at 5 o'clock. Sam Jones, who if you're unfamiliar with Sam Jones, Sam Jones is the boxing equivalent of Malki Kawa, a very brash and outspoken manager, manages the likes of Johnny Fisher and also Jack Catterall,

who is headlining the show this Saturday in Manchester against Arnold Barbosa Jr. for the interim WBO super lightweight title. He'll be joining us to cut a few promos himself. I've talked to him about the wrestling business, and a lot of what he does is very wrestling-esque. So I think you'll enjoy that if you watch the Ariel and Ade show at 3.05. So in about an hour's time, we're going to be joined by Eric Nixick, one of the all-time best coaches in the sport of mixed martial arts. Looking forward to having a frank and honest,

not a frank lens, just a frank. Who, me? Yeah, conversation with... That was well done. With Eric about what transpired on Saturday at UFC 312. I say Saturday, it was Sunday week ago today, if not yesterday, that he is in fact returning to the ring on the 29th of March, also in Manchester, which has become the fighting capital of the United Kingdom. It's at the AO Arena, not the Co-op Live, but he is in fact going up against our old friend Dylan Dennis. This was a fight that was supposed to happen some two years ago.

You'll recall that I had the odds at around like plus 14,000 that it would actually transpire, and it didn't. It didn't transpire. But this time around, I'm going out on a limb, and I'm saying it is going to happen, I believe strongly. So there's a beef there between these two. They had a moment in Austin, Texas, where Dylan threw,

we're not sure if it was a venti, a grande, a cold foam. No cold foam. No cold foam, we've confirmed. It's definitely a venti as well. How do you know, by the way? Look at how big it is. The cold foam thing is more recent.

This was an older thing. No, you can tell there's no cold foam either Do you think Back and to the left Do you think that he had that only to throw it Alright well if we play it real quick Let's play it real quick Yeah yeah watch

Here it is Alright look he walks up Clear venti No cold foam Black coffee Now watch the hand switch Left hand Watch the switch to the right

Clearly in throwing form Watch it Watch it watch it watch it oh there it is he is ready to throw it three two launches ah that's son of a all part of the plan you think but you think he bought that to throw it it didn't look like he had taken a single sip out of it yeah that thing looked fresh and i don't see any starbucks in the vicinity how much would that piss you off? Someone put a coffee on me like that? I mean, I'd have the same reaction KSI did.

It was cold, though, you know, in his defense. It wasn't hot, but I'd be pretty pissed off. And so two years later, it appears as though the great KSI is going to get his revenge on that dastardly Dylan Dennis, Triple D. And without further ado, let us say hello to the one and only JJ, a.k.a. KSI. He is here. Hey. How are you, my friend? Good to talk to you again. I'm good. Likewise, likewise.

Always good to see you, bro. It's okay. We don't have to talk about it. The elephant in the room. I mean, just three points up on Nottingham Forest after you shitting on them the last couple of years. I mean, are you sweating? Are you nervous? Come on now.

Give us our props. You have to say you are impressed. Honestly, I don't know what has happened this season. I don't know what they've eaten. I don't know what they've drunk. Honestly, it's crazy how well they've done. Like, wood?

Butter? This guy cannot miss. This guy's always scoring. It's so annoying. And De Lange, for some reason, is now the fastest player in the Premier League. Yeah, yeah. You've got a good team. You've got a good team.

Aina doing very well. Oh, yeah. Murillo. Yeah. Kalamatsun Adoy. I think what's so annoying as well for you, your team just hardly any injuries. Oh, we've had a few. We've had so many. Danilo broke his ankle at the beginning of the year.

Morgan missed a game or two. You know, we had our gaffer suspended for four games. We don't have our best player. One of our best players. We don't have him. He's just not here. He's injured. These things happen.

We had Oligard injured for a long period of time. Are you nervous? Martinelli, injured. Like, bro, the list goes on. Jesus, injured. Out, done. Are you nervous, though? It would be embarrassing.

I'm not nervous. I'm not nervous. I'm not nervous. I've actually got a bet with one of my mates who's also a Nottingham Forest fan, Randolph. And I've given him, basically, if Arsenal are below Nottingham Forest at the end of the season, I owe him eight grand. Wow. How'd you come up with eight grand, by the way? That's kind of a random. I gave him like 200 pounds with 400 to one odds or something like that. Okay.

Okay. I like that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Let's go Randolph. Is it Randolph you said? Randolph.

Yes. Shout out to Randolph. A man of good taste. Let's talk about a man who doesn't have good taste. That's Dylan Danis. Before we get to Dylan specifically. Okay. We start with Wayne Bridge who I have to, I learned of Wayne Bridge the moment he walked into the ring that day when you called him out because there was a whole host of characters.

And I fancy myself some kind of football aficionado. I was not familiar with his game. And so here he is walking into the ring to face you. What happened here? You start talking about his personal life and then he backs out. Is that legit? Did that really happen? Well, I mean, it's public knowledge that it happened.

But, you know, when I'm on stage, I'm on there to essentially as a character to just, I don't know, I guess I was just trying to like create pay-per-view, create drama, create action. I wanted him to hate me. I wanted him to instantly be like, oh, wait, what? This guy, what is he doing? Fuck this guy. I'm out. Or like, I want to knock him out.

Da-da-da-da-da. I didn't expect him to actually like pull out completely. And is that the reason? Yeah, so I was literally just trying to rile them up because, you know, I've had all types of things said to me, you know, all types of things done to me,

you know, and I just know at the end of the day, like, you know, I've met him before and I was pretty civil. You know, I, there was literally a YouTube video where I met him and we were chill.

There was, you know, no angle, no hate towards each other. It was all blessed. But then obviously when I'm fighting you, I'm going to do everything I can to get under your skin. And I'm going to literally make this an event. I'm going to make this as big as possible. And you know, if there are buttons that i can press to get you wild up or riled up i'm going to press them did you ever did you ever sign a contract though we i think we i'm pretty sure our mans will know this but i'm pretty sure we did sign a contract and everything and you know everything

was set ready to go and uh yeah i was you know i was ready to fight he was ready to fight and uh i guess i know he wasn't prepared for the the shit talk okay so now you move on and you have to find a new opponent you wanted to stay on that date march 29th how do we end up with dylan dennis what were the steps we've we've we've you know reached out to so many other fighters you know i've i've done a youtube video on this but i i reached out to well my team reached out to uh nate diaz because you know i've i've done a youtube video on this but i i reached out to well my team reached out to uh nate diaz because you know we wanted to show the world that okay jake beat nate diaz in the way that he beat him let me show what i can do similar to what i did with tommy fury obliterated jake, everyone who watches that fight goes,

yeah, Jake Paul got his ass handed to him, and he lost. Whereas with the fight with me and Tommy, everyone's there like, kids, I should have won that. Tommy Fury shouldn't have won, da-da-da-da. Like, I showed the levels. I showed that I was better than Jake. And we wanted to do it again with the Nate Diaz fight. You know, I wanted to fully knock him out.

And then, you know, he said no. So we went to Masvidal. He couldn't do it because of his UFC contract. Went to Donald Cerrone. He said no. Went to Tony Ferguson. He said no. So, you know, we're scrambling. Like, all right, what are we going to do?

Like, we need to try and find an opponent. We've got a date, March 29th, set. like we need to try and find an opponent we've got a date march 29th set so we need to find someone and then eventually vans comes through to me like we got dylan dennis and i'm like ah ah great well you know i was like you sure we don't have any any more options and he was like no man we're literally on the bare bones here so i was like you know what screw it let's just go let's just have fun uh you know what i finally get my hands on him logan did his thing i want to fully knock him out i want to show the world that yes if he's going to double god like that he's going to get

absolutely obliterated because i'm a guy that looks to kill i'm a guy that looks to you know hunts i look for blood i want to destroy you i'm not going to just let you survive so yeah i tried to do it against tommy fury but it was just too heavy but it was just too heavy man i that day was the day i realized that weight makes such a difference one that i wanted to ask about was the nate dia that weight makes such a difference. One that I wanted to ask about was the Nate Diaz nugget that you just dropped there. How close was that? I mean, I don't know how much I can say, but Mance was trying and they just weren't responsive. Yeah.

Is that one that you can explore in the future or dead? I'm so down. I'm so down. I would love to to do that i think that would be a great fight fantastic fight and i wait that he's comfortable as well you know i'm not gonna make him go 200 pounds etc like jake did now i'll find my his best all right so you go you go with dylan. I was looking through old clips and whatnot. I stumbled upon, I think this was our first chat. Look at the title of our first chat a couple of years ago. This is from my old YouTube channel, the MMA Fighting One. KSI, Dylan Dennis won. And we all know that you were supposed to fight two some years ago. Are you concerned that this won't come to fruition and you'll be left opponentless, you know, last week of March? He needs this fight. He's getting sued by Logan Paul. He needs the fight.

He's running low on money. Logan Paul is going to rinse him out. He needs the money to defend himself. Okay. So no concerns whatsoever no concerns okay what about just the fact that you're doing business with him you don't like this guy it's personal i hate it i hate it i hate it i hate it but what what options do i have what options do i have people say no to me you know why people say no to me and again i mentioned this in my youtube video it's because i'm i'm i'm not i don't portray myself as a pro boxer that wants to be a world champion i'm not that i'm just a guy that

has fun boxing you know it's a part-time thing for me i've got music i've got prime i've got sidemen i've got my own youtube channel i've got all these other things that I'm juggling. And then I also box. So I'm not trying to be a world champion. I'm not trying to, you know, be the best of the best in terms of that boxing scene. I just want to have big fights, win, and beat Jake Paul and build misfits. That's it i came back to build misfits to you know you know create as much hype as well build on the cards etc build other fighters etc and then eventually when jay paul has the fucking cojones fight him so this would be

misfits 21 how do you feel like the business is going are you happy where it's at business is fantastic okay you know obviously it does way better whenever i fight but you know when like last year i didn't fight and it was still in profit like how many boxing companies can you say are in profit and like you know there's i know the behind the scenes of most of these companies and not a lot of them are in profit a lot of them just spend a lot of money and lose a lot of money and don't make any money uh don't make any profit in on any of their fights or on any of their events etc whereas we most Whereas we, most of the time, are in profit with every event. So when Dylan fought Logan,

it obviously got very personal. You alluded to the lawsuit. Just as this fight gets announced, he starts to make it personal. But then you hit him back with something pretty personal as well regarding his father. Is this where we're headed?

Are you expecting more of this? Here's his tweet and then your tweet. Is this where we're going? Well expecting more of this here's his tweet and then your tweet okay uh is this where we're going well i i mean i don't know where his dad is what do you mean i don't know where his dad is so that's a genuine question he you know he came with my family and said, alright, cool, where's your dad? I don't know. It's a question. He didn't even answer it. Are you expecting more of this from him?

I mean, I'm expecting whatever. Honestly, whatever he does is not going to affect me. Because I just know I'm going to beat his face repeatedly. I'm going to absolutely destroy him. I pray he double guards against me because he'm going to beat his face repeatedly. I'm going to absolutely destroy him. I pray he double guards against me because he's going to feel full force of my fists constantly breaking his face. If you don't knock him out, is that considered, in your opinion, a loss?

I'm going to knock him out. I'm going to knock him out. If I don't knock him out, that's an L on my point. Yes. Okay. Huge L. Huge L. And as far as the motivation at this point,

why did you have to fight on March 29th? If there was nothing that made sense, you didn't want to do business with them, why did you feel, okay, I need to do it on this day, I need to get back in there? Why not wait for something to materialize? Well, I mean, we put the date, we have a lot of things set up for that day.

It's quite hard to then just go all right let's push it back because i mean especially nowadays you know there's so many events it's quite hard to book in advance for arenas etc so like for me i'd love to fly at the o2 i would probably would have done at the o2 but the o2 is always getting booked so all these places are always getting booked so it's quite hard for us to just change everything and go okay let's try and find a new day because there's just not many days available okay um i know this may uh be a silly question to ask because he has two fights left on his ufc deal but there has been talks between you and and connor right there has been some crap talking he got on the ring yeah yeah yeah did you guys explore that at all was there any sort of hey maybe we can

figure this out then it's just said it's not happening okay because i could i mean i'd love i'd love it to happen and i feel like i am more in line for it to happen as opposed to someone like jake because dana hates jake and understandably i i I know why he's an absolute cunt so it is what it is but yeah I think it would be a great fight being Conor McGregor but yeah we're just going to have to wait for Dana to you know Dana holds all the cards with that. Okay let us talk about Jake In the midst of all this, he doesn't have an opponent.

And so did you guys try, did you, well, did you try to make it for the 29th or the, you know, April,

whatever, like, were there any sort of renewed talks about finally making this happen? What? Me and Jake? Yeah,

yeah, yeah. As you were searching for an opponent, he didn't have an opponent, you know, now you got Dylan, but in the midst of this last like month or so. No, no, no. As you were searching for an opponent, he didn't have an opponent. Now you got Dylan, but in the midst of this last month or so... No, he was

gung-ho into trying to fight Canelo. He was full focused on Canelo. He was there 100% thinking, yeah, I'm fighting Canelo. This is my big trump card and I've done it. I've won. I can't wait to announce this. And then what?

L. No Canelo. No fight. Now what? Where you at? What are you going to do, buddy? What is your read on that situation? Did Canelo have any intention of fighting him? Do you think he was using Jake as leverage the way it all played out what's your take on it um nah the thing is I know

how it went down but I can't say come on what what no no no I can't okay this is alright I'm sorry I'm sorry that's the worst thing to do. I know, but I won't. No, no, no.

I know. I know. But mom literally told me. All right. I don't want to get you in trouble. I don't want to. And said, no. But I know I went down huge L.

Just the whole thing was an L. Surface level, though. Surface level. I don't want you to say anything that you can't say. As you were hearing that he's in talks that he's exploring this fight do you think nah there's no way or did you think all right you know what fair play if you get it you know you've been asking for this you got it well done i just kept silent i just kept silent i just kept silent and i just stopped doing my own thing

because i can i understand it like there's there was a lot of money being thrown around. Lots of money thrown around. But, you know, Turkey, bro, he's that guy. He's that guy. He's a funny guy. He's a very funny guy. But he's the guy who hates Jake Paul. Game's the game, man.

You got beat by the lion. How do you feel about the way Jake has responded to this? I think he's like a fucking crybaby. Literally wah, wah, wah, all over the timeline, all over X. Fuck off.

Get mad. Find a new opponent. I'm here. After I beat Dylan Dennis, I'm here, buddy. I'm here after I beat Dylan Dennis. I'm here buddy. I'm here buddy Why do I feel like we've been here before why can't we finally make this happen? What was that They'll say they won there but they need a few more fights before they get to me we we need to let's say i'm the key so we need to squeeze as much money out of jake as we can we really need that canelo fight just to get more money but all right it looks like we're gonna have to try and

find a new opponent that isn't ksi we just need to try and squeeze as much money. And you know why? Because they fight me and they lose. It's done. It's over. Because for me, part-time. Boxing, part-time, it is what it is. I can go, let's say, I will never lose to Jay Paul, but let's say it happens.

I can go back and still do Sidemen. I can go back and do my music. I can go on tour. I can do release an album. I can go back and still do Sidemen. I can go back and do my music. I can go on tour. I can release an album. I can do my YouTube channel. I can do all these things, you know, Promo Prime, et cetera. I can do all these things. Jake loses.

Where does he go? What happens? Well, he did lose to Tommy, but you're saying losing to you would make it worse? Losing to me is like, it's game over. But I feel you're insulting yourself by saying that. You shouldn't say that. You're a good boxer.

Like, why would you say that about him? No, no, no. If he loses to me, it's done. No one cares about him anymore. People have been waiting for this fight between me and him. Have been waiting for years. Years. That's why they see the fight and then finally

if it's done, cool. Alright, we don't care anymore. But you've also got to remember, he doesn't have an audience, bro. He doesn't have a fan base. He just has people watching because of his name. people watch me because they invested in me they invest in my personality they care about me you know i could

ride a horse and people would watch it no one would give a shit if jake paul was riding a horse but if he's fighting someone and if it's a big name then yeah cool oh have you seen his pay-per-view numbers pay-per-view numbers against mike perry ass were terrible no one gave a shit i could fight joe fournier and i did four five times his pay-per-view and who the fuck is joe fournier i feel you what what about i just have to ask what what about the Netflix numbers? Were you impressed by those? Oh, everyone's got fucking Netflix.

Of course. Of course it's going to get good views. Also, more people cared about it because it was Mike Tyson. Like, if it was Jake Paul versus Joe Fournier, do you think anyone's giving a shit? No. You know, his non-pay-per-view fight.

No one gave a shit when he fought. I don't even know who the cab drivers are. Who are they that he fought? The pro boxers. I don't even remember who they were. No one cares. Whereas whenever I fight people care so what do we do

how do we make this happen how do we make it happen you need to talk to Nikisa you talk to Nikisa if you want it I've been talking to Nikisa and you've tried before I have tried and he just gives you these bullshit answers

constantly it's so boring it's us we're the ones who are driving the fucking car we're the ones at the wheel going this is this we want this to happen let's go i i i'm fucking sick and tired of this shit constantly the back and forth it's going on for so damn long no i know but so so my question is on your end are there any because i know weight was an issue what is the stumbling block for someone watching this and being like it's weight it's weight it's so obviously like for me i'm there like all right cool if weight is the problem then i'm gonna start having to just get bigger and that's what I'm doing.

I'm getting like over the years, I've been getting bigger and bigger and bigger. So that eventually when he goes, oh no, it's the weight. I'll fight you at one, one night, you're one night five.

I'll go, okay, let's go then. I'm happy. Let's go. Let's go. That's just it. So it, you know, for me to like put on weight, that is proper weight. Let's go. Let's go. That's just it. So for me to put on weight that is proper weight, it takes time.

It takes time. I can't just put on... The type of weight that AT put on to fight Darren Till. I don't want to put on that type of weight. Because it's not good weight. It's weight that slows you down and you don't want to put on that type of weight because it's not good weight. It's weight that slows you down and you don't perform as well as then, as AT would have fought,

I mean, as AT would have been when he fought when he fights at a lower weight. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no, I understand what you're saying. This fight against Dylan, what weight is it at? It's 185.

185. True or false, in the year 2025, Jake Paul fights KSI? In the year 2025? I don't know. What do you think? In your heart? What does your heart say? What does my heart say? I mean, you know what? Yes.

Oh. And I think Netflix. Because, you know, they're i know and i think netflix because you know they're buddy buddy yeah and well the thing is i'm i'm buddy buddy with netflix as well but like i'm pretty sure netflix will see that jake paul ksr fight and go we need to do this we need to make this happen or i i imagine the zone will also come into play i i don't we'll probably have to do a partnership and it might get complicated because of misfits and everything i don't know how that's gonna work actually but i feel like it's it it it has to happen i want it to happen i'm not ducking all right i'm there i'm ready i've been ready what

happens what happens in the fight what do you what do you foresee no i make him look shit i make him look shit the same way chizor made otterwallen look shit, the same way MVP made what's-his-name look shit, that is what I'm going to do to Jake. That's what people in shoot fires do. We make fighters,

our opponents, look ordinary. I made Tommy Fury look ordinary. Tommy Fury wasn't able to beat me up like he did with Jake people when they fight me I make them look ordinary

I make them not look as good can I ask what do you think he does next you have this fight he's looking for a fight who do you think he fights? He might go Chavez route for Cicco Di Maio. But then, I guess he's going to have to do quite

a lot of promo to get people to know who Chavez is. Chavez Jr. I mean I mean like the general public yeah no we know but the general public um there's always the Tommy Fury match he might go there what about Logan no I think they'll fight okay you don't think Logan's killing it with WWE he is one day you don't think they'll fight? Logan's killing it with WWE he is killing it but you don't think at some point they fight?

no well he's way too invested well why would he he's killing it with WWE why would he go on a side project again and just to do this fight no man like he's on a roll right now no I saw the Rey Mysterio fight

oh he looked good he's he's on a roll right now no i saw the ray mysterio fight oh he looked good yeah he's got this new finisher i was like damn he's killing people bro with this shit the the pulverizer bro i'm like this guy is killing the game in wwe why would he then force that to then just go fight it's just it doesn't make sense it's a story years in the making right brother versus brother never happened before there's something there right people would watch that yeah but then also it's like i don't know it's it's a bit of a weird dynamic it's a weird dynamic could i ask you mentioned you mentioned tommy fury will misfits ever do business with him after what he did prior to the darren till fight you know i honestly, nowadays, I'm just going to never say never.

Okay, fine. Because it's Mavs, bro. It's Mavs. It was up to me. Things would be different. But Mavs, you know, like holds a lot of power as well and sometimes i have to just you know put down my ego and accept it is what it is isn't it is that legit though did he really pull out for that reason or do you think there was something else going on well he was terrified of fighting uh darren

he was terrible yeah he like he i know the whole i'm scared of getting kicked okay whatever mate we know you heard about who he's sparring with and you shut the bed that's what so i was thinking when you were looking for an opponent and he obviously had a nice debut for you guys that maybe we would get darren versus ksi that's what i said, that's like, was that discussed? Uh, we discussed it, but then again, the whole weight thing, because the brother, the brother is huge. Like he is 200 plus walking around. I don't, I'm not a 200 plus walking around guy. Like I'm one 90, one 95.

That is my walk around weight and people like people always just want to throw me in to these massive fights where the guy is so much heavier than me and I'm like bro the guy is basically a heavyweight I'm not a heavyweight I'm just about a cruiserweight but if I

was actually wanting to fight professionally I'd be a light heavyweight. If not even lower than that. A lower weight class. But I'm there like, okay, we've got to make these big fights. Cool. So then someone like Darren Till, I'd be like, if we're going to make that fight, we're going to have

a rehydration clause. I'm not making the same mistake I did with Tommy Fury, where the brother just... Remember, I saw him on the scales, bro. He was struggling to walk. He was there like so dehydrated. And then, bro, ballooned up to like 210. And I'm still the same fucking weight.

I'm there like having to drink more water just to make the weight. And I'm like this is bullshit. Like what the fuck? What the fuck am I doing? By the way, I remember how pissed you were that night. You kicked the screen and all that stuff. Bro, because I won! No, no, I know.

I won that fucking fight. Of course I'm going to be pissed. I'm so passionate, bro. Like, yes, it's a part-time thing, but still, I still put my all into it. Like, when I go on the scales, March 29th, you're going to see abs. I'm going to be ripped. I'm going to be ripped.

I'm going to be ready. That's just how I am. With everything I do, I always put 110%. It's just, I have a lot of things going on at the same time. Like,

bro, for this camp, I've got two football matches. I've got one in Qatar, match for hope. That's happening 14th of February. And then I've got Sidemen charity match. Like, and then I've got Sidemen charity match

like and then I've got all this press to do as well I've got Britain's Got Talent I've got press to do for that

you know I'm having to train as well you know I'm doing Sidemen videos as well like yes

a few of the Sidemen fans will be like you haven't been in a few lately but you know I'm going to be in a few more and thenon fans would be like you haven't been in a few lately but you know i'm gonna be in a few more and then i'm still gonna have to train like guys i'm i'm doing a lot while training and you then want me to then go fight darren till while also doing all of this happening like that's that's why my trainers and my team were like, you can't fight someone like Darren Till if you're not 100% focused.

Like, the reason why we said yes to Tommy Fury is because you're 100% focused and you were, you know, going all in with that. You weren't doing other things on the side. It was just purely boxing. I'm just the type of guy,

right now, that has so many things in my hands i've got so many things that i've got to do it's just how it is it's just it's my fault you know i i've created this i've created this monster i have to just accept it do you feel burnt out no no no no i was burnt out last year or after the tommy fury fire was burnt out and that's why i took like six months off to just let go relax chill and enjoy myself and that's why i went vegas i went japan i went to all these you know different places just to really chill relax and not really work like i was still doing sidemen but it was like everything was a lot like at a slower pace and more chilled i wasn't doing that much press you know i wasn't really i didn't release any music etc and then you know i ramped it up we had a fight planned obviously got injured

and then you know ramped it up in other places with the music. Think of it. Did very well. Gold in the US. Like, what the fuck? Mental. Got 100 million views. Like, you know. And then I just ramped it up. And I'm like back in training again. And I'm ready, you know, for this year.

I'm ready to smash this year. What is the motivation, though, to keep fighting? Like, you have all this stuff. Why even go through it? Misfits. Misfits. I want to build. It's my company i have

to build misfits and the only way to build it to a certain level is i need to fight the more fights i have the more wins i have the better for the company that's how i see it how many do you think you have left in you how many fights hold on like 32 honestly am I? 32? Honestly, I could fight. I don't know, man, I could fight till I'm like what, 35, 36, maybe even 37. I don't know, like, it kind of just depends. It gets, I'll tell you when I'll stop. I'll stop when Misfits doesn't need me. So we're still talking a few more years, three, four, five years. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, you're not going anywhere.

Well, I mean, besides my other stuff that I've got going on. No, no, no, meaning you're not going anywhere from the boxing bit. This isn't like your second to last fight or if you don't get the Jake fight. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. You took that as an insult.

I said, I was saying like, this is good. If you're a fan of KSI the Boxer, you're not going anywhere. Well, yeah. I guess the KSI community, I guess. You think they want you to stop? No, no, no, no. No, I don't think anyone wants me to stop.

Yeah. You're in the thick of it. I think there's a lot of chatter. There's a lot of talk. But, you know, ultimately, people need to just enjoy this. Because when it's over, you're going to miss it. You're going to miss it a lot.

Speaking of missing it, I just said you're in the thick of it. Everybody knows. Yes. They know it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, obviously. By the way, I was showing you a lot of love when that song came out and everyone was shitting on you i didn't get any love back i was like i was playing for my kids we were dancing in the car before their soccer matches like we were into it we were playing that shit this is a good song it's a good song and people finally realized people are like actually you know what the hate wasn't really warranted i understand why i got hated because

of the whole lunchly thing but you know it's a good song i just i released it at the best worst time you think it had anything to do with that you don't think it had anything to do with people just they like no no no why why why because after lunchly it was like the floodgates had opened and people can now make fun of me before the whole lunch thing i had this like shield this armor where no one can make fun of me if people made fun of me like they would get clowned and it would scare them into wonder to make fun of me as soon as the whole lunch league gate open the floodgates open and bro i I just got attacked left right and centre but think of it, allow people to make fun of me think of it, allow people to

yeah, just go in and just feel comfortable and we're getting, you know, they were getting love for hating on me and I just, I had to accept it as much as I didn't enjoy it I had to accept that that is what it is now. I am, I am, I'm trying to think.

Like, well, I'm Logan Paul. I'm Logan Paul. I'm like, you know, Jake Paul or all these other guys. Like, I can be hated now. People can shit on me and it's fine. And people will accept it. I have to give you credit. You made videos of you watching the reactions and all that.

You really leaned into it, which made you, I think, more likable. If someone's self-deprecating, it makes you want to root for them. And it shows that you don't take yourself too seriously. I'm sure there was a part of you that was hurt a little bit. Yeah, of course. But I've never taken myself super seriously like whenever there's controversy i've always attacked it head on every single time and you know people always try to say oh okay that's gonna shy away from this topic or this topic no i never shy away from anything i always go it is what it is. Let me talk about it and I Say the fact I say how I feel and even if it's you know, I don't try to say what?

I don't normally try to say the right thing if that makes sense. I say how I feel So sometimes people don't agree with it, but I go I don't give a shit. It is what it is This is how I feel so with the whole thick of it but i go i don't give a shit it is what it is this is how i feel so with the whole thick of it song people are shitting on it be like it's bad it's bad oh my god and i'm like no it's not you're delusional i've been hating on me more because i was that like that you know i guess most people would just stay silent or just be like oh know, maybe it is bad and start questioning themselves. I was like, nah, fuck that. I'm taking on the internet.

I'm going to fight the internet and I'm going to be it. And I did. Bro, 100 million views. Unthink of it. I got gold in the US. Well, think of it. Bro, I shat on all the hate, bro. Bro, it's Brit nominated for song of the year

fuck off had you ever had a song nominated or gotten a gold the record in in the u.s prior to this uh no wow no i've never i've never had a gold record in the u.s i've had gold in um yeah in the uk yeah several goals but in the u.s that's both the u.s is a tough cookie to crack man it is hard it's hard to do well over there uh just a couple more and i'll let you go uh amir khan was there any serious talks is there any possibility of you wants too much money no no chance like well i mean i just want him to lower his expectations yeah like come on he needs to understand who he is and realize that he's not worth 15 mil um how many times you expect to fight this year um for me i would like to fight twice okay for moms you would like me to fight three times but uh i think i think honestly it's all just how i feel like it's all yeah like me man's always talk and see how i feel and as long as i don't get any injuries and I'm all blessed and, you know, I'm taking care of myself, et cetera,

then, yeah, I'm happy to fight a few times. But, yeah, like I said, I've got other things. Like, I've got Sidemen here on my case. Being like, bro, like, we get it. The whole fighting thing. You've got a lot of stuff going on but we kind of need you to be in some videos man you know what i mean like they're my friends so i i kind of feel i feel bad when i don't when i'm not in videos like you gotta remember i'm still getting paid the same amount as everyone else but i'm not in the video so i feel bad so like

there's that aspect music you know people have been on me for an album, and, you know, I've been working on it. I've been working on it, but, like, it's hard, again, just to try and juggle everything, but it's coming, you know what I mean? Like, I've got so much happening. Like, Britain's Got Talent, like, there's some cool things that could possibly happen there,

or just some cool TV stuff could possibly happen there or just some cool tv stuff that could happen as well like i have so many opportunities and it's just all about making sure i pick the right ones at the right time so so dylan march 29th and then like jake in october or so i mean that would be a dream. Come on, let's go. What can I do? What can I do? Really, what can I do? How do I make this happen?

Come on, what do I need to do? Can I get both you and Jake on the show at the same time? Can we finally hash this out? What can I do to finally make this? I want to be, I want to see this. By the way, you know what's the thing, and I'll leave you with this. What drew me to the world that you compete in

was that you guys were the ones that made the fun fights right like you made the the impossible possible but now we're seeing in real boxing right real boxing we're seeing them make all the fights right all the fights other than you know why it's because of talkie wait who cares they're making it happen and then the one that we want to see in this world isn't happening we got to make it happen it's gone it's gone reverse what the hell man they're actually making it happen and you guys aren't you guys are acting like tyson fury and aj come on man let's go well yeah you're right you're right man well look i'd be down me and jake on your show fuck he wouldn't do it you don't think so i'm gonna extend the invitation what do you think of that you're in i'm in let's see if he is i appreciate it uh looking forward to this hopefully dylan

shows up hopefully the he will he has to yeah all right he's getting sued so he has to he has to bring his ass to the ring so i can knock him out did he sign the contract he signed the contract all right well that's good um and uh that's march March 29th, is that pay-per-view? Pay-per-view, yes Live on the zone, baby There it is, AO Arena Great promo as well, well done to you and the team Keep up the great work, pleasure as always KSI

Thank you so much and good luck on March 29th I won't need luck, don't worry Take care There he is, the great KSI, aka JJ. Fiery stuff from him. You know what's funny? I feel like every few months, like we go to the back and we're talking. We're like, yeah, I think that fight's it.

And now I see this and I'm like, could you imagine the buildup? Could you imagine the buildup to Jake Paul versus KSI? Could you imagine the press conferences? Could you imagine the face-offs? Could you imagine the prom-up to Jake Paul versus KSI? Could you imagine the press conferences? Could you imagine the face-offs? Could you imagine the promos being cut? What are we doing? How does it not happen? Guys.

I'm going to just point out I think the obvious. Yes, yes. Jake Paul is rumored to be linked to Canelo Alvarez. Yes. KSI is linked to Dylan Dennis. They have taken different paths from when they were last engaged. You know?

But you know what? It's just a different thing. They strike it up. They strike it up now. Come on. Oh, I'm in. I'm in. Don't get me wrong.

There's, as, I mean, I sound like a broken record at this point. There's very few Jake Paul things that I'm interested in. Logan, Canelo. We'll see what he does next. KSI is on that list. There's a limited number of options left that I'm compelled by from a Jake Paul perspective. KSI is one of them.

Yo, Petey, you're the closest to England than any of us, and obviously he's most popular in England, although I think he's pretty popular in Ireland as well at KSI, right? I know they did a show there. How big of a deal would this be? Would this be Wembley Stadium worthy? Would it be Tottenham Hotspur worthy? I think so, but what the hell do I know?

I always remember I was so shocked when you and GC went to that card in Manchester, and that was sold out. I couldn't believe when you and GC went to that card in Manchester and that was sold out. Like that was like, I couldn't believe how many people were going to that. I can remember like people I wouldn't expect were going to see that people from the MMA world and stuff, but, um,

it will be huge. Like it's really about the, the, the audience that's watching around the world rather than the arena. I think, um, that that's, what's captivating about these influencer guys like you you can deny their ability all you want but you can't deny that the public is interested in what these guys do that seems to be like final

boss be final boss of influencer boxing uh so it would make a lot of sense and i think you guys and your fantastic production that you always do i think you should put out that video of kso saying i'd go on the show i don't think jake would and bait him into an l head-to-head on the show that would be tremendous spencer get on it spencer get on it you're not only pt uh was it sold out it was full from like incredibly early on people were singing people were going crazy it was a a lively night in in old manchester but and by the way uh and and you will attest to this it wasn't just full from the get-go it was like 12 year old kids right it was like a wwe crowd in that it was kids with their dads eddie hearn showed up with his daughter who's a teenager who said she wanted to go like it was

that type of crowd not your typical you know, Saturday night boxing crowd. It speaks to what Canelo kind of said, like what Jake is saying, Canelo said as well, like, this is the first time my daughter was interested in one of the fights I was about to have. And to be honest, there was very, there's a lot of AAA listers from the combat sports world that refused VIP passes that night. I think you all know about that as well, Ariel. Like, this was a hot ticket in town um what about that nate diaz nugget you you guys have any thoughts on that any interest in seeing nate diaz fight ksi i would

have been more compelled by that i think he's gonna actually box ksi i'm not sure what dylan's you know offering them it's uh you know i I imagine that it sounds like that was a first option, and then you have to pivot from there. But I would have been more interested in that. Still interested. I don't mind if that's KSI's next step. It was interesting. He said Diaz.

He said Cerrone. He said Masvidal. He said Tony Ferguson. All UFC legends in their own right. And then he ends up with Dylan Dennis. Not a UFC legend. No. But we'd love to have Dylan on the program

to talk about all of this. So that's March 29th in Manchester. In about 15 minutes, we're going to be joined by Eric Nixick to talk about Sean Strickland. But before we get there, guys, I wanted to talk about International Fight Week because we finally got the date.

It's June 28th. So the UFC is really filling out their pay-per-view schedule from now until the summertime. We found out, well, we obviously know that Ancalaya Pereira is happening March 8th. Then we found out April 12th in Miami. Then we found out May 10th in Montreal. There might be another June date, but we found out June 28th is International Fight Week. And they said 317. Well, that only

confirms it, right? Because Montreal is 315 and this is 317. There has to be one in the middle, right? And so it is going to be another one in June. The question is, what headlines International Fight Week? If we are to say that, all right, Pereira is out of the equation because he'll be fighting in March although he's the only one that could could come back that quickly but let's for now keep him out just for now and then let's say Volkanovski, Teporia in April and let's say Bilal and and Shufcut in May who the hell is available is it is it Is it Jones and Aspinall or Bust? Is it maybe Islam and Charles? Is it a return for DDP?

It has to be someone who has fought. Is it a Marab, Sean O'Malley? PT, what do you think? What do you say is going to headline International Fight Week based on who is fighting, who has fought, the way the tide is turning here well i kind of asked you first before answering this like how balls to the wall will the ufc go for international fight week because we've obviously had situations where they're gonna say the card is gonna be

massive and that fight that that card in itself international fight week's always gonna garner more attention than others but we obviously had the 300 situation, the 303 situation. How balls to the wall do you expect the UFC to go with this event? I think they always try to make it a massive event. It's their WrestleMania. It's their big week Hall of Fame. They've got this

UFC X. So I think they're going to try to make it big. But they've also shown us that if the stars don't align, the stars don't align the stars don't align They're not going to move heaven and earth There have been some cards in the past Like Izzy Cannoneer Had Volk and Max

You know that was a fine one But there have been some in the past that weren't blockbuster I think people just know That time of year There's a relatively big UFC in Las Vegas. I mean, I know there were circumstances last year, but the card last year wasn't incredible. I know we had Pereira and Uri at the top, but then it was Connor, right?

It was supposed to be, right? I know circumstances fell into place, but then I think it was Diego Lopez, Dan Ige. Well, they kind of got bit. Macy Chazon. I know it was unfortunate circumstances But it wasn't an incredible card last year Well yes but what was it on paper

It was Connor versus Chandler And it was Diego Lopez versus Brian Ortega And you know the Connor cards are always Connor and not much else I mean it's not even top heavy It's like one heavy and then You know So I give them a pass and they really didn't make, you know,

chicken salad out of chicken shit there. To me, okay, here's the exercise. I was out for dinner last night. The biggest fight they can make, the biggest fight is probably Jones-Aspinal, right? That's the biggest, right? That's where we start. Does anyone think it happens?

No. We don't think that. Yeah, I do. I do. You think it happens? I'm sticking to my prediction. Fair play. Fair play.

I'm sticking to my prediction from last year. June do I do You think it happens Fair play Fair play I'm sticking to my prediction From last year June 28th You think it happens We're four months away From Jones Aspinall And by the way Can I just say

Quick pause I think it happens Quick pause I'm sticking to my guns I just want to send Our very best To the Aspinall family He wrote on Instagram

His son suffered A very serious health scare Seems to be okay But just want to send Our love And all our best And our heart on Instagram. His son suffered a very serious health scare. Seems to be okay, but just want to send our love and all our best and our heart to the Aspinall family. So hopefully the little guy gets well soon. Back to the fight

talk. I love your optimism. I'm starting to get a little worried. I'm starting to get a little worried. Starting? Like this has been since January. I'm doing the math in my head. I'm a little worried, but I'm sticking to the guns. You know that the Jones fight happened in November, right? I started to get worried.

If this wasn't booked. We're not going to see Jon Jones until 2020. There's been some big signs. There's been some big signs. What are they? What are they? Well, we went from guaranteed. That was the last event UFC did last year.

I think it was December 16th or something. Then in the first week of January, Dana went to, we're going to try and make it happen. And then mid-January, we saw him let Islam Makachev usurp Jon Jones as his pound-for-pound best. That would say to me that all is not well in the state of jones v aspinall negotiations um but i will say if it isn't that fight right so three to one and again i also wouldn't wear gc's um optimism and i hope to channel him um as he continues in his optimistic ways if it isn isn't that one, is the next biggest fight Islam v. Ilya? Ooh.

Oh, okay. Okay, I like this. I like this. Okay, so we're saying it might not happen. Islam, Ilya. But that means no Ilya versus Volk. Yeah, that's what that means. Yeah, I love that.

The UFC doesn't have, and this is a point we've been making on this show for a while, right? There are limited times where you can do the big event, right? And they typically are trying to do that for International Fight Week, MSG, Abu Dhabi, when they have Islam. There's very few of these, and they have to be timed out perfectly. I think we've seen across International Fight Weeks for the last little bit, like Conor accepted, right? If Conor would have worked out, that would have been fantastic.

But I think it's much more likely we see a stacked kind of like main and co-main situation, right? Maybe you get Islam and maybe you get Marab and Sean underneath it and then you fill out the rest. I think that's more likely than going, what's the biggest possible fight we can make? I don't think those days exist anymore because then you're blowing two champions that you could have had in separate

fights or across the calendar. To me, that seems more likely. You headline with Islam, you put Bantamweight underneath it, great night. Islam Charles is a massive fight as well. Yeah. I mean, I could see maybe a, do you think maybe they do Islam Charles, Marab

Sugar? That's what I'm saying. That's a huge card. That's four of their biggest stars. Three of their biggest stars. I think we've said, all right, Ilya Vogue, April. Yes. Bilal Shafkat, May.

There's that other one. There's 316. Yep. Stone Cold. Maybe he gets involved. Someone has to headline that. You know what I mean? We don't know where that one is.

Do we know where it is? We don't know where that one is. Yeah, I don't know. That one's going to happen in early June? Valentina V. Mano Firo? Here's why I say early June. May 10th is Montreal. Then you have 17, 24, 31.

They historically would always do Memorial Day weekend. They don't anymore. I don't think they're going to do back-to-back so you can get rid of 17. I don't think they're going to do one two weeks later. So I think it has to be June 7th, just by process of elimination. Okay. Right? Pantoja versus DJ?

Okay. So, yeah, I mean, I'd love that. So maybe you do that as the bantamweight fight, and maybe you put Pantoja's next title defense as the co-main on International Fight Week. I feel like that's more likely what we get. And look, an Islam headline card, that feels big to me. Islam versus Charles is big-time stuff.

Islam versus Charles is a big fight. No, that is huge. Two of their biggest stars. Yeah, that is huge. Do you need Murab Shuga? I mean, is Shuga great? If you want to make it a huge card, if you want to make it like International Fight Week feel, yeah.

You just can't empty the cupboard, you know? That's it. You need the rest of the belt. Pantoja KKF doesn't carry the same weight. Pantoja versus DJ would be... I think... By the way, if you've got Islam Charles, you might be wiser to do Pantoja KK if you don't need both. That's good.

That's a good card. And then Marab. Has Marab come back so soon? I mean, he would have fought in January, five months later. Also, let's not like overcomplicate. Like the International Fight Week is a hallmark holiday of UFC. They have created this and nobody else

cares. It is wholly their own creation. There is no obligation to do anything there. They try to make it big, but if they fall short, they can do whatever they want. It's not some written in stone, oh my god, what if they don't deliver something for International Fight Week? Wasn't there one year where it was like

built up to be amazing and then it ended up not be the one that you were supposed to go, GC? I forget. There was one where it was like, oh my God, we're getting the craziest card. And then it ended up not being. Wasn't that Izzy Cannoneer?

Yeah, I think so. Okay. What about this one? Drik is Hamzat. Any shot? If Hamzat's in the US and we can make that happen, hell yeah. That's a great one. Hamzat in Las Vegas. I don't think he's fought in Las Vegas, right?

He fought Apex. Yeah, but like T-Mobile. I don't think so. Not in an arena. He fought Mirshard in the Apex. I mean, you do Islam Charles and D.P. No, that's too much. That'd be almost too much. Make it a three title fight night. Add in Zhang versus Valentina.

Ah, chill out. Cancel the rest of the pay-per-views. Yeah, I think I'm with, I think I'm with Rick. Like, you don't feel like the UFC, you don't feel like they feel a burden to do that anymore, right?

Like, they have a captive audience in a way. Like, they're doing so well. Like, what's the point in shitting the bed on one event and then leaving yourself short for the rest of the year so that's it that's a factor and it's it's a thing that's developing as well i feel like we we saw some of the complaints

there about the the pay-per-view card last time i saw people already forecasting what to expect in montreal so i mean it wouldn't be a shock, I guess. But, I mean, any of these fights, you guys, I mentioned if it was a double title fight, I'd be happy with it. Yeah. No, I think sometimes it's like, holy shit. You know, with 300, everyone was like, wait a second, like there's nothing there, you know? And then they pulled Pereira versus Jamal Hill

out of their back pocket, and it wasn't really something that everyone expected. It ended up being tremendous. Here, I think there are options, right? There are people where the timing is going to work out to where they'll be available. I'm just curious as to which direction they go in. Yeah, I think it's going to be similar to the UFC 300 situation.

By the way, we didn't mention another one. Do you do maybe like an Islam Charles, Kayla Juliana situation? Yeah, you could. You know? You could. Kayla Juliana is going to be big time stuff. Yeah, that's nice. They'll sell the shit out of that too.

Oh, yeah. So it'll be great. You could do Kayla Pena, Coman, and then you could do 135 and 125 on the June 7th. Yeah, that's not bad. Depending on where it is, right?

Depending on where it is. By the way, I wanted to give a shout out to Bill Algeo. I just saw this that he announced his retirement. He just posted on Instagram, decided to hang him up

for reals this time. This game has been good to me and helped me develop and become a better person. It's going to be strange not having a fight come up unless Fauci decides to man up.

Not sure what that means. Wait, is he trying to fight? Dr. Fauci, yeah. Wow. I think he has a good chance on that one. But I'll be guiding the next generation

over at Algeo MMA. I've met plenty of cool people along the way chasing their dreams and shared the cage with some rivals, friends, and heroes of mine. Thank you to the UFC

and the UFC staff for taking care of me and for having the balls to bring sports back safely in the pandemic. My gym was labeled non-essential for three to four months and the UFC helped provide some income during that weird time forever grateful. Thank you to my peoples who have been with me since the beginning and buying tickets to random casinos to help me live my dream.

And thank you to, I'm assuming this is maybe his, yep, his significant other for helping me through the ups and downs of this game because there have been a plenty. So there you have it. Bill Algeo announcing his retirement from active mixed martial arts competition. In a moment, we're going to be joined by the great Eric Nixick. And I'm looking forward to this conversation very much. One of the best in the game, one of the smartest in the game, one of the most honest and talented coaches. He doesn't sugarcoat things. He tells it like it is. And that was on display on Saturday. Every time they went to the corners in between rounds,

he was telling it like it is to his guy, Sean Strickland. And it was the type of feedback that you don't often get in between rounds in a championship fight. You're too predictable. You need to mix it up. You need to be more active. You need to be more aggressive. You need to finish the fight.

And he was spot on each and every time. And like I said at the top, easy to come on the program to talk about the great moments, the high moments. He has way more of those than low moments, but it says a lot that he would want to come on the show to talk about a quote unquote low moment, if you will, a loss. So in a matter of moments, we are going to connect with Eric Nixick. I am looking forward to that conversation very much. I can also tell you that on tomorrow's program, we are going to be joined by some other notables. We're going to be joined by the great Rich Franklin, legendary former UFC middleweight champion. Been a while since we spoke to him,

doing a lot of great work with One Championship. So it will be great to talk to Rich. Ace Franklin once again. The great Megan Anderson will stop by. We'll talk to her about the UFC's return to Sydney this past weekend and also this potential Valentina Shevchenko versus Zhang Wei Li fight. Let's see what happens there. I did reach out to our good potential Valentina Shevchenko versus Zhang Wei Li fight.

Let's see what happens there. I did reach out to our good friend Valentina to see if anything was there just yet, so we could provide an update on that. Also, Eddie Hearn will be stopping by. He will be obviously talking about the Jack Catterall versus Arnold Barbosa Jr. fight which happens this Saturday in

Manchester so it's been a while in the past some people said we had Eddie on too often but we haven't actually had him on that much in the new era have we had him on yet? I know we had him on Ariel and Ade have we actually had him on the Helwani show is the question.

I'm not quite sure. Maybe once. No more than once. Did you have him on for Better Be a Fable or something like that? October 12th. Yeah, we had him on a couple months ago. All right, fine. November 11th.

November 11th. Oh, it was around the time... Tyson. Paul. Tyson, Paul, but it was also Boots Ennis in Philadelphia. That's right, that's right. All right, well, you know, we're due. That was three months ago.

We are due. By the way, Pete, any big Valentine's Day plans? Is Valentine's Day a thing in Ireland? Yeah, we invented it. Okay, yeah. Oh, so Valentine's Day and Halloween. Yeah, we invented it. Oh, okay, yeah. Oh, so Valentine's Day and Halloween. Yeah. Oh, okay.

But yeah, I'm going to shave me back, see how I get on, you know? That's usually what I do, just full body wax. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I can heal then, so my movement is better. So that's a recommendation

I'd give to all the watching world. Okay, that's a group activity or you do it on your own and then wait for the... Do it on my own. Surprise later on. Just come out with a dressing gown on and unveil myself. It's very romantic. You come out... You know?

Come out here in the post. Get the ball. And then she gets to see the arm. You know, a generational arm. Carol. So yes, that's what I do. I mean, sure, you all have your own things that you do, but that's how I like to romance. Okay.

All right. Well, good luck with that. What's your move? You know what? I can't divulge at this time, but there'll be plenty more. Too exaggerated. There'll be plenty more Valentine's Day talk. I believe the boys will have a Valentine's Day theme to their pound-for-pound rankings on Thursday.

And Pizzi will be live on the crack on valentine's day so yes it doesn't get more romantic than that oh yes full shave and back reveal oh my gosh you heard it here first he's gonna shave his back live on the crack this friday there it is breaking news all, let's go to our next guest. And as I said, I had this whole big, long intro showering him with praise, and I don't think he heard any of it. But I can't say it again. He knows how I feel. So let's go to the man himself, Eric Nixick,

who's kind enough to join us on this Tuesday afternoon. I was showering you with all kinds of praise, Eric, saying it's easy to show up when times are good, when you're coming off a big win. It says a lot about you that you'd come on uh after a tough night at the office thank you very much for the time i appreciate it yeah hey you get your ass kicked every once in a while you know you got to come on the show and face the music bro so i appreciate you having me on i didn't realize times were so tough did they did they cut your internet as well over there what happened they usually have crystal clear internet are times Couture. Are times that tough?

You lose a fight and then they cut your internet. Yeah, we were trying to troubleshoot through it, so I have no idea what's going on. Apparently we're on a landline now. Okay, alright, well we'll work through it, just like you had to work through it on Saturday, Sunday in Sydney. I'll start

here if I can. What do you make of what happened on Saturday night, or Sunday in Sydney? What, I'll start here if I can. Um, what do you make of what happened on Saturday night or Sunday in Sydney? What do you make of, of your guys performance in the fight now, a couple of days later? Oh, it was just uninspired fighting to me. It just, it just seemed like he was sleepwalking, you know? Um, yeah, it was, it was, uh, it was tough, man. I was just trying to, trying to dig them out of it. Um, you know, through the was it was uh it was tough man i was just trying to trying to dig him out of it um you know through the rounds i didn't know if he was trying to collect data in the beginning or if it was just uh a slow start or what was going on but you know as the rounds began to progress

i can just tell that just didn't feel like he was in it the way uh most of the times that he is so yeah yeah, it was tough, man. It was tough 25 minutes to travel all the way out there. And man, let's not forget, this is a title fight. And I take these title fights very seriously. And I don't know, I was just disappointed, man. I was disappointed with the whole entire outcome, the whole fight as a process. Just thought it was just kind of flat. Were you expecting that? Was there any part of you that thought this might happen? No, I really didn't. I didn't like just Sydney's good vibes, good juju, you know, everything that went on out there last time with, uh, with Israel, I thought it was like the place to be.

Um, I was very happy about that situation, getting back out there to fight. And then getting the rematch with Drikus. You know, I think there was things that, you know, we worked on all camp that were better than the last time around. We had a feel of what Drikus was going to implement. You know, so I was very excited for it, man. So just for that type of performance, it was just very underwhelming. Uh, there were, there was some talk about his arm and whether that was a staff infection. A, what can you tell us about the arm and B, do you think that affected him in any way? Um, you know, it certainly doesn't help, but yeah,

he, so he had staff a couple of weeks, um, prior to us leaving. He was on antibiotics, but no, I mean, he looked great leading up to the last like week and a half of training, you know, traveled out there. His cardio felt fine. Everything felt fine. So, you know, of course getting staff that at any point doesn't help the situation. It's not ideal, but that's to me, not the reason why he felt flat. So obviously in the aftermath, there's been a lot of criticism thrown his way in large part because he's such a boisterous and, and, and, and kind of outspoken outlandish personality, but he also, you know, not just when talking about regular stuff,

if you want to call it regular stuff, politics and all this stuff, he says things like he's going to fight to the death. And obviously that's not really what we saw on Saturday. Do you think that the criticism is warranted? Do you think that it has been fair? Yeah, of course I do. I do. I mean, we have to be real.

Like it just, it just was a very underwhelming performance and an opportunity to fight for a title. You know, there's people in this sport that never even realized that potential to ever even be an opportunity to fight for a title. You know, there there's people in this sport that never even realized that potential to ever even be an opportunity to fight for a championship. That should be enough to get you motivated, to get you off the couch. So, um, you know, it, it just, it just, to me was, uh, we, we didn't, we didn't perform, you know, so that's all it's on all of us. It's on me as a coaching staff, it's on John. And, and, uh, you know, he, I think he needs to evaluate what he wants to do in the sport. If it's, if it's just to make money, then that's,

that's great. Let us know, you know, I want to, I want to coach world champions. So my motivations are different, you know? So I think that, you know, just, just to kind of show up and do that and, and, you know, not really it up, to me, was just kind of uninspiring. What is going through your mind as you're watching this unfold? Like you say, you travel all the way across the world. You're with the guy, second shot to try to beat this guy, to win back the belt. And you could hear your frustration building. They kept going back to you in the corner.

And you're being brutally honest. You're telling him it's too predictable. You got to go. You got to your frustration building. They kept going back to you in the corner, and you're being brutally honest. You're telling him it's too predictable. You got to go. You got to get a finish. Every time it was building up, but as you're going back to the corner for those five minutes and you're watching this, what's going on inside? What are you thinking?

He's kind of checked out. That's kind of what I'm thinking. It's like you're grasping at straws at that point. You're just trying to get him to do something. Um, and, and like, you know, like my daddy's always saying football is like, you got to get something to get the band playing, right. Get the crowd and get motivated, get, get the momentum on your side again, you know? So I'm asking for anything, you know, the jab, the jab and the teep are going to win the fight. You know, it's, it's like, it's like if you, if you have a predictable offense and you run this slow paced offense in football and you get down by 30, you don't have the ability to come back

and win those games, right? Like you just don't have the ability to come back and win those types of games. So you have to take risks. You have to make something creative happen, you know, and just jabbing and keeping your way to a comeback when it wasn't there. So it's like, dude, find the same side head kick, throw some knees up the middle. So throw something different that's not predictable. But Dreek is the scene for the last nine rounds, you know, so we have to mix it up and so when when when you were talking to him are you feeling like in between rounds are you feeling that what you were saying is going through or do you because at one point i kind of felt like he was getting mad at you um what what did you make of that dynamic and and if your words were even reaching him um no i i felt like that's a typical sean corner usually like he's just kind of hard to hard to like address you know like he's just kind of moves around doesn't make a lot of eye contact so there's times i'm like grabbing him like hey man look at me but that that that's

typical sean that that's when we're winning or losing that's kind of him in the corner so whether he was um not not really listening or taking on the content that we were giving him was one thing but um no i felt like he was listening and like he was responsive to like after one round i remember he's like he's like i'm getting my timing i got my timing and i'm like dude like we don't want to be giving rounds away especially after the first experience right like it was such a close fight that giving around one away was was scary enough for me i don't want to give any rounds away let alone one and two so now we're fighting you know we have to come back and really, you know, we don't have that like one hitter quitter

comeback mentality with Sean. So, you know, that, that, that to me was just kind of like, well, we're going to have to try to start, try to start doing something different. Can I ask what was the game plan? Well, there was a lot of things that I think that um we did well in the first fight that we could build on and some of those things were you know was when drichas shot on us we were leaving our hips behind so we wanted to get away from leaning um and leaving our hips there for drichas to be able to take us down pretty easily but if we did get taken down there were some opportunities for us to be able to hit the switch and get on top. Um, you know, if you go back and watch the Brad Tavares fight,

Brad was able to get on top and utilize some ground and pound and ride on right. Dricus a little bit, get some control time. So, um, it wasn't necessarily for us to wrestle or try to, uh, shoot on Dricus, but it was that opportunity. Like if there was a wrestling exchange that we want to be able to get on top. other thing was um and i think i might have said in the corner was i wanted to interrupt dreykus's combinations dreykus tends to have holes in his defense through within the combinations you see him leaving his hands behind so in that in that kind of chaos there that's where i wanted him to counter or try to create something in between the combinations when the combinations are over drichas tends to have better defense high shield high guard

and then how do we attack it from there so there is a number of things that like we really worked on and drilled it you know honestly just you know that didn't really get out of him in that fight just felt kind of flat you know so um yeah it um, yeah, it was, it was result happen because Sean didn't bring it or because Drikus is such a tricky puzzle that Sean couldn't figure out how to bring it? I'd say a little bit of both. I think once Drikus realized probably maybe in the first fight that he didn't necessarily respect Sean's power, It just was accumulation of volume. Um, I would say like death by a thousand paper cuts that I think that he didn't really, you know, he didn't feel like, realize or feel like he had any risk. Right. So I think Drikus fought, um, he, he went first a lot of the times he led the dance a

lot of the times, and he just did that with volume i mean he didn't do really anything different but he did everything that he needed to do just to get a win right like like i even said to drink is after the fight man like i wish we would have given you a better fight like like you deserve you deserved a better fight than that you know so he didn't he didn't have to do much he i felt like drink is kind of saw the way sean was fighting and he minimized every risk that he had to take and just did his job and got out of there 25 rounds scot-free for 25 minutes you know without really getting hurt are you surprised that drichas has has gone this long without losing like that he continues with his you know and i hate to call it awkward

because it sounds like an insult but i'm not i'm not insulting him like it's he just has a somewhat different unorthodox style but But all the fighters say, man, it's not pretty, but it works. It's effective. Are you surprised that he is still unbeaten nine in a row now in the UFC? No, I'm not surprised. I don't think that...

I think that he navigated his career perfectly. I think he's navigated. He's very well coached. He's navigated. He's very well coached. He's very smart. He's very cerebral. And he understands what he's looking to accomplish in a fight. And I think that new wrinkles will start coming out with his style the more and more you see him in the cage. And it reminds me a lot like, you know, where GSP began to kind of evolve in that championship frames, right? Where you saw GSP becoming the better wrestler than Josh Koczek,

the better striker than Tiago Alves. You know, and I'm not saying like Drikus has the same skill set. I'm just saying that he's developing new tactics and techniques every time that you see him in there. This fight, I don't think he really had to do much anything different. He just kind of was just ahead of Sean the whole time. But I think that Drikus is only going to get better over time and i think he definitely has a good skill set to continue to keep developing do you think he beats hamza

whoo man i'm here for it i'm here for it i think it's a great fight you know i think uh i think if if drichas can um navigate through those first couple rounds uh and get you know hamzat into into third and fourth and fifth rounds uh that's where i lean towards uh i lean towards trichus but you know those those first couple rounds with hamzat and and the way how explosive he is and how he ran through whitaker um seeing what Hamzat's able to do in those top side positions and his grappling exchanges, it's going to be a tough first 10, 15 minutes, you know. So, but Drikas definitely has the skills. I think it's a great fight and I'm looking forward to seeing that fight, to be honest with you. So very similar analysis to what we heard from Dean Thomas, who was on our show yesterday in studio. I don't know if you saw that, but he was quite,

he was quite critical, honest, whatever you want to say about Sean saying, he's just not that guy. He says he's that guy. He says he's the to the death guy, but he's not that guy. What is your response to that assessment? um you know i think i think he he's right to say that in this particular fight okay um you know i don't think that that is a i think that's a that that it's a broad brush to paint off after one fight you know um it just it it wasn't our night. It was very flat, very uninspiring night, but I don't think that that's necessarily Sean, uh, as a person or, I mean, as a fighter and we've seen him in these wars, we've seen him in these fights. We know, we know he's capable of it.

Right. So just to say that, like, you know, he's not that guy. Yeah. I mean, he wasn't that night. That's for sure. Okay. Um, could I ask from your perspective, obviously you're the coach, you're the X's and O's guy, but the road to a Sean Strickland fight is an interesting one, right? Because there's so much attention and he has those press sense that he's focused on these things, these moments, these quotes? And once it comes to fight week when you have to be completely switched on and athletes, as you know, are almost programmed to not say anything interesting on the week.

Like imagine Jalen Hurts, the week of the Super Bowl, goes off on all kinds of things. Like, no, you don't want to do that because you want to just be completely locked in. As the coach, do you feel like sometimes that stuff takes over the actual task at hand and thus we see a performance like this? That's a good question. I definitely don't think that those antics help the situation, but I also think for Sean, it gets his mind off of the pressure of maybe fighting also think it all for, for Sean, it, it gets his mind off of the, off the pressure of maybe fighting for the title or fighting, you know, Drikus or whatever

it may be. So, um, yeah, I mean, I think Sean got kind of gets lost in that chaos. He enjoys it at times, but it can also be a distraction and be a detriment to the fight. You know, your focus begins to waver on things that really don't matter. So, um, you know, and, and I can't say that that was this particular instance because it's, it's every time out with Sean, you know, it's, it's always that, what's he going to say at the press conference sort of thing. So, uh, you, you, you know me, bro, it's not my thing. I stay away from that shit. Yeah. You know, I would rather focus on the, on the, on the opponent in front of me and not the, not the microphone. Um, can I ask you a blunt you a blunt question that I don't think I've ever asked a coach before,

but you're so open and honest, and I appreciate that very much. And you were sort of alluding to something along these lines, so I feel like I just have to ask it. If this is the type of performance that we are set to see from Sean in the future, do you not want to coach him anymore? Do you not want to work with him anymore? Yeah, I think that that's a fair assessment that I would have to sit down with Sean

and talk to him about, right? Like, you know, where can my services be of help for you? You know, I think as a coach, you get credit for things you don't do essentially as much and you get the blame for things that you might not do as well. So you got to be right there in the middle. But in situations like this, where your motivations might change, and if that's the case, if his motivations have changed to something different, where it's like, hey, I prefer to fight for money or a paycheck, and it's not to be the best or be a world champion. Then. Yeah.

I think, I think as a, as a coach and fighter, we should sit down and have that conversation. And, you know, I love him, man. He's a great teammate. He's a great guy. You guys heard me say that time and time again, but you know, if, if, if your fights aren't to be the best in the world and they're there for money, then that's not really what I'm looking for. I want to, I want to compete against the best. I want to win world titles. And you know, that's my, that's my main focus and goal. Uh, have you had that conversation with him yet? No. Um, you know, we, he, he came in today for, for practice and he was here for a brief minute. We had a brief exchange and kind of, you know know heard some of the things he had to say um just about like the travel and and things like that so um but you know i think i think a good sit down and a good conversation about where his head's at um you know give him

a week or so and then we'll sit down and we'll talk what was the vibe like today like do you is he hurting you know we haven't heard much from him you didn't do the press conference he hasn't really posted anything how would you describe his demeanor um he was actually good like you know he came into sparring and was helping the guys out you know typical uh teammate sean strickland teammate you know um man soar's got a fight coming up uh he was there coaching brad he was coaching the other guys that are in the room and you know it was good i think it was i think it was good for him to show up and show face and be here at sparring today. So, you know, hats off to him, man, because, you know, taking a loss like that and coming in and showing your face and being around the team, I thought was,

was important. I thought it was good for him. And by the way, in the locker room, in the immediate aftermath, what was he saying? did he recognize that he didn't show up uh they transported him pretty quick so he had to go back he had to go to the hospital to get his nose fixed and he only allowed uh they only allowed kj to go with him so we we hung back and then i got to see him in the hotel after and yeah we got back he just was kind of like yeah man i'm sorry dude it just was you know wasn't all there that was kind of like the the the emphasis of the conversation was very short and brief you know and that was that okay do you know if he needs surgery um i don't think he needs i don't i don't think he does i think they said it when he was there so

i think he's good okay um by the way the the difference between the sean we saw on saturday and the sean you see every day in the gym like the what you know you hear sometimes it's funny because mike pile who you will remember right who was one of the the the founding fathers of extreme couture he would often talk about how he was known as like the gym fighter and that like he was a completely different guy um is that is that sean is it is that fair or is that unfair is is he is he a different fighter when he's sparring when he's at the gym than when the lights are on um i think he takes more risks in the gym like he tries new things and works on things that are

that are different so um yeah you know funny because i was just with pile about five minutes ago so mike and i were just training with some guys yeah um but yeah i i think i think when you when you you want you want to do those things in sparring and you want to try new things so that you you feel comfortable and work on all those things live in a fight. Um, I wouldn't say that he's reckless, but he does, he does, he wrestles a ton, you know, he, uh, he, he throws different, different variants of the strikes and things that we work on. So, yeah, um, I wouldn't say that he's like a, um, a gym warrior. I just think he, he, he takes more risks in the gym because, you know, you can, and, and, uh, those are the things that those are the times to try to try those things out. Okay. Um, so what happens now for you and Sean, you give him a week or so you sit down and, uh, you kind of just have an honest

and open conversation. Yeah, I think that's the best approach. And, you know, I always, when, when, when I got into this game, um, you know, Robert F best approach and you know i always when when i got into this game um you know robert fallis you know dropped some great knowledge on me and he says every every um mma guy has these three attributes the fighter the competitor and the athlete you and i've talked about this before in the past and you know there's there's there's elements and degrees of these fighters that begin to dissipate. And Sean is a fighter of a 10, right? Like if the fight in him begins to start to waver and he doesn't have this anger, he doesn't have this feeling of wanting to be in there, or he doesn't have this meanness to him. Well, now you're relying on a competitor and an athlete that he's a decent competitor, but he's not a great athlete. Right. So you have these attributes that you're trying to lean on. Um, and then once that fighter begins to dissipate, like you change

the environment, your bank account gets more, you have, you know, you have a love interest. Now you have all these things. So you kind of take that, that, that meanness, that edge off of you. Um, you know, so it's like, well, what, what what are you inspired by what's your why now and those things will always change in the fighter and you have to as a coach be good at adjusting it and making it you know to where it it's to your best abilities and uh that's something i think we need to kind of sit down and talk about is where's where's his headspace at right now who is is next for you? What do you have next, Eric? Edmund. Edmund Shabazzian this weekend.

Oh, God. Right back at it. But at least it's a home game, right? Yeah, so we're here for this fight. Edmund, and then I go to Seattle with Mansour and Ibo. And what about the big man? Any signs of him? Boxing, MMA?

The big, you know, the big Frenchman? Yeah, nothing right now. I don't know. Who knows where he's at? I think he was just in Miami a couple days ago. So no news is good news, I guess. All right. I'd like to see him get back in the MMA just because we're making some good strides

and getting moving. But my guess is he's probably going to box. Yeah. And we just saw the Super Bowl and I'm so happy the NFL season is over because my Bills broke my heart once again and they had their hearts broken too. But what about young Avery nixick i see her on the gridiron uh doing incredible things this is it

what do we have here in avery what what is going on over here she's leaving everyone in the dust oh bro this child man she's uh she's she's inspired man she. She's really enjoying the game. She's played a little bit of flag all the way from junior high, but I think once they announced that there's the Olympics for female flag football, there's scholarships in college, man, this kid is really taking a thriving to it. She enjoys it. I love going out and watching her play.

She catches the ball well with her hands. She's got a great catch radius. I mean,. I love going out and watching her play. She catches the ball well with her hands. She's got a great catch radius. I mean, you're seeing the highlights now, man, this kid is unbelievable, unbelievable. So I'm super, super happy for, uh, my oldest daughter leaves tomorrow for, uh, nationals in Orlando for dance. So they've won the national championship, uh, four years in a row last year, they got second. So this is the redemption year. So the kids are thriving, man. They're doing good. And it's good to be home and see them. Wow.

And by the way, and good luck to your daughter. What's her name? McKenna is the oldest. Good luck to McKenna. How old is Avery? Avery's 15. She's a freshman in high school. Damn.

Look at those wheels. Looking like a young James Cook out there, dare I say. Yeah, she could go, man. Or at those wheels. Looking like a young James Cook out there, dare I say. Yeah, she could go, man. Or Saquon. Yeah, right? So that's on JV. She was a freshman on JV. And then the Varsity's going to be, they start their playoffs this week. So she's going to be out there and helping the team on Varsity. So hopefully maybe she'll get a little playing time. Love it. Can I ask one last one? What was it like to corner a fight with Alex Pereira? He's cool, man. Like he's, he's, he's just, he's intimidating as all hell.

So, but he was cool. Like, you know, leaned over a few times and, and you know, he's looking at me like, what the hell's going on with Sean? I'm looking at him like, man, we need, we need to get this out of him, you know? So now he was cool and a lot of great insight. Love, love having him there. You know, a lot of people thought that like he flew all the way out there to corner Sean. That was not the case. He was already there. That's why we want him in the corner. He was already a resource for us and being in Australia, he was doing some seminars or something like that while he was out there. So, um, but him man, great guys. Love having them. So it was an honor to have them in the corner. Always an honor to have you on the show, Coach. I know it's not easy to answer some of

these questions about someone that you care about and that you've been in the trenches with, right, in those foxholes, but you don't sugarcoat things in the corner and when you're asked questions. So much appreciated and much respect. Thank you. No, I appreciate you having me on, man. I think it's, like you said, it's easy to come on here after a win, but, you know, you got to sit in that bed sometimes too after a loss and face that music. So I appreciate you having me on. Very rarely are people asking you to come on aerial after a, after a shutout loss, you know? So here I am. Thank you. We appreciate it. We'll talk to you soon. We'll work on this wifi. Yes, that too. We'll work on that as well. Uh, all good. We make adjustments.

We make adjustments. Thank you so much to, uh, to coach Eric Nixick. How can you not love that guy? Right? I mean, he's coming on. Uh, I see the chat saying like, you got, you got to respect him. even if you aren't a fan of his fighters or i don't know how you cannot be a fan of his how do you not respect that not everyone's going to do that um and and i'll be honest sometimes like i don't like to ask people to come on but and maybe i need to get over that that one actually is is is pts call because we we have our group chat and I was asking for ideas on, on who we should get on the show this week. And he mentioned Eric Nixick and I was like, man,

I don't want to bother him. You know, he's just coming off a loss. And I think it was Pizzi who said, no, I bet you he would do it. And to his credit, I asked him and he said, yes, right away. So I don't, I. So I hope the audience recognizes just how unique that is and how difficult that may be. It's also probably the best advertisement, though,

for him, right? Because if you're a fighter, isn't that the coach you want in your corner? The one who's going to tell you the God's honest truth, not the thing you think you want your corner? The one who's going to tell you the God's honest truth, not the thing you think you want to hear. The one who's going to tell you grade your performance

and tell it to your face. It's the same stuff he would say to Sean in his face. So what's the point of doing this whole secrecy act? He's just going to tell you exactly what he would say to somebody's face. And if I was looking, if I was an athlete, that's exactly who I'd want in my corner.

How about saying, like, if that's what we're going to see, I'm not interested. Yeah. Damn. Demanding success from his athletes and from himself. Again, another endorsement for why that's the type of guy I would want in my corner. That's, like, imagine you go into a fight.

If I ever fought, which I'm not, I'm 42. You're not? Come on. But like, you know, like if I could sit around and be like, that's the kind of dude.

That's it. Because we always talk about, he speaks to Sean differently than he speaks to Francis, that he speaks to Dan Ige, Casey O'Neill, anyone who comes, you know what I mean?

He knows, like you just see it and I love it. I love when they go to the corner. I love it. There's nothing better. He's great in there in there and also consider think of how many guys and girls he has in the gym and has to spend time with yeah the performances have to match that right the performances have to be worth spending that time and that effort and that energy and if they're not he's going to give

an honest assessment again it's all it's all about the honesty. Honesty is the one word I always come away thinking when you hear Eric Nixick talk. There's no artifice. There's no bullshit. It's really just like he'll say the same thing to every person that asks him. It's all there. Man, I was thinking of Dean Thomas

when he was talking about the personalities and the egos and how draining it is and how exhausting it may be. I can't imagine being a head coach, all these different personalities. It's obviously when you're the head coach of an NFL team, there's 53 different personalities. And when you're the head coach of an NBA team, there's 15 and everything else going on. But here, everyone has their own agenda. Everyone has their own career path. They're not all swimming in the same direction. And sometimes there's two people in the same weight class and there's drama and there's politics and are they in the UFC?

Are they out of the UFC? And they have to climb the ladder and there's, you know, the meritocracy and the rankings. Oh my God. It looks to be so, from afar, so freaking stressful.

Not only that, but if you're the coach of the Bills, you're the coach of a team, you're going to Jacksonville next Sunday. You're Eric Nixick. You're flying to Dubai.

You're going here. You're going there. You're going here. You're going there. You're going here. You're going there. It's just a different thing and you got to be built different. Obviously, he's not alone in that. There's tons of coaches across the sport that are doing that type of thing. It is a very

difficult job. Do not envy. I've never done this before, but last night I was in bed and I was so tired. I went to sleep at like 9.30 last night. So tired, maybe 9.45. And my daughter came in bed and it was just me and her.

And she was asking me what I was doing. And I was setting up the Substack post for On The Nose, which goes out on Tuesday for the Wednesday show. And you can leave your questions for On The Nose right over there, arielhawani.substack.com, and she was asking me about the picture, so we chose a Valentine's Day theme, hearts, you can see it right now, the title is What The World Needs Now is Love, Sweet Love, that's a song, by the way, What The World Needs Now, anyway, the post just went live, and I clicked on it, I just like to make sure that everything is okay, and one thing just popped and you were talking and so for the first time ever i'm going to ask an on-the-nose

question a day early because it's addressed to you who's who's you me new york you you you okay rick would you rather never work a combat sports related job again or or join brendan Or Or Join Brendan Schaub's podcast team Boy Oof Oh boy, I'm like sweating here That's tough You know what? What are we doing here?

You know what? You know what? Don't answer I'm not gonna answer Think about it Tell us tomorrow Yes I'm gonna really put some time and energy and effort into this one There's the tease

There it is There's the tease You're going in sync. Everyone's coming back tomorrow now. That's a toughie. We must know. On that same note, there are two super chats that we should probably go to. Oh, yes. And by the way, shout out to Forrest. 2-1

FA Cup. Te'wu Awoni just scored. They're playing Exeter City. 2-1 and it's over? No, no. 2-1, 36 minutes. We have Sosa and Awoni on the board. Awoni just scored literally 45 seconds ago. What is Exeter City?

Where do they play? Championship? What's going on? How are they up 1-0 in the fifth minute? They're based in Exeter. Okay. Yeah. Devon, England. They're 18th in the championship? Yeah. Wow. No, no, no. League 1. League 1? We were losing to League 1?

We were tied. Now we're winning. At one point, we were losing. What do we got? Ben Hatch asks, do you pay attention to Ben Strawley? Ever thought of having Jared Brooks from 1 as the best ahead of the big fight? The monkey.

What's his nickname? Something monkey, right? The monkey of war or something? Am I crazy? Jared Brooks? Yeah. The one that fights in Tap of the Monkey God.

Yeah, Monkey God. Yeah, a big fan. Not a ton of chatter regarding men's straw weight. What's more interesting? Men's straw weight or women's Adam weight? Women's Adam weight?

Probably Adamweight. But the Joshua Paceo fight for the Monkey God is a good one. Yeah. Is he fighting on the next one card? Because we have Rich Franklin. Oh, well. 1171. Yeah.

Rich Franklin will be on tomorrow to talk about that fight in particular. So there you go. Tech wanted to let us know, thanks for bringing the chat back. Oh, yes. Can we get Raging Al on the new show Feels right Oh that's not a bad shout I was actually just talking to Ally Quinta

So I want to give a shout out To my nephew Jared He's been here before he's a huge MMA fan You guys have met him He's having ACL surgery tomorrow And so you know that's stressful For a young man And I was asking around

some people, you know, my brother asked me to ask around for some, some great physical therapists for him, you know, cause Jared is a tremendous hockey goalie. He's an unbelievable hockey goalie. Like he was going to take the Helwani name very far as far as athletics are concerned, perhaps further than anyone else. Is, not was Well I mean part of this Small hiccup just an ACL He'll be back no problem six seven months

I mean freaking guys Get ACL injuries every day now and they Come back six seven months if not less He was on crutches in here and laughing me He's still going Anyway I asked Al Iquinta Because I remember Al had a few knee surgeries And he gave me a great name

In Staten Island So I appreciate Al very much for that Truth be told, I asked Dylan Danis as well I asked a few people, Dylan came through Chris Weidman came through So a lot of good people out there It's nice to know some good people in the sport And I'm not sure where he's going to end up

That's not my call But I do want to wish him well. And anyway, that question reminded me of Al, who I speak to quite regularly, who seems to be in a great spot in his life, doing all kinds of things, obviously in particular, the real estate. So yes, we shall have him on in the near future. That is a good shout.

We had him on at NJPAC back in late May. Isn't it crazy that we're approaching a year since that happened? I mean, I know we're still a couple months away, but time is flying, guys. Let me tell you. My son's going to have his bar mitzvah soon. I mean, what the hell? Are we invited? You know what? I'm happy you brought that up.

Because my wife sent out the invitations, I think, way too early. She sent them out way too early, like October for a June bar mitzvah. Wow. Is it normally that far ahead? I mean, that does feel very early. I told her it was too early. And you know what she has been bothering me about every single day, almost every single day, for y'all's email addresses and to send you the invitation.

And, you know, I was debating two things. One, do I actually want to invite you guys? And two, do I want to be a burden? Like, you know, it's a burden to come out and you gotta go and you gotta spend the weekend and this and that. Spend the weekend? What? Wait, what do you mean spend the weekend?

It's a destination. It's a destination. What? No, it's not. Destination bar mitzvah. I don't live near you guys. I think... It's a destination. It's a destination. What? No, it's not. It's a destination bar mitzvah. But it's... I don't live near you guys. I think we've already answered the question of whether you want to invite us or not because you haven't given her the... No, no, no.

No, no. The answer to the question was... I said that I was... What I told her was, you don't need their email. I just... I see them and talk to them 24-7. I can just text them. What do we need to do?

A formal invitation? Never got the text. Never got the text. Never got the invite. Yeah, because... You know why you never get an RSVP? It's still formant. We need to mention it I'd like to see the invitation Never got the text Never got the text Never got the invite Yeah because You know why He didn't get an RSVP You know why you never got it?

Save the date It's because He set it up in two parts And this is classic Helwani Part one You know this has really Been weighing on me I've been thinking about this

Jacqueline did this Blah blah blah Part two I don't want to burden you guys though I don't want to burden I'm actually the good guy here I'm the great guy You guys

Don't come Don't bother You don't have to go Are you trying to just move That't want to burden you. I'm actually the good guy here. I'm the great guy here. You guys from the bird. Don't come. Don't bother. You don't have to go. I'm going to go. Classic Kalahani. Classic Kalahani. Classic Kalahani. Jacqueline, if you're watching, I'll be there. Is Josh Allen and Jalen Brunson going to be there? Sure. Would you guys like to meet them?

Is Central Sea performing? Yeah, maybe. I can't confirm. No wonder it's a destination. This thing's costing a million. Maybe. I can't confirm. Wow. I mean, is it going to be like those? No wonder it's a destination. This thing's costing a million. You know, Super Sweet 16? Maybe. It's been discussed. Is Yuri Prochaska and Bruce Buffer going to intro him? What? Yeah.

I can't confirm. But listen, I just want to bother you. Most importantly, Frank will be there. I appreciate the invite. We appreciate the invite. We appreciate the invite. Oh yeah, You know what? We'll live stream it on the members only.

The members only. I guarantee that will be one of our highest rated shows. You guys do a watch party at my son's bar mitzvah. That would be incredible. Do you need a DJ? Are you willing and able? That's not what the question was. Do you need a DJ?

I mean, I tell you, it's an arm and a leg these days. Who would have thought? Yeah. Well, we can offline about it here's the thing though if you're coming to the party you got to come to the saturday morning you got to do the whole the whole shabang yeah we ain't just showing up for a party here you got to come to synagogue you got to listen to the torah reading you got to do the whole thing you get to wear yarmulkes oh absolutely i'm there okay have you ever worn one yes at a jewish wedding all right and i had to hold up the chairs

And drop the bride I'm joking That would have been funny Not for her I said 330 hard out You guys kept talking You said super hard out I think my guess was 347

And the response was Nasty work That's impossible Nasty work I think my guess was 347. For real? And the response was, nasty work. That's impossible. Nasty work. You guys said it. I've enjoyed. I think we've really figured things out. Nope.

No, you don't think so? We continue to say 330 hard out. We continue to blow right through that. It's always a 15-minute grace period. That's not how hard outs work. We have found a nice cadence. That's not how hard outs work. We have found a nice cadence. That's not how hard outs work. And here

it is, hard out. Should we just start calling it a soft out? Not even honor that hard out? Honor Jordan is starting to lose his hair. Why? He's starting to pull his hair out. Why? Because he's going. Because it brings such great stress on him. No. We've got a big show coming up at 5 o'clock. We're going to talk

a lot more about all this meshugas in the world of boxing with Juan Are Oladipo. He'll be at his HQ in London. And that's over on the DAZN Boxing YouTube channel. So stay tuned for that. We play two on Tuesdays here around these parts. And tomorrow, like I said, Megan Anderson, Rich Franklin,

Eddie Hearn, maybe even one other guest working on that one as we speak. What a time it has been. And by the way, I failed to mention this last week. Go ahead.

Oh, I thought that there was another goal here. I want to welcome a new member of our team. Pat is joining us or has joined us. Oh, yeah. Doing incredible things.

What a big Pat. On the digital slash YouTube side. So thank you very much to him for all his efforts, and welcome to the squad as well. Maybe he'll even pop into the chat once in a while. You know, Pat hasn't. Spencer hasn't. Has Andy ever been in the chat?

She lives on the chat. Oh, okay. I don't want anybody in the chat andy ever been in the chat she lives on the chat okay i don't want anybody to be the chat let the chat be the chat wow look at that round that thing up 347 bubba ray eric mcgracken back later today same time as a piece who the fuck is we