The Ariel Helwani Show - Live from LA! Ronda Rousey, Jake Paul, Joshua Van, Sean Brady, Eric Nicksick, UFC 328 reaction

Episode Date: May 11, 2026

Ariel Helwani starts the show, live from Los Angeles, by previewing the upcoming week. Then the Boys in the Back join Ariel in-studio to discuss UFC 328, starting with Sean Strickland’s shocking upset of Khamzat Chimaev and whether he should have apologized after the fight, then moving on to the rest of the card (12:46). Sean Brady is back after a big win over Joaquin Buckley, talking about Buckley’s trash talk leading into the fight, the fight’s notable gambling activity, learning from the Michael Morales loss, when he expects to return, wanting to fight Carlos Prates or Kamaru Usman next, and more (1:22:12). Coach Eric Nicksick returns to break down Sean Strickland’s massive victory, including the game plan for Khamzat Chimaev, whether he believes Chimaev made weight, Strickland’s apology in the aftermath, not being surprised by Strickland’s success, where Strickland goes next, and more (1:49:34). UFC flyweight champion Joshua Van celebrates his first title defense, discussing the performance against Tatsuro Taira, his high-volume style, his press conference fit, his budding rivalry with Alexandre Pantoja, when their rematch could take place, Manel Kape showing him respect, and more (2:13:06). Jake Paul joins to preview MVP’s upcoming MMA card on Netflix, looking back at the growth of the promotion, then talking about his relationship with PFL, UFC not trying to counter-program their event, comparisons to the White House card, trash talk in the fight game, viewership expectations for the event, working with Ronda Rousey, meeting Dana White, his return to the ring, and more (2:33:02). Years in the making, Ronda Rousey and Ariel reunite to discuss their various interviews over the years, Rousey’s renewed passion for MMA, maintaining an edge while balancing her love for opponent Gina Carano, her UFC departure, wanting to be the Dana White of Netflix’s MMA offering, her beef with UFC’s Hunter Campbell, believing this will be her last fight, the end of her time at WWE, and more (3:03:38). Ariel reacts to Sean Strickland’s response to his earlier comments (3:37:19), then covers some other news and notes (3:40:20), and samples some famous doughnuts (3:59:42).

Lights, camera, action. The Ariel Helwani show has gone cross-country to the West Coast. Live from beautiful sunny Los Angeles. Here's your host, Ariel Helwani. Back in your life on this Monday, May 11, 2000. And 26. Hello again, everyone. I sure hope you're doing well.

It is so great to be joining you on this lovely Monday morning. It's still the morning time here in La La Land in Los Angeles. Oh, how I love Los Angeles. I mean, I hate their sports teams, but I do love Los Angeles. And I got to say, right up the top. This studio is fantastic. Obviously, this is not our usual studio. We are live in L.A. right now as we speak, as we are coming to you.

Look at this spot right here. And I want to give a big thanks. Look at that Billy Madison poster right there. Yes. Shout out to set designer GC for making this feel like home. The little trinkets, the little nods to Los Angeles, one of the greatest of all time, Vince Scully, Chronic, Dr. Dre, NWA, Chick-Hur. Shout out, shout out, shout out.

But a massive shout-out to the West Coast Creative Studios team. They have been phenomenal, welcoming us in as one of their own, one of their own. And we feel like we're one of their own as well. And it's been amazing as we get this plane off the ground. We will be here all week, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. We're going to be here all week. Why? Because, of course, on Saturday, this Saturday, May 16th, into a dome live on Netflix.

It's the massive historic first of its kind card, headlined by Ronda Rousey versus Gina Carrano, the very first MMA card to ever air live on Netflix. Gina coming back for the first time in 17 years. Rhonda coming back in the first time, 10 years. Nate Diaz, Mike Perry, Francis and Ganoe, Philippe, Saladin Parnas, JDS. The list goes on and on. So I got here Saturday night, watched UFC 328 on the plane, landed just as the main event was going to begin, which was tremendous timing. No turbulence, no outages, whatnot.

Andy and Frank got here Saturday afternoon. Oh boy, Connor G.C. after the watch party Sunday, Jordan got here on Sunday. And the gang's all here. Everyone's here. You will see them in a moment. And I just have to say, taking a step back around two weeks ago, I put on the table, I proposed to the team, look, the next two weeks are going to be insane. But we're up for it. We believe in ourselves. This is the best damn team in the business. crowned is the best damn combat sports platform in the world, and we're up for it. And so we did a live show at City Winery on Friday, sold out. Shout out to every single person who bought a ticket. Shout out to Dustin Porier, Wonderboy Thompson, Kyle Dawkes, Joey Pfeiffer, last minute. We had no guests as of Wednesday night. Two people had to reschedule.

Couldn't make it. No hard feelings, but we had to scramble. Wednesday's show, I'm doing interviews, I'm doing the show, I'm texting people. DP came through in the clutch. Wonderboy, Clutch. Dachus, Clutch. Piper Clutch. Came from Jersey to hang out with us, hang out with all of you.

You may have seen it. It streamed live and I think it went great. And it looked great. And that was actually the second time that we did a live show from City Winery in New York City. Great venue. Check it out West Side. This one looked so much better. And it was just us.

Team of, what, five people? six including me, I'm doing nothing, I'm just sitting there. And the fact that we were able to put that together, pull it off, next day, go to L.A., do all of this, and all the fun things we have in store. It has already begun yesterday all day. 8 a.m. to about 8 p.m. I shot three face to faces. They're going to start rolling out as of this afternoon. Francis and Philippe was interesting. There's a sort of, there's a tinge of like disrespect. back there. There's a tinge of like, you're not on my level there, but it was good. It was much

better than I thought it was going to be. Rhonda and Gina was next level, and I'll get into that a little more in a moment, but it was the antithesis of what we saw this past week leading up to UFC 328, different strokes, different folks, but it came at the right time. And then Nathan and Mike Perry was intense. It wasn't bad blood intense, but there was an intense. There was a moment where we were all looking like I was in the middle, they were here, and it felt like our heads were like two inches apart from each other. It was intense. Shot something after. I'll tell you more about that. The team was here. Testing, warming up, rehearsing, late, get here. It's 10 o'clock in the morning, but we wanted to be here to pull all this off. And what a freaking show. Golly, what a

show. What a way to kick this whole thing off. I've not done an interview. with Ronda Rousey one-on-one in well over a decade. I believe the last time I spoke to her was January of 2015. I looked at our texts. It's been over 11 years, if my math is correct. She's joining us on the show today. And some of you know about the history.

Some of you know about, what do you want to call it? The grudge, the beef, the whatever. Ronda Rousey, live on the show today, at 4 p.m. Eastern time, one Pacific. I mean, you talk about a mending of the fences tour. That's been the theme of 2026. For me personally, from, you know, Colby a couple of weeks ago, Rhonda now, Gina, and so many others,

it's been phenomenal. It actually feels spiritual. It's a breathtaking experience to mend fences with people that you used to have relationships with. Ronda Rousey's going to join us live on the program 4 p.m. Eastern, 1 Pacific. At 1230 Pacific, 3.30 Eastern, Jake Paul is going to join us.

Obviously, this is a massive week for him, and Nikisa Bidarian. They're launching MVP MMA. Is it a one-off? Is it not? I think a lot of that depends on how Saturday does, viewership-wise, on Netflix. We'll talk to him about the Genesis, getting this off the ground, everything that he's doing,

his own career, his own fighting career. I saw he's training again. The boxing stuff and more, the problem child will join us. at 1230 Pacific 3.30. I keep having to do the math because my sheet right now is in Pacific time zone. Prior to that, we're going to be joined by Joshua Van, the reigning defending UFC flyway champion who had a massive win over Tatsuro Taira on Saturday. More on that fight in a moment. But the pride of Myanmar is going to be joining us, Joshua Van, the fearless one. Prior to that,

we're going to be joined by Eric Nixik, the head coach for the brand new. once again, UFC middleweight champion, Sean Strickland, love talking to Coach Nixick. Big week for him coming up. Of course, he's the headman for one Francis Inganu. And so he goes from 328 main event to one of the three main events, the tri-headliner, if you will, for Saturday's card on Netflix. We'll talk to him about that massive win. And then we'll kick off the interviews at around 220 p.m. Eastern time, 1120 Pacific with Sean Brady, who got back on track after the tough loss to Michael Morales back in November. He got back on track with a massive win over Joaquin Buckley.

Those are our guests today. Just wait for the rest of the week. We're coming out with a bang. What a lineup that is. What a quintet of individuals. And perhaps apropos, as the cage that they'll be competing in on Saturday, is a hexagon.

And I believe the hexagon is five or is it six? Hmm. That'd be six. Is it six, Frankie? Absolutely. Frankie, it's good to hear from you. It's good to hear from you. I was just trying to figure out a way to introduce you.

Yeah. Hello, how are you? Perfect. How are you? Jordan, are you there? Hello, hello, I'm good. How are you? Jordan is there.

But he can't talk? He can't talk. Can Andy talk? Andy can't talk, but she's here. What about the wide shot? Yeah, but I thought I saw something there. No. Oh my God, the vibes are incredible.

The Knicks swept the lowly. 70-6ers. Shout out to your New York Knickabockers. 4-0. They swept their asses. They weren't even competition. They rolled over and died. And we're not getting cocky. We're not getting cocky. But this is our best chance since 1994. I am on an absolute high right now. Beautiful Los Angeles. The Knicks sweep the Sixers. We're now off for at least a week. OG hopefully it will be good by the time they come back. If not, it's either May 17th or May 19th, game one. Bring on the Pistons or the Cavs. We don't care. We're the reincarnation of the 1970 New York Knicks, passing the ball, making big shots, team ball, camaraderie. It's, it's a dream. I feel like I'm dreaming right now.

I feel like everything's coming together. It's unbelievable. Deuce is loose. Shamitz killing it. J.B., Kat, Josh, Mikhail. Oh my God. To the Sixers. The Sixers. Josh Hart said yesterday. What did he say? He said, Philadelphia used to be a sports town. I'm not so sure anymore. Are you kidding me?

Them's fighting words. Our guy, Josh, intern Josh, texting me some trash talk before the series. You guys know this. He texted me before the series. All I hit him with was a ha-ha. He's a Philly boy. I hit him with a ha-ha.

Before the series. Before the series. Seven in a row. I'm riding high right now. I'm riding high. Okay, so much to get to. I can't wait to get into the show. It's not just me.

here. The whole team is here. Let's bring in Rick and G.C. And the beauty about this is they're not going to be in some control room. We get to hang out together. Ding dong. Do we have a doorbell, Frankie? Do we have the doorbell? We sure do. Ding dong. Frankie, you know yourself. Hello, guys. What's up, man? How are you? Hello. What is this little mini bottle of water? There it is a bottle of water. That's a weird one, but I like it. Gentlemen. This is so nice. It is. It's fun, huh?

What is studio? I want to have like a back porch with this type of motif. Like the, what do you call this? Vine? Like Wrigley Field? Ivy. Yeah, a little natural field. It's a tremendous thing.

I want a back porch like the back porch. I want a back porch. We have a green room back here that is like straight out of Friday. Yeah. Like I feel like we should have a low rider parked in the back and just sitting there, you know, the vibes are immaculity. It's outside. The green room is outside.

It's literally outside. first time in LA for you First time in Los Angeles Have you had a chance You've been here like Literally 24 hours right 24 hours straight to the studio From the airport

Passed out on the Uber on the way here So I didn't see anything Got here We were here till late last night But I did wake up this morning Opened up the curtains in my hotel room There's a Hollywood sign Right there staring back at me

So I got the authentic box so far There's nothing like seeing the palm trees The sun hits differently out here Tall palm trees is crazy yeah I love LA Like I said Hate the Sports Seems But I do want to say

Like I feel like We've got a bit of an olive branch here. The real olive branch is right behind you, the Kike Hernandez. Where's Kikey at? Right there behind you. There he is. This is him? This is Kike.

With the double trophies, back to back. Keeke, you're some can of piss Kiki, avoiding me, by the way. I reached out to Blake's now and I said, come on the show. M.A. They don't want the smoke. Maybe we'll pull up to Dodger Stadium tomorrow. Maybe we go to them. Yeah, maybe we go to them.

Invasion. Yeah, why not? Like NWO style or WCWDX style when they showed up in Norfolk, Virginia. 1998 or something like that. We're on their turf. This is amazing, guys. It's amazing. This is so much fun.

This is big for the show. Rhonda Rousey on today. 11 years since we last year. Real ones know what a monumental day this is going to be. Jake Paul on the show today. Jake Paul on the show today. Joshua Van on the show today. John Brady?

Eric Nixick, Sean Brady. A lot going on. Shall we get into the news and notes? Shall we get into it? Because I think a lot of people want to hear our thoughts. Friday show was amazing. Shout to DP. Shout to everyone who showed up.

Wonder Boy. all the fans were amazing. Everyone was so, you know, you know what I loved about Friday? Can I just say? You know, lately,

and it's no different than usual, but, you know, there's a lot of shit. You go online, you text your mom on this phone. Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there. Much love, much love. You're the best.

Peace and love, especially to our very own, Andy. Happy Mother's Day. To all the mom. She had to work on Mother's Day. Golly, this is what we do for all of you.

The sacrifices. But you're online and it's, and it's just shit, shit, shit, vitriol, venom, venom, venom, venom, venom, venom, negativity. people on Friday and they're all beautiful souls. They're all hardcore fans, massive smiles on their faces. They just want to be here.

They want to hang. They want to watch. They want to partake. They're just so happy. It was great. They were giving me scores updates throughout the night. It reminded me that that's not real. And our fans are just such lovely, amazing people.

So once again, everyone who showed up, showed up, excuse me, and came out, love you. Because that was, like, renewed my faith in humanity. Could not have said it better. Social media is not real life. Those are the people that watch the show that love this show that we do this for. And Friday was incredible. The energy was amazing. Rick was opening magic packs with fans.

It brought me cards. It was tremendous. No way. So Gabriella, who won the contest that we gave away, we actually ended up giving away two sets of tickets. But Gabrielle won the tickets. She submitted a video. It was incredible. She talked about her husband who loves magic.

Her and her husband came to the show. No way. Brought packs of magic. I'm ripping them. Everybody's gathered around. It was incredible. It was incredible. That's what we do this for.

Those are the real fans right there. Yes. So shout out to them. UFC 328 has come and gone. Sean Strickland is now the second two-time UFC middleweight champion. First being Israel Destiny. The guy who he beat a couple years ago. I have so many thoughts on this.

Okay. Sean Strickland deserves all the flowers, all the credit in the world. Absolutely. Sean Strickland asked for this fight. He called his shot. He did everything that he needed to do to get the fight. Yep. He had the performance against the fight.

Fluffy Hernandez in February and then he talked his shit and he got it. He got them to take the bait. He maybe wasn't the most deserving person to be fighting Kums at Chimaev, but he got that shot because of the performance and because of his mouth. Yep.

And so we have seen people have good performances and then speak and not show up. He freaking showed up. Like he looked so good in that fight. I think he broke, comes out in the second round. I think the aura of invincibility that surrounds Humzat,

credit to Gilbert Burns a little bit left there. Credit to Kamar Usman a little bit left there. What Sean did in that second round in particular, I think changed the course of the fight. I had a 2-2 going into the 5th. I thought he won the 5th,

and I thought he won Ferrant Square 3-2. I think we also had it tied going into the 5th. We had it 38, and similar to the judges, we had it split. I had it for Strickland. He had it for Shemayev. I mean, it was an incredibly close fight. I don't blame anyone for scoring it either way,

but I agree with you wholeheartedly right there. And that second round, when he ends up on top and he's just sort of mauling Hamzat, I think everyone felt that switch of like, oh, this is for real, this is a fight, this is going to be incredibly close. The live odds reflected it. I think after round two, Strickland was like minus 200 and we were like, wow, something is going on. And I think even if Shemayev had gotten a nod there, if he gets the 48, 47, you know, the scorecards are this close, I feel like the order of invincibility would be gone anyway. Yeah, it seems like every time Hamzat doesn't finish somebody in the first round, everybody starts to ask the questions, right? Is he as good as we

thought he was? Sean Strickland has talked about it, and I think he said it recently after this fight, like, he thinks he thinks he's going to lose every fight. But there's a moment in the second round where if you don't kill Sean Strickland, he's always going to be there, right? That moment in the second round, the first round, domination by Hamza, right? But not to the point that he had Robert Whitaker and others in trouble. The point in the second round where he's on the offensive and Hamza Shami of either slips or gets rocked or whatever that moment. and the second is. I'm sure in his brain,

Sean Strickland was thinking, oh, like, this is a guy just like me. And then the rest of the rounds indicated that. The rest of the rounds, he just did what Sean Strickland does. It's amazing because it feels like

every time we're like, nah, Sean's not going to do it. He wins that one. And then there's other ones where you're like, oh, he should win this. He doesn't look good in that one. Sure.

I think that was part of the frustration that Eric Nixick had a year ago when it felt like he didn't quite show up for the Drikas fight. He has this style, this sort of Philly Shishishman. style. He walks. He's flat-footed. He's just throwing ones and twos. He's not moving his head. He's just there. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. And it just works. And the takedown defense is solid.

And the takedowns are solid. And it's just amazing to see this guy do his thing. Like they, I saw people. Shout out to the post show crew because in the comments, I don't think it reflected what they were saying. They were giving him all the credit in the world. That was a great solid game plan that was executed perfectly. And he broke chums at Chimaev. Now, I will say, I didn't think, I didn't think Sean was going to win that fight until Friday morning. Chamsat looked awful on the scale. Yeah. And so for the first time in the buildup to this fight, I was like, oh, we may have an issue here if you're a team, Hamzat.

He looked awful. He always looks awful, though. Did that factor in? Okay. I thought, I thought that was particularly bad. How about after round one? You see him come out, you see him get the grappling, a dominant round one by him where you're like, okay, maybe the way cut didn't matter. I think it affects you in different ways.

Yeah. And I think that it could come and creep up and affect you leading up. I mean, this doesn't even tell the story. He looked awful. First of all, he was the last one to show up. That never happens with champions. They want to get it over with. Like 10, 20 minutes to go too.

Exactly. Looked like, he looked exasperated. He looked frustrated. He looked sunken in. He looked dehydrated. He looked awful. He looked awful. And so for the first time in the build of,

I was like, wow, I think everything that the likes of Chale had said and others, this could come into play. Ultimately, gun to my head would, I have picked Sean, absolutely not, because I have that much respect for Chamsad and he's that dominant. But Sean exposed a lot of weaknesses, a lot of holes. Now, interestingly enough, Dana White said at the post-fight press conference, Humzat walked up to him afterwards and said, I'm essentially done, I'm moving to 205, which I think would be a gift for the light heavyweight division, because there's not

a lot going on there. There's more going on at middleweight. But then in the immediate aftermath, he's tweeting to Sean Strickland like, you know, let me know. when you're ready, all this stuff and more, see you again soon or see you soon again. There's one tweet. I think there's another tweet later where he's like, let me know when you're ready. There it is. And so that doesn't suggest he's interested in 205. I think he's leaving his options open, right?

Because a rematch with Strickland, I think would be great. You care to see that. Oh, yeah. Right away. It was 48, 47. Right away. It doesn't have to be right away, but I want to see it. Yeah.

It all comes down to Ken Hamzot make the way, right? as you said, he looked horrible on the scale. He tends to look horrible on the scale. 70, he had weight misses. He never quite looks like he's comfortable making weight regardless of what the weight class is. As far as Sean Strickland goes, I think anytime we talk about Sean Strickland, most of the time it leads with the offense, right? We're talking about he's plotting forward. He's very flat-footed.

He's jabbing. But what often gets understated is beyond the Philly Shell, he's just so defensively sound. He does not take damage. And what we saw in the fight was Hamzat actually damaging him, right? For me, I was encouraged by the idea that like Hamzat was in a striking battle with Sean Strickland and doing decently well, right? Like what we saw Sean Strickland against Fulfi Hernandez, Fulfi Hernandez had nothing for him. On the contrary, when it came to Hamzot, Hamza was actually doing well in the striking with him. If I told you that this was only going to primarily be a striking battle for the later part of the fight, you'd probably imagine that Sean Shriclin would be doing even better than he did.

And I actually thought Hamzat did pretty good in that realm. What was the difference in the fight was when it came to Hamzot's world, Sean Strickland's defense was rock solid. He just did not let Hamzat outside of the first round do what he wanted to do. I thought after round two, I thought Hamzat was going to be done. And he actually ended up doing better on the feet than I thought in rounds three, four, and five. So I would love to see the fight again. I think they both have things that they could take away and do better.

It all comes down to Khan Hamzaat, make that way. You mentioned that round two, that moment where he kind of fell to the ground and like people thought he was hurt or something like that. He just went straight to his back. Yeah, I went back and rewatched it and it does look like Strickland hits him with an overhand right. And it looks like he kind of loses his balance and he immediately goes for a takedown. He doesn't get it. So he just accepts going to his back and having Strickland come off of him. That's what I think happened.

And then he came out in rounds three, four and five. And it sort of had cleared the cobweets at that point. Still kind of curious on why he just chose to strike with him. Because to your point, he was having success offensively. But the jab the entire last three rounds, the final 15 minutes of the fight, Sean Strickland could not miss with it. I would love to see the stats on the percentage of how many he missed or how many he landed. Like Eric Nixick, after round three, says to him, he's just like, he's got this pillar, he's got this pillar guard going, and he just has no answer for you. I mean, every single time he bumped it out there, it was landing.

And we essentially watched a guy steal the belt from Hamza Tcha Myev by just jabbing him to death. It was, it was a great performance. It was surreal to see him do it twice, because I didn't think he was going to beat Izzy. and then to do that against Humsud? Nobody did. Yes. To do it against Humsat, I think it's two of the biggest underdog.

Oh yeah. Oh, yeah. It is the first time that someone has won two title fights as a plus 300 or greater favorite. Of all the champions that we've seen in my time covering the sport, and especially like repeat champions,

I did not see this one coming. You know what I mean? At a Sean Strickland, the guy who was introduced to us as a welterweight all those years ago with a long hair and all that. Tarzan. Yeah, like I did not see this coming from him. he was going to be fluffy.

Yeah. And what a performance that was. Dog walked Fluffy. At this point, he has to be fighter of the year. Up through the course of the year. Two massive underdog wins and takes the belt back. He has to be. What's so impressive about Sean Strickland and is a credit to him is he's never been a top

pound for pound guy, right? He's never the name that's on the list. And that's why we don't expect these performances out of him, right? Essentially, he just does not get the credit that he deserves. He should be getting more credit. If you look at the resume, it speaks to somebody. That should be higher on everybody's pound for pound list. That should be a smaller dog against the legs of Hotsat Shamaev and Israel to Sanya.

But for one reason or another, he doesn't get it, whether it be people see the trash talk and think it's like bluster and there's no substance behind it, but now we've seen there is a ton of substance behind it. He's a fantastic fighter or whether it be the style that everybody looks at and goes, what is this? They're comparing him to what's the meme? Is it I Carly? What's the, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Could they take a picture together? They did take a picture. Is it fake?

Oh, J-I. No, no, that was A-I. That was AI. Oh, but Miranda Cosgrove was at the hotel and was holding the belt afterward. Okay.

Okay. So, anyway, the point being that it's easy to look at him and pick it apart and just be like, this guy's not that good. But when the product comes out, when he steps into the octagon and fights, he's fucking fantastic. Okay, okay. So for all the Sean Strickland fan boys who get very in their feelings, if he doesn't get his respect and fires, it's been 20 or so minutes.

Do you feel good now? Do you feel like we're giving him his love and respect because he deserves every single thing that we're saying about him, every single thing that we are saying about Sean Strickland, I hope you feel it. We're giving him all the respect. We just said he's fighter of the year.

2026 so far. He's that guy. He is that damn good. And in addition to being a great fighter, he's a big time draw. Oh yeah. You look at the press conference views. You look at the way-in views.

The traffic on Uncrown. Everything Dana said it was monstrous numbers on Paramount Plus. he is a draw. For better or worse, you like him or not, you either want to see him win or you want to see him lose. But you feel some sort of way and that's a credit to him. Isn't this also a reason to do the rematch? But now comes the butt. Okay. Now comes the butt. Now comes the butt. Because I feel some sort of way about this. I feel actually quite strongly about this and I couldn't wait for today's show to talk about it. A couple of weeks ago when he did that media day at the PI and Johnny Eblins off to the side and that's like when he really like cranked it up. up, you know, all that stuff that he was saying about, you know, that he was saying about Hamzad and that's when the gun comment came out and all that. We had a whole discussion. Is it too far? Is it not? And I was, my stance was, yeah, this feels like it's a little bit too far. Like, we can't be talking about guns and all this stuff. Then we got to the next step, which was

him tweeting on the Friday, like eight days before the fight, like I'll be leaving in handcuffs. I'm going to, I'm going to do X, Y, and Z to this guy. And then I brought up on Monday of last week, Like, does this guy want to fight? What's going on here? You know, like this feels self-inflicted. You're about to be locked in a cage with this man. Stop threatening that you're going to beat him up before the fight. Just beat him up in the fight. You know what I mean? And I won't lie. For the first time, in a very long time, I was there at 5 p.m. on Thursday waiting for that press conference to start. And that's a credit to him. Whether I agreed, whether I liked it, whether I did. I wanted to see what was going to happen. I was there waiting. And I saw it go from like 20K live views to 150k live views. And I think it topped out at like 180, 190. No, I saw Pete at like 220K. It was the biggest since Habib versus McGregor. Live view was. I was there.

I can't remember the last time I did that. Honestly, I can't remember the last time I did that. And as I was watching it and I texted it to you guys, I said, look, I got to give this guy credit. He is standing up there saying insane vile shit about Muslim people, about Hamzat, about his family, about people he's associated with, about some people who have, you know, checkered backgrounds to be kind, about his mom, about his country. And he's not just saying it.

He's saying it with his fucking chest. Like he's saying it from here. And he's standing up. Like if someone wanted to do something to him, he was right there. Right. And I said to him, I said, and I even said this online, I thought he won that press conference. I thought he got under Hamzat's skin. I thought Hamzad seemed rattled for the first time.

It seemed in the buildup like Hamsa was just laughing it off sort of in this maniacal way. But in that moment, it felt like he had got under skin that he had somewhat like irked him to the point that he was like acting at a character, broken, I don't know. And then of course we see in the face off he kicks him in what appears to be like the groin. Sure it was. Like, balls region, right? Like that's what Sean was saying at that press conference was crossing the line. What Hamsat did was dirty. You can't kick a guy that you're about to fight in the balls before.

But he was so emotional, he was so upset that he was led to doing that. And so I said, you know what? I think that Sean won that and credit to him, he stood there. And he, as they say, stood on business, right? He did not backtrack at all. Face to face with this guy, he did not backtrack. Even went online afterwards. Great, great, great, great, great.

Way in. Gets on the microphone. This guy's a coward. He didn't make weight. Those scale, all that. He is standing on business, right? You get to the fight. You've got the Lewis Tyson thing, right?

Lewis Tyson seen it's security in the cage How many times does that happen in the UFC? Maybe once, twice, something like that. Anticipation. All time high, building up. Holy shit. I don't care that they touch gloves. I really don't.

That to me meant nothing. All right, let's fucking go. That's the way I took it. Let's fucking go. You didn't just talk about your opponent and say he sucks. I hate him. He's this, down, and the other.

You talked about his religion. You talked about his mom. You talked about his family. you win that fight and tell the world that was all for show, that was all for promotion, that is the biggest bunch of bullshit that I've ever heard. That is fraud. That is cowardly shit.

I have always said that, and Sean's a big boy, and I think he can handle this. You cannot do what he did and say what he did in the buildup to that fight and then tell us seconds after the fight is over, I was just trying to sell the fight. You can't do that. You cannot walk that back. That's family. You called his mother a horror.

You called his religion awful things. That doesn't go away. I'm sorry. And all that tells me is you're not who you say you are. And I thought on Thursday and Friday, he is exactly who he says he is. Because he stood there and said it all from his chest. I always said, Matt Sarah versus Matt Hughes, the culmination of that feud was the most disappointing thing of all time. Those two guys hated each other. And at the very end, they hugged it out and said, ah, we're all good. Remember the buildup to that. It was venomous. They hated each other.

They were bitter, bitter, bitter rivals. And I thought it was so weak that they did that. You think Connor and Habib are ever doing that? Ever, to the end of time. You think Jones and D.C. are ever doing that? Never. And these two guys went back and forth and took this sport and their fight into the gutter. And then afterwards we're doing the kumbaya thing, putting the belt.

No. And then you tell me, You tell me afterwards, ah, you share the cage with someone 25 minutes. Excuse me, that wasn't your debut. You know what that feeling is like. You know what that phenomenon is like sharing the cage with another human being. You know what happens. And yet you still spoke about him that way.

So what I'm trying to say is if you know what happens when you share the cage with someone for 25 minutes, you know that you're going to feel some sort of way about them in the aftermath. Yes. Yes. Don't tell me that, oh, something came on you. And afterwards you respected this man. No, you don't respect this man because you said all that stuff. Either you're lying about everything you said, but you took us to a very dark, deep, disgusting place.

And you know what? Fine. That's how you feel. And then you tell us in the immediate aftermath, I didn't mean any of that. I apologize, guys. Guess what? When Connor won the belt at Madison Square Garden,

he apologized to nobody. You know what I mean? And this dude is apologizing for all of that, 48 hours like, you don't get to say that about someone's religion and parents and mom. And then apologize. guys. I felt that that was so weak. I felt that that was so disappointing. Look, I have nothing against Sean. I like Sean. In fact, I told his team long before all this, I think Sean and I have

some things in common. That was BS. Okay. That was disappointing. I feel a very similar sentiment to you. I think a lot of people do. I want to unpack, though. What is the solution for that? Are you saying don't do the first part, right? Don't take it to those extents if you don't really mean it? Or are you saying on the back end, leave it where it is, don't apologize, keep that. Because to Ariel's point, almost none of what he was saying to Hamz Atchamai in the lead up to this fight was about his fighting skills or his heart or his demeanor in the cage. This man left his country. Yes, it was about his country. He's the Chechny and whore. He sells out the Khadirav. He does all these horrible things. I just don't understand to Ariel's

point how 25 minutes in the Octagon changes all those things that you disagree with. outside of the cage. I'm not confused at all about the switch. What I'm asking is, does he not do the first, are we saying don't sell the fight, don't do that part? Or are we saying on the back end? Be unapologetic.

Just say, fuck it. So I have always said, leave religion out of it, leave family out of it, leave these things out of it. Obviously, I know you hate this dude, you're going to fuck him up, this down and the other.

Great. I think that didn't need to be said in the buildup to this fight. But man. And then if you are going to say it, stand by it. Okay. So don't, when you're done, we're not friends.

Respect to Hamzat. He tested me. But F that guy. Yeah, yeah. And if you want to get that belt back, beat five MFers and I'll see you in two years. I think that's probably the answer. And by the way, you didn't make weight and I still stood here and beat your ass. What?

That would have been incredible. And it would have been a legend. And now you're telling me, I'm sorry. Yeah. And the world doesn't like me. And now I liked it. And it's like, come on, man, you're a walking contradiction. We're starting to see it more.

and more now with this like this vitriol, this nasty stuff pre-fight. And then by the end of it, it's like, well, dude, I was just trying to build the fight. You know, you're seeing Colby with with Usman and with Leon Edwards. And it's like, yeah, sorry, man, like I was just trying to build the fight. Like you get it. It's just the fight game. I am with you. I would rather, if you're going to say all of these things afterward, be like, I still meant all that. I respect them. You know, we spent 25 minutes in the eye. You went to war? Look at my face, man. He broke my nose. Like, he is a hell of a fighter. But I still don't agree with the guy. Fuck him. I have so many, like, contradictory thoughts. I love all of this.

this is such a fascinating discussion. For one, the talk works, right? We have to acknowledge that, and you acknowledge that many times. Like the viewership of this, that works no matter what, right? Your issue is with the switch up, right? At the very end, for me, my personal experience with it is, I don't have as much of a problem with Sean switching it up because I don't necessarily want to hold them accountable for that.

I can kind of see the promotion part for what the promotion part is. I would make an argument that the humbling himself in the end is endearing to a certain group of people. Like, there are people that I don't think necessarily need him to stand in the business and actually are like, this guy that is humble in victory afterwards and is showing a different side of himself can be endearing. I totally agree with you, though, it makes it very, very obvious that the next time Sean Strickland is doing this, right, ahead of a fight, he does not mean it. It makes it harder and harder and harder to buy what he's saying the next time he does this. He tries to do this. The energy and the emotion that we thought he really hates Hamza Chamaev, you start to lessen your ability to buy that.

But I do think the genuine man that we see at the very end, the more humble man, the man who talks about his wife and how she's changed his life, is endearing while you can also still acknowledge, like, you're not what you said you were ahead of the fight. Like, you're not standing on that. It feels like we know that there, you know, as a good guy in there. Like, we saw him and Hunter Campbell, cabitzing afterwards, and he's just like, man, I know you're a good guy. You just let this lunatic out during fight week. And I know it's to sell the fight and everything like that, but I know there's a good guy in there.

And like, we've been to extreme Cotor and been around Sean and there's no cameras rolling. And like, he seems more like the guy after the fight. Yeah, he was a nice guy. Like, he was chill and he was talking to us and everything. Yeah, it's just like. No one wants to feel like they were hoodwing. No one wants to feel like they were con.

And how do a rematch against Shemayev and try to build it. Oh, we're going to do this all over again? Yeah, we're going to do this all over again? I think it would work. The thought was very close. It was entertaining. So I understand that I'm not 19 years old and that what, you know, what draws me in isn't the same as what draws a lot of kids in or younger fans in.

The Sean that we saw in the Post-Fi press conference draws me in. Makes me want to root for him. Yeah. He's vulnerable. He's honest. He's open. He's got warts. He's changing his life.

All this stuff and more. He's inspirational. And so I'm not saying you need to be, you know, you need to be like Mr. Rogers leading up to the fight. I'm not saying you need to be that. But just if you don't believe it, don't say it, and don't fucking cross the line and talk about religion and family and all this other stuff.

You can't do that. And then tell us in the immediate aftermath, seconds later in the cage, ah, man, that was just to sell the fight. No, no. And on Hamza's part two, you put the belt around them and all this stuff. Like, you wanted to kill this guy.

You kicked them in the balls. Like, I thought that was weak on both their parts. And I know what someone's going to say out there. You've never done it. You've never walked for 25 minutes with someone through hell and been through it. Guess what? We've seen enough fighters hate each other before and hate each other afterwards. I'm not saying don't tip your cap.

Thanks for the war. I'll see you down the road. But that was nonsense. You took us down a very, very dark path. You took us down. Stay there. Because you freaking took this sport into the gutter and everyone's counting their money and everyone's happy about it. Tell me something.

In the day and age of Paramount Plus, us, no pay-per-view. Who were you selling the fight for? You got the fight. What benefit did you benefit from? What benefit came as a result of saying all that vitriolic venomous stuff? Do you understand what I'm saying? If he would have said, I got 1.5 million paper views because I called his mom a whore. Great. You didn't get anything. All right. I agree with you on it going, you know, into the gutter. I was walking around, you know, it was appointment viewing the press conference and everything like that. We were just leaving the office on Thursday and I was walking through the streets of New York. I didn't have my headphones.

And I'm blaring it through my speaker, listening to it. I'm like, wow, this is crazy. And it gets to a point where there's so many people around him like, wow, I need to turn this off because it's just wildly inappropriate. This can't be, like, out in the public. That's how deep it was going. Is there any chance that he was selling the fight to himself a bit? He needed to go to this place to get his own self-belief.

I mean, this guy, Hamzok going into this was the boogeyman. He was 15 and 0. Did he need to get to a point where I was like, I hate this guy, I am going to beat this guy, I'm going to teach this guy a lesson. Like, I hate everything about him. I hate the way he fights. I hate his background. I hate his family.

I hate everything about it, that he had to sell the fight to himself to give him that self-belief. I don't think so. I think that he was selling the fight to get more eyes on it. To his point, him and Hamzad afterward talking about, you know,

you're welcome, Shemayev. I made you the most money you've ever made in your life. Who wants to hear that? It can't be both, though? You don't think... It could be. It could be.

Okay. I had to take a few months ago where I said, no fight will ever even scratch the surface of John Jones versus Daniel Corri-Mier, Habib, and Connor. And you guys kind of push back against that.

I think this is as close as we've gotten, right? 100%. We will not. We just will not see that. There is no real animosity before. There's a few reasons. One, like the sport has become much more professional, right? At the end of the day, Sean Strickland and Hamzat Shemai, despite Hamzat kicking him and

whatever, are professionals who make money participate in the sport and then go home to their families. This is what this is. The Wild Ottawa West days are gone and more specifically, maybe this will be controversial, I don't know, I'm just going to say it. We want our bad guys to be bad guys.

I think that's what your main point is, right? When you're going to be the bad guy, be the fucking bad guy, right? John Jones, bad guy. Connor McGregor, bad guy. When you're going to choose that lane, when you're going to go down that path,

when you're going to say there are no holds barred, I'm going to do whatever it takes, I'm going to say whatever it takes, I will be very, victorious, but I'm going to go as low as it possibly takes, be the bad guy. I believe that John Jones, with all of his soul, is that. I believe that Conn McGregor, with all of his soul is that. It requires a certain type of person. I don't believe Sean Strickland is actually a bad guy. I don't know. I mean, that's a strong statement right there, but sorry, I don't mean in any

facet of his personality. I don't mean at the end of the day, ultimately, if we, if we have this, there's good and good or bad. I think there's good in all those people that you mentioned, but there is certainly is. But you know what's actually fascinating about that? I actually believe that the real is all that he said before. I think what's annoying about this is, I think the aftermath is actually not the real. And that's what frustrates me. And I think that there is, look, I acknowledge that there is a phenomenon that happens after two men fight each other for 25 minutes and you kind of like have this dump and you're like, yeah, relief. God, that's over. And in doing that, you're showing love. You know, you're, I think Sean's true.

Strickland wakes up today and says everything that he said about him again. You know what I mean? And so it's like, why did you even have to say that? Why did you do that? Why did you diminish everything that you did to get this fight and sell this fight, as you say, for what? Could it be an in the moment thing. I mean, he's been building to this for, like, when did he start calling for this? Months and months ago. It was before the Fluffy Hernandez fight. He was saying that he was going to come from Hamzaa and take his belt. Is there a moment where like there was so much build and there's just so much thought and energy and time put into this. You didn't sit there watching that on Saturday of the aftermath and be like, well, that kind of.

I felt that. Yeah. I felt that. It was deflated. But I also didn't buy as much into the beginning part. I knew that Sean was saying this, but as I said when we were talking about it, it's working for me. I care more about this fight. I don't buy it.

I never bought that Sean Strickland. Here's what you said is very important and I think you're right. I think Sean Strickham feels this way. I don't think he woke up the next day and was like, nah, Hamza, that's a good guy. He's not paling. He felt everything that he said. But the difference between a blood feud like Connor and Habib

and John Jones and Daniel Cormié is the intensity of how much you believe it. Is the intensity with which you're willing to prove that you believe it? Is the intensity with which you're willing to stand on that? And I don't think Sean Strickland feels or cares enough about Hamzaa Chamaev to pursue that, pursue that. But Connor McGregor hates Habib with every bit of his being. John Jones hates Daniel Coromier with every bit of his being and vice versa, right? These guys just do not like each other and they will go to the ends of the earth to display that, prove that any opportunity that they have.

I believe that he was in that department with Hamzad. I mean, it's proven to not be, right? No, that's what I'm saying. Like, he got me. And so this, I'm giving you my theory about how he feels in the aftermath. But I think you're right. I just feel like if you are going to take us on that ride, take us on that ride till the very end. And the reason for that is because the name.

next time you do it, which he will inevitably do it, and there are going to be some dummies out there who will fall for it. It's not going to work. At least on me. It'll work less, I think. Okay, so now when he's going to fight, he's going to save the same things. And then we're going to be like, okay, now this again? But also think about it. He brings in such a casual audience. I had friends that never watch him when they're texting me. He's a huge star. I want to see Strickland upset him and everything. How many of them were locked into the post-fight press conference, everything like that. And they're going to remember that in the brain in eight months when he's going against I'mov. Or they're just going to see him talking mad shit to him of him ofov. I'm the chance. I'm the chance. I'm the chance. I'm blah, blah, blah, saying all these things, and it's like, hell yeah, Sean Strickland's back. Let me tell you why it'll work again. A few, or rather not why it will work, but evidence of it continuing to work. One, Colby Covington's entire career. Yeah. Never, it never was anything other than talk, and every single time it worked. He was never this kind of draw.

He did the same thing. I mean, he was headlining paper music. I know, but he wasn't this kind of draw. Okay, now let's put Sean Strickland. Yeah. Sean Strickland promises to the death, I'm going to kill everybody. Never delivered on that, never delivers on that. promise stands there and jabs people and the style has never changed people still believe still

buy into it ramps up the intensity says you know okay i shared the cage with trickus he's okay he's okay he's kind of does a variation of this the difference here was he never went as intense as he went in the pre with homzad as he has with other opponents but he's always called out his opponents and then in the aftermath it's always like ah the dutchman's all right it's always like uh the perfect example of it is the first time he got the boat against israel out of sonya i understand It wasn't as intense. It wasn't as vulgar as it was against Tom Zatramaya. But, you know, all the dog stuff and everything like that.

He had, is he tearing up at the press conference? Like, it was a feud. And then when he got the belt, it was like respect to the, you know, one of the middleweight goats. I love Israel out of Sonia. We're dapping each other up and everything like that. And rinse and repeat and started it all over again with drink is two plus. See, I think it will work again. We want to believe it.

That's the thing. We want to be work. I want to care. I want to buy it. You want to hear afterwards? I don't. I don't. No one wants to hear that.

I like genuine bad guys. I'm not going to deny it. I can't even pretend. I like the guys who say, fuck you forever. I like those guys better. Do you think that, look,

he said a lot of things about a lot of people who, you know, can't be intimidating. Do you think I thought some of the, he said, I want to apologize. He apologized.

That was, do you think he got a message? I don't know, man, but that was. Like, what other reason is Sean Strickland apologizing for?

To everyone. Like all the, the sex of people that he, that he insulted. And you mentioned it earlier. It's not even like, need to do this because he has such an incredible story. Like, you know, the abuse when he was young,

the neglect when he was young. And then, like, you said he was never really like a perennial top 10 guy. Now he's a two-time middleweight champion, both time as massive underdogs. It's kind of like, when he won, I was just like, what a fucking story this guy is. This is unbelievable that he did it again. And then, like, he's like, oh, man, I'm sorry for everything. And then, like, you kind of jog your memory and you're like, oh, yeah, man, he said some, like, pretty horrible things in the lead-up. So you can't be, like, as hype for the guy, like, as you would, like, an Alessandre Panthosia that goes from Uber Eats driver to UFC champion. where you're like, this is unbelievable.

You know, it's like he doesn't need to do this because he has such a good story as it is. Ultimately, I just want to be very clear to anyone who I'm sure is going to disagree and you're well within your rights. Oh, yeah, we'll get sure. If Sean Strickland's vitriol was all about Hamzaa Chimayev, the fighter,

this guy sucks, this guy's overrated, this guy's a humper, this, that, and the other. If that was the main focus of his trash talk, and then he walked through hell with him for 25 minutes, and he got his nose broken and all this stuff, and he said, you know what, I need to give this guy his props. He is better than I thought he was.

He is that damn good. He took me to a place that I never dreamed I could go and survive and da-da-da. I would be okay with that, to be honest. But nothing that he experienced in those 25 minutes should have changed his stance on what he said about him in the lead-up. Because everything that he said about him in the lead-up had nothing to do with his fighting abilities. It was about his religion. It was about his family. It was about his associates.

It was about his life. and he fled. You know what I mean? So like, what are you apologizing for? I still have to feel the same. You could say, hey, this guy is great because I just fought him for 25 minutes, but he's still ex-19.

You just took all that back. And if I'm Hansat, I don't accept. And maybe that's why he's asking for the fight because maybe a light went off and it said, like, you know what? I shouldn't have dapped him up. I shouldn't have put the belt. I don't know.

But none of that gets a race because you went 25 minutes with him. Do you understand? There's a big, big difference there. There's a big difference. There's unwritten rules. in the fight game. You don't take the fight to certain places. And if you do, and if you dare to do that, freaking stay there. And I would have so much more respect for it. If I would have done a show on

Friday after that press conference, I would have taken back a lot of the things that I said in the bill of it because I'd be like, yo man, face to face in front of an audience, he backed it all up. I was impressed. Did I agree? Did I like? No, but I was impressed. And I thought he won. And then Friday's same. And then he took it all back. And apologize. Golly, he apologized. Oh my gosh. And then he starts talking to us about gratitude and all this stuff. I'm like, man, like, what is this? There's a feeling of getting hoodwinked, right? There's a feeling of just like,

you told me you were the bad guy and you're not. And I'm conflicted on it. I really am. But I think my lasting stance is that we want to believe very badly that some of these guys are what they say they are. They are the baddest dude. They are the vicious, nasty MFers that they say they are. and then sometimes when that veil is lifted,

it's like, damn, I kind of like the bad guy better than I like the good guy. Let me ask you guys this. You haven't seen the face-to-face that we've done with Ron Dan Gino. But I was thinking about it. So I'm doing it yesterday, and it's now like, you know, 20 hours post all this,

less than 20 hours, post all this. And in my mind, I'm like, all right, I've been tasked to do this. There have been some, you know, there's been some criticism of their feud. you'll see where I'm going. There's been some criticism of Ronda and Gina.

It's like, it's too friendly. Too friendly, is this? Is this going to be a friendly sparring session? Like, what is this? There's talking about loving each other and all this stuff

and respecting each other and bringing each other up. Like, ultimately, I want to see conflict too. Like, I'm Mr. you know, instigator according to the fans. Like I want to see conflict, but I just want it to be real. Yeah.

So I'm thinking, okay, I have to ask certain things. I have to try to get them to talk about themselves in a different way, all this stuff. And so we did, and this is a bit of a preview, we did the face face. I've never experienced anything like this. In all my years of doing interviews,

in all the fights I've covered, and obviously I don't do a ton of the face-to-face because I'm not usually a part of the broadcast, the way in which I am here. But the amount of times that they cried, the amount of times that their eyes watered, the amount of love, and I walked away from that, and I told the crew that was there, this is so refreshing. Coming off of that in Newark, two people who don't feel like they have to sell the fight. Two people who don't feel like they're okay with like I believe Rhonda when she says I'm going to try to kill you. She didn't say kill. We actually had to talk about that word, but like I'm going to try to annihilate you. I believe her. But I also believe when she says like,

you've helped me and I love you and respect you and all this stuff. And I wonder, because I see some people be like, oh, where's the buzz for this fight? And trust me, I think it will build, you know, we're just getting off that whirlwind, right? Yeah. It would have been stupid for for MVP to try to compete with last week. Now the coast is clear. I think, I think, and maybe I'm showing my age here, maybe I'm getting soft, I think this will be, this is coming at the perfect time because that was so vitriolic and venomous. And this actually feels like a breath of fresh air. They're not faking it. They're actually being real, true. And any time I tried to even venture into conflict, they were like, we're not going there.

The amount of times their eyes watered was crazy. Like things were shared in that conversation. I don't know how much of it is going to actually air, but like very personal, personal stuff that I'd never heard of. It was like therapy. It truly was like therapy. It was wild to be a part of. I couldn't believe what was happening.

And I'm not trying to oversell this by any stretch. I swear to God, I do not work for MVP. I can't say this enough. It felt different. And so I think, I think that people will feel some sort of way about this fight differently now that they experienced that? Or maybe I could be 100% wrong and people would be like, that's some weak-ass shit. I don't know.

I think there will be a group of people that appreciate it and like it, but I think there's also going to be a large contingency of people that come to the fight game for that vitriol. This is that late Saturday night. It kind of feels like you're not supposed to be watching it, blood sport, you know. Even if you're told seconds later that it was all fake. Yeah, but once they got you, they got you. That's after. How many people tap out right after they hear that decision read and they don't watch the pressers

and they're just like, man, Sean Strickland did it. I can't believe it. You know, they're out drinking at a bar and everything like that. You know, they're not tuning into all that. I think that a lot of the fans of this sport want that vitriol. They want that nastiness.

And that's why Sean Strickdon is such a big draw. I'm one of them. As I said, I like the bad guys, right? Like, I want that. We're getting to an interesting thing, which is a meta conversation about why do people want to watch fights. And I think there's multiple reasons

why you could want to watch a fight. I think the easiest one. The most obvious one is, I don't like you, you don't like me, right? And that's what Sean Strickland and Hamzaa Shamaibya were selling. I don't like you, you don't like me. We're going to fight. Fuck you.

That's a very easy sell and why it always works so easily. But a very interesting cell, which sounds like, again, I haven't seen this piece that you did with them yet. I'm looking forward to it. I love you and want to fight you is a fucking interesting story to me. And something that is compelling to me. I think it's coming on the heels of this. And on the heels of the opposite, which is I hate you. I love you and that's why I want to fight you

is very compelling and if that story, it's harder though, that's the problem. The easier one, the much easier one is you, you, me,

let's fight. Not every fight build has to be the same. Does not have to be the same. What I'm saying is for this to come 24 hours later, just kind of struck me. I was like, okay.

And in contrast to what we just saw. I'm compelled by that story. I think I will be more compelled upon seeing this. Because in addition to like, we talk about the hoodwink thing. I think another thing that makes it feel like you're getting hoodwinked when they, you know, Sean Strickland does all of this and then he

turns, turns completely 180 after the fight and it's just like, man, I'm sorry for everything. It's how much they talk about like, we made so much money because of this. That makes you feel additionally hoodwink that it's just like, you almost got taken an advantage of it. It's just like, damn, like you faked all of that just to make more money. And no paper viewpoints, by the way. Yeah. Even if they're doing it in a different way, I don't know if fans will love hearing Gina and Rhonda be like, oh man, like we're making so much money doing this. Like, it's so great that like we're getting together. We're such big names. But they're not saying that. Just to be clear. Oh, okay, okay. Okay. Yeah, yeah. They're not. I thought you were saying like, we, we love you.

I love you because you're doing this. So we'll make such a big fight and make so much money. This is a different discussion about the fight that we can have later in the week. To me, like, this fight is, is, there's a lot of healing going on. Yeah. There's a lot of healing. There are some deep wounds for both Rhonda and Gina that is being healed, that may not appeal to some people. Some kid in college is like, F that shit. Like, give me the blood, give me the venom, give me all that. Give me the racism, the anti-Semitism. Give me everything.

I don't want to hear any of this stuff. And maybe that appeals to me more than others. And maybe that's why there are different fans who like the sport and that's okay. But it's the dichotomy is, yeah, is really, really interesting. Ultimately, I think you're right. Sean is a star. He's a draw. I would argue he's probably at this point top 10, maybe even top six, five in the UFC at this point given what he did. Because he really pulled something out of Hamza. There wasn't that same intrigue in Hamza, Drichas. And there certainly wouldn't have been that same intrigue in Hamza, Nasreddin. Speaking of those guys, I feel like the collective middleweight division was like, yes, Drickis, I'm back. I'm back. Amazing. You know what I mean? Like Paulo Costa is like, all right, bring him up to me or maybe I'll go back down. Who knows? Yeah.

One of the many interesting questions is the rematch stuff that we talked about, but also this is going to sound, this is going to sound dramatic. But is Hamzad done. And what I mean by done is, look, there was once a time where he retired. Yes. He was not, and the story is he was dragged back. Great. We can't ignore the fact that Gilbert took him into deep waters and he showed signs of weakness.

Camaro took him into deep waters on very short notice and the consensus seems to be if that fight was five rounds he may have lost and what was that three years ago now, two years ago

and Sean made him look look very, very, very human. You know what I mean? Like I think he's a terrifying individual when he does that like crouched down before the fight he looks like a wolf I don't feel like that aura

of invincibility is there. I used to think like man, Paulo Costa, God bless you, but I don't think this would be a good night for you. I don't really feel that anymore.

You know what I mean? In the visibility continues to get chipped away at. In a big way. In a major way. But I still believe Hamzat to be as good as everybody believed from a look at the tape, right? The tape tells you that Hamzad is not just going to kill everybody in the first round. We know this now. We've seen it too many times.

We've seen it against Gilbert Burns. We've seen it against Camaro. We've seen it against Sean Strickland. But as I said, Hamzaa Chamaev was doing pretty damn good in a striking battle. with Sean Strickland, which if I told you he could do that, you'd be pretty encouraged, right? Because you know the wrestling aspect. He's going to have a huge advantage over most guys. I still believe he's very good fighter.

We have the tendency, and it's a boxing holdover of like you lose in your shit. You have to be Habib. You have to be Habib or you have to be Mayweather in those two sports. If you lose, if you look vulnerable in any way, you're garbage. Hamzad is incredibly good. Busted up Sean Strickland's nose to the point that he looked like a Muppet's character because of how big his nose had become. I still believe Hamza can give most guys a really, really rough night.

I think he's a top pound for pound guy. I don't think he couldn't beat Sean Strickland in a rematch. I'd still love to see it. And so the invincibility is gone, but I think he's very good. I know that he is not done, and I know that he can beat Sean Strickland. I mean, we just saw it on Saturday night. It takes one judge giving it 10-9 in one of those rounds, and he wins that fight 48, 47 by split himself.

I agree with you that I think what is done is that aura of like, this guy is the boogeyman. No one wants to fight him. He could be champ at 170, 185, 205. This is the next guy. He's going to go undefeated. He's going to run through everyone.

He's going to finish them all in the first round. I think that aura is gone. And now it is just Hamzaa Shemayev is one of the biggest stars that the UFC has. He will always be a draw. And he is a top tier guy who will always be a contender for a title, whether it's at 185 or 205. To be very clear, the fight I thought was enjoyable.

Like, I didn't think the fight was a letdown. I think the only people who are saying the fight was a letdown, are the ones who are truly let down by the post-fight talk, right? I think that clouded their judgment. The fight was shocking, it was surprising, it was enjoyable. It was close.

I have a lot of respect for Sean as a fighter. I have a lot of respect for, you know, the way in which he attacked him, the game plan, the team, all that stuff. Please don't confuse. That's why we spent 25 minutes talking about the fight first. In conclusion, I just want to say,

if you're going to say all that stuff in the buildup, just stick to it in the aftermath. especially when it has nothing to do with fighting. Let's talk about Josh Van. Yes. You know what? My other takeaway from that was it was from the press conference pre-fight. It was so funny looking at Tyra and being like what what is going on in this guy's mind at the moment.

Like I really, some guys don't speak English and you can tell they kind of understand. I don't think Tyra really understand. And he was just like, you know what I mean? Josh obviously understood. I thought Josh just by his, I thought he looked like. a superstar. You know what I mean? The way he was dressed, the way he could, he's got like, he's got like a, a little bit of cockiness to him. You know what I mean? Like I confidence. Yes. Yes. Josh is a superstar and he fights like a superstar. He is, I had, I saw some

stat. I just want to pull it up real quick about Josh. This is according to verdict MMA. They do a great job. This pick right here that we, that we just had. When he dropped them, to your point, man, like the fits were going crazy at the, at the press conference. And then when he showed up to the arena, like it looks so good. Like the people of, of Myanmar love this guy. He's representing a country that has never had a UFC champion before. And then like the way that he fights, this fight, the Roy Val fight, just like the last two times, because obviously we didn't get to see much of that Pantosia one, he is a star in the making. This fire, this picture right here is so crazy. I saw a graph here today on Twitter and I'm sorry. I'm blanking on the name of the

County does a fantastic job with statistics for the UFC, but it was a graph of how many significant strikes he has. You know, right now he's number one all time in significant strikes per minute, and he's 400 significant strikes ahead of. Ahead of Max Holloway at this point in Max Holloway's career. Wow. And now he's a champion, and now he's defended the belt. He has a massive fight with Alessandre Pantosha to go. His style is fan favorite. Is, you know, fans will love it. His ability to defensively grapple against Tatsuro Taira showed a lot to me. Makes you really wonder about that Pantosia matchup, and then just the boxing, dude. The boxing is so crispy.

Tair had the five-inch reach advantage. When he gets those combinations going and everything and, like, respect to Tatsuro, Tira, my God, he took an absolute beating. It was a great fight. It was the fight of the night. Could be fight at the year at the end of the day. That's a great point. As of right now, it probably is, right?

That and then Hoked Blades. Oh, right. Of course, golly. The stat was Joshua Van already ranks second in UFC flyweight history for significant strikes landed despite having just 11 fights in the promotion. he averages 110 significant strikes per fight and has landed 100 plus in seven of his 11 UFC appearances. And Pantoja is amazing.

He never really had that dance partner and I feel like this is going like just the shot of him, you know, kind of looking. Great to have him in attendance. I can't wait for that fight. The call out everything. Like I can't wait for that fight because there's also the, hey, I actually did really injure you and deserve that one

and I celebrated it. And you know that annoys Pantosia. Like even when he was on, he's so respectful and not. but he said some things that he didn't like, you know, he insinuated that he didn't love about the way Josh celebrated.

Flyweight is great right now. I think it came out a little bit. I think it came out a little bit when Van was just like, yo, get your shit right. And we can run this thing back and man, I told you it was just like,

what the fuck? Like it's just like, dude, I gave you so many flowers and everything like that. Like, yeah, the, the, you know,

touch of disrespect from Josh Van, but the fight itself, like, when it comes to an actual in the octagon 25 minutes, that might be the fight that I want to see. most right now in the UFC. If it's not number one, it's top three.

Just the way that they fight will just lend to such a fantastic war for a title. Pantosia with the chance to get his belt back. And like, man, he talked about Van, 24 years old. This guy wasn't even doing any sort of training in 2020. Doesn't know who DJ is. Bro, they've used

in 2023. It's an incredible story. He has such a long, great career ahead of him. It's, yeah, flyweight is at a great point. You asked me on Thursday, and I've been pretty steady on this if by beating Tyra van silences all the doubters. And my answer was then and will be, continues to be no.

The only way he silences those doubters, the only way people will really believe is if you beat Alashondra Pantoja because Alessandre Pantosia was on such a trajectory, like starting to actually start to sniff and scratch and claw toward the Demetrius Johnson level. He was on that path before the unfortunate injury happened. But what I did say, and you tell me if you agree now, sitting here later was that it will go a long way toward his confidence, toward feeling like a UFC champion, toward being able to carry himself. And Ariel talked about like how his swag and how

he was dressed and all these things. Josh Van feels like a guy who believes that he is the rightful champion and will beat Alessandre Pantosia. And there's no doubt, right? There's no doubt in his mind. The confidence is real. Him saying like Pantosia get your shit together doesn't really even mean anything because it's like Pantosia got hurt. Like what's he supposed to? I shit together my elbow. But in his mind, there's no excuses. There is no excuse. Like, why are you not in here with me?

Whoever is in here with me, I am going to beat your ass. And not just that, but like the, you're a black belt, bro. Like, you should know how to land. Yeah. You should know how to boost. Like, you shouldn't have broken your arm. I did that to you. I actually think, like, obviously, it's horrific for Alessandria Pantosia.

It's horrible to see his run end like that. Yeah. For this specific fight, it's the best thing that could have happened because now it's like, oh, well, Van took it through injury. but then he puts on an absolute banger with Tatsuro Tire. And now you're set up where if Vannes Bantosia, it's just like, oh shit. We have a superstar at 125. This guy's unbelievable.

And then if Pantosia beats Vann, it's just like, we saw what he did, Tatsuro Tire. It's like Pantosia is that dude. He is one of the greatest flyweight of all time. Like he gets his rifle belt back. It's tremendous. 125. I love it. Did your boy Waldo win?

I scored it for Volkov. I think 3027 Volkov is one of the most egregious scorecards we will see all year. that round three was clear Waldo Cortez-A-Costa. We said it as it was about to be red. We were just like, man, this could go anyway. And actually, when it was red 30-27, I was just like, oh, shit, this is Waldo, because the first two rounds were so close. I don't mind the Volkov.

I scored it for him 29-28. But not. But, man, 30-27 was bad. But then all the judges scored that final round for Volkov, which is the crazy part. We thought that something would have happened in the early rounds. I don't know how you scored that third round. I thought Volkov won, though. I scored it for Volkov as well.

Yeah, some people thought he won, but yeah, I, meaning Waldo, but I don't think that it was, I don't think 30 to 20. It was a very close fight. Neither guy put their stamp on that. Does Waldo's stock go down? I mean, he comes to the fight, man. Yeah, heavyweight, it's tough for your stock to go real, like, agreed.

You know what I mean? Derek Lewis just had an awful performance and no one's even talking about it in the buildup to this fight. No doubt about it. Sean Brady won that fight. Yep, bro. What a comeback, right? Joaquin Buckley joked afterwards.

I don't know if this is true. Like, I didn't practice wrestling. We saw him practicing wrestling. We saw him with Kamar Uzman training specifically for that. So I don't know. Whatever that means, but Brady was dominant, takedowns, landed 40% of them. Brady is still that dude, man. And maybe this is, you know, maybe this is just like more love from Michael Morales,

who is unbelievable as well. And people have bad nights. And, you know, he talked about, I don't think he's offering excuses, almost got, you know, canceled and all this stuff. Who knows where he was at? I'm not selling my Sean Brady stock just yet. No. And I think this was a reminder that there are levels and that Sean Brady is still in that higher

echelon at 170 and maybe Buckley has a little bit more work to do. I think the Buckley stock is the one that's more interesting, right? Yeah. Like when you talked about Josh Van, when you talked about Sean Strickland, when taken down, they had answers, right? It may not be flawless, right? You're not going to necessarily keep Hamza from taking you down or Tyra from taking you down. But once you're down there, you know how to stay safe.

You know how to find the answers. Once Buckley got taken down by Sean Brady, he had no answers. If he has any hopes of being a top contender, he needs to figure that out. But I'm not selling Brady stock, but shit, I just re-upped on my Michael Morales stop. I just doubled down, tripled down, buy as much as you possibly can on Michael Morales. It feels like the game plan is out on Buckley. If you can wrestle, you're going to be able to beat him. What about King Green?

Dude. Like the fact that he's still doing this. at his age with the miles that he's had and looking like this against a guy who missed weight by a pretty large amount, four pounds. Usually that guy wins this fight. He didn't get a bonus. He was upset about that.

What about, hey, he didn't get a bonus, but we're giving him his own shorts. What was it? The most like, no raises for anyone this year, but pizza in the break. What was that? We got ice cream cake in the break room. What was that?

Has King Green been asking me, I will admit, I haven't watched every single presser he's done. Has he been asking for his own shorts? Like where did that come from? No, I don't think that's like a thing that he's been like beating the drum on. He's always talking, he's always talking about money even in the media day. My man is a business owner. He's not looking for custom shorts.

Yeah. What was that? It was bizarre. But you mentioned how about King Green still doing it? I think like jumping ahead obviously and we'll get to it. But like Jim Miller and King Green. Yeah. The two of them just continuing to after everything he's been through in his life.

They just signed him to another five-fight contract. That was the last fight on his deal. And if he fights out the deal, he will have had 51 fights in the UFC. Unreal. Unreal. UFC 100, 200, 200, 300. I'm not counting him out for 400. We're already at 328.

That's very far away. 51 fights is insane in the UFC. Not to mention all the other fights he had before the UFC. It's too far away. But we continue to check in on this. Hall of Famer, Jim Miller, yes or no? Yes. I think so, yes.

The accumulation of stats. I think he has the most fights, the most wins. Longgevity is something. You also talk about like, he's the second most finishes behind Charles Olivera. One of the most beloved fighters of this generation. Jim Miller, like, yeah. It's also the UFC Hall of Fame, right? So it's not like it's like the baseball Hall of Fame where it's like we have these

stringent standards. There's guys in there that Jim Miller is just better than. Jim Miller Hall of Fame or Stampin. One of the most important stats in this game is longevity. The amount of guys that we see coming to the UFC in last three, four fights and out, It's kind of like the NFL, you know. The average time in the NFL is like three years. I feel like the average amount of fights across everyone who's ever fought in the promotion is like three or four fights.

And for him, like you said, they do 51. 10 years ago, this guy was telling us that he had Lyme disease. 10 years ago. And here he is. Who knows where his career is going to go from. You see 200. He's telling us he's fighting Lyme disease. And not to mention everything that he's just been through with the son.

God bless him. And thankfully, he doesn't have to deal with that anymore. He was sick. He had cancer. now it seems like it's all gone and he's in the clear unbelievable stuff by the way speaking of hall of fame massive shoutout to chris wideman they announced that he is going into the hall of fame what a class this uh this summer right him dj it's a great class it hit me right in the heart seeing tom jrbasi it hit me right in the heart man uh love tom and i i still can't believe that he

is to see his family there there he is i still cannot believe this um massive shout out to the ufc and I want to give a massive shout out to our good friend, Aunt Evans. If Aunt Evans never created, or I should say resurrected the UFC Hall of Fame the way in which he did with these different wings, maybe Tom Derbacy doesn't get immortalized

the way in which he will be immortalized in July. That's a first ballot human being, let alone Hall of Famer. And yeah, every single media member in MMA and boxing owes him a debt of gratitude. The UFC owes him a debt of gratitude for what he did for them

on the editorial side. I will admit, I felt like, I felt like enough wasn't made of his passing. The tribute wasn't loud enough, in my opinion, but maybe I'm speaking as a friend.

I was so happy to see this, and I give them a ton of credit for doing it, especially near where he lived in New York. I believe his family was in attendance as well. I mean, this feels like a rectifying of that, for sure. It was absolutely beautiful.

And, yeah, I mean, I still can't believe he's not here, but I'm happy. for his family that he is getting this amazing honor. Attiba Gautier continues to be a force of nature. He stopped Ozzy Diaz and then he called out

Israel Desaigne. I see no scenario in which they make this fight. Doesn't make sense. For Izzy. For Izzy. Yeah. And for the UFC. Yeah. If you're going to use Izzy, that's not it. No, I don't think so. Why? You can make a star off of him. Isn't that the whole point of this? Circle of Life?

It's just the difficult thing is now Adasani has had four straight losses. I know he's a huge name, but it's just like, how many in a row can you lose before? It's like, we're not building a star off of him anymore. That's the thing.

If a Tiva wins, they'll say he's washed. They'll say as he's washed. They'll think that that would be a significant win, right? I can't watch his real out of sun. He gets sparked by. No, I don't think anyone wants to see that.

The name will matter, but to Connor's point, it doesn't make him feel like a bigger star because either getting Izzy at a down moment. He is a, like, he's a specimen. Does he really not work out? Yeah, it doesn't work out? I don't know.

I mean, he's a part of a, like, like, the shot that we just showed, like, the, like, you could see, like, his genetic back. You know there was that thing? Like, look at that, look at that. Like, you know, you remember where there was that, that there was, like, this exhibition in New York where it was, like, the human body and you saw, like, the bodies. Yeah, bodies. Yeah, that's what he looks like. He looks like. He just ripples across the chest.

It's absurd. Shout out to Yaroslav Amasov. What a run he's had. You know, what a life he's had. But now in the UFC, being a guy like Joel Alvarez is. The way he did. Unbelievable. He picked him up and put him down, got the finish.

Even after Joe kind of heard him in that second round, it just proves how deep 170 is. And a lot of these Beltor guys came over to the UFC and didn't have success. You can't say that about Amasov. Oh, yeah. 2-0, right? I would imagine he's going to get a top 10 opponent at this point, and he's 30 and 1 in his MM career. I don't care who you're fighting.

Getting to 30-and-1 is difficult. Sweet spinoruni there. Grant Dawson with a great win over a Mateus Rebecca and revealed after that earlier in the week, he and his wife lost the baby, had a miscarriage, which I can't even imagine how he was able to fight and win after experiencing something so traumatic. So massive shout out to him and his family and hopefully that, you know, the wife is doing okay and they'll be able to rebound from this. Roman Koppilov with the win. Pat Sabatini with the decision win as well. Bison Gore, Sussur Kayaev is another name to obviously keep your eye on. And, uh,

brought some joy to the Hamzaa Chimaev team. And Jose Ochoa wins and then proposes to his significant other who was in Brazil. But then gave us the update afterwards that she said yes. Wow. It was nice. It was amazing. I'm going to let you guys go so we can set up for our first guest of the day who's not going to join us, but tremendous stuff. And then we'll see you guys on the back end with a special surprise, yeah?

Special surprise. Special surprise. We love L.A. Do do do do. Who sings that song, Frankie? I actually don't know. What about this studio here, huh? Oh, it's a lot of fun.

You know, people just sort of take it for granted because we do it so effortlessly. And when I say we, I'm talking about you guys, to pick up the show and do a live show from City Winery on Friday, no questions asked, flawless, streamed on X, shout out, shout out, chat out, chat out, chat out, you can see it, it's on my feed.

To pick up the show and recreate our setup here, I wish you guys could see what's going on on that side of the fence. Again, shout out to the West Coast Creative Studio to just being so amazing and opening its doors to us. Incredible. I'm overcome with gratitude as Sean Strickland likes to talk about. I'm overcome with just emotion because it's just so amazing that the show, the operation, has reached a point to where we can do. this. And we're going to do it for International Fight Week. And you better believe we're going to be in Las Vegas. And speaking of Las Vegas and speaking of International Fight Week, oh, the boo-birds were out. The naysayers were out. I have told you, I was the first person to tell you Connor was coming back. I was the first person to tell you that it's going to be Connor versus Max. I'm still the only one. And we've got people out there like Chale and others who are refuting it. Max is doing interviews

and is alluding to it, but not saying it's 100% done. And it's. And it's a lot of it. And it's In the flow of our live show on Friday, I did say, I can't wait in 24 hours. I'm going to shove it down all your throats. I was a little excited in front. I can't dictate or decide or tell you when they're going to announce things because that's arbitrary. What I can tell you are the facts. And so I will never get wrong, fight bookings, matchups, things of that nature. Packages, all that, I don't know when they're going to do that.

And, you know, very likely they see that. Let's save it. We don't want him to be right. But I'm telling you, if you don't believe me, you're going to be proven wrong. As of right now, they're on the goal line. Right now, goal line. I've never said it's signed sealed and delivered. It will be.

I just want to make that clear. I'm not walking this back. Something awful has to happen for this fight not to come to fruition in July 11th. A massive, massive 11th hour atomic bomb of a right turn will have to happen. As of right now, there is none of that. It is not in sight. But they're at the goal line. They haven't scored the touchdown.

They haven't gotten into the end zone and given the ball to the referee as Barry Sanders used to do. They're at the goal line. And so I know that there was a hope to do it in Newark. And I think that doing it at the White House is too late. That will be less than a month. So I figured, all right, Newark, there's a lot of people watching this big card. But truth be told, they could do it on a Tuesday night and everyone's going to go Gaga. They announced Connor versus Soroni on Thanksgiving evening.

I remember it because we had to do SportsCenter that night, left dinner. They don't care. But it ain't done. So Dana is right. It is not signed sealed and delivered. Is one side signed sealed? Is the other side? No.

But they're at the goal line. They are at the goal line. So I ain't walking back. Oh, oh, Baldy. Oh, Baldi. You let us astray. You're shams with the bucks. You're shams with Janus.

Believe me or don't. I'd like to think that the track record speaks for itself. I'd like to think that batting 1,000 speaks for itself. I don't know about the freaking announcements. I don't care about the announcements. You believe me or you don't. If you choose not to believe me, then God bless. That's fine with me.

No skin off my back. No problem. But trust me when I tell you, that is the plan. It's not quite 100%. It's very close to 100%. Goal line means if you don't understand American football and the references attached to it. They're just about to score.

They're in the box. They're Elliot Anderson about to score against Newcastle in the dying stages of a great match at City Ground. And yes, we're still alive. Not only are we alive. Not only are we alive. We're safe.

We're coming back next year. Forest our magic on and off the pitch. Jordan, you're feeling okay? You're feeling okay. Spurs, West Town. Actually, Spurs playing today against Leeds, right? Oh yeah. As that started? Okay, New Pacific. All right, we've got some time. Good luck to you. I'm pulling for you guys.

I've told you this. I'm pulling for you and Ptze's dad. Those are the, you know, and I like Spurs. They're sort of, you know, they've got a soft spot. The Yids, shout out to them. We like them. All right. In a matter of moments, we're going to be joined by Sean Brady, not just yet. Then Eric Nixick, then Josh Van, then Jake Paul, then Rhonda Rousey. You know yourself. I'm going to tell you about tomorrow's show at the end of today's show. And tomorrow's show is must-cTV. You're going to want to want. want to stick around for that. Yesterday they had a Zufa boxing event. Pretty good main event. Shane Mosley Jr. beat Sergei Boyachuk. And the events are looking good. The fights are looking

good. There's a war of words brewing between Dana White, Frank Warren, Eddie Hearn about who's going to promote Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua. Dana White saying he is. Frank Warren and Eddie Hearn saying he's not and even implying that like hey it's in the contract that he cannot that zuffa boxing cannot be one of the promoters i believe we have this we have this yeah yeah we have dana white replying to frank and eddie at the press conference regarding what they said about him not being able to promote anthony joshua versus tyson fury you know you said uh this week that you're going to promote Tyson fury against anthony joshua yeah eddie herne and frank Warren of both came out and said that contractually that's not the case can you comment on that

interesting they've said in the contract there's no mention of tk o or zoufa fascinating so are you going to be the promoter of that i don't know let's see what happens do i ever say shit that really isn't true that's not that doesn't happen that was a question i don't i don't think you do but edie her obviously came out and Frank Warren and both shut it down and said that the fight won't happen. Then it must not be true. He's enjoying this. Dum, dumb, dumb.

He did this yesterday as well with regards to report by Chris Mannix that Shakur Stevenson is going to join them. And this seemed to have been inevitable for the last few months. That would be a massive, massive, massive signing. I think the world of Shakur, if they get him, if they get Devin Haney.

As I have said from the beginning, if you are counting out Zufa boxing, with or without the Saudis, if you're counting out TKO, with or without Turkey and the Saudis, you are doing yourself a major disservice. You are fooling yourself. They are a force. They are not going anywhere.

They have the deepest of pockets. No doubt about it. They are not going anywhere. Don't doubt them. Apex, no apex. They're starting to go. They're going to go to the, I think, Cosmo. They're going to Bournemouth.

They are going to be a force. You may like the Aliyak stuff or not, the uniforms or not, the broadcast team or not. They are going to be a force and they are going to be the number one American promoter in very short order. You get those guys and now you're cooking with gas. By the way, speaking of the sweet science, we could do a whole hour on this. What about Daniel Dubois and Fabio Wardley? Dare I say, Daniel Dubois, Oliver twisted, won Fabio Wardley on Saturday at the co-op live.

Some highlights for you here. In the first 10 seconds of their bout on Saturday, Fabio Wardley dropped Daniel. this was one of the very best heavyweight fights that i've ever seen here's another one from fabio wardly in the third round unbelievable stuff between the two of them back and forth they went it was incredible anyone who still believes that daniel dubois doesn't have a heart doesn't have a chin doesn't have that fighting spirit is an absolute moron. He has that and then some.

The guy who fought Joe Joyce does not exist anymore. That guy does not exist anymore. Even the guy that we saw in his last fight against Alexander Usik. Or the first Usik fight doesn't exist. Here he is. The right man won.

A lot of damage. Look at the referee's shirt. Look at the blood. It was an unbelievable fight. Look at that right there. where do I sign up for Daniel Dubois versus Moses Atama? I need to see Daniel Dubois fight Moses Atama next. Next, please.

In fact, for Frank Warren, probably a gift because Wardley and Atama trained with Ben Davidson, that fight was not going to happen. Dubois does not. Dubois Atama feeds families. Book it in August. O2 Arena, London. Gigantic fight. Must-CTV blockbuster.

Atama wins, by the way. Would love to see that fight. All right. Let's get into our first guest of the day. He had a massive bounceback win on Saturday at the Prudential Center against a guy who, you know, there was some bad blood there. There was some back and forth. He shut all of that up and then some.

He is now exactly who we thought he was. And back on track, he is the pride of Philadelphia, the one and only Sean Brady. Kind enough to join us off the bat here today. Hello, Sean. We are live from Los Angeles here. We are not coming to you from the city of champions, New York City, of course. You know, we don't need to talk. I don't, you represent.

It was a good weekend for Philadelphia as far as I'm concerned. We don't need to talk about Sunday, Sean. Don't worry about it. Yeah. Somebody has still do it for Philly. That's right. Our sports teams, not looking too hot, but as far as MMA goes, we're doing all right for ourselves.

Just one question about that. Did you see Josh Hart of the Knicks say I thought Philadelphia was a sports town? I guess they can't be that anymore because like all the Knicks fans invaded. Xfinity Wireless. Did you see any of that or no, were you kind of off the grid? A little bit off the grid, but we were watching some of the games throughout the week at the Airbnb. I don't follow basketball like that. Oh, okay, okay, my bad. I knew it was rough. I knew it was rough for us. And I did hear something about like, I guess people, they buy tickets and then they, like, they were saying

not to resell them because all the Knicks fans were going to buy them. But yeah, I didn't follow it too much, but it does suck knowing that we lost to you guys. guys, even though I'm out of basketball. I know. I like that you say that, so then you can't, like, assume all the heat, so I appreciate that. You gave Philly fans something to be excited about, and you should be very excited. What a performance, man. Do you feel like you got your mojo back? Do you feel like you, maybe you never felt like you lost it, but to me, that was just a reminder to everyone that you are still a top, top tier welterweight. Yeah, I never felt like I lost my mojo. I just felt like

I just never got going against Morales. And that's like, I think that's what hurt me the most, that I didn't get to show everything that I did that camp because it was like the best camp I've ever felt. And I just went out there and I got caught and it just never got going. And now that's something I like promised to myself this fight was I was like, no matter what happens, I'm going to go out there. And I'm going to show what I'm capable of. And if I do that, I'm going to win this fight. And I'm going to show everyone that I'm right back to where I belong. Like Buckley, before he lost Ustman, he was on a six-fight winning streak, knocking everybody out.

very dangerous guy and it was a very dangerous fight for me to take right after what happened to me against Morales, you know, a lot of people were writing me off in this fight and, man, it feels good to shut him all up and especially shut Buckley up after the way he was chirping before the fight, man. So I really was locked in this fight. I was locked in all camp and there was no way I was losing to him and letting him be me sitting here today. getting to talk the way I get to talk. Was this one of the more personal fights of your career? Usually you don't engage in the back and forth,

but this one seemed a little bit different. It wasn't personal for me. He was trying to make it personal, but what pissed me off was when he talked about the interaction we had at the PI where he made it seem like he bitched me up when there was footage at the PI that if they were able to release it, It would show me, like, clearly getting, like, more, like, intense than he was because I don't do the social media shit.

And that's what I was telling him in person. I'm like, yo, bro, like, I don't like that shit. I don't like talking shit. But we're face to face now. And he was just trying to be funny about it. And then I knew, like, that's not who he really is. You know what I'm saying? Like, it was all a show.

And I said that in my media. And the day I seen him, he was sitting down. Like, I seen him on Wednesday in the fighter hotel. He's sitting down. He looked up at me and he said like, he was like, saying, what's up? And I was like, what's up? And but, and that's in that moment, if he was really about this shit that he said online, we would have fought right there.

You know what I'm saying? But that's like real beef to me. I don't have real beef with people because I'm a grown man and I don't have problems with people, but I do have problems with people who try to play up these like personas. And then when you see them in real life, they're not about it. You know what I'm saying? And even when we weighed in, like, I usually shake everyone's hand. I'm very respectful.

We were staring at each other. And then eventually he put his hand out. And I'm like, I just knew I had him. Like I stole his soul from the beginning of Fight Week. And he never got it back and he never got my respect back. And even afterwards in the cage, because I didn't see any of the shit he said on social media because I blocked him. And my buddy was running my social media the whole time. But I know that he did say something about he.

like about my wife and my daughter not being able to save me and I just told him afterwards I'm like yo I don't care what you say but keep like keep my fucking daughters my name and my wife's name out of your mouth and um he was like oh I never did I never did and it's just it's fucking it's I hate when dudes act like that and then it's just not really it's not real you know and I knew that from the jump so it's definitely a little bit more personal but um it's always business and I took I took care of business. I appreciate you saying this because we just had a spirited debate before you came on about the main event.

And I said, have all the respect of the world for Sean Strickland, the fighter, what he did. But you can't. You can't take the fight into the gutter like that and talk about a mom and a religion and all this. And then be like, I was just trying to sell the fight. Do you not agree? I agree 100%. Thank you.

Me and my whole team were saying the same thing. Like, if you're talking about my mom and my children, my religion, like all this, Like, I'm fighting you if I see you in the parking lot. I'm fighting you if wherever I see you, it's going to be like, like, what the hell? Peter Griffin and the chicken or the rooster when they see each other. And family guy, like, they're always fighting when they see each other. Like, you can't talk about people that way. And then, like, be like, oh, buddy, buddy about it.

Like, I just, I don't like that, you know. There's certain things. I get selling a fight, but there's certain things you can't say. and once you cross that line, there's no coming back. Like on some like Connor Khabib shit. Like there's no, there's certain lines you don't go across. And when you do, like there's going to be consequences. I appreciate you saying that coming from a fighter because I know there's going to be people being like you're soft, you're a snowflake.

I'm just saying if you say it before, just say it after. And you know what the other thing is if he would have said, hey, this guy's a punk, he's weak, he sucks, he's overhyped. And then fought him and said, you know what? I was wrong about him. Much respect. You took me to hell. Great. That's one thing.

But you're fine. but you're talking about as fan. Nothing you experience in the cage should make you feel any different about what you said about him beforehand. That's how I feel. When they started dapping each other, like, I'm a fan of Hamzaa and Strickland,

but once they started dapping each other up in the cage, I was like, you guys just did all that, man, all this security, all this shit talking, all this for that, you know? And then the fight was a good fight, but it wasn't what we all thought it was going to be. So, yeah, I was a little let down.

I'm not a fan of this. I should talk in anyway. So you just not even have done it. People would have tuned in for that fight regardless, you know. But yeah, I'm just like, if you're going to, if you're going to say all those things, you got to keep the same energy forever. Okay. So now talk to me about the pre-fight stuff.

I don't know anything about this gambling stuff. What was going on there? Do you have any idea? The line moving and all that? And was any of that coming to you? Were you hearing about all this? Because it seemed like there was some fear that the fight might get pulled because of suspicious activity.

Yeah, so I didn't know anything about it until I guess my team got wind of it. Lloyd, Sarah, everyone at Vayner, they got a wind of it. And obviously all my, like, I had an Airbnb and we had like 20 guys in there. So like all my best friends in there, my coaches are in there, my wife's in there. They're getting wind of this too. No, nobody from my team says anything to me. I actually got a call from Hunter Campbell. And once I got a call, I was having shades of fucking November, November,

15th when all that shit happened when Hunter was calling me about my Morales fight. And I had a call and I called him back like in a second. And he's like, hey, he's like, I hate to even bring this to you. Like, but he was like, I have, he was like, your fight's fine. He's like, nothing's happening. He was like, but I have to ask you. He's like, there's some betting stuff going on. He was like, is everything okay? I was like, what do you mean? He was like, are you like, are you healthy? Are you mentally? He's like, everything's good, right? I was like, I am 100% fine. I'm 100% healthy. I was like, I'm sitting in my Airbnb.

My strength coach just got done stretching me out. I'm like, it was like an hour and a half before I had to leave for the arena. I was like, Hunter, I'm good to go. I'm going to beat this dude's ass. Like, nothing is going on. And after that, that was it. And it kind of like sat with me for a couple minutes. It bothered me a little bit.

I'm like, oh, what the fuck? Like, it's always something. And then I just let it go, got it out of my mind, locked back in for the fight. and then it then we talked about it afterwards a little bit like with the media and everything like that but i haven't been approached since anybody um so yeah it was crazy and it's crazy because me and my guys in my podcast we talked about like we were talking about the alexander hernandez thing and the michael johnson thing and just like a couple weeks ago on on our podcast and i never thought that something like this would somehow find its way being attached to me did it mess with your mind like did it make you, I don't know, like stop thinking about the fight for a second or take you off your game. Was it a distraction? No, split second. No, split second.

And I'm like, I lock back in because I try like, I don't even like, I don't like know if I'm a favorite and underdog any of that anyway. So like if a TV comes on and it starts showing the odds, like I would cut it right off. Like I just don't want to know anything about it. So after Hunter called me, I wasn't online seeing it like afterwards when I read downloaded an Instagram on my phone and it was fucking everywhere. I was like, holy shit, this is actually kind of a big deal. Dan, I started looking more into it.

But yeah, I just, I got it out of my mind, and I just refocused on the fight, and just went from there. You're going to keep doing that? Like, the leading social media block is the best? Is this the thing going forward? Yeah, and just more because fighting, it's a great thing, but I think, I don't think you should be on there all the time anyway, just as a human. You know, I think all the scrolling, like, it can, there's, social media can be used for good things, but it also can lead you down, like, just rabbit holes of weird shit and scrolling. And there's just better things I could be doing with my time, you know?

Obviously now, I just fought and I just won. So I'm enjoying being on social media. Like, I'm enjoying going and seeing all this shit Buckley was saying and in his face. Like, I'm not going to lie. Like, I am loving it, you know? Like my team is making reels of him talking all this shit and just sending them to me. And yeah, it feels it feels good on this Monday. So I'll have a couple more days on it.

But yeah, definitely during camps, like getting rid of it, it's definitely the move because I don't want to see all the good things people are saying about me. I don't want to see the bad things people are saying about me. And especially after losing to Morales, like, same way when I lost the ball. A lot of negativity. and that can just feed into your life. And like I was saying in my post-fight interviews, if you're not on social media, none of it's real. And it's not real anyway.

But if you don't see it, these people aren't real who are saying these things about you. Because none of them would ever say them to your face. And you know, so that's where I'm like, I don't need to see any of this, especially before a big fight, like against a dangerous guy like Buckley. Do you believe Buckley when he says he didn't practice wrestling for this fight? No, because he was wrestling with Usman in the videos of him training down at Kilcliffe, you know?

And he posted videos of him training at other gyms of him grappling. Like, I know I took Buckley super serious. I took him as serious as I've ever taken anybody because he's an athlete. He has knockout power. He's big. He's strong. He used to be a middleweight. He had success.

Like, if you go look at his fight against Nastradine Imovov, he had Imov in trouble in that third round. you know um imov couldn't get him down and that's a guy who's getting ready to fight for the middleweight title so you have to take him super seriously he was knocking out all these guys at walterweight until he ran into oosman and he had oosman in trouble in that late round so i took him as serious as ever um i'm sure he knew like he was saying i suck and this and that but it wouldn't have mattered whether he trained didn't train i was going to do the same exact thing to him regardless. Correct me if I'm wrong, you did say afterwards you thought the fight played out in a

easier fashion than you expected than you thought. Why? Just the way, like, I just trained, we trained fucking so hard for that fight. And I thought he was going to be harder to take down. But it just, it just goes to show how good I am. And it reminded me of, like, when I got ready to fight Kelvin, like, I just fought ball all. I lost the ballaul.

they give me a South Paul, short, explosive, big knockout power, and I will just watch his highlight reel over and over and over again. I did the same thing with Buckley, like just trying to learn and make sure I didn't end up on the other side of that highlight reel. And I went out there, I dominated Kelvin. It felt easier than I thought it was going to. And honestly, I feel like the Buckley, I feel like this fight, even though I didn't get the finish, I felt like this one was even easier than the Kelvin fight. So Philly's in about what?

three months time the Philly card Yeah Yeah You want on that one? I do I would like to be on that card But it's got to make sense for me

I know that I've said Like about the Morales fight And me taking it Like fighters fight And I like It is what it is I took that fight I lost But now I bounce back

I'm gonna be in a great spot Huff I think they should do the right thing And put me in the top five After this tomorrow We'll see what happens But I think after taking Morales, who was number eight, when I was number one, technically number two, and then taken Buckley, who was behind me, unless it's Kamar Usman, like, he's the only guy,

I think, outside of the top five that makes sense, just because he's a former champion. I deserve somebody in the top five, you know, and I hate even using that word deserve, but I think I do, whether it's Jack Della, protest, Belaw after his fight. I don't know what's going to happen with that. So, yeah, what I love to fight in Philly? Yes, but it has to make sense for me. You know, I'm 33 years old. I'm getting better and better every time I fight,

and I want to get to be a champion, you know, and I just have to take things that make sense for me. If it was up to you, what's the perfect scenario? Who's the perfect opponent for Philly? Man, Ushman would be great. Protest. Like, obviously, process is probably sitting for the title, and I understand why, but he's not going to get matched up anytime shooting with anybody else.

So, I mean, that's one I would do. But if I'm him, like, I'm obviously not doing that. I'm going to fight for the belt next. So, yeah, and that's the thing, too, like the divisions in such a weird place. I guess Ian and Islam are going to fight, and then you have Morales up there. What do you do with Morales? Do you do him in Carlos protest? Obviously, he just beat me, so we're not fighting again.

and then Balaul is fighting Gabriel Bonfim in about a month. So it kind of puts me in another weird spot to where I was after the Leon fight, but I'm in a good spot, and I'm coming off a win, and everyone knows what I deserve. So we'll see. Maybe it'll be Ustman, but yeah, I'm not sure what their plans are going to be. But whether I fight on the card or don't fight on the card, I'm sure I'm going to have teammates on there, and I will be there regardless.

I said after the Prachas fight that I think it should be Carlos Prachis versus Michael Morales next as a number one contender fight, Islam versus Ian in Philly. If Ian would have won, I could see them running it back with Islam just considering he's been so dominant. And even if Islam wins, let's be honest, he doesn't fight all that often. So Parchus is looking at a year off if he's going to sit and wait, which I don't think makes a lot of sense because he's looked so good as the blade. I really like the idea of if Balal wins, you guys running it back to see, okay, this is one that you want to write. And if he wins, he's back. If not, you get past him and can move on with your life. I think that's the one that makes the most amount of sense for you if he wins against Gabriel

Bonfim in June. Yeah, I feel like that would make perfect sense. You know, it's been a little bit since that fight. I've lost one, but I've won a lot more. Balls had obviously went on and became a world champion, lost his last two fights. So if he comes back, bounces back, gets a win against a top 10 guy and Gabriel Bomb Feme, Why not run me and him back? You know, I know they don't love doing rematches,

and I know they don't love the thought of me and Ballard running it back, but I think that one would make the most sense. And that's one, like, I had nothing about respect for Ballal, but I want to get that one back, if I can, before. I know he's getting a little bit older, so that's one I definitely want to get back, for sure, if I can. Yeah. By the way, were you surprised that Jack looked the way that he did against Carlos, or were you expecting that?

I picked Jack to win. I knew protest could do what he did, but I was picking Jack to win. And you could see shades of where Jack could have won that fight. He took him down in the last 30 seconds of the first round. Obviously, the round ended. And then second or third round, I forget when it was, but took him down against the fence, was on his back. He went to go put that other hook in and he slid off the top.

So there are shades of what I thought Jack could have done there. And unfortunately, he didn't get to do more of it. But yeah, his head, like, it just felt like whatever protest threw was hitting him square in the face, you know. Like he has that high guard and he was getting hit with that knee. His calf was getting chewed up. I think it wasn't what Jack was doing wrong. I think it was more of what protest was doing right. And he just looked really, really freaking good.

And, yeah, you know what my game plan is going to be against someone like protest. So I'm getting him to the ground as fast as possible. Better chance of beating Islam, Ian or Carlos right now, the Carlos that we just saw. a couple weeks ago. I guess I don't think either one of them have much of it to be honest with you. Maybe it's Michael? Is it Michael with his judo?

I would give Michael more of a shot than Ian and protest just because he's bigger than he's going to be, like Ian's not a huge 170 pounder. Like he's tall and long, but he doesn't get that heavy. Same thing with protest. Like Morales is huge.

Like he is big, he's thick. Like I've seen somewhere he's probably, I've seen someone, sent me a picture of his scaly post he was like 220 or 225 like he's a big guy for 170 i think he would give islam the most trouble for sure but we know anne's going to be next and um he's not going to he's just islam's going to win and then we don't like what what if islam wins teporea wins and then they're like all right this is what we're doing next and then whoever's next for the belt really at 170 isn't going to fight for at that point at least a year

a year and a half, you know, so it could, everything could get all screwed up again. Yeah, that is the weird thing. And especially when, you know, the champion isn't fighting that often, you don't want to sit. It's easy for us to be like, yeah, just sit, but we're talking a year out. By the way, how good is the Monday after a win after you didn't get the last time? Like, is it one of those things where you're like, man, the air is better. The coffee is better, whatever. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, yeah, there's not, waking up a winner, man, it's, um, it's the best, especially just not like, I know everybody trains hard and everyone earns it, but, man, I put so much into this and I put so much pressure on myself to perform and just go out there and do what I did. And yeah, man, there's no better feeling than this and just being able to breathe for a little bit, you know, because it's stressful, especially when you're coming off a loss.

And you got to get back in there and just show these people. It's the same thing just like after when I lost the ball. I sucked after I lost a ball. I go on this nice three-fight winning streak. Everyone starts believing in you again. And then I lose the Morales and boom, everyone hates me. And now I beat Buckley the way I do and now everyone loves me again. But people, I'm sure, are still probably going to talk shit.

But yeah, man, like I said, if you're not on social media and you don't see it, it's not real. You know, I'm going to enjoy these days. and like I said, just not being, not just shutting Buckley up was that's worth its weight in gold to me. Extra sweet. I'm genuinely happy for you. And I'm happy for the good people of Philadelphia that they had something to share about as far as sports are concerned.

You can rely on Sean. You can rely on Sean's your guy. You can rely on Stone Brady. Yes. We got Andre Petroski this weekend, Jeremiah Wells. We got Pat Sabatini too. All these guys aren't directly from Philly, but our. gyms in Philly, you know, and then who else? We got Kyle Dawkes. Kyle's from Philly.

Yeah. So, he's trained in Philly. Kyle's been training with us, too. So I'm excited to see Kyle. I think I'll be out at the White House card. I don't think I'm going to be at the fights, but I might be a guest fighter. So we'll see if I make it on the list to go to the White House card. Sick. Well, enjoy that. I hope that comes to fruition. Enjoy the victory, most importantly. Perhaps we'll see you on the Philly card. If not, enjoy the time off. And we'll talk to you soon. Thank you so much, Sean. Again, congrats. Appreciate it. There he is. The man, Sean Brady, massive win for him on Saturday. And he gets to shut up

Joaquin Buckley. And as you can see, he's very, very happy about that. We're live from Los Angeles on this Monday. We're going to be here Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, boys in the back on Thursday. We're doing stuff off air, pre-tapes, packages, segments, amazing stuff. The studio looks amazing here. Shout out to our friends at West Coast Creative Studios. Frankie is that look at this set right here this is nice I like this I really like the nice little touches that GC you know he's such a great set

designer that he brought to the table as far as the little trinkets Chick-Curn Shohei Wayne Magic Billy Madison Vinnie Scully Dr. Dre and even this look at this look at this guys

it's like we're in Hollywood hey see that Frank that's what they do when you're on set see that? Oh, I see it. Why do they do that, by the way? For sync.

Ah. When I do interviews, they ask me to clap. Is it the same thing? Yeah, that's kind of one way, the Timo way of doing it. The lo-fi way? Yeah, yeah. I love L.A. I actually really love L.A.

Do you like L.A.? Are you an L.A. guy? I like L.A. When I'm here for fun, but when I'm here working. What the hell? It's a little loud. I'm like, oh, man, we're here to cook. Have you been to Airwant yet?

Did you get the $15 smoothie? No, I haven't yet. Oh, you know yourself, Frank. It's fantastic. I had one yesterday. I'm not staying in the same. So while we were in here working, you were having smoothies and saying hi to the people? Our hotel is not, you know.

Our hotel is, it's nice. I heard Frank was complaining about the hotel. Is that true? When I was checking in, they were like, you should know this is a nightlife hotel. So it's going to be a little more. And the backstory is you had booked another place off the beaten path. It was guilty. It was guilty.

It was moving. Because we wanted camaraderie. We wanted to all be together. My favorite part is the closet space that I have. It's literally four hangers. How much stuff did you bring? You bring nightgowns? What did you bring?

I brought a suit. I heard you guys are going to a place that requires a suit later in the week. Can't wait for that. That's going to be sick. I catch a baseball game. Everything okay. Absolutely. Why you look so nervous all of a sudden?

This is why you can't watch me. Okay. I make all sorts of faces. It actually is very weird because I'm looking. Okay, what would we have here? Oh, his internet or our internet? His. Oh, okay.

It's weird because I actually am seeing the whole thing right here. I don't usually see them. They're kind of, you know, they're kind of out of sight out of mind. But I'm seeing how the entire sausage is being made. And so does Frank always make those faces as things kind of hit the fan? Okay, interesting. Okay. I heard he was complaining about that hotel.

I heard he was complaining a lot about the lack of closet space, about the nightlife. Where am I going to put the skeletons? It is a good point. Later in the program, stay tuned. Our final guest of the day is going to be Rhonda Rousey, who is returning to action on May 16th this Saturday, Intuit Dome, MVP MMA1. They're not officially calling it that. They're going to be doing open workouts on Wednesday at the Venice Beach basketball courts,

to be honest. The Venice Beach basketball courts, which is quite the scene at 6 p.m. Press conference that I'll be hosting on Thursday at 6 p.m. Way-ins 6 p.m. into a dome. And then fight night on Saturday. I think they'll announce the broadcast team and all that stuff in the next couple of days. They're also going to be rolling out the face-to-faces that we taped yesterday. That's why I came here so early. That's why I miss Mother's Day. Shout to all the moms out there. I miss Mother's Day. But it was It was okay. I got the blessing.

I got the blessing. I booked the dinner for the family, gave the gifts beforehand, and we were able to do the face-to-faces yesterday. They were amazing, did some extra stuff as well. So more on that to come. But let's keep this train rolling along,

and I'm so happy to be joined right now by the head coach for the brand new times two UFC middleweight champion, the head man for Franciscan Ghanou, who will be returning to action. First MMA fight since October of 2024 this Saturday on that massive Netflix card against Philippe Blinz.

Eric Nixick has a very busy schedule, so it's not waste any more time with him. Let's say hello to the big chief over at Extreme Couture in Las Vegas. Hello, Eric. How are you? And congratulations on the big win on Saturday. Thank you. How you know, brother? I'm doing great.

And so you've had some big ones. You've had some big wins. You've had some big moments to be the first ones to figure out the Chamsat Shamaa puzzle, to do it the way in which he did with such a great game plan execution. Where does this one rank for you? Is it even possible to make that distinction? Yeah, I think it's still kind of fresh and new. Obviously, we knew we had a big task at hand with the style matchup,

but thankfully we had two camps in a row that were very similar and Fluffy Hernandez as well as Hamzot. So we were able to kind of snowball the game plan into the next camp. And obviously, Sean stayed in shape. So it worked well, man. It was everything landed as perfectly as possible. And all the credit goes to Sean, man. he did all the work.

How do you explain this resurgence, coach? Because the Sean that we saw last year is a completely different person now. That performance against Fluffy was amazing. We said earlier, he's the fighter of the year, of the half year, at least. The performance against Fluffy, the performance on Saturday. What's changed for him in the last year? Because this is not the same guy that we saw last year against DDP. He was injured, you know?

He was in that motorcycle accident. He hurt his shoulder really bad. you know, he was having stem cells and doing all this other stuff. So I definitely think that that was part of the reason why he had a hard time in that second Dreyka's fight. And, you know, he was able to get over those injuries, take some time off. We almost had a year off, I think, during that time. And we know what he's capable of, man.

Like this guy, I've said this time and time again, we know he's championship material and the level that he fights at. He could beat anybody in the world on his night. And, you know, just consistency in the room. I think that's the main thing. He spars, he grapples, and he does everything right, takes care of his body, and this is the result. In short, in a tight little verbal package,

can I ask, what was the game plan? What did you come up with in order to try to be the first ones to beat Hamzat? Well, it's not what I came up with. It's we lean heavily on Sean, right? It's Sean is the game plan. Sean is the style that I think a lot of times you can overthink a game plan, but you allow your fighter to be who he is and what he is, but also kind of try to dictate what Hamzot's game plan is going to be

versus that particular style. The biggest thing for us was just owning the geography, making sure we weren't putting our back against the Cajun and inciting the takedown, try to keep Sean Moore in the middle. You know, we didn't attack the body as much as I would like to have. I think that was going to help as far as like neutralizing the midline level change, but also the cardio of Hamzat. But once Sean kind of got going downhill,

especially with his jab, you know, I know a lot of people are like, oh, he just jabbed him up. Yeah, man, it's very tough. It's very tough when that pace and rhythm, but also his defense, I think, was on point that fight as well, his shoulder rolls and everything else.

And then to be able to defensive wrestle and counter wrestle what we saw in round two, you know, we lean heavily on Sean and we just build game plans around him and his style. And, you know, credit to Danny and Jason Manley and Dennis Davis and all the boys at extreme, you know, from top to bottom. It was just a great camp and we were able to go out and execute what we wanted to do. I love this caption right here, and I'm wondering if you can explain it a little further.

You don't beat a wolf by becoming one. You beat a wolf by being something it doesn't understand. The sheep dog. What does that mean? I love this, but what does it mean? Explain it. Well, I mean, we all know the analogy, right? Like, who's protecting the flock?

And that's the sheep dog. You have to have that sheep dog been telling us. to be able to protect the flock, be able to detect your team, be able to detect your gym. To me, that's the epitome of who and what Sean Strickland is. And that's been kind of the Montreal camp is, you know, don't become a wolf. How do we beat a wolf? You have to do something that the wolf doesn't understand. And that's the sheep dog.

So that's what we hung our hat on all camp, man. You're the sheep dog. We're the boogeyman, not him. We live underneath a boogeyman's bed. So that's what we kept telling him. I thought that Chamsat won the first round. I said earlier today, I thought the tide turned in the second. I thought he got this moral victory over him and somewhat broke Hamsad in the second

where the aura of invincibility went away. He's like, I could beat you at your own game. I'm not afraid of you. I am here. I'm not going anywhere. And I felt like Hamsat's plan of attack changed after that. Do you agree with that sentiment? Do you think it happened at a different point?

No, you're exactly right. That's kind of what the complexion of the fight is what we thought we were going to see. During sparring, it was a lot of heavy wrestling in round one, kind of assuming that's what we were going to get. But Sean had a good idea of how to handle that situation after what we saw with Robert Whitaker, just kind of just stay relaxed, stay patient, allow Hamzot to try to mat return, to try to get in these positions. But we had to make him grapple to expend that energy. So after round one, I mean, I know a lot of people are like, oh shit, here's how it's going to go.

But in our head, it was like, that was perfect. That was the perfect round that we wanted. And that's what we got. We kind of assumed that's what we're going to see in round two. and round three was going to be our swing round, but it came a little bit earlier in round two. So to be able to bank rounds two and three going into the championship rounds, really, I think, helped us a time.

Did Hamzat make weight? For the athletic commission, you did. It seems like you don't think so, or at least we're questioning it. Did you see the scale settle at all? No, I agree with you, by the way. I'm just wondering if you got more intel, if you were told in the back, something looked different, this and that. But yes, I think they do this all the time.

It doesn't settle. They move it. and they just hope that no one recognizes it. I don't know ultimately if he did or didn't. You were there. I wasn't. But yeah, it did not seem like it was crystal clear 100% settled.

Yeah. I mean, for the athletic commission, apparently he made the weight. I don't feel as if he did. I think that should be something that is, you know, consistent across the board that if you're on that sliding scale,

the scale should have to settle. But, you know, can't cry ever spilled milk. They said to the weight. that they said he made weight. But the inconsistencies, yeah, I mean, how are you going to do that to Charles Olivera? Right. The same exact scenario.

And then you got a guy like Habib who hopped on the scale against Gaichi, 155, and they split the scale. It's like, well, which is it? So, you know, that's a commission thing. That's not a UFC thing. That's on the commission. So they need to be consistent across the board on how they handle that situation. Would you prefer them just use the digital scale in the year 2026?

Well, the ironic thing is they use the digital scale to check. way in. So when you show up to check your weight, it's a digital scale. And then they take you over to the official scale and then they use the balance scale. So I don't understand why are you using two separate scales? I know that one's supposed to be balanced and more accurate. If that's the case, then you have to let the scale settle. It's like you step on the scale and then you allow the guy to just jump right off. But, you know, it is what it is. When you saw how he looked on the scale made it or not, conspiracy or not, did that give you more confidence? I said at the beginning of the show, I'll be a thousand percent honest. I thought Hamzad should have been the favorite.

Obviously, there wasn't a lot to doubt given how good he looked against Drick is. But when I saw him on the scale, I was like, wow, this may affect him in a major way. And it started to give me a lot of pause. In addition to all the very smart people out there, like Chale and Dustin and Joe Pfeiffer, who told me like, this is the one guy who could beat Hamzad. I'm just wondering, you knew that, you believe that. But when you saw the way he looked, on the scale being the last one to step. I think he was the last, definitely with just 20 minutes left. So one of the last, if not the last,

did it give you more confidence? Did it give Sean more confidence? I don't know, man. It's tough to say, to be honest with you. I don't think you can put a lot of stock in that. I think it's more about the rehydration process and how did he get the weight back on? How did he feel afterwards?

You know, you have over a 24-hour period to, to rehydrate. So I don't know. To me, it's definitely. It's definitely not a bad thing, but I also don't think you should put too much stock in the fact of like, oh, we're going to beat him now. You know, it's like you have to kind of keep that tunnel vision and expect the best Homsla Chamaa, no matter how he looked on the skills or not. What was the first fight you worked with Sean in anticipation for, the first fight that you cornered him

and worked with him. Do you remember up top your head? Yeah, I work with him a lot for the Uriah Hall fight, but I didn't corner him for that fight because obviously Uri and I have a past. And then the first time I was in his corner was a Jack Cromance in fight. Reason I ask, that was a few fights ago, obviously, before I became a champion for the first time. Did you see this coming? You probably have a very good eye when it comes to pinpointing who's a future champion, who's a future contender.

Did you see this coming from him? Two-time champion, beating Izzy, beating Kamsad, all this stuff that he's doing now. Did you see it when you first started working with him? I see them a lot of our guys, but I see it more in the work ethic and the determination. the resiliency, you know, and I think when he started buying in more on the fact that he's a captain, he's a teammate, good things are going to happen to guys when they start giving back. And that's really to me what the emphasis of what helped Sean a lot was, you know, he surrounded himself with good teammates, good coaches, and he knew that we were all there for him.

And in turn, he became very close to all the guys in the room. And I think a lot of that energy has kind of spilled over in his mentality. But yes, skill for skill, I think he's continuing to grow. And he's always had that championship mentality within him. So I'm not surprised by any means. That answer kind of reminds me of a clip that I saw on Saturday of Hunter Campbell speaking to him after where he's like, I know you're a good guy. You say crazy shit sometimes.

But I know deep down you're a good guy. And so you obviously know him better than most. Who is Sean Strickland? Who is the guy that you see every day at the gym? Is it the crazy guy that said all the stuff leading up to the fight? Or is it the guy that Hunter was alluding to? He's the guy that I always said he is, man. He's the guy that you see after the fight that he spoke, the way that he spoke.

That's the guy that we see every day in the room. You know, the locker room, that's different. Like, you know, we roast each other. There's no one safe in our locker room. Everybody's catching shit. And that's from myself, from everybody. and we have a good time with that. And sometimes Sean lets the locker room spill over in public at time to time.

But when you really know Sean and know what he's about, he's beloved by every single person in this room. And that's all that matters. I think that, you know, Sean Brady said it the best is about, like, social media is fake. And I love that the way he delivered that message. These guys are building fights or building, you know, these personalities to be able to sell their fights.

But the guy that we know, the guy that we see in the gym every day is the guy that we all know and love and the guy that you guys see after the fact after those 25-minute war with Hamzot. I want to preface this next question by acknowledging the fact that you are his coach. You're not his manager or the guy helping himself fights. You are just worried about wins and losses.

But I also want to be real and sort of back up things that I said earlier in the show. I didn't love the pre-fight talk. But at the press conference, after the press conference, I said, I give him a lot of credit. I may not agree with all the things that he is saying about, comes up personally in his people and his family and his religion, but he stood there and he,

like, he said it and he meant it. Like, it's one thing to say it when you're at a media day. It's another to do it when you're standing next to the guy in front of all these people. And I said, credit to him. I tip my cap. I didn't like that it got so personal. I think that family and religion should be left out of it. And then I didn't like that in the immediate aftermath, the narrative was I was just trying to sell a fight. As someone who's been in the game for a long time, how do you feel about that? Yeah, like you said, man, it's not really my, my place to help him sell the fighter or anything else for that matter. I can see some of the ripple effect that that stuff has,

especially through our gym. And, you know, we talked to Sean about some of those things that can have a lasting effect on other guys in the room. And once we were able to kind of tell those things to Sean, he understood what we were coming from in a lot of those ways. And you also have to take in consideration. Like, you know, I know the comment about the gun thing, you know, a lot of people are like, well, why would he say that?

Well, you know, if you're going to say you're going to jump somebody with 20 guys, his first response is, well, you know, this is my Second Amendment, right? He carried my gun. And, you know, so, yeah, I can see how things get down a slippery slope. But, well, with all that being said, I know, I know Sean, I know his personality. And a lot of that things that he's saying, I know that he wasn't serious about. But you also have to, you know, be careful on. when it does cross the line of religion and people's families and things like that.

But on the flip side, Homzot had no problem talking about sexual abuse, or Sean's past or physical abuse or mental abuse and things like that. A lot of people suffer from those same things as well. So I think if you're going to comment about those things, the shoe fits on the other foot as well. I couldn't agree more. Yeah, I couldn't agree more. It was a 180 afterwards.

And I felt like the fight kind of went into a really dark place. and I didn't like how that was just sort of chocked up to selling a fight. If you mean it, then stand by it. If not, don't do it to begin with. Khamsad and you seem to have a great relationship. And it seemed like even at one point he was sort of talking to you before the start of one of the rounds towards the end. What was he saying? I was telling me, he ain't no boogeyman.

I was like, you know, boogeyman. And he's like, he's like, I love you, coach. And I was like, and then he said something else. and we're going back and forth, then he just spit out a bunch of blood. It looked over at me and I was like, you're a sick of, bro. I love you, man.

And, you know, I have nothing but love and respect for Hamzot. You know, we've been good friends. I'd say good friends, but we've been, you know, acquaintances since 2021. So I didn't want to make anything, like, personal, but Sean is my guy. I have a job to do,

and I don't want to let, like, I don't want to be too friendly with the guy. But, like, even when I got to the host hotel, like, I was by myself, and I walked out the door, and there's there's 20 of those guys sitting around, Albert, you know, guys that I know and I've trained with. And the last thing in the world is I'm going to run out the front door and like pretend like I didn't see them. Like, no, I'm going to walk right by every one of them and shake their hand and say hello.

That's me. That's my personality. You know, I didn't feel like all these guys are going to jump me or something like that. But, you know, that's just my personality, man. I'm not like a hateful individual. I'm a competitor and I have a job to do. So with that being said, man, once the fight was over, went over there, gave him big old hug and shook his hand. I plan on reaching out to him today, just checking on them.

And, you know, yeah, that's that. That's class on your part. Would you like to see them run it back? Or do you want to see him fight someone new like Imov? Now, I know he fought him way back when. It feels like a lifetime ago. I mean, in the immediate aftermath of this, do you think they'll go back to Hamzad or do you think it'll be Imov?

I mean, that's up to the promotion on what they decide. But I'm guessing, you know, the way everything kind of transpired in what I've been hearing. I'm guessing Hamzot's going to move up to 205. Yeah. And then Eminoff will be the next opponent. And, you know, he deserves that. He deserves that opportunity. I know we kind of leapfrogged them into this spot.

So if it's not Hamzot, then I'm sure it's going to be Eminoff. And, you know, both great competitors. I think the move up to 205 for Hamzot does make a lot of sense, seeing the landscape of the light heavyweight division. And if that's the case, then, you know, I'm sure Eminov's the next man up. Can I ask you about Johnny Eblen? I love the clip of Sean saying, please don't sign this guy UFC because he's that damn good. I want nothing to do with him in the UFC. And it seemed like he was a big part of the camp as well.

What was your take on the former Bellator middleweight champion who is fighting for the PFL title in July? Oh, man, he's the real MVP. He did a great job. We brought him out about a week and a half, two weeks to finish up camp. And here's the nice thing from a coach's perspective is when you get the same guy for five rounds. So a lot of your game planning and the things you're trying to accomplish in round one, you're trying to be able to carry over in rounds two, three, and four, maybe later on. So like, for example, let's just say you're landing your body work.

That body work is to negate the level change and set up stuff to the head. But if you have a new partner every time, you kind of have to hit the reset button. So Johnny gave us the ability to be able to push and then make adjustments in between rounds, but all the while giving us, I mean, event. very, very good look. Like he had Sean on his back foot the entire time and Sean had to literally fight Johnny every round. So he's a huge asset to the team. I got to meet Johnny. It's been a while now. This is before he fought Gaygar Musassi and then Sean went out there and helped him. So that alliance there has been a huge benefit for not only Sean, but the entire gym. And he's a huge

asset for us and love having him out here. Last thing before I let you go, I would imagine there's an adrenaline dump after a week like that, after a fight and a win like that. And now you're right back at it this Saturday with Francis on the biggest of stages. Do you give yourself a second? How do you keep going and then ramp up once again for this massive fight? Like how does the body, how does the mind transition from Saturday to what's to come this week? Pretty used to it. I think by now, I think that historically you can't be too high off of wins like this because it does put you in a different mental state and you can't be too low after loss because your next fighter needs you. So I think just the consistency of being in fight to

fight week after week has definitely helped me in understanding how to manage my energy systems. But man, like this game is this game is fickle, you know, you can lose a bunch in a row and you can win one title, you can do this, you can do that. But all the while you have to maintain kind of an even kill personality because, you know, we always say dials not switch. is because if you're on, you're off, you're off, you're on. So if I can keep that dial around a five or six and then, you know, ramp it up to a 10 on fight night, you know, I know I know I know myself and I know our guys will do well. So it's difficult, I think a lot of times when you're in the back and you have, you know,

three or four fighters in that night. And depending on the results, you can bring that same amount of energy in the locker room as well. So just being able to do this consistently for over the years, I think it's helped me a ton. Okay. last thing I promise, how hurt was Sean's shoulder? He revealed that he separated it at Plinyo's gym earlier in the week. How hurt was it and how concerned were you after that? Yeah, it was hurt pretty bad. He landed under the wall, sparring with Johnny Eblen on Tuesday,

kind of basically a brick wall. And yeah, I think, you know, with Sean, you have to like pull that out of him if he's how hurt is he but all the while i knew that he was going to be able to go out and perform but i think that it definitely affected his right cross um you know i i i think a lot of people heard us asking for him to to finish up with the right hand i think it took a little bit out of them but uh you know it is what it is and that's something louis that to deal with and you know i didn't want to bring it up too much because i didn't want to put it in his head or anything like that he said he was fine and he was going to work through it and that's exactly what he did makes the performance that much more impressive.

Thank you so much, Eric. Really appreciate it. Congrats on the win. Good luck this week. Hopefully I'll get to see you out here in Los Angeles. Can't wait for Francis's fight. Again, a tip of the cap after what you guys did on Saturday. Truly, truly, truly, truly impressive.

Thank you, Eric. I'll see you this week, bro. I'll make sure to run into you. Can't wait. Thank you, Coach. All the best and safe travels. There he is. The head man over at Extreme Couture, Eric Nixick,

one of the very best in the game. What a week for him leading up this one and now the aftermath and of course the big one on saturday for frances gandu by the way here's strickland talking about that injury that shoulder injury that he suffered at plino's gym uh in new jersey leading up to the fight makes the performance all that much more impressive funny story guys want here's some funny so on tuesday i'm sparring johnny that motherfucker the pfl champ and i'm at a polino's gym cruz's gym and he fucking shoots all i mean i hit his brick ass wall and and I separated my shoulder.

So I had a grade 1 AC joint separation on Tuesday, and I remember laying in bed on Tuesday night. I'm sure Chris has a video, and we slamming the fucking shoulder, do you get some better pads. And I'm laying, I can't lay on my right, my left side. I'm like, you're such a fucking idiot. You were such a fucking idiot.

So in the back, I'd normally like to get better warm-ups, but I didn't want to warm up and throw my shoulder out. the entire time like, you're a fucking moron. There is something very endearing about the way in which he handles media when he's acting like that. Like the Post-Fy press conference was virtuoso. It was captivating,

talking about his emotions and gratitude, all this stuff. I like that version of him. I understand that that version doesn't necessarily sell fights, but I believe that there's a finer balance that can be found. Maybe I'm crazy.

I know a lot of you don't agree, but those are my views, and I'm going to stick to them. Obviously, the best fight of the night and maybe the fight of the year as we stand right now happened in the co-main event. It was Joshua Van against Tutsuro-Taira.

What a performance. What a fight. What action. And once again, Van is that guy. He looks truly like a superstar. When you see him at the press conference, when you see the way he carries himself, even the interviews, the soundbites,

the swag, as they say, he comes across as a superstar. G.C. did a fight feast. eating food from his country. And the people loved it. They're so behind him. They're backing him. And it feels like now we have something very special

as we head into the rematch against Alex Pantosha. But first, let's give him his props for what he did on Saturday against the very tough and very game to Tura Tira. He's kind enough to join us right here and now to react to that victory.

There he is. The champ is here. Hello, Josh. How are you, my man? I'm feeling good, man. How you doing? What was that that you just put in your mouth? Was that gum?

Oh, it's a little, what is that, a beef jerky type of thing? Oh, caveman, oh, nice. It's made by T.J. Dusham. Oh, sick. Okay, shout out, shout out. How does this one feel? The other one, like, it's weird because the title victory,

there was all this controversy surrounding it, and it felt, you know, inconclusive. This one, there was nothing inconclusive about it. I'm wondering, does this feel like the official title victory, or were you always counting the first one as the official? Well, we can't count out the first one, right? I won. So this is just a title of the fans, man.

Okay. How did you feel about the performance? How did you feel about what you did on Saturday? It was good. It was good. You know, I actually wanted... I think I could have finished him in the third round, but I actually want to prove a point.

And, you know, I kind of fucked that one up, you know? How so? Well, I was raised. rushing the real naked choke, you know what I mean? So that, and I didn't have to hook over it and things like that. So that was my fault, man. Any particular reason why? Like you were too excited over zealous?

Why do you think you did that? Because I don't know, man. I was just, like, excited. You know, I was like, oh, Shay is here. And I was just like, let me try to get it. Yeah, did you see that one picture of him on the ground after you dropped him? Do you see the one? We could show you this one right here.

Oh, that's crazy. I thought he was out with that. I think I woke him back up, like when I hit him back when he was on the ground. That's a crazy shot right there to do that to another human being. So in your mind, were you disappointed that you didn't put him away in that moment? Nah, man. I knew he was tough. So shout out to Sue Retire.

Yeah, I saw you give him props online on social media. called him a dog, all that stuff, was he tougher than you expected? Did the respect grow after going in there with him? Yes, I see, you know, I see why he's where he at. You know, I think he have a lot of heart. And, you know, he's a great kid, man. He's going to be great for sure. Yeah, you know, he presented some challenges, I guess you could say,

with the longer reach and just his particular style. but it didn't seem to to matter to you whatsoever. Were you concerned going into the fight about any of these things, these attributes that he brought to the table?

Nah, man, as far, you know, people who are longer than him and, you know, taller than him and things like that, you know,

you've always taller than him and stuff like that. So I, and the thing is, like I always say, man, it's always my timing and my distance

that keep me different from these guys, you know? So it don't matter how long they is or how tall they is like if they don't understand the distance and the timing

I don't think they can put hands on me the significant strikes output and like the delivery is amazing I read this stat earlier that you're now already second in UFC flyweight history for significant strikes landed despite just having 11 fights in the promotion you average 110 significant strikes per fight

and you've landed over 107 of your 11 UFC appearances number one is Brandon Moreno, he has 1308 significant strikes. You're at 1230. You're going to pass him in your next fight. Like your output is nuts, man. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's crazy, yes. You get tired out there?

No, never. I love it. And your fight and your relationship with Tatsuro was the antithesis of what we saw in the main event. I was wondering what you and Tatsuro were thinking at that press conference. That was one of the most heated and just sort of like, all the vitriol. And you guys were just sitting there chilling, like you didn't have to do much.

What are you thinking in that moment when Sean and Hamzad are saying the things that they're saying and the atmosphere is as hot as it is? Well, I was, it was crazy, man. You know, Hamzaa is a cool dude, man. You know, he was chopping it up in the back a little bit. And he was going to have fun.

And I didn't think it was going to be like that, you know? You did it. And I was like, yeah, let's do it, bro. And then he came out And then they started going at each other And I was like I hope I don't miss this So I put my phone ready

Just in case some fight broke out You know, so I can record it Did you like that Because it kind of took the pressure away from you guys To sell the fight like they were doing all the talking Yeah I enjoy every moment man It was it was a crazy

Like that was like one of a kind Man I ain't never been into A press conference like that you know. I liked what you wore to the press conference. Can you tell us what it represented? Yeah, and that represent my Chin room, right? I'm from Myanmar, and Chin is the state that I was born in.

So that's our traditional clothes. And shout out to suitably, I send them our culture clothes, and then they make that happen. Wow. They recreate, because that's an American company, right? Yes. No, Canadian. Oh, Canadian, yes. I think Montreal.

Is that right? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Amen Zahabi does work with them as well. And they just recreated it and did they nail it? Yes. Yes. They just surprised me on a press conference day. Wow. What was that like to get that? Like, because it represents your country, your people where you're from, to see it, to wear it and to wear it on a stage like that. What did that mean to you? It mean everything, man. It mean the word to me, man. You know, just to show the world where I come from and my traditional clothes like that. What did the necklace represent? Or was it just a great that you were wearing?

It's just some eyes, man. There's my mom and my dad. You know, when like this is where the village that I was born is right next to our old house. So that's the only pictures I have of them. So my boy made me a change. Just keep wearing them. Wow. Was your mom at the fight?

Yeah, she was there. Okay. How'd she feel about it to see her baby boy in a war like that? She was happy. She enjoyed fighting now, so it was crazy. Oh, now she's cool. She's down with it. Yeah.

Yeah, she love it. She love every moment of it. Did you know that beforehand, did you know that Pantosha was there? Yeah. He was, because I met him at the phase off. Oh, really? Where was he? Yeah.

I know, he was in the crowd too, and, you know, I wouldn't shake his hand. Like, I was like, hey, what's up, bro? And how was that? What did he say back? Well, he was just like, yeah, what's up, bro? So you went out of your way to say hi to him. What you mean out of my way? I never hate the guys, man.

It's just like, yo, what's up, man? You know, we're not enemy, man. He's just my opponent at one time of point, you know? But we're not enemy. Do you feel like he feels the same about you? From what he said? I don't know. I don't care.

There was that shot of you talking about him the post fight where you were like, you know, get your stuff together and I'll see you. What did you mean by that? Well, the thing is, it kind of shocked me, you know, right after me and him fought. You know, like I said, I didn't see his hand before I, before I, you know, celebrate. And then when I came back from the cage and I look up, that's when I see his hand. And I went, I walk up to him and I say I'm sorry and he was I'm sorry and then after that he posed a video where like you know it was

Joshua Van Destiny to be a champion this and that you know I give him nothing but respect you know what I'm saying and I was like hey man he's a great champion you know he accepted and next thing you know he came to your shows and you know he was talking about I popped back my shoulder and you know

all that good stuff and it kind of shocked me in a way you know I'm like what like he was like I was like I was like I respect you so much for you to, you know, making up all that stories

is kind of crazy. And so is that why you said afterwards that you caused it? Because I think some people felt like it was just a freak accident, but you said in the buildup to this fight, now you caused that. You did that and you should know better

than to fall that way? You think I caused that or it was just like a freak accident? Honestly, I lean to... Injuries in a fight are a tricky one. When someone hurts their knee, because of leg kicks and then they take a step back, I would say that the person caused it.

But I thought that that one, being 100% honest, was a freak accident because it was so close. It was so early in the fight. It was 20-something seconds in. I'm not saying you shouldn't be the champion, by the way. Injuries happen, you can't continue. You win fair and square. I never took anything away from you,

but I would err on more of the freak accident side as opposed to it was cause side, just being honest. I mean, that's your opinion. But like I said, man, when I first walked into the gym, they taught us how to fall, you know, and they taught us not to pose a hand like that. And, you know, he's a black belt, and I think he should know how to fall. Would you say that it was maybe a mistake on his end as opposed to something that you did as far as the pushing him to the ground and falling that way? Or do you think you led to him something that you did in particular?

And if you could explain why that would be amazing to fall that way? I don't know, because when he kicked me and I, you know, he landed, but then I had his leg and then I kind of like push it. And I think that kind of like made him off balance. So that's why you post it. And, you know, when he posts it and I push it, the fours are like too great. So that's, I think that's why his arms just like snap like that. Can I ask, like, does that upset you when I say that? I'm not trying to take anything away from you and be disrespectful in any way, shape.

perform, but does that annoy you? No, man, that's your opinion, man. That's your opinion, you know what I mean? I'm not really right with these things, but, you know, I'm not a fighter. I've never done it. That's just what I see. Yeah, yeah. Like I said, man, that's your opinion.

You know, everybody has our own opinion. And I think out of all the people, he should know, you know what I mean. And for him to say that, like, I was celebrating because I didn't want to fight him. It's crazy. But I have to admit, Josh, this makes us want to see the rematch so much more. This is going to be a big, big fight. You agree with that, right? It's going to be a great fight.

When do you think it happens? I don't know, hopefully soon. Would you like to turn around quickly? Yeah. You're all good? Yeah, I mean, you got to get some more milk, you know? I like this. You're very subtle.

You're subtle. I like this. I like this, Josh. I have no problem with this. This is good stuff. You think he needs to drink a little more milk to fortify the bones? There you go. There you go.

You got it. Will you try to exploit that injury when you fight in? Will you try to target that? Nah, man. I think it should be healed by now, you know. You know, probably a couple months. a couple more months and then the fight camp. So I think he should be 100% by then.

As far as you, you were obviously supposed to fight in April and the fight got pushed. Can I ask, what were you dealing with? And was it 100% on Saturday? Yeah, it was a lot better, you know. But like I was having a problem with my knees, you know. And it was like, it was like I could. couldn't run. Like the last two weeks of my last camp was the only time I get to run, you know, I couldn't

run. All I do was bike and shit like that. So, and then, you know, I'm the type of guys that are the coaches like tell me to like take a risk or go home and things like that. And, you know, when I keep texting coaches, like, hey, man, I'm going to take today off, you know, this and that. I think they see something that's not usual. So I think that's why they call it off, I think. Was that difficult for you to be that close to the fight and then have to wait a little bit longer, have the setback, if you will?

Yeah, Denner Panetta already told me like four weeks out, man. He was going to call it off. I was like, nah, man, I'm doing good. I'm still sparring. And then he kept watching me, watching me. And three weeks out, you know, I was ready to spar. I put my shingars on, you know, clothes on. I mean, gloves on.

And all the coaches were outside. And then there was like, hey, Josh, come out. And they have my managers on the phone. It was like, this is what we decided. And that was it. Did you see Minnell Kapp's tweet about you? What do you say? I could read it for you.

We have it here in a moment. Okay, big props to Joshua for the achievement. A lot of people and fighters have been hating on him. And the only answer I could find is jealousy. Many fighters can't handle the success of others, and that's exactly why they'll never truly succeed themselves. The journey started when he took the opportunity after I broke my foot. He stepped in and beat Royville.

Congrats to the young man, but I'll see you soon and I'll take back what is mine, not on my time, on Allah's time. That's very good coming from him, man. You know, now he's speaking the truth, man. Like I said, we ain't never enemy, man, you know what I'm saying? Seems like he was giving you love there. Seems like he was giving you props.

There you go. Yeah, yeah. Like, it's always respect. You know, you know what I bring to the table. I know what he brings to the table. Man, when it comes to fight, we fight, you know. And I feel, and maybe I'm wrong, I feel like you get way more pro. I know you said that you felt like Pantosia was making you out to be the bad guy.

I feel like a lot of the fans love you and are excited about your success and feel some sort of way in a positive way about you. Do you get that impression as well? Yeah, man. And like, bro, it was hard because, you know, like the title, like the title, winning the title like that is, it's already bad, right? You won't, I won't wish up on my, my, my, my, my worst enemy, right? But you got to remember, like, and then Pintoja came back and say all these things and all these other stuff. Like, it kind of, like, annoying me, you know? And on top of that, my fight got canceled.

And then now people start saying, like, I ducked tired. and all this other stuff. So now in my camp, man, I was just pissed off, you know, trying to hurt all my sparring partner and all this other stuff. So the coaches have to be like, yo, bro, you can't hurt. You can't hurt all your sparring partner, man. You know, calm now, stay calm, relax, you know. And that's what you see in my last fight too.

You know what I mean? I was calm and relaxed. What's the reaction like back home to this win? Do you have any sort of sense? We talked once about the celebs reaching out to you, the media attention. What's it been like? It's amazing, man. As right now, like, I kind of stay off social media a little bit because it's like we haven't, like,

Saturday night, I didn't get to sleep until like the Sunday night, you know? Wow. Yeah, I got back to my hotel like 2.30. and then I have like some, I have the Burmese fans, the Chene fans and stuff like that. You know, we're having prayers and then there go five in the morning. And then I set a lift at like 5.30. Oh, wow. You got to cast that flight and then come back.

And then, you know, my church members, they came here and then pray for me and things like that. So it was just, yeah, a lot of praying. Wow. So after the fight, like some people go party and you're praying. Yeah. Wow. We have to thank, yeah, we have to thank gift to God, glory to God. In the hotel room or you went somewhere else?

No, not in the hotel room because there was a lot of people. So we did it in the hotel lobby. Okay, wow. So just in front of people? Yeah, yeah. Incredible. And then you just went straight to the airport. Yeah.

And are you able to go back home or forgive my ignorance or is that not possible right now? I know, but I'm going back to Thailand and I'm going back to Malaysia where I was in refugee camp and things like that. Wow. When are you doing that? Next week. When was the last time you were there? Like 13, 13 years ago. Wow, wow.

Are you going to go with your family? No, just me and my boys. You're going to bring your belt with you? No. Yeah, too heavy, right? Yeah, I don't like bringing my belt around, man. But considering all you've accomplished and how far you've come, I'm sure it's going to be very meaningful and emotional.

Yeah, it would be great, man. Like, you know, I want to go check out my old school and, you know, where they teach me education and stuff like that. So it'll be a great memory. Incredible. Well, enjoy that, my man. Well, deserved. Congratulations on the win.

Another great performance on the Fight of the Night Award as well. maybe fight of the year by the time of the year is all of a sudden then you got one last year maybe yeah back to back I love it well done Josh thank you so much for coming on really appreciating congrats again thank you brother there he is Joshua van incredible stuff what a win what a performance what a personality big fan of his big fan of his fighting style of his demeanor of the way in which he conducts himself big big fan

big fan of that fight he he has a subtle trash talk to him a subtle trash talk that is, you know, that is fine. Everyone's got different strokes, different folks, different approaches, different delivery. It's great. It's really great. Okay. In a matter of moments and still to come in 30 minutes time, we're going to be joined by Ronda

Rousey. I haven't been able to say that in 11 years, over 11 and a half years on this program. So she's going to be joining us at 4 Eastern, 1 Pacific. Stay tuned for that. What about this studio? what about this time that we're having here? Incredible stuff. And the reason why we're here in Los Angeles

is because on Saturday, May 16th, that's this Saturday, live on Netflix, the biggest streaming platform in the world. For the first time ever, a mixed martial arts card will air live on said platform. Obviously, there's been five boxing events

that have happened. Mike Tyson versus Jake Paul. Taylor Serrano 3. Canelo Crawford. AJ Jake Paul, Fury Mahmoodov. MMA was on the side, said, hey, what about us? Three of those cards were brought you by MVP, Jake Paul and Nikisa Bedarian. Now they're bringing the first MMA card to Netflix and what a card it is, what a stack lineup it is.

The aforementioned Jake Paul is here to talk to us about it all. Great to have him on the program. Hello, Jake. How are you? Good, man. How are you? I'm doing great. Great to have you on. This is a big freaking deal, man. first MMA card on Netflix, you do it again, you and Nikisa. Can I ask how it all start? We've heard from Rhonda how it all started from Gina, from Nika,

I haven't really heard it from you, the idea, the embryonic stages. How did this all start? Most people stick to one combat sport. They don't try to do two this early in their voyage as a promoter. You're doing two now five years in. How did it all start? Yeah, look, I think we're pretty agnostic in terms of it being MMA or boxing. At the end of the day, we love.

combat sports and we're great promoters and we have a great relationship with our partners at netflix as well as other platforms but we've always wanted to make m mfights happen i tried to fight uh... nate diaz for a long time we are with the pfl for a long time so it's always been you know in our minds and i think m m ms is ripe for disruption maybe even more than boxing is currently and so So naturally stars aligning, you know, Ronda wanting to fight, the perfect matchups, Gina Carrano, and then just getting the biggest names out of the free agents to be a part of this event. It only made sense.

And here we are on the brink of history. And we're both very, me and Nikis are both very excited and very blessed and honored to be promoting this. Rhonda has said time and again that she went to the UFC first. She went to Dana first because of the existing relationship. And he's talked about it and Gina's talked about it. Are you surprised they didn't do this fight? Yeah, look, I don't know. I don't really think so.

You know, I think there's a lot of weird things happening over at that organization. And yeah, I'm not sure. Yeah, they've sort of a. I believe lost touch with the pulse of their fans and making the fights that people want to see. When you say weird things, what do you mean? Are you referring to that or something else? Referring to that and just, you know, I think fans are starting to not be as happy with the way things that are, with the way things are run and the fights that are being made, the cards that are being put together.

So, yeah, just hearing the people speak. And obviously, I don't know anything that goes on behind the scenes, but you can kind of feel that as well. Like, I'm a fan of the UFC. I have been since I was, you know, maybe 12, 13 years old. And I've also noticed a difference just in the organization. And it's hard to say what it is, but it's just. doesn't have as much hype anymore. Historically, when someone, a new kid on the block tried to put on a mega event, the UFC

would try to counter it. There would be, you know, games that were being played. All fair, you know, this is the promotional game. You know how it is. This time around, they didn't do that. And even as recently as Saturday, when Dana was asked about the card, he said, I love Rhonda and Gina and left it at that. No shots, no back and forth, no nothing.

have you been surprised by the approach, by the response to you guys coming out and putting on this card? With fans or? No, with him, with the company. Historically, affliction comes on and puts on a show. They counter it to try to hurt the show. This time, they haven't countered it. They haven't done anything.

And he hasn't said anything really negative about the card as well. Yeah, no, I mean, I haven't been really following any of his thoughts around it. But, yeah, you wouldn't want to compete with this show. And I don't think they could. You know, they're already comparing this our first MMA event to the most, you know, promoted and talked about card, which is UFC, you know, 200, 250 at the White House. And people are saying our card is better for our first event. So I don't think they would want to compete, and I don't think they could compete.

Do you agree? Do you think this card is better than the White House card next month? I think they're at the same level, to be honest, but mostly because of the White House. If we just were talking talent and names, then our card is better. Is there a sweet irony for you that when you came to the fight game early on, you were a public enemy, number one as far as MMA fans are concerned. And now you're trying to serve the MMA fan. Now you're trying to offer this alternative. They all hated you.

They all wanted you gone. They all wanted their guys to beat you. And I hear you are saying like, help me save you, help me remind you. Here's this amazing card with these guys. It's quite the turn in the last few years. Yeah, no. I mean, and it is pretty funny. But I obviously play a character a lot of times and, you know, force a lot of hate

as a promoter, I'm different. And I'm a businessman that has always put fighters first. And that's why we found so much success in such a small amount of time in boxing, because we're getting fighters the biggest fights and the biggest paydays and, you know, the most amount of content and followers in promotion. And so the same thing's going to happen in MMA. And we want to make the sport. even greater and even better. And having another outlet for fighters to be able to go to where

they're going to get just as much exposure and even more pay, I think will only help the sport in the long run. Just on that topic for a moment, I've been talking a lot today about Sean Strickland, playing the character, building fights and whatnot. And in short, my theory was like he said so much about Hamza in the buildup to that fight. You can't walk back in the immediate aftermath and say, oh, I was just selling a fight. Do you believe that there are certain lines that should not be crossed? And if you are, in fact, going to go there, that you have to stay there, you can't come out in the seconds after the fight and say, I was just trying to sell a fight. I didn't mean what I said about your mom, your religion, X, Y, and Z. How do you feel about that?

Yeah. I mean, it is definitely a great area. I think there are certain lines. But when you're in those moments and you're on stage and there's all this energy and build up and tension and nerves and excitement. You might go a little bit too far. But at the end of the day, I think after you go toe to toe with somebody, you build a respect for them and you almost like want to be friends afterwards. It's this really weird, weird feeling that I've experienced as well with people that I've talked so much smack to, but we're able to let that aggression and energy out. And at the end of the day, both respect each other for getting in the ring. But I do think there are certain things that you can't walk back in terms of like religion and the just like all that crazy terrorist stuff that

they were talking about and going into to me, I found that to be pretty wild, even to my standards. What is the approach here for MVP MMA if we're going to call it that? Do you think this is let's see how it goes? Can you tell us, no, no, no, we're in it now. We have plans. Is it a one and done? What is the status as far as your company's relationship with MMA? Yeah, no, I feel like we're already in it. And yeah, like we believe that this event is going to be extremely successful. one of the most viewed MMA events. Obviously this Saturday on Netflix, everyone tune in. But I think we love promotion.

We love disrupting. We love helping fighters. And this has already been such a massive success. And the fights haven't even happened yet. And so I know it's only upside from here. And me and the keys are both motivated to, you know, continue disrupting MMA. Do you have a number in mind?

You know, because we fixate on those Netflix numbers so much these days, like, which did the most? You and Tyson, obviously, there's Canello Crawford, et cetera, you and Jay. AJ, do you have a number where you're like, this is a success? We need to hit this number. I want to hit this number.

Do you think of it that way beforehand? Yeah, those conversations are had once or twice, just like a thought of what, going to happen and, you know, making a prediction is always fun just to see how accurate you can be in terms of the viewership. But I don't know, man. Like this, I think, I know it's going to do amazing, but I also think there's something parabolic that could happen here where it even shocks us with how big it is. What's that number? What's the number you'd be happy with? I would be happy with like 20 mil.

Okay. And you think it's doable, attainable? For sure. I think that's a very conservative estimate. And that would make it the most watched MMA card of all time. Off the bat. Correct. Ronda has talked about wanting to be a part of this, like a face, if you will.

Would you like her to be a part of this? Even if she's not fighting, would you like her to be one of the faces, if not the face of MVP? MMA? Yeah, we would love to work with Ronda further. And I think she's a great promoter and great on the business side of things. And yeah, it's been awesome working with her already. And so I think it would be great to have her moving forward as a part of MVP MMA. What have you made of just her renewed enthusiasm building this card?

Like that press conference in New York, when she went off on Kayla Harrison, like we haven't seen that side of her in a very, very, very long time. And it just seems like she's enjoying this as someone who really wanted nothing to do with the sport 10 years ago. Has it surprised you to see how invested she is in all of this? Yeah, like I'm just excited by it. I think she's, from what I can see, like found a, you know, more confidence in herself and feels so good about herself and what she's doing.

and is a bit older now and so more comfortable and what she wants to say. And it's been getting me fired up. And so I'm here for it. I'm loving it. You have a history with Francis. You have a history with Nate. What is it like promoting them now?

Yeah. I mean, it's definitely weird. I think maybe more for them. But yeah, look, I mean, at the end of the day, were here to make history. And I think they are too. And I think they see how big of opportunity this is. And yeah, I'm here to put MVP first and promote these guys and make it as big of an event as possible.

Is that a tricky balance for you? Because you're also an athlete and a fighter, but you're a promoter as well. And so when Francis is up there saying he wants to be a big of an event as possible. saying he wants to beat your ass, I would imagine the athlete, the competitor comes out in you, but you don't want to diminish him and make him seem like a scrub as his promoter. But you have an ego, obviously, we all do. And so that's a tricky thing that most people in your position don't have to deal with. So how do you balance that?

Yeah, I really didn't balance it. I kind of just let the athlete's side come out and I just started talking smack back to him. but then afterwards I realized that yeah I was like diminishing him and and um it yeah the the promoter side came back out but it is a weird balance I think I'm like one of the first people if not the first in history to be in this exact position as the active fighter promoting potential future opponents and past opponents in Mike Perry and ideas. So it's really a funny situation to be in. But it just makes it all that bigger, I guess, because my fans are familiar with who these people are and they're going to want to see them

fight as well. This is all exceeded your expectations, right? Like this was never the plan for MVP. It has gotten like the women's promotion, ESPN, Netflix, Sky Sports. Like, did you even dare to dream this big so early in? Yeah, I think that's what's funny about it is, you know, I dreamed as big as possible with my own career. So none of that shocked me. But definitely the rise of MVP and our success, the numbers we've put up, how fast we've, you know, taken over women's boxing and all of these things, that speed and pace has, has, definitely surprised me. And I knew we wanted to get into MMA, but to have this good of a card

as the first event, and it could potentially be one of the most watched MMA events ever, is definitely shocking. What have you made of Zufa boxing so far? They had an event last night. Sounds like they're about to sign Shakur Stevenson. They've signed some other big names as well. What have you made of what they've done? Man, I, to be honest, didn't even know that they were doing anything. I, I saw like Connor Ben like fighting on some other card. And I thought it was supposed to be like a, I guess it was tied to Zufa. Yeah, it was a ring card.

It was a ring card, right? Yeah. I don't know what's going on. I'm trying not to like talk to what shit because. What happened? What happened to the old Jake? You got old on us. Bro, I'm about to be 30 in like six months, bro.

You're unk, Jake? No. I'm unked. Yeah. Professional, bro. I need to put on a poll over for the next interview. But it's just like I feel like I don't need to talk shit, you know, like it's kind of just stating facts, right?

Like I don't, you said they had an event last night. Bro, I'm on boxing Twitter. Like, I didn't even see this shit. So I wish them the best of luck. And I hope that they can help make boxing a better place. and I just hope that the fighters don't get screwed over going to sign long-term deals with them. I think boxers need to be very careful

in terms of not ending up like UFC fighters stuck in contracts and getting underpaid. So that's my only fear. But other than that, I hope they do amazing and put on big events and make the sport better. What about the war of words between Dana and Eddie Hearn? Have you paid attention to that? And if so, who do you think is getting the better of whom?

Yeah, look, I mean, I think it's entertaining. And I think, again, it's growing both sides of the sport. It's tough to say, like, if there's a winner, I think they're both, like, making funny and good moves. So I'm here for it. But, yeah, I'm going to have Eddie's, Eddie's back on that one and stick with the boxing people. But I think it's going to be very tough for them to compete in boxing. Who wins in the fight? Eddie would for sure win. Really? Why?

I know he has like actual sparring experience. I think the youth, the size advantage. And I think he would just have better sparring partners if he was trained. for it. He would know what to do, what coach to use, et cetera. By the way, we saw at the national championship game. You were in a suite with the president and Dana White was there. It was an interaction. Can you tell us about it? Yeah, I was just in the, in Trump's suite. And Dana was like sitting there. I didn't even see him. And then I was like talking to the president. And I like looked to my left and see Dana. And that's the first time we've

ever met or been in the same room. And I was just like, oh, hey, what's up, man? Just shook his hand and he looked like really awkward. I think he felt uncomfortable, but like, bro, I don't, I just don't care about these things to me. We're all human beings at the end of the day. But he was definitely awkward. He was like looking up at me like this, like listening to the conversation.

and yeah that was pretty much it we didn't exchange too many words other than that the interaction that we saw on camera was the only interaction that happened there was nothing else correct yeah okay i don't know what we talk about like how's your jaw he didn't ask you how your jaw was it was right after the a j fight no trump trump was asking me dana was just kind of again he was like sitting in his chair like just like looking up at us while we were talking Like what's going on? Wild.

But yeah. Definitely. You never know. You never know who you're going to run into, I guess. What were you more nervous for fighting H.A. or interviewing Trump? Interviewing Trump, for sure. Without a doubt. I, yeah, I had like maybe 48 hours to prepare.

first of all, second of all, I'm not an interviewer by any means. Third, to interview them by myself is a whole other level. Like I didn't even have like a tag team partner like another like podcast host or whatever. And they didn't like say how much time I had. They were just like, all right, like let's see how it's going and blah. And so I didn't know how many questions. I didn't know what or like it was a lot of. preparation. I think it turned out great. I thought I did a good job in hindsight, but I was definitely

very nervous. Your fiancé Utah posted a video recently, and in the back, you were in the ring doing some stuff, and that led people to think that you were maybe preparing to get back in there. Obviously, it's only been about five months since the fight. How far along are you in the process? Yeah, I'm getting some new scans here in a couple of days of the jaw to get an update on the healing process. We'll see what my doctors say. I think I'll be able to get a more accurate like time frame or, you know, can I even fight again? That is definitely in the realm and possibilities of things. It does like feel a lot better as weeks go by and time goes.

by, but I definitely need to get cleared first to be able to spar. But I'm, you know, sort of staying in shape. Just, um, I'm always, you know, in the gym pretty much regardless. So, just staying in shape and, uh, and enjoying, you know, some mitt work. Wow. So that's on the table. Your, your fighting future is somewhat in doubt. Yeah. No, most, definitely. I think it just depends on like how the bone heals. And then also there's like a tooth missing here. Like I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to get an implanted tooth of some sort. I don't know how much time that's going to add to things. But we just have to see and figure out what the smartest thing is for me. Is there any part of you that's like this

may not be worth it anymore. I did it. I proved my point. This is not fun. Let me go focus on other parts of the business and other parts of your life. Yeah, those thoughts have definitely come up, but I'm not done. Like I can just feel it in my spirit, my soul, my heart that I have more fights left than unfinished business in my mind. And injuries are a part of any splurys. You know, I think potentially this could be a good outcome, you know, like you could tear ACL and be out and keep on tearing it and tearing it again. So it's just a part of any sport. And I definitely don't feel like I'm done and want to keep on fighting. Is there is there anyone in your life, whether it's a doctor, family member who's trying to say maybe enough is enough?

Yeah. definitely my doctor armon shout out to armand but he he doesn't want me to fight again wow that's on armand turukian right your your pal that's a different armand no no no different he's telling you no he's saying he doesn't want me to and then yeah there's like the occasional business person who's just like, you know, you don't need to do this. Wow, wow, wow. What is your fiance saying?

She is kind of in like both boats. Like, because she understands being an athlete and like having that feeling inside of you of wanting to, you know, prove yourself more and to compete in the love of that. But she also knows that like I don't have to fight and all of these things. And there's so many amazing businesses that I'm working on and are crushing it,

that she has also mentioned the other side of like, yeah, you don't actually need to do this. But she's supportive of whatever decision I make. I wasn't necessarily expecting this. So I was going to ask, have you even thought about who a nice comeback fight would be against? But if you're in this sort of state of limbo,

are you even thinking about that sort of thing? Not really. Not really. Yeah, I think these scans this week that I'm getting will be a very good indicator of like what's next and when. Okay, that's before Saturday night you're doing this? Yeah, correct. Okay. And before I let you go, what about MVPW? A couple shows in, another one coming up, a big one in El Paso. In two weeks time, there's so much that you guys are doing. How have you felt about the product so far? amazing you know and and the numbers are even better than we thought in that ESPN and sky sports thought so everyone's happy and the women have put on amazing fights may 30th we got another one in el paso amanda serrano coming back as as well on that card but with with holly home the rematch.

And so, yeah, it's just been going great. And we're excited to continue to knock down doors, MVPW. What about that Joe Hendry, huh? That banger? Paul. Paul. Can we? Bro, honestly, it's not bad.

It's not bad, right? It's so good. It was stuck in my head for like three days. Paul. He's good. He's good. Fire, Logan. Paul.

Paul. Can we fire Logan, Paul? Sorry, Logan. It's tremendous. Yo, I saw that picture of you guys flexing. He's on a different level. I wasn't flexing. I was pooping.

Oh, you're okay. Because his, yo, man, what is going on? That was crazy, the two of you. He's like in the best shape of my life and I'm in the worst shape of my life. And he was like, I saw the comment that was like, this pick was definitely Logan's idea. which is true. He low-key did me dirty. Yo, that is insane.

One last one before I let you go, just going back to it because I'm processed. Do you regret the A.J. fight, given what it led to? No, man. Quite the opposite. I think it was such a win on so many different levels. And, yeah, it had a really good experience. and just overall such a net positive for me, my companies, my fighting experience, my content.

And yeah, I just really will fight anybody, to be honest. And I've been saying that. And I think maybe people now actually believe me, but I'm here for entertainment purposes. I feel like the respect from the community for you, from them for you, grew after that, despite the loss. No, and that's what I mean. I think I had to lose in that way almost for people to be like, all right, like, he's not that bad.

Like, he's got art. You know, that was like he went longer than I thought. So it actually felt like a win. Ronda, Gina. Are you allowed to make a pick? I'm not sure. I'll just say that I'm not going to make a pick, but I think just watching the countdown on Netflix,

I think Rhonda, from the clips, just looks a lot faster. And like she's got the whole total MMA stack with the grappling, the judo, the submissions, etc. Can't wait. This Saturday, May 16th on Netflix, live from the Intuit Dome, which is a spectacular arena.

There it is. First ever MMA card on Netflix. First MVP MMA card. Thank you, Jake. Good luck to you in the team. Can't wait to see how it all plays out on Saturday. Appreciate your time today. Awesome.

Thank you, man. I'll see you soon. Yes, sir. There he is. The Problem Child, El Gaiio, Mr. Jake Paul, promoting this event alongside Nikisa Badaarian. Nikisabedarian is going to join us in studio in this studio,

in this studio, our L.A. studio. This is our new L.A. studio, by the way. I've decided in the midst of this. everything's going great. He's going to join us. Yeah, there it is. Look at this. Man, look at us, just picking up and, you know, say, you know what? We're going to take our NYC look and feel Los Angeles-safi at it, something like that, and bring it here. What the fuck is we? I mean, it was a team effort, I'd like to say, for a thing. Anyway, Nikisa is going to join us in studio. Other guests as well. Stay tuned for that. But in a matter of moments, my friend, friends,

a little bit nervous, a little bit nervous. Is it possible? Frank, I'm a little bit nervous. Don't be nervous. No. I have not been able to say this for over 11 years. I looked at some old texts and I feel comfortable in saying it's been over 11 years since I've been able to say that in a matter of seconds, we're going to be joined live on the program by Ronda Rousey. and I had the great pleasure of covering her career pre-UFC early strike force days. I remember in the AOL studio having her and Misha Tate on together as she was trying to get that title fight, the back and forth, all those great chats. I mean, and then of course the explosion.

I've talked about being in Brazil when she was fighting Bechkoheya and feeling like it was like we were there to cover the Beatles. the yelling, the children, the women going crazy just to be in her presence. It was unbelievable. And obviously that was quite some time ago. That was 2015, believe it or not. A lot has happened since then, but as you all know, she is coming back on Saturday. The promotional work that she has put in over the course of the past three months, once this fight was announced in mid-February. I remember I was at the Olympics. Up until now has been remarkable. It has felt like the old Rhonda times 10.

It has felt like a renewed love and interest and enthusiasm and excitement for the sport of mixed martial arts. And it's been amazing to watch. We did the face-to-face yesterday. And as I said earlier in the show, that was unique in its own right because it was very emotional. And it was just the complete opposite. of what we saw in the buildup to UFC 328. I was honored to be a part of it. I have been honored to be a part of the build leading up to this point and being in

LA and of course the broadcast on Saturday. So this is a really big deal. And in a year where we've mended a lot of fences and have had people that we maybe never thought would ever come back on the show is an absolute honor and privilege to welcome back to the program after 11 long years to the first ever UFC women. Bantamway champion, the Olympic bronze medalist, the triple crown winner from the world of professional wrestling, the one and only Rhonda Rousey is here. Is she actually here? She's actually there. I actually completely forgot about it. I got to finally lay down in bed

with my heat pack. And I was like, oh, this is so great. My assistant hit me up. She's like, oh, you have an interview in 10 minutes. I'm like, shit. Ariel. Fucking Ariel again, rears his ugly head. I'm sorry. Okay, I didn't have to fully change out of my pajamas, just the top. No, that's the beauty of doing it this way. And I've seen you do interviews like this in this same sort of setup. It's surreal to have you back on the show, Rhonda. Thank you so much for doing this.

I really appreciate it. Thank you. Yeah, I've come a long way from, I think my first interview with you was that a live debate with Misha that was on my phone in the Santa Monica Promenade, which in front of what used to be urban outfitters. And now it's become, I don't know what else, but yeah, It's been a long road. I've been reminiscing about that one because that was when Misha was the champ and she was saying, you don't deserve it and all that, and you came on.

And I mean, the build for that was amazing. So, yes, it has been a very long road. And to see, honestly, to see your renewed love for the sport and to see how you feel about the sport, to see your spirit, your enthusiasm in the build in the last three months has been amazing. It's been breathtaking because I don't think it would be a, you know, an out-of-bounds thing to say. that a lot of us thought you may never be a part of MMA again, watch MMA again, show up to an MMA fight, let alone fight in one. Is that a fair thing to say?

And so to see this version of you now has been really remarkable. No, I believe the same thing. So that's not surprising at all. Yeah, this surprised me just as much as I think as anybody else. And yeah, it literally just happened completely organically. And I think that that's how it had to happen. and it's really just because of Gina. I came into the sport because of Gina,

I came back to the sport because of Gina. And you know, yesterday, and it hasn't come out yet, but I've talked about it a little bit, the face-to-face that I was just sitting in the middle of. I had nothing to do with what was going on was unlike anything that I've ever experienced. And part of your appeal over the years was I think the intensity and friction

that you had with some of your opponents, people were intoxicated by that. But the emotion, like I kept looking at you and Gina's eyes and the amount of times that your eyes watered. And I don't think that's a bad thing, especially coming off what we witnessed at UFC 328, all that vitriol and venom between Sean Strickland and Hamzad. This felt very refreshing.

And I still wonder... Let's not give the fights numbers. Let's just give the, you know, even though if you might not like the fighters, like, let's just give them recognition. Let's call the fights by their names and not a brand in a number, you know? But I understand what you're saying. You mean 328?

I think that, I mean, like, you know, Strickland versus Hamza. Hamza, yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's just call it that, you know. I think that the UFC giving us the cards numbers instead of names is part of the problem here. And I love that this hasn't been called MVP UFC one. This has been, you know, Rousie Kerrano. We're bringing the humanity back into it. And that's what I really loved about that.

that that interview yesterday is it, you know, there was bringing the humanity back into into fighting. And I think it takes like a lifetime of promoting fights to kind of like bring your your storytelling skill to a different level where it's not just, you know, oh, fuck you, which is classic. We all love it in its own ways. But it's not the only way to tell a story. and I think that the combination of me and Gina is so unique that the promotion deserves to be unique. I love that answer. I want to go back to that in a moment, but about the emotion, how do you shut off that love and turn into the annihilator, the dominator?

Because we've never seen you feel this sort of love for your opponent before or fight before. It's still passion, you know? Like, it's a, and I don't know, there's something maybe you're probably. wrong with me. I think all fighters that truly fight have something in them that we need that venue to be able to unleash ourselves that we're constantly, you know, holding ourselves back in proper society. And there's something in us that just like needs another adult in the room. I need that referee in that cage to stop me from going too far. And I love that. We have a venue in a cage where we can shut it and be like, okay, all of the, everything that we're doing in here would otherwise be

illegal. But now we can do it because there's somebody else here to make sure that we don't go too far. And I can, I can turn that off, that civility in my head. And I love that I can do it with, with someone like Gina that I actually really care about. And I can share that moment with her because It's like fighting in a way it's intimate and it's passionate. And I'm sharing that moment with somebody who I truly like respect and presents like such a unique puzzle that I think is going to like bring out the best of my martial arts. And anybody that's fought, I mean, they got sparring partners in the gym. I beat the shit out of my best friends, you know? And then we go and get a sigh holes after.

I will happily like bend her arm backwards and like pop it back in, you know, wax off that shit. I would drive her to the hospital and I will get her flowers and hopefully, you know, we can laugh about it for the rest of our lives. Like this is one of those rare situations where I feel like it's, it's a feel good story either way, you know. It's a win-win. It's not like, oh, man, I'm either going to have a great night or a bad night watching this. It's like whatever happens, I think everyone's going to have a great night. I feel like one of the themes going into this fight, if not the theme, is that there's a lot of healing happening between what everything, you know, everything that Gina's been through, you've been through, how it all ended,

and that's unique in its own right. Can I ask, why did there need to be healing? Why do you think it had to end the way in which it did? And was there an alternative that could have happened in retrospect? I think everything happens for a reason, the exact way that it's meant to go. And I think I was meant to not win the Olympics. so that I would still have that fire in me to come into MMA and to pave away for women in that sport. And I believe that I did not attain my goal of retiring undefeated because, A, it was the best thing for the sport for me not to leave with my equity.

And I learned through pro wrestling that a champ retiring with the belt is one of the worst things that can happen to a division. I mean, just look what happened to the 145 pound division. And I think that it was meant to go that way so that I would be brought back to MMA, not just to serve myself and my own career, but to change the entire landscape of the sport. You know, because of this fight, MVP and Netflix are coming in as, excuse me, carbonated, as a real, you know, rival to the UFC that they so desperately need. And it's giving fighters leverage that they've never had. And this is something that never would have happened if I retired or defeated.

It never would have happened if I hadn't come back at the exact time that the UFC was switching over to the streaming model. And there's just too many things that happened in sequence. If those things hadn't happened to Gina at that exact time, if I hadn't been at that exact moment in time, I'd seen her in that spot. So many things had to happen exactly that the way that they did for this huge opportunity to happen for me not to look at it and be like, oh my God, this is fate. This is the way it was supposed to go. I was always meant to do this, you know?

And, you know, maybe after this, you know, we'll see. I could like feasibly be the Dana of MVP in MMA. I could be the most powerful figure in the sport since Dana. You know, like that's insane. That's a goal that I never even would have thought to have if I had done nothing but win and win and win and win. And it's not just, you know, for me, this isn't like something I ever really inspired to do. I mean, a little bit, it would be kind of cool. But it's giving fighters their power back.

And I feel like that's a role that I was meant to inhabit, you know. I love to be the designated bitch and to, you know, I don't know how I say. It doesn't sound like farting, but like to break the wind in the front. What was the person called in front of the bicyclists or whatever? The front of the birds that takes the brunt of the wind, you know? Like I'm happy to play that role. And I feel like if anything happened any other way, the entire future of the sport would be different.

And I feel like this is meant for things to be better for all fighters. and I had to go through those things to get to this point and be where I am now. And now I get it. When this was first announced, it felt like just a mega one-off event. But the things you're saying here, the things you have said at the press conferences and other interviews, makes me feel like there is a desire and a want to keep going here. And so have you had those talks with the MVP brass, Akisa Jake, etc., Netflix, to keep going after this?

Even if it means you're not fighting, but to be that Dana White that you're talking about, the face of it and to lead that charge? Well, I think it's, the talks have been, let's see how this event goes. Like, this is an experiment just like, you know, me and Karmouche was an experiment for, you know, my first fight in the UFC. And that ended up being a huge success in leading to the sport being changed forever. And I expect for this to be a huge success and for the sport being changed forever. But we don't know until we see what those numbers are, you know, like, what.

What makes this a success is the people that watch. And I know that, like, times are tough. Gas is $6, you know, but everybody knows someone with a Netflix subscription. You know, you can go out to a bar somewhere and watch the fight. And that's how the person watching this can be part of forcing that change in the industry if they want to see it. If they really care about the fighters, having, you know, some bargaining power and bringing more. more talent into the sport because we're creating a better future for the athletes in it. And without the people watching, we're just a tree falling in a forest, you know?

Nobody hears it without anyone to go out of their way to watch it. Do you think there should be a fighter's union? I mean, it'd be nice, but is there any sport, any individual sport that has a union? Like, does tennis have a union? I think they do. Wow. Wow. Would you like to be a part of something like? that because a lot of the things that you talk about leads me to feel like this is something

that would be of interest to you. I don't know. I feel like this is my way to help. I feel like, I don't know, being in a union, it might be more of like a political kind of a position and it'd be better suited for somebody else. But I feel like I can enact the changes that I want to see from the inside if I am at the forefront of a company. Like I would, I was really big part of how helping pass the, like, the fighters pension fund in California. Yes. So $1 is taken off of every ticket sale to go towards the pension fund for fighters to fight in California.

And I think it'd be, you know, easy. If I was calling the shots, you know, I would say, makeup from yesterday stuck next to my eye. If I was calling the shots, I would say, hey, let's take a ticket from every, dollar from every ticket sale and put it towards a pension fund. And hey, every time someone fights for us, let's give them health insurance for the next year. And if they're fighting for us continuously, then they continue having health insurance. You know, I can enact the kind of changes that I want to see a union do from the inside as having,

as being, from being in a position to be able to make those decisions. So maybe that's my speed run of a union because I feel like a union is a lot of work. And fighters are, you know, I think are very, conflict oriented is that's a you know what I mean it's a I feel like these things like the like the PI and all these super gyms it um it it's kind of fracturing that that family around the fighters and taking like those you know those camps that have a lot had a lot more leverage before and kind of slowly draining them of that talent and now everybody is like you know at the PI and they're the company person. They don't want to piss off the company and their coaches. They

prioritized the company over the fighters. And I think it's a real big uphill battle right now to get a union made. So I don't know how to get that done. But I think it may be a little bit more doable for me to make those changes as more of like a figurehead than a voter. The things that you're saying, speaking to my soul, we've been talking about these things at Nazim over the years. And I'm wondering if when you hear, I don't know if you heard, you know, Chamsat Shamaev say before his fight

talking about the things that you were saying, like, where was this talk beforehand? Or, you know, how much money did she made from the Olympics as opposed to the UFC? Why are you biting the hand, sort of speak? Do you hear this stuff? And if so, what's your response to it? Didn't I tell you at face-to-face

not to make me blow my load? Oh, I didn't. I mean, there's going to be plenty of, I didn't know if this was a part of the blowing of the load. This part of the bowing the load. Wait until I'm on a hot dress on a stage and then ask me that. I have a good answer for you. You do? Can you give us a taste, a hint? No. Okay. Don't make me blow it right now. I can't. This is a big show right here. My sea monkey like remains and like my hair mess like this and in half pajamas. I'm trying to go for the maximum reach here. Okay. This is. Oh, this is bigger.

promoter self. I got to see now I'm promoting the press conference. Okay, that's smart. Yeah. You know what I mean? It just keeps funny. Fair enough. Fair enough. But yes, you'll be there. So you ask me that again. I will pick up on that in a couple days time Thursday. Were you disappointed when it didn't work out with the UFC? When you brought this to them, you said you brought it to them and it didn't work out. Did you feel like that was a blow after everything you did? You were the biggest star, all that stuff.

Did you feel for a moment, wow, I can't believe this is. not coming to fruition? No, it wasn't personal, you know? Well, with Hunter, it was personal because he was just a fucking asshole about it. How was he an asshole? Can I ask? What did he say to make you feel this way about him? He was just being such a chauvinist prick, and he was being so dismissive and like being

like, just trying to get me and Gina to value ourselves less from the get-go and acting like this isn't the greatest thing that has fallen into his lap since he's fucking been there. And he was like, oh, no, you guys are just so much. older and I just don't know how it's going to do. And I'm like, who the fuck is this guy? First of all, I didn't even know who he was. He was told me he's the lawyer that's going to come and show you your pay-per-view

numbers. I'm like, fine. I don't care. Like, I'm going to knock this out of the park. Like, I love being, you know, having my baby performance based. Like, fuck you. I'll go show you. I, but then he was starting.

Dana mentioned like, because he wanted me and Gina to fight for the 100. 45 title because it was vacant and it's a way to retire the the belt and then hunter's like yeah then we can get rid of that division and like just the way that he spoke of it like how like dismissive he was and like the disdain that he had for the the fighters of that weight and I'm like motherfucker my my husband's six seven my girls are not going to be 135 like this is what you think like women that are higher here than 135 pounds, like they can't offer you anything that they're worthless, that they're worth scoffing at. And I didn't, it just really like rubbed me the wrong way that like this fucking guy is the person that's going to be like going to be like shepherding

the company that I help build. Like that it really, really it rubbed me the wrong way. And then I was actually talking to my mom about it because he was like, oh, I met your mom. She's so great. Tell her I said hi. And I'm like, all right. So after the meeting, I was like, mom, who's Hunter Campbell is? And she was like, yeah, he's a fucking asshole. Screw that guy. And I was like, why? Why don't you like him? She said, he'd sell tickets to Christians being fed to lions. Wow. I'm like, why did you say that? Because she's part of the California Athletic Commission. By the way, I'm not this pink. Okay. This is making me look pinker than I am.

No, no. I'm colorblind, so don't worry. You look great in my opinion. It's fine. So I was like, why did you say that, Mom? And she's like, well, she's part of the California Athletic Commission. And she had a meeting with him about trying to get Slap, you know, allowed for California. And I guess in the meeting he was saying, this is like a really, I think my mom said, honestly, I think slap is everything that's wrong with society.

My mom is very outspoken. But she's very fair. Like she's not going to vote against something just because she thinks it's distasteful. You know, she wants to know whether or not it's safe and that she does her job. And but as a response, he goes, like, this is a really big opportunity for a lot of these people. Like, a lot of these guys would just be doing meth in a trailer park if it wasn't for this. And I'm like, that's what you think of the fighters? Like, we are glorified bum fights to this guy.

Like, this guy does not have a job because he's good at it. He has a job because he is Dana and, like, he is Dana and, like, Lorenzo's lawyer's son. He was a fucking intern when I was there before. And now he's fucking coming up to me saying like, oh, I don't know how you and Gina are going to do. Like, motherfucker, I'm going to put on a bigger fight with Gina than you have your entire fucking career. Keep trying to fail upwards, motherfucker. Keep trying to suck the right dicks in the right order. I'm fucking coming for your job. You fucking pissed off the wrong bitch. And I told Dana, I was like, last thing you want me to do is leave this office pissed off with something to prove

because this motherfucker is pissing me off. And now I have something to approve because that's why I'm going to go do some change the world shit and Dana's like I just want you to make as much money as possible you go you go do it like I want to do it so yeah as long story long no he's a dick have you heard from Dana in the process of this promotion um hold on I'm blurry I think last time I heard from him um he was asking me of those Katie Taylor rumors were true and stuff like that but and then I hit him up because when I wasn't going with Netflix and like I gave him a chance to counter but you know they I feel like it's just they are Dana is legally bound to maximize shareholder value you know and it's nothing that he can do he's just trying to maximize shareholder value but so then when I went and went and said okay I'm going on Netflix and all this stuff and I was like I want you to know like I love and I appreciate you and I don't want you ever to think, like, I hope that we're good.

And he just, like, was so gracious and sweet. And I was like, I love you. You're always going to be good. Like, I want you to be so successful at this and everything like that. Like, he's just always been an incredible friend every step of the way. And, you know, like, it's just business. And he gets it and I get it. By the way, I want to be a man in my word.

I was told you at 20 minutes and we've gone a little bit over. But we have had 11. We're having fun. Are we not having fun? Yeah. What's next? Oh, how what time is it exactly that I have to do it? It's 125. We're viving. I'll give you five minutes. Five minutes, golly. 11 years? Only because this is, this is in Australia and the next one and I don't know what their times. Oh, they should sleep in. They've got plenty of time. What happens? You look amazing on Saturday. You win classic arm bar. They call it. you and say come back home. Are you interested?

To the UFC? To fight? Yeah. Oh, I don't know. I promise my husband up and down that that this is the last one. He's the one that I really got to convince to like, you know, get on board for this promoter shit afterwards. He's not 100% sold on it. So he definitely, he's definitely not 100%. He's not going for the fighting at all after this. And honestly, I, I want to get started, like, having babies again right away. I want to have, like, at least two more if I can. And I just can't be taking any detours anymore, you know? So, and I think there's just, this is the peak.

I can't go higher than this. This is like the dream fight. This is the absolute pinnacle, I think, for me. And this is the perfect way to end it. Okay. Even if you, like you said, you've loved it. You're sad. The camp is ending.

You don't think there'll be any part of you. they come to you and say, hey, here's this, here's Kayla or here's Hall. You know, there's, there's fights to be made. There will always be fights. There will always be fights. But it's like, there's so many like series who are like, oh, man, it peaked in this season. They should have just ended it then, you know? There's nothing bigger than this.

This is it. And I think, like, anything other than that will just be dragging the series out too long. Fair. And I think we need to end at the peak. Can I ask what you think of WWD? these days? Do you feel the same way it's the same parent company? You had the run there, you had friends there. How do you feel about it? Do you watch it? Do you pay attention to it? I don't watch it at all. I mean, I just, you know, I'm watching Miss Rachel and I'm trying to get,

you know, in Totero on repeat and Enkanto on repeat. I don't really get to run the TV at all. And usually, the only reason I ever really watched WWE was because Shana was always putting it on. and I enjoy it and I appreciate it and I actually just read a really great pro wrestling comic called Duo PowerPom which is really great and I recommend it but yeah I I heard from Shana that it was like getting better

right away that like people were getting like I don't know like more more lead time on like what was going on and it wasn't everything wasn't so like last minute and cluster fucky as it was. So I've heard some good things, but honestly, I haven't been keeping track of it. I had a baby and I'm training for a fight and it's just life goes on. Two last very quick things, if I may. I know you haven't paid attention to anything that I've said over the past 10 years, but I've said it repeatedly on this show that it always annoyed me that you had the benefit of coming

into pro wrestling with a finisher that was over. You know that term. I know you know the terminology now. finisher was over. Everyone knew that when you slapped on an arm bar in real life, it was lights out. It was done. And you had that already over with the crowd. When Hulk Hogan gets into wrestling, the leg drop isn't over just yet. He has to get it over. But you had that. And it always bothered me that in your first match, Stephanie McMahon, who I love, but is not an athlete. She's a mom. She's a CEO. She got out of it multiple times. I'm like, you had the benefit of the over finisher that was lights out in real fighting. And you had the mom's CEO get out of it. three, four times. That always annoyed me. Do you know what I mean? Do you understand what I'm saying?

And did that annoy you as well? I thought the first time you slapped it on and like a Goldberg streak, it should have been automatic. Slap it on, match over. Slap it on match over. And it should have gone on for like a hundred matches. And in the first one, I felt like they got off on the wrong foot. Does that make sense? I mean, you're going down the slippery slope of being frustrated with the WBE's not well thought out choices. that that will end up driving you crazy in the long run. You know what? I loved that match.

I love that match. It was my favorite match. Yes, a lot of things could have been done better the whole way around. But, you know, I just had to accept the fact that that is a world that's not going to change. And I could change what I could, you know, and get women to like a headliner position when they weren't before. But there's a much older industry and they're much more ingrained in things being done that the way that they're being done. And then you also had like Vince McMahon at the very top, which was, you know, its own,

its own issue. And it was just like, there's that getting caught up in all of those little things will drive you nuts. Fair enough. And I had a great time with my friends. having fun and they're doing, I think, much better now because I got to have my time there and now they're doing much better things now with it than I ever could at this point. And I'm happy for them and I had a great time, most of the time. Last one. Last one, I promise.

And again, thank you so much for this. This has been great. It's been like catching up with an old friend. I wish we had Caesar salad to eat together. If you remember that callback from way back, Do you remember that one or no? Caesar salad? I don't know, man. Oh, I was eating a Caesar salad the first time you did media and, uh, oh yeah, yeah. You remember that? Back when they gave media food.

Yes, yes, yes. Anyway, this is the question that I've always wanted to ask you. And it was what I would have asked you. And it's the only thing I wanted to ask you about the past. And it's why were you so hard on yourself in the aftermath of Holly? I feel like fans end up falling in love with a fighter after they stumble and then pick themselves up and come back and say it's going to be okay. And I felt like you were so hard on yourself. And I know there was so much pressure on you to keep going and to win and to be that

person. And I just wondered if in retrospect, you felt like you were too hard on yourself. And if any of that was something that you wish you could have done over because that's the part. I never crapped on you in the aftermath. I never said any of that. I never said that you were a fraud or that you should have lost anything. I always just wondered out loud, why were you so hard on yourself? No one thought less of you or your achievements or what you had done, your place in the sport because of that one fight and it felt like you felt like your position had changed in the sport now I'm wondering why um well I was because I'd been dealing with these neurological issues for such a long time and I didn't understand what was going on and they were

getting worse and worse and worse and um it just finally came to a head hi baby so he spoke up oh nice um it finally just, you know, came to a head in that fight. And I just felt like it finally caught up to me and that my career was over. It just meant so it was more than just losing a fight. It was like, man, I can't fight anymore. And, you know, there's a lot of people out there that think I'm making it up or don't believe me or whatever, you know, and the like neurological problems are things that it's an injury and nobody else can see. And I think what I hated most about it was, you know, like the very first time I got hit in that fight, it, like, knocked on all my lower teeth loose and cut my, you know, my lip open.

And I got like this huge, now I know it was a migraine aura, which is a big chunk of my vision, like, basically missing, like, as if, like, someone took a picture of you. and I had lost my death perception and I lost my ability to think clearly or quickly or being able to track moving objects but I was still like on my feet and balanced I'm trained my whole life to not show when you're hurt and not show it because then they're going to capitalize on it

they're going to know and so that entire fight was just me trying to hide the fact that I just I couldn't see and I couldn't think and I think, you know, and the next one as well, it happened again, and that's how I knew. I was like, man, I just can't, I can't fight anymore because of this. And I just felt like I was judged on my fighting ability and my fighting IQ because of what was happening when I was dealing with not being able to see, you know? And, and then just knowing that my career was over because of it. and that no one could understand.

And people were making all these kind of judgments and assumptions about me and my fighting ability because of it. And then I would never be able to, I think, set it right after that because it just got to the point where I couldn't even get, like, hit anymore. And thankfully, because, you know, Dana sent me to the Cleveland Clinic and because I had, you know, world famous neurologist check me out and give me a diagnosis of like, hey, you're dealing. with migraine aura and here is a medication that can actually be preventative to help you. Like it's completely life-changing. But then why I'm like able to do this fight, but also I didn't have any information then. And I just thought I would be, you know, forever misunderstood and only known for those performances. And that's just not who I am as a fighter.

And I'm always going to be judged for those performances. And, you know, I'm not. taking it away from those women. They're great athletes and you know I'm glad that the equity of my wins have been able to carry on since I've left and you need the other women to do that. But you know it's a it was just really tough to feel like man that's how I'm going to be remembered and I'll never be able to come back again and it just felt like entirely outside of my control and I would never be able to to communicate it to anybody.

And it took, I guess, 10 years to be able to do that somewhat. And now you're back. And it's an incredible story to watch unfold. Thank you so much for this, Rhonda. Really, really, really appreciate it. Welcome back. Good luck on Saturday. And thank you for doing this.

This has been incredible. Thank you. All right. We'll talk to you later. There she is. Rhonda Rousey, kind enough to join us. We went a little bit longer. We'll see her at the press conference on Thursday, open workout.

on Wednesday, weigh-ins on Friday, fight night on Saturday, Netflix, Intuit Dome. What a time. Never thought. There are a few that I probably never thought would ever happen.

That is one of them. And that was great. Wish we had two hours, but I think we covered enough. And I do apologize to our team. We went a little bit over there. But there was a lot to catch up on. There was a lot to get to.

Now, thank you very much to her. There's still a lot to get to on this program. And I'm seeing that Sean Strickland is mad at me? Is Sean Strickland mad at me, guys? Well, I'm seeing here that he is mad at me. So, where is this? This is on Twitter.

Let me read this. Sean Strickland is mad. Which I knew was going to happen, if only because he'll probably see a clip and not see that we praised him for the first 25 minutes about the fight. I talked about the talk, not the fighting component, which I would think that he is aware that people have opinions. First Amendment. Is it the first or second?

I don't know. I'm just a Canadian guy. What's the opinion one? First Amendment? The opinion one is the first one. Yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Okay. Oh, here it is. All right, so there's a clip of me. Ariel went off. So Sean Strickland replies to what I said earlier. And again, to recap, I said it was an incredible win, incredible game plan, incredible execution. I think we were very, very, very effusive in our praise, but I did say I didn't like the fact that the buildup went to such a dark place. And then in the immediate aftermath, it was just like, hey, I'm trying to sell the

fight. Again, for the fifth time, maybe more on this episode, it's one thing to say, hey, I think you suck. And then you fight the guy. Hey, you know what? Much respect. But you were talking about a whole bunch of other stuff that had nothing to do with fighting. That was my take. Anyway, I'm reading this for the first time. This is why I don't do media with him. You are a leech who I've never respected. The moment I met this man, I knew his quality. End of the day, the hatred between us, I suppose, was real. What he said about me was wrong.

What I said about him was wrong. This is what hate and anger does to people and still might be there, but we earned each other's respect through blood, and I would never expect a man of his quality to understand that. You are and will always be a pathetic M.MA leech, who has done nothing besides critical. criticizing men who are better than yourself. He personally thanked me once for standing up for Israel during the seventh attacks. I stand by that. Over the course of it, my views dramatically changed.

It went from hostage rescue to collective punishment aimed at women and children. I would say without a doubt that A-PAC joke may have rubbed him the wrong way from how much he said Israel support mattered to him. So again, you are a weak man who I will continue to avoid. Life is good. Have a great day, get off the internet and go enjoy some sunshine. And so, I guess I'm just reading this now. That is true. I did send them a message and other messages as well through him and his team saying, hey, would love to have you on, would love to talk, this down and the other. I've said time and again on this program and other places, I don't always have people on the show who I agree with, who I stand with as far as their ideas and their principles are concerned, but I'd love to learn more

and have you on and talk. And I don't believe that this show should be an echo chamber. But I did give props when due, and I've given him props on this show, including after the fluffy win and this and that. This idea that I'm an MMA leech is hilarious, in large part because I'm an MMA journalist. I'm a combat sports journalist. I know he may not understand the actual role of media, but the actual role of media is to cover and talk about things that they are covering. And so it's saying the good and the bad, not just to kiss their ass and hang out and shoot guns together. I know he doesn't understand that. I know none of these people understand that. But if I'm the MMA leech, I've been doing this long before he was ever in this sport, long before

anyone knew who Sean Strickland was. I was doing this exact show, talking to people like Ronda Rousey and people before her. So I'm certainly not leaching off of Sean Strickland. I'm certainly not trying to get anything. Sean Strickland coming on this show, anyone coming on this show or not coming on this show does nothing for me or my life. Doesn't change a thing. So I don't need him to come on. I don't need anyone to come on the show. I want people on the show. I want to talk to them, whether they like me or not, we'll have disagreements, we'll agree, all that stuff, you know, whatever. But to suggest that I'm leaching off of him or the sport is absurd. When I started this sport, Sean, I have to give him, you know, started covering this sport,

I have to give him another history lesson because he's only come on the show twice. The first time he said he loved it. The second time he came on and said, you know, I'm not the guy who goes to the bar and hangs out with his friends and watches MMA. And I reminded him that I've been covering this sport since he was in his father's nutsack since he was in the third grade. I reminded him of that. And I reminded him that when I started covering this sport in 2001 at Syracuse University, the sport was eight years old. There was nothing to leach off of. There was literally nothing to leach off of.

absolutely zero to leash off of. I didn't make a single cent covering the sport until 2009 when I was making literally hundreds of dollars a month from the first job that I got covering the sport which was MMA rated.com owned by the Wasserman Media Group.

So this idea, him trying to disparage me just because I was critical about his banter, not his fighting style, but his banter, just because I was critical of things that he said about the people that I supposedly hate, right? I supposedly hate Muslim people, but I'm saying that I thought that that was,

out of bounds, that makes me an MMA leech, a never was, a guy who can't talk about it because I've never walked that walk. It's absurd, just like a lot of the things that he says are absurd. I'd even know about the APEC line. I had no idea. When did he say that? Before the fight, after the fight, I very much don't listen to a lot of these things. I did hear him in the cage immediately after the fight talking about, I apologize about

this, down and the other because it was happening. You think I'm watching all that other stuff? No. They send me clips. They say we should talk about this. Where did he say about that? Couldn't give two shits. And I don't agree with every single thing.

Just like he probably doesn't agree with every single thing that the American government does. I don't agree with every single thing that the Israeli government does or any government does. But that doesn't mean I don't support and back my people. This is nonsense. This is the same type of shit that Balal tries to do as well. We're talking about one thing here. And now you're trying to make it about something else. Has nothing to do with that, man.

But I understand. You're trying to, you know, you're trying to align with. the people right now. You're the people's champion. I understand that. Never said that he wasn't a good fighter, never said that he was a bum, never said anything like that. I just don't think that you need to talk about X, Y, and Z, and then apologize for it in the immediate aftermath. That's it. If that bothers you, if that makes you feel some sort of way, then, all right, is what it is. You strike me as the kind of person who would be like, we're going to agree to disagree on this one. I saw him at Extreme Couture. It was a very nice conversation. I've been critical about him in the past as well. And I thought it was very cool

and very nice and very heartwarming. And I used that interaction that GZ talked about as the opening to be like, hey, maybe there's something that could be had here. I'll come back to the gym. We'll talk. We'll talk it out. We'll debate anything that you want. That's post, you know, him being critical of Israel and all that. Other people have been critical of Israel. Muhammad Mikhail has said some pretty gnarly thing. He's invited all the time on the show, among others. I don't care about that. I've said this a million times, but you choose to not believe and you guys choose to try to spin this into something else. I talk about the sport, I cover the sport, I ignore all this other crap. I don't want to talk about all this other crap,

but you have these other people calling me all this stuff. I personally think, and I know there's a lot of people out there who will not agree with me because they get lost in all of this. I personally think that says a hell of a lot more about them than me. But my response to Sean is, if you think that I'm trying to leach off of you by talking about you on this here show, I mean, I don't think that you've been paying attention because I've been talking about this sport long before you came around and we'll be talking about the sport long before, excuse me, long after you'll be in the UFC. That's just what we plan on doing here.

That makes you feel some sort of way is what it is. Doesn't take away how I feel about you as a fighter, the respect that I have for you as a fighter. And quite frankly, a lot of the things that you said in the aftermath, I think was very, very powerful and very helpful to a lot of people. I just don't understand why you have to say things like, you know, go. don't fuck or this, terrorist that, son of a whore, that. Like, I'm sorry if that stuff doesn't resonate with me.

How that makes me into, you know, this person that you're trying to portray is beyond me, but I'll still be here talking about the sport, telling you like it is. If I'm not doing that, I would like to think that people like you wouldn't respect me. You want me to sugarcoat it? There's plenty of other people who are going to do that. And you find them just, you know, just fine. I'm not going to do that. That's not this show.

That's not who I am. I don't think that makes me weak. In fact, I think that makes me pretty damn courageous to tell it like it is. But we'll agree to disagree on that one. Congratulations on the win. Let's talk about other news and notes. I'm going back to my list here, my trustyield list. Nasr Deneimov after the fight did call out Sean Strickland.

He should be next. He too isn't a fan of mine, but here I am saying he should be next. Next, just like I said, that Balal should have gone into title shot. I do a much better job than these people of separating my feelings when trying to keep it real. I'm not as famous or popular as them, but I'd like to think that I do a much better job, and I know I do a much better job. Here's Nasur Dene Mavov talking about Sean Strickland. I'm going to put your lights out.

He should be next. Are they going to give him that? I don't know. I thought Yuri Prohaskas tweet was really interesting. Whatever was decided, it was already before the match. You can show the world anything, but you have to live this role to the fullest. But congrats to Sean to show strength and handle this pressure. On the other side, pure hate in press conference and smile in the cage.

No, we are warriors. And it's our mission to handle fully the fire in our heart and stillness in our mind. Good morning from Czech. Let's go training, chapter one. Does Yeriprakashka agree with me? Seems like Sean Brady agreed with me too. Paolo Costa had some things to say in the aftermath. This wolf is a poodle.

Give me him ASAP. Now that fight could possibly happen at 205. Here's Drickas Duplessy, who of course has two wins over Sean Strickland reacting. He's coming off the loss to Hamzaa Chamaev. Here's what he had to say in the immediate aftermath of the win. Yeah, so a fight went exactly the way I thought it would. Great, great fight. I should get, like I said, it's so hard to keep that man on the ground.

He is incredibly tough to hold down. And he made him, he made a hundred tight. And that's exactly what happened. I knew. And like I said, in a stand-up, he just won't be able to hang with him. So congratulations. I guess this makes me world champion again. Kayao Bahalio was in, where was he?

South Africa looking for DDP. We covered that last week. Here's what he had to say. DDP wants to fight in the gym. and I'm not getting paid to do this. So here's the thing, you guys. There's only two options after today's fight. If Hamzat beats Strickland, he definitely comes up and the belt is open.

So me and I'mov do a rematch for the belt. If Strickland wins today, I love the guys. It's my bro, but I'll be the only one of the top five he never fought. So it'll be me and him for the title. Simple as that, tell me if this makes sense. We had Joe Pfeiffer on the live show. He did insinuate that there's some talk of him versus Kyle Bahalio. Don't mind that fight. He seemed to be upset that he wasn't fighting on the Philly card, or at least not in the main event of the Philly card. But I think a high profile co-main event fight would be very suitable. A number one contender fight or a number, you know, like two fights away from a number one contender fight, something like that in Philly in his backyard, so to speak, would be very suitable.

Dana White was on the Jim Rome show earlier this week and, excuse me, last week and he was asked about the Connor McGregor. rumors, if you will, and his level of confidence as to whether or not he will fight this summer, July 11th, International Fight Week. Here's what he had to say. Connor, man. What about Connor? Where are we now with Connor? Is Connor fought his last fight? Is Connor... Do you think about Connor? We're in a good place. We're in a great place with Connor. I'm extremely confident that Connor will fight this year. I'm extremely confident that we'll we'll get him dialed in and ready to roll. He's training this footage out there

of him in training right now. Danny, give me an idea. When and where? When and where and against whom? Well, we haven't announced anything yet. You always announce bleep on this show. Yeah, that is true. You always get it out of me.

But he'll fight this summer. Let me just start there. He'll fight this summer. Look, look, he's been great for you. You've been great for him. Why do you still believe in Conner? after all this time. He hasn't fought in years. Yeah.

Well, I thought it would happen last year. It didn't. I'm extremely confident it will happen this summer. Yeah. He seems motivated. He's training. And there are a lot of other great things going on behind the scenes that make me very confident that he will fight this summer.

I reiterate what I said at the very beginning, not signed at the goal line. He's confident. I believe him. I think that that is 100% the plan. And I've told you the fight. I've told you the weight. I've told you the stakes, all that and more. And so let's see.

Sometimes things happen. I don't think. I don't foresee. I'm not sensing something bad is going to happen. But, you know, it's a crazy game. But that's what they want. That is 100% what they want. That is what they're banking on.

Absolutely. And I feel very confident that it's still going to happen. So I will echo Dana's confidence. How about that? Dana was asked about how they're going to offset the Connor McGregor pay structure, no pay-per-view points anymore and all that stuff. He was asked about this at the Post-Fight press conference. Here's what he had to say.

Connor McGregor, you're talking about being confident that he's going to come back, right? And I know that with the new Paramount deal, the structure of things does change. He's talked about how his contract was super heavily based on pay-per-view. McGregor? Oh, McGregor. So, like, he's one of these guys who could do. a million paper views fighting nobody, and then he's done two plus four million against Floyd. How do you structure a deal with someone like that under this new paramount?

Because it's completely different to any other UFC fighter. There's a formula to it. McGregor's going to do just fine. What's the formula? Huh? What's the formula? Oh, based on, if you take the average of his pay-per-view buys and what they do, there's an equation for that, that you can, I mean, we've done it with a lot more guys than just McGregor.

Right. guess the concern would be that like Jones isn't isn't fighting and that's that seems to be financial. Rezzi is going and fighting somewhere else and then Connor we're still waiting on the deal on that one. It seems like the people who were like going to be making huge money on pay-per-view back when that was the thing. It seems like the deals aren't necessarily getting done so far.

I don't believe everything you hear. Another one was, most of the stuff is bullshit about all the numbers and things like that. Great stuff from Donna Corby there. Shout out to him. I think he was piggybacking off of Dana White. on the Craig Carton show talking about how they always have made the biggest fights.

And there's a lot of people, including myself, who would say, that hasn't really been the case as of late. I mean, I could think of five off the top of my head where it's like, hey, we wanted to see this fight and it didn't happen. Shall we do this? Francis versus John. John versus Tom.

Ilya versus, gosh, take your pick. Ilya versus Islam. Ilya versus Armin. Connor Nate three. I mean, there's five right. there and there's been a whole host of others. Here's that clip of Dana saying that they've always made the big fights, and he's very

proud of that. You'll look back, maybe not with regret, but you go, man, I should have gotten that fight done. The people would have loved that it would have been a great fight. Yeah, there's probably been a few. I can't remember off the top of my head, though, but pretty much what I've been very lucky about in my career is every fight that the fans wanted to see, we pretty much made. I mean, at the end of the day, that's what it's about.

My job is to make the fights the fans want to see, and we do that pretty much every weekend. And so in another media appearance, Dana White was talking about Armand Surukin, who should be fighting for the belt and should be next and all that other stuff. And he did say that Armant Surukin is the backup fighter for the Ilya Tuporia versus Justin Gaci fight. My understanding is what he meant by that was, at least as of now, Armine's not going to be weighing on like a scale on the 13th of June. as the backup fighter. What he meant to say was, and my understanding of the situation is, he's the guy they're calling

if shit hits the fan. But as of right now, Armatir Rican is scheduled to compete for RAF on the 13th of June against Tony Ferguson. So he's going to get the call if shit hits the fan. So he's not your traditional

backup fighter, if you will. Armin has told us he's not going to do that, and my understanding is nothing has changed in that regard. Could change, but as of now, nothing has changed in that regard. And so I just want to clarify that backup fighter role that he's talking about

isn't like your traditional, hey, Alex Fokinovsky is stepping on the scale in Edmonton before a title fight. He's still going to do his thing and they may call him. They want him to be ready, but not in that official capacity, if you will. Ilya Tuporia was asked about Armand being the quote-unquote backup.

He had a pretty hard line. Here's what the champion had to say. Obviously, Armand is going to be the official backup who was announced yesterday. Yeah, he's always a backup. Obviously, we know you're looking forward to getting a third belt, maybe being the first guy. We've talked a lot about that White House presser. We talked about it on Friday.

Josh Hokit, getting crazy and all that stuff. He's doing his thing. He's getting noticed. People care about him. He has to beat Derek Lewis. The star of the press conference, by the way, my opinion was Sean O'Malley, who I don't think was asked a single question at the press conference. I mean, it's phenomenal.

It's wild. He's such a big star. He wasn't asked a single question. But his content in the aftermath was unbelievable. He posted a video of himself in the middle of the hysteria, the fracas. I believe we have it here. Yeah? Then he's going to sell old man ass once.

Because his knees look like a broke toy. And on June 14, I'm going to beat this shit out of the butt, Bill's very Doleport. And my right use their feet. This picture here that Sean tweeted of him in the midst of all this with Alex and look at this. Unphased, man. This was unbelievable. Completely unfazed.

Someone and I forget who had a sort of side by side. I can't remember who of like the Last Supper comparing that scene to the last supper. Just amazing stuff. Powell Costa still hates Josh Hokit for taking his money. He tweeted. before the event, I hear you are in the arena tonight. Just remember one rule.

Bring my money. He really wants that money from the Miami card. And then they were face to face toe to toe. And here's what happened. Look, back and forth, they had to be separate. Honestly, I thought, I thought Paulo was joking initially about all of this. He wants his money. He wants his money.

Look at this. Paulo being separated. Speaking of Paulo, he posted a video. I think this was after the Chamsat loss. That's what I think. It also could have been after the run-in as well. One note on the MVP card this weekend, Mohamed Makayev is out.

Unfortunately, he had visa issues, as he said, online. And it's unfortunate because his fight against Adriano Morais is a great fight. And I think a lot of people were looking forward to it. visa was not refused. I could still enter the U.S. But the fight in the U.S. You need to have a P1 visa. I was waiting on MVP for the working visas part. Not my fault. I did my camp. My weight was good. I was ready to go. I wish Adriano Morales. Why do you keep calling him Morales and not Marais? He's a good guy. We have trained an American top team in the past. That's why I wanted.

Where I wanted him four weeks prior to the event or warned him. Sorry, he warned him about the visa situation. Anyway, he's off. In enters Fumi and Kutu. and Kuta, excuse me. Ally Quinta has been talking to me about him for quite some time. Trains with that team, the Serralongo team. He's 11 and O. He's a beast. Undefeated.

Just fought for Uri Favors. A1 combat has fought for LFA. And he gets a big opportunity against the former one championship champion. So that's going to be on the undercard on Saturday. And that will be airing online. Only the main card will be airing on Netflix, but a lot of great fights to be had on the undercard.

Okay, I tease that we've got some fun things to round out the show with. Should I bring back the boys? Are the boys here? Down no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. What do we got, boys? Oh, yeah, know yourself. I could use a donut after that Sean Strickland Ether. Oh, my God, I'm in my feelings.

I need to eat. Oh my God, look at those. Randy's donuts, the infamous. Or should I say famous? Holy. Yes. I mean, I feel like they're both famous. Do they gift these to us? Because I know they're doing a lot for the promotion. Randy himself? I've heard so much about these donuts. Wow. This is a Los Angeles staple. Did you go to the store?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Matt Randy. All right. Oh, my gosh. I got to eat one of these. I am starving right now. Oh yeah. Can I try one of these? Are we waiting? This is incredible. Shout out to Randy's donuts. I saw they had a side.

Yeah, look at that. That's real, by the way. You were just there? That's the real. So they're doing promotion. And I saw... The donut wrapped with the promo. I saw Ronda say that this was her favorite.

Yeah, so they're doing glazed twist. Versus chocolate twist. Glazed is Team Ronda. Chocolate is Team Gina. What do you guys say? We gotta try them both. And what's in the, what's in the box? What's in the box?

What's in the third box? Look at this. Brandy's donuts. Bring one over here. Bring one over here. Wait, what about this massive? Look at this. Look at this, this sprinkle little number.

What do we got? What do we got? Oh my God. It looks like a fucking baseball. What is that? Is that a Dodgers baseball? What is going on? Airclaw.

I think it's called a bearclaw. Wow, wow, wow. Congrats. Oh, wow, congrats. Look at that. Okay, I got to try the Twitter. I'm so hungry right now. Which one are you going after?

You got to try both and then decide what a 10-year-old. Double dip? What do you mean double dip? I don't know. I'm ripping this in. It's good for real. It's so moist. It's a great point.

It's a fucking glazed donut and taste a minute. No, this is unbelievable. Come get some of us. The mouth sound real. How you feel? How you feel? Yeah. Oh, boy.

9. 9. 9 points. I haven't had a donut in ages. 9.3. All right now, your team Rhonda. We got to try the chocolate. Put it right here. Put it right here.

Frank. How's the sound? It sounds like I don't want a donut ever again. Are you fucking crazy, man? And now we're trying the Gina's? Yeah. How can I go against Ronda? She just came on the show.

What about that interview? My name, by the studio. Kumbaya? Kumbaya, bro. As Sean Strickland's ethering me, I'm mending the fences. That's called chess, not checkers. Can we talk about aerial pulling? the move that he hates the most what paul straight on one grabs it and he was like no i want

this one goes no i didn't do that that was crazy work what we got we got this camera to review whenever we're ready okay i'm team i'm team rondo virginia me too hmm your chocolate's fire but i'm team i'm team ronda hmm hmm no what do we got ain't naps or what oh shit yeah good point i'll grab some vines behind you That's a great point. Randy Zones, it's legit. I know you guys were wondering if they were legit or not.

They're legit. They sound amazing. Now, are you going to take a bite of that tire-sized donut? I'm good. I was waiting for lunch. Now I feel like I just had lunch. I want to try it. Hmm.

I'm just going to keep chewing into the mic to make it happen. How does it sound, Frank? It sounds like ASMR. I love it. I think the plan is every day we're going to try another, another L.A. Staples. Yeah, we need recommendations. Gabe already gave us a couple.

Thank you, Gabe. Shout to Gabe. Yo, we're in L.A. guys right now doing this show. It's fucking crazy. It's kind of wild. I mean, we do come from the best city in the world, but to come to maybe the fourth or fifth is pretty amazing. That's very kind.

You don't think? Oh, I thought that was kind. Yeah. Eric last night was like, Oh, L.A. is dirty. I hate it. Not an L.A. guy. I don't like to come here to do work. Just to kibitz. chassis cherry. Give me a fucking break.

Give me one of those napkins there. Oh yeah? You want a napkin? Guys, this has been amazing. What a day? I saved one thing for you guys. Okay.

What? I wanted us to react to the White House fight kits because you're like sort of the Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Do we have that footage? I'm not the kick connoisseur? I feel like this is really GC's domain. Yeah, I'm about to give you the honest, the honest truth here. Are you actually?

Is Randy's paying us for all this? Hell no. Oh, okay. Just for the love of the game. They should. In LA staple. That's fucking illegal. I mean, I would agree.

Got in trouble recently about one of those things. Do we have that? Showed it to a big rant. What do you think of this? Please, please. G.C., take it away. Ass. That is the only way I can describe that.

These are ass. Be for real. Yo. Like, what is the white? The white is just like, dude, they're looking at like some basic kits with like some stripes on them. It's really bad.

This is terrible. The Derek Lewis White is fucking terrible. That's very tough. No, seriously. What is going on? In a bad way. How do you feel about the facts? Okay, Cyril Gahn makes it look a little better, but still bad.

There's just nothing special. Okay, but the fact that a non-American is wearing this, it's weird. Right? Okay, the one that Lopez had on, like, wasn't, with the stars on the belt isn't terrible. Okay, but can we, dude, dude, Justin Gachie does not look cool at all. I'm sorry. He must acknowledge. He does not look cool at all in those.

All due respect to Venom, right? Every time we get a, like, new fight kit, a variation on a fight kit, it's just a bullshit redesigning of swapping color palettes and moving shit around. This is particularly weird because it's American. It's very American. Yeah. And I understand, but I kind of feel like only the Americans should be wearing. Alex Perra.

Alex looks weird. I mean, he does live in America. Okay, fine. But like, no, no, it's weird. There's enough Americans on this card where the Americans could have been like Team America. But that doesn't change the fact that it's still ass. Like these socks.

Okay. All these guys. Yeah. Tuporia should not be wearing. American colors. No, I agree. I agree. I guess the only argument is that it is just like it's the American $250. It's a celebration. It's at the White House.

Honestly, do you not think that it's possible that these guys felt some sort of way about it? Proud Frenchmen. I mean, they post for the photos. Proud Spanish. What are they going to do? Say no. No, no, no. Of course they're not going to say no. But it just seems a little bit out of touch to be like, yeah, guys, you're fighting on this card.

You got to wear these kids on. You know what it looks like? It looks like they're wearing like a World Cup jersey. Yeah, 100%. And would someone who doesn't play for America wear that, even though the World Cup is happening in the United States, would, you know, Harry Kane show up wearing stars and stripes? The framing of it don't.

The framing of it is this is the uniform for the event. You're on the event and you wear the uniform. Shut the fuck up and watch the fight. If they were cooler, it would be cool. Yeah, they suck. Yeah, they just like, come on, I am a chill. Like, there's been times like, I love Teporia's shorts. I love Jans.

I love Pereira's, Izis with the lightning bolts. Like, there are a lot that I like. These are, these are... No, they're all asking. In my humble opinion, the way that they could have made this cool was their own fight kits

and some kind of like patch or what the NBA does, like a Freedom 250 like version. Yes. A variation of what they have existing. Or, you know what, would have been okay? And maybe I'm contradicting myself here.

Call me out if I am. If the gloves had it, I would hope that we're getting us. Special gloves. Yeah, the weapons are okay. What's the contradictory part? I like that. Because I'm saying on the one hand,

oh, they shouldn't be wearing the kit. But like that to me feels special. Yeah, but that's a smaller profile. I like that. These dudes wearing shorts in there that have stars and stripes that aren't from America. To me it seems weird.

There's enough Americans on this card where they would have stood out and then make cool like White House-esque. You could have thought for the non-Americans to do something else. Remember they did the noche and everyone wore those whether they were Mexican or not, the noche uniforms.

Was it that like, was it that sort of overt? It was throughout the whole card. Those were not great either. They were all wearing Mexican colors? It was like you had the red option, the green option. I guess it didn't feel as blatant. You know, stars, stripes.

That feels very American. Well, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, that's what they're, that's what they're trying. It just seems weird to see Ilya in those colors or Alex in those colors. I guess I'm just not as concerned. I'm more concerned about the fact that they're just not good. They're just not good. My, my like standard is so low that I'm more concerned about the fact that non-Americans were asked to wear American.

I do. I do actually. It was a hobby in those colors is just weird to me. I agree with that, especially when they're going to be fighting against Americans. Yes.

Alex Pereira in those colors. Does every fight have an American except for Alex Brewer versus Cyril Gond? I think so. Yeah. They could have just put half of them in it. That's what I'm saying. Or more because you got American versus American, right?

You could have had Alex Brerer as the one like, the one non because he lives here or something like that. But yeah, it's, it's not great. It's not great. Anyway, I wanted to show that. That was a great day, right? an amazing day. Reunited with Ronda.

Reunited. It was a quick one. Went by quick, man. Did it go by quick? Yeah. To me it felt like four hours later, here we are. Here we are. Amazing day.

Tomorrow on the program, we're still here. Obviously, as I said, we're here today, tomorrow, Wednesday. BITB here. I don't wait to see what you guys have cooking for that one. I'm sure it's going to be electric. You haven't thought about it yet? No problem. Tomorrow on the program, as I said, Nikisa Bedarian is going to join us in studio.

So we'll get his take from the business side of things of what's going to come on Saturday. The legendary Mike O'Hern is going to join us in the studio. This is the biggest pop from me. I cannot believe I'm going to meet Michael Hearn. Like larger than life. Larger than life. I don't even know if he's going to be able to fit in this studio. Baby don't hurt me.

He's a legend. We could take it outside. Legend. We'll do some workouts. Him and Paul Costa are buds. Yeah. Buddies. Yeah.

They've like worked out together. I've seen the videos. I didn't know it was like close like that. Well, I figured just from the videos. Late last night, Casey and I and Esther recorded a rare old school. And when I mean old school, I mean old school, like, old school like 2018, 2019. In fact, the first one that I've done with this particular gentleman since 2019 at MSG, a rare sit down with the one and only Nathan Diaz.

And let me tell you, it was vintage. It was vintage. It's not just Nate. some cameos as well from other people. You'll have to wait and see. We will air that interview, 40 minute interview live on the program tomorrow. Myself, Nate Diaz,

as the sun is setting in Manhattan Beach, it was a beautiful scene. It was amazing. And he's in a great place. So that is going to air on tomorrow's show. Nathan Diaz, Michael Hearn, Nikisa Badarian Studio, maybe one or two others,

and then more to come on Wednesday. I think we're doing it, guys. I think the train is left to station. in. We've already done it. We're doing it. I mean, live show on Friday, watch party post show on Saturday. Shout to P.C. Chuck and Ben, holding it down.

Coming out here. Nick Sweep on Sunday. I mean, Habs up to one. Frank, that was for you. No? No, no response. Brother. And we're doing stuff.

We're going in like a field trip now, right? Yeah, we're coming. We're going to go hang out. What do I mean? Am I coming? Oh, was I not invited? No. your participation is always Wow Hit or miss

That's so crazy Let us know Okay Well I'd like to come I'm I'm If it is what I'm envisioning an hour From now And it's like

No man I'm in A little tired That is so crazy Coming from you Of all people Like the king Frank can't do it You know

I was actually speaking for myself I wasn't mocking Oh right Is this the LeBron Saying to Shangoon Like anybody else That's exactly what it is You are not allowed

ingenuous. That is exactly what it is. You are not allowed. All right, it's time to go. What a day it has been. Thank you very much to everyone who tuned in. Massive thanks to everyone here. Do we have the...

We can show it. Yeah. Whop, whoop, whoop. These fine gentlemen, West Coast Creative Studio. They've been so kind, so welcoming. Shout to Zeus. Shout to Zeus and his whole team.

Shout to the whole crew here. It's an amazing set. up we feel at home we've been able to take our show from new york and bring it here and it's been a massive massive deal what a way to kick it off sean brady eric nick sick joshua van jake paul ronda rousey ronda rousey was on the show crazy and she seemed to be enjoying it that's some choice words yeah she did she did rivalry is uh intense it's intense if there's one thing i know about ronda is like she doesn't forget if you've slighted her no and yet there was a reconciliation you know what maybe Hunter Campbell would have. Maybe the lesson there is I didn't

actually really... Eh, it's fine. She gets on and immediately just like, we got to even how to do this shit. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, she could have rolled. We were probably not that far from her. I don't know where she lives in LA. Actually, I saw the countdown. Did you guys see the countdown on Netflix? Yeah, yeah. She has like a huge compound, like a farm.

She sure does. It's unbelievable. She's out there mopping up the poop on the ground and whatnot. Respect. I'm just so happy that I could be here leaching off this event on Saturday. Oh, stop. without the sex. I'm just so happy I could be leaching off this event.

It's so great to be leaching off this event. You reach and then I leach off of you. It's a... It's a bunch of leaching happening here in Los Angeles. It's an amazing thing. We love it. We look forward to tomorrow for now. Thank you to all our guests.

Thanks to all of you. Thanks to all of them. Back tomorrow, same time, let's say, peace. Bye.