The Ariel Helwani Show - LIVE FROM LAS VEGAS (Day 2): Tom Aspinall, Demetrious Johnson, Ian Machado Garry, Rico Verhoeven

Episode Date: June 28, 2025

Our second show LIVE from the Venetian Resort in Las Vegas kicks off with Demetrious Johnson and his wife, Destiny, who chat about what goes into being the MMA GOAT, weight-cutting stories, receiving retirement advice from GSP, and more (02:32).Ian Machado Garry joins Ariel at the table to share details about Charles Oliveira’s weight cut, fighting Belal Muhammad or Sean Brady next, Kamaru Usman’s win over Joaquin Buckley, and more (34:41).Ariel breaks up the action by answering your Super Chats (52:41).Rico Verhoeven, GLORY heavyweight champion, is up next after his most recent title defense. He talks about headlining GLORY 100, training with Tom Aspinall, completing the "iron gut challenge," hopes of fighting Francis Ngannou, and more (1:04:16).Newly crowned undisputed heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall wraps up the day with his behind-the-scenes account of Jon Jones’ retirement (1:32:55). His father, Andy, also stops by to voice his opinion on the UFC's handling of the announcement (2:12:55). The duo detail who Tom wants to fight next and more.The Boys in the Back join Ariel to complete their International Fight Week draft (3:08:33) and answer more Super Chats (3:12:19).

Live from beautiful Las Vegas, Nevada, the fabulous Ariel Helwani show has hit the road and the team is in Sin City for International Fight Week. Now put your hands together for your host, Ariel Helwani! on this Friday June 27, 2000 and 25 hello again everyone welcome back inside our brand new Las Vegas studio yes thank you so much for our good friends right here at the Venetian Resort in Las Vegas I mean what a setup what an absolute setup we have here did you get a look at the poker table? And yesterday, look at this, look at this, custom. My name on it, uncrowned, Las Vegas 2025.

Yesterday we had a star studded affair. The likes of Alex Wolkonowski, Israel Desanya, Dan Hooker, Ashbel Castro, Danny Rubenstein, John Wood, Raul, Rosas, Junior, you see that? All signed it today. All our guests will be signing it as well. Hopefully this side of the table. And then we're going to auction it off. And all the money is going to go to the Ben Askren family. The family of one Ben Askren. They are in our thoughts and our prayers and this is the least that we can do. We are so happy to be here. We are just a little over 24 hours away from UFC 317 International Fight Week right here in

Las Vegas. We're gonna be here for several more days. We've got the watch party tomorrow here from Las Vegas, post show here from Las Vegas. We've got the Monday show here in Las Vegas. A lot going on, a lot going on and today it's a star studded affair. How do we top yesterday? Well this is how we topped yesterday. In a matter of seconds we're going to be joined by one of the greatest champions in the history of this sport, the one and only Demetrius Mighty Mouse Johnson. Then we're going to be joined by the one and only Ian Machado-Garry, a rising star at 170 pounds, this close to fighting for a belt.

Then we're going to be joined by one of the most dominant and successful and decorated champions in all of combat sports and in particular heavyweight champions, the pride of the Netherlands, the king of kickboxing himself, the one and only Rico Verhoeven coming off his big Glory 100 win over Artem Vakitov and then we round it out with the man himself the undisputed heavyweight champion the one and only Tom Aspital but let's say hello to our guests here hello friends how are you please don't be shy oh let's hug how are you Destiny it's warm here how are you we like it warm here please have a seat have a seat it's not the mighty cast but it We like it warm in here. Please have a seat, have a seat. It's not the Mighty Cast, but it will do.

Please, right over here, DJ. And what a great honor this is. We've got Mr. and Mrs. Mouse here. I did, I did. Well, you asked me to. I said bring her, because today was like your day off, right? Yes, yes. Today's the day off.

We're gonna go hang out, jump in a pool, and you know, then you text me, and I was like, hey, come by. Well, she had to say yes first. Yes, because it's the day. Well, he knows the non-negotiables and then he knows like, you always get a yes. I appreciate that. We go back.

I appreciate that. Thank you guys. It's good to see you and I see you guys working very hard. What's that Frank? What are you telling me? Okay. Starbucks off the table? No, no, no.

He was saying talking to the microphone. Oh, okay. Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. How come you don't put your wife on your show? You know what? You give wants over all the love. I know. I haven't yet.

I'm sure we'll have her on our show one of these days. You know, I think she, I mean, she's been part of- Have you been asked? I have not. Let's stir the pot here. Damn. Damn. Why are you going to do that to me right there, huh?

Yeah. Why haven't you asked? We're all about transparency and honesty. I don't know lie, I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna lie.

I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna lie.

I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna lie.

I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie, I'm this right now. I would love to. Wow. Okay. Have you heard? This is good. We're getting right to it. She's told me she just wanted to be on before. How are you feeling about the microphone situation? Frank, is Destiny's mic on?

This is good. Can you hear me? Because I hear DJ Perfect in my ear, her not so much. Okay, cool, cool, cool. Okay, you know, we're gonna do- DJ's having a problem with the microphone right now. You know what we're gonna do? We're gonna, well, I wanna make sure

I don't turn my back to my wife. Sure, no, I appreciate that. What I'm gonna do is, you know, we're gonna do? Well, I wanna make sure I don't turn my back to my wife. Sure, no, I appreciate that. What I'm gonna do is, you know, we're gonna do a Mighty Cast with the wife when I get home. Yeah. We're gonna plan it, and then we're just gonna vibe out.

Talk to her about, you know, what is her viewpoint of me as an athlete, husband, father, going through the whole entire career. You know. Podcasting now. Podcasting now. I mean, I think she likes that more because I'm home more to be able to help out.

But, you know, I did an interview with, who was I talking to? Alex Volkarnosky. He asked me a question. And I told him, like, my whole career, every single time she was pregnant, I was always leaving. Like, she gave birth to Tyron, left to go fight. Gave birth to Maverick, left to go fight. Gave birth to Tanneth, I came home from her fight, and then I had a blood clout. So to get her perspective of my career through her viewpoint, I think fans would enjoy that. I gotta make sure the setup's right,

I gotta make it all sexy, but hopefully somebody else, it's always different, I feel that if I ask her, it could be a different answer, that if she came on your show by herself in a different atmosphere, you might get a different answer. I feel like, so I don't know, but you know. Did he ever miss a birth? I don't know, I'm pretty transparent.

No, he didn't miss a birth, no. No, but he did leave the hospital, same day of delivery to go train. To go train, I thought you were about to say to go fight. No, but he had to leave, like, cause we planned, we had wanted natural. I mean, we could talk about this forever, but we basically chose caesarians so that he could go,

cause he would, I mean, you know, fights are like whenever, whenever you can take them, they choose the dates. And then it's like, well shoot, okay, he's leaving four days after I deliver so that he can do time difference or, you know, so we just made it work. I mean, and, and now you guys are a duo because I saw you working hard to set up. It's like a real mom and pop shop. It's hard freaking work.

Yes. It's just the three of you, you, Destiny, Michael here. Yes. So Destiny handles all the logistics when it comes to anything. So when we did the Mighty Journey with Destiny, she got the hotel, she got the flights, all the snacks, water.

She wanted to make sure he was absolutely comfortable. When I did the Mighty Cast in England, she picked up AirBB. So she handles all the logistics. Even when we came here. What a blessing. Yeah, it picked up AirBB. So she handles all the logistics. Even when we came here. Yeah, it's an absolute blessing. And she was already amazing at that when I was fighting in my career,

because when I would travel, she would be like, "'Why did they put you in that shitty ass hotel? "'Like, why did they do that? "'Like, fucking idiots. "'Like, they could have put you right here. "'You would have the movies. "'Here's a restaurant. "'You get to eat healthy, you know that stuff.'"

So at the tail end of my career, like there was Sid and me like, oh, we're gonna have you stay here. And I'm like, my wife like, no, no, no, no, he's gonna stay here. Like this is where everything's gonna be. Cause I know what he likes. And how can you, I mean, work is work. And sometimes the grind is still work.

You know, it's not always fun, you know? So I know what he likes and I'm like, well, if you're miserable hour and a half away from the arena, why wouldn't I make it to where you can have all your things? You're basically immersing life into work life when you're away from home. Why wouldn't we just make it to where you have everything that you like, you're happy, it's an easy transition.

And then there was a point in time where Matt goes, who picked this hotel? I was like, Desney goes, very good. She's very good. And you know, it's hard to get his approval. I've been working for almost 20 years. So I think, yeah, and then we got Michael here, but typically when we do the in-persons,

it's either, mostly to me and Michael, I've shot a mighty cast by myself with Chase Hooper. And then when we did RG3 and we did Nicky Rod, that was me and Nick. And so she, this is her first time, actually when we did, once again, when we did the Texas with Nikki Rod and RG3, she booked that, she found it.

And yeah, so she's part of the team. I wanna ask you, because you've been with him forever since before he was Mighty Mouse, right? You met when you were teenagers. I was 19. You were 19, how old were you, DJ? 20, 19? You just had turned 20. We met when you were 19.

Did you have any fights at that point, amateur? Zero. You hadn't had your first amateur yet. I didn't go to your first amateur fight, but you hadn't had your amateur fight yet. Yeah. To see, so like one of the big, we've talked about this a little bit,

but I'd love to hear your perspective because you know, I feel like he was one of the most underappreciated, disrespected champions and like one of those classic stories of like, oh, people start to love you when you're gone. Totally. But now he's beloved because of the podcast, the YouTube, all that.

So to see, it's a beautiful thing because sometimes it happens when someone, unfortunately passes, they get their flowers. I feel like you're getting your flowers now. And what's amazing about it is it's like, you're the same dude, maybe you're opening up a little bit more, but it's like, man, why couldn't this have been tapped into when

you're headlining Fox or pay-per-views? What is it like for you to now finally see your husband get the love, the respect, the admiration that he probably deserved many, many moons ago? I love it. And I have to say, you were the first person that I remember years ago, you said, I feel like you're going to be one that's appreciated after your career. Like once you've retired. You did say that a long time ago.

I don't know, I don't remember where we were, but I do remember you saying that. And I think he is the same person, but he's not at the same time. And I think that like, I think, I don't know why you're laughing. You worried about what I'm gonna say? No, no.

Okay, I'm curious. No, I think that wisdom, like I really think that it's beautiful to see him get his flowers, but he still doesn't take it. He doesn't absorb it. And I think what's for him, the drive is to not accept it all the way. Like even he got credit from Volk yesterday

and it was like, he's still, you know, even DC, you know. Yeah. It's one of those things I think keeps him hungry. Doesn't want to ever go back to what he came from. You know, I don't know, but it's beautiful. I love it. But as you're watching him in his prime, one of the greatest champions of all time

and sort of not getting the love, not getting the push. Yeah, it was hard. You want to be like, yo, this is my guy. Oh my gosh. He's the freaking man. Show some respect. Absolutely. And now it's happening.

Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, no, it's great. It's great, but our life doesn't change. That's the thing. It's like when we go home, we are such normal people that like some would say, why are you not like, you're the man. It's like, yeah, but we're so normal. We's we're just different. Like, I think we have always been different. We've always been

just a different couple. Like, we're just weird, I guess. I don't know. I don't know if that's weird. I think people respect that and appreciate that. I would hope so. But we also don't know. I mean, I don't hear a lot of comments about it other than like, you know. I think the biggest one is when we live, people are like, why do you live here? Why are you, what are you doing here? Like the one I never forget is when I was working at the YMCA, they're like, why the fuck are you at the YMCA?

And I was like, I have great machines, I have a pool here, I swim. And it's local. And they're like, you can live anywhere in the world, but you choose to live here. And I was like, yeah, is that a problem? They're like, I'm just dumbfounded to see that. I got to ask the Target, not to cut you off.

I got to ask the Target, what are you doing shopping at Target? Like, where am I supposed to shop? Sorry. Like, we're normal, like, hello, we're normal people. What makes it, just because he has a really cool job, like our kids are so proud. I want everyone to have him to look up to.

He's a great human being. You know, he really is. In his core, from the day I met him, he's a great human being. He's a really good athlete. He's a great father, a great husband. I mean, there's a lot of things. People need to be like him.

But yet. You're getting the flowers. I'm going to say the fucking best athlete. Yeah. Come on, DJ. There it is. Are you going to the fight tomorrow? No. Why not? I don't want to. the fucking best athlete. Yeah. Come on, DJ. There it is. Are you going to the fight tomorrow? No.

Why not? I don't want to. It's so crazy. What am I going to see once? Once in the front row. Oh, look who it is. You do the thing. Why can't we see that once?

I think we will when the time comes, but you know, I enjoy. Hall of Fame yesterday. How are you not in the Hall of Fame? It will happen. It will happen when it's meant to happen. It's crazy. I like, like you said, I like just to live a normal life, separate myself from that.

Obviously I'm going to watch the fights. I'm going to make content around it. For me, being in the atmosphere and watching it, you have a lot of people talking, doing all that. For me, I'm not ready to immerse myself in that space right now. Like I'm sitting at my house, watching the fights, analyzing, and then creating content around it. So it's not so much that you're not being able, you don't even want to go. Yeah, I don't care to go. Wow, that is crazy.

I've been to fights so many times. I've been to the UFC fights. I've been to the championship fights. It's just, there's something to be said where it's like, I got to take a piss. I get up, I go pee, sit back down, I jump over the couch. I'm sitting here relaxing and when you're in there, it's a lot of noise. I mean, I don't drink alcohol anymore, but after you go to an event like that, there's almost like a huge crash of just so much, what's the word I'm going to go for?

Adrenaline? Not adrenaline, but the stimulation is just so much where I just don't want to be around it right now, I guess. Is your husband the greatest fighter of all time? I believe he is. I believe he is in and outside. Like I think there's- This is a very good point that you bring up.

I appreciate you bringing this up. I appreciate, this is good, you need to have it. Go ahead, baby, go ahead, baby. You can say I'm biased, but I also know you brought up a good point in and out And to me that's how I view it. Life is different when you raise children and you're to me. Of course he is Yes, so so I said earlier this week Enough of this John Jones is the goat stuff Yeah, enough of it because if you have PD infractions, you're out of the conversation

Yeah, if you don't do what needs to be done, which is time monitor tradition, you got to defend the belt against the top guy. You can't be the guy, I'm sorry. And that pissed a lot of people off. See, they agree or disagree. Yeah, so I agree with you. And here's the thing, like my whole entire career,

I've always defended John. I've always defended John Jones. And I'm going to say this, like, I truly believe he's one of the best to ever do it. I truly believe that. I've worked out in the same room with him. I've seen his eyes, I see how he moves. But then when I sit there and I just did,

I've always wanted to do this in on my channel, is basically dissect a person's career. Go to the very first time they got into the UFC and just go through the whole entire thing. And let me go through it. It's like, Michael Wanzer of A Love of the Death, he is so honest and unbiased. And let me go through it. It's like, Michael Wan's our beloved to death. He is so honest and unbiased. And he was like, dude, like, how are you gonna say

John Jones is the one that greatest of all time when he's fucking failed a drug test? Multiple times. Multiple times. Like, listen to yourself right now. Like you're lying to yourself. Stop lying to yourself. Like you look, he's like, you actually look stupid.

Like you and GSP and Habib have never failed a drug test. Not fucking once. And you're sticking up for Habib have never failed a drug test, not fucking once. And you're sticking up for somebody who's clearly failed a drug test, right? Now, G-Go, I know Shaq, Shaquille O'Neal said, oh, he's one of the greatest. Shaq, let me sit you down and me, run you through the whole entire career

of all that stuff, right? And when you sit there and you peel back the onion and you start looking at that, it's like, you know, yeah, I just, I always- You didn't believe in that, that it's like you know yeah I just I wouldn't believe in that that's not what you were about yeah so how can someone who did that multiple times yeah it's almost like if you're putting him in the same category then you're okay with it you're approving condoning what he did yeah and I guess you know we can have you know two mountains you have a

mountain just clean motherfuckers out there you know me GSP and a B you have one of their fractions of guys like ah ah, fuck, I failed the drug test, you know? And it's just, it is what it is, right? I mean, like, I think, and I ask my community, I always like to go with the community says, right? I never forget when I was in e-sports and I was working on the game and I was like, this game is e-sports worthy.

And they go, no, it's not. Like you don't get to dictate that. The community dictates if it's esports ready. And so I did a poll and I was like, guys, just be honest with me. Like you can ask all the fighters in the world and even all the celebrities, who everyone asks. Like if somebody has a failed drug test,

do they qualify to be on Goat Mountain? Can they be in that conversation? Now people might say, hey, you're hating on him. I was like, no, I'm speaking facts right now. These are legit facts. I've never felt a drug test. Habib has never felt a drug test. GSP has never felt a drug test.

Why haven't we felt a drug test, right? You look at the long reign we've done. We've never been stripped. We've never, I mean, and then you look at somebody who has been stripped. You know, I never forget, I saw the video. Somebody says, oh, John Jones, one of the greatest of all time, and you know, Pico grams and all that stuff. And I remember Dana video, somebody says, oh, John Jones won the greatest of all time

and you know, Pico grams and all that stuff. And I remember Dana White sitting there and he goes, hey DC, he failed. And I remember DC going, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, UFC 200. Right, and it's like people just, Americans and people who watch the sport have a very short term memory. They truly fucking do.

But if you go back and you peel back the onion, you look at the whole entire career, I'm not saying John Jones is going to do great things. He was an amazing athlete, right? But when you start talking about the greatest of all time, you know, you look at Muhammad Ali, I did a fun, I don't think he's ever failed a drug test. You look at Floyd Mayweather, he's never failed a drug test. You know, you look at what's the gentleman's name, he just beat Tyson Fury. Usyk. Usyk, he's never failed a drug test.

When you start looking at the greatest athlete, Hussein Bolt, he's never failed a drug test. You know, you look at across the board, name one athlete that's considered the greatest of all time in a sport that's failed a drug test. Yeah. Never. You get disqualified.

You get disqualified. And then when you remove that, you always fought the drug test. Never. You get disqualified. You get disqualified. And then when you remove that, you always fought the top guy. Even if it meant fighting him multiple times when it didn't make sense. There's Joe, okay, this who you want me to fight? This whole thing about he doesn't excite me, this and that.

Now, if he was just non-champion, John, hey, you want to have some fun fights, great. But when you hold that belt, there's a, there's a responsibility. Yeah. And I think, and you know, people will always say they're giving me an asterisk on my, on my, uh, who says that? Well, I'm just saying, I'm saying if people want to play that devil's advocate, who did you not fight? Well, I would say TJ Doshan.

What? Right. Well, I'm just being, I'm just playing devil's advocate, right? I've always been open about this and even, he wasn't a top guy. He wasn't a top guy, right. And obviously there was a whole, you know, we go but I did not fight him because the demands weren't being met And then you know John asked for 30 I asked for a mill one million, right? You look at the fucking different I'm all like let me get a million jobs like pay me 30 million. I'll fight that motherfucker. He goes here's 30 minutes

You know what? I'm not excited anymore, right? So that's one thing you could say about my career if you want to say it, but obviously if TJ was in the 125 pound division, worked his way up and fight, it's almost like we, I had a- It's not the same. It's not the same, but I had Volker and Ossvian,

and me and Volker were talking about Movzar. Guys, 19 and 0, 19 fight win streak, can't even get, he's like ranked number four, what was he, ranked four or five? And I was like, who dictates these fucking rankings? Like, so, but yeah, I mean, if you fight Winstreet, he's like ranked number four, what was he, ranked four or five? And I was like, who dictates his fucking rankings? So, but yeah, I mean, John Jones, with him fighting Tom Asimov, my personal opinion, I wanted to see it.

I say it all the time, I don't think Stipe versus John Jones should never happen. I love Stipe, I think he's a great athlete, but the fact that people get title shots off losses for somebody who's never fought for what, four years. And what he was doing in those four years, being a firefighter, way more important to come back fighting John Jones

and trying to become a world champion. But you had a healthy interim champion, Tom Aspinall, and you had a healthy champion, John Jones. Why did that fight not happen? Now, if they go up like, oh well, you know, we wanted to make more money, da da da da, sell this. Okay, they say that. It's not a sport, right?

The more I follow the sport and I cover UFC, I'm like, this is not a fucking sport. It's truly not. It's a reality TV show. Everybody just fighting, you know. Yeah, I mean, we can go on all day about this whole thing, but I think it should have been Tom Massimone versus John Jones.

And the fact that Tom, John retired, 38, he don't leave the house unless he's making $100,000. And it doesn't excite him, that's perfectly fine. I just wish he would have retired after he fought Steve A, because it's always gonna have it. And now that he's gone, everyone's looking at his career, we're all coming out saying, you can't be the go.

And I think a lot of athletes, like let's ask GSP. Like GSP, let me ask you a question. Do you think John Jones is the greatest of all time, even though he's failed the drug test? You mean, he might, I don't know. Let's ask the B. Like, hey, Doug, you're a clean athlete. All your athletes are clean.

Let's talk, you know, let's stand on a fucking base. Like, do you think, you know, ask John Jones. Like, John, you know you failed the drug test, right? Even though it's a pica gram, do you consider yourself the greatest of all time? Even though you failed the drug test, right? Even though it's a bigogram, you can say to yourself the greatest of all time. Even though you failed the drug test, like, tell me your honest opinion. Like, be a man, like, that's how I view it.

Like, I try not to be biased, and even though I try, I have defended him for so long, and then people are like, you're fucking stupid. You know, it is what it is. I appreciate the perspective. Can I ask your perspective? Today we had the weigh-ins, and, you know,

I think we get like 10% of what really happens behind the scenes. How scary it can get, how uncomfortable it could get, how close everyone is to like freaking death. Falling over. Would you partake? Would you be there as he's cutting weight? Would you, or do you not want to see it?

What was your role in his weight cutting process on the Thursday night, Friday morning? That's a great question actually, because I wasn't really involved with his career in that part as far as fight week. I was, my position, not by his choice, but by coach. Coach was, I mean, I was nowhere to be. I was not allowed.

Oh really? Not allowed? Yeah. What does that mean? I was not allowed. Oh really? Not allowed? Yeah. What does that mean? I was not allowed. You couldn't see him? No, no, it was like a- What?

We separate. Who's this? Matt Hume said this. It was very much- And you adhered to this? I did not. You're the boss. Oh, you did not.

So what did you do? I did not. I mean, I wanted to be a part of it, but I was put in my place to not be a part of it. Wow. Just to keep him focused. We just had a chat about this actually, of like, if I could go back in time, I wish I would have had the foundation I have now to be like, I'm going to be there.

Sure. You know, I wish. I absolutely wanted to be there. Nobody else supported him the way I supported him. You know, I wish, I wish we could go back and we did. We talked about this just recently and this like, I wish we could have gone back and I was part of it. Like I wish, I mean, obviously I was there every fight week,

but I was very much like, nope, separate rooms, separate. Like you're not allowed here. So when's the last time you saw him? Like, would you see him? Like he went to the airport and then you'd only see him after the fight? Yeah, I would drop him off. And then most of the time, early on, I wouldn't see him. Even, I don't even think I-

After weigh-ins. It would be after weigh-ins. I wouldn't even think I think after wayans, it would be after wayans. I wouldn't even be greeted. But at least before the fight you would see him. Oh yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and you guys correct me if I'm wrong, you never did the thing where like you get

off the bus and you're walking together into the, you never did that thing. One championship, not even. Right. Yeah. And I, and I think the reason. I'm curious how you felt about this. Yeah. I mean, I obviously, like, like she said, we talked about, like,

we could have connected more in our marriage and relationship as, you know, best friends, you know, husband and wife through that career, because it is, um, it is roller coaster. It's, it's a roller coaster of a ride of, you know, emotions up and down. And, but for me, and this is why I think it made me one of the best ever do it is that I separated it. Like It was my job. You asked what was my weight cutting procedure. At the beginning of my career, I would always ask Matt, what are we doing? What are we doing? Why is this working? Why are we doing this? Then it came point in time where I'll just cut weight by myself. I'll wake up, text him,

hey, I'm like five over. I'll jump in the tub and he goes, oh, let me come. I said, dog, sleep in. I fucking got this. I'm 37 years old. I've done this time and time again. I'll text him, hey, I'm on weight. I'm chilling in the room, ready to go. And then, like my whole goal when I was an athlete and even to this day is like, I want to be the easiest. When Matt's on his death bed, beep, beep. They're like, Matt, before you hear the last word,

tell me about, you know, Demetri Johnson as an athlete. I want to say he was part of the easiest athlete I've ever worked with. Like when it came to cut weight, when it came to nutrition, when it came to doing X, Y, last word, tell me about, you know, Demis Johnson as an athlete. I want to say he was probably the easiest athlete I've ever worked with. Like when it came to cut a weight, when it came to nutrition, when it came to doing X, Y, and Z, he was the easiest. And so I took it upon myself, like, you know, I think when I first started cutting weight by myself,

was probably, not by myself, I mean, obviously- Yeah, when you say by yourself, what do you mean? There's other people with you, right? No, I just jump in a tub of myself and just cook and then get out. But is that safe? I mean- Because what if you get lightheaded, you fall? No, you know, it is.

So don't get me wrong. It isn't safe, but I feel I'm a professional. I know what I'm doing. What if you get lightheaded? I mean, you fucking fall down. Hanna Burrell, remember he hit his head on the thing and then Hanna Burrell. Hanna Burrell. Remember, T.J.

Dillashaw. Let me ask you a question. How did he water load for two weeks? Did he diet correctly? Did he do everything correctly? Yeah. Probably not. I did everything correctly.

I prepared like, it's like, hey, when I made, I mean, I think the most weight I cut in a day was eight and a half pounds. And I was trying to find just a few videos at USC 132 in Toronto. And I looked like black ass Skeletor. It was horrible. It was horrible.

So Matt was watching me there, right? At the beginning of my career, yes, I had supervision, but it came a point in time in my career where it was like, guys, I don't need you to watch me. I know what I'm doing. Like, I would show up and Matt will come in. He goes, you want to wait? I'm like, yeah.

And I take a picture of him showing me like, all right, good. All right, I'll come get you. He wasn't even in the room? Wow. So I told him, I was like, there's no point. I was like, there are sometimes like, you know, at some point tell him like, hey, you want company? I was like, sure, come if you want, just chill

and I'll cut weight. Okay, so let me ask you this. If he wasn't there, why couldn't you be there? Just. I think like, to be fair, and I, I don't regret anything of the way that it was done. Like I don't look back and have like animosity towards it at all.

I think there's a reason he held the title as long as he did. Why fix it if it ain't broke? I mean, it's, there's just the time of like, I would have loved to see behind the scenes. I'm as a fight fan anyways, it's like, it's cool to see it. And actually she would see me. So after I would cut weight, we would make weight. This is back in my day.

You would wait till four o'clock p.m. weigh in. And then after that, I will go eat and we'll be together and after we'd eat we'll go do another workout that night and then she'll be able to see me workout because when I train she would never be part of my training and she was like this is the only time I actually get to see you like your job. The night before the fight.

The night before the fight and then ba ba ba ba ba ba ba I'll start moving and she goes all right he's fucking ready and then my favorite thing she says she goes this is probably the most manly shit you ever do. Seriously? At the time? At the time. Cause it brings out a different, you know? And then when I would fight then after that then we'll be together and then but like I said when I came to fight it wasn't a family affair. No. It was fucking big. I came here to make money. I didn't come here

to like you know and I told her that and she was amazing. Amazing supportive. Like if I needed something, like, hey, I need more water. I'm on it. Like the logistics, I got you. What do you need? I need a scale. This scale is fucking off.

Give me a new scale. She'll go somewhere and get a scale. Like, so she served her role. I served my role, which was a provider. I show up and I'm going to compete. After that, we go home and do our thing. Favorite DJ fight. What's your favorite?

Oh my gosh. I would say probably the second Adriano fight. I was gonna say a behind. You're saying that on her behalf? You think that's what- I think so, yeah. What we talked kind of about of like- Okay, okay.

Yeah. Because of what happened in the first one? That and it, go ahead, speed baby. This is your question, not me. No, you're good. No, go ahead, babe. No, go ahead, okay. Yeah. Because of what happened in the first one? That and it, go ahead, speed baby. This is your question, not me. No, you're good. No, go ahead, babe. No, go ahead, babe. Everything that encompasses, I think,

that fight was the time, it was the location, it was, I think everything was kind of, I knew, even on his last fight, I knew before, like right when he signed that dotted line, I was like, this is his last because I want you can just watch the spark I've like yeah, have a spark. Is it still there? You know, and but the second one was it's just badass I loved it. It was incredible. I loved it By the way, did you do the thing where you had the coffee and you told it remember you said that Eddie Alvarez told you

When you were gonna retire it was it was you know, it was kind of interesting how when you were gonna retire? God, it was kind of interesting how she knew that I was gonna retire before I knew I was gonna retire. Because she's the only person who could read me and understand where I come from, because I don't really speak much, I should say, at that time in my career. And she was like, this is it, this is the last one.

I can tell. You can tell. And I was like, nah, it's not, I'm gonna keep on going. And then I'll never forget, like she knew. But once we got done, I never forget, I was walking in the back of the room with my kids and I was going to the press conference. And then I was like, you know what? I was like, I think I might be done.

But I don't wanna be one of those guys who, I'm gonna retire, then I'm gonna come back because I miss it. And that's why I said, I'm I might be done, but I don't want to be one of those guys who, I'm going to retire, then I'm going to come back because I miss it. And that's why I said, I'm going to get myself a year off, just stay active, still work and train, and then start working on the YouTube side and start building my brand outside of fighting. And then, but she knew, but then I don't, you know.

You were a couple, you were like a month in to that third Fight with Adriano training camp. Yeah. And you like got the nerve or the courage to like bring it up, you were like a month in to that third fight with Adriano training camp. Yep. And you got the nerve or the courage to bring it up and you're like, I think I might be done. Wow. I already knew. I told one person, I did, I already knew. I told my best friend at the time, I had told her, I go, I think this might be it.

Wow. But I didn't tell him. And then a few weeks after he started training for the camp, he's like, I don't know what it is, but I think it might be done. And I'm like, I had a feeling. But then after that, you didn't retire right away, right? Like we practiced retirement life for a year and a half, just to see.

Power washing and things like that. He's been doing that. I was wondering when I see you in the picture, I just brush wash all the concrete on the right side. And I just feel like sometimes as an athlete, and it could be my perception, but for me, I love to just be, I guess, normalize things, right? Like, you know, when we're doing like the mighty cast,

like I feel it's important for me to set everything up. I just want to know what's going on or, you know, I take pride in that. And also like, you know, just, I've always loved the normal life. I was always hands-on in my children's life. I never, you know, you guys pride in that. And also like, you know, just, I've always loved the normal life. I was always hands on in my children's life. I never, you know, you guys are trying to send me a card to pick me up, which I appreciate.

But I was like, no, I'll get an Uber, I'll get there. Don't worry about it, I'll be on time. So, but yeah, man, it was a great ride. I loved every bit of it. And I think, you know, I think what made me so emotional about retiring was that I fucking love fighting. I love it. I love it.

And to finally say like, I can still fight if I wanted to. I know I can, but there's just, like you said, there's just not that spark. What am I fighting for? My fight for a paycheck? That's not what got me into fighting to begin with. And so I just, yeah, it was, that's why I was so emotional.

I was like, I'm, I'm the wolf's retiring, the dragon's leaving, leaving the battlefield. Well, and you had, we came home from that, not to cut you off, but we had that, we came home after that third fight and you had a long conversation with someone very important that I won't name but very important. Who the fuck was that? I'm gonna go on and then you'll know. And he gave you, you said this is what you're thinking. And then he gave you his input and he says, you know, you can always make money.

You can always make money. And someone in the sport, retired, lived a beautiful career. And it was just like, you always had admired him. And you said, I want to call him when I get home. And you called him. I'm wondering who this is now. Yeah, GSP. I was going to say that, but I wasn't sure.

And it was a long, beautiful conversation of just like all these questions going back and forth of just life and you know. Yeah, because I think I guess. What a guy you know. Yeah because I think I guess I... What a guy to ask. Yeah I know because I truly felt... Who else? Yeah. I mean what a...

Yeah. I truly felt he could have still... I mean look he looks better than half the fucking roster. He's unbelievable. And he's like what 43, 44, 45? I don't know how old GSP is but he still lives a healthy lifestyle. He's still trained and you know and I wanted to ask him, because I felt he left when he could have still

did a lot more. And why not ask him? And I feel like in a sport of mixed martial arts, people like, they retire from the sport when they're like, ah, you know, they're either on a losing streak and they're gonna beat up, or I feel if you look at the span of everybody's career in mixed martial arts, that's when they retire,

it's when they're all beat up. And so, you know, I went home and I called him and I'm grateful he had that conversation with me and it kind of helped, you know, not ease the blow, but kind of like made me feel that was one of the- Yeah, it helped me navigate that decision I had in my mind. And then you're, the scan you had on your brain. Oh yeah, yeah.

And they're like, dude, we got 10 plus years of your brain and your brain's smarter now and your brain is beautiful. Yeah. He was like, he goes, you look good, man. I was like, fuck this, I'm out, man. That was like the last straw for you. You're like, okay, yep, that's it. That is it.

You guys are a beautiful couple. This has been wonderful, really. I told you I'd take you to 12, it's 12 or three. You're fine, you're fine. We're doing something, so we got this custom poker table with my name on it, you see it, the show's name on it. I see it now, yeah. We asked everyone who stopped by yesterday and today

to sign it and we are going to auction it off. Oh, okay. And we're gonna give all the money to Ben Askren's family. Nice, nice. So if you don't mind, you know, he's going through a tough time. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Ian Gary the cuck. You see that guy over there?

What'd you just say? Oh my God, you're crazy. We're trying to get Buck vs. Cuck, and go feed families, baby. But unfortunately, you know, Joaquin Buckley got out, Russell. How could you say that? How could you say that?

What? It's fine. People are too sensitive in this fucking story. Destiny, this guy, he's got a potty mouth. It's unbelievable. Hey, you know, our children, our children are trying to start like a potty talk dollar bin. Oh yeah. Like a jar. So every time he says a bad thing.

He's probably the biggest contributor. That's your signature DJ? It's one of the all time worst signatures. What's wrong with that? Can I get a mouse? Can I get something? At least you can fight baby. No I'm kidding.

At least you can fight. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Look at, Stylebender gave me like a whole like motivational speech in there Oh, you're actually What are you doing? Well, you're actually making it. I don't even know what that is. Oh, it's the face Oh, you have it in you. It's track. I'm all Z. Yo, that's see look at that. This is amazing Thank you so much guys. Really appreciate it. This is great

Thank you This is great. Thank you Away from the kids DJ you're the man much love Congrats and We could bring in the big dog here. We could bring him in. Yeah, let's bring down man himself. Thank you so much DJ Thanks, I love you guys. Thank you so much. That was great. And now we bring in the man himself Look at this from a future legend to a former legend. How are you? Good, good.

How are you? Great to see you. Thank you so much for coming. It's been a long time. The lady's not letting you in today because of the... Oh, I'm sorry. Oh my God! Is she all sorted?

She's all good? I don't know. Okay, it's been a long time. Right here, right here. Long time since we've seen each other in person. It was like before New York, like six. Before my debut, yeah. Three years ago, four years ago now.

I was gonna say like six or so fights ago, but yes. 2021, six? No, seven. You're massively underestimated. 10 fights ago, my friend. Is it really 10 fights? I feel like you may have. That's how active I've been.

I know, I know, I know. That's how active I've been. I feel like you had a few. 10 fights, November've been. I know, I know, I know. That's how active I've been. I feel like you had a few. 10 fights, November 6th, 2021. So I would have seen you that week before the fight. There's been 10 fights in the UFC since then. Golly. Please speak into the microphone if you don't mind.

I got you. It's so nice to see you. I saw you in the car yesterday with the fans showing you love. Yeah, awesome. They had a reception yesterday, it was really good. Really lovely. Obviously a lot of Brazilian fans for a massive stacked out Brazilian card from top to bottom but yeah a lot of love and just a lot of smiles. Are you here to support your friend and

teammate? Are you here to do promotional stuff? I'm only here to be part of the Shoot the Box family. Okay I love it. To just be here, give energy, do anything I can to help. If it's give people a lift and be there, if it's just be there to put on a little dance and sing a song and give some good energy, that's all I'm here for. Okay, so it's interesting, I couldn't help but notice, Ian and Gary writing on one of my Instagram posts regarding a conversation that Alex Volkonovsky and I

had yesterday regarding the weight cut. And I wasn't throwing shade. No, no, no, I know, I know. It's just very, it's very unique to see that two days before the cut and you wrote something to the effect of this is how it's always been, this is what we do. So can we talk about this? Cause I was really surprised.

I guess I just never noticed that he did it two days before the whole towel thing. So everybody's different. Yes. I do it a different way. I'm pretty sure you'll have 10 boys and shoot the box do it different ways because everyone's different. We're talking about Charles de Bronxelivera most finishes of all time, most missions of all time,

most bonuses of all time, former champion, about to be another champion on Saturday night. He knows what he's doing and he knows himself. No one else knows him better than him. And I feel like from my point of view watching what happened that night, it was one of the most beautiful experiences I've ever been a part of. Powerful, cathartic, religious, cultural. Wow. It was so empowering. I was sobbing my eyes out with the energy. And this is the best way I feel like I can describe it to you.

I can never describe it to you. It's something you can only feel. Wow. I saw the photo, the photo that you guys posted. Like it did seem, I was going to say spiritual. Everything about it was a higher connection, a higher power. And that's unique to him? I'm aware of how religion is a massive part in the culture of the Brazilians and how powerfully they connect with their religious beliefs and I can't speak on behalf of Charles but

only speak on behalf of what I witnessed and I feel like it's... You're surrounded by people that you love and you care about. And when these people all sit around you and they give you that vibration energy and they sit there and they pray for you and they put hands in you and they pass on their energy to make you stronger and bring it to you so that God protects you, helps you with a smart way, a safe way and then you go into that fight mentally free, knowing your love, knowing you're cared about, knowing your team and your family are there for you. It's a very special feeling.

And if it ain't broke, don't fix it. And when you've got all the accolades that that man has, it clearly works for him. Okay. And he made weight, no problem. Made weight, no problem. Everything was beautiful. Everything was simple. And he, he, he had such a lovely energy and smile on his face all week. So it was, it was, I'm a massive Charles

fan. I have been since well before I was a member of the Shoot the Box family. So for me to sit there and watch this firsthand as a friend of Charles, as part of the Shoot the Box family, but also as a fan, it was mind-blowing. It was such a surreal moment for me and everything that he does works for him. And I cannot wait to see it all accumulate on Saturday night. It's a massive fight. It's gigantic. You're his friend. I'm not expecting you to pick against him. I mean, you're backing your guy, but you say it with confidence. Why in your opinion is Charles going to win this fight?

Well, firstly, it's a tough fight. Like, Iliya, Iliya Topodi is one of the greatest fighters in the sport right now. Look what he did in his last two fights. He knocked out two of the greatest featherweights of all time. But Charles is in the featherweight. Charles is one of the greatest threats the UFC has ever seen. Anywhere the fight can get finished and it's over like that. It's done in a second. From flashy jiu-jitsu to one punch combos, his style is mesmerizing and chaotic.

And I feel like when you've got that aggression from Ilya and that chaos from Charles, I only see this being a car crash fight. that aggression from Ilya and that chaos from Charles, I only see this being a car crash fight. Like someone's getting it, somewhere, some way, somehow. And that's the battle in my mind. That's the dance that they have to do. Like this fight, the way I fight is very controlling. I like to control someone's pace.

I like to make sure they move where I want them to move. I don't think either of these guys care. They're just going to meet in the middle and that's the fight. So for me, when I think of Charles, Charles has just got everything, everything. And I feel like Ilya just has to keep it on the feet. So for me, there's so many ways for Charles to be dangerous and offensively vicious.

And his tools, I believe are far more, his arsenal is far more deep than Ilya's is, but Ilya has still got that chuck on. So you have to be smart, but have confidence. And I think it's going to be a hell of a fight. And obviously I'm team Charles and I think Charles is going to win. And I believe Charles is going to win and I believe Charles is going to win. But I also believe that neither of these guys deserve to leave this fight night without a belt.

I think both of these guys are phenomenal champions. They're both great ambassadors for the sport, the way they carry themselves, the respect they have, the love they generate from the fans and the fights they put on. Both are my world champions in my mind and it's going to be upsetting to see one of them walk away without a belt. When are we seeing you again? Whenever the UFC want to put me on, I've said, I've said yes officially to two guys. Okay.

And I have said yes to Balal and I have said yes to Sean Brady. Okay. This week I am trying to have a meeting with the UFC and organize everything, just get it finalized. But I've said yes to those guys. Whenever they want to do it, whenever they believe is the biggest show that they can put on. When do you want to fight again? I'd fight Saturday.

Wow. That's the area. You know what I'm like? You're crazy, man. How much you weigh? How much you weigh right now? 85. Okay, easy.

I weighed myself last night, 85 kilos. Easy. But it's easy for me. I just want to fight. I've told you this. I don't want to be in this political battle of, I'm just going to try and hold my spot. Try and maintain relevancy and then look for this option.

I want to be active. I want to beat the best in the world. Those two guys are number one and two in the world. I have a preference of leaning towards Bilal for reasons that are very obvious. Former champion, just lost the belt in a close fight with the current champion, Jack Dalamadalena, has fought Sean Brady and knocked out Sean Brady and is number one in the world.

So for me, I lean towards fighting Balal. But I'm not against fighting Sean, beating Sean and still being there. But whoever I fight, I'm fighting for a number one contender fight. That's it. Do you think they're in agreement? No, that's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's happening.

That's what I'm- And I saw you going back and forth with Sean and saying like, of course, and he's insinuating that you don't want to fight him. No, that's bullshit. Look at my last two fights, three weeks notice against, and I think we can both sit here and agree

that Shavka and Carlos Pratches are far more dangerous than someone like Sean Brady. With Sean Brady, you know what you're getting. He doesn't hear hard. He's going to wrestle. He's great at wrestling. He's great at submission grappling. But you know what you're getting.

When you stand across from someone like Carlos Pratches and the way he looked, 28 fight finish streak both of those guys were on combined. And I ended both of those finish streaks. I'm not afraid of any man walking this earth. I'm the best welterweight on this planet and it's my job to prove that. And I need to fight the best guys in the world to prove that.

So whoever the UFC want as the bigger fight next, I've already said yes to. What happens, so we know we're getting JDM versus Islam. Yes. What happens if the winner of that fight says, oh, you know, Shafqa, he's been here, this and that. Is there any worry that he's gonna to come right back in that spot? Or do you think that your activity will seal the deal?

I am inevitable. It's only a matter of time before I get that belt wrapped around my waist. Whether they want to, and I mean, by they, I don't mean the UFC. I mean, by whoever's the champion, want to drag it out and call out someone else and choose someone else. I'm going to's the champion. When I drag it out and call out someone else and choose someone else, I'm going to get my opportunity. And I don't mind beating up both Bilal and Sean Brady in the time, if that's what happens.

But I'm fighting for a number one contender fight next. And whoever wins that belt between JDM and Islam, I'm fighting next. Now be honest with me, when you saw a couple of weeks ago, your old friend Kamaru Usman beat Joaquin Buckley. Massively surprised. Surprised? your old friend Kamara Usman beat Joaquin Buckley. Massively surprised. Surprised? I did not, I thought Buckley was going to absolutely stach him.

Really? I thought, but when you've got, when you've been out of the game for a long time and you're coming off a three fight skid, which he was, and in those fights he didn't look bad. Do you know what I mean? He just, Shot of cut fight he looked okay, took it on short notice.

He got cams out. No, sorry. Cams out, I got you, don't worry. Yeah, but he looked okay, took it on short notice. You get Kamzat. No, sorry. Kamzat, I got you, don't worry. Yeah, but he didn't look bad at all. No, he didn't look bad. He didn't look bad against Leon. He didn't look bad against Kamzat. And he didn't look bad against any of us.

He just got beaten by the better guys on the night. And they beat him. And that's okay. To come in against a guy who had confidence and like that explosivity that he fights with that kind of, I call him a runner. He wants to run through you. He's zero fundamentals, but Usman just dominated that lead handbelt,

just dominated that lead handbelt and stopped everything that Buckley had. And I was very impressed, but you and I both know what Usman's gonna do. He's going to take as much time as he possibly can to try and fight for a belt and jump the ladder and do all those things. I don't believe you lose three fights in a row, beat number seven in the world and get a world title fight. I don't believe it. Would it be at all awkward for you

if they asked you to fight him? I'd fight anyone. No problem. I'd fight anyone. I'd punch them out off him. He's not going to out wrestle me. He's not going to out grab me. He's not going to out cardio me. There's nothing that that man can do to faze me on my skill set. I'll jab them out off him. I'll knock him out and that's it. You had to have watched with a bit of a smile after all the stuff

Buckley said. No. He's coming up to you at your fight, this and that. And then, you know, it was almost like this. All right. Inevitability childish things that I kind of don't pay attention to. Like you hear it in the background, but now he's all the way in the back of the queue. You hear it, you hear it and you don't pay attention to it because you know, it's like the truth is he's an idiot. Like he is, he's just trying to say the most polarizing things to get attention and get media.

He knows. This is the thing with most of the welterweights, right? Most of the people in the entire UFC, they know you mentioned my name, you get a video of me. Your video skyrockets up to the top of MMA media. That's a fact. Whether people love me or hate me, you know if my name's mentioned or we're in a video, it's the most talked about video at that time.

And there's a couple of people that might have more when you talk about John Jones and Tom Aspen and all this stuff. You chuck my name in the mix there and boof, there's stories left right and center and people want that attention. And it's just desperate. And the stuff he's saying is cruel and horrible and I don't stoop that low and I definitely don't pay attention to it. So for me I don't wish anyone like, I don't like to see or smile at someone's loss or failure, but very proud to see Usman go out there and go right, put the kid back in his spot

and bring him back down to this level. The truth is he ruins the welterweight division anyway. When you've got all these young, talented killers. It's the best weight class in the UFC right now. Best weight class in the UFC right now and I'd argue it's the best the welterweight division has ever looked. And that's not taken away from the greats in the past, but the sheer competitiveness. And the reason I say Buckley ruins it, the amount of losses that man has is more than me, Shavkat, JDM, Islam and Morales combined.

So he ruins the statistics of the division. It's mental between me, Shavkat, take out the champion, but between me, Shavkat, JDM, Michael Morales and Islam Makashev, we've got three losses. That's how competitive this division is. What do you think of Morales? I think he's alright. I don't think he's doing anything against anyone of the elite caliber and I love Gilbert Brunson on my heart but Gilbert's not been the Gilbert of old and I'd hate to even vocalize saying that but I want to see him against, and I don't

even want to see him against a Leon because I think Leon's broken and should be gone anyway. I think mentally he's gone. I'd like to see him against Leon because I think Leon's broken and should be gone anyway. I think mentally he's gone. I'd like to see him against like a Carlos Pratches. Oh, yeah. Two big long awkward fighters. Both of them are very good and Pratches' stock is still high. I mean even though I whooped his ass for 24 minutes you know what I mean? He's still high. I'd like to see that fight because I think that's a very interesting stylistic fight. Long, tall, keeping that fight in the South American roots and the winner gets skyrocketed at the division. But yeah, I think you'll see Michael Morales probably fight someone like a Leon and he'll dominate him.

He'll be very close to the title. You have to go in two minutes, but I want to ask you this last question. And again, thank you for doing this. I know you've got a ton of things. It's so great to see you in person and thank you to Laila and Lloyd and everyone. Every, every couple of days I go on Twitter and top of the thing I see is our good friend, Oban Elliott, and it feels like he's working through the loss. He's still, I saw him this morning saying losing sucks. He's, he's in the dumps right now.

What's the message to the Welsh gangster who lost, um, about a week ago and, uh, is, is, is feeling it, it seems like. Have you, have you, have you imparted any is feeling it it seems like. Have you imparted any wisdom on him? I have, I've messaged him and sent him my love and just gave him any advice I possibly could or any love that he needed in that moment. I feel like he is such a talented human and he just needs to know, I believe he lacks a little bit of

confidence in himself. Not in a bad way, but just he doesn't know how good he is. Sometimes I think he fights with that energy. I think he just needs to go, I'm one of the best this world's ever seen and I'm going to go out there and prove it. And I will do anything I can to help him, to help him reach that potential, whether it's just having a laugh with him or being a friend and pulling him in because we've done camps together and I'm going to want his help for the next camp, whoever it is, because he's an amazing human.

Losses do not define you. When you look at the greatest of all time in this sport, they've all lost. They've all had some area of adversity that they've had to overcome. And when you recognize that and move forward and use that energy to enable you to be a better version of yourself, that's a very dangerous human. And I think him coming off a loss, having everything in the UFC already been sunshine and roses, three wins, knockouts in MSG, and just all that positive energy,

this is a moment that will define his career. Is he mentally strong enough to push through this position and come back stronger and more dangerous? I believe so. That's the fight he has to have now. And anyone out there that's battling losses or problems outside the octagon, you win them, everything in the octagon becomes easier.

Wise beyond your years. What an energy you bring into this room. Like you came in like a tour de force. Dude I told you, it's what I do. It's what I do. I'm not afraid of anyone on this planet. I'm not afraid to fight anyone, anywhere, anytime. I am one of the realest they've ever seen. You walk the walk and talk the talk. And am one of the realest they've ever seen. And I will just do it. It's that simple. We've got this poker table here that's custom. And everyone that's coming by the studio while we're here in Las Vegas,

we're asking if they could sign it. We're going to auction it off and give it all to Ben Askren's family. He's going through a tough time. Do you mind signing it for us on your way out? Right over here on this side, because we're trying to populate it. You do it. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

I'm going to play your hometown of Montreal. Absolutely stunning. Absolutely stunning. Oh wow, Lloyd Pearson is here. Lloyd, come have a seat. Why doesn't Lloyd ever do interviews? Lloyd, come on. I couldn't hear anything.

You couldn't hear anything? Well it's a very busy time. He was just saying about how I'm the most beautiful fighter on the roster. He deserves big contracts. Wow. So handsome and he just finds it difficult to understand how I've had 10 fights in the UFC against all these killers and still managed to look this handsome. That's exactly what I said. Yeah the freaking man. Thank you. Lloyd great to see you. Yes thank you so much. What a nice surprise. Thank you you say hello to the the family there he is Ian Machado-Garry and good luck to Charles Olivera tomorrow the whole shoot a box team what

a freaking amazing day so far we had Demetrius Johnson we had destiny Johnson we had Ian Machado-Garry a a cameo from the great Lloyd Pearson. Look at my setup here. Hey. Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. Frank, can I ask you a question? What's going on? The mics are working, right? Absolutely.

There's no problems? No problems. OK, I was worried there. When you see it pointing straight up, can you just tilt it forward a little bit? Oh, yeah. So you told me what you said to me was as we break the fourth wall here Let's do it joined by Tom Aspin all in about 30 minutes. Tell all your friends

You told me it's like a flashlight Exactly. So you said point it and I said, alright, I'm gonna point it. I think you're doing a great job. Okay Thank you, there's a couple of fans here. We're having a good time. By the way, I went right into things. Oh yeah, here we are. Thank you to our good friends over at Celsius, right over here.

Thank you to the Venetian, Tom Aspinall joining us in about 35 minutes. Rico Verhoeven joining us in about seven minutes. Hey, let's go over some of the weigh-in stuff because it happened earlier today. One fight has fallen through. I got into things a little quickly there because DJ was standing by but the Jackson McFay Chris Uert fight has been cancelled because Uert was several pounds overweight and he was about

to make his UFC debut and subsequently has been cut from the promotion. Golly! But everyone did other than those two, well actually I should just say other than Chris Hewart, make weight. Ilya Teporia 155 pounds on the dot. Mr. Charles Oliveira 154.5. Alex Pantoja the flyweight champion 125 on the dot and Kaikai France also 125. We do have some pictures in case you missed it. Here is Mr. Pantoja, the pride of Brazil, the product of American top team. Getting better each and every time we see him out there. And here's Mr. Kaikai France.

And here is Mr. Kaikai France. Everyone very confident as far as the CKB team is concerned. Here is Ilya Toporya. The pride of one Georgia and Spain and there is Charles de Bronx 154 and a half. Looking good. And so yes, yesterday with Alex Volkanovsky, we were talking about that footage of him with the towels and all that stuff. And then I noticed Ian writing on the page like, hey, this is how we do it.

Amazing to hear him talk about, what about that perspective? I really enjoyed the perspective of Mighty Mouse's wife saying she wasn't allowed to come in. But you know what? Everyone has their own system. That's what you'll learn. Like you'll see some fighters,

they'll roll up to the fight. Like they'll come off the bus, they'll go to the locker room with their significant other. Some fighters don't wanna see their significant other. Some fighters don't want to see their significant other. Some fighters will be in their hotel room, like remember Chase Hooper, he was there with his wife and kid, very young child. Some don't want their family to even travel, they want them to stay home. Everyone has their own thing.

Impossible to question DJ's thing. So successful. He did what worked for him. So that is all the activity as far as the weigh-ins are concerned. Like I said everyone else made weight. It's a very busy weekend in combat sports. Tonight Deontay Wilder is returning. He is fighting in Wichita, Kansas against Tyrell Herndon. Tomorrow, in addition to UFC 317, we are also getting Jake Paul versus Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. I know not every MMA fan will be into that, but you might be into the fact that Holly Holm is making her return to boxing, which I think is pretty damn cool. She signed with MVP about a month and a half or so ago and is looking to

to perhaps finish her career as a pro boxer. She's a Hall of Fame boxer by the way like she is legitimately in the Hall of Fame, the Boxing Hall of Fame and will eventually be a UFC Hall of Fame. Speaking of the UFC Hall of Fame, they had their ceremony yesterday. It was very nice. It's come a long way. Shout out to our good friend, Aunt Evans, who really did revamp the whole thing, rejuvenate the whole thing, redesign the whole damn thing because WWE was doing it perfectly for years. They made it into a thing. And I don't even think that the UFC has made it into as good of a thing as possible as it could be. It should be better. It should be bigger in my opinion. It could be bigger,

but it's come a hell of a long way in the last 10 or so years. And there's no real rhyme or reason, there's no committee, it's really just like the brass that decides. And also there's no rules like hey you have to be retired for X amount of years. So it's a little willy-nilly, but I love that they do it, and I love that they honor their history, and I love that they do it and I love that they honor their history and I love that they do it this particular week, sort of like the UFC's WrestleMania week, if you will. I still wish there was an international MMA Hall of Fame, an independent Hall of Fame like we see in all the other sports. Football Hall of Fame, Basketball Hall of Fame, Baseball Hall of Fame, Boxing Hall of Fame, on and on it goes. But it's a great thing to have and it's great to see fighters like Amanda Nunez who coincidentally is coming back since all this was announced

but neither here nor there. Well well deserving. Fighters like Robbie Laller they've got the fight wing as well Israel Desenya and Kelvin Gaslam going in so cool for them especially when you have a fighter a Kelvin probably won't go in on his own, is he will? So it's kind of cool that he gets that moment. Cubs Swanson had a moment like that a couple years ago with Doohoo Choi. Craig Polygian, he got inducted, he is the creator of The Ultimate Fighter, at least the executive producer.

It's sort of up in the air as far as like who actually created it. And Mark Kerr, the Smashing Machine. And what about the fact that Dwayne Johnson, the Rock was there. And the famous actress. This is going to escape me and bother me. There was a very famous actress there. Emily Blunt. Emily Blunt was there.

Did you see her? I did not personally. She is in the film as well the smashing machine which comes out in October and she was just like there It was pretty cool Shaq inducted Vitor Belfort. He was inducted as well. Like it was one of the more star-studded affairs I actually tried to get everyone to go and everyone was like, nah Let's go play craps

Let's go play some poker. I feel like I need some cards. What about this table? It's quite the table. Demetrius Johnson. He drew something like some sort of Dragon Ball Z thing. Anyway, in a matter of seconds, my friends, we're going to be joined by the great Rico Verhoeven, 66 and 10, 21 knockouts, 36 years young, the king of kickboxing,

the current reigning defending Glory Heavyweight World Champion, Glory Heavyweight Grand Prix Champion has held the title for over a decade. 4,000 plus days as champion. 13 successful title defenses, undefeated in Glory since 2012, his debut, wins over the likes of Badr Hari, Peter Ertz, Golkan Saki, Sergey Khaditanov, Errol Zimmerman, many more, and just a couple weeks ago,

two Saturdays ago, defeated Artem Vakitov via unanimous decision in the main event of Glory 100. via unanimous decision in the main event of Glory 100. You'll recall Vakitov came on our program. He won a Contender Series fight and it seemed as though he was going to go the UFC route. He has a history with one Alex Pereira and all of a sudden apparently he didn't like the deal that was being offered and there was an opportunity to go back to Glory and maybe Glory was tired of the fighters leaving their nest and signing with the UFC and he said, you know what? I'm gonna go get a nice little deal from Glory

and I'm gonna headline Glory 100, bit of a smaller guy. There was clearly a size discrepancy between the two of them but Big Rico got it done. Big Rico got it done, A hard fought win for him. And now there's a 32 man tournament which is underway. And the thought process is he will fight the winner of that tournament. Now we have been campaigning for a crossover fight against Francis Ngannou. And as the Francis Ngannou options continue to you

know whittle down I still feel like this would be a huge fight given the right promotion given the right push given the right marketing I think Francis Ngannou versus Rico Verhoeven especially overseas would be a huge fight Rico is a gigantic deal in Europe and in particular in the Netherlands I mean this guy is crushing crushing it. He's building a boathouse, he's got all kinds of crazy things going on and he also trains with the likes of Tom Aspinal who will be joining us in 30 minutes. He's got a great YouTube channel as well, both of them do, but Rico does as well and recently he did an iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, iron, nailed it,

gut challenge, which is them punching each other in the stomach repeatedly. And like they'll start at 25%, how they judge that I don't know. And then 35% and then 50% and then 75% and they go on and on and they're like legit punching each other hard and they're like flexing and they're It's it's impressive

Are you enjoying these Friday shows Frank? Absolutely, should we make this like the new thing? Let's talk off-air about that. Okay shout out to Jason Carney three four three three on the on the YouTube chat who writes in via Super Chat Rico versus Francis that's right is the only fight to make in PFL nothing left in glory for him now is he gonna do an MMA fight I don't know about that I don't know about that but it would it would be a big crossover fight a cross promotional fight it would be incredible I would love to see it to behemoths I mean how tall is Rico Verhoeven Rico Verhoeven let's see Rico Verhoeven he's got to be

like six six foot five he's probably taller than Francis. Excuse me, what was that Frank? Okay, thank you. Appreciate that. Six foot five and Francis is six foot four. Legit battle of the giants. Thank you very much to our good friends here at the Venetian. Look at this, look at this, look at this, look at it! At the Venetian we're going to be here for several more days. We decided

to stick around until Monday, so we'll do our post-pay-per-view show from this very location and then we'll go home on Tuesday. Next week we'll have the Hardy Boys, Matt and Jeff Hardy on the Wednesday show, so I'm very much looking forward to that so I'd say a little longer kids are away cam Got a letter from Walter today. Ask me one of the Knicks gonna make a move. I'm like Walt it ain't on me Without further ado Let us say hello to the king of kickboxing himself the most successful and decorated heavyweight champion in the history of combat sports in the history of combat sports. Keep it coming, keep it coming. The one and only Nico Verhoeven.

Yes, sir. How are you my friend, please? I'm good, I'm good. Have a seat, have a seat. Thank you so much for coming. Good to see you in America. Thanks for having me, Ariel. Good to see you, International Fight Week UFC.

Yes, sir. This is big, what brings you here? Of course. Everything. International Fight Week, of course. You're supposed to say your show. Yeah, your show, I forgot your show. You brought me here.

Yes, thank you, thank you, thank you. No, it's amazing. Let me fix this for you. Is it good? Yeah. Is that good, Frank? Is that good for you? Oh, he's so happy. I just heard we had to point it right. We had to point it right. Yes, yes, yes. How are you, sir?

Congratulations. Thank you so much. What are we 13 days removed from the fight? Glory 100. Yeah. Artem Vakita. By the way, I heard you've been in the US for a little bit. You were just in L.A. Yeah. What were you doing in L.A.? Yeah, I got so many connections. You know, I heard you've been in the US for a little bit. You were just in LA. Yeah. What were you doing in LA? Yeah, I got so many connections.

You know, I want to get into movies. So just try to combine everything at the same time. So coming in, shooting some content, meeting up with agents and Auditions, talks? Yeah. Things are happening though. Everything's coming together. Yes, sir.

It's amazing. I look on your page and obviously, you know, you see what you want us to see, but you're building this beautiful house. Yeah. You're killing it. You're headlining Glory 100. Like from afar, we want to knock on wood.

Life seems to be very good for Rico Verhoeven. Life is amazing, Ariel. Life has been really amazing. I feel blessed. And it's just like, we just keep doing it. Life is amazing, Ariel. Life has been really amazing. I feel blessed and it's just like we just keep doing it. We keep living the dream. Are you one of those people where you're like, I'm a negative person. I'm a glass half empty person. So I'm like, when's the bad thing going to happen?

When life is good, I'm always thinking of the bad things. Are you like that or you're good? Definitely not. I'm happy to hear this. I always try to, yeah, if something negative happens, try to turn it into something positive. Good. That's the way to be. Keep working. And that's the thing. Just keep working hard. Even when you're on top, that's the only way you stay on top. Yes. I even saw like after the fight, your YouTube channel is great.

There's amazing stuff. Well done to you and the team. I want to ask you about some specific things, but in your video behind the scenes of Glory 100, right after the fight, you go in the ice bath. Yes, sir. I don't usually see that. Is that something you request? Yeah. Okay. When did this start?

A few years ago. So you go right in. Yeah, I go right in because, yeah, you know, the body's sore. Yeah. Yeah, the only way to treat it well and to treat your yeah The injuries that you have well is to treat them right at that second in the moment in the moment So that's what I do. I just jump in right away Between three and five minutes. That's crazy. You were everybody's there my's there. My family, my friends, everybody's there.

Yo guys, give me five. Wow. And it's just good just to cool down and just tune out. And then we did it again. Just like enjoy the moment for a little bit. Does it, in a weird way, does it like make everything stop? Because now you have to be so focused. It's so intense, right?

Yeah. And there's so much energy. There's so much attention on you, there's so much buzz backstage. This, I wonder if it like all funnels, funnels down into one singular thing into your body because none of that matters when you're sitting inside of freezing tub, right? 100%, 100%.

I think next to it being really good for your body, it's so good for the mind because like you said, life and just like the stress and there's so many things coming your way that you have to deal with. And that's why I say eight out of 10 days, I try to start my day off with an ice bath. Why? Because then like a day at work, one day it's easy,

the other day it isn't. So I jump in and if it's an easy day, okay, one day it's easy, the other day it isn't. So I jump in and if it's an easy day, okay, you do it. Okay, you get out. But sometimes you get in and it's like, oh my God, it is so cold, it hurts. And it's just like, you train your mental resilience. And then if I do it in the beginning of the day, I already feel like a winner.

I start the day off as a winner and I feel like, okay, what is today going to do to me to take that feeling away from me because I already crossed the biggest hurdle this day could bring to me. Even in the winter? Yeah. Outdoors or indoors? Outdoors. Golly. I literally wake up, so the alarm goes, grab towel go down like that nothing else nothing else wow right away so believe me you're awake after that yeah yeah no it works it works glory 100 Artem Vakitov is he tougher than you expected him well to be honest I think I well he is an amazing fighter next to that I wouldn't want to take anything away from that.

But I put him on such a pedestal, I put him so high that when I was there, it just flowed. And I was like, oh, okay. It's just literally going how I prayed and expected it to go. So there was, yeah, there was... It felt like strange. So the pace was so high because I thought, I gotta keep pushing, gotta keep pushing because I watch all his fights.

Like this guy has a crazy pace in his fights. That's what he does. He starts, nine out of 10 times he starts slow, but then after like the second round, that's when he starts warming up. He's like a diesel. And then he starts pushing. I was like a diesel yeah and then he's just pushing it's not like oh my god okay so I got to be beyond on point

better than I ever been so that's what I feel that I was I was in the best shape that I've been in you for years Wow really years in years because I took it so serious finally everything my body was good. No knee injuries, nothing. So at an amazing camp, I came in a lot lighter than I normally do, so now I was in great shape. Did you feel like you had to come in lighter because he's a smaller guy? Yeah. Of course.

Could you feel though, just looking at you guys, you could tell that you're a bigger guy. Yeah. Could you feel that, it's not an MMA fight, so you can't necessarily take him down and use your size, but there are ways that you can use your size to your advantage. Of course, you have the distance, the longer arms, longer legs, and as soon as he comes in you can hang over him a little bit. But in glory now, the rules are so tight you're

not allowed to clinch. You can clinch, make one action, boom, and let go again. Or else you get penalized. Yeah, penalized or whatever. Do you think that he's gonna stick around? I think so, yeah. And I truly believe if he stays in the heavyweight division, he will defeat like 80 to 90%. Do you think he'll stay at heavyweight or go down?

I don't know, I don't know. It was such an interesting thing that he went on the Contender Series here for the UFC. He won, they wanted to keep him around and he said, no thank you, I'm going back to kickboxing. Yeah, I don't know what that is. Maybe it was a money problem or something, I don't know. I would think so.

Yeah, because he, of course he was, yeah, he was a, he's a superstar. He's been champion for like, he was champion for five years or something. So that's why I was a huge fan of him. I love his style. I love the way he approaches fights because he's such a smart and tactical fighter

and he has a high fighting IQ. So, okay, this is, he felt like a smaller, to me, like a smaller Rico. So that's how he approaches the fights. So that's why I took it dead serious everybody's like yeah but he's smaller he's lighter yeah so what yeah we saw that with with Usyk and Fury as well so and it's so many more examples so I thought it was a big win for glory that he did that because we've seen as of late a lot of people go from glory to

MMA and and get really big and kind of use their success in glory to propel them into other things. He said, no, I'm going to use this to come back and get the MMA fans to be like, whoa, that guy went on Contender Series one, but chose to go back. I thought it was a huge victory for glory as a promotion and for kickboxing, a rare victory because there haven't been a lot of those guys who have come back. If you know what I'm saying No, no, you're definitely right but as you

have seen like in the for the last few years, it's just amazing how the The people from yet from Europe and the kickboxers are doing an MMA. I love it Yeah, I love it like now my brother. He's the undisputed Heavyweight I love it. Like now my brother, he's the undisputed heavyweight UFC world champion. What did you think of this whole situation? So your good friend Tom Aspahl, you trained with him. Not that long ago you were training with him, right? I saw on your channel. What a bizarre situation how it all played out, but in the end it played out well for him. Yeah, it played out well. I wished for him it would have played out differently.

Where he actually got the fight. Yeah, he actually got the fight. Yeah, he actually got the fight and just like took an amazing win. But like everything happens for a reason. So yeah, we talk about it, we laugh about it, we have so much fun and then we look at each other like, who would have thought? Two boys from Europe taking over the whole fighting world game. We're on top of the world.

We're on top of the game. Same weight class. Same weight class. We're doing it, man. We're taking it over. When did you first meet? Oh, that's years and years ago. Really?

That was in a Tyson Fury training camp. Yeah. Okay. And he was just a training partner and you were a training partner? Yeah. We were just sparring partners. Okay. That's like how we met. And then, like I said, I think five, six years ago,

he started coming to the gym and just work on his stand-up game. And ever since, we've connected, we've been friends, and he's been coming over to the house. We've been training, I've been helping him, he's been helping me. So, yeah, amazing. So I saw this helping him, he's been helping me, so yeah, amazing. So I saw this video that you guys did the Iron Gut Challenge. Yo, this is crazy this thing, man.

This is nuts. Yeah, we love it. So like you start at like 10%, 20%. Yeah, it sounds like that. We build it up, we build it up. And then you keep, and it's, the way you guys produced it was great with like the meter and all that. It's very, very well done.

But it's, I'm watching it and I'm like, okay, now they're going to stop. And you guys keep going, you keep going. But it's so much fun. That's fun. Getting punched in the stomach by heavyweight champ. It looks miserable. Yeah, but that's what we do.

That's what we do for a living. You do this just for fun with no cameras? Yeah, we also do it. Just like, pop. Yeah, I know you're doing, but like just straight punches to the freaking stomach. Yeah, but it's like, people think like it's an app training. It's a training for your app, but it actually isn't.

So it's more of a like, again, it's a mental game. Like you get hit, it hurts, you feel it. But how do you deal with that? And how can you still like, how can you cope with it and still function in a normal way? So, yeah, and you have to do the same thing within the fights. So like I said, it's fun and it's a mental training at the same time. It looks miserable, but it's very present.

And then it's funny as it goes higher, you're like, okay, you're talking about the breathing. Like it's captivating to watch, but I just can't believe you guys are standing there doing that. Now, like I said, for us, yeah, for us it's fun. When you say like 100%, are you really going 100%? Yeah, we're close to 100%.

Yeah, and especially like we just finished training, so we were sparring and everything's like, okay, I got a good idea. He's like, oh, that's fun, that's a fun idea. Let's do it. Jeez Louise. Yeah, like I said, even sparring for us, we spar at like, let's say 80%, 90%.

We go, we go pretty hard. And you ask him to come to prepare for the Gori 100 fight. Yeah, yeah. I ask him almost every time we can get him over, he comes over or the other way around. If he needs me for a fight, I'll come over and help him out. Or we just, if we both don't have a fight, we just, uh, or I fly to him or he flies to me and we just work out together, just getting better. What makes him so good as a training partner? He's in the good sense of the word,

he's awkward. So especially for me as a kickboxer, because in MMA you have so many different styles and ways of fighting that you don't have like one side. But in kickboxing, it's most of the time pretty similar. And that's what I mean with, to me, he fights awkward, he's different. And I like it. I like it because that makes it harder for me to adjust every time because he brings different tools and different ways of attacking to the table that I haven't seen before. His father comes too, right?

Andy? Yeah, Andy is the best. Legend. Yeah, he's such a legend. He made some news this week as he was talking about the whole situation. He doesn't hold back. No. He doesn't hold back.

He does it like it is. He doesn't. He's just like, if you want Andy, that's what you get. The relationship is really interesting because in boxing you have a lot of father-son duos, right? Coach, fighter. MMA you don't have a lot of that. So their relationship reminds me a lot of some of the relationships in boxing that we see. Is that a common thing in kickboxing? A father teaching or coaching a son? No, not as much. But you have it, but I had it. My dad started teaching me kickboxing since the age of six. He introduced you?

Yeah. Did he fight, like what level did he go to? Yeah, he was just like a, at a certain moment, a professional A-class fighter. Okay. But yeah, he got injured and he stopped. So he started recovering from his injury, started doing some fitness, started doing boxing,

kickboxing, and then just people within our neighborhood said like, hey, why don't you teach? And he was like, yeah, why not? So then I was at the age of six, so he brought me to the gym. And that's how it started. Wow, he started his own gym? Yeah.

So and he was just like starting to teach like people in our neighborhood and that's how it started. Wow. Did you have siblings? Yeah, I have a half sister. Yeah. So, but she was living with my mom. Okay.

So, yeah, she didn't kickbox. She started kickboxing at the age of when I was around, I think 15, 16 or something. Okay. When did you start to believe that like, I could 15, 16 or something. Okay. When did you start to believe that like, I could actually make a career out of this? I'm different. How old were you? So I started off and to the age of around 12,

I did a few matches, but it was always so hard because I was so big, I was big and heavy. And at the age of 12, it just was so hard. My dad said, you know what, because the age difference was becoming really, really big. So I was 12 and I had to fight guys that were like 14 or 15. And that age, few years, it's just a big difference.

So my dad said, you know what, wait till you're 16 and you'll be in the adult division. That was like back in the day. It's not anymore, but back in the day're 16 and you'll be in the adult division. That was like back in the day. It's not anymore, but back in the day, at 16 you were in the adult division. He said, okay, let's do it. But it was so hard at that age, when you're 12, 13, 14, and you have to train.

My dad was really strict, so he was like, you have to train, but I didn't have nothing that I was training for. I had no competition. So, but he was just like, keep pushing, keep going, keep going, keep going. So we did it. And finally I was almost turning 16 and then having my first fight. So- Pro or amateur? No, it's amateur. It was my first fight.

Okay. Wow. Period. Period. Okay. So yeah, as an adult. So finally, I was almost 16, so I turned, my birthday is the 10th of April, so in February the phone call, the phone go, yo, we got a cool event, do you want to have fighters? Did you want to sign up? Yeah, yeah, finally we can sign up Rico.

Okay, I was 16, I was weighing 100 kilos. Wow, wow. Yeah, it was crazy. So the legs were already this big, but the upper body was a little bit skinny. So yeah, we got somebody. He's 21 years old, no experience, so perfect. Have you?

All right, let's do it. And I turned 16 and a week later, the phone goes, yeah, that guy, yeah, he pulled out. So yeah, we got a problem. But we got a new opponent, but he's 24. Yeah, okay, it is what it is. I've been waiting so many years for that moment, so let's do it. Okay, so it's the 30th of April.

That was the date of the event. I was there, I was in the ring, the ring announcer. And in the blue corner, his opponent is 28 years old. Oh my gosh. I was looking at my dad. My dad, look, you'll be fine. 28? 28. I was 16. But like I said, our sport is so young and so fresh and so new that it wasn't like regulated as it is today. So that was crazy. I was 16. I was fighting like a,

did they know and not tell you or, I don't know what happened, but it happened. I won in the second round by knockout. Oh my God. Feeling that much. Yeah, that was amazing. So that went like a, like a tornado through kickboxing world. Like, yo, we got this guy.

He's 16, he's 100 kilos, and he's amazing. He just knocked out a 28-year-old. And I was like, wow, OK. Maybe I can do this. And then I keep doing fights, I keep winning, and getting all these compliments. And I think, hey, maybe we got this. Because I was like nine, and I saw Peter Arts become kickboxing world champion

for the third time in his career in, what was it, 98. I thought, hey, this is something I would inspire it to be. And then finally doing all those things and getting all that confirmation from all those people. I was like, Hey, maybe that dream is closer than I'm actually, I actually thought. So that's how we kept on going and we got closer and closer and finally turning. And now you're the greatest of all time. Are you comfortable with that?

I mean, you're not comfortable with that? It's not even like a hot take. It's just look at the resume. There's no one that comes close. No. Yeah. It's a, I appreciate the compliment. Like I said, it's up to other people to give me that then telling me, oh, I'm the greatest of all time. But I'm so proud of everything that we've accomplished as a team, because that is what it is. Of course, it's me in the ring, but being Rico that I am in the ring takes so many people.

The length of your run, like the way you've been able to sustain this dominance is the most impressive thing to me, because usually someone will slip or they'll lose motivation or they'll get hurt in a fight. That to me is something that I don't know if we'll ever see again. You never see this type of dumb. Yeah, but that is definitely something that my dad gave me. Because it's definitely not motivation. You don't need

motivation. You need motivation once. So you need motivation to start. And as soon as you start it, after that, it turns into discipline. So just keep doing it. Just stay disciplined. I was going to push back on you and say like, sometimes people say, well, it's like the thing that John kept talking about with Tom, like, oh, he doesn't motivate me. He's not a big name, this and that. So sometimes you're fighting guys who are well beneath you.

Exactly. So you don't need motivation to fight them? No, because at a certain moment, and at the beginning I had that, like oh this guy motivates me. At a certain moment, like why, why do I have that? I said I don't need that, the motivation, or like I said the discipline should be,

like I should look in the mirror and be a better version of me every time. So instead of like for me now I'm not chasing belts anymore. I'm chasing cool moments in things that haven't been done before in just in the fighting game. That's what I'm chasing now. So I'm not like oh I need to be motivated because I'm fighting this person or I'm fighting that person. No, be the best version of me and do stuff that hasn't been done before. Just think of the craziest ideas and bring combat sports and fighting to a whole new level.

Okay, so when you talk about cool moments, now all of a sudden, my mind goes to one place. You know this, it goes to Francis. Yeah, so, but yeah, definitely. Where are we at with this? Because I threw it out pie in the sky after his last fight. Yeah. And I kind of, I was just trying to like think of something,

but then my understanding is like it started to develop a little bit. Yeah, definitely, definitely. So I actually was with his trainer Nick Eric this morning. This morning yeah this morning at the gym yeah you were training with him. Yeah we were training we did some groundwork. I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing for the fight. Why not it's like yeah we're close we've been close for years okay so and I know Francis as well so I said but. Did you talk about it? Of course. OK, but let's think like outside the box. What hasn't been done before?

The ultimate challenge. One opponent. Three fights, three disciplines. Wow. MMA boxing, kickboxing. Exactly. You're down to do MMA. 100 percent. Exactly. You're down to do MMA. 100%. Wow. So that is like something that you haven't seen. One night or over a series of nights?

Well, I think one night is challenging. Yeah, I just want to make sure. I don't know how crazy you are. So over a series. I mean, I wouldn't put it past you. I don't know how crazy you are. You guys do one night fights and one night tournaments? I did three fights in one night.

Yeah, definitely. But to make it good and make it exciting and make it like a full camp, I think it's important to have like three different moments. Okay. So, so this is, this is your concept. Yeah. You've now taken my pie in the sky idea and, and you've made it even better. Yeah. More intriguing.

How do we actually make this into a reality? Get the, yeah, like I think I was, I wanted to say, get the right opponent, but I think we have the right guy. You have the guy and there's no one for him to fight in MMA. No. So that is like, we got to find the right organization, the right person to, to organize it and make it happen. Glory is interested. Glory is interested. Is PFL interested? I think interested. Is PFL interested? I think so. Yeah.

And Saudi's interested. So I think there's a lot of things that might happen and just change like combat sports in general. Yeah. Well, would you have any preference which one's first? No. No, like make it make make it exciting Yeah, make it exciting. So if you think about it like because for me thinking about this this whole concept is like Hmm. All right. So for example, we're driving in a car and you're driving on the highway

Why pick a lane why pick one lane? Yeah when you can own the whole highway? You do all three why not highway? You can do all three, why not? Let's just do all three. Of course it's like separate nights. It would be incredible. It would be a spectacle. It would be huge for both of you. It would be huge for kickboxing, for glory, for PFL,

for everyone. Yeah, for like I said, combat sports in general. And that is something that I- Do you know if he's interested? Did Eric say- Eric said, wow, this is an amazing idea. I love it. And he said it as well.

They talked about different opponents. Of course, they also talked about Wilder. But like now, said like, hey, this is something that could be fun. Could it be your next one? Is it possible? Or do we need a little more time? I don't know. It depends on like how fast things are gonna get picked up.

Right, right, right. If somebody says like, yo, I want this and I want this real fast, let's go. I'm like, like I said, I'm down. Like I've done it all. I've done it all. And yeah, let's create moments that, and let's create moments and things that haven't

been done before. Yeah, yeah. That's what gets me the goosebumps and just gets me excited. Do you want to fight again this year regardless? Are you hoping to fight again this year? Yeah, 100%. 100%. But like I said, there's so many things there.

We're doing movies, we're fighting and it's yeah, it's like I said, it's such an amazing time and like you said, like if you look at Instagram, it looks amazing and everything is amazing. But it is so much and I'm literally living the dream. Wow. I'm so much enjoying my- Beyond your wildest expectations. I'm enjoying myself and that I got the chance and the opportunity to use combat sports to get into the next step.

Because you know, being an athlete and being a world champion comes with an expiry date. And what are you going to do next? So, and yes, as a young kid, the dream was to become an actor or well, I saw movies and I'm an amazing movie freak. So I like, Hmm, yeah, that could be cool. Like Arnold Schwarzenegger or Jean-Claude Van Damme. Like why not use then if that dream becomes a reality that I ever become kickboxing world champion, why not use that as a stepping stone for the next thing and that's entertainment, acting and then finally got the chance.

Then a thieves. Yeah and I got to be really honest, I found my new passion. You loved it. Of course it's's like, oh, it looks nice, but when you finally do it, is it that nice that you created in your head? And yes, it is. It's long days, long nights, but it's so much fun. I love it. So much fun.

It's great to see you so happy and all the success that you're having. We need to figure this out. We need to figure out this Francis fight. We're going to make it, we're never going to have to figure it out, we're going to make it happen. We're going to make it happen, oh my gosh. I need to figure this out. We need to figure out this Francis fight. We're gonna make it, we're not gonna have to figure it out. We're gonna make it happen. That's what we're gonna do. Oh my gosh.

I need to be there for that. 100%. It was, I can't even believe it's come, this three fight thing. I love the three fight thing. Yeah, and like I said, it hasn't been done before. I haven't seen it because the boxers, they never use their legs.

So they're never gonna do like an MMA or kickboxing fight because as soon as you kick their legs, they don't know what happened with them. You need to get in on this. If the Francis thing even doesn't work out like you need to get in on one of these like super fights. Yeah we gotta find somebody. Yes. That would be open to it.

Wilder by the way he's fighting tonight he's coming back. That would be a crazy one. That would also be a crazy one and what's his name? Big Baby Miller. Big Baby what? He was in glory. He was in glory. He was in glory. Yes, I remember this, yes.

So. He talks a lot of smack. Yeah. Yes, yes, he's a crazy, crazy guy. Yeah, he talks a lot of smack, so. He's a crazy dude. So that could also be, so there's so many things that are, and so many opponents,

but like you just gotta find the right one and get them ready. We have this poker table here. You see this with my name on it? Yeah, I love it. And we're asking all the people who are stopping by to sign and then we're going to auction it off to Ben Askren's family to give all the... Wow, amazing.

You know, Ben is going through a tough time right now. So if you don't mind signing... Of course not. I would appreciate it. I love it. You're the freaking man, Rico. Thank you so much for coming by. Thank you so much for your time, Ariel.

Are you going to the UFC tomorrow? Yeah, of course. You're going to be there? Of course. Are you going to the UFC tomorrow? Yeah, of course. You're gonna be there? Of course. Are you gonna talk to the UFC, Brass? Who knows? You're open for anything? I'm open. Wow.

So let's see. When's the last time you were at a UFC? That's a good question. I think, I think, I think it was McGregor, Cironi was the last I was here. January of 2020. That was the last I was here. January of 2020. That was a long time. Yeah, I think so.

Right before the pandemic. Why were you here? Just like that? Yeah, of course. Yeah, I was here for the fight. Wow. So I was- Did you ever meet Dana White and those guys?

No, no, no, no. So I was in Los Angeles, doing all my connection stuff and the movie things and knew the fight. And of course, I'm with Paradigm, Conor's with Paradigm. So I was like, yeah, come over to the... Yeah, why not? Let's go. So me and my best friend, we went there, have fun.

And now we're back again so many years later. So happy to be here. Maybe you'll have a chat. Thank you so much. I hope you enjoyed. If you don't mind. Thank you. I think your buddy's over there as well. Yeah, you enjoy it. If you don't mind. Thank you. I think your buddy's over there as well. Yeah, there he is.

No iron gut challenges here. No, no. I don't want to, we don't have the, we don't have the right kind of insurance. But since he's the undisputed champion, I haven't seen him yet. So I'm definitely- Oh, so bring him in, bring him in.

Connor, bring him in. This is your first time getting to congratulate him. Yeah, yeah. Of course we called. Of course, of course. Of course we called. This is big. He wanted to congratulate you. There he is. Tom Asn course, of course. This is big. He wanted to congratulate you. There he is. Tom Aspino, the undisputed heavyweight. Tom Aspino. This

is it. This is the first time he gets to see you as undisputed champion. Yeah, this is the first time I'm seeing him after his defense as well. We just trained together a few weeks ago. Look at the magic we're making. How's it going? Good to see you. Thank you so much. Beautiful place you got over here. Thank you so much. Beautiful place. I'm taking the big seat? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I warmed it up for you. Thanks, bro. Can I drink as well? Please, please. Don't forget to sign, Rico. I'm going to sign. I'm going to sign before I leave. Please, please.

Ariel, I got to tell you, you're such an amazing person always, but the way you put just combat sports in general on the map in the world. I love it. Thank you so much. That means a lot to me because we need more people like you. Just I want to go to a glory event in the Netherlands. That's a dream of mine. So thank you, Rico.

You're the man. Thank you so much. If you don't mind. Yes, we will sign. Wow. Here he is. Look at this. The two best heavyweights in the world.

The best in Europe. That's right. That's right. I was talking about myself and GC over there in the, um, what is this? Oh, is this from, is this from you? That's from me. Wow. You tried these Rico? I don't think Rico's tried them. These are the, uh, this is my, uh, this is my good shit. Toothpicks. Toothpicks, flavored toothpick.

You told me about it. You've not tried them. I want to try one rightoured toothpick? You've told me about it. You've not tried them? No, I want to try them. Can I try one right now? Of course. Rico, me and you. Amazing.

Ooh, look at this. Big berry. Here you go, Rico. Try a flavoured, big berry toothpick. So you're just supposed to chill? You just chill. And now they've actually got vitamin ones coming out so you don't supposed to like chill. You just chill. And now they've actually got like vitamin ones coming out. So you don't have to take pills and you just put the toothpick in. I think it's good.

I love it. I love it. Shout out to them. Big berry flavor punch. Thanks. No problem. Thank you Rico. Catch you later. See you later Rob. I can't believe it. It's very hot in this room. What's going on? You want it lower? Yeah, put it lower. I'm starting to sweat in this place. I like to put it. It's very hot in this room. Yeah, I put it, you want it lower?

Yeah, put it lower. I like to put it at 75. We're about to get sexy here, Tom. One second, one second. Here we go. What do you want, 72? I don't know because I don't work on US Fahrenheit stuff. I only work on the UK one.

I can't believe it. It's nice to see you. Tom. Yesterday. Izzy, Volk, Hangman, Rosas, Rico, DJ, but it all comes, you're the final guest. No, Andy, Andy's the final guest. Andy's the big boss. The final guest. And he truly is.

But it is so, I can't believe you're here. Truly, you know why I can't believe you're here? Because like we've been talking about doing this and then you're like, yes, we're going to get the big interview and then I see you with diary of CEO and okay we'll get one more and then I'll see you with ESPN oh one more and then I'll see you on Piersmoor so it's nice that you actually made time for the little people. We made it actually we actually had a terrible journey it took us 32 hours to get here. Why? First of all let me start off by saying British Airways...

Shite. Shite. Okay. Boycott British Airways. Really? Terrible. That bad? Terrible, terrible. First class seats, main it to the gate. So originally we're flying Manchester to London, London direct to Vegas. That was the plan. The first flight was delayed from Manchester to London, London direct to Vegas. That was the plan. The first flight was delayed from Manchester to London. Right? Yep. So anyway, we got there and we still had some time to spare. Rush to the gate.

The gate was still closed. Anyway, the gate opens. We go to scan the ticket and the guy said, because our plane was delayed, even though we made it on time, they automatically canceled us and put us on a flight the day after. What? There were like 20 people who were just cancelled. There were people there with kids who like saved up to go to Vegas like a once in a life. Like it doesn't matter for me really because I'm in Vegas like at least once a year.

So it's pretty regular for me. But there were people there with kids, the kids were crying. They had to like move the flight to the next day. Then the next day we flew to New York. We had a six hour layover in New York and then we got to Vegas. So it was like a 32 hour thing. And there was no, they just said that's just what the system does. So blame it all on the system.

Didn't take no accountability for it. Just canceled our flights for no reason. We made it on time. Everything was good. Absolutely. So I'm being a bit of a Karen. No, no, I know. You're the champ.

I'm just complaining. I just want to put it out there. The champ is never flying with British Airways again. Okay. What about back home? I'm flying with Virgin. You changed it? No, it was Virgin anyway. It was always okay. Big shout out to Virgin.

How has your time been in Vegas? All good? Great. I love Vegas. Vegas is actually my favorite city in the world. Love Vegas. Really? Yeah. Would you ever want to live here? I don't know because it's crazy. I like going into the craziness and then out. Even now I'm not staying on the strip or anything like that. I just go just dipping and actually this is my first, I've been here two days now. This is my first time coming into the strip since I've been here. I just stay away.

Are you going to the fight tomorrow? I'm going to the fight. Okay. Just to watch. Just to watch. Chat with the brass. Yep. going to the fight tomorrow? I'm going to the fight. Okay. Yeah, just to watch Chat with the brass. Yep. Has the chat happened yet? No, when is the chat? I don't know. What do you mean? You don't know. I have no idea. What do you mean? This is this is this is like the crown jewel of the trip, right? What are they just gonna call you come now? Probably. When do you think it happens? Hopefully today? Okay today you'd like for it to be today. We're going to slap tonight. Oh, you are. Yeah.

You fan. You know what? I don't agree with hitting someone else where they can't defend themselves. At least in MMA boxing, kickboxing, et cetera. It's like an art form. And it's like you're expressing yourself through different techniques, putting yourself in different positions, et yourself in different positions, etc. Whereas slap is literally like, I don't know, like a dick measuring competition. So originally no, but I actually went to an event in Vegas last time.

Last time I was here, the other time before. And I actually quite enjoyed it. So I'm going again. Okay. We have a lot to talk about. It's so great to be talking to you and with you in person here. There's a million places to start, but maybe we should start last Saturday. It's around 7 p.m. Eastern time, which is midnight in England. And I'm actually talking in our group chat and I'm like, guys, isn't it't it great these European events they end early for us Isn't it wonderful and then all of a sudden actually Connor writes in the chat Like did you see what Dana just announced so I look online and I see he announces that John Jones is retired

Like 12 minutes into the press conference after someone asked about like is there going to be a deadline Where is Tom Aspinall when this announcement is made? I Was in bed getting ready to sleep. So you're awake? I was, usually. So it was around about midnight-ish. Usually I wouldn't be awake. I usually sleep before then.

That particular day, I had been for a meal with my wife and some friends. We got in a little bit late, not too late, like 10, 11. So I was just, I just like took a shower, was ready to sleep, got in bed, my phone started ringing. I'm like, it was actually my media guy, Charlie, who called me and I'm like, why is Charlie calling me at like midnight? What the hell is going on? So I answered it and I was like, what's up? Like I didn't even, I didn't even like say hello. By the way, if you front that, maybe this will cross out like,

you don't really greet someone in the UK by saying, what's up? What's up is more like a question of, is everything okay? Oh, in the US people say, oh, what's up? Yeah, we're talking. We don't really, we don't really use that in the UK. What's up means like, what's wrong? So I answered it, I was like, what's wrong? What's up? Yeah. And he's like, Dana's just announced that you're the champion.

I was like, what? No way. Anyway, we had a little chat, put the phone down. Hunter Campbell called me, literally as I put the phone down. And as he called it, all I could hear was the press conference going on in the background, like with Dana. And I thought, originally I thought that he'd pocket dial by accident. Oh cuz I was like hello like it was loud Yeah, it was like he was in the same room as Dana and

He just said look just like you know, we've announced the other champion. Congratulations. We'll talk more next week. Bye Does it pretty much? Yeah, pretty much. What is your reaction? I mean I was relieved I was relieved that this is all over because I know you've backed me up on this a lot and I appreciate it. I was never ever ever just chasing John Jones and there was a lot of talk from people online and stuff. Like about there's a lot of comparisons to Chandler chasing McGregor Chandler was chasing McGregor because he wanted a big fight and he wanted some money Basically, that's what that's what's happening there. I didn't care about a big fight or money. I cared about the heavyweight title That's all I've ever been bothered about is

Recognition for being the best heavyweight walking around on planet Earth. That's all they ever wanted to do So originally I'm just like relieved that I can actually fight again. I think a lot of people don't understand that. Look, I do some stuff in the media. I've got a YouTube channel, I do stuff across social media, I've got great sponsors and everything. Like I do stuff in the media obviously. But my job is fighting people and I haven't been able to do that for almost a year

for no reason other than The politics of the UFC so I'm happy just to be able to fight here. So my I called it shameful because Look, it seemed like we were getting to a point you were saying it He was hinting at it that this wasn't happening. And so my thought was you're gonna be here in Las Vegas It's International Fight Week, there's a ton of media, fans, do something. Before the press conference, before the event, I was at UFC Gali 123 when Jose Aldo in Auburn Hills, Michigan was handed the featherweight title.

I was at a press conference when Ronda Rousey was handed something to not soften the blow of the past year, but to make this seem like it's the heavyweight championship of the world, this is important, it's the new era. For it to happen like that in a sort of throwaway question felt very disappointing and deflating. Do you care about any of this or is it really just, I can move on now? There has to be some sort of like appreciation of the pomp and circumstance that it's like... I know you, I see where you're coming from. It isn't great, in all honesty, but for me, in like three months when I fight or whenever I fight, that's all going to be

forgotten about anyway. Like the accolade is still there that I'm the heavyweight champion, I can still fight somebody. So that was my focus. Yeah, it would have been definitely nice to get my flowers a little bit more, but I can do that in the octagon anyway. I'm not, me personally, I'm not too bothered. I can see where, where like yourself and other people are coming from. Like that's a bit of a shitty way to do it. Your father as well. Yeah, my dad was the same. He called it pathetic.

Yep. And I, I can see, I can see where you guys are coming from, but for me personally, I'm just like so focused on what I got to do, which is fight somebody. And that's all I really care about. And so you could probably also acknowledge that this has benefited you, even though it's been frustrating. You can now sit here and say, I believe you retired John Jones. You could sit here and say, I retired John Jones.

And you did say last summer, he will never fight me and he will choose to retire instead of fighting me. So that is a feather in your cap. Again, I see what you mean, but that's like ego talking. Your presence made one of the greatest fighters of all time say, I'm not fighting anymore. It is, but... If you were a 42 year old former champion who was sitting there,

he probably is fighting. Yeah, I think so. In fact, he was campaigning to fight Francis Ngannou not that long ago. Or Alex. Or Alex. Or Alex. So that's a feather. It's a compliment. Yes. Are you taking it as such? I guess so. Yeah. But again, that's like my ego talking. So I'm like, whatever. I'm like done

with that now and I'm ready to move on to be honest. Yeah. I know what that's a, I don't know. Like I've been talking about John Jones. I was happy to talk about John Jones to get the fight. And now the fight's not there. I'm just like, let's just move on. I get it. I get it. Now, when did you start to believe it wasn't happening? Few weeks ago, maybe.

When he, see, everybody seemed to think that John was like playing this game of let's make Tom not think I'm giving him the fight and then I'm just gonna spring it on him. But the MMA community at the highest level is a pretty small world and I know people who've been out in Thailand at similar times that he was there. I know people who are around his circle and I know that from the behavior that he's doing outside the octagon, that he's not gonna fight anytime soon.

Okay, so that's when you started to feel like, when you met with the brass in London in March, when you told us you had the big meeting and there was the photo with you, your father, Hunter Campbell, in that moment did you believe it was happening? You did. Yeah, yeah.

And the UFC always, see, I honestly think I've got to be one of the easiest people for the UFC to ever work with because, and that's not me like blowing my own trumpet. Everything they tell me I do. I never do anything like, they just told me for a year, be ready, stay fit, stay in shape, be ready for a date, be ready for a contract, and that's what I've done for the last year. I've not done nothing else. I've took no vacations, I'm not taking no days off, I'm looking after my diet, I'm doing my recovery, I'm doing the sparring, I'm doing the strength and conditioning, I'm learning

new techniques, I'm doing everything that a professional fighter at the elite level should be doing to get ready for a fight. So that's all I've done for like the last 10 months or whatever it's been. So yeah, it's a bit of a strange situation to be honest, but I'm so glad now that it's just done and I can move on. And I appreciate that. And that's probably your cue to be like, let's move on. But there's still a few things.

I know that you're going to question me. Well, no, because even today, even like two hours ago, he's still tweeting about it. Oh, is he? I don't know. And he said that I told them a thousand times. I told them a thousand times my plan, and they kept telling me like, hey, reconsider, reconsider.

And so while I understand you're a good partner and you want to be a good friend, I do wonder how much of the blame you put. Like, this could have been resolved probably. I reported a few months ago that he asked for a number. They got him the number. I believe Saudi Arabia was involved in that process. He said he was in and then he said he was out.

And Dana White confirmed this last week. He said he was in, he said he was out. At some point though, they could have moved on. And my theory was they were only gonna move on when they had to move on, when they had to make a decision And they wanted you to fight in in November And so I'm just saying I was always saying that the UFC isn't to blame because they got him what he asked for Yeah, but then at some point they got to move it. Yes. So do you put any sort of blame on the promotion? I Think you've got to be able to see John's point of view if I don't know it's difficult to say because I

Don't know anybody else's business. I because I don't know anybody else's business and I don't claim to know anybody else's business. It's just like, I know what they told me. What the UFC are doing and what John's doing is literally nothing to do with me. They told me to be ready. I was ready. They told me it's going to they told me I've got this much time. I was preparing myself for that. And that's that's literally all I can do the money and all that stuff.

And that's got nothing to do with me. So I don't really know. And I know you hate talking about this stuff. Yeah, I don't know who's to blame, to be honest. But it's done. It's done. And I don't want to treat you like a regular journalist because I feel like me and you have a good relationship.

And I would consider you a friend. So I don't want to cut you off and be like, Ariel, we're not talking about it. We'll move on. We'll leave it there and just give you like dead answers. But I'm just like done. I get a whole saga. I get it. Okay. Can I ask you one thing as a, as a, as a fighter, my, I was just talking to DJ about it. DJ was here today. Yeah. Nice. He was here like an hour ago.

Are you not like all talked out after talking to people for so long? This is the culminate. This is my life. Okay, I could do this for eight hours. Got it. This is what I wake up for Stamina you you you wake up for sparring and fighting. This is this is my UFC 300 My theory is you cannot be considered the greatest of all time if you have PED infractions Yeah, and if you don't fight the top guys And so I don't believe George St. Pierre and I know you love George is the greatest of all time as a result that he fought everyone and when he couldn't fight he dropped the belt right away yeah yeah agree or disagree GSP is my greatest of all time goes without saying like he has done

everything like say to two division champion also relinquish both of his losses zero PED stuff and I think I'm not getting at John here, I'm getting at anyone who's failed a PED test. If you're, so this is my view on PEDs personally. If you're a sprinter, for example, you do a hundred meters and you take PEDs and you win a race, you become faster than people who are not taking PEDs from that, that's okay. You're a cheat, you've

won, they'll take your title off you or whatever, that's fine. If your job is to hurt another person, physically hurt another person, which could potentially redirect the rest of their life, pulse fighting, you're an absolute piece of shit and you should never be able to fight again if you have any PED stuff. It's like taking a gun to a knife fight, you know what I mean? It's like taking a knife to a bare-knuckle fight. How can you look yourself in the mirror when you know that you're cheating and you could potentially damage the other person for life? It's disgusting and anybody who's caught doing any kind of PEDs.

And I know there's some tainted supplements out there, but if you do it repeatedly, multiple times, yeah. The first time if it's tainted supplement, whatever, they look into it, you're all good. Fair enough. But if you're talking two, three, four, five times and they're still letting you fight in a promotion, you're a pretty sick individual in my opinion. It shouldn't be allowed. Or you do it the other way and you go, listen, no testing. Anyone can take what they want

And I think that is a there's a place for that as well There's other organizations that don't test at all if you want to do that go and do that over there but you're in the UFC fighting the elite and you're Failing multiple drug tests, and I'm not talking about John Jones in particular. I'm talking about anybody who's failed multiple PD tests Just because of the nature of the sport and how dangerous it is, I think it's disgusting. Can I tell you one of the things that was so frustrating about all this? And by the way, for anyone who thinks

that you're putting on a frontier by saying, oh, it was never about John Jones, these are the exact same things that you would say. I've been saying this for two years. But you would say it in private as well. Even when I would say, did you see this? What do you think of this? You have been consistent.

And so when he would try to make it into a thing like you're obsessed with him, and I would always say like, how many more times does the guy have to say, he doesn't really care, it would be a nice cherry on top, but he wants the belt. When he would try to make this narrative that you're an asshole,

that you haven't been going about it the right way. When you're literally being like, John, I like you, I just wanna fight you, all good. It was that attempt, that attempt. When he was trying to say like, this isn't a fight that interests me or you haven't done anything to deserve it. You look at your resume, you can make a very strong case that this would be the biggest fight on his resume since DC2 in 2017.

With all due respect to Anthony Smith and Thiago Santos and Dominic Reyes and even Cyril and Stipe, Dana himself said it was the biggest heavyweight fight of all time. So there were a lot of attempts I think to to make you into the bad guy or to change the narrative which I think ultimately have have now fallen on deaf ears. So I know you don't like to like weigh in on all this stuff or let it seep into your to your psyche but in the end it's the best-case scenario other than fighting him. How this all played

out in your favor I would say best- case scenario other than fighting him. How this all played out in your favour, I would say best case scenario other than fighting him. I mean, I guess, but you know what? I think that... See, for me, the second that I won the interim title, I think that a lot of people looked at me a little bit different to a regular interim champion, in my opinion. You should have been the undisputed champion that night. Yeah, that's what I think. Just because of the politics around it and the way that, you know, things happen.

But for me, I was always a champion anyway, interim or not, in my opinion, in my own view. But I would have liked to have taken it from the other champion as in a fight. That would have been nice. But I guess it's worked out pretty good anyway, I guess. It's difficult because for me, it's really, really simple. And like you said, people, they always want to ask me about John Jones and stuff. And this very interview right now

will be the last time I speak about it. I'm never going to speak to it again. You're done. I'm done with it. Anybody who asks me moving forward will get completely shut down about it. I'm not going to speak about it again. Okay. Um, but like from here, like I just want to be done with it. I get it.

I just want to move on. Uh, but I did want to fight him for it. I think that would have been the right thing to do. How do you think it would have gone? Can I ask? Me and John. Yeah. I'm, I'm the ultimate MMA nerd.

I love MMA. I absolutely love MMA. I live and breathe for MMA. I've trained since I was 10 years old, 32 years old. Everything that I do in my life is centered around me being the best version of myself that I can be. Other things aside, the title, who John is, all the hype around it, all the money and all that kind of stuff. I legit wanted to find out how my style would get on with it. One of the greats like John Jones, I legit wanted to test my skills against his skills in a combat situation.

But if you're going to ask me how I think I would have got on, after watching his last performance, I would favor myself to be honest. I would hope so. Yeah, I would. myself, to be honest. I would hope so. Yeah. In what way? Submission, knockout? Well, there's a lot of facets to my game that a lot of people haven't seen, which is great. That's the biggest advantage I've got in my game is the fact that there's so many question

marks about me. And I absolutely love it. That's one of my favorite things about where I'm at right now. Another thing is I have the best heavyweight team in the world, in my opinion. 100%. Some of the best heavyweights and light heavyweights in the world train with us now. Now our group is really tight. It's a tight-knit group of people who know what I'm all about and that's amazing.

Outside of that circle, nobody really knows me. I'm not going down to the PI all the time. I'm not training in ATT and these really popular gyms where everyone has access to me. Yeah, we put stuff out on YouTube, but it's all censored. I'm not putting that stuff out there about my actual game. So I am this massive mystery to everybody and nobody knows anything about me really, apart from a couple of minutes here and there in the octagon, which is one of the biggest advantages I've got. Can I ask you about that word undisputed? Do you consider yourself the undisputed champion now because John didn't beat Francis and unfortunately you didn't beat John. So can you still carry yourself? Do you believe you're the undisputed champion?

I don't know. I see a lot of people and they're always like, oh, the belt only counts when you defend it or whatever. What a lot of bullshit. Like if you got the belt, you're the champion. Simple as that for me. What I'd like to fight for it, I would have loved to have fought for it.

I didn't have the opportunity to fight for it, unfortunately. Um, so yeah, I do consider myself the undisputed champion. Yeah, of course. I mean, I am the undisputed champion. Sure. I just didn't know if you subscribe to that notion that you talked about, or I need to beat the guy to beat the guy or a lot of, so we were having this debate a couple of days ago, the next one, if it is in fact against Cyril, some might say,

okay, John beat him in two minutes, three minutes, they're gonna compare your performance. Do you think like that? Do you need to be? No, I don't think like that. No, it's not important to me. I just gotta beat the guy who's in front of me, that's it. Nothing else is, all the other stuff,

it's pretty relevant to what I'm doing. Because of all the drama of this past year, because there's gonna be a huge spotlight. I mean, arguably when you fight, it will be the biggest fight of 2025. Right? I don't know about that. There's some big fights coming up. Man, but you have been the story. This has been a saga that has gone on since November 18th of last year, essentially. Right? Does it feel like you need to prove a point? Do

you have to remind people that you were worthy of all this talk? Do you think of any of those things? You put that pressure on yourself. I do a little bit. It's in there somewhere, but ultimately I just got to do my thing. I'm the best heavyweight in the world. I got to prove it. And one of the massive advantages I've had is that I haven't been in camp. I've been training consistently every day for a year nearly, but I haven't been in camp, which any fighter will know that when you're in camp, you've got like eight, 12, six, whatever you do training camp, and you've got that time to prepare for a specific opponent.

Whereas with me, because I never signed a contract, I always thought I was going to fight John Jones, but I didn't know. I've just been consistently training just to get better. And the improvements I've made over the last 10, 11, 12 months, it's like unprecedented to any other improvement that I've made in my career. So I think that now I've added so much to my game that People just have no idea what they're up against even more. So than they did like this time last year So this is a this is good. These are really good advantages for me

By the way at any point did they call you up and say like hey Like we've got a fight if you want to headline this show You can defend your inter like did they even cross that bridge with you at all? Or was it always just... I mean, they contracted to... The three fights, right? No. No. No. But the way that they were like, you can fight somebody else, but we'd rather you didn't.

Okay. So they were on board with you. They really wanted me to fight John. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So, just some other stuff going on like, I don't really like talking about money and that publicly, but the fight would, I wanted the biggest fight and I wanted to fight for the title. Do you know what I mean?

That's what I was chasing the whole time. So I just wanted to go for that. I have heard you say two fights in 25. Yes. But realistically, like how, if the first one's in October, it's very rare that they give another... It is rare. It is, but I'm here to set the records. Have they told you, we're going to make this right by you?

We're going to try to make this happen? I'm going to tell them. Okay. In the meeting. Can I come to the meeting? I don't know if you want. Can I be there? If you want. No, I don't know what I'm going to do, but... All you need is Andy, by the way. I can't wait for that. Andy's a, what's the meeting? Can I be there? If you want. No, I don't know what I'm going to do. All you need is Andy, by the way.

I can't wait for that. Andy's a, what's the word, shrewd. Is that the right word? He's a shrewd businessman, so he can get stuff done. So is that the hope, October, December? Yeah. Yeah, that's what I'd like to do. I mean, things can happen in MMA, as we know.

I might get injured, somebody else might get injured, whatever. I was just wondering, sooner is impossible because everything's booked. Everything's booked that's the biggest issue that we're dealing with right now. There's two pay-per-views in October do you have a preference? 5th and 25th is that correct? Vegas and Abu Dhabi do you have a preference? I think 26. Earlier would be better of course because I'm ready to fight.

Yeah get it over with yeah. Well I ain't getting it over with. Well I just mean like you want to get on. I'm going to go and enjoy myself. Yes, of course. I'm going to get it over with. I'm going to loving everything about it. See, the issue is with Vegas in particular, as I mentioned at the top of the interview, Vegas is my favorite city in the world. Yeah. The problem is it's on the other side of the world for me. Yeah. It's an eight hour time difference and that takes preparation. Also, if I'm fighting in Abu Dhabi, we're talking way less tax, first of all, so it's better for me financially.

Even with Vegas, no state tax here. Yeah, but you still have to pay American tax. And also it's a three hour time difference from the UK, which works a lot better in my favor, but I would want to fight earlier. So ultimately I do what I'm told I'm just Is there any chance MSG they say oh, I'm actually in November. Yeah, I don't want to wait till November Yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't I want to fight as early as possible Yeah, I'm ready to go I could be ready to go this weekend if they wanted me to really yeah I mean, I'd rather not I just had a big dirty fries and stuff last night

I rather not but you could like you seem to be in shape. I've been sparring I've been doing all kinds. I'm really lucky because just talking about the team again. Just going back to that we set up a You know, we got a few guys not a few guys forgot maybe Eight eight to ten guys heavyweights who were with us all the time and then other guys fly in for their camps now from other places in the world. So I can, unless I want to like get my ass kicked on a regular basis, which isn't great. I got to stay ready to spot these guys at all times. Like guys are flying in for the camps from everywhere, from all parts of the world. And I have one of the best training partners, one of my closest training partners now.

We've just got signed to the UFC. Auntie. Yeah. He is a former PFL champion. He's just got signed to the UFC. Antti. Yeah. He is a former PFL champion. He's just recently signed to the UFC and he's essentially moved over from Croatia to train with us full-time. And he has brought me on so much in like the last year.

And he's going to be doing big stuff in the UFC himself. So it's going to be good. What happens, there's a few of you. So we now have me, you got to remember the UFC heavyweight division is very shallow. Yes. In comparison to other divisions. There's me, Mick, Ante and Martin Boudet, who's ranked as well. Yep. Or maybe just outside the rankings. So there's like, if Ante wins his first fight,

I can't reveal his fight right here, but he's fighting someone in the top 10 straight away. So if he wins his fight, he's probably going to be in the top 10. We're going to have four ranked heavyweights out the top 15 in the gym training together. So what happens? I don't know. I have no idea. You're good buddies with these guys. Yeah. So I've got a rule. Do you want to know my rule? Yes. If somebody comes to my house, I'm never going to fight them. Wow. Yeah. And have they all been to your house? They've all been to my house. Oh gosh.

Yeah. So my home is very precious to me. Yeah. That's like, I believe your home is like your little part of the world. Sure. So if I invite someone to my home, that means that I trust them 100%. Not anybody can just walk up to my door and come in. I don't trust people like that.

So if someone's invited into my home with my family, I trust them 100%. And if I'm going to fight somebody and I've got bad intentions, I can't do that to someone who's been in my home. That's my rule. I respect it. I respect it. And those guys are doing great. And I even saw, we had Rico, I was just talking to him. Rico's my good friend as well. He's my training partner for a long time. This is something people need to know about you. You have, like, the kids say I'm glazing. You know what that means?

Of course I do. They're glazing. I'm not glazing. I'm telling it like it is, because I have the privilege of interacting with so many of you guys over the years. I ask you to come do this. The first thing you say is,

hey, by the way, I don't know if you know this, but Rico's in town too, if you want to talk to him. He had already been booked. Yeah, I didn't know if you know this, but Rico's in town too, if you want to talk to him. He had already been booked. Yeah, I didn't know. That just speaks to who you are as a person. You keep wanting to talk about your team. By the way, we didn't talk about Phil DeFries. Phil DeFries, legend.

He's got another fight coming up as well. Already? Which is great already. I don't know if I can announce that. I apologize if I do. But it just speaks to, and you always tell me like, hey, Phil, like show him some love. You're always looking out for others, which I appreciate.

And people need to know that. Not a lot of people do that. I saw you and Rico do this thing where you're punching each other in the stomach. Yeah, Rico's a crazy man. Yeah, what is that? Rico's one of them guys who acts normal, but he's absolutely insane.

Yeah, you know one of them type of guys. He comes across really normal, but he's insane. His hair is clawed off to the side. He looks like a choir boy. Oh, he looks fantastic. Yeah, he looks fantastic. The guy is a absolute machine. And you got to remember, I'm at the top level now,

but when me and Rico started trading together, which is like 10 years ago. Yeah. Fury, right? Fury camp. We started, we met in the Fury camp. Yeah. I was a nobody.

And Rico has always been amazing to me. Absolute inspiration. The things that Rico does, even though we're in different sports, I try and take that on myself, which is just the way he acts outside the ring, his day-to-day habits, the way he lives. Rico's an awesome guy. I think someone else who doesn't get enough love is his coach, Dennis. He is my coach as well.

Me and Rico, we're essentially from the same team. Even though we're in different sports, we swap ideas. We go there, they come to us and stuff like that. Dennis is like a family friend of ours as well. Works closely with my dad and Dennis is like the mind behind Rico as well. So Dennis isn't a guy who loves the media. You won't catch Dennis on the interviews or anything like that, but he's a, he's a serious mind when it comes to combat sports as well. That thing where he's punching you in the stomach. Yeah. And like he, I don't know if you saw the video, you had this meter and you guys are going at like 25%

35% how much that hurt well that day for You gotta remember me and Rico been sparring together for a long time. Yeah that day. I think we yeah we did We just sparred that day. Yeah, look like you did We're already punching each other for like maybe eight rounds standing there and you can't block it. I know. I don't know. Rico's a crazy person. I just, but I love it.

I love... He pitched us this idea. So I first came up with the idea of him fighting Francis. And then he said, let's take it another level. Let's do three fights, MMA boxing, kickboxing spread out over a few months. Pretty damn cool. I like it. I like it a lot.

I think... What's the score at the end of that? So they do MMA boxing. See, the thing is with Rico, he's like such a big athletic guy and he's so like in tune with his body. If that makes sense. He's been in combat sports his whole life like me.

I'm sure he could pick up grappling pretty quick. That being said, Francis has been grappling for a long time. I think it would definitely be 2-1 to Rico. He'd win the boxing and the kickboxing. Yeah, yeah, I think so. The boxing is like the ultimate... I think, I said to Rico, I think that they should have a boxing fight with MMA gloves. I think that would be a good little hybrid.

The thing with Rico that he struggles with, not that he struggles with, because the thing just that the world struggles with is he has totally eclipsed his sport. Yeah. Like no one else. There's no one even, not at the moment, there's no one close to him. Like he is way bigger than the sport of kickboxing, which is a shame because if Rico has done in MMA what he's done in kickboxing, he will be the ultimate megastar, which he is in like Holland and the areas where kickboxing is massive. The problem is globally kickboxing isn't that

big and that's no fault of Rico's, it's just the sport that he's in. But I think Rico's got a little bit more in the tank to do whatever he wants. He should get what he deserves financially and not only financially but he should be respected because he's the goal of kickboxing. Has he been to your house? Rico has not been to my house, but I've been to Rico's house. So that's equally- I saw you guys eating together. Yeah, that's equally as important.

Okay, okay, okay. So like for me, if someone invites me to the house, that's big stuff. Okay, okay. Like I said to you before, if you're in Manchester, you're invited to my house. Appreciate that. That goes like a long way with me. I don't just bring anyone into my house. That means a lot.

So I've been to Rico's house. Rico looks after me every time I'm in Holland. So he's my friend. I would never fight him. Greater chance of happening in your career before it's all said and done. Tom Aspinall versus Francis Nganu. Tom Aspinall versus John Jones. Oh, I don't know.

I think it's so difficult to say because if I sit here and say, John's done, I don't know John. So I don't know if he is done or not. I don't know if this is normal. Is he yesterday said he thinks he comes back? Maybe is he knows him better than I do. I don't know John. I don't claim to know John.

I know he's going through some demons right now and I genuinely, genuinely wish him the best of luck. Genuinely. I have no ill will towards him at all. I hope that everything's all right with his life. Do you think he retired because of all this? I don't know. I don't know why he thought so.

Is that why they announced it early in your opinion? I thought so. And then I asked the reporter who broke the news and he said, he was sitting there. He saw the news. It was a local reporter in New Mexico and he said oh let me just take a look at the police records of the last few months see if anything pops up and there it was because it was in February and somehow got... I wasn't sure if it was

like a pre-arranged question. It seems crazy no I don't think so but it's just an insane coincidence maybe the UFC thought it was coming and they were trying to get, I don't know, but the whole thing is very weird. I don't know, they said that they spoke to him last night, so maybe it was just fresh on his mind and he was just like, I'm done with this shit. I'm just going to say it. Who knows, man.

They knew that I was coming to Vegas this week though, so I don't see why they didn't just wait, but that ain't my job, man. I'm just here to fight people, that's all. By the way, I asked you about the timeframe. If it was up to you, don't just say anyone. Oh yeah. Who are you fighting?

You know, I know you said don't just say anybody, but I'm honest with you. Come on, Tom! I'm an easy guy. I'm an easy guy to get to fight somebody. Yeah, here's the history. Surreal, Gans there. There's Surreal or Jelton.

It's the biggest history. Or we can do Volkov too. But that's a bit weird because he's coming off a loss. Which I actually did think he won, to be fair. Almeida's actually fair play to him. He's been pushing. But you and Cyril have like a two year thing. Yeah, probably longer.

You've got to remember that since... So we got in the UFC around about the same time, I think. I think he maybe had one or two fights before me. There was always talks about us fighting each other. I was chasing that fight when he was above me. Yeah, I remember him saying he didn't want to fight back. Yeah, he didn't want to fight. He said it on your bloody show.

That's why I was watching that thinking, oh my God, this guy doesn't want it. Any of them, all of them. You know what I mean? I'm here to fight people, so anybody's good. Somebody wants to fight me. I like that, man. I love that. I love that. You know, Almeida is interesting because of the ground game.

Yeah, I like it. Cool. Love it. Love it. Those are the two fights 2025. The problem is you've been interim champ or had to work your way up. You fought a lot of the dudes already. There's not a lot of fresh blood. Do you know what I'd like to do? This is going to be tough because of the teammate thing. I'd like to beat all of the top 10. That's what I'd like to do? This is going to be tough because of the teammate thing. I'd like to beat all of the top 10.

That's what I'd like to do. Okay, where are we at now? I think I beat six now. You beat six. We have the rankings. I beat about six, I think, at the top 10. Currently? Yes, and all in the first round.

Jeez, that's crazy. Here it is, here it is. So, Cyril, you haven't. No, Volkov I did. Yep, Pavlovich I did. Blades you did. Almeida too, no. Oh, this is, see, there. No, Volkov I did. Yep. Pavlovich I did. Blades you did. Almeida too, no. Oh, there's even like people sneaking in now.

Tibora I did. Spivak I did. Tsevasa, Derrick Lewis, Waldo, Cortez, Okofsa, I didn't. All right, so you've got some work to do. Yeah, I've got some work to do, yeah. But a lot of these, like, you know, some of them aren't losing streaks. I don't know if they ever get to you. Yeah, it's a tricky situation, isn't it?

I understand. The heavyweight division is not, it's not the glory days of the heavyweight division. Not right now but I have faith let's make heavyweight great again. Are there any dudes that you see like uh you know who are one and only UFC that are coming up that you're like okay this guy. I don't keep track to be honest with you. No no not anymore. What about Alex? That's the biggest one. Alex.

Pereira. Oh yeah that's cool. You see him on the scale. He was like 243. Yeah, but I think that's pretty regular though. Pretty normal, no? Yeah. I don't know. But I think... I don't know Alex again. I don't know him at all. If I just lost the way he did, I would want to go get that one back. But I don't know Alex. Did they ever try to make it even last year. I don't really know. You know, to my knowledge, you guys were kind of flirting with each other.

I quite like flirting with ideas. Online flirting is my, there was some, I don't know how much of that was just like for fun or real. Well, there was that picture. Someone took a picture of like me staring at him, but I do that with all the fighters, Alex, I like fighter psychology. So I like to look how they're looking right before they step in the octagon. That's Interesting for me. I believe coach Andy's

Listen, I'm just gonna sit back. You're the second most talked about Aspin all in the world right now Let's say hello to the most talked about Aspin all in the world right now. Here he is the man himself. Mr. Aspin all Please have a seat I said I said the man himself, Mr. Aspenall. How are you, sir? Good to see you. I've been looking forward to this. Please have a seat. I said to your son that he's the second most talked about Aspenall in the world right now.

You're the first. Really? Yes. By the way, I love this Las Vegas Andy Aspenall look. With the shorts, it's a very chilled look. All you're missing is one of those hats and the big drink. You know? The one with the drink attached.

If you don't mind just talking into the... Don't be shy, I know you're not shy Andy. I'm not shy. Come in. Frank, you hear him okay? Hello, hello. Okay. We're working through it. By the way, look at this gear.

Champion. Sold out? You can't get any more. The heavyweight range is sold out. It's sold out. It's gone yesterday. Worldwide or in America? Worldwide. It's now available though on the US stores. So if you want to buy it, you can head over there. It's beautiful stuff, don't you think? It's incredible.

I know you love the champion stuff. Well, I couldn't help but notice. I think you did an interview yesterday with ESPN and you were gifting stuff. That was the last one, mate. Sorry. Wow. Sorry, sorry. We did try. Even Connor tried to buy off the website. No, we sent it to the offices, don't worry. Ah, OK.

It's coming. It's coming your way. Appreciate that. How are you, sir? I'm good. Thank you. Yep. Well, I'm not P.T. Carroll, your favorite media member, but this will have to do.

We talk. No, I know. But I know P.T.'s number one on your Pound for Pound list, as he should be. Yep. He's the man. You made your opinions known. I was just wondering, did he call you up afterwards?

After this, and what did your son say to you when this article came out? He doesn't, he was all right. He was okay with it? I can only be honest. Sure. Somebody asked me a question, I'm probably old enough and wise enough to just

give an answer. And if people don't like the answer they don't like the answer Right, there's only a certain amount of shits you can give and I think that when you're 62 years old How many knee surgeries you had done? 24 knee surgeries. Is that true? Quadruple bypass Quadruple heart bypass. Wow. Two neck surgeries. Tom did most of them. No, that's a lie. Responsible for it. That's a lie Quadruple bypass? When was that? a lie. Responsible for it. That's a lie. Quadruple bypass? When was that?

2018. Didn't know. Just had pains. Wow. I think you should tell them the full story about the way that you had a heart attack. It's fantastic. Tell us. I just was getting pains in my chest when I was grappling.

So he stood me up against the wall, pushing on my chest, because I was in a match with somebody one night. And it turned out, I went to the hospital and just said, look, I'm getting these pains my chest because I was in a match with somebody one night. And it turned out, I went to hospital and just said, look, I'm getting these pains. I think I've had half to tell you. No, no, I think he's missed a bit out. Do you want me to tell you?

Please. So we used to be grappling and stuff in the gym. And he used to say like, I've got this pain in my chest when he was like rolling and stuff. He's like, when I get my heart rate up, I can feel this pain in my chest. And he said the same when you were walking the dog as well.

He said, as soon as my heart rate gets up, I get this pain in my chest. And you said the same when you were walking the dog as well. He said, as soon as my heart rate gets up, I get this pain in my chest. So he kept going and going, didn't it? Like he was training and it kept happening. And then he said, right, I'm going to go and walk the dog. I'm going to get my heart rate up. I'm going to go to the hospital and tell him that I've had a heart attack.

So he walked the dog, got in the car, drove to the hospital and he said, I've got this chest pain. I think I might've had a heart attack. And he said, yeah, you have. Wow. Stay in and have a quadruple bypass. Yeah, so you had to stay in the hospital for like, it was about three months, weren't it? Three months?

No, it wasn't three months. It felt like it. Yeah, no, it wasn't. It was about six weeks though, weren't it? Yeah, I was in hospital a while. Wow. Two weeks or whatever and then it was all right. And then you were back on the mats. And so can I ask, you know, I asked him where he was.

He told me he just had a shower, he was about to go to bed. Where were you when the news came out last week? About Tom being champion. Yeah. I was at home, we got a text message. No, I got a phone call from you. You were awake? I was awake, yeah.

I don't go to bed early. Got a phone call from Tom saying, guess what, Dan White's announced. And at the same time he he was talking to Tom Hunter, said Dane has just announced in the press conference that Tom's the champion. What was your reaction? We've done this a long time.

So I just think there are a lot better ways of doing, you know, it's the flagship weight group. It should be a hat. John Jones retired. That should have been done properly. Announcing a champion, I think should be a hat. John Jones retired. That should have been done properly. Announcing a champion, I think should be done properly. Sure. And I don't think it was done properly.

At any point where you, and people should know, not only are you Tom's father, you're his head coach, you're his manager as well. So you- Agent, manager. Agent, manager, whatever. Better title, give me that. You're the guy, you're the guy. So your opinion is very, very important and valid. At any point where you told, manager, whatever. Better title, give me that. You're the guy, you're the guy. So your opinion is very, very important and valid.

At any point where you told, hey, if it's going to happen where it's not going to be Tom versus John, we have these plans, International Fight Week, we're going to do this, we're going to make a ceremony, we're going to hand him the belt. Were you ever told something different than what had played out last week in Baku? No, we'd always been told that they'd got the John fight.

And we thought they'd got the John fight. And then we got asked when we were coming to international fight week, and I asked why, and Hunter said, things will get sorted there. So we didn't ask any questions what was going to get sorted and how. And then that news came up. Okay. Fair to say that it was a little deflating for you. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

I'm old, you know, seeing a lot of things in life. It was just, I just don't think it was done properly. I think there's a lot better ways to have done it. And if I sat anybody in my seat or in his seat and said, could you have done it better? 99% of people would have said, yeah, they could have done it better. That meeting that you had in London with Hunter, did you believe afterwards that it was gonna happen?

Yeah, we thought we were gonna get the John Jones fight. They were always very confident there. There was an incentive for Tom, and Tom wanted to be the best guy there's ever been, obviously, and if he had took a fight, it would have probably been in July anyway, because we were in March then maybe. And then International Fight Week, we thought we'd missed that, so it wouldn't be then.

But it could have been then. So we thought it'd be about, it'd have 12 months off. Or it could have been November. And we thought, well, another few months isn't going to make a difference. We'll just wait another few months. This process where you have a son who's a fighter who's the best in the world, who's healthy, who's ready to go, and you have to train him, but you can't, you're not training for anything, right?

You don't have a date, you don't necessarily have an opponent. As his coach, how did you manage that? Because I can't imagine what's that like as a pro athlete, waking up every morning without the thing in your mind that you have to, you know, strive towards? The hard bit for me was that, you know, we found out that John's got injured maybe two weeks before he got the call to go to fight Pavlovic. And I said to him, this isn't going to turn out good. What do you mean? John Jones has got a history of being notorious and hard to deal with.

So John Jones had fallen out of a fight for the championship. The guy who was supposed to fight, the backup fighter, didn't step in for whatever reason. So he didn't fight Pavlovic, which he should have done for the title. And John Jones should have been retiring or get fit and come back. And he didn't. So they rang and said Not will you save the card? But we've got a heavyweight fight with a guy Jones and steep here was off the table. So there's tom and pavlovich fighting for interim

And I said if you win this it's going to be hard work so we've gone through a period where He won the interim You defend an interim whatever an interim is And loads of shit. I don't read the internet. I don't go on the internet. If anybody's listening to this and adds me on stuff, it's not me, because I don't do it. But you get loads of stuff coming up saying, you should do this, you should do that. But you're their interim world champion and you've beaten five, six, I mean, at the top ten. You've beaten six maybe.

So now he's in line for fighting John Jones. So we have to sit and wait. And then will he fight in the middle of the night against, you know, Taibura? Yes, he will because it's in the hometown. He wants the win back. So we took that fight. Blades, blades, blades. Sorry.

Bloody hell. Going mad. So blades, four blades in the middle of the night. And hard preparation with him. You know, what do I do? Do I eat? Do I not eat? Do I sleep? Do I not sleep?

You know, we've got all that and Leon had some difficulty doing it. So we were along with kind of doing that, not doing that. He wins that fight, right? We're going to get a next fight. When is it going to be? You're going to be a backup fighter now. Oh, this is going to be awful, Tom.

So we had to do a 12 week training camp and he's saying, they're not going to fight me. So yeah, you have to make him train. Not, he's a real good athlete and wants to train, but it's still difficult. He's still got very, very hard sparring partners. He's got to be switched on every session so we don't get injured. So we do that and then that goes and you get some money for that. And then we've got to wait for John Jones then.

So we've been waiting, it's going to be two years almost. Where we don't, where I as a coach, don't know how to prepare the athletes. We've worked on loads of stuff. He's got a lot better than he was because everybody tells us that. Got eyes, you can see that, but it's not been ideal. We would have preferred fight, fight, fight

because that's how he earns a living. Unfortunately, he's not been earning a living. Sure. Which is not good. Has that been tough Tom? Well, not only a living. Yeah, but getting money. You mean? Yeah, I mean, I've got some great sponsors I love the champion shouts champion and others and others. Yeah. Yeah, I've got I've got a lot of good stuff and I've I've got a good contracts as well. I mean We've made some money. Do you know I mean,? But I don't, I still want to make more.

But you're approaching 11 months without your main thing. Yeah, I want to make as much as I can, yeah. It's not the money as such, it's more just like being active. I just enjoy fighting, so it was more that as opposed to anything else. How did Champion come about? Because this is a very, by the way, like one of the greatest in terms of like synergistic

sponsorships of all time, this being such a big story. We've done well, both of us with the timing and stuff. Golly, they couldn't have scripted. Did you reach out to them? They reach out to you? How did this happen? A little bit of both. Champion is someone that I've known about Champion forever.

They've had a little bit of a dip in the recent years and I want to help bring them back up. But I think it's just like an authentic brand. We had a lot of meetings with a lot of other brands when I became a free agent on the clothing side of things. Is it Apparel or Apparel? I never know how to say it. Apparel.

Apparel, I think Apparel as well. Apparel sounds French. Yeah, I don't like that. No, no, no. Apparel. On the Apparel stuff, we had a lot of meetings with a lot of great companies and stuff, but Champion just felt right.

I just felt like I really liked the guys who worked there. I really liked the brand. They gave me, what's the word? Shaq said it in his documentary. They gave him creative control. They gave me creative control. So you have a say. I have a say of what I want my stuff to look like.

Lovely. Yeah. And I just felt like the team were just, we just clicked really well. And I just think I clicked well with the brand in general. And I just felt like the team were just, we just clicked really well. And I just think I clicked well with the brand in general. And it's unique to you. There's no other MMA fighter that has a deal with them. I think they just signed a boxer I saw.

Katie Taylor. Katie, Jesus. Yeah, of course. I sent it to the guys. You're a big Katie Taylor. I adore Katie. Yeah, yeah, that's for me. She's coming back in two weeks.

Yes, of course. I saw the promo was brilliant. Yeah. Yeah. I just think they're great. And I think that I really want to like head up that resurgence of champion. But not only that, it's a long term deal. It's going to take me to at least the end of my fighting

career. But now just working with them even for a few months, it's something that I want to do beyond fighting as well. I think that I want to work with champion hopefully beyond fighting and the rest of my working life. Can I ask you Andy, I'm a father as well, my kids are much younger than your kids. How many kids do you have by the way? Well, two sons. Two sons. The other one's younger, right?

The other one's three and a half years younger. He trains too? Fights? No. No interest? Maybe we thought he had it first, but tons of ability. Super tough. Not that interested in fighting.

Heavyweight? What do you mean? Same. What does he do? Exactly the same. He just works for a company. It's normal. Regular job.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Happy. Trains, teaches Jiu-Jitsu a bit. Lovely. Good Jiu-Jitsu guy. I have two boys as well. Yeah. I watch them play soccer, they're 13 and 11. If someone even like breathes on my son, I don't say anything,

but like you want to defend your child, right? Your cub. And so again, the relationship is different. To see all this happening to your son, how difficult has the past year been for you? The last three or four years have been not difficult. I've loved it. You know, it's what I packed in a job when I was teaching.

I was doing MMA guy, sorry. I was a computer guy. Didn't do MMA because I'm Mr. Boat, I was too old. And I fell in love with jujitsu. So I can pass a skill onto my kids jujitsu. So both of them did it. How old were you when you started? Jujitsu?

Yeah. 30, 1996 or 97. Okay, wow. 30 something. Yeah. So just loved the sport because my knees were bad and couldn't stand up. So I started teaching jujitsu and I just thought it was something I could get my kids to do. They love it. He's always loved it. And then he changed his mind and went MMA a bit.

And then went boxing and then went back to MMA. Fallouts at the time, he didn't want to do it anymore. Tons of ability. Managed to steer him the right way and do it. Was there a point where you were actually done done? About six times. Oh, loads of times. I would have been done if it weren't for my dad.

Really? Yeah, we've had some big arguments over it. What do you mean? He came to you and said? What was the last time no, he's not done it Okay, yeah, but like you were still a pro MMA fighter Yeah, yeah, and what was the reason because there isn't pro MMA outside the US sure sure sure well maybe Well, there is cage. No cage Roy is PFL and yeah Maybe in, you know. Well, there is KJW.

No, KJW is PFL and. Yeah, yeah. It was so hard to get fights. It was just hard to make money. When you're fighting on the local scene, you ain't, I mean, technically you're a professional MMA fighter, but you're not supporting your family doing that. You're not paying your rent or barely even buying food.

Did you have another job? Yeah, I had multiple other jobs. Like what? You used to teach Jiu-Jitsu. I used to teach Jiu-Jitsu. Something I actually really enjoyed. So it wasn't like work as such. I used to work in a gym, I used to work security, I used to be like a delivery driver for a

takeaway. Wow, wow. Stuff like that. I'd done bits and bats of everything just to get by. And why didn't you let him move on? It's kind of back to your question. He had tons and tons of ability. And I just knew that my dad used to say to my, to me, and then to my kids. And he used to stand them in front and say, every day I'm getting better.

I'm better. He used to make the kids say that to him. That was his kind of mantra. And he, and he adopted that. And at Jiu-Jitsu, he just got better and better. The other son did. He just kept getting better. The hard thing was he couldn't get fights. Packed in the fighting, went boxing. Boxing fights he had to pay the opponent, long story, but he didn't like it. He didn't thought the training was a bit boring because there was no grappling in

because he was essentially a grappler. And then got into MMA and then we did the MMA bit for a while and then he just wanted to sack it off. He said I'm not doing it. It's not right. I don't like this about this I don't like he didn't like lots of things and it's just you've got to do it And we just have lots of hearts of hearts where he's got it. I have no money So we lent him money and you've got to do this You've got the bit just give it one more try and the kind of one more try and the trying to do everything

He's talked about it multiple times in interviews to try and do everything properly. You're going to get this guy to do this for you. You're going to do this. You're not going to listen to this guy over here. This guy, we don't want him in the gym. You know, different things that we've... I've found the hard bit is everybody, like even yesterday, everybody wants a piece of him now. You know, the and hits pads with somebody and they're telling him how to be the best fighter in the world because they've hit pads once with him.

You know, and I just find it a weird world. That's why I don't do the social media. I can't. I'm there every day, rain, hail, shine for 25 years of training with him. I know him million times better than anybody. Sure, sure. But everybody else, and this is the irritating bit to me sometimes, but I'm good at switching off now.

They'll tell stories about Tom and I'll be sat there, and then they'll look at me and they'll go, do you know this? I say, yeah, but you got the story wrong. Because I know the story. Yeah, of course. And you're... Sure, sure, sure.

And you know what it's like, the gossip, and it's just different when it's like, the gossip. And it's just different when it's famous if you like. Everybody will say, he'll want a piece of you, he'll want a piece of you, he'll want to do this. And everybody's his best friend. Since the word undisputed appeared, phones never stop ringing. He's got multiple best friends who he's not seen for 20, 30, you know, a long time. Yeah. You've got relatives ringing you up, can he do this, can he do that? It's just gone a bit crazy, the world. Hearing this, I sort of lament the fact

that you didn't get that moment in the cage where you get to beat the guy and get... But maybe that moment was New York. Yeah, maybe. Was that moment New York to you? No. What is success? What is being great? You know, you do it and you achieve something.

And then you wake up the next morning, you're back to where you were. You've got a bad back, you've still got a bad back, you're still aches, you know. You've still got to go through the same process and do it again. And it's at a time where you say, do I look back here and enjoy it? I just don't know the point in life, not me personally, but how people are you there or are you leveling off for you? Because he's a heavyweight fighter that anything happens to. He loves the sport, he loves to compete. He's not been competing. He wants

to get back to competing. And I just think then we just go on another journey where he'll compete another five, ten times. And he might lose some, he might win them all, who knows, but it's just a sport. I asked him earlier how would the Jones fight have gone and he gave a very nice talk. I think in the last year he's... How would it have gone? If they would have fought in November, how do you think the fight goes? The John Jones that we saw last November.

Yeah, but they're fighting this November. I don't know what Jones... The John Jones that we saw last November. Yeah, but they're fighting this November. I Don't know Jones if it was the Jones that was in the cage against steep a Last year and he'd afford Tom last year Tom would have eaten him How if it if I think how we wanted okay because John Jones didn't look that fast that fit that good If he'd trained really well Tom's trained really well this, if Tom this year would have fought that Jones last year, I think he could have done anything. Nobody's seen what he really can do yet. The guys who come training with us, we've got some really good guys and they go away and I come back and say, sparring and he spars him, is this better, is this better?

And they can say to me, yeah, I think that's good. So they're really good for the team. And we talk a lot about what's good for each other and train with each other. He's getting, he's still getting better. So I think whichever way, heavyweight MMA is heavyweight MMA, one point. Sure. But I don't think John Jones has the tools. He might have cut him, the ref stops the fight, but I don't think as far as submitting him or pinning him down and elbowing him or catching him in a choke But I don't think as far as submitting him or pinning him down and elbowing him

or catching him in the choke, I don't think. He says he has no preference who the first defense, if you want to call it that, is against you have a preference. Do you know what I'd like to do? He's beaten five or six of the top 10. I'd like him to fight everybody in the top 10. That's what I just said.

Yeah, he just said that before you walked in. But who's first? Well, I couldn't have known that. Because I was not sure. I know,. Yeah, he just said that before you walked in. But who's first? Well, I couldn't have known that because I was not sure. I know, I know. That just shows that you guys are in the same page. Yeah. Anybody. It doesn't really matter to me. Cyril Gann.

Everybody says Cyril Gann or Almeida. This is the top 10, by the way, for reference up here. Or you can see right there, right there. Volkov is beaten, Pavlov is beaten, Blades is beaten, Almeida is there. Kortis, Acosta has just got there. Tijbo is beaten, Spivak is beaten, Lewis and Tuvaset, he'd beat those. It's really Surreal or Almeida? So Almeida, I don't think... Almeida wants that fight.

Yeah, he's been very vocal. I don't think Cyril Gann deserves to have a fight with him for the title yet, because he's already had two and lost them both. Yes. So Cyril Gann should fight a really good grappler and see if he's got his grappling up to scratch. Maybe Almeyda. Maybe Almeyda. Maybe Almeyda.

But the problem is if they fight each other. Yeah, then you've got to know what I'm fighting. If he's the only one. I'm shadow boxing and then fight Cyril Gann. I don't, I don't. Alex Perra, do you want the Alex Perra fight? Any fight. Yeah.

I love the John Jones fight just because he wants to try and prove that he can beat anybody in a fight. It's a martial arts thing. It's not that tricky. Honestly with me it's not that tricky. I just want to fight people. No I know you've made that very very clear. This is what I think, if he fights Cyril Gann now and beats Cyril Gann in, what did John beat him in? Two minutes, call it two minutes exactly. If he beats him in two minutes and thirty seconds, not as clean as John Jones beat him, we start all this shit again where John Jones wants to fight him. No, I know it's bullshit, but John Jones tells the UFC

he's going to come back and fight you. You think so? Who knows? As long as you're the top dog, yeah, but who knows is the answer. Let's say I fight any of them. Just Syro-Gam'm not beat him. Yeah, and it's a shit fight and it's a five round ball fest Everyone comes out and says Tom's not that good. He's not a good whatever whatever which they will because that's what I mean That's what happens in five years that none of that matters. Anyway, no, it does no one. Yeah, so what does it matter? Anyway, it's only what people say who gives a shit about that and the John Jones thing in in two weeks No, no, he's retired, nobody's asked.

I think, you told me, he said before, this is the last time you're gonna talk about John Jones. Whenever that fight is, it's going to be asked. I know, sooner it just be, if John's finished now, he's had a great career, however it's finished was wrong delivering it to us, might have been right for him or the UFC, who cares? But Tom should be allowed to get on with this career now without talking about John Jones.

You're 100% right it's just a matter you know the media you you you get some great media like I see you with the peers I saw you on the diary of CEO that game show that PT always talks about he's always very impressive. Which one? You were on some question of sports. Oh yeah he loves that. That's a big deal. Yeah yeah. That was a while ago now. I know but he always mentions that as mainstream stuff yeah it's loves that. That's a big deal. Yeah. Yeah. It's a big deal. That was a while ago now I know but he always mentions that as mainstream stuff. Yeah, yes more mainstream You get the main do you feel like now the UK media is gonna really be behind you because I don't know I hope so the Simon Jordans of the world you the Simon Jordans. Yeah speaking to him. Oh, you don't like him I'm only joking. I don't know. I just know he's talked sport, you know, I will speak to everybody apart from

Sky sky Why not? Because of reasons I can't disclose. I think they're very unprofessional. I'll never speak to it. You'll never catch me doing this guy interview ever or working for Sky. Wow, wow, wow, wow. OK.

They disrespected you? Disrespected me massively. I'll never work for them. And you don't want to say why? I'll never say why. OK. They know why. They know why.

And it was massively unprofessional. I'll never work with them. OK. I can be the greatest heavyweight fighter of all time, the best athlete to ever come out of the UK. They know why. They know what? And it was massively unprofessional. I'll never work with them. Okay. I can be the greatest heavyweight fighter of all time, the best athlete to ever come out of the UK. I'll never ever work with Sky. Really?

When you say work, does that also mean like an interview? If I'm in a media scrum and someone from Sky asks me a question, I won't answer it. They'll never get headlines from me ever again. Wow. I mean, they're the number one. I don't give a shit. I'm the number one. Well, I mean media. I don't give a shit about media. Okay. Hey, respect's big. I mean, they're the number one. I don't give a shit. I'm the number one. Well, I mean media. I don't give a shit about media.

Okay, fair enough. Hey, respect, respect. So I see the way the UK media covers boxers. Yeah, boxing is a lot bigger than the UK. Tyson, AJ, do you think now that one of their own champion of a sport, of the glamour of it, do you think they'll treat you as such? I hope so. Not only for my sake, but more for the sake of UK MMA. I want it to be as big as possible. We're not celebrating enough, I don't think. We're probably celebrating more by other countries than we are in our own country,

which is sad. Football and boxing, football being soccer and boxing is massive in the UK. It's covered massively everywhere. MMA is still a little bit niche which is a shame. The champion deal was kind of not done but it was it was moved along by the fact family values not but it's a good product nice people we need the sport to grow we needed to go the right way you know when we've all gone and we're not doing this are there gonna be leagues of MMA fighters, are gyms going to be employed to feed fighters upwards, or is the UFC going to keep a monopoly and keep doing what they're talking politics now?

I think we spoke about it before, it's like, I want young fighters to not go through what we've been through, which is financial issues until like, basically you can't really be good at MMA unless someone, unless somebody's funding you to do it or you've got a really good sponsor or You know I have my dad and some close friends around me who I owed a lot of money to and by the time I was making Anyone here I was in debt. I had to pay people back I would love like them to get financially supported from the time you've had enough 16 and you're really into it

You can fight on local shows and make at least a couple of grand just to keep you going to your next fight. That'd be amazing. Did you see The Rock mention you yesterday? Yeah, I did see The Rock mention me. That's pretty freaking cool. Pretty cool. High school as well, yeah.

You're the example of like, yeah, I would stand no chance. You're the guy. Yeah. Top of the mountain. I like that. I'm yet to meet The Rock. Wow. But the fact that The Rock is just name dropping is surreal, right?

Yeah, it's cool, yeah. Would you ever do that stuff? Wrestling. I saw you with the boys with Cody. I enjoyed it. Cody, Cody Rhodes is my guy now. That's your guy? He's my guy. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know too much to be honest about this generation. You would be a perfect wrestler. The size.

I think I've got the moves. The quickness. I've got the flips and all that. Yeah. Yeah. I think I'd be good. I'd enjoy it. Did they ask you to do like a bit here or there? So I wanted to do a bit. the UFC put the blockers on it. When? I just thought, because there was an event in Manchester. Yeah?

And I went to the event and I was like, I'd love to do a bit. And they were like, seem pretty up for it, the WWE guys. So I was like, right, just let me, I don't have to do anything like where I'm potentially injuring myself or somebody else. Yeah, just like a run in. I'll just like do a punch on somebody, knock them out. It'll look good. Yeah, they gave him like a speaking part. Yeah, the UFC put a block on it and they give me the speaking part Which I personally think he's probably my worst attribute. What was the storyline? What was the angle?

Who's the foil? So it was Cody Rhodes Gunther. Gunther, Gunther. He's also a really cool guy. Legend. They came in, they had a bit of an argument and they had an event coming up, Crown Jewel. And I said, why are you going to save it for Crown Jewel when we can do it right here? You were going to be the guy. I did that.

Oh, you did it. I got a bit of a, what do they call it? A pop or whatever. A pop, yeah. I got a bit of a pop and they were loving it. And then Thespian. Yes, yes. I'm not Thespian.

And then Cody Roselight put the blockers on it and then this being yes yes and then Cody rolls like put the blockers on it and they didn't I don't know but you wanted to get physical I wanted yeah but they wouldn't well you had that you asked you had to ask for clearance yeah the UFC didn't clear it no unfortunately but now you're the man have you a chance I don't still often to clear it maybe post post right in Korea they let me do a bit. It's unbelievable. Is it surreal for you Andy? And I'll let you guys go in a moment. But your son is the undisputed heavyweight champion.

Do you know what? I can't be more honest. Nothing's any different than it was. It just feels exactly the same. I really like the sport. I really like spending. He's my son. You know, we do what we do. I know what I will probably reflect at a different time. Yeah, but do you know, I think we look at it a little bit different. Do you know the phrase the dog's bollocks? Yeah, of course.

I love all the phrases, yes. That means you're like the top, the top boy. You're the man, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, just because I'm the heavyweight champion of the world, I don't think I'm the dog's bollocks. Really? Well, I do in terms of fighting, yeah, but I feel like there's a big target on my back

now. We better get to work. I'm not resting on what I've done. I don't think I'm a big superstar now or nothing. I'm just like, right, we've got to get back in the gym and get working. When do you think you'll find your assignment? You'll get it. You'll know the date.

Oh, this weekend. You think so? Yeah. You're not leaving Vegas? Hopefully, we're trying to get some. Yeah, you'll have the meeting. Yeah, Hunter knows. I said, can we have a couple of hours? And he said, yeah we're trying to get some... Yeah, you'll have the meeting. Yeah, Hunter knows, I said, can we have a couple of hours?

Hopefully today. Can I come? Negotiate something for the future. Bro, why you gotta say that? I'll get ghosted. I might lose my job if you show up. Listen, by the way, you need to stop saying that. I heard you say it in a bunch of interviews.

Oh, sorry. No, no, not about me. You keep saying, you need to stop saying that. I heard you say it in a bunch of interviews. Oh, sorry. No, I want to keep, no, no, not about me. You keep saying, I want to keep my job. I don't want to lose my job. You're the heavyweight champion of the world. No, that's a bit of Northwest humor for you right there. I know, but you're not losing your job. Just having the bants, I ain't going to lose my job.

By the way, they owe you. I'm the freaking post-mortem or the UFC these days. That's more like it. I'm the Doug's bollocks. Yes, yes. But he's got a contract, those contracts there. What contract? You see, fight contract.

No, I understand, but this idea that like you can't pick your fight or you can't announce your fight, this is nonsense. That's how they work. You're the man. What are they going to do? Strip you? What are they going to do? Not fight you for a year?

Well, yeah. They've already done all this. We've done all this. Yes, yes. We tried that. We didn't like it. You're the man. You need to strike. You think Connor waits for an announcement? I don't know. He does not. What do you think next?

I think it's going to be a surreal gun. And I think it's going to be in October. You have two options. Do you think he deserves to... deserves is the wrong word. He's a really good fighter and it'll be a really good fight. He's already had two shots at it. And against Volkov, he wasn't great. No, it's a weird thing, but there's no one else. There's no one else. He's a big name. Again, there's no one else.

And there's a backstory. You could sell that fight. There's two, three, four years of interaction between the two of them. Unfortunately, right now you're in a position where, just like DJ, who was here not that long ago, there was such a gap between him and the rest of the weight class.

He just kind of, he had to fight Joseph Benavides over and over again because there was no one else. So who should Almeida fight then? Volkov maybe. Yeah. That'd be nice, wouldn't it? That'd be a good fight. I'd like that.

I'd enjoy that. Who's that? No, Volkov and Almeida. Volkov's like a serious... He's good, he's very good. He's like someone who stayed at the top of the division for a long time. He's really good. I think that would be a good test.

Oh, yeah, for sure. And then the winner of that. I like what Almeida is doing. He's really trying to go for it. But you need that one loss to... That's not my... I'll fight anybody. That's not my decision.

And what about the one... You know, there's a group that he's beaten. So Cyril's at the top. So he's got to fight him. What if he didn't fight him and it's not Almeyda what about the others? Oh no. No I know. Now we're going all the way down the ladder.

Yeah yeah yeah but I'd like Tom to fight everybody in the top 10 to then say he's fought everybody in the top 10. Oh 100 percent. He's really good and he's the best you've ever had. Listen the the the best case scenario would be if they could do the Francis fight but we all know it's... I think just bring back Brock Lesnar. Bring him back. Get the Rock in. Yeah.

Get his name dropping me in press conferences and all kinds. You versus Brock would be insane. I think he's a little bit too old now. You versus Frank Muir, Kane Velasquez. Well, that was prime heavyweight. Yes, those were the days. And he looks at some of those heavyweight rankings like 2016, 2015, JDS, Kane, Brock, Roy Nelson, like even those guys.

Were they that good or were there was a lot of them at the same level at the same time? I think they were good. Yeah, they were good. I think they're better than the top 10 of today. I'm not saying they're not, I'm saying were they? Overeem was in the mix too. And I know there were some, you know, the guys were doing stuff, but like they were quality Mike, JDS was quality. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. For Doom was in there. Like we

could go on and on. Like these are all hall of famers. Yeah. Yeah. In my opinion. I don't know how many of those are in the mix right now. Um, but it doesn't matter. You're the man. JDS doesn't get the respect he deserves either. I agree. You were watching those fights back then? Yeah. He's a man. You were staying up late? No, we never stayed up late. You'd watch the next day? First thing in the morning? Breakfast. Spoilers? No. No spoilers. Phones off. Wow. Full card? Yeah, full card. Well, fast forward. Not anymore though, I don't really do it anymore. No. The small weights he's not interested in? No, the small weights. The flyweights? Yeah, but I'm looking forward to, because I think this fight this weekend, I think that Kai, Kai of France, he could throw a spanner in the works in my opinion.

Okay. Because he's very dangerous for a flyweight. A lot of the flyweights are very, very good. Pantoja is very good. No, I'm not taking it, he's amazing. But I think that Kai, Kai of France, don't get me wrong, I think Pantoja is better, in all honesty. But I think that Kai, Kai of France has the ability that not a lot of flyweights do that they can turn the lights off on somebody else So do you have in the main? Massive fan of Olivera, I think you're a bit crazy if you bet against Toporia right now. Yeah, I think he's he's in his prime right now. I think I

Don't know. I wouldn't be surprised either way, but I do think that Toporia is almost unbeatable at the moment. Do you agree? Do you watch these guys too? Yeah, I watch all the fighting. All I do is watch fighting. Really? Just MMA? And coach, that's it. MMA only? I watch Jiu-Jitsu matches with Iggy.

No boxing? Yeah, I watch boxing a lot. Did you watch everything you were talking about? I just watched kickboxing. I loved it. Rico, I followed Rico all the time. I love all the combat sports. I love how people move and what they do and trying to work out.

Who's your favourite fighter? Tom. Ah, what an answer. Other than your son? No hesitation. Marvin Hagler used to have been a favourite fighter. Wow, that's a legend right there. What an answer. Other than your son? No hesitation. Marvin Hagler used to be my favorite fighter. Wow. That's a legend right there.

Hagler-Herns, one of the all-time great rounds. March, 85. Do you want to know who my favorite fighter is? Yeah. For right now, the most interesting guy in the UFC right now for me is DDP. DDP? Yeah.

Because he's awkward? Because I don't know what the hell he's going to do. Yeah. Usually I's awkward? Because I don't know what the hell he's going to do. Yeah. Usually I can watch guys fight and I can get a feel for what the kind of plan is of attack and the strategy and what they're going to do and the way they're going to move and stuff like that. With DDP, it's just a complete mystery.

The more I watch him, the less I understand him. And I think it's fascinating. As a fan and a person who's got like an MMA brain, it's fascinating for me. So I can't wait for his fight with me. Who do you think wins that? That's a tough one. I've never bet against DDP again in my life. Really? Wow, wow. Because earlier on you were. I've done it a lot. I never thought he's exceeded my expectations. He's obviously doing something in there that the naked eye can't see. He's doing something. I don't know if he's offbeat

timing, his strength, his toughness, his draw. I don't know what it is. You'll have to ask his opponents. I don't know, but I'll never bet against that guy again. What about all time? Like when you were a kid? GSP. GSP, right. Easy question. Anderson Silva for me. Anderson, interesting.

I know he got done for doing that. He was so exciting to just put people away. He was very good. Did you guys go to any of those fights in England? Yeah, loads. 70, USC 70 did you go to? Who was that? Did you go when Couture got knocked out by Gabriel Gonzaga?

Yes. You were there? Yes. What a freaking scene that was. Do you remember that with the head kick? No, no, that was in Kator. That was in Krokop. Krokop, Krokop.

As a result. We were there for that. Yeah, we were there for that. As a result of the knockout, it ended up being Gonzaga. You were there for that? Yes, we were there. Oh my gosh. It was about 14, 15.

Gonzaga knocking him out and his leg. Twisting. Yes. I was there for the rematch in Krakow, Poland as well. Krakow, Poland. Yeah, that was a few years later. What about Rampage against Dan Henderson? UFC 75.

No, we didn't watch that. That was Pride versus UFC. Don't think we watched that one. No, we didn't see that. Were you at... there was one in Birmingham, Bisping against Chris Liebman. Yep. You were at that one?

100% were there. Wow. Just watching all the time. Were you at like the Brawl at Royal Albert Hall? No, we didn't watch it. That's 36th one too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ian Freeman? Yep. Wow. Frank Mead. I remember when Bisping fought Elvis Sinisic in Manchester.

I think that might have been the same event as Crow Cop and Gonzaga. Yes. UFC 70, I think, was the first after a long stretch after the Albert Hall one. Yeah. And then there was, well, later on when Bissping fought in the middle of the night. Were you in the UFC yet? No, no, you weren't in the UFC. 2016.

No, when he fought Anderson Silver, no. I wasn't in the UFC. No, not even that. No, he fought Dan Henderson too. Dan Henderson, sorry, yeah, yeah. Were you at the Anderson fight? Yes. You were there?

Yeah, yeah, in London. Wow. I was there too. You had already started though. Started what, in the UFC? No, no, no, your career. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was 2016. Yeah, I had already started though. Started what? In the UFC? No, no, no, your career. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was 2016.

Yeah, I had already started, yeah. Man, this has been tremendous. Did you answer the question at the Pereira fight? No. What about him? He said would you like to fight Pereira? Yeah, I've said yeah. I'll fight anybody.

What about you? Anybody. You just can't get around. Come on. Rank him for me. Who do you want first? In the real world now, Tom to fight. Cyril Gann is probably like you said the best fighter for him to do now.

The prayer fight would be the most like... I'm not bothered. It doesn't bother me. ...the sexiest, you know? That would be the most high profile. Yeah, I guess. Does he need to fight heavyweight first though? Nah. Does he need to win against Ankaliyev first? Nah. He needs to win against Ankleyev first.

Maybe fight Ankleyev if he beats him twice. Nah. What, me fight Ankleyev? If he beats Barrera twice. Ankleyev's good man. That'd be an interesting one too. I think he's massively underrated. He is underrated.

That's a good fight. Him versus Ante. He said he only likes to fight people that go to his house. No, that's the people I don't want to fight. You said what? I said I won't fight fight people that go to his house. No You said what you know, I won't fight anyone who's been to my house. That's fair. That's my rule and Tays in Great days in yeah, congratulations. Yeah, and is Mick coming back soon. It's like Mick Yeah, it's like Mick's getting over an injury at the moment. Okay, he'll be back soon I would feel the freeze feel the freeze may be the most underrated heavyweight in the world. Yep Does he need to come back to the UFC?

I don't know. I don't know. He's happy. They treat him well. He's on a cushy deal over there, I think. And his last fight, I actually watched his opponent for a long time and I thought it was a really dangerous fight for Phil at this stage. Phil just went out there and crushed him.

Again, he looked great. Phil gets his hands around somebody He's so strong. Yeah, he's like a big bear. He's so strong We have this custom table here. You saw this With my name on it All right with the show because we're doing these shows out here and we asked everyone who came by To sign it and we're going to auction it and give it to Ben Askren's family all amazing all the money Yeah, so he's going through All the money. Oh, amazing.

So he's going through a tough time. So if you guys don't mind, I know you have a lot of things. What do we have on tap for the rest? Are you doing UFC X? Any appearances? No. Nothing. That's it.

You're going home. You're just going to camp out at UFC headquarters? No, no. We're... What today, you mean? What's on tap? What's on the itinerary? We're going to slap tonight.

You like the slap stuff, Andy? It was, no. It's a fun time though. It's a nice... The energy. When you're in, the energy is... It's vibey. Vibey.

Where is it? At the Fontainebleau? Yeah. Yeah. Tom likes it because it's like media after, I guess to meet celebs and stuff. Yeah, there's all the influencers and stuff. Do you like those guys? No, he didn't. Not really. Yeah. Yeah, there's all the influencers and stuff. Do you like those guys? Not really. Yeah.

No, I might see it. Not for me. You're kind of an influencer too. Well, I am a bloody cage fighter. I'll remind people of that pretty soon. People started coming up to me and like, I've seen you on TikTok. Oh, no.

I've seen your videos. Oh, right. So I'll just retire now. Oh, my God. Yeah, you're doing like meals with Paddy and stuff like that. He's doing well though, the YouTube. He is doing well, but we need- Well, not Paddy, me. Oh, you. Yeah, I'm doing well. You're stuff like that. It's doing well though the YouTube he is doing well But we know not Paddy me. Oh you yeah, you're killing Paddy's doing well as well. Yes. All you guys we're doing well

We got some big stuff coming out. Yeah, what else? You're all kinds. We've got what very well Europeans are doing well. Yeah, the Europeans are smashing it. Yeah world stage now. It's great The guys that I would you got all kinds coming out. We got we're actually really ahead on the YouTube content. Oh, you've got stuff in the bank? We've got stuff in the bank, yeah, which is great. Okay. Well, it's all going well. Congratulations. Thank you so much, Tom. Let's hug it out. Come on, guys. My back's a bit stiff.

One way of saying you're the man. Congratulations. Thank you for doing this. What a piece you are. It reminds me of me when I hugged myself in the back. It's really funny because people who see him fight, all say to me, will he get done tonight anyway? Have you ever seen him? When they see him, they're all like, oh, you're big. Oh my gosh. He's a lot bigger than people think he is.

What do you got? Everything okay? Yeah, everything's good. Any mean messages? No mean messages. Do you mind? I'll do it, of course. We gotta take... Where's GC?

GC, you gotta take a picture of me and the champ. Did you see GC wearing your shirt? Yeah, yeah, he was there yesterday. Rolo Rosas, you're a fan. He's tiny, I thought he was cool. 135. Met him before, he's cool. Do you see Connor's shirt here?

I think you like Connor more than me. Yeah, he's the man. Andy, get in there as well, but do it from the opposite side. From this side? Yeah, because it would be upside down. Let's take a quick one. I'm sorry Frank, come here with the Mr. and Ms. Alright, I'll sign this in a minute. Okay, let's do it. I love the dog. The dog edition is cool. Security. What's the dog? Oh yeah, I like it.

To the audience at home, they are taking a picture together. Dog Edition school. Security. What's the dog? Oh yeah I like it. To the audience at home they are taking a picture together. Thank you guys. No, it's no problem. We're still live by the way. Oh yeah yeah oh we're still going yeah you thought this was no we go. You still got work to do. Yeah we still got work. Wait I gotta pee. You gotta pee? It was all that Celsius. Thank you for this. It's good. We look forward to getting the care package. Shout out to Dos Brock. No, we're the champions now. Well I know just he made... Thank you Tom, you're the man. And down with British Airways. Mr Aspinall, thank you so much. Pleasure. I'll send Pizzi your best.

Okay. Gotta say this guy tomorrow, what do you think? Don't say anything, we're still live. What do you think? What do I- Good event. Good event, yes. Tell the UFC brass I say hello. Anybody in particular?

No, just everyone. Everyone, yeah. Zero gallon, you think? Yes. I just think it's a bit anti-money. Nah, yeah. Zero-gallon thing. Yes. Just think it's a bit anti-move. Nah, listen. There's no one else. You gotta fight. You gotta fight. Ready to go.

Appreciate you guys. Thank you so much. Tom, all the best. Up Wigan. Wigan. Wigan? Yeah. Shout out to Wigan. Wigan. Shout out to Wigan. Bye Tom, all the best to you. You're the man. There he is, the great Tom Aspinall everyone. Tommy Aspinall, Aspinall, Tommy Aspinall, na na na na na na na. Did you guys enjoy that? Absolutely. Yeah. Oh, there it is. Did you guys enjoy that? Absolutely. Yeah. Oh, there it is.

Did you guys have fun? The most fun I've had all week. Those, by the way, those guys have to be like the most down to earth dudes. Is Rick coming in? You ready? Okay, yeah, this is great. Oh, how about this is great. Oh, how about this from Slito Rick, come in. Aspenall interview was one of the best

in the channel's history. What an absolute treat. Hello, Rick, how are you? You can finally let me hear that. I'm doing good. Listen, we were talking about the MVPs, who's the real MVP, Frank wants to be the MVP, everyone. Wait, Frank wants to be the MVP, how's that?

This is the real MVP right here. No, no, no. Well, there's a be the MVP, how's that? This is the real MVP right here. No, no, no. Well, there's a blessing and a curse that has occurred. Tell me. First of all, it's your first time sitting down. Yes. Oh, wow. The blessing.

Oh, look at Tom. He signs it as Big Tom. What I love about this? He's Tom. Middle top. Yeah. Middle top. He knows.

The champ is right there. Although, Volk is the champ as well. Yeah, he went. No, the champ is. The champ is in there. Is that Andy? Who champ as well. So he went, no, the champ is, the champ is that Andy did. Who signed right here? He did it backwards. Shout out to Andy.

Legend, both of them, absolute legends. The gift and the curse of all of this is the gift is that we got to do all this stuff and we had to get incredible. The curse is it went so well, it flowed so well with you sort of leading the charge on the book. Not sure. Oh, it didn't went so well, it flowed so well with you sort of leading the charge on the book. Not your point. Oh, it didn't go so well. No, it went so well, but it didn't go well because of me. It went well because of everybody. No, I know. But like kind of the, oh, the booking specifically part, you had it, you had it

when Connor does the thing of like, don't talk to me. Oh, he's impersonating me. Not right now. There's shit that needs to get done for this to function. Then we can do the little chit chat. Then we can do, like right now is the good time. This is good. This is when we can let our hair down. Connor's going to get the Aspen all sorted. And then I want to do international five week draft.

So yesterday, yesterday we're at dinner. Where do we go again? Shang Artisan Noodle. Love that place. Shout out. Artisan Noodle. I don't know about Free Pub, but we'll do it. Whatever? Shang, artisan noodle. Love that place. Shang, artisan noodle. I don't know about free pub, but we'll do it. Whatever. They were nice to us. Off the strip. Off the strip.

What kind of food was it? It was just hand pulled noodles. Yeah, but like what country? It could be a few. There's a lot of Asian cultures that do the hand pull. Asian? But yeah, definitely Asian. Yes. Spicy broth.

Oh, phenomenal. Hand pulled noodles. Incredible. Beef, phenomenal. If you're ever in Vegas and want to go off strip, this was great. It wasn't like too crazy, too expensive. Probably most similar to like a Shanghai noodles soup is like kind of like the... Yes, yes, yes.

What it was. Now we're sitting there and we're like, you know what? In the midst of all this, we came to the realization, we didn't do the International Fight Week Draft, which we probably have been doing since like 26. Man, it's been a while. Well, it has to be at least 2016, 2015, because that's when the whole like International Fight Week,

two events per week, three events at one point per week, things started and we totally forgot. And that's how it started because there were so many events, we were like, oh, let's pick and choose. Let's pick and choose. Now, are we going to do just UFC? I say, are we going to do PFL?

Well, honestly, we can include Jake Paul. Are we going to do Jake Paul? I said everything this weekend. Everything's on the table. Everything's on the week. It makes it more interesting. Because by the way, I was looking at topology. Check this out. I was looking at topology. There out I was looking at topology there's an insane amount of

events throw Deontay Wilder in there yes today wait today is June 27th yeah okay okay so I'm just giving you everything that they put at the top here yeah cage warriors yep PFL ACA cage warriors againagon 73, Jake Paul versus Chavez Jr, UFC 317, and that's it. There's a lot. There's quite a bit. I say we go with everything. Okay, okay. Now how are we going to decide who goes first?

I feel like we could just do it in like an order. You go first, I'll go second, Connor goes third. Oh, do we have the randomizer? Yeah, it goes like this. Do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do. And okay, we have to cut. Starts with theory. I don't know if Connor looked it up,

but it was usually five fights. Five fights, yeah. Five results, but there was like points attached. Yeah, we'll get that back out. We'll figure out the scoring. It was like a finish is worth three. No, a finish might be worth five. Oh, right, right, right.

A win is worth three. I guess technically we don't need that now. No, well, it'll be good. We'll have it. No, no, like we don't need to know it. No, we don't need that now. No, it'll be good. We'll have it. No, no, like we don't need to know it. No, we don't need to know it now, but we'll distribute that. Just me, you and Connor though.

Watch party tomorrow. Watch party is tomorrow. Oh, so you don't want anyone else? Cause Frank was like, you know what guys, let me set this one out. I'm welcome to, I can't hear them. So you're going to have to tell me if they want to participate.

Why is it that he can't hear us? Well, he's not wearing cans. Whose choice was that? Well, he's not wearing, he's not wearing cans. And whose choice was that? Oh, he's saying, he's saying, why can't you hear them? It was your choice not to wear cans. Yeah, I don't want to wear the comms pack. Yeah. If I had, if I had my earpiece,

if while I was in there for 30 minutes, Frank could have said at any point, Hey, you're going in there. Maybe I could put your earpiece in. That would have been good. Why didn't you do that, Frank? I just can't talk to can't do people like a Hauwani show on a Friday. Should we change it up crack on Wednesdays boys in the back on Tuesdays?

Hauwani show Thursday Friday if the people demand I mean I'd say I'd say people are liking it right now I feel like we've settled into our Thursday. I don't know you like your Thursday. Yeah Well, it's been great tomorrow. We've got a watch party, then we've got a post show, then we've got the Monday. The Monday after. We've got some plans. Maybe we're going to go to Tough Enough. Yes. Sunday night, hopefully.

Speaking of intimacy, as Connor said yesterday. Did you tell that story? Well, he was on the show. He did this on the show. Oh, he said this on? Yes, on the show. Okay, okay. He said, speaking of intimacy, and I'm like, no one said intimacy

or even referred to intimacy in any way, shape or form. Hello, sir. Any news? I've been locked in for the past three. Anything we missed? I mean, this was the news. Tom. Tom talking.

Tom talking was the news. You've been back there. Any stories, any behind the scenes, any interactions? It was fun. I'll say this. Today was a tighter book show, right? Yesterday we had like, somebody's an hour, somebody's this amount of time. There was more like breathing room. any interactions? But then there were a couple of like cross-qualifications. Yeah.

Yesterday was a lot like happening in the suites, but today it had to be like Swiss watch. It was like, this person's on for 20, 30. Boom, we got to get this next person. It got chaotic for a second. I felt bad. I couldn't meet Leo. Did you see Leo?

I did see Leo, yeah. Legend. Ian, Gary's son. Yeah. They didn't let him in here because we're in a poker room. Well, I gave a heads up to Layla and Ian like, hey, yesterday we had a young man turned away. We need to be aware of this. Let me take you up to the suite. So it was all it was all. What a cute kid.

No, I think it's always fun when you have these situations and there's like a crossover. So like Joanne Wood is hanging out with Izzy. Joanne Wood and John Wood and manager to the stars, Danny Rubenstein are just hanging out in the room with Dan Hooker and Israel Adesanya, it was great. I love these things. Today Rico and Tom's teams who were there. It ended up being 15-ish people.

Audia Tarr shows up. Audia was here. He brought other people. Wow. It was a party up there. I didn't know Audia was here. Lloyd Pearson. Lloyd Pearson was here. He bumped into cam3 and took it out temporarily Wow Is it back? Well, clearly it's back. Oh, it's back. But yeah, you took it out

Look, there's a well machine like everybody in the back there took I don't need to know everything that's going on But not everything what it's been a lot of fun Frank says ask Rick what all the buzz was about It was buzzing with the mics What happened what you did Frank fuck Frank? What happened? Tell me right now. I'm not dropping this Right the buzz like the news like he's messing with you. He's saying because of yesterday because of yesterday Yeah, but but we could hear Mike three, right? No, we couldn't hear it at all Well, I cuz here's the thing actually we couldn't hear it at all. Well, because here's the thing. Actually, we couldn't even hear this one.

In my headphones, I hear mic two. I do not hear mic three. Oh, they were both off. Yeah, perfect. I'm so happy. I'm looking over the news here. This was the news. There is no news.

I'm just seeing, were there any fight announcements? No, there were no fight announcements. What's your level of excitement for are you by the way? Are you guys gonna do we didn't talk about this? Are you gonna do a dual watch party tomorrow with Jake Paul? No It's just gonna be UFC. Just UFC I mean, we'll probably like we'll be watching and if there's a commentary to have on it, but our No, certainly, but it's it's just the Jake Paul fire like that's the attention Our focus will be on the UFC if there's a crazy thing in the Jake Paul all of a sudden Ariel

Howani's in the ring, you know, we'll react to it. What do you think you think it's gonna be surreal gun? I Think it will be I don't care for that fight What what is what is a fight that you care for that is even doable? Alex prayer versus Tom Aspinall, but I don't know if it's doable. Why is it not doable? I mean, I guess it's more doable. It's more doable than Francis Ngannou or John Jones. I would love to see Francis or John Jones,

but those are not doable. Alex feels doable. Why does it have to be Cyril Gahn? No, you're right. I like Andy and Tom's plan. Clear out the top 10 and then say, who's gonna rise? Who's left? There is nobody left for me.

Find somebody for me. Surreal Ghan is the one that makes the most sense. He's the biggest name. There's a history there. He's coming off a win as close as it was. I say get Almeida a win. Yeah, what did he say? Almeida and Volkov should match up.

That makes sense. Which I don't mind because he has a history with Volkov too. But he's just going to be in a situation right now. It's kind of a bummer for him because he's going from a situation where John Jones was John Jones. And there's such a massive drop off in terms of names. It's not too far a drop off from Alex. Alex is the name that can bridge that gap.

Alex is the one name that can bridge that gap that's left. Do Alex. Are you saying do Alex instead of on Kolaev? Yes. Wow. I said this immediately after the fight. And then do Yuri? Yeah, sure.

Any, hey, my time's over at light heavyweight. I'm gonna go chase this giant in Tom Aspinall. I'm gonna take out the giant. And for Tom, a huge name on his resume. Yeah. The zero, look, Serogon, as you've laid out, like it's the best of those options, but it's not a great option like no no fans are gonna be clamoring for that fight You know what's gonna happen Tom is going to beat Serol. I

Just think at this point the appeals let's just see him fight well I don't certainly we just want to see Tom back in there. He needs to start the run He needs to start this like championship defense run. That's gonna go as long as it'll go let him go in a roll Oh, here he is. There he is. There's the boy. The prodigal son of Las Vegas. What were you doing? Hanging out with the Aspen Alls?

Yeah. Pro, pro. See that Frank? He waited until he was in front of the microphone. The man, Nick, the whole team up there, man. The whole squad. Tighten it squad. They do it right.

Vibes are good. Vibes are good. Is Rico still there? No, Rico's gone. We were trying to get Tom some food, trying to get Andy some food. It didn't work out. So they might be a little hangry up there.

Why didn't it work out? If Rick was there, it would have worked out. No, no. Rick would have gotten it done. Rick would have gotten it done. I mean, look how upset he is right now. I'm upset, but only because I don't know the answer. They're having some cheese, some watchers fruit snacks. Are they hanging in the room? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

They want to say hello to you after the fact. Get a quick something with you. Okay, well let's get into this. Alright guys, so here we are. We've decided International Fight Week draft. It will include everything that's happening this weekend. PFL? PFL, Oct17. Octagon, 317. J Paul. Octagon, ACA, J Paul. J Paul. Deontay Wilder, everything. Deontay Wilder?

Anything in combat sports that's happening this weekend. On BLK Prime? Is on the table. Yes, on BLK Prime. Yes, shut up. And it's just us three going head to head. Us three, yes. All right, I'm the back to back defending champion.

Are you actually? Yeah. You go first. Oh shit. Well, we'll do Snake. All right, so we'll go this way and snake it back. All right. You're up. I'll go Iliya Toporia.

Mother of her. Wow, so short. Man, I gotta say, I feel like Charles has been disrespected this week. Give me pants, pants. Okay. Easy. Moikano.

All right. Ooh. All right, you got another one, Howani. Jake Paul. Okay, wow. The one, Howani. Jake Paul. By the way, just for, can we get these, this is for on-air Jordan, can you relay it to on-air? Yeah, of course.

Just if we could get updated graphics on the fly. He just walked out of the room very upset. Go ahead, go ahead. Go ahead. I'm going to take, I'm going to take, who's going to get a finish? Come on, man. I'm going to take Robocop. Thank you, sir. You guys left the door wide open for me. Mother.

Pick number one, Jacoby Smith. Thank you. By the way, the biggest favorite, right? Maybe in UFC history Well, is he actually yeah, he's like a minus you pop in a big berry, baby. Should I try a different one? No, it's only it's only very that's what I can smell that from here. Oh, grab one I will have one of these toothpicks or a cigarette in my mouth for the remainder of the weekend Yeah, and then my second pick do not at the knees. All right, I'll take T-Rex. I'll take Terrence McKinney. By the way, how many are we doing? Five? Yeah, five. One second. Let me go over to PFL here real quick.

Shout out to Pick'em, man. Toothpicks are great. The flavor's pretty good. The best of both worlds. Pick'em flavor, Tomas. Fabian Edwards, Josh Silvera, Phil Davis, Sullivan Colley. You're picking all these guys? No, no, no, I'm looking. Dalton Rosta, Aaron Jeffrey, Sergio Pettis, Rafihan Stott, Antonio Carlos Junas, Simeon Powell. This is good watching right now. Valentin, I'm going over the stuff, I'm sorry.

Yeah, but I'm saying we're all looking at our phones. Are we allowed to pick from the one Friday night fights or have those already taken place? What the one Friday night fights or those already taking place what's the Friday yeah they probably already took place yeah I think they're all right give me Simeon Powell okay okay and give me Deontay Wilder Oh Deontay is that four picks for you yeah he's on his fourth I'm gonna follow I think what was Pete's parlay boy pick and I'm gonna go Fabian Edwards. Okay. Anyone writing these down? We'll be able to go back. We can just watch it back. Jedi's writing it down. Shout out to Jedi. Someone already took Gregory Rodriguez, correct? I took RoboCop, yeah.

And you took Simeon Powell? Sure did. And you took Fabian Edwards? I took Fabian. Biagio Ali Walsh? Yeah, I was thinking of that one. On the BFL card for me, thank you. I was thinking of that one. It's a nice card for me, thank you. Just thinking of that one. It's a nice one. I need more 317 activity. Anybody gonna touch, you got another one, right? Or did you just take two? Oh, I sure do.

That's my last pick. Give me. Wait, you just did, how many did you do? That was your fourth and this was your fifth, right? Yeah, this is my fifth. I'm seeing some lines on Tough Enough. 145 on Sunday. Oh, wow. I'm seeing some lines on Tough Enough, 145 on Sunday. Oh, wow.

I'm seeing some lines. We could watch your pick. I will be going with Kanan Kawahawi in the main event. Tough Enough, we'll be there. That's a good one. I don't feel like any of us have picked a dog yet, right? Nope. Charles Oliveira.

Oh wow, yeah, you could do that, huh? I can't believe we decided to do every event this weekend. Who did, who did someone did Pantoja? I took pants. Yeah. That was my number one. Do I go Kaikara? Good. You could go opposite me. Yeah. I like that.

Yeah. All right. Three Pete loading. There it is. What's on the, what's on the slate? A grand a piece? Hell yeah. Eye Roller in Vegas. On the slate, worst loser. Okay. There's a punishment? Has to pay for the omakase. Oh fuck. Frank's not

invited. Frank is taking my spot. I'm out. You don't do omakase? No I don't want to pay for it. Worst loser? Yeah. That's so you can't you just it's like it's like fantasy. You don't want to be last place because you have to get your hair. You have to dance. You have to do some Worse lose, yeah. You don't want to be last place because you have to do some bullshit like that. We can think of a punishment on the back end. These mics did not work. They already did it. Israel Adesanya, Alex Volkonovsky, Dan Hooker, Ash Belcastro, Danny Rubenstein, John Wood, Raul Rosas, moved over to today. Jojo Calderwood.

Yes, brief, of course, highlight of the day. Unbelievable. Demetrius Johnson, Destiny Johnson, who ended up being a revelation. How about that? Yes, she ended up being fantastic. That was her debut and DJ has a very successful YouTube channel and has never had her on as Beyond Me. We were talking business the whole time.

Podcasts and everything. On it, Ian Machado-Garry, Rico Verhoeven, Tom Aspinall, Andy Aspinall. That's like, what is that in two days? 11, 12? A lot of premium guests. We did well. What a day.

Thank you very much to our good friends over at the Venetian. The Venetian Resort in Las Vegas here at the Poker Studio. Do we have any more Super Chats? Super Chats. Oh, there's a graphic. We do. Wanna go ahead and read those off for us, Ariel? Yes.

Tough. Actually, I don't see them. Oh, here. No, there are no other Super Jets. I did the one. Here's one. Did you just do it because, please get Frank to put the video part of the shows on Spotify. Frank, please.

I'm going to not live anymore if you don't. This is from AlejandroDuran45. My god. Ariel, I'm looking at these signatures here. Like I feel like we can only have maybe one or two guests on Monday, you know? Because we're running out of space. Take the two spots and then and then we're good. Right here next to Tom. This is great. This is fantastic. This a beautiful thing this is. This is incredible. I hope it goes for $100,000. DJ over there, Rico, big Tom over here. Raul Rosas with the big double R.

Tom popped for the Chiwis. Rico with the number one. Andy signing. Andy signing upside down. Ah, love it. What do you write? Be kind, is he? Be great. Be great. Oh, is he going to be kind?

Be kind, stay dangerous. And then, be great. Amazing, amazing. Dan Hangman-Hoker with a pretty signature as well, man. His signature is incredible. Yeah, it's nice. It was the nicest one. Does it say Hangman?

Yeah, in the middle. In the middle. Like, it looks, that looks like a star athlete signature, right? It does. I was talking to Dan. Most of these guys do, I'm not going to lie. I was talking to Dan and we were talking about like, there were people outside, you know, trying to get some signatures.

Yeah. And then, I was like, oh. I was talking to Dan. Most of these guys do, I'm not gonna lie. I was talking to Dan and we were talking about like there were people outside, you know, trying to get some signatures and things like that. And he's like, I have that signature and then I have that. Oh yeah, he told us this. He said it on the show. He's got the fake one.

I was on it. I haven't seen much. No, I know. By the way, we didn't get any champion merch. I thought. I'm going to the champion store and I'm buying it out. Is there a champion store here? Yeah, Tom did like an activation there yesterday pop up. Yeah, they saw the bag that I'm gonna go break the record

Wow, available now in the US the heavyweight stuff. Yeah, they also have it in New York. He was telling me as well Oh credible. All right guys, man Manchester to Vegas Shout out to Mike D 9707 for a super chat. I don't really know how to look through all the super chats if I'm being honest. Oh wait. What a day.

Yeah. Oh yeah. There it is. Ming Yang will smash Walker. What do you guys think? This is Nathan256Gram. Shout out. Yeah, I think Ming Yang wins that fight.

I'd like to see Rico versus Kreekilia in one championship. Shout out. This is Jason Carney, 3433. GSP ducked Hendrix rematch and never defended a middleweight belt against Robert Whitaker. Anderson is closer to the goal than GSP while he has infractions. This idea that GSP ducked Hendrix, he did fight him.

And then he got something called ulcer colitis. I don't think he ducked Whitaker he was sick you may say that he made that up but listen he gave he gave up the belt and never held up the division so Mike D 9707 why do we assume surreal is next nobody wants to see that Tom vs. Alex 2 of 3 we lost so many juicy fights that carry heavyweight for or 2 or three. I guess he's saying they're going to fight twice or three times for two years. By the way, Ian should diamond. Ian should have diamond cutter DJ through that poker table.

Lame. Aspall interview was one of the best in channel history. What an absolute treat from Slito. That's GC. Have you filled out your NASCAR bracket yet from Jason Carney? Oh, for the mid season challenge? No, no. When is that?

I don't know. I've seen commercials for it, but damn, you're not locked in like you used to be. I'm still locked in. I've watched every single race. I'm going to drive a supercar on Sunday morning at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. That's one of the big ones. Oh, can't wait. And that's that. All right. We are out of time. Thank you very much to everyone who watched today. Frankie you can hit my music.

We got a lot more fun to come here in Las Vegas again. Watch party tomorrow at 9.45. 6.45 PM. We like to stick with the East Coast. 9.45 PM Eastern time, 6.45 in the west. Believe it or not, I will be in Anaheim tomorrow. See you. And so you might see me involved in that, but I will be coming back and I will be here

for the festivities on Monday. We'll be doing our show at 10 am. So Monday's show is going to be at 1 pm eastern, the regular Helwani start time. Unless we realize that everyone's asleep and we just push it back. I mean clearly what I've realized today is the time doesn't really matter. You get the guests, you get the guests. Yeah. You know. Subject to change. You get the guests, people come. We'll also have the post show. Man in the Hat is gonna join us on Saturday and yeah and then we'll do our show on on on Monday. Up on the site already in case you missed it yesterday, all the interviews

from yesterday, so go check those out including the live show. And again, thank you to everyone behind the scenes. Hey, thank you to Ben Hefner who's working behind the scenes for us. Thank you to the whole Yahoo team. I want to give a shout out to a young man named Dustin who's working hard for us this week, doing a lot of cool behind the scenes stuff that's going to be coming out over the course of the next week or so. Tyler as well from Yahoo. Big shout out to Tyler. Shout out to him. Wanted to give a shout out to our friends at X who have been working with us this week. Hashtag UncrownedVegas, Jamie and I do believe Tyler. Tyler as well.

As well. So they are doing huge things. And Sid. And more. Shout out to Sid. Shout out to him. Shout out to everyone here at the Venetian in Vegas and shout out to the team back at the control room including new member of the team Kayla. Shout out to these guys working hard. Shout out to our guests. Shout out to the world. Back tomorrow. Different time, different place. Was that too loud for the poker guys? I'm sorry. We'll talk to you tomorrow. Peace out.