The Ariel Helwani Show - Mario Bautista and Usman Nurmagomedov win big, Andrei Arlovski joins as BKFC champion, Ariel Helwani checks in | The Boys in the Back | February 9, 2026

Episode Date: February 9, 2026

The Boys in the Back return after a big weekend in combat sports. First up, Ariel Helwani checks in to give his thoughts on all the action (00:54).Next, The Boys welcome in Petesy Carroll to dive deeper into PFL Road to Dubai and the big win by Usman Nurmagomedov (11:29), Mario Bautista — and others — shining at UFC Vegas 113 (33:05), BKFC's KnuckleMania 6 (1:05:02), and the Super Bowl (1:14:20).Newly crowned BKFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski joins the show to discuss the victory and open up about beating cancer (1:40:53).The show wraps up with some more news and notes (1:59:37) and your Super Chats (2:12:04). 

But boys in the back But boys, boys, boys, boys, boys, boys. What is good? We are back with another episode of the Boys in the Back. This time on a Monday. Don't adjust your dials. Don't check your calendar. It's not Thursday.

You are looking live at the Boys in the Back. Obviously, Ariel Hawani currently at the Olympics right now doing a fantastic job covering the games for CBC. So fortunately, unfortunately, however you may view it, You got us doing a weekend recap today. I am one-third of the boys in the back. Connor Berks, join alongside me as always. Your king, some say.

Not me. I don't say that. I don't say that. Frank doesn't say that. I've never seen anyone in the chat. People on X say it. There's someone out there who said it at some point. You're king.

Mr. New York, Rick. And as always, Frankie, joining us in the back. Frankie, how you doing, man? Doing all right. Thanks for asking. Of course, man. Of course, man. We're happy to have you.

Don't fret, though. Ariel may be at the Olympics, but that did not stop him from chiming in, giving his thoughts on the weekend that was in the sport of mixed martial arts and some bare knuckle boxing as well. He gave us his thoughts from Italy. We have that for you right now. All right, guys. Hello again. I miss you all very much. By the way, you may have noticed production value has leveled up over here.

to give a shout out to Cam, our great videographer here in Italy, who said to me, hey, your, your phone selfies, they're a little comsi, come see, come sa, let's level things up. So we had a little bit of a break in the action here. Wanted to weigh in on a few things that happened this past weekend. PFL, BKFC, UFC, UFC, to me, the biggest story of them all, on Jarolovsky. Holy smokes. I mean, what a story of this guy. I thought in 2011, when he was on like a four-fight losing streak, I thought he was done then.

And then he had another four-five losing streak, like four to five. fight losing streak. And then at the end of his UFC run, he had another four fight losing streak. Like this guy has had multiple four to five fight losing streaks. And here he is, mid-40s, winning the BKFC heavyweight title against Ben Rothwell, didn't see this coming. Honestly, also, multiple-time cancer survivor. It gives me great pride and joy seeing him do this at this stage of his career, trying out a little bit of everything, misfits, dirty boxing, BKFC, refusing to give up, refusing to quit, refusing to succumb to the losing streaks, reinventing himself. I mean, I can't stress this enough.

Fifteen years ago, people were calling for him to retire during that losing streak in Strike Force. 15 years ago, early 2011. And here we are in 2026, and the guy just won the BKFC heavyweight title. And I know BKFC is where people go to die. I know it's the place where, you know, you go at the end of your career to try to do some big things. But like, come on, man. That's an unbelievable win over the reigning defending champion going into that fight. Also, by the way, shout out to BKFC.

18,000 plus people at the arena over there in Philly. To me, it's always going to be Wells Fargo. I know they changed the name, Xfinity Wireless or something like that. So very, very impressive stuff. That was by far the biggest story of the day. Second biggest story of the day, in my opinion, Usbandur Magamatov in Dubai, submitting Alfie Davis in the third round, valiant effort by Alfie, but I think we all knew there are levels to them.

this and Usman is just, I mean, pound for pound number one in PFL, one of the best lightweights in the world. I do wonder how he would do in the UFC. I think he would do much better than Patchy Mix. Is he the best of the best at 155 in the UFC? Maybe top five. If you're wondering about his future, he has one fight left, I'm told. He has one fight left or end of 26, meaning if he doesn't get that one fight in by the end of 2026, he's a free agent. And it doesn't matter, I'm told if he's champion or not. There's no championship clause or anything like that. I would imagine they're going to want to try to re-sign him. But as we've talked about, you know, now that Islam has moved up to 170, you would think, all right, the coast is clear at 155. Does he want

to follow in the footsteps of his mentors and family members, Habib Nirog, Medov, Islam Machachev, there's no one there at 155 for him to compete with. It wouldn't make sense. But he is, in many respects one of the faces, I would say top two or three faces of PFL, he should probably want to to stick around because they're probably going to pay a hell of a lot of money for him to stick around, just like they did with Dakota Dichiva, but perhaps he feels like he's been there, done that, and he's going to move on. So that's going to be one of the big stories to watch as we try to decipher what is the future of the PFL with this rights deal coming up at the end of 2026. Ramazan retiring, I don't think they thought that that was going to happen. I don't think they

would have put him in a vacant Walterway title fight if they knew he was going to just vacate the title and retire. I have a feeling the brass is going to try to convince him to stick around for at least one more fight. But that's not the best look. That's not the best look to retire when you just won the vacant title. All in all, though, PFL continues to look great. Anytime they're outside of the United States, their next one coming up is going to be in Madrid. And then, of course, they've got Pittsburgh. So I'm curious to see how the juxtaposition looks from the overseas events to the American events. Thus far, they seem to be very much an overseas entity and a thriving overseas entity. So let's see how the Madrid debut looks. And then, of course, finally,

you've got Mario Batista just absolutely dismantling Loke Dog. Loke Dog revealing afterwards that he was hurt going into the fight. You know, not quite a T.J. Dillashaw situation, the stakes weren't as high, but a valiant effort, I guess, fighting with the broken arm. Batista just dismantled them. And I don't know if it's that, you know, that dominant if Loke Dog isn't in. Nevertheless, Batista is who he thought he was. He gets to win, he moves on, and he calls out Corey Sanhagen, who I was told was in line to fight Amin Zahabi, but now that fight appears to be off because Zahabi won't be ready dealing with some stuff. So maybe they look at that because that fight was so easy for Mario.

He's still one of the best 135ers in the world. There's no doubt about that, so I'm very curious to see who they match him up with. Great, great win for him. The apex continues to be very depressing, very sterile, very soulless. soulless, you got Kyoji Horguchi on there, cutting a great promo and no one reacts. It's a crime that one of the best fly weights in the world is fighting at the apex. I hope his next fight is in Japan or anywhere with fans. Great win from him, you know, another great performance.

I hope that he gets to fight for the belt by the end of the year. Let's see how it all shakes out at 125. But yeah, the apex is awful. I can't believe that they still do this. It remains a problem. They're expanding it great. A thousand people will be fine. It will look like the hard rock or the palms, but still a guy like Kiyoji, a guy like

Mario should not be fighting at the apex. As you know, the next event is in two weeks in Houston, so that won't be an issue. Okay, those are my running thoughts off the top of my dome. Look at this. Look at this scenery. Look how lucky we are. This is amazing. I do miss you all. I appreciate you holding down the fort. Frank, I'm working on getting you that drink. I heard you had a little bit of a spillage situation, so I'm working on that for you, my friend. Potential, potential sponsorship. Stay tuned. We're working here, guys. We're doing stuff. We're making things happen. Hope you're enjoying the coverage.

Hope you're enjoying the Olympic Games. I'm enjoying what you're doing. I miss you all. But for now, I say, chao de gatso, bono, bono de, no, note, bonacera, all those things and more.

Amazing stuff. Grazie, Ariel, as they say, a beautiful shot there, man. I really did up the production diet. It looks unbelievable. The people ice skating in the back there, I mean. I'm jealous.

Well, eat this a pretty good food out there as well. Yeah. We really appreciated them sending that over. It's actually not just going to be us today. We head over to the Emerald Isle to be joined by the patron saint. Mr. Pizzi Carroll, what's up, brother? Mr. Monday afternoon doesn't take any weeks off just because Ariel's at the Olympics.

That's right, man. Congratulations, boys. You look so natural in that position there. Of course, we're very familiar with you and boys in the back in the same role. But I know you're going to smash it. My king, Rick, there as well. Oh, there he is. I was the first one to actually call him that.

I try to come up with something new every time I throw to him. and sometime it just comes out of my ass and King came out of it today. I don't know why. Thank you, Peezy. Well, I will say, listen to Ariel there, waxing lyrical about the weekend's action. I had a very practical example this weekend of how people react to the apex. Because it was out and about in Belfast, watching the fights, keeping up with everything as it was going.

And by the time we got back to our rented apartment, I was with a friend of mine, I said, let's stick on the fights here. to watch someone who isn't as involved in the sport as us trying, now a fan of the sport, no doubt about it, but trying to stay awake at about 4 a.m. to watch that main event and just basically giving up midway through the first round saying, listen, I'm going to go to bed, mate.

Best of look to you, enjoy this. It really struck me. The ambience just isn't lending itself to great fights. And we did have some really great fights the weekend. I thought Batista was fantastic. Horaguchi was fantastic. But it really struck me how the rest of the world particularly international fans must feel staying up to watch these fights, lads.

I can't speak enough the respect that I have for European fans that stay up for these Apex guards. There's there's times where I kind of start fading here and it's only like 9.30 p.m. Yeah, I mean, it was a big fading day. I may have had some supplements, some liquid gold. Yes, may have, may have dabbled a bit in that, which probably didn't help me staying awake. but what a tremendous day of action it was for college. So you guys go out drinking all day, you get home and everyone's like, all right, we're getting ready for bed. And you're like, no, no, no, no, let's put on the apex fights. We got to put on the apex fights.

It's even worse than that. While we're out, I'm watching the PFL event like this. Hang on, hang on. Alvi Davis is watching out, lads. He's walking out right now. He's 8 to 1. Who knows what could happen here all day, kind of going in between everything. But a really fantastic day of point.

And look, I'd echo what Ariel said about Usman and Magamayov, too. It's interesting in terms of where we're at with people. As you know, lads, this is a very important year for them. We see them trim a lot of fat earlier this year, a lot of people leaving. But Usman and Maga Madov is far more than just a champion to them. I think, and no one's confirmed this within PFL for me, but purely if you just look at these events that they do in Dubai, and the scale of them compared to their usual events.

A lot of that is riding on having one of Habib's dude, in this case, Usman on that card. They have a big deal with Dubai to bring the fights there, and obviously that's where he always fights. That is the guy they want to see there. But one fight left on his deal, I have a feeling that he, as an elite athlete, which he's proven time and time again, I think he probably will want to look towards the UFC or at least entertain some negotiations with the UFC at the end of this deal. But it's absolutely imperative as far as I'm concerned that PFL try to get him and secure that revenue stream with Dubai. I don't think it's completely hinged on him, but I do think he's a massive, massive part of it.

So I'm very excited to see how that will shake out towards the end of this year when he does of that final fight. Yeah, I could not agree with you more in terms of PFL wanting to retain him, right? Like, he's one of their biggest stars. But as you said, that comes with the trimmings, right? Being in that camp, being around Habib, having that Nirmaga made up lost name. You know, we saw Anthony Joshua at the PFL event coming backstage, Kabitsing with Islam Makachev as well as Habib himself. Actually, we have video of that if we could play that.

Yeah, there we go. Great to see him out and about after such a horrific tragedy, obviously, as well. Yeah, but to your point, right, this doesn't happen without it being around the camp of Habib, right? This is what they bring to this. A star like Anthony Joshua wanting to spend this time and sit down with them is something that is notable. Obviously, this footage courtesy of PFL, so them capturing it. But this is what it brings. It brings this.

And so I think you're absolutely right that the idea, like, Usman strikes me as the type of guy who's going to want to find his value in the marketplace and try to get to the UFC. But I do feel like there's a real chance for PFL to come way over the top of what the UFC is going to be willing to offer him and potentially retain him. Do you think that's even a possibility? Do you think that Usman is somebody who,

if the money is right, might stay there rather than chase UFC gold? I think that the PFL will have to come very correct because I think the UFC, as we saw with Umer, they want to continue this legacy name with Narmaga Madov. We saw Umer pushed into that Belmont title very, very quickly. I think there is a lot of appeal for the UFC to have another Narmagamadoff on top of the lightweight division. So he's in a great position of leverage, let's be honest.

But I guess the question for me, lads, and you can tell me this, do you see Usman the same way as you see a Dakota Dacheva, where you're like, who can they put them against? Obviously, we had the Hughes fights that were incredibly close, do you see him just in terms of us people who consume the product so much and the fan base that consumes a product? Do you have him in similar regard to that way? You're like, right, he's done here, he's gone through everyone there, regardless of how close those Paul Hughes fights were, regardless of how he scored them, is it time, as far as you guys are concerned, as people who consume so much MMA that you want to see him tested against that top five, as Ariel put it there? Who could you give him?

That's the biggest thing. We've already seen him against Paul Hughes twice. He just fought for the lightweight title and he was a minus 1800 favorite. it's just like who is there for him and you know you put it perfectly like it comes with this this you know being in the locker room and Anthony Joshua coming by

and the spotlight being on you and there's also Islam Makashev in the back who's one of the best mixed martial artist in the world right now and Habib one of the best to ever fight and then you have Umar there as well it comes with this lineage behind you and to me you have to think that Usman is striving for that greatness that I don't think

he can achieve if he stays in the PFL I think with all of them around him the opponents available to him in the PFL, it to me feels like a no-brainer. When this contract is done or we get to the end of 2026 and it runs out, I think he leaves to go to the UFC. This is going to be the PFL's problem forever, right? This was the problem for Kayla Harrison,

although ultimately Larissa Pacheco proved to be a capable opponent. But this was the problem for Francis Inganu, right? This is going to be the problem for Usman Nirmagamadov. The contenders, the challengers, the people to put them against are always, going to be the issue. I think you sign Usman or try to re-sign Usman and then you solve that problem. And the way you solve that problem is by being very aggressive with talent outside the UFC or inside the UFC when their contract is up. You have to just start putting together challengers. It's not enough to have the name on the marquee, right? All due respect to Alfie Davis, he wasn't

the name that people were there to see. He wasn't the one bringing people in. You need to have a capable and a credible challenger for him, somebody that has some name value, somebody that if they are able to win the fight that you can capitalize on. And that's always going to be their problem. But I think you can solve that if you have somebody like Usman on the roster. If you don't have Usman on the roster, then you've got an entirely different set of problems, which is how are you going to even have the star? I think you start with the star and then you have to build the challengers around them.

So I think it is an issue, certainly, but it's always going to be the issue until they start developing the roster. Do you see, like, J.C., do you see like Hughes in a situation where, like, Holloway, was with Volk, like in terms of he's lost these two fights to him, but if he could rekindle, get back in the win column. And of course, this is all based on whether he will actually, like, whether Usman will resign given this last fight there. Like, is that the most probably compelling fight, even though it isn't that compelling right now with the current losing streak of views? If he can get back in the winning column, I'm hearing that he will fight in the first half of

this year. Is that the most compelling thing there for PFL right now? And is that a kind of endowment of the situation that they're in given that they had two fights just last year? Probably, just because of the name value that comes with Paul Hughes and you can always go back to that matchup in January of last year and it was just so insanely close. Now, the second one wasn't nearly as close and I don't think Usman really has an interest in doing a trilogy against the guy that he already beat twice, but to what we've been saying here, I don't know who else there would be. I mean, like Alfie beat Godzi in the final in the tournament. Would Usman even fight Godzi, you know, Islam said afterward that it's 1-1 now because Alfie beat Godsy

Rabadana. So it really is just like you're finding that same issue as it's a Rick's point that you just can't find worthy competitors, worthy challengers for these really high-end fighters that they have on the roster. And I think, no, you go, Pete. I go ahead. I think the only person I can think of, and it doesn't answer the name value question for us. I think it's probably Archie Calgan who they were going to put in against Usman. Yeah. And then, then there was a big revolt from probably me and a lot of Irish people. So they made the Hughes very much. But Archie's still 13 and oh, he's a great fighter.

I think they are under the same management, but it's probably the next guy in line, right? If they were thinking about him midway through 2025 and he hasn't lost since, why not? As a competitor, I have to imagine Paul Hughes would die to get another opportunity to fight Usman Nirmagamedov. But as a businessman, the best thing that could happen for him is Usman Nirmagamadov leaving and going to UFC, much like Volcanovsky when Ilya goes up to lightweight, right? You get a new lease on this. You get a new opportunity against different people.

You have to imagine that Paul Hughes will be one of the names in a potential vacant title fight or at least one away from entering a title conversation if Usman's no longer in the picture. So as a businessman, you know, I think things could be looking up for Paul Hughes shortly. As a competitor, there might be some, you know, unresolved feelings and feeling like that one got away. but guess what? You get the PFL title, you build up enough there,

and then all of a sudden you find yourself in the UFC come in the next contract. I think there's a way to kind of navigate that career if you're Paul Hughes. So I think Paul Hughes will ultimately find his path and be fine. I'm concerned about the idea if PFL does resign Usman Nirmangamatov after Archie Colgan, who's left. All right, to Ariel, what Ariel just said in the video from Italy, he talked about how he has one fight left on the contract or 2026 coming to an end and then we're done. So we could see Usman and Maghometov inside the UFC Octagon as soon as 2027 or maybe even earlier,

depending on him getting a fight maybe midsummer and the contract expiring. How do you guys rate his chances in the UFC? We obviously just saw patchy mix. It was a disaster. It couldn't gone any worse. I don't know if Usman would have the same fate. I lean that he would not. How do you guys feel about him competing at the UffCHA?

the top half of the lightweight division in the UFC? I think he is very underrated. I think he is incredibly. He's a much better striker than most of the Dagestan guys that come from Habib's camp. I think he showed that against Davis as well. Davis was an accomplished kickboxer his whole life. And I don't think Usman looked out of place striking with him at all. I think that's the story with Usman, right?

Like he's very different from the wrestling because he was a striker before he went to train in MMA and he's developed a stellar wrestling skill set. from there. It's a situation that I find a lot of of PFL guys are in. A lot of people just watch the UFC. That is the sport for people. And I think, obviously, UFC has got the best fighters in the world. I do think Paul Hughes and Usman would be ranked fighters in the UFC immediately. I think they could prove their worth there. I think he could shock a lot of people if he went in there. I don't know

if it's the best idea to put him in immediately into that title conversation. I'm sure that's where he wants to go. but if they did, if he did reach the end of 2026 and he did sign for the UFC, I'd like to see him in a top 15 fight instead of rushed into a top five or anything like that. I'd like to, I'd like them the UFC to show people with a guy a bit further down the rankings, how good he can be. And if he has a patchy mix moment, it was never meant to be. I do think patchy mix is the extreme example here. I do think that he was like the most. most hyped guy ever. I can remember the great Chuck

Mendenhall and me discussing on one of our roundtables before his debut. We were kind of saying, this is without a doubt the best guy that's ever come across from Bellator. We have that egg all over our faces. I don't think that's going to be the case with Usman. I think there's a lot more going on what Patchy we probably don't know about

as well because it was just so underwhelming his UFC tenure. But I do expect that Usman would find himself, as Ariel said, a top five fighter. I don't know how he does from there, but I do think a skill set would speak for itself. I think the path is Kayla Harrison, right?

A top contender, like what was it, Ketland Vieira? Who was the fight before the title? She started Holly Home, then Ketland Vieira, then fought for the title. Perfect. That's what I would expect from somebody like Usman Nirmagamade of. You get a credible opponent with a name and then one or two more in the title conversation. Although I will say, somebody asked them about the grappling of Arm and Sarukian, and you know, you talked about not wanting to see him against the top guys.

This is what he had to say about Armin Sarukian. Unlike Armin, I don't have losses. Damn. It seems like his ambitions, as you said, might be a little bit higher up the rankings, higher up the latter than they'd be for, you know, top 15. I think, look, I think Armid Surukian is the best lightweight on the planet, you know, Islam now out of the division. I think Armin Surukian is the best lightweight on the planet.

I think he would beat. uh, Usma Nermagamedov. But I wouldn't feel uncomfortable with somebody, the pedigree, the name, the caliber of Usman Ramagamadov hopping immediately into a shot like that, Ilya,

uh, uh, Armin Suruke and I'm comfortable enough with it. It's not my preference though. You said to Leit Tepore. You said like straight into a title shot? I'm not, I don't think he's out of his depths there.

To Pici's point, like I think he's every bit as good as the rest of these guys. Do I think it's the best way to make your duet USC debut? Probably not. Like that's just, not the way and we've seen fighters crumble in potential high pressure scenarios. I just don't, he doesn't strike me as the type two, and I think he's every bit as good. I'd say the same for Paul Hughes, by the way.

I think Paul Hughes is every bit as good as Usman or Magamadov, and I think he's every bit as good as the top and talent in the UFC. So I'd be okay with it, but I prefer a slower, a slower build. All right, so like what are we looking at here? I'm looking at the lightweight rankings, like a Darius, a Faze. Oh, come on. Garush is on the tail end. Hanato Moikano.

All these guys are Michael Chandler is 13. I am high. All right. Maricio Hofey at nine. Higher. Higher, higher. Yamrod 7. Keep going.

Keep going. What's that the... Patty Pemblit 6? All of these are going to be gigantic names. Eddie Pimbleit could be something now. BSD? Yeah, that's the caliber I want to see. Okay.

Max Holloway, Charles Olivera. Just from a bill position, and I do, I do understand that. I wouldn't be angry seeing them fights either, lads. But I just think to a certain degree, the vast majority of people will be seeing this guy for the first time. Why not give him an old Connor McGregor v. Dennis Siever kind of match up, you know what I mean? You're talking about go outside the top 15. You're saying like, let's just put them up against any light. I'm available if they want a showcase.

I will go in and get back. Can you get down to 155? No, no, I can't. It's going to have to be a catchweight of 250 pounds. But listen, it will show the world how this man can roll. You're doing this in the name of Usman Dermagamettev, despite the history between Ireland and Dagestan. Could you imagine the whoop and he put me on me walking out with the troika?

He just gets flashbacks of Dubai. Oh, I'm going to kill him. Listen, all right, I'm being hyperbolic here. I would like a showcase fight from him. Just so the audience know what we're dealing with. Okay, but Pizzi, the showcase fight is for the guys you're not, like, let's say it is. Let's say it really is the first time they're seeing Usman, Nurmada Madov.

it's not the first time they're seeing Nirmagamadov. You don't need to tell the story. You don't need to sell him. Undefeated Nirmagamadov at that. There's a litany of these Dagestani guys that show up on a UFC card. You see Habib in the corner and they're like, oh shit, that guy's legit. The John Pork thing is entirely related to his proximity to this camp and just the fact that Islam said his name. Okay, so we don't need to sell.

Michael Chandler then. Sure. You wanted Connor? Best we can do is DFL debutant. my god, imagine this friend of I love it. See at the top. That's his return for you. See at the top. You're getting

Usman or Magamette off. Congratulations. Look, I think we're all, to sum this up, I think we're all very high on Usman. I also think he leaves. The bag the the PFL would have to throw at him. When he's surrounded by this camp of

UFC greats, UFC legends, to me, I just don't think he stays. I don't even think, I wonder if there's even a number. That's my concern. I don't know if there's even a number they could give them because you know what Habib is about. You know what Islam is about. When it comes to that camp, when it comes to the disciples of Abdulmanap, it's about achievement. It's about like Habib has turned down lifetime generational wealth for the fights that he could have gotten to come back to the UFC to have the career

that he's had. And now Islam is is chasing greatness in the same way. I wonder if there's even a number. I wonder. Now, if you're Usman, you're young enough, maybe you could take this one and then the next one. You fight a two or three fight deal. They say, we're going to give you money to last a lifetime and then you do two or three more and then go to the UFC. But I do wonder if they can even get them. I don't, I personally don't think they can. I think there will be a massive number just purely because of the Dubai basically trying to get these guys fights. And if anyone can splash cash, it's those lads out there. Now, I just wonder, you know, the more we talk about this, I'm kind of thinking. And maybe like I could be mistaken. I'll have to check. But I think Hughes's contract is not far from up to. Like this could be a situation where if Usman does go, Hughes is suddenly in a great leverage position with negotiation as well. I'd have to double check.

I do think, I do don't, I don't think he has too many left. But just an interesting situation in terms of the lightweight division there, if two of the banner names suddenly are available for free agency. That's a, yeah, when did he sign? 2023? Yeah, I think so.

Yeah. early Jesus now I'll have to check but he's had a fair few fights he's been in

big spots I hear he has another fight on the horizon I don't think there be too many more too many fights

left after that so it is a very it's a very important thing for PFL to do to kind of get at least one of these guys stable down

if one of them is going to leave I feel like the future of the division is kind of relying on one of these guys and based on the history they created

in their two fights I think it needs one to bleed in a new generation even. Yeah. Well, their stars leaving is not the only problem that the PFL is facing. They had their vacant welterweight title on Saturday, Ramadan. Kurumagamatov defeats Shemil Musayev by unanimous decision, and then the vacant lightweight welterweight title is once again vacant

because he has retired from the sport in his post-fight speech. Your thoughts, gentlemen. How in trouble is the PFL going from vacant title to vacant title at 170. I don't think this is a... You go, PT, go. Well, I think that the part of it

that they will hate the most is the fact that they've made this matchup with Masayev, who is a savage, you know? And then Ramazan comes out and he looks unbelievable in this fight. You know, I've never seen someone do this to Shamil before.

I actually was watching the fight thinking, like, this might be going Shamil's way. Like, he might be trying to counter-wrestle, just let this guy exhaust himself through the first three rounds. And I've seen him do this before. And then he's,

starts tuning him up but ramsan did such a good job on him he could never quite get there there was a big stoppage in the foreground for a low shot i believe it was and that allowed ramazan some time to gather himself too um he looked really really great like my big takeaway from that was this guy is way better than i thought he was i've never seen someone do this to masayev but now the fact if he is walking away um and this title becomes vacant again masayev would have been the the guy to put in there But unfortunately, you've just let the world watch him be beat, which is not ideal for the contingency plan for 170 as far as I'm concerned. So I agree with you. I do not think it's a good situation.

And I do wonder if BFL are going to come correct and try and sort this out and get this guy active again. I agree with what you've said. But I do like the PFL belt does not have enough history, does not have enough. I know, but the history needs to start. This was supposed to be like them kicking it off. This was a false start, but I don't think it has enough history that, like, this is going to have long-lasting impact, nor do I feel like he's the type of fighter that they need to have on their roster in some major way, right?

We talked about, you need to break the bank to get Usmaner Magameda. I just don't feel the same, right? And so the idea of him walking away after capturing the belt, it sucks. It devalues the fight you just made, which was an incredible performance, an incredible fight, but I don't know if this is one where it's like irreparable damage. The PFL belt just does not have enough. significance does not mean enough, you do another vacant title fight, you crown a new champion, and you move on. And if he's retired, I don't know if I even try to dig him out, because the price

tag is probably going to be too much to do that for somebody that casual fans are not even like tuning in for. He doesn't have the name value of an Usman. He doesn't even have the name value of like a Paul Hughes, who's the foil to the Usman part of the story. I would just say, Sianara, thank you for the memories. A fantastic one title fight. And just keep it rolling. It does a present an opportunity, lads. Like, you guys are big fans of that Jean. He's right there at 170. I was just about to say, what do you do now?

You do a vacant title fight. You put Shameel Moussaiv back in it against that gene. Or Thad Jinn versus somebody else. And then Mossive can get the winner. Logan's norley? Yes, sure. Again, let's rematch. Logan Storley.

They don't have many options. Is the, is the... Lazy King, I will say, like, he's so hyped, right? And he's coming out of France, and he fights another split decision there on the PFL Dubai card. not gone the way people expect. I think he has great ability. And we see this at times too. Look, he is winning these fights, but it's certainly not the all-action, you know, ground wizard that that we saw in Ares and in different places like that. All right, let me sell you

something, Pizzi. Okay, go. Paris, France. Oh, shit. Okay. That gene, the return of the king, Cedric Dumebe, strikers delight, throw a title on. one of these boys and let's just do it. Dad Gene travels to enemy turf. Cedric Dubei returns. Title fight. Boom. Problem solved. One of these guys, potential future of your organization, although let's be honest, like, Cedric Dunebe's been out a bit, he's getting older,

they need to kind of like speed this up. I don't know where the fuck he's been. PFL doesn't really seem to even acknowledge him anymore. You've got a main event in France that would blow the stadium roof off if Cedric Dunebe is able to win that. Absolutely. And look, we even, Lazy King has that kind of pull in France too. Like, they do have a great roster of fighters there.

Terlapalus, another great fighter, had a great win earlier. Got to finish. Yeah. Yeah, he, like, and a tough fight there as well. They have a roster where they can go to Paris and having been there for the Dune Bay fight. It is crazy. It is, it is rare to see that kind of adulation and that kind of fandom. And we're hoping we'll maybe see something similar to that in Madrid now on March when

major MMA comes to Spain for the first time. But yeah, it's a great plan. I'd love them to see them do something with Cedric. I am as confused as you as to what is happening there. He is one of the jewels in the PFL crown as far as I'm concerned. So I think they should, if they can, do something with him. And he put, I was there in that Akka Arena. It's the same arena that the UFC used, 20,000 people there to see Bacci v.

Dune Bay that night. We all remember how that went. The splinter. controversial finish. Yes, exactly. But it would be huge. It's a great show. We'll see what happens in the PFL with welterweight division. Let's jump over to the UFC.

Mario Batista in the main event, absolutely thumps Venetius Olivera, pillar to post, ends up getting the finish in the second round. He is now won nine of his last 10. But post-fight, Loke Dog starts talking, hurt my arm, weight cut didn't go well. He made this post on Instagram.

Most of the videos that he's posting are in Portuguese. This one we translated into English. It's earthquakes. It went bad once again. I've lost count of how many times I lost in my life, but in all I got up and moved on, I'm sad for my team and everyone who was cheering for me. But finally, no sad story.

We're going to another journey. I did the impossible. I lost 84 KG once again. I had three injuries in this combat camp, wrist injury, meniscus, and also a fracture in my arm, but I'm still the best. Terror has a name. Yeah. That's got to be 8.4 KGs, right?

Like, it can't be 80. He did not lose 160 pounds. He did not lose 160 pounds in that one. But yeah, I mean, he looked every bit of injured because that was, that was essentially a no competition type fight. Like Mario Batista, just from opening Bell, it was his world and gets the finish in in the second round. Yeah, he put, he put an extreme beat on him. And it was one of them where it looked extremely obvious what was going to happen very, very quickly. Interesting, like this, this weight, this note about weight, I think this is a,

great time from to move up. You know, like he, I think he had said he only had a couple of fights at Bantamway left anyway, could have lost as a move up because this did not look good. And I think when a fighter moves to a different weight class, it kind of renews enthusiasm too. This is a very exciting fighter. A guy, we are all very excited about. But he can kind of look back on this and say, well, that was a depleted version. I'll be waiting you see me at 1.45.

I would be excited to hear that he was moving up a weight class. I don't know if you guys agree with me. I'd like to see him in a different weight class, but the more interesting thing to me is the idea that he thought he could go in against a guy as good as Mario Batista, having just recently fractured his arm and compete to the point that it's very clear to me that all he was focused on was the weight cut, right? He probably didn't train that much with that injured arm and was thinking, I'm just going to show up and beat Mario Batista. I question the decision making.

I'm a big fan of Lock Dogg. I think he's incredible. And the fighter that we've seen to this point was not the one in the cage. Like he did not show up. I question the thought that he even thought he could step in there in this form and in this fashion. Forget the weight cut. Forget the idea that he had to cut a tremendous amount of weight. The idea that he's still stuck in this fight.

And look, God knows there's lots of opportunities where fighters stay in the fight. Maybe he needed the money desperately. And I can't begrudge him for that. But that's not the type of performance you want to carry forward. If you're somebody that people are talking about is one of the best prospects in the sport, it was a disappointing performance, but even more so, I think, disappointing decision-making from whoever is advising him or part of his team, they need to protect him a little better than to let him go in there in that state and look as bad as he did. I'm just not sure what the game plan was when you're going from Kyler Phillips to you mentioned Mario Batista. Like, yeah, Mario Batista gets a lot of flack online and everything for the performance against Jose Aldo, but this dude is nasty.

He won nine of his last 10, as I mentioned, and the one loss is to Umar Nama Madameh. Like he is, he is top level competition in this division. And you're jumping from Kyler Phillips to this with a fractured arm. And you think that you were going to be able to come in here and win. Like it was, it was domination. It was, Lock Dogg never had a chance from, from the moment the opening bell rang. I think a lot of that is because of the injury. And I think he probably should have pulled out of the fight.

We're not talking about a T.J. Dillishaw on UFC 280 where he needed to stay in because it's a championship fight on a pay-per-view. This is main event of an apex. Like, if you've known about it for several weeks as well, I think, you probably should have pulled out of the fight. I think that was the smarter thing to do in this circumstance. Do you think there's a reluctance for fighters? We don't really hear about it in circumstances, like specifically like this, but we do hear about fighters getting short notice debuts and they'll just do whatever.

And then afterwards I say, well, geez, you know, I wasn't, I hadn't been training for a month, you know, and I had to come in and take this. Do you think that it exists like a situation where the UFC come calling and even though it's the apex, this is you main eventing against a top contender, Do you think you kind of say when an opportunity like that comes along, I better just do it to keep the powers that be happy rather than maybe push myself back? Obviously, in hindsight, you got to look at yourself and be like, dude, if I do this, it's going to be a detriment to my career. There's no way that keeping the powers that be happy outweighs you putting on that performance you put on Saturday night. If his team told Mick Maynard or Sean Shelby that he was this severely comprehensive.

compromise, I guarantee they would not have wanted him to take the fight. It was, it was just a horrible performance for a guy that you have to imagine they could have been pretty high on, for a guy that they could have built on. So I'm sure that that is the logic that went through his mind. I don't think the UFC had a hand in that. I definitely don't think the proof is in the pudding. I think the fact that they're putting him in a main event against the top 10 Garne Mar-Bautista proves that they are high on him. They have faith. Yeah. And as well, like, as well in terms of what we're talking about this guy's exciting performances. if you say, you know, I'm not ready for this one,

you come in and put on a signature lockdog performance in your next fight, all is forgiven. We're ready to move on. 100%. Ready to put the promotional weight behind you. And I'd like to see him at a higher weight class, like you said. Like the story kept being about the weight. Let's not make the story the weight.

Come back, healthy, arm healed, put somebody to sleep and we move on. But speaking of putting somebody to sleep, I just want to, I want to showcase the finishing sequence by Mario. Batista because it was an it was an absolute beauty like the the transitions on the ground once he was able to get a lock dog there were just insane first of all like once he gets him there the damage that he was doing he was able to open him up with elbows he was ragdolling him against the fence he just had complete control of him and then once we get into like hunting for the camora into the transition uh to the back it was a foregone conclusion i don't think this i don't think

there's anything to take away from Mario Batista, despite the fact that we all kind of like spent this time talking about Lock Dog being compromised, Mario Batista showed up ready to exploit the weaknesses that he had. Earlier in the broadcast, there was a moment where Paul Felder was talking about his fighter interview with Mario Batista, and he said something to the effect of Mario Batista talked about all the holes in Lockdog's game, and they're the same holes that Paul Felder as an analyst realized and recognized. There's no doubt. that John Crouch and the team over there had Mario Batista ready to go. And it looked like somebody who had the perfect game plan, the perfect camp,

versus somebody who just wasn't ready for it. The final stats on it, 49 of 63 strikes landed by Mario Batista, 5 of 7 takedown, six minutes of control time, gets the finish in the second round. Complete domination. Now, the difficult thing here is, what do you do with Mario Batista? He's won nine of his last 10, but he's still ranked number nine. he's probably not going to move up because he was beating an unranked guy in Venetius Solvera. Like where do you go from here with Mario Batista?

I guess Venetius Solvera was 11. Will he move up? I'm not sure. It's just like it feels like a guy who's going to have to win 15 of 16 to get back in like the title contendership. Didn't he call out Corey? What about Corey? I like that, honestly. Yeah, and Ariel mentioned that with the Aeman having to potentially pull out of that.

Yeah. here's the thing like it's tough it's a tough sell for any of those guys up the top of it because this guy is showing us every time he fights obviously lost to umar as you guys mentioned but he's very cerebral he can fight guys in very different ways he knows how to win fights um it's something it's a kind of an unheralded skill set when you can change adapt your game to win a fight you can do what is needed uh whether it be keeping distance or or as we saw with Venetia, just mauling him, like just absolutely suffocating him from the first spell.

I don't think a lot of guys are jumping up and down to fight Mo Batista in this division. Like, that's the rough thing about it. He is a nightmare situation because he's pretty unheralded. He is a guy that kind of came into some bad sentiment for just winning, you know, against, against Aldo. I thought he reestablish himself with the Pachi Mix win because obviously Pachi Mix win, because obviously Pachi was so heavily hyped. But I just think he's probably too far down the rankings

to really appeal to the top contenders, but I absolutely think he belongs there. You know who he reminds me of? And please don't take this and run with this, aggregators or anybody else. But it's GSP, right? It's the, I'm going to beat you where you're weakest. I'm going to make my life the easiest.

I'm so well-rounded that if I need to go to the ground, I'm going to take you there. If I need to strike, I'm going to take you there. It's the, it's the common. of the well-rounded skill set with the game plan that in any scenario against any opponent, he has an opportunity to exploit it. It's that kind of like mentality and that kind of skill set. He's a very impressive dude. I thought he looked as good as people look against Umar Nermakamadov. Like that was kind of a performance where he had his opportunities and he made it a tough

sweat for Umarna Magamadov. I would be surprised if in a rematch maybe that one swings potentially his way. You could run that a few times and it could go either way. He's, he's very good. And to your point, I don't know that everybody's signing up for a guy like that. I'll tell you, though, I think Corey Sandhagen is the type of martial artist who would sign up for it. And that's why I think it's probably the right matchup. He really is this stereotypical high-risk, low-reward outcome for you, especially if you're a guy like Corey Sanhagen, who's like five ranks above him. It's not like you're trying to go up and take his ranking from him.

Let's go to the co-main event. Kioji Horaguchi gets his second UFC wins since returning to the promotion, a dominant performance. against Amir al-Bazi. There was 1-29-28, but I felt like it was a pretty clean 30-27. Just the speed that he showed, the striking that he showed, man, the mixing into the takedowns. He looked fantastic. Gets on the mic afterward.

Calls for the title shot, just like he did back in Qatar, back in November. And, like, I can't blame him. Like, I mean, he's incredibly high level. He's proven himself now, like, since returning from, from Risen. Anything he puts on social media turns to gold. Like, he's got that falling in Japan. The UFC wants to go to Japan. makes all the sense in the world.

Like, it feels like there's a big opportunity here for the UFC to act on Hora Gucci's second act with the promotion. Yeah, he's, it's a very fail-good story, I feel. I feel like we're all into this. We love how he's returned. And I think the fact that everybody after his return fight was calling for, like, look, this is a guy that should be fighting for the title. It just kind of underlines that what he did against Albaazi.

at the 2019-28 do you think that was for the drop earlier in the forest? I know he completely dominated. It looked like a slip-dose. Because he like, somersaulted out of it and stuff. Yeah, I feel the same way. Like when I heard the Scarcars, like, that's probably why they've given it,

but very unfair. I thought it was a master class one, being honest. The striking numbers are just insane. 73 to 16 on significant strikes and Amir al-Bazi landed 23% of his significant strikes thrown. The back-to-back performances, were flawless against tough, tough opposition.

Like, he is very clearly one of the best fly weights in the world, if not the best flyweight. Yeah. I think the thing most working against him is the fact that Josh Van took the title from Pantosia. So you have, like, you have a Manil-Kopp potential fight, Pantosia whenever he's ready to go back, sort of pushing Kyojoori Gucci down in line a little bit. Yeah, he does seem like a very amiable guy. I do think he has that samurai spirit where if the U.S. see we're like, oh, well, we're actually going to think about doing this.

And if you win this one, he'd be like, yeah, no problem. But at 35, you kind of want to see it happen for him as soon as possible. I like the idea that he's open to fighting Pantosia. And, of course, Pantosia not the champion now, Josh Van. But that's an interesting angle. Should they replay the Pantosia v. Van fight? So what do you do with him? If I'm, if I'm him, I'm waiting to see what they do.

I'm waiting to see how they figure out the title picture. Because if it's not Pantosia, I think he's a great person to slot in there and you could make it like some type of revenge filler you know he's coming back But is he ahead of Tyra if they do that Who beat Moreno Is he ahead of him?

Finish Moreno This is the problem that I think Horaguchi is facing is like There's a queue building up And I don't know that he's ahead of them Then do you do Tyra in Japan You do an all Japanese fight in Japan Oh versus Horaguchi versus Tyra

Horeguchi Tira main event Of a Japanese fight night Eliminator in Japan That would be Also let's not forget Manel Cop needs an opponent too Yeah It's actually a really good problem to have though right

I feel like this is like a product of The old fans Re-loving flyweight When they didn't in the moment Where this like Demetrius Johnson We love them so much When in the time they were like Get this fucking little guy out of here

Horaguchi who gives a shit Get him out of here And now they're having this like, I love flyweight all of a sudden resurgence. And it's like, I really want to see him get it. Meanwhile, if he had been in the UFC at this point, they would have been like cut the guy. It's, I think it's a product of this like, this nostalgia for the fly weights of the past era and how great they were. But just based on the performances, like, I think he's every bit as good as he was back then, if not better. Like he certainly got, he has some losses since then.

But like, you know, Sergio Pett is catching you with a spinning back fist after you dominated him. and then in a rematch completely dominated him. I don't know if that's like something I'd take away too much from, nor Kai Asakora like Lansing him with a really nice shot. Like he just feels like he's still very much in his prime. I don't want to see it go to waste. I would love to see him get a title opportunity, but I just don't know if he's ahead of Pantosia, Tyra, or Cop

when it comes to getting the title. This Josh Van getting the title off Pantosia thing has complicated matters in a way that I didn't foresee. He actually might be the fan favorite to get, To get the title. I was going to ask. That is, that is just what I was about to ask. Like, do, where would you power rank them in terms of fan interest?

Like, to Rick's point, he's saying, like, is this an old school fan kind of thing where we remember the first one? We're like, oh, we love Horaguchi. You know, this is a, this is, what are researchers in the UFC? G.C., would you, where do you think the fan interest is there? Would you say cap's ahead of him? I'm not. And recency boys aside, of course.

I think I go, I think I go Horaguchi, cop and then Tatsuro Taira. Tira last. To get the shot against Van, yeah. Horiguchi just like... What about Pantosia? He's so beloved. Pantosia just like, to me it doesn't matter about the fan interest because he's deserved it to get it.

He has to go. If he's ready to go, then he needs to go. I think people maybe are sort of forgetting about Alessandre Pantosia a little bit during this injury and the way that he went out at UFC 323, but I think he's rightful for the title whenever he is ready to go. I've been on this corner when it comes to other divisions, including welterweight.

You just got to fight sometimes. And, like, I know everybody, quote, unquote, deserves a title shot, but sometimes you just got to fight. And I'm okay if Horaguchi, Cop, Taira, Pantosia, some combination of those guys fights, and one of them gets a title shot as well. Let's just get on with it. And to your point, I think Horaguchi is the type of guy that it's like, if I got to do one more, I got to do one more. I wonder if Minel Kopp or Tatsuro Taira are. I'd love to see Horaguchi against any one of those guys. You know, with cop's history in Japan as well, like a cop versus Horiguchi and a main event in Japan would work as well.

It just all depends. We're waiting on Pantosia. There's too many contenders to name. Like it's going to get to a point, like you said, they just need to fight or the UFC needs to make a decision. Someone's going to be the odd one out, though, right? Someone is. Like, yeah, that's going to be. So if the UFC come to any of these guys, they should be like, yeah, I'll fight.

Absolutely. Because if I don't fight, I'm the odd man out. Remember last year I was saying about when you said Horiguchi might want to sit out, I think the opposite. I think you might want to be like, let's go. Well, remember, he got offered that Brandon Moreno fight and he was just like, yep, I'm down, let me just take care of business against him here. I'll Basie this weekend, and then I'll be in. By the way, does anybody feel like he couldn't still have stepped in for the Brandon Moreno fight?

I think he could. I think he did say that he broke his hand post-post fight, and then he said in a tweet afterward, he said, thank you for watching my fight. I was able to win the fight. next I'll train hard again at ATT so I can deliver my absolute best performance when the next chance comes I injured my hand so I'm heading back to Florida now to get it checked out I'm really glad that I could win thank you all so much for sending me tons of power in the picture of his fight he's just so wholesome dude he's just so wholesome and then like when he gets in there he's just a fucking animal it's

impossible for me to explain to you with any level of understanding how much people hated flywates just because they were fly weights it was an insane thing that was just how happening in the sport where they're putting on great fights and people just hated them. Flyweight is like the one division to me that like sells out constantly to put on great fight. These dudes just put it all on the line. It's very rarely boring at 125. They were hated. It was a bizarre phenomenon.

This is actually a great transition up to 265. The absolute other end of the spectrum we see. Jelton Almeida, lose again this time to Rizvan Kunev. But the most important part, it was just an absolute stinker. Just a stinker of a fight. It was not entertaining. This coming off, Tai Tuivasa last week versus Talus and Tashira, where you get the meme of both dudes with their hands on their hips,

completely gassing out in round three. A couple questions coming off of it. There was no real winners here. Should the UFC keep Fjelten Almeida around? Oh, boy. How do you fix the half? heavyweight picture. Well, obviously, you know, with Tom's situation still up in the air, it's very difficult.

It's the worst thing that can happen to a division when you don't have the champion at play because it becomes rudderless. I said the same thing during the time when John Jones was kind of just standing the side, waiting to see if he wanted to fight or not. When the guy that is the king of the mountain, if he's not active, it makes every other fight seem inconsequential. it makes you kind of wonder what are these guys fighting for

Jelton Almeida he has been so underwhelming compared to what we thought we were getting with this guy I think I saw Aaron Bronset I put up a tweet at the time when I was watching this fight

and he said well it just seems as though if you can stuff a takedown and he can land 10 strikes in a round you can beat Jelton Almeida and that's unfortunately the kind of feeling you have

coming away from it and it's not that you're just losing you're losing in a bad fight can he a fair play to him him gets the win, but I don't think anyone is jumping up and down to be like, when are we going to see Rizvan, fight one of the big dogs? You know, it was, as you said, the opposite of what you want. It's the opposite of a feeling we got from like a Harri Gucci after this fight. And to be honest, they should put every Floydway fight after a heavyweight fight just to underline.

Look at the speed these guys are going on because it does feel like you're just watching it and fast forward. Or is that the worst thing you can do because then it highlights how bad the heavyweight fight is even more. No, no, no. People don't. need to know. People need to know. Because you say no one's going to be excited about Kunev. He's now going to be a top six heavyweight. He's going to take Jailton's rake. Okay. Is Joltenhammeda a blown-up

light heavyweight? Is he actually just a light heavyweight? I think so because I used to dude, I was a fan of this guy. I loved watching him fight. I mean, really it didn't start falling off the rails until that Derek Lewis fight. He was finishing everybody. He was coming in. He was being super aggressive. He was getting subs. He was ground and pounding people. But like

to what you just said in Aaron Bronsetter's tweets, if he doesn't get the takedowns, man, he presents almost no threat whatsoever on the feet to these guys. In the last six rounds, he's landed 40 significant strikes. Yeah. Like, he just isn't going to do anything.

The difference here than the previous fights, and we talked about this in our breakdown, I said, like, I'm not so sure he's going to be aggressive. The difference here was against Volkov and Lewis, he had them dead to rights and couldn't pull the trigger. Sure. In this one, he couldn't even get to. to the point of having them dead to rights to pull the trigger.

He was just out of his depths. He looked like a completely different fighter. I'm not sure what has happened or what has changed. He just does not look suitable for the heavyweight division anymore. Maybe the guys are too strong. Maybe the wrestlers are too prevalent. I think he could get a fresh coat of pain at light heavyweight potentially. But even there, I do just have concerns about him long term.

I don't know what has happened to Jalton Almeida, but this does not look like the guy we saw. I see a lot of people making the comparisons of there's athletes and then there's fighters and Jailton Al-Meda seems to be an athlete who was able to thrive getting to the upper echelon of the heavyweight division and now that he's there

the fighters are coming out and he cannot fight with them he cannot just rely on his sheer athleticism to get it done anymore I think it's similar to what we're talking about with Lockdog this is a good opportunity to move down you make a great point GZ like he has to

fought out lowy heavyweight before can he can he get down there it feels like you're in need of a big shift like to get the fan base back to get something exciting going for you i think the fan base be willing to give him more chances if he did drop down he has an incredible jiu jitsu pedigree uh although you know if he can't get the takedowns when are we going to see it but like you know understand what i'm saying right i think people are done with this heavyweight thing like i think if he gets put on a card they're going to be like oh well You know, what have the last two fights been like, not great? To inspire some enthusiasm in the fan base, I think you've got to make a drastic shift.

And if 205 is an option, it would definitely pursue that if I was in. Yeah. He weighed in at 241 this past fight. Oh, geez. I didn't realize he was that big. He was somebody who was bouncing between the divisions for a while. He had a couple of fights where he was weighing in for a heavyweight fight at like 225. He had such success at heavyweight that I think it fooled us into thinking like, yes, this guy's a heavyweight.

weight contender. You look at him, he does not look like a heavyweight. Look, he's got the popcorn muscles. He is, he is a, you know, he's got a great physique, but he just doesn't seem to have the strength or the technique to be able to get people to the ground. He was able to get Volkov and Lewis to the ground, but then once there, it seemed like he was out of option still somehow with somebody with his jiu jitzy pettigree. It's, it's tough times for Jolton, but it's tougher times for heavyweight division. I mean, there's one way it all fixes, and we know what that is. It's a very obvious. What is he? Gable Stevenson.

He's coming. It's a rap for everybody else. He's coming. You're vague posting within the show itself. It's very obvious. It's very obvious. How could you not see it coming? It's Gable Steven winning down in Mexico,

getting on the White House card, champ by the end of 2026. I mean, who doesn't know this? Gable Steven, Risvan, Cuniav at the White House? White House, Redemption. What a fight. What a fight. I mean, that's the one that people watch.

Number six, you said it'll be? Perfect. Probably. I mean, that's what Jailton was, heading into this one. How could, the picture is clear. The picture is clear.

The path is open for, for Gable Stephson champ by the end of 2026. Of the top 15. There's a brick going through a wig. As a team hospital, what the fuck? I thought you guys liked me.

I love top hospital. At top 15, who are you guys excited about? Oh, let me take a look. Taito Ivasa? No. Walter Walker?

I'm kind of interested about Walter Walker. Big Parkin? Nope. We'll see. Shemiel Gatsyev, Talosin de Cheserra, Ante Delia. Oh, no, I know, I know, but it's tough to see him go out like that to Zalsa Boy. Made me join the militia. There's your rank-ins right there.

Ante Delia. All of these names are names you go, yeah, I know them. I recognize them. Back-in. They're okay. Eric Lewis, back-in. Marcine Ta-Tibera, back-in. Sergei Spivac, back-end.

You're grading them against other heavyweights. If you grade them against the rest of the divisions or the rest of the roster, This is piss poor. It's just not good. Yeah. We need Tommy back, honestly. We need Tom back. We need Tom back desperately.

We need to get this thing moving. And not even just for, you know, you made a great point about like the idea of like these fights feel insignificant without him. First of all, the fights feel insignificant because these fighters are just not good. Heavyweight is just a dumpster fire. Like these are not high level matchups that we're seeing. But if nothing else for the idea that like let Tom start ripping through some of these guys. If he can get back on track, he gets redemption against Cyril Gond. You can feed these guys to Tom and just start the rain, right?

Because even if you, even if these guys are not high level guys, the same way toward the end, it was like John Jones versus Tiago Santos. You can just start churning those guys and building the legacy. You can just start making that happen. So we need Tom back desperately. Like we need him back as soon as possible. Yeah. That's just hope that can be wrecked. to fight his situation. It's actually, it's a tragedy to the division that like we were sitting there

in October going, right, everything's going to get kick started now. Like, even like, I know people say to us, oh, you guys are marks, whatever, listen to what D.C. was saying, like, two Tom before that fight. He was like, you're going to go on such a run here. It's not like this is some kind of favoritism thing. That guy was a freak, a heavyweight. And if he can compete again, that would be, that would be the best thing for the division. Even when he did compete and it went the way it did with Gann. It kind of stimulated this growth in the division with Waldo Cortez-Aosta, your boy, GC, suddenly like using the ployd of Aspinall to promote himself, right, with the eye patches and all this stuff. Him competing is great for the whole division. And honestly, as a fan of the sport,

we should all want to be seeing this guy back because I was with DC in his estimation. I know a lot of us were we thought this could be something really, really special, a heavyweight and Unfortunately, we've ended up in this tragic situation where we're waiting for updates with his eyes and the shape that is in has not sounded very good. It would be a real tragedy if we didn't get to see Tom Asmel fight again. Is Waldo the Savior? Is Waldo Cortez-A Costa the man we've been waiting for? Do we lose your pizza? Connection go now?

I mean, I think, I respect Waldo, but I do feel like his hype has been greatly enhanced because of him position himself as the time. to the Aspinall situation. You know, I do feel like the week after, he's fighting Tom Aspinall's teammate, and he continues the fight. I think that's all part of the law. But look, he's fighting very well. I would fully fit Tom Asmel v. Waldo Cortez-A-Costa.

I think the Wiganite would be rubbing his hands together. But of course, we can't jump to that just yet. The Gan unfinished business there, the injury itself, everything is there. He, I'd love to see how it would look against him and Gann, you know, in the meantime, if they, if Tom's situation hasn't improved, I wouldn't mind seeing that. I don't think Gann would be too angry with that either, but the savior of the division, I'm not quite there yet, I don't think that's. How about, maybe you disagree? How about

Alex Pereira? Alex Pereira, John Jones. Great time. Great time from the move. All of a sudden, Alex gets a dub over John Jones, enters the heavyweight fray. I'm just saying there's options here. Let me throw something out to you. Over the course, the next month. This is what's going to happen. Two heavyweight fights. Oh. The entire UFC.

You tell me if the Savior is in any of these. Buried on the apex card of the Emmett Bejahos card next month, we are getting Vitor Petrino versus Stephen Aspland. I'm going to say no. That's not the one. Don't have that one marked down on my car, GC. But I could be wrong.

I've been wrong once. Main card in Houston, our next UFC card, Okay Speedback versus Antidella. No. Up 10 matchup. Too far away. They're both too far away.

Let me just say, you're talking. You need more fights. You need more fights. There's like six welterweight fights on this Houston card. You're talking about it. We need more fights just after saying like, let's not put heavyweight fights on it. We need more shit fights. The way I said people wanted to lose flyweight, I want to lose heavyweight.

But you forgot the biggest one. It's so obvious. How could you forget? It was these. February 19th, Mexico. Lightly, Gable Stevenson. I'll be watching. Hugo Lizama.

Don't sleep on Hugo, for real. Gable Steven, Alex Pereira, both fighting at heavyweight on the White House card. Fast forward to toward the end of the year, heavyweight division is saved. We've got new challenges. I'll tell you what ruins that completely. Tell me. One thing that could happen, John Jones winning the fight and therefore. No, that'd be perfect.

He posed a Ramazan Karamagamatov and immediately made kids. No, it's not for a title because it's Alex and they'll just be like, all right, see you later, bye. That would be a disaster. I don't know if I want to fight Gable, you know? I've never heard of this guy. You train him, John. What are you talking?

He just doesn't really do anything for my legacy. All right, it was a solid UFC card for an Apexman. It was, it was pretty solid. It was a solid UFC card. You had Dustin Jacoby getting a big win. Did you guys see the Jacob Wilkatz, Wichlas, fight? Yeah, the buzzer-beater? The absolute buzzer beater that at first it looked like we were going to go to a decision,

but then we have the ref step in, they go ahead and review it. Mouin got four off, stands up and thinks he's won the fight, and at first the ref is just like, all right, I think it's going to go to a decision. I think he probably would have won on the scorecards, and the scorecards came out, and like it might have actually been WICLOS that ended up winning, but ultimately they go to the booth, they review it, they see the proper tap, and Wicloss is awarded the submission victory. I was just glad to see them get it right.

It was clear as day. I honestly thought they spent too long at the monitor. I was like, you see him tap. Yeah. And then the horn goes, like two or three seconds after it. I love Tonyoni as this happens. Like, he's in a hunched position just standing over him. And then, like, he sees the tap and he just stays there going, oh, fuck.

Oh, Jesus, this is going to be a nightmare. Thankful for the video replay. Yeah, thank God for the video replay. And I'm glad that they use it. Yeah. And Viglas is doing really, really good. Like, the great entry to the UFC. And yeah, I think they made the right decision too.

I didn't think it was on, if I'm being honest, when you see a lad jump to gilly in the last 20 seconds, you're like, nah, it's never going to happen. And then he took the top position, you're like, holy shit, it's going to happen. And then it happened. And then I saw Tanyoni and I was like, what is going to happen here?

But luckily, we got the right result in the envoys. And so they filled out the scorecard and Wiglas still would have won. They filled out the scorecards, and he would have won 29, 28 on all three judges' scorecards. despite them despite having different ways that they got there they all ended up at 29-28

Jakob Wickloss So it didn't really matter in the end You watched Snucklemania 6 this weekend Pizzi? Saw the highlights It's all the highlights You see Andre Arlowski putting the work on Ben Rothwell man Getting the doctor stoppage

Incredible stuff From the 47-year-old Crazy Absolutely insane Some other crazy stuff that we saw there Charles Felony Bennett Who was on a We know him where

he was in our fight circus documentary. A name in combat sports walks out as... Now, do you know this guy, Pizzi, the meme of the Burger King hat wearing racist dude on the plane? No. That's who he decided to walk out as. Gets a huge win and then gets on the mic. I believe that's buffed up energy.

He says he hopes they're paying him some money for that because he does not drink that shit, referring to the bucked-up energy. One in 26, one in 25 in his last 26 comes out victorious. It is one of the enduring characters of MMA, crazy horse, but one of the wildest motherfuckers, MMA has ever seen. Felony. Felony.

Felony. Oh, sorry. Yes, yes. Felony, felony, felony. But, I mean, this guy, man, the story right back to the pride day is knocking out Vandalay backstage. When Vandale was Vandle, the most violent man on the planet, like the law around this dude is absolutely unbelievable.

And the same with Andre. And look, I know people see BKFC as this place where veterans go to die or whatever. These guys are flourishing here. Like Orlovsky was the UFC heavyweight champion when I was just getting into the sport. And to see him doing this now, like, whatever, 20 odd years later, it's absolutely insane. And I love to see it. And as, as everyone's pointed out as well, a three-time cancer survivor, Ariel said at the top of the show, it's an unbelievable story.

A little bit inside of me, I wanted to see him. fight that influencer security guard. Can we arrange that BKFC? Can be signed this guy? Like, I mean, and make sure the influencer do it is standing right there so we can watch his little heartbreak as it happens too. After seeing, after seeing what he did to Ben Rothwell, I don't think that's a good idea for the security guard. Then Rothwell was looking unbeatable at BKFC, man. And then Arlovsky put that on him. I mean, some of these shots are unbelievable. He had Rothwell searching for it, man. He could not find Arlofski at all. The craziest part of all this, and you talked a little bit about PTC and Ariel definitely

touched on this is like there was a period where he was on a losing skid goes over to WSOF and people are like begging for him to retire and that's now decade plus ago like it's crazy the kind of late career research you're talking about there what's that was that was that like was that like are we talking oh no sorry you're talking WSOF I can remember even the affliction for you remember you fought Fadar back in the day yeah well he got knocked out bad in that one but I'm talking like he goes over to he goes over to WSOF he's fighting rumble and people like that that and it's just like his chin's gone. This guy can't last anymore. We're now a decade later and it's the champion of a bare knuckle promotion. It's nuts the second career he's at.

Like, is there any part of you that doubts if you took Andre Arlowski right now and put him into the UFC's heavyweight division that he wouldn't be beating some of these guys? Like could Arlowski beat Jalton Almeda? I don't know. I'm pretty sure he could. He'd have the stuff to take downs. What you're talking about, he goes on a four-fight losing streak in affliction and strike force, then gets back on track, is winning like crazy, and then he goes on a five-fight losing streak

in the UFC, gets to four-fight losing streak, you know, win-loss, win-loss for a while, and then randomly, from 2020 to 2022, wins six of seven in the UFC, and then goes on a four-fight losing streak,

but now you talk about this roller coaster of Rolovsky's career, finds himself four-and-o in fight sports since that last loss in the UFC in June of 2024. Insane. Pro debut, 1999. 99.

Fucking out. Not even fucking 2000. Last century. It's crazy. I can remember being really up on him before the Tim Sylvia fight. And he lost. How's taste? That era?

No, even before then, I think. He had just won the title, I think. And then Tim Sylvia came back. I think he'd beat him once and he lost to him twice. and it was devastating for you. He was the fucking coolest. The hair, the fang mouthguard. He was the fucking best.

Harry back, hairy chest. UFC 59. Breaking Pizzi's heart. Oh, poor little Pizzi Carol. Just thought the coolest looking guys would always win. Still do. Same. Same.

You see Patrick Brady walking out. I think he walked out with one of your friends. I was going to say, accompanied by one of Pizzie Carroll's own. Yeah, big Shane. Oh. Shane's looking in great Nick, isn't he? Jesus Christ. slick. Looks good. He looks like he's ready to go.

I got to throw that one of them. I thought he was one of Shane's cornermen. I thought Shane was the fighter. Patrick's in good and then it comes out. I love Shane coming out where he's like, well, what do you want me to do here? Yeah, at this point now he's just like, all right, what the fuck do I do? He's like, got shit. All right. Keep going in here? That t-shirt's very nice as well, fair play. That was a war he was in, right? I think I was watching a bit of this, actually.

This was a, this was a drag him out war, Brady was in. I think he won as well, didn't he? Yeah, we ended up, we actually watched Brady last year at Knucklemania 5 in Philly. He's kind of, they can just throw him on these Philly cards and he's going to get a big pop. He typically is incredibly game when he goes in there and it's cool to see him walking out with a Philly legend in Shane Gillis. He won 5042, 49, 41, 49, 43 by unanimous decision. It did look like the most, the most atmosphere at any of the events of the weekend, right? Like it did have moments where it was definitely more than the apex and I don't think it was close to to buy as well.

They had a reported 18,000 plus sell out 2 million people watching on stream. They have something here. They keep it going, man. They keep it moving too. They keep it high energy. And like you said it was a drag amount war. If two guys of that size and stature are throwing and they go to a decision, there's no other option in bare knuckle but for it to be a war. Yeah.

Yeah. And as usual I said, like, you don't, like, I don't mean. this is a as a slight on BKFC at all, but like the event itself, like you don't need to go in with a huge amount of prior information, although you guys do have that. Like you remember you guys saying, like you were talking to people like,

oh, this is our first event, not really particularly here to see anyone. I'm just here for the madness. And that's a great ticket to get too, right? Like that's a unique selling point in the sport. Like unlike some events where, you know, you can get a lot of decisions. This style of fighting is just running counter to that.

Like it's, you're usually going to see some. something fucking crazy if you go to a BKFC fight. It's not by accident. Think about this though for a second. Just simplify things like UFC, right? UFC comes to town. Yes, there's people on the marquee, but the selling point is UFC's in town, right?

When you ask people about it, it's like the UFC fight. PFL doesn't have that, right? And it's probably mostly a product. Like no really MMA promotions other than the UFC have that. And it's a product of the fact that people conflate MMA and UFC and UFC. And UFC is the only game in town. out. BKFC is something different. You can show up to say, I'm going to the bare knuckle fights, or I'm going to the BKFC fights, and that has its own cachet. You don't really need to know who's

fighting. It's kind of by design, and it's kind of brilliant. And it's the same thing that Connor McGregor, you know, he's a part owner and one of the most, you know, zealous when it comes to selling BKFC. But he's right. These guys just take out the gloves and they go to war. And girls. Like, this is what the product is. And I don't think you need, I think the brand has, has reached a point where you can say like Bear Knuckle is coming to town and there's going to be a section of people that are just interested in that. They don't really need to know

the characters. They don't really need to know the names. And this is probably a good example of that. Like Arlowski and Rothwell are names, but they're not necessarily names to like a young demo. That's more of like the old head MMA fans. Especially in Philadelphia. Yeah.

You're like an 18,000 Arlowski fans showing up. Exactly. Yeah, it's a bunch of people who are just like, man, we can go to the arena, we can drink, and we can watch a bunch of people fighting bare knuckle. Like, let's go have a good time. They probably went last year. They probably were there for Perry and Eddie Alvarez and were

like, sick. Or Stevens and Eddie Alvarez. And we're like, sick. Let's run that back. Last one. Last one, did you see Lex Ludlow, punching the snod out of Zach Kalmus here. Pizzi definitely saw this. You didn't see this? A couple uppercots.

A couple uppercuts. Big shots. Good grief. Hanspeed here. Look at this. Yeah. It's impressive. He's gone in with the toys and no socks kind of look here with the black shorts and the Our man Zach Kalmas in the red shorts

Drops the mouthpiece I thought that was piece of his face I think the ref was trying to stop the fight there And then decided halfway through it was stopping for the mouthpiece And get the clear out of it Oh man, knocked the snot out of him Right on the mustache Not a lot to wipe that off

Can't get him? You can't get him a tissue, a Kleenex, anything going there? Pizzi, you watched the Super Bowl last night? I'll tell you what, boys, I gave up after I watched Bad Bunny I was like this is yeah this is this is great and then the football started again and they punted a couple of times and I was like

you know what I just can't fucking do this you see that new energy from Pizzi right when we asked about the Super Bowl got a big deep breath you know what boys you really laid it on the line there yeah it was a shit game it was a stink I was excited as well I was building myself up I was listening to every preview in the world and they're all like

it's gonna be under and I was like they don't know it's gonna go off oh you took you took the over too oh man I can't watch and be like cheering on no points. I just can't. So what was the number for the over? He was 44, wasn't it? Honestly, it came close in the end.

I was going to say by the ending in the fourth quarter of like 29.13 final. I did not see that because I was already snoring my brains out. You watched bad bunny, you turned on kid rock and then you went to bed. I went to kid right. You see the thing with the, you watch the teeposa. Oh, you best of believe. Every song was about, I'm tough, but I love God, which I, you know,

obviously associate very closely with that. And then I was this then so that started first. So I was able to watch a bit of the country lads giving it a go. And then bad buddy came on. So I'm kind of absorbing this lad. Like it's like a, it's like an Olympic opening ceremony almost. It's that big. Like the events just go absolutely insane.

And so I'm watching that. And then I see, bum did they bomb day bang, bang, biggie, biggie, my name is kid. So I had to stick that on for a minute. And me and the 60 people there were having a great time bopping away to that. Back to Bad Bunny. I mean, I liked it all. I don't really see, you know,

where do we have to pick one? Just listen to them at the same time. I love that. Yeah, it was dual screen in it. I had the dual screen going. You win any bets? My name is kid. What age is he?

Oh, what age is he? I have no idea. At first I thought you say, I thought you said, okay, so that would make him 55. At first I thought you said, quick.

At first I thought you said, would you say G. I'm sorry. What's his age? Are you implying that he's not allowed to be kid rock at 50? He's man rock as far as I'm concerned. Gentleman rock.

I'm going to be open with y'all. I had no idea that that was happening until halftime. Someone was like, oh, do you know this is happening? You must not be on X a lot, huh? I guess not. It wasn't broadcast on X. Copyright information issues. There was not broadcast on X, but there was a lot of talk about it leading up on X.

I tapped in for a minute. Brantley G. Who is that one? Is he the first of the second lad that were roughly the same person? Frankly Gilbert, I think. And, you know, I could be convinced that they sang the same song, to be honest with you. One of them was rapping as they played the acoustic guitar. That they lost me there.

But look, each of the wrong. Bam-de-de-bang-de-bang-de-bang-de-bang-degg. That's your jam, huh? Walk-out song? Super Bowl was a stinker. Half-time show, you go. Back and forth. Which one did you?

You ultimately have to choose one. You can't sit the fence. You have to take that bonny and turning point. One of the two. I love that like either watching one of these tells everyone who's watching what you are. You know what I mean? Like that's attached to that now. You can't answer this.

Don't answer this question. You're not allowed. Come on, bro. It was Bunny. It was bad Bunny. What he went to Offman. Yeah. You know what?

You want me to be totally honest? I'm actually not a huge, I'm not a huge like half-time show guy. Same 100%. It's a 12-minute performance on television. I'm all like every year. Some people are like, this is the greatest ever. You know, this is the worst. all time. This was complete shit. I can't believe we're doing this. We're making a mockery.

And every time I'm just kind of like, yeah, it's fine. I'll usually go and listen to the artist the next day. Could not agree more. Outside of when Justin Timberlake exposed Jenna Jackson, I mean, I was in all the time. Yeah, I really wasn't locked in on any of these, if I'm being honest. Couldn't believe my house. I don't know any of five from the song book. My kids were very excited about Bad Bunny. My kids were very excited about that's cool. I could give it was, I can give a fuck about the halftime show. Surprising me, my kids not excited about kid rock i don't think they that's he's excited you know you need to show on the back catalog you need yeah yeah you know obviously let them educate them on kid but uh like i don't know any a bad bunny

son but i was engrossed like i've never like just everything moving around the way it was the way the uh the pits just became this set for him and i know we've seen that a bit before but this felt way bigger like it was kind of like uh theater almost you know what i mean and obviously i don't speak spanish but i mean i was bopping along i mean i don't know what he's talking about but fair play to I thought it was good chance. What'd you make of it, Frankie? I didn't watch any of it. I saw some highlights online.

It looks a lot of fun. I know, Andy loved it. You know, it was tuned in. I've replayed it a million times. That's my boy. Kid Ruck? I'm joking. I'm joking.

Did you happen to see top ring boxers Zander Zayez and Emiliano Vargas within the halftime show? The boxes that he ducked under? I did. I say, am I right in saying that someone got married, Andy? Yes, and they actually got married. Legit.

Like they were getting married while this was going on. Yep. That is insane. Celebration of love, man. That's what it is. Was that actor there as well? Am I crazy to think he was there? The guy from the last of us?

Pedro Pascal, yeah. Oh, no, there were a lot of celebrities there. It seems like Jessica Alba has captured the, Jessica Alba, Carol G my guy Ron Acuna was up there Cardi B was up there Carol G, your girl Yeah Carol G, my girl, my goat

We already mentioned Jessica Alba Cardi B and Stefan Diggs unfollowed each other Are you serious? Love is dead? Wow That's what I saw guys I saw an X and I'm sorry I had the break of you like this Yeah there were a lot of celebrity

Supposedly the story is that the married couple invited Bad Bunny to their wedding and he, Uno carded him, and was just like, nah, how about you just come to the Super Bowl halftime show and get married? Imagine they were like, you know, like my family, like,

what are we going to do? They had them all dancing. They were the dancers. They weren't actually, they were just people at the reception. Yeah, and they were great then. My brother was actually in attendance at the Super Bowl last night.

Wow. San Francisco, yeah, and he broke the fourth wall for me. All the grass was people. What? All the grass was people costumes. You didn't notice? All the plants. Like the, okay. I didn't know. When you said the grass, I thought you meant the, like the field

like there's like, no, when I watched it in real time, I thought that that was just props. Got it. It was just people running out there in, in grass costumes. Got it. I was in some kind of a fever dream because I'm like this watching them, obviously getting kid on here and I have him on here. So yeah, yeah, yeah. He's lost of me.

Something's got mixed. Was Jessica Albat turning point? Was she at the half time? Was she at the halvehirt turning? I can't quite remember. I was just, I was so locked in on both. I'm shocked they didn't have the turning point one up on the screens in the, in the establishment. They should have. Yeah. Just keep everyone happy. You know what I mean? In the establishment, you were at Pizzi or in Levi's Stadium? No, where he was. Oh, okay, okay. I would have thought they would have had it. Phone screen that one. We gave Bad Bunny the priority of the big screen,

you know what I mean? Then phone that one in. Zandrazias got his short sign. Currently undefeated both of them, him and Emiliano Vargas got his short sign by Bad Bunny. He seemed to just have a fantastic evening. He got picks with Lady Gaga, with all the famous celebrities that were there. It looked like he was just having the time of his life. Look at him. Reping Puerto Rico at the Super Bowl halftime

show. That's big, man. That's big. And we talk about Ricky Martin's face because, my God. Beautiful. What moisturizer is he? I need to know. I need to know, man. I need to know. 54. No, that's all in Rican No, I need to know. Fun fact. Ricky Martin, kid rock.

Same age. Also, that was a lot. Also, that was a Mark Anthony. Mark Anthony, Mark Anthony. You're all disappointing me. Hang on, Ricky Martin wasn't there. Am I going crazy?

No, no, he was. He was. I would know the song is by Mark Anthony. I was like Enrique. So Eric was watching turning points since he. Levitaloka is Ricky Martin. Living La Vita Loka.

He's a job of life. Come on. One, two, three. Alley, he was that one as well. Hey, now we're singing. Speaking of Boxers

and the halftime show, Jake Paul took to Twitter. beforehand and had some strong thoughts when it came to the halftime performance. He said purposely turning off the halftime show, let's rally together and show big corpse. They can't just do whatever they want without consequences, which equals viewership for them. You are their benefit.

Realize you have power. Turn off this halftime. A fake American citizen performing who publicly hates America. I cannot support that. Now, he's talking about Bad Bunny, who is from Puerto Rico where he also lives and is also the home nation

of one of his most successful boxers that fights under the MVP brand in Amanda Serrano. She took the Twitter as well and gave her thoughts. Tonight I'm here where I'm supposed to be in my beautiful island

with my people celebrating and watching with awe how well Benito represented us and our culture. I'm proud to be Puerto Rican and I'm proud to be an American citizen. Puerto Ricans are not fake Americans. We are citizens

who have contributed to this country in every field from military service to sports, business, science, and the arts, and our identity and citizenship deserve respect. I would not have the same opportunities I have today without the support and belief that most valuable promotions and Jake Paul showed in me, and I will always be grateful for the role they have been playing in helping change my life and in elevating women's boxing. At the same time, I want to be clear. I do not agree with the statements that question legitimacy or identity of Puerto Rican people, and I cannot support that characterization. It is wrong. I,

with the pride of Puerto Rico and represent my flag. Every time I step into the ring, I will always stand with my people with respect for who we are and with pride and where we come from. I will never change and will forever be a proud Oricua. A strong statement from Amanda Serrano when normally all she is typically giving is glowing praise of Jake Paul, MVP, and Nikisa Baderion. Yeah, probably a very difficult position for her to be and to see that from Jake Paul. But I think she handled it well, right?

saying like I owe MVP a lot respectfully, but standing on business when it comes to what she had to say about the Puerto Rican people and her representation and supporting Bad Bunny as well. Yeah, I thought it was a fair play to her. Honestly, like that's people,

she represents Puerto Rico so well. So this is the equivalent of like, obviously Katie Taylor's her big robe. It's similar in terms of what Katie means to the Irish people and what Amanda means to the Puerto Ricans. I saw it myself on two occasions, two out of three of those fights. I think it shows serious backbone and serious character of her to come out and say that.

Honestly, I think it will only make her more beloved by the Puerto Rican people. And they absolutely should because, as you as lad said, this is a difficult position to be in. I think she absolutely knocked it out of the park. And I mean, they've done MVP fights down in Puerto Rico, attempted to have the one with the Man of Serrano, but then the hair dye and everything like that. It just felt like a weird thing for Jake Paul to go that hard, especially when he lives in Puerto Rico himself. And, you know, now he's getting on Twitter this morning and being like,

oh, you know, I don't know what happened. I got hacked, everything like that. Mendocerano isn't the only one that spoke out about it. Actually, his brother, Logan Paul also took to Twitter and chimed in and said, I love my brother, but I don't agree with this. Puerto Ricans are Americans and I'm happy they were given the opportunity to showcase the talent that comes from the island. Here's the thing.

Yeah. Did I not see him walking in on the way? And they said to him, are you excited to see, but, and he just went, no, and he went walking. And then Jake puts this out and then he, I'm like, what is going on here, mate? So I don't know if I'm understanding everything clearly. with that, but I also saw that as well. Yeah, it's very dry. Like, are you excited for the halftime show? He's just like, no, I'm not. Some people alluding to Bad Bunny has performed in WWE before Logan Paul.

Okay. W.E., supposedly, potentially setting up a match between Logan Paul and Bad Bunny. I don't know, but I think when he was on the red carpet, that is much more likely to be K-Fabe. Him on Twitter is giving his actual thought. I do wonder, for Logan, this might be K Fabin Theatrix. I don't imagine Bad Bunny feels the same way. And I don't think he likes the Paul brothers. I think he's been pretty clear on the record to that.

I wonder if he would even entertain the idea of a match against Logan Paul. That feels to me like doing business with an enemy. You know what I mean? Like I doubt he even wants to interact with Logan Paul. But maybe. Or, you know, there's a world where this Logan Paul thing comes out of him saying, no, he's not excited. The Jake Paul tweets come out and somebody from TKO or,

WWEPR is like, hey Logan, maybe, you know, maybe you just help us out a little bit and cool the flames on this thing. And then he puts out a nice statement where he's like, I don't agree. And I respect the people of Puerto Rico and Bad Bunny and blah, blah, blah. Can I just ask you guys, and I know I'm going to be very old when I ask this question? Bad Bunny is way more famous than these guys, right?

Or is that an overestimation? Like, I know he's the number one streamed artists. He's more famous for sure. Unequivably. He's more famous. He does not need a WWE match against Logan. Paul. I did see him wrestle. I remember Ariel sent me. He's like, I know you don't know who this guy

is. He's really famous. Watched his wrestling match and it was fucking insane. Oh, yeah. He's very good. When he came out to Chambaya in Puerto Rico, like, one of the best crowd pops of all time. I watched it a few times this weekend. It's unbelievable. Let's stick with the TKO brand. Ari Emanuel was on Pat McAfee last week. Discussing

the White House card and he dropped a couple nuggets for us. Take a listen. When you're looking at the UFC, the White House fight, the card, I think Dana last week, said he was working on it all week. How is that shaping up? And I believe the president said 100,000 people stadium. They're going to build.

What's the situation with that? Yeah, he's counting the fan fest in that. Yeah, yeah. So at the White House, I think it's 3,000. Yeah, 3, 4,000. 3,000. Intimate. Yeah.

South Lawn. So, and then there'll be other in other areas. And Dana's working on it right now. There's going to be approximately six to seven fights. June 14th? 14th, flag day and our president's birthday. No, just coincidence. So, we don't, he hasn't said to us, he hasn't said to us what the card's going to be,

but I know they're working pretty hard at it right now. Two biggest takeaways from that. It's not a hundred thousand seat stadium. It was never going to be a hundred thousand seat stadium. They're just talking about that party that they're going to throw the fan fest at the, I believe it's called the eclipse right by the White House. also another massive nugget six to seven fights in

total on the White House card you know I don't think it's gonna it was never going to be the 10 11 title fights that you know was originally thrown out but six to seven fights period feels pretty significant yeah it's you know

I just think they need to get booking man because yeah we're all just talking about it so much every time Trump says something I'd say they're like oh my God at the UFC head office because it's always like we're doing every title fight in the world Every champion in the history of the UFC is going to fire.

There's going to be 100,000 people here. They're like, please, mate. It's nearly like UFC 300 all over again when it was like, Dana, this is going to be absolutely massive. And then, like, when Trump speaks about this, he is adding so much pressure to the UFC to deliver, I feel. And we were even talking about it last week on the crack. Like, what can you put on? That's really exciting. I think the frontrunner would be an Ilya fight probably with Gaichi.

We heard Gaichi talking about on Radio Row on Thursday. I don't know if you guys had that on boys in the backer came out slowly after. But that feels like a really big fight. Kayla Harrison, obviously, with the neck injury, I just had me balls tickled too much, lads. I just need to know what's going on so we can adequately react to this. Yeah, I agree with you. Like, there's a lot of talk about the White House,

and the card seems to be the secondary piece when in actuality. Like, that's for our purposes, for what we're after, that's the most important piece. But for them, they're thinking of this is a big celebration of America. They're thinking of this is a big spectacle. I don't think that they are necessarily as, you know, invested in that part of it. I think there's going to, I think that there's going to be some negotiations to be had in terms of, hey, this is what we're proposing.

Here's who we want. Let's see what happens between TCO as well as the presidential office. So we'll see where we end up. I will say when I first saw that Trump video, and I don't want to point the blame singularly at Champ RDS. But wow, has you single out a, a, a tweet was framed as Donald Trump says they're going to have a hundred thousand seat stadium. The video didn't quite reflect exactly what that. The video, and I said this in our, you can go back to our group text at the time when that video dropped in. Trump goes, they're building a stadium on the lawn.

End thought. There's going to be 100,000 people there. New thought. that's in line with kind of what we're talking about, right? There's going to be 100,000 people in some capacity involved in this event altogether. They are building a stadium on the lawn. But as Ari Emanuel said, it's going to be a stadium for a few thousand people, which has always been kind of what Dana White and the UFC and anybody else involved in this have been saying.

The part that has kind of gotten away from it is like Trump initially saying there's going to be nine fights and they're all title fights. Then John Anick being like, don't be surprised if there's six or seven. title fights. Now it's there's going to be six or seven fights. That part I have no bail for, but I do think there was a bit of a misinterpretation of what was said about the stadium part. And who knows if that's where it originated from. I think everyone saw that and they just sort of ran with it. I am in agreement with you when I originally heard it. Like you just kind of have to use context clues as well. They're not building a hundred thousand seat stadium in in four months for this to be made. Well, that's ruined it for me, lads. That's what I was

tuning in for. You also cannot build 100,000 seat stadium on the White House lawn. It is not big enough to hold that. It is not possible. That was never going to happen. So yeah, 100,000 people will be there. That would be very impressive. But just six to seven fights. And like you guys said, we'll see. We'll

just keep on waiting, maybe. It'll happen eventually. I think Rick should be hired to stand beside Trump every time he speak. Interpret? New thought. Just like new thought. New year? End of sentence. New thought. We're moving on. Um,

Iliate Toporia versus Justin Gaci. Okay. John Jones versus Tom Aspinon. I mean, uh, versus Alex Pereira. Sorry, got ahead of myself there. Gable Steven versus Charlton Almeida. No, no, no, no, Rizvan.

Rizvan. Knieve. Who else? Bryce Mitchell? Who else do we get on this thing? Who else are we putting another? Michael Chandler versus somebody? Yeah, yeah.

Bonner, obviously. Michael Chandler versus Us Sponderman. What are you feeling about the Connor part of this at this point? And then we'll let you go, Pizzi. I know you got a run, pizza. I know you got bigger and better things. Connor McGregor at the White House. Is this happening at this point?

Where's the feeling? Look, I've been the biggest, like this isn't happening for many years with Connor. I just feel like more than ever, there's more incentive for him to fight. I just think that that's something he really wants to do. It's not been a great run for him. I think fighting is probably the best way for him to get positive sentiment. If he wins, of course. I think that's my big concern with him, the level of can he get through a camp at this

stage, you know, there has been a lot of miles put on the clock non-fight related there. And I think that's the biggest concern. Can he get through a camp? We've seen over the last world that he has struggled to do that with the last Chandler booking. And obviously then it was a really significant injury against Porre. And we don't usually see people come back in any way the same guy after something like that. I think the odds are heavily stacked against him, but I do think he would try, he will

try his ass off to get there. I don't, I didn't quite see the turnover of a new leaf that some of his tweets would have suggested there was going to be after a long absence from X where he said, you know, I've been saved and, you know, I've gone through this, uh, situation in Mexico City and I've turned my life around. I don't think what I've seen from him of late has given me the impression that that's all together what's happened. But I do feel like he'd be more compelled to fight than ever, given the circumstances in his life at the moment. All right, pizza. All right, that's.

Thanks so much for joining us, man. We appreciate it, brother. See you soon. Yeah, we'll see you tomorrow, man. We'll see you tomorrow because we're back here, same time. Maybe. Same place. We'll see if he's invited back.

What does he get in the, the axe? Nah, you know, we'll just see. Some other news and notes around the world of combat sports, Pavel Vasco, you may know him better as Pali Hari was fighting. I think he's the, is he the Baba Yaga or is he the other one? Pavel Vasco, many of you probably know him as Baba Yaga, was fighting Vaklav Mikulasek. No, no, no, it's Mikulasek as Baba Yaga.

Okay, so he's the other. And Pavel Vasco is Pali Hari. Either way, a hotly contended bout at Clash in the Czech Republic this weekend. Got out of control. That's the only way to say. Just take a look here. highlights. You can see it right there as he goes to the take down.

He goes heavy chomp. Look at this. Bites him right in the ear. Baba Yaga, rightfully so losing it. They blurt it out. And then trying to get him out, man. He's getting swung on. Oh, man.

The fans are getting involved. The teams are getting involved. By the way? Pali Hari is not getting out of this building safely. People are throwing chairs. A chair. No, it's the Baba Yaga guy. Appropriately assaulted.

If you bite somebody's ear, this should be the reaction. Like, you should not be able to just, like, go about the rest of your day and just leave the cage like this. Absolutely. Shout out to this crowd. Like, it was absolutely crazy. That is insane behavior. All right. Here we go.

Here we go. I'm getting to the bottom of this. Pavel Vasco was Pali Hari. He's the one who bit him. That's correct. And so Pollyhari was the one getting me. Polyhari is the one who's not going to make it out. Clarifications there.

Baba Yaga was the one that got bit. champed him on the ear, though. He can't fight again, right? No, in my opinion, he cannot. Who was the dude that ended up? Pavel Vasco was Pali Hart. What was that, Frank? What was his name?

In the UFC, yes. He bit him. Man, it's been a minute since. But we have not seen him since. There's no chance that they allow him back. What was his name? Why is this so hard to find? Igor Severino. Wait, is he the one who got bit?

Or who's the one that bit? List Igor Severino's resume for me. Just tell me who he fought, and I'll be able to tell you. Okay, Igor Severino's the biter, Andre Lima was the one who got bit. I was going to say, it was a dude with, yeah, Andre Lima is the one that got bit, and then he got the tattoo as well.

We are happy to promote tomorrow. Oh? Pizzi Carol will be back. No. No. Pizzi Carol won't be back tomorrow? This is breaking, breaking news? Pizzi Carol will not be back tomorrow.

tomorrow. Executive decision. I have banned Pizzie Carroll from returning tomorrow. It must be busy over there on the Emerald Isle because I was under the impression he was going to be back tomorrow. I thought we were going to do this Boys in the Crack thing. We're going to make this a thing while he's going to come back. No, no, no, no, I guess not.

He's out. You know what? I didn't like his energy today. He's out. Okay, all right. Boys in the Crack is no more, but I do want to promote on the nose. Yes. With the Boys tomorrow.

Substack post is up right now. Ariel Harwani. Romani.substack.com. Arielhalawani.com. Go to your usual place. Ask your, you know what? Don't ask your usual questions. Ask better questions.

I demand that these questions be good. Otherwise, we're not going to read them. So if I'm going through this, unlike Ariel, sometimes he's going through these and he's like, oh man, I don't love the qualities. I can't believe I read that. I'm not even going to read it. I'm not even going to read it if it's garbage.

So you need to bring it tomorrow. First, on the nose with the boys, I demand excellence. These questions better be great. This guy. Listen to this guy. Better be great. Yeah, it's going to be fantastic.

We normally do the voicemails. This will be of the written word, and we'll answer your questions. We're still going to do voicemails. We'll just do them on our usual first. We'll do that on Thursday. Also happy to promote, unless things have changed. No, no. Ready to go.

We'll be joined tomorrow by UFC Apex 113 main event, Victor winner, Mario Batista. Yeah, buddy. And Dustin Jacoby. Friend of the program. Friend of the program. The Hanjak. After a big knockout win, Alex Brerra was watching.

Yeah, Alex Barre was watching. Shout out. So we will have Mario Batista and Dustin Jacoby excited about that. On the program tomorrow. A couple other news and notes here. You see Jean Silva over the weekend getting some training in in some Alexander Volcanovsky custom shorts. Feels like a slight of the champ, no?

Or just like an acknowledgement, right? He seems like the type of guy who just likes to make sure. sure people know where he's at and get his attention. So it feels to me more like a I'm paying attention, Andre Arlowski, to the point that this, is this AI? I think Alex, who's to check?

Right? Yeah, this feels like AI. Or maybe Alex was just like walking by because it doesn't look like he's looking at John Silva. You really become an aerial. The longer you sit in that chair, Conner. It looks like AI, dude. I don't remember them ever being together.

That's beside the point. John Silver with a bit of trolling towards the champ. Alexander Volcanowski. All right, we talked about knucklemania 6. BKFC went down in Philadelphia this weekend. You saw it in the main event. He defeated Ben Rothwell and affliction in 2008, defeated Ben Rothwell in the UFC in 2019, and now he has defeated him in bare-knuckle boxing to become the brand new BKFC heavyweight champion. He is Andrea Arlofski. He now joins the program. Andre, congratulations, Ben, and thanks so much for the time. We really appreciate you joining us.

Thank you very much. You guys for playing me. I just mentioned, this is your first. your third time fighting Ben Rothwell. You fought him in MMA twice. Now you get him in bare knuckle. What was it like going up against them without the gloves on? I was worried a little bit because obviously it's bare knuckle fighting and there's a big fist. And you know, in a heavy division, like one punch can decide everything.

You might win a whole fight and miss one, one, one punch and fight us over. So luckily I was smart enough to stick this game plan and I got W. Staying on that track, I feel like time is kind of the story of this trilogy of fights. You fought them once in the 2000s, you fought them once in the 2010s, and now you fought them in the 2020s. Can you describe if there was a difference between the version that you fought? Sorry? No, I promise no more. 2030s? Look, who knows, maybe.

Can you describe what the difference was beyond like the bare knuckle part of it? But as a fighter where you were and what you felt from Ben Rothwell in the three different versions? Back in 2008, affliction, I jumped with a fucking flying, I hurt him and I dropped him with right uppercut, I believe. It was tough. When I fought after him against Himalienk, I fucking jump his flying it too and lights over. Back in 2019, when you fought in the UFC, I saw up the record for magnificent strikes. And now, today, last week, I beat him by TKO, and I'm really happy, very proud.

And be honest with you, I was worried about his weight because, like, you know, power. But obviously, it was good for me because he was slower than before. And he wasn't moved like before, or maybe I moved a lot. And actually, I knew I was in his head, you know, since 2008. I'll fight in the UFC and now in BKFC. So my team, my boxing coach did a great job. What is your relationship like with Ben Rothwell? Do you have like a kinship because of the fact that you guys have been in the sport

for so long together that he's a veteran of the sport, one of the old guard, one of the old school fighters who's still doing it at a high level? Do you have any kind of relationship? Definitely have respect to him, but no relationship. We have same management team. same manager, but nothing more. You mentioned the speed, Andre, and some of those highlights, the slow-motion ones especially, you're just getting out of the way of almost every single punch he's throwing.

And, like, you were in a bare-knuckle fight on Saturday, and all you've seen to have is just this scar above your eye. How big of an advantage was that speed for you in there? Definitely, like I said, my boxing coach did a great job, and I felt great, but he hit, he cut me with the right hand. Actually, he kind of, like, shook me in the second round. But in between my coach, keep your fucking hands up, move around and do what you have to do.

And I did what I did. This is another major title for you. Your last one coming in the UFC 2006, we're now nearly 20 years later, almost like to the month to the day. What is the significance of the belt in terms of what you were able to do on Saturday? Somebody sent me a screenshot. I became first time a UFC champion in February 5th. 2.05.

And 20, 21 years later on February 7th, I became a BKFC heavy world champion. Back in 21 years, I did a great present for my birthday and became a BKFC World Heavy Champion at age 47.

It was another my birthday present. So I feel pretty, like, pretty great. Yeah, and your career is a very interesting one because it's had these long stretches of tremendous success. Then there's been losses where you recover and you bounce back and you go on another

run of tremendous success. Where do you feel like you're at in your career now, right? Like you've talked to Ariel many times on this network and said, you know, you not feel like this year only twice because first time I had accident with a YouTuber. Yes. Now, now. He's never invited maybe one or two times. I promise if he wasn't at the Olympics.

you'd be talking to him right now instead of us. I promise that. But you've been able to, like, have these resurgence. And I feel like you're as good as you've ever been to a certain extent. Like, how do you feel about where you're at in your career right now? Not necessarily looking back to the resume, not necessarily looking back to the past. But where do you feel like you're at right now as a competitive athlete, whether it be MMA, bare knuckle boxing, dirty boxing.

Where do you feel you're at right now? I still I feel that I still have a couple more years and a prior I'm already already winner because I beat fucking cancer three times so back in

my fight against Ben Roswell it doesn't matter even a fucking even a lost fight or won which I win the fight and it doesn't matter for me three times beat the fucking cancer it's pretty fucking legit you know and and I feel fucking great

like Nike just do it Yeah, you know, before the fight, obviously you went viral on social media posting about that cancer. And then you had the incredible post-fight speech, sending a message out to people who are also battling and suffering and giving them an inspirational message. If you don't mind, could you give us some details about what you were going through? Because obviously, I don't think many people know what was happening at that point. Can you, can you go into detail about what you were dealing with and how you were able to overcome it? First cancer I had back in 2010 in June, second was 2013, and February 24th. It's going to be exactly one year when Dr. Chet from Miami, from the University of Miami,

removed tumor from my kidney. Also, I got removed 28 lymph nodes and I went through some chemotherapy. And I wasn't already talk about my cancer years ago, but now I feel like it's what people need. I started Zarlafski method. It's my new project. And actually, I was surprised how many people send me a DM me messages about how it's pouring for them, how it motivates them, how people like need this stuff. and when I read it, I got tears in my eyes, you know, and yeah, hopefully that I share my, my, my experience with cancer, my battle with cancer three times. I got three Ws against cancer and I'm ready to share with the world what's going on.

The most important things never give up because life is beautiful, like I said, and just keep fighting, guys. I want to ask you more about the Arlovsky method, but before I do that, I just want to ask, what made you feel like you were ready to share that, right? Obviously, you've been dealing with this three different times throughout your career, and I assume in training camps and doing your usual thing. What made you feel like now was the right time? Honestly, I don't know. My wife told me, maybe you were ready to share.

I thought about it. Actually, yes, why not? Because especially when they removed a tumor from my kidney, I was overnight, I stayed at the hospital. since God I didn't need any any any treatments any any any chemo after after a doctor removed tumor from my kidney but they forced me to walk to walk on the floor and I saw people like young people old people they fucking dying and this shit fucking very depressing and I decided okay why not if I can do it a lot of people can if I can fight against cancer too and why not.

It's something that truly affects almost everyone in this life. They know someone who's had cancer, so your voice and speaking up, having gone through, it really does matter to people. You mentioned the Arlovsky method. We saw it on your shirt right now. We saw it in the shirt in your post-fight speed. I see you posting about it on your Instagram. What all does that entail?

Healthy eating, working out. What is the Arlovsky method? I suppose I came up with this app, probably this week and next week, their love committee. Their last minute is about like mindset, about personal training, about personal programs, about fitness, about about, about mindset, about training, about diet, about nutrition, about everything. And I got, I worked with a great doctor's, great coaches, so I'm, I can be like, I can be connected with my potential, potential customers 24-7. And I'm very excited. about this. When it's going to be on, it might be huge.

Where can people go to sign up and when are you thinking about releasing this? They're supposed to be probably this week or next week, beginning next week. My wife in charge of the stuff because she's smarter than me and this. So I just can fight and hopefully, hopefully right now soon as it's going to be more information. When I'm going to get the date, I'm going to post on my social media. Yeah, an incredibly inspirational story. Can I ask, was there any ever time as you're going through this ordeal multiple times now with battles with cancer that you ever thought about leaving combat sports? Did you ever think about while you were in the course of your career, you're battling this, you're dealing with this, the toughest fight, I would imagine of your career.

Was there any point where you thought, I'm going to just focus in on this and leave combat sports behind? Or was that kind of like a source of inspiration to keep you going? No, it was you absolutely right. It was an inspiration to keep me going and that's motivated me. And like I mentioned in a press conference, I didn't call Ben Russell a meatball. I said it's a lot of meat and bones. But because of my English problem, he said, why you call me fucking meatball? I didn't call him.

I didn't call you Ben Meatball. But yeah, you're absolutely right. In my mind, it was just another big guy against me. And it's nothing compared to fucking hemotherapy or some shit, you know. And I went three times through the shit. I was a champion. I know how to fight. If my head, my mindset was right, which is fucking it was in the right place.

I did a great camp with my boxing coach, Ivan Delivera. I did a lot of fucking work with my strength condition coach, Nikolai Toker, with my power lifter coach, Seva Kuleshev. And we did a great fucking camp. My wife support me, my family support me. And I could not wish more that I have right now. And I'm very blessed and very excited. And like I said, I hopefully have a couple more years to fight.

One more time I'm going to be on a show with a reality. I assure you, he would love to have you on. We saw a lot of great response from your post-fight speech, including Connor McGregor, who's heavily involved in BKFC, calling you a hero, beating cancer three times and everything like that. Have you been able to speak to him directly? No, I did not. I did not.

And flights, I believe, was done after the past midnight, by the time this is teach me press conference, I was at the hotel around like 3 a.m. And my flight was at 6,648. I flew back to Florida because my son has baseball games and yeah, I didn't talk to him. But I read his message and it was very nice of him. Speaking of late nights, we saw you. I think this was before the fight. Obviously, the fight taking place in Philadelphia, went to the Rocky steps and ran up.

I think it was like 5 a.m. you got up in the morning. What made you want to go so early in the morning to go to these steps? I didn't sleep and I thought, okay, if I'm going to do something early in the morning, I can have a nap during the day, which is what I was right. I had a good nap right before we left to arena. And I totally forgot that it's a rocky stairs in Philadelphia. And my boxing coach told me, I said, fuck, you're absolutely right, let's do it. And I talked my friend, Adam, he was my cameraman and my boxing coach.

and we went like, it was right decision, and I'm very happy that I did this. Are you a big fan of the Rocky films? Definitely is a great story. But let's put yes. I feel like your story is very rocky-esque, right? Like your story of fighting and battling this thing and overcoming odds is very rocky-esque.

So I kind of see the connection. there. What's next for you, Andre? Is it a defense of the BKFC title? Is it dirty boxing? It is MMA. What are you doing next? Next, I'm going to see a doctor because I don't know, it's broke, you know, it's like a knock, it burns tooth out and everybody telling me it might be some infection. Now I'm going crazy and I have to take some antibiotics and they will see what's going to happen after the x-ray, but definitely I'm going to take two weeks off. I need to spend the time is I miss my family and my kids so yes I'm going to take some time off but definitely I'm going to do some like some lifting some conditioning but yes not not fight I don't know

about fight I need to talk to my manager Abraham cover and lastly you know for anybody who may have missed the broadcast here's an opportunity one more time what what message you have for those who are battling cancer out there and and could be inspired by your journey Guys, life is beautiful. Don't give up. At present days, the doctor has a lot of ways to treat you right and keep you alive. It's everything in your head. If you decided to go through, you can do it.

And you can be a winner of the battle against cancer. I'm a great example. I said that right after my fight and nothing better than life. Life is beautiful. Keep fighting. God bless you guys who's better right now and stay healthy.

Andre, thank you so much, man. You truly are an inspiration. Congratulations on the win, and I can't wait to see you get back in there. Thank you guys for having me and have a good day. Thanks, Andre. Thanks again, Andre. Truly an inspiration, man.

Dude. BKFC Heavyweight champ, 47 years old, three-time cancer survivor. And we were talking about. talking about it with PT, I can't stress enough. Like there was a moment in, in the middle of this career that he's, that he's had, that people were like, oh, are the best days behind? And he just continued to have these like moments of resurgence.

He is the definition of a fighter, right? When, when he's in that valley, he finds a way to find another peak. And you think about the fact that throughout this time, he's battle cancer three times, not telling anybody about it, making no excuses. is never kind of using that as an opportunity to be like, feel sorry for me. And now thankfully for us, I think, you know, brave enough and in the right headspace to be able to talk about it and now potentially be an inspiration for so many others who are battling this thing.

As you said, that we all know somebody with it if we're not even personally affected. Man, like the story, like, Rocky is the, like, that is a rocky story. It does not get better and more inspirational and like more of an underdog thing than looking down the barrel of cancer three times and being like, no, I'm going to win this fight. The embodiment of Don't Give Up. 100%. My worst day sounds like a great day for Andre Aralowski

through a lot of these trials and tribulations. And then you mentioned like the time when it was actually happening. We talked about the ups and the downs of his career. We talked about that Fedor fight that kicked off a four-fight losing streak. That's when he got diagnosed the first time with cancer. Crazy. You go to 2013. He's getting diagnosed in a middle of a run where he was.

won eight of nine. Like the only loss being to Anthony Johnson. Like you're talking about like this this guy is that, you know, lows in his career, highs in his career and he's getting these diagnoses. It's just, it's just crazy to think about it. And he just kept going the entire time. I mean, since that first diagnosis, he's, he's had, I mean, in his career, he's had almost 60 professional fights since the diagnosis. He's had like another 40. It's nuts, man. Insane, man. Truly inspirational. I'm very glad that he's putting this message out there because it really is just a disease that affects so many people. Doesn't matter where you come from, what your background is. You have a connection to cancer and it's great to see someone who's been able to get through it

on several occasions speaking like that. Yeah, and he talks about like the mindset, but think about the hope, right? The idea that if like you're in the throes of it and you look at this guy and you're like, he did it three times. He did it three times. He did it three times. And he won. And he came back each time. It's got to be such a, such a uplifting potential message for somebody to look at that and just feel like all hope is not lost, you know? And we're talking about what was that? We're talking about getting tumors removed, chemotherapy, going through it. Like we're not talking about easy stuff here. And he had to do it three different times. It really is incredible. And for him to sit there after all of that and just

be to have the outlook, that life is beautiful. A positivity. How can you be negative? within yourself. It truly is amazing. So shout out to Andre Alofsky, incredible win. His third victory over Ben Rothwell happened in Philadelphia this past weekend when he won the BKFC heavy weight title. Truly incredible stuff. Just one or two more things here to get into before we ride into the night. Stephen Espinoza, potentially getting sued by Floyd Mayweather. No, getting sued. Getting sued by Floyd Mayweather.

He was asked about it over the weekend. And here's what it said. Stephen, you know, shifting over to maybe some bad news for you. I don't know, but we've got to talk about it. Floyd Maywe. You've got to ask. Yeah. Got to ask you.

Trying to get money, a whopping $340 million. He's going to be suing you supposedly. Have you gotten the paperwork for that? What's the latest on this? I have not seen the paperwork. You know, and I've been in touch with attorneys. Obviously, I've seen the reports. I've seen the descriptions.

And as usual, attorneys don't want me. there publicly saying it. You know, so I can't talk about the specifics of that, but look, I'd just say as a general statement, you know my reputation. I've spent my entire career representing fighters, you know, making sure they were getting paid appropriately. I did that from Oscar, I did that for Mike. I've done that for every fighter who's developed under Showtime, and I'm proud of my reputation. I think it's one of integrity. I've never done anything to make sure that a fighter got less of, you know, every penny that he deserved. So, you know, lawsuit will take care of it itself.

I can't really address it. But I think you guys know my reputation. I stand by that. You guys were together for such a long time. I'm guessing you there's like a relationship there, maybe a friendship. Are you a little disappointed about it? I'm definitely disappointed and surprised. You know, I haven't talked to him about it.

You know, I'm not sure exactly where it's coming from, but it's a mystery in a lot of ways. So he seems about as clued in as us, hasn't read any of the paper where he can't say anything, doesn't know why it's happening. Well, as he said at the very top, it also doesn't behoove him to say anything. And lawyers are like, don't say him.

On camera either. Yeah. Yeah. A fascinating thing, we'll see if Mayweather is able to, you know, enact something here and actually able to recover some of the money that he feels he lost. But I will say it just feels odd. that the lawsuit is against Showtime and then by association

Steven Espinoza for being responsible for Showtime boxing and sports at that time. But didn't seem as worried as somebody might if he thought there was more teeth to this. I'm not going to lie. It sounded like when someone asked me what I'm having for lunch.

Yeah. I was like, you know, I'm considering the Turkey Club or maybe just a nice Caesar salad. And yeah, we'll see where it goes. Interesting saga, though. He seems pretty calm about it. We have a main event, maybe for CGI3. Craig Jones, taken to Instagram.

What are we got? And making a post, Craig Jones, Dylan Danis, main event of CGI3 for the title of greatest grappler in the world, pound for pound MMA and Jiu Jitsu champion Dylan Danis versus Jujitsu's number two ranked, Craig Jones, Date TVA. We think it happens? Why is Craig Jones number two? I don't know.

Why is he ranking himself number two? Is it behind Dylan Dennis? Or is it behind Gordon Ryan? Or is it? It might be behind. Pound for pound MMA great, Dylan Dennis. Yeah. I mean, that would do numbers.

Oh, yeah, for sure. That would do big numbers. It feels like the appropriate follow-up for CJA3. I like it. Yeah, too, was Chale short notice? Yeah. Yeah, shout out. Shout out.

I'm down. Of course I'm down. Craig is just fun. Whatever Craig does is just fun, so I'm in. Craig knows how to sell it, too. And I think Dylan will buy in. I think that would be a good main event procedure. The thing is, is Dylan going to go hard at Craig?

And if so, how? It's right, like, Craig is almost so willing to laugh at himself. Yeah. How do you, what does Dylan say? How do you affect Craig? So Dylan's entire strategy is like, I'm going to press as hard as possible on you. And I just don't know if he can really get under Craig's skin. You know?

I can. How? How would he do it? I can do. Either way, I think that would be a fun matchup. But maybe Craig can get under Dillon's skin, which could be fun. Yeah, absolutely. Last but not least, boxing took place this past weekend.

Nick Ball handed his first career loss in a 12th round knockout by Brandon Figoreo. Nick Ball, one of my favorites, one of the shortest fighters on the roster, gets dropped. Even here, it's looking dicey. It looks dicey with 2.45 to go. Works his way back up to the feet. With the knockout punches. Gets the count. is able to go back in

but then ultimately gets finished through the ropes yeah falls down through the ropes Figuero's team comes in to celebrate yeah here's what got interesting Figueroa's team is celebrating

and then there seems to be like the team the Nick Ball team getting involved and maybe not being happy about the celebration while he's still I don't know that looks like an official Like he's got the media credential on, he's got the suit on. No, so you hear this, this looks like the team comes.

I think the, I think the official was just trying to restore order, seeing like, what was about to happen. I think it's just, Nick Ball's been undefeated his whole life. Yeah, not a familiar position. A stamp loss of getting knocked out and it's just kind of being upset and kind of being in disbelief. I mean, it was an upset win for Figaro. You have to let the guy celebrate. though. A thousand. Huge win.

Like, I know, look, respect is important in the sport, but this is his moment. Like, you have to understand that and let him celebrate. We talked about it earlier on in the show today. We actually have breaking news. Jelton Almeda's manager has confirmed he is dropping back down to light heavyweight following two straight losses at heavyweight. The information was released by manager Leonardo Petiera during the Brazilian podcast. ConnectCast. Sherdog subsequently contacted Petchiera,

who confirmed the information and added that UFC has already been informed of Almeda's decision. Wow. Go back down to 205. Wow, they didn't take long. That didn't take long. I think that's probably the good move.

You're going to be able to use your strength and your size at 205 to try and get these guys of the ground, and then just work on your striking in the meantime. It needed to be done. He's just, he's not able to move heavyweights around the way that he is required to. let's see if he can do it at light heavyweight.

I don't know that that's going to solve the timidity thing, though. That's my, my issue with Jelten Almeida isn't necessarily like this fight where he wasn't able to do much of anything. My major problem was with the Volkov and Derek Lewis fights, where he was able to control them, even though they're heavyweights, and he still didn't have any options for finishing those fights. That was the concern for me. So we'll see. Maybe just a fresh coat of pain at light heavyweight gives him an opportunity to kind of solve some of those issues. But I don't know.

I'm worried about the future of Jelten Almeida, who seemed once like one of the more promising prospects. Two and three in his last five at heavyweight. We also got Israel out of Sunday talking on his YouTube channel, obviously, as his fight next month against Joe Pfeer, which we will be in attendance. We'll be there for Seattle. We'll be at the Muck. Out in Seattle, booked and right. Shout to the Muckleshoot Casino, Andrews. lot of son you talked about the potential of his career coming to an end though take a listen

so when i'm done i'm done i'm not going to be like oh how many you think how many do you think you have left fact less than 10 what less than 10 fights that you are you surprised yeah i thought it was like four five i think you were going to fight past 40 well i know that's that's still less than 10 less than 10 that's a lot less i thought i thought it was a lot less i know six seven Now, yeah, who knows? Like, I know it's less than 10. It can't be past 10. So if I fight, say, fight now,

fight one more time towards the end of the year, maybe. That's two fights. If I do two fights a year, fuck. Next year I can still fight. 2028 is where I'll be like, I don't know yet. I don't know. I can't see past 2027, but I do, no, 2020.

I don't know. I don't think that far ahead at the moment, but I do glance at it. glance at it, but I don't really try to focus on it. I just know I'm on the tail end. I can see the finish line. I've been seen the finish line in the distance, but now it's closer.

But who knows at what pace would I get there? Oh, yeah, I mean, less than 10. He's still right, it is less than 10 if it's only 4 or 5. Yeah, but it sounded like it was like, I presume that was his brother. It sounded like, Gavranes, Sanya.

It sounded like he was shocked because I also was like, than 10, why would you use the number 10? Like, it sounded like he was saying, like, two this year and two next year. That sounded more like where his mind was at. I think a lot of it comes down to the results of the fights as well. 100%. He also has, like, not, like, his legacy is set.

Like, there is Israel and Asana is good. Like, there is nothing. He's stamped. He's a certified king. And so, you know, I don't know that there's much more to prove for him. It's interesting to see, though, as I said, like when this fight was announced that against Joe Pfeer. I hate it because it's almost like Israel-A-Sund is two-game

for his own good. Like, this is a very risky fight, and I feel like there's easier fights that he could be taking. But it's what makes him cool and special and, like, a dude that you need to continue to pay attention to is, like, he wants to have hard fights, and I respect it, and it's, you know, why I think the

U.S. Seattle main event is a good one. But, man, like, if you're fighting Joe Piper, I don't, that feels like it makes that, if you're, if you had 10 as the number in your head, a fight with Joe Piper makes me think that that number shrinks instantaneously because you're going to have to go through hell and powerful shots coming

your way to get there. Yeah. It's going to be interesting to see it. If he loses that one, then yeah, I'm not sure if it's going to get to 10, but we'll see where it goes from. We'll see where it goes for. It's always tough to hang up, you know, the gloves after you've had such an illustrious career. But he says he sees the finish line,

which is an interesting admission. He knows like, that's in sight. It's coming. I mean, it's hard not to. With the age, you're getting old, you're not at the championship level that you once were at. Like it's, it's natural to see it now. He says it's closer than it's ever been. One last thing, the brand is just worldwide.

I heard we got an international who's to check. I haven't seen this. Let's take a listen. Magnifico, bellissimo livinio. Now, what's going to happen when we go down? Is it going to feel a little nauseating? Who's to check? We'll find out.

Shout out. Shout out to how one. Who's to check. to check on CBC? My name! I think that's actually my favorite drop. I think that's the one that I would always use. My man!

Shout out to Halwani out there, killing him to the Olympics. Who's to check on the back end of the CBC? I mean, not for nothing. You know, we're getting the big interviews. We got Andre Arlowski today. Tomorrow you check back in. We've got Mario Batista and Dustin Jacoby.

Like, we're keeping it rolling. Maybe more? Maybe there's others? Who knows? Who's to check? Who's to check? Who's to check? No, he's killing.

it out in LaVino at the Winter Olympic Games. On the nose? On the nose tomorrow. On the nose with the boys. Team USA with a great comeback in mixed doubles curling. Okay.

Beat Team Italy. It was amazing. This happened when? During the show? Yeah, during the show. Oh, and we mentioned Jake Paul. Jake Paul's girlfriend, Luta, wins the gold.

Is it his fiancé? Are they married? Biancee, married. He's significant other. Who's to check? wins the gold and the thousand meter women's speed skating. Fiance. Shout out to her, the fiancé.

Frankie, we got any super chat? We do. And this one was when we were reviewing the aerial clip at the beginning of the show. It says, sheesh, what a background. Yeah, it's beautiful. It is. It's beautiful.

I'm jealous, man. I'm jealous. At least if you're going to be in the cold, you're in a beautiful setting. Huge props and appreciation to EasyE, GCP, and the team for covering down all A.H has earned is gold medal and Olympic journalism. Thanks, y'all. Legend. Shout out to those times.

Legend. Actual legend. He's a legend. He throws that around, but he's actually the legend. Just how bad was the Super Bowl halftime show? Which one? It's a good point. What's he talking about?

I thought it was fine. I thought it was fine. I'm not the guy to ask on halftime shows. I'm more interested in the game itself. Maybe, you know, take a first song bed or something like that. it's a 12-minute performance on TV. I like the Bad Bunny one last night. I always enjoy them, but I never get too high or too low on them.

The Black-E-P's one is kind of shit. Yes, yeah, just move on. But what's like, give me like what are the good ones? What are the great ones? Prince? Everyone always loves to go, you know, purple rain in the rain, yada, yada, yada-a-a-doh. Yeah, sure, red-out chili peppers was good. I really wasn't locked in, except for Channa-Jackson. Oldplay was good.

I really wasn't. I'm just saying, to your point, you're right. They're just shows, right? And, like, to be honest, they're not even a great showcasing of that artist. Right. No, they're actually horrible. However, there is one really shitty one is the Black Hi Peas. That's like the worst one.

Yeah, even like, I'm not a Maroon 5 fan. I thought they killed it when they did it. I was like, yeah, good for them. Black IPs. I can't believe the Maroon 5 did the halftime show. Yeah. With the shirt off. Black IP's halftime show performing a few responsibility of their heads, blah, blah, blah,

but the performance received mixed to negative reviews for appearing stiff despite elaborate visuals and technology. Mysterious Frank of Uncrown says worst halftime show I've ever seen. Wow. They got that already? No, this was back then. Oh, you got it. Lastly, Sammy says, I know Ilya Tuporia had reasons for being absent, but will inactivity catch up? Does he need a fight before the big one? What is the big one?

Just engaged in? White House, maybe. Who's to check? No, I think he's good. I think he's good to roll back in. there. I have to think he's been training. Like, if he knew that this was potentially going to get resolved and he's going to be

back this fast, I don't think he was taking his foot off the gas. And we are he's getting his mansion back as well. I saw on the court proceedings. Important things. For a half second, I forgot where I was going with that one.

I zoned out, yeah. He's getting... As long as he's getting his mansion back. Now we've got to train. He's got the gym to train in, you know? He's got the gym to train them. Which is great. which is fantastic. He's also going to get to see his daughter, you know? Yeah, it's good. It's good. It's good. It's all good things. But as all good things must come to an end,

the show must also come to an end. That's great. Don't miss us too much because we'll be back again tomorrow. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday. You get the boys in the back while Ariel is in the Olympics. At the Olympics? On the Olympics? Definitely at. Definitely not in.

While Ariel's at the Olympics. Wednesday. Next uncrown dock dropping, baby. Yeah, it's going to be a good one. It's going to be a very good one. That's going to kind of be the schedule. And then crack on Friday while Ariel is away. And then, well, you know, before you know, it'll be UFC 326 fight week.

And we'll resume our normally scheduled programming. But until then, we'll see you tomorrow. On the nose. Dustin Jacoby, Mario Batista? What? On the boys in the back? We'll see you then. Boughty.

That's a great point.