The Ariel Helwani Show - Mario Bautista, Dustin Jacoby, Xander Zayas join the show, On The Nose, more | The Boys in the Back

Episode Date: February 10, 2026

The Boys in the Back begin the show with some news and notes, including Dana White saying the White House card will be done soon (03:31), Joaquin Buckley putting the welterweight division on blast (07:10), Michael Morales taking a shot at Ian Machado Garry (10:13), breaking news from the boxing world (13:26), and more.With Ariel Helwani away for the Olympics, The Boys in the Back take over On The Nose, answering your burning questions (17:07), before speaking to Dustin Jacoby (1:02:46), Mario Bautista (1:33:33), and Xander Zayas, fresh off his SuperBowl halftime appearance (2:00:56).

Boys in the back But boys, boys, boys, boys, boys, boys. What is good, we are back again with another episode of the Boys in the Back, this time on a Tuesday. We're just checking off every day of the week here while Ariel is away at the Olympics. I am one-third of the Boys in the Back. Connor Burke, join alongside me, as always.

Eric Jerkman. I thought we went over that before the show. I thought we were going to do the lower third. There it is. Eric Jerkman, everybody, also known as New York, Ray. Yesterday I get introduced as king. Today, I'm Jerkman. I mean, how the might have fallen.

We got to keep it fresh. More shows, well, Haldane is at the Olympics, so I'm going to have to think of more names. First time ever we're doing back-to-back shows? Yeah, since this era. Yeah, for sure. At least since the last time, Hawaii was at the Olympic. Exactly. Frankie, how we doing back there, man?

Who's to check? I'm doing great. Thank you so much. You had that one ready to go, man. You hit that in rehearsals, too. Did it really? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You've been watching the Olympics? No. United States curling right now? Doubles curling? That's exciting.

Yeah, I'm trying to get the... Do we have a live score update here? Tye. Fuck no, man. Fuck on her. They're down 3-2 to Sweden right now. That was an inspired drop. By the way, I mean, did you see that Jake Paul's fiancé won a gold medal? Did you see that, Frank? No, man.

been weathering the storms out here in New York. It's always something with you, Frank. God. Brownouts, weathering the storms. It's always something. Yeah, Juta. Getting it done, Jake Paul emotional. I would have thought you would have been, since you're such a diehard Jake Paul fan,

you would have been in on it. Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Just for the record, I'm Puerto Rico first. Oh, you switch sides. It's such allegiance. All right, you know what, that's fair. That's actually fair. Shout out, Nakisa there as well.

I will say, respectful to Jake Paul, like this is not a Jake Paul specific thing. Camera on people getting emotional always feels a little weird to me. Yeah. I'll give him at least like he wasn't like, it wasn't a selfie video.

I know, but like there's a guy with a camera pointing up at you. It always, it's always a little. I'll give it to him. It's his fiance. Olympic gold for her. World record. Olympic record.

Olympic record. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Still, I mean, an incredible performance. Olympics roll on. You can watch it on NBC here in the States. CBC if you're in Canada. The audience young guy, AH! With all the coverage over there,

we got a big show plan for you today. Three guests for the boys in the back. We got Xander Zias at 3 o'clock. You might know him. I mean, WBO, WBA, Champ, who just recently fought January 31st in his home country of Puerto Rico, but also he was in the most viewed halftime show

in the history of Super Bowl halftime shows. this past Sunday. Obviously a close friend to bad bunny was in that one. We'll also have main event winner from UFC Apex 113, Mario Batista, number eighth ranked bantamweight in the world, joining the program, and then we'll kick it off with the hand yak, Dustin Jacoby, now the 14th ranked light heavyweight in the world. Dare I say, for a boys in the back, it's a stacked program.

It's a stacked program. The boys didn't do too bad on this one. We will also do our own version of On the Nose, On the Nose with the Boys. But before we get to that, let's run through a couple news and notes. We saw on Instagram, Dana White, firing back at MenaceMMAHQ.com on Instagram. Everybody knows Menace MMHQ.com on Instagram. Everybody knows them. They leaked.

McGregor versus Covington at the White House. Dana jumps in the comments. Total BS. White House matchmaking meeting is tomorrow. McManard Fly. in tomorrow for it. We will have the fights dialed in by this weekend. First thing, how did he find? The post is still up. How did he find this post? I don't know. You don't follow total madness, HQ, whatever you said to us?

And SMV-HQ.com. You don't follow that? On Instagram. No, I don't follow them. But he's made it clear they're going to get in the war room this weekend. I feel like it was just a couple weekends ago. He was like, we're getting in the war room on Tuesday and we're going to hammer it out. Oh, my mind actually went to a week ago when he's, he said, I don't have shit to do at matchmaking. That's where my mind went. Publicly in court being like, I'm not involved in this. By the way, we're going to lock in that war room and get this shit done.

It's a bit of an odd one. I don't know why we're anticipating the White House announcements, I guess because of how huge of a card it will be, but like UFC 327 is taking place in two months and we have no idea. Yeah. That's a great point. Thanks, Dan. Thanks, I appreciate that, man.

Some other news we got from the promotion in regards to UFC 326. part of the prelims and part of the main card will be broadcast on CBS network television, 8 o'clock to 10 o'clock. You can see the schedule there. Feels like, you know, CBS time slots are tough to get. They're getting two hours on a Saturday in prime time. It feels like a nice way to try to wrangle in some subscribers to tune in for the main card on Paramount Plus. Okay, here's my question to you, though. Leave this up for a second, Jordan. they have their choice of the time slot, right? Like to a certain degree.

Of course. Because they do have to work around CBS's programming. They do have to like, you know, fit this into a schedule that's on CBS. But if you were to pick the most exciting part of a card, right, now it's no longer on pay-per-view. So there's not an obligation to like show something for free that you might have charged for previously. Would you have picked the 8 to 10 p.m. slot? Personally, no. What's the two-hour slice that you think would have been the most appealing?

feeling. I mean, obviously 10 to midnight, but I mean, I don't know if they have to, too late, if they have to go like equalizer. Maybe you do the first two hours of the card, but then it feels like you're really like blue ball in the audience of like, all right, Max Holloway, Charles Oliver's about to kick off. I guess, you know, go into Paramount Plus. To me, start with the main card. What's the point of starting with that? Unless, as I said, you have to work around the CBS schedule. Maybe there's something on from the 10 p.m. Maybe there's something on from the 10 p.m. period that, precludes them from doing that. But it does

like, I almost feel like after the prelim's main event, I forget what they call it, the featured bout. After the featured bowed. Featured prelim. Featured is the third down. After the featured prelim, it kind of is that like 15 minutes of dead period.

Then you get into the 15 minutes before they start the main card. It feels like you're not giving them the maximum amount of like what you'd actually want them to see. It feels like 30 minutes of that two hour window will be killed doing it. And if one of them's an early finish, then you're dealing with even more of a win. Like, it just feels like probably the not the optimal slot. Maybe they figured that out on later cards. I will say to just be the

third numbered event and we're already getting some time on CBS, I think that's pretty big. I think that's pretty big. A lot of people will be watching. And obviously, Max Holloway, Charles Oliver is an incredibly fan-friendly fight. So maybe it'll get additional people to tune in. Joachim Buckley took the social media and put the entire welterweight division on blast. Take a listen. Obviously, we gotta be patient. But right now, the division on standstill. Like, it's grace. You know, hey, look, look, look, look.

The matchmakers know their job. They know better than me what they're doing. But right now they got the hottest division and ain't nobody fighting. You got Islam out there playing wrestleball, you know? You got protest out there, partying and clubbing. You got Morales out there twerking and twirling. You got JDM still at the house crime.

You got Leon missing again. You got Belaw trying to. to sell war meals. You got Ian Gary watching in the corner. Boy, I don't know what's going on. Like what's going on with the World to Weight Division? We got to get things active. Come on now. It's the true. Well, yeah, y'all laughing. These ain't jokes. These ain't jokes, man. This shit real. I'm ready to see, you know, what we capable of doing, Matt 2026. Because right now, we all wasting time. Every single person that's at the World to Eight Division, waste. And they, oh, yeah, Shycock gone and Shao Kahn knocked out the rankings.

All right. I mean, I love a fighter advocating for more action, more, you know, fights from his division. The only thing I will say, he mentioned Islam, Prochus, Morales, Jadim, Leon, Bollal, and Ian Gary, right? Last time Joaquin Buckley fought June and Atlanta against Kamar Usma, you know, I was in attendance. Shout out. Last time Islam fought November, Prochis, November. Morales, November, JDM, he also fought in November. Leon, he fought November 2. What about Ian? Ian Gary also fought in November.

And then Belal, he also fought in November. So I love it. Call for activity, but also all of these guys fought within the last three months, and you've been on ice for eight months. I didn't do the calculus on this before I made that video. Every single fighter he mentioned has fought in the last three months. Boy, that does make the impact of it a little bit less, right? Like great message, maybe not the right messenger.

The message is inactivity. They've all fought five months more. The process has fought twice since the last time. Boy. Joaquin fought. That does cut the legs out from it, but I will say, I respect and agree with the message, which is like we just have to have people fighting at this point. A thousand percent.

Same thing with flyweight. You just got to start booking fights. Book them. Like you just book them and keep it moving. Decide who you want to fight for the title and let's keep it rolling. And we saw Ian Gary make a video as well. oh, like just the other day, where he kind of matched them all up? Yeah, he laid it out.

I think he did like Carlos Proxias, Michael Morales, J.D.M. versus maybe Shavkat or someone. I can't remember what I did. Him versus Islam, obviously. Yeah, him versus Islam, him getting the title shot. He did lay out the entire scene for the Welterweight Division. Michael Morales was mentioned in that video. He said he should fight Carlos Prachis. Michael Morales responded in an Instagram story saying,

Digalé, Chupalo, Ike el centuron as meo. What does it mean? which is translated to essentially tell him to suck it and that the belt is mine. That's pretty strong there. I've been practicing my Spanish. Not bad. The Ike el centurana's meal I knew was and that the belt is mine. Andy, how do we do on the accent?

How we do on the pronunciation? Almost there, G.C. We're working. We're working. We're working. We're working. I'm studying. So far in 2026, I'm studying every day.

You know, soon enough. Andy's out, I'm transatlitor. We got Yoel Romero on and G.C. stepping in. Michael Morales, dude. No respect for Islam. Sokety and Gary. Let the record show. This guy, Michael Morales versus Islam Makachev is the fight to make.

I'm the guy. Knocking people out. Talking the best shit. Whoever. Just book the title shot. Yeah, that's a good point. Except for Kamar Usma. Except for Kamar Usma.

You don't need that. But Usman could have a really good. good fight at the top end of the division. I'm super down for that. I'm totally into the idea of Usman. If he wants to really get a title shot, fighting one of these guys, and then I'm totally okay with it. Thousand percent. I'm totally with you. Muhammad Mahayev took to Twitter and talked about being offered a title shot from the UFC. UFC BJJ against Mikey Musa Mechi. Our audio listeners out there were just hanging, waiting for that. He tweeted, I've been offered to compete against Mikey Musa Mechie for the UFC

BJJBel. What do you guys think? Okay, so I think that'd be actually like awesome. I'm down. But to me, this is more of an indicator of like, if he is offered this opportunity, maybe things are cooling with the UFC, right? Maybe tempers have subsided

and the idea of like a Makai of return to the UFC is more palatable. Maybe this is like a trial run. Hey, come in, help us out with this BJ We've got a big fight for you, Mikey Musonacci. If you're able to get it done, then we can start talking.

Flyweight's as hot as it's ever been. It could really use a guy like him to also enter the mix. There's so many guys that are really good right now that could use a credible opponent. He left at a time when it seemed like he was on the cusp of fighting for the title. I think he could jump right back in there.

So a promising sign to me. If the UFC is calling his phone to offer him an opportunity to compete, I love that idea. and I hope it's a sign of things to come for him and resuming his UFC career. Yeah, honestly, Flyway feels kind of hot right now with Van having the belt, Pantoja is going to get an opportunity at some point.

You got Kyoji Horeguchi kind of bringing some life back, Tatsuro Taira. Yeah. From Muhammad Mahive in the mix? No. Oh, yeah, Mano Kopp, of course. Maybe don't pair those two up right away after the last one, but Kopp and Makayev are fantastic.

Can we talk about the change you face of Manel Kopp from that fight to his most recent win. Yeah. It's just like, man, you can flip the script quickly. Let's go to the world of boxing. Some breaking news there, our very own aerial whole line.

Tweeting earlier, Fabio Wardley versus Daniel Dubois for the WBO World Heavyweight title is a done deal. May 9th in the UK. Venue is still TBC. I like how we put the TBC for the

UK themed fight. Well, there are, you know, to be confirmed versus to be determined maybe they maybe they have a semblance of a plan

either way no I'm saying TBC feels very UK it feels UK based UK coded fantastic fight interesting to see if you know

Daniel Dubois can get back on track interesting to see if Fabio Wardley could kind of continue the momentum yeah continuing this momentum

of just sort of just like shocking everybody just like yeah shocking everybody definitely in the last one against Joseph Parker like a huge upset in the one before that felt like you know on the ropes and then kind of pulls it from the dirt um he's an interesting character i think it'll be a fantastic

fight and then you know maybe you're talking about usick i the thing with usick is just bizarre to me because it's like you hear him link to dante wild or you hear him link to this person you hear him link to that person and he's kind of just out there to eras barera to jake paul and m m m m everybody like everybody it's just when are we going to see him again when are we going to see him and what finally gets him to, like, do one more? And is that the last one? Or is he got two more? Like, it's very interesting to think about that.

But in the meantime, I like this as a fight to kind of keep the heavyweight belt moving. Yeah, I'm with you. Some other news we got, Geron. Boots, Ennis is back, or at least in a targeted matchup for April. Against Virgil Ortiz, our very own Darshan Desai, tweeting that out. Everything boxing. Shout out to him. Does fantastic work.

Could be finalized this week for April. in Las Vegas that according to Ring Magazine Boots is fireworks anytime we see them in there so it would be great to see him back. Yeah, now this is one that people have been dying to see and it seems like it's finally moving toward being finalized and announced. Very exciting fight and very exciting time for boxing if it happens.

Now you talk about exciting. Finally seeing the return of Earl Spence Jr. We haven't seen since that Terrence Crawford fight back in 2023. crazy. But it looks like he's coming back and he's going to be fighting Tim Sue. A massive announcement. I mean, there were rumors that he could have potentially just been done with his career. But the fan back fighting is massive news for the sport.

Yeah, one of the most promising boxers we've had, like, Crawford versus Spence was like, who is the guy? That was a minus 110, minus 110 fight of just like, who is better, who is going to get it done here? I bet on Earl Spence that fight. Like, there was true belief in him. I wish we knew each other. I would have talked to. We did know each other. 2023. Did I not tell you Terrence is going to eat his ass? You probably did. And I was like,

no, no, no, no, no, Rospans. As you said, that was a even line fight. That was supposed to be like, who's the future face of boxing? Who's the guy? Who's the man that's the number one pound for pound? It turned out to be Terrence. But Errol Spence is an incredible fighter and somebody I'm very excited that we're getting back. I just hope, like, there are people who would say that when he returned to fight Terrence Crawford, he was not 100%. He was not himself because he had been in a horrible accident. And so I hope if he returns that we see the best version of Arrow Spence, because the best version of Arrow Spence is a top pound for pound guy.

He'll be at 154 pounds. The date and the location to be determined. But right now, it's looking like that one will happen. In the summer. All right, those are the news and notes. Let's go to our version of On the Nose. You like that addition? You like that wrinkle?

With the bone. On the nose with the boys. All right. So the way we're going to do this is me, Frankie, Rick, the boys in the back, will rotate reading questions. It won't just be one person reading them. Rotate the reading of the questions. Frankie, you start.

Rick goes second. I'll go third. All right. What's up, boys in the back? I hope pizza you can find a way back into Rick's Good Grace soon. Thank you all. Oh, we're just going to interrupt each other. Oh, just got to.

Yeah. Thank you all for the good vibes and the entertainment and for Connor always interrupting. Special shout out to Rick for getting back to me on my email the other day. I offered my services to share some storylines about the upcoming RAF event and I genuinely appreciated the response. Shifting gears now, knowing almost all of you lads are avid sports fans, what other sports would you like to work in or cover? Do you see yourself in the combat sports space for the foreseeable future?

Have a good show, lads. and shout out to Franklin Mysterio. Shout to Franklin Mysterio, bro. What other sports? I don't know if I'll ever work in it, but like ones that I'm like really big fans of love college football, love just like football in general. Sneaky, big tennis fan, big tennis fan,

always paying attention to the Grand Slams. I don't think I'd ever want to work in like hoops or hockey. I think the only other two would be like college football or tennis, but the last part of his question, I see myself in combat sports for the foreseeable future. Yeah, I'm definitely deep enough in this game that I'm a combat sports lifer.

I don't know if I'd even want to work in other sports. I think the lesson I've taken away from this career, this profession is like, being closer to it is not always as good for the entertainment and enjoyment factor, right? Like when you're removed from it, to be able to just flip on the TV and be like, I'm going to enjoy these fights

and then check out and do nothing about it else is actually like a benefit is a blessing, you know, to a certain degree. Don't get me wrong. I love what we do. As I just said, I'm a combat sports lifer. I would rather be doing nothing else for my profession. But there is an element of like having to lock in and be tuned into every single little detail in a way that is. That is opposite how my enjoyment of like the NBA or the NFL is.

I flip it on and I flip it off. A thousand percent. It becomes less of a hobby once it becomes your job and you're sort of forced to do things when you're sort of forced to do things when you you don't want to do them. That's kind of why I'm, I don't want to work in any other sport. I like how, like, this niche is the one why working. Like, when we worked at ESPN, I was like, always having to cover the NBA. I used to love the NBA. It was my number one sport by far. Now I don't even watch it because I was just kind of beaten out of it about work and just like other things focused. So, like, I don't know if I'd want to work in college football and tennis. The only

argument I could make for football is that the season is so finite. So it's like you're working when you're working, you're working really hard. And then like, there's an end goal. Whereas Because UFC is year-round. Combat sports are year-round. Frank? You know, I like hockey. Yeah. Yeah.

We need to go to a hockey game, man, you know? We did, and then you proceeded to not be there. Yes, yes, yes. Devil's game. 20-23, shout out. Never forget. If I was to pick, I would probably pick, like, a super niche sport. I like the niche? I would go, like, F-1 or something.

Oh, that would be cool. So, like, not, so A, I don't know that much about it, and B, like, not everybody talks to you about it. Yeah. Like, I'd want to just. just being something that's like fascinating to me, right? I love the NBA. It's probably my favorite of the sports, but I don't know if I'd want to work in it.

There's also saturation of the amount of coverage. 100%. There's so much of it. All right. I'm up, right? Yep. Left leg cemetery asks. Goat Connor.

Okay. Let me get a blind ranking of these five John Anna calls. Oh, love this. Goat. Wait a minute. I just want to confirm something. Are you reading through these? Yes.

Okay. Hold on. All right. Okay. Information. Are you warning that they're not actually John Anick calls? No, yeah. There was one that I was like dicey about, but it turns out it's legit.

Okay, let's go. I'm excited for this. I'm excited for this. I had to double check this one. All right. There's one on there. Oh, it's John Anick. No, there's five of them.

Yeah. First one. This fight clock. brought to you by Modelo the game bread knee let's go three that's a nice middle ground I thought you were just going to say this

fight clock brought to you by Modelo because that's an all timer as well wait what is that one he just says it at the beginning of every night it's the game bread specific yeah that's one that like me and my friends would say to each other both of these fighters have dealt with custody battles

one number three but they own a bakery and then into the head kick by Quillianzano. These are all great. I'd go two. I'd go too. Okay, here's a more generic one. I have no idea what this fight is from. What fight this is from? These guys are so long in their lower halves. Oh, that's Sean O'Malley Cheeto Vera. That one's great. And like, people are like, pause. Four, four, four. Okay. And number five, this was the one I was dice on.

Amanda's eggs are now inside Nina. Yes, this is in post-fight, and they're talking about Nina Nunez, being. pregnant. Yeah, that one was crazy. He's actually talked about, like, afterwards,

he was like, I don't know why the fuck. I thought that would be a normal thing to say. I didn't know either, so I had to double check. I'll put that vibe. Yeah, custody battle one for sure.

They're all great. Left Lake Cemetery ads without the, you know, the sex. Without the sex, of course. Yeah,

that's a good point. Not the sex. I will always defend the broadcasters on UFC things when people say they say dumb shit. We sit here for like two, two and a half hours and like we say some dumb shit.

They're literally sitting there for like eight hours talking. You are bound to say some dumb shit at some point. John Enick does a very, very good job for how long those guys are on air. And crudest to him for saying like, hey, maybe I didn't get that one right. Maybe I did. But yes, you're right. Like being on air that long, you're going to get into some dicey territory. Absolutely.

I don't know if we should do this, but we're just going to do this. Whoever is reading this, the other person blind rank these five. We'll go with you. So are me and Frank doing it or who's doing it? I think you'll take the wheel. No, he asks for Pizzi, we're going to go Frankie. Okay, go for Frank. Okay, here we go, Frank.

Blind rank these five. Mia Malkova. I don't know who that is. Blind rank, bro. Oh, no, you're doing this one? Alexis, Texas. I do now for a second. Mia Khalifa.

That sounds familiar. Three. I'm sure it does sound familiar, Frankie, Bonnie Blue. Oh. Oh. Four. A bell of danger. Oh, Ariel's favorite.

Can I move that? Oh, man. That's five, man. That was from Well, Okay. Oh, thank you, Will Okay. All right, you're up, man. All right. Keep this rotation going, bro.

Are you sure? Boys in the back. Who are some of your favorite non-uncrowned affiliate at MMA analyst and content creators. I feel like G.C. would love Napoleon Blown Apart on YouTube. Napoleon Blown Apart? If he hasn't already watched his stuff. Follow up, do you guys ever feel imposter syndrome trying to predict or break down fights without

training? That's a great question. Thank you, Colin Avery. That is a great question. Do I ever feel imposter syndrome? No, just because I do try to, on the front end, be like, bro, I don't fight. I don't know shit. I get fight predictions wrong all the time.

time. So no, I don't feel imposter syndrome just because I know I'm going to be wrong and like the trusted experts should be the one that we go to. I really enjoy, obviously DJ is great. I really like Dominic Cruz getting into the space as well. For betting, I like lucrative MMA is good. There's this dude Cooneth MMA out there, K-U-N-A-T-H, just straight to the point guy, real calm as he talks about it, but great breakdowns as well, especially from the betting standpoint. Yeah, again, like what Rick was just saying about us working in it, because we work in the space, we don't seek out as much on the back end when we're not working.

Well, at least for entertainment purposes, right? That's more like fact-finding. That's like, hey, I want to do this because it'll help the betting that I'm doing the picks for. Or I was going to say the content I consume is interviews. Like, I love submission radio. Shout out to Dennis. Oh, shout out to Sammission Radio. Asper as well.

I just think they do great interviews. They get a lot of relevant guests. So I'm always checking out their stuff. MMA fighting has so many people who do great interviews, our former colleagues. And so those tend to be the channels I gravitate toward more than like the lifestyle or like the predictions and then this and that because we do so much of this. As far as the like imposter syndrome, not really. Like I feel like we've been, I've been immersed in this for so long that like I feel like

I know what I'm talking about when it comes to this. And so no. Some other ones that I, that I enjoy are obviously, like the fighters' own channels are really good. Oh, for sure. Like Alex Pereir's channel is fantastic. Tom Aspenal's channel is fantastic. Cooking with Volk is incredible. I think I've watched every single one of those.

And like Izzy's channel is great. Channel Mallet's channel is great. Anyone that gives you that look in, I love. UFC Countdown, I love. I think I'm still the only one on the team that watches that. Every single pay-per-view, it's must. viewing for me and then I'll watch Embedded throughout the week

Um Well, Chow's is there That might be it in terms of like MMA like from like an entertainment throw it on And we've talked about this behind the scenes before I'm also not as big a YouTube specific

Yeah A consumer like when it comes to anything Not just MMA I'm not as big on like What you know Some people just throw on YouTube as like background noise Or content that they have in the background Things like that

I'm purely like a podcast guy I don't turn on the TV I don't turn on the YouTube And so YouTube consumption is not like a huge Part of my You know entertainment diet Yeah yeah yeah some people in the chat saying Main Card Minute shout out

Long Island Luke is fantastic Shout to Long Island Luke legend Stattiggers with Weas and DFS Brady yes shout out to them as well They give great information Who else? Who else? JBR shout out to JBR There's so many

I don't know who that is I don't but JBR You'd know better than me. There's so many, there's so many different content creators out there. There's so many different lanes. There's so many different, like,

types of content that are out there now. I think the space you can find exactly what you're looking for. And so, yeah, like, support all these people that are creating content for this industry. Someone says they binge-watched all of Justin Gachie YouTube over the weekend. Yeah, the fighters having their own YouTube channels is fantastic. I love it. All right.

Cosmo Kramer asks. in honor of Valentine's Day, what fighter on the UFC roster do you think would plan the best date night? Interesting question. See, this could go different ways because like, are you going with the most like strategic, the one who comes up with the best game plan?

Are you going with the most emotional who might be like romantic and have, and put more heart into it? There's different ways it could go. I think you have to address someone that's going to be like thoughtful and go above and beyond.

So like who like really- But what if they overthink it? Who goes like above and beyond like a, like a, who's going to dress up for the press conference? Who's going to do like, you know, like sort of like dancing type things for their walkout? Like who's really going to go above and beyond? Okay. But importantly, planning the date's one thing. You have to have somebody who's going to be fun on the date.

Yeah. Yeah, that's true. That's true. Because if you plan a great date but you're kind of just in the suit and you're not, you're not giving off the right vibes. and it doesn't really matter. Do you know, Malley, plan a good date? I bet it'd be fun. This is a tough question.

I'm figuring, you know, I'm thinking because they have to plan the date that it's, that it's going to be mostly the male fighters. Right, because what, the female would be the one being asked on to the date? Who would it be? Who would it be? I mean... Yoji Hora Gucci? Shout out to the Gucci. Just a nice, wholesome guy. Take a guy.

I just feel, why does it? Elliott Tupori because he's going to show up with a rose? He's got the rose. He's got the Riz. Why does my mind naturally go to Alex Pereira? I'm just like, I feel like it would be fun to be on a date with Alex Pereira. Hmm. I was actually thinking Alex Pereira is like the one that would just be like kind of like,

we're going to grab burgers and then we're going home. Isn't that a great date though? Where you don't put too much pressure on it and you're just like, let's go have burgers and you're going to have fun? It's a tough question. Did he give an answer? No. Oh. All right.

So. Ilya, Alex Pereira, Sean O'Malley? Yep. All right. I like that. Here we go. Hi, Ariel and the crew.

This is from Macom Otaku. Talk a little bit about the resurgence of Kioji Horaguchi and the potential of him becoming the champ in the UFC and possibly holding belts in three separate promotions, Bellator and Rise in previously much love. Great question. I'm happy to talk about it all day. I love Keoggi Horiguchi.

I mean, the fact that at 35 years old at a lower weight class, which is known for Father Time defeating its opponents earlier in. There was the curse for a while until Volk broke it, you know, 35 and up, oh, and whatever in title fights. It really is incredible. And the wherewithal to cut these great promos to be pushing his fights on Twitter, he has his own YouTube channel as well. He's got like 350K subscribers there.

UFC Japan is promoting his fight against the Girolin Bekhov on Fight Week. He's getting in there, winning the fight. immediately calling for the title, doesn't care who he has to fight to get there. Like he wants the title shot, that's why he's in the organization. It feels like he's having this renaissance of fans being like, oh yeah, Giojurocucci is great. And he's staying active, fought in November, fought, I guess what? Just like two and a half months later now this past weekend,

he was willing to go down to Mexico to fight Brandon Moreno. I think we're going to see activity from him because he knows he's only got that finite amount of time. But he's looked incredible in both performances. put on a striking master class this past weekend. And then what he did to get rolling back off was just pillar to post beat down. Yeah, he's, he's as good as he was. Like, he's just timeless to a certain degree. Like, he's exactly the guy that I remember, if not better.

He's also mixing it a little bit of the English, cutting the promos in the post-fight interviews. What's not to like about Horaguchi? Like, he's just a, he's such a, he's such an obvious, likeal contender and likable guy. There's really no downside. because he comes into, like, most fans who are watching now probably don't even remember his first run on the UFC. They started tuning in during the pandemic or sometime after he left. And their first exposure to him is him getting against top competition, demolishing them, and then just laughing on the mic and calling out the champion.

Like, there's really only upside here with Horiguchi. He's 35, so capitalize on it now. But it's been great to see his resurgence. For the longtime fans who do remember Horaguchi and his run in the UFC, and then his travels to rise in Bellator and elsewhere, like he's awesome. He's just awesome. And I think he's one of the best fly weights on the planet, if not the best.

Frank, you're up, brother. Who's turn is it? Frankie? Ola, boys. I've been fully inceptioned by the drops. Caught myself muttering, who's to check to the wife and kids several times this week. Who's to check? Anyways, wanted to check in on what G.C. is, you know.

Mid-question drop. Very impressive. Anyways, wanted to check in. on what G.C. is reading these days. Sorry, man. This is actually a question for you. Have you started a new book club yet? I've been working through Blake Crouch's sci-fi books. Highly recommend.

Shout out to Blake Crouch. I'm not mistaken. I read one of his books last year. I have not started, yes, I read Dark Matter last year for the book club. Have not started a new book club. Tried one down here and didn't love it. Right now I'm reading the power

of positive thinking. That's pretty good. that's not bad. I think I'm going to do Kitchen Confidentials by Anthony Bourdain after that. And then I'm jumping back into the Hobbit. I started the Hobbit and then I

got this track that I stopped it. I need to jump back in because once I'm in a fantasy world, I'm like, I'm deeply ingrained in it until I'm done with it. So I hear that. Yeah, shout to Blake Crouch,

Dark Matter. Next month, Project Hail Mary coming out in IMAX, Ryan Gosling. That was my favorite book of 2025 that I read. Highly recommend that one. You see them throw the football

through the Randy's donuts. I did see that. Broke cannot throw for shit. We got to get them out on the field. Horrible for me. You can just tell immediately on someone's athletic ability by them being able to throw a football.

It was a piss-bore effort by Ryan Gosling there. But I've avoided any trailers. I don't want to see anything. Don't want to know. I know how the book ends. So I'm just going to go watch it. And it's going to be great.

I'm acting. Do they revise the ending to not match the book? I'm going to be pissed if they do. Because the book was great, man. So you wanted to end the way you know? Yeah. You wouldn't be up for like a switcheroo?

No, no, no, no, no. I want to see them execute it. There's an alien character in the book that, like, he partners with. No, Frank, you got to fuck off here, man. I've been trying to get you to read the book for 18 months. 18 months. But now you're spoiling them with you for Frank. There's an alien character in the book that, like, I only have a vision of him in my head,

and I really want to see how they bring them to life in the movie. So I don't want to see any of the trailers. Tell them there. Fair enough. Worship S. The boys in the back holding of the fort, love to see it.

Since Ariel is gone, can you be honest with us about a couple of things? Number one, just tell us that's not a window behind you. Sure, man. Yeah, that's a window.

It's not a window behind us, dude. Very obviously. Number two. Do you have any favorite in studio guests? If so, any memorable interactions? Um, I always say

this when people ask, we have like a 99% hit rate with in studio guests being really, really pleasant people. Like, MMA fighters, boxers, like they're almost always like really, really nice people. Wrestlers are always very nice. Same with the MMA fighters.

And like the MMA fighters are always, they're so like down to earth and chill. Like they show up by themselves. Um, one of my, one of my favorite ones to tell is is Max Holloway coming in studio and like actually is so chill. showed up early by himself, fell asleep on a couch,

and I had to go wake him up. And I was like, all right, let me just go wake up Max Holloway real quick. I was like, hey, Max. It's your time to go, man. He's just like, oh, shit, all right. That was always fun.

And then like that interview got pushed like 15 minutes, so he was just chilling in the control room with us telling about his trip to Japan. And like, you get in those moments where you're kind of just like, oh, this is just fucking Max Holloway telling us about his trip to Japan. Is he every time he comes in studio is like, is amazing. Like he's,

he's always, like, super nice and super excited to be on air. And, like, he's one of those guys that just has, like, an aura about him when they walk in.

Pereira, too, you know, Pliny on them. The McGregor in studio is, like, an all-time one. Sure. Because we were, like, so,

is he going to come? Is he not going to come? We went off the air and it was like, he might come, and then we're eating dinner, like, waiting to see. Like, I had, like,

slated, like, we'll be here till midnight. I'll wait all night to see if this dude comes. And we're sitting there, then Ariel gets his phone. He's like, oh my God, he's 10 minutes away. And it was like, it's the Steve Carell like, it's happening meme. Like everyone- Getting in my car to come to the studio. Yes, you're getting in your car coming to the studio. Like, we're fucking panicking. And like, Ariel's like, we got to get a graphic. I'm like,

oh, fuck. I'm like, photoshopping. And then he's just like, you got to go get him. You got to go get him. And like, you know, we had to run down and convince security to not do the normal thing of like checking the badges. And like, he had security clearance coming before, like, the press. president. They, like, walked in, they, like, looked around in sunglasses. I was like, hey, hey, what's up, guys? Like, I'm with, uh, MMA hour. Are you guys with Connor? And they're just like, yeah, didn't even look at me. They're like, he'll be here in five minutes. I was just like, all right. And like the doors swing open and he like walks through behind security. And then it like parts like the Red Sea and there he is in a suit. And he's just like, hey, you know,

and make Connor. I was just like, I'm also Connor. And he's like, yeah. And then like, That was like a whirlwind of chaos for like 30 minutes. And like before you knew it, he was gone off to the next thing. That's when he started saying the you know yourself after he met you. There it is. Yeah, that's what he said. You know, yes. That's when he figured it out.

He was like, I know myself. I know my son. Yeah, there's been some great ones. The Kayla Harrison, 2020 PFL World Championships when like she was on the weight cut. And I had like that shoe that wouldn't stop squeaking. And so like, I was like, hey, Kayla, how's it going? She was like, yeah, pretty good. just like, you know, I'm just real tired.

I was like, oh, okay. And, like, we had to walk down that long-ass hallway to get to the studio. And my shoe, it's just dead silent. My shoe's just like, squeak, squeak, squeak. And I was like, Jesus Christ, this is so awkward. Did she say anything? No, no, no, no. She was pretty locked in.

What's up with your squeaky shoe, bro? Yeah. Yo, what is that noise? Can we fucking stop that shit? I'm trying to cut weight here. Uh, yeah. There's been some great ones, huh? I mean, the aspirinol is coming.

Vegas hanging with, uh, Tom and Charlie in the room. That was another moment where like as we're sitting there, I was like, to myself, I'm like sitting there thinking, I'm like, well, it's fucking crazy. Yeah. I was chilling here with Team Aspen all. Everybody who comes through is so great and we're so appreciative of the idea that like this is a destination, right? Like that's what's so special about it is people feeling like this is, you know, this is the premiere show and they come to it and Ariel gets to talk to these people. And there's something about a face-to-face that can't be, you know, replicated.

Like, the Zoom is great, but the face-to-face is what it's all about. And it's so great that, like, people come to this. Like, every time it happens, I'm excited about it again. You know, like, it really, like, reinvigorates you. Like, some of the ones that I remember from recent memory are, like, Paul Hughes was here. That was, like, absolutely amazing. And the one that I, the one that stuck in my mind the most from this era,

is Kishon Davis, who flew in to talk about what had happened in Virginia and take accountability for it. From the interview to how he handled himself to what he was like to meet in person, his interview and that studio appearance really stuck with me for a long time. I was blown away. I was so impressed by Kishan Davis. And then obviously now we've seen him come back and get his career back on track, super happy for him. but yeah man like the in studio guests are are the lifeblood of this like it's so it's ariel gets invigorated for it you can feel it you can see it armist rukin sitting here eating the pizzas and we're bringing it right volk cooking for us back at the uh that was that was a

fucking all-timer quickly like volk is coming in studio i think he had just offended the belt against korean zombie at 273 and like he was coming in studio and he like kind of just started this cooking with Volk Channel, like it was still just in like its infancy phases. And he had an air fryer sponsorship at the time. And his team was getting an air fryer sent to us. And it hadn't arrived yet, like hours before the interview was supposed to happen. It was like, it was this crazy whirlwind of everything happening. We end up getting the air friar just in time. We get it out there for Ariel and him to cook. It was, it was a whole thing. But it ended up. And made some magic. Made some magic. It ended up working out. But you are right. The energy on a big in studio guest

Day is always is always top notch. It's fantastic. We can't, we can't tell you how much we appreciate the athletes when they come in studio. It's, Paulo Costa gave me haircuts in both studios. Oh, yeah, Paula Costa with the haircuts. Arnold Allen, just shown up by himself and just like chilling. Of course you would, right? Yeah. Sean O'Malley doing the same thing. Like after winning the belt too. And he's just like, hey, like, you guys want to get some coffee? And he's like, one second, you got to sign some autographs real quick. I was like, all right, Sean O'Malley. Yeah, for sure, man. Do you think. Ally Aquinto, the only in studio guests in BITB history.

Don't forget about Ben Davis, you know? Oh, yeah, you're right. Wow, that was disrespectful to Ben Davis. Damn, my bad, Ben. Yeah, over the years, man, there's been so many good ones. So many good ones. It's always magic when someone comes in studio. Oh, wait, there's a third part.

Oh, okay. Lastly, what's with that Ariel guy who's there three days a week? I feel like he can be overly aggressive towards Frank. You guys are the best. Frank, you got to speak on that one, man. Yeah, what do you think? Overly aggressive. Good boy, good boy.

All right. Steve Ushmi asks, Rick, did you get a chance to see no other choice? Wondering what you thought about it. I have not seen it. You have no choice. I'm waiting for it to come VOD. I'm dying to see it.

It is the movie I'm most excited about and most anticipating right now. Really, really looking forward to seeing it when I do get to see it. I have unfortunately not seen it. I've heard amazing things. I don't want to hear too much. I know roughly what the premise is about. I'm very excited to see it. You guys know about it, right?

Mm-mm. Nope. Korean cinema is, it's going to be a banger. Shout out. Captain Engano shows no mercy. Yo, do you guys ever listen back to your episodes? Yes. G.C., I hate to break it to you.

Oh, no. But you are the king of cutting people off or talking over them. drives me crazy sorry. Let me just hit light real quick. Your response. Yeah, I don't know what to say to that. I'll try better in the future. I, for one, like your

loud voice. It's great. And you just want to learn to work around it. A little fucked up to do it while someone's reading, though. Especially I struggle with the art. Yeah, I don't know. I don't really know what to say to say to that. I mean, we're in person like on Zoom calls. Like you really have to sit and lay out for people to finish. In person, though, it's just going to

flow like a conversation well. Are you done talking? Yeah, yeah, that was it. That was it. Also, I feel like I'm the number one interpreter. Like, objectively, I'm definitely the number one. I get it. You're so competitive. I'm the worst piece of shit ever. I didn't say quite that. That's what you meant.

Connor, I think you're up. No, no, no, no. Rick is. Me? Wait, you just read that one? Yeah, yeah, he just read that one. Um, okay. Do you need some more time? I'm choosing between a few.

I didn't see some and then I bloomed it and now I see more. Bloomed it. I like that. You hit the load more. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Bloom? Bloomed, like a flower. Wow.

Rick is the best. All right. G.C.'s lonely door, man. G.C., I visited New York for the first time last year and fell in love with the city. I'm coming back again this summer from Dublin. I want to try some weird food we can't get here. What three restaurants from Fight Feast would you recommend first? So, like, we need the top three Fight Feast restaurants.

Any other hidden gem activities? I know you guys did a rundown on previous on the nose, but I can't find it. Top three restaurants to go from Fight Feast. I loved the Czech Republic restaurant. I think it was called Coliba out in Queens. It was fantastic. Go there on an afternoon and then go to the Beer Garden. That's a few blocks away from it.

That is, that's a fantastic New York day, well spent. It's not going to be crowded. You're not going to have to fight for a reservation. The food is top notch. Absolutely loved it. I'm trying to think of other ones. Oh, Emmetts. It's Chicago, but the deep dish pizza at Emmett's was so, so, so good.

I think about it often. You could go to Emmett's on Grove and get the non-deep dish. I've heard it's just as good. But Emmett's is also fantastic. And then dingo rip Santo Taco, where we went with Action Bronson. Or, you know what? Go to Brooklyn and go to Los Baritos Juarez. Absolutely fantastic.

Freshly made tortillas. Burritos made right in front of your face. You're going to have to wait in a line. It's one of the hottest restaurants in the city right now. But it is unbelievable. So shout out to them. Hidden gems? Yeah.

What's a New York hidden gem? I don't know. With social media and the internet today, it feels like nothing. Hard, yeah. Nothing is hidden or stays hidden. K-Town. Go to Korea Town. It's quite good.

32nd Street. You can go to any of those places. There's a little place called Food Gallery that has like different shops inside of it. It's like almost like a mall of sorts. You'll have fun in K-town. So go to K-Town. That's my hidden gem. New York, Rick.

This is from James Portland. Hit me. Even though he lost, is Jordan throwing himself into elimination against bananas during free agents an all-time challenge moment? Yeah, I mean, even having to ask that question is almost blasphemous. For the context for you guys, Johnny Bananas, like, widely considered the goat of the challenge.

There's an argument to me made for Jordan and CT, obviously, but those are like the three. Those are the three-headed dragon for the male goat of the challenge. and at the time Johnny was like in one of his like prime runs and Jordan as a newer competitor there's there's a there's a selection system to go into elimination and you flip over a card if you flip over the bomb or something then you go into elimination if you flip over nothing you're safe and then the next person flips it over Jordan walks up flips over all three and goes I want you Johnny like he throws himself into elimination at the selection point Johnny beats him

and it was like one of these moments of like oh be careful what you wish for Jordan then goes on to become as I said potentially one of the goats but all time moment just accepted welcomed elimination against Johnny bananas and it didn't go his way but

all time challenge moment love the challenge shout out to you for rekindling a great memory for me Matt Perkey says Gastro Connor and New York rig at the risk of being the pestos What do you feel the odds are of the White House cards simply not living up to the hype that has surrounded it going on for eight months? It feels like every time a massive card like this has talked about at length, it becomes impossible for reality to meet expectations.

Is there a particular fight that you want to see on this card that if it's not included, the card gets knocked down a grade? For instance, John versus Alex excluded? I feel the odds of it being disappointment are like minus 300. I, I, we've, we've built this up so much in our head. Minus 300 to be disappointing. Mm-hmm. Interesting. I think you need, you, you have to have Connor McGregor, John Jones, on the card for it to not be disappointing.

So what if it was like a UFC 300 scenario where it wasn't exactly what we thought it was going to be, but it is so good top to bottom that you almost have to be like satisfied with it. Is that, would you consider that a disappointment? I think that's what it's likely going to be and people are going to complain about it. I think that's what it's likely going to be. I could see like a Justin Gachie versus Iliate Toporia headlining. Oh, you don't think people would be happy with that. Oh, I could see

that being like a disappointed. If it's not Connor or John, you're like people are going to be fucking fuming. I think so. I think people are going to be disappointed. I guess my... I mean, have you met this fan base? Yeah, I mean, 300's the perfect example, right? I thought it was going to be something. I will say though, I feel like

my bar for like, I think people would be happy with a pretty stacked card. Like a 300 S. I think people would be pretty happy. Maybe you do like a four title fight? I don't think. Do they have four titles to put up, though? Are they fucking bad? We had we gotten one undisputed title fight in the first three

months of of, uh, 2026. Throughout the, for the first 100 days of 2026, we will get one undisputed title fight. Yeah, the BMF is the other. Yeah. And the interim. Interim. Yeah, I don't think it'll be disappointing.

I think it'll be, but I do think there's a chance. It's not Connor and not John. I don't think it will be disappointing. I was hyped for UFC 300. I think the fans will complain about it. Because it wasn't those two that they were promised. Or that it seemed like they might get. I will say, Dana, Dana hasn't done the same thing that he did for 300,

which was, you're never going to believe what we're going to do for this. He is saying, like, look, it's going to be a huge, huge event, we're going to have, you know, we're going to put on massive fights. But I don't think he's been selling it that same way to hedge the bet. I think people would be very happy with Ilya Justin. I think people would be happy if that headline. Yeah, we'll say. I don't think people are giving Justin much of a chance in that one. No, I mean, I think it's a sacrifice. I think I'llie is going to take his head off, but I still believe, I still believe people would be pretty satisfied. If it's like, Ilya Justin, I don't think.

think we'll get Jan O'Malley, right? Because Jan just had surgery. It feels like maybe that might get pushed a little further out. What other title fight could be on there? What else do we have? What's available? I don't know. 70?

Oh, well, no, you can't do, you can't put Islam under. Not going to do 1.45. I don't think you can do 1.30. Why? Why not? 45. I don't know. Maybe Volk. John Silver versus Volk? Maybe. All right. So let's say that's Coleman.

John Silva? Yeah. What about Mopsar and Ler? They're fighting coming up. That gives them two and a half months to get ready. Okay, so the winner of that. Let's call it 45. Let's call it Volk.

We can do that. What else can we put on there? What's, uh, who's the 85 champ? Hamzot? Yeah. You have Hamzot? Shama, I fought at the way now? Is Hamzot under?

See, the problem with, if you put Ilya and Justin. Okay, so yeah, yesterday you mentioned Ilya, Justin headlining John Jones, Alex Pereira, Comain. I think even no title on the line. They might put John Alex in, in the main event. God, if you're Ilya, do you accept that? Are you like, I'm the fucking king of this shit? We're talking white house level stuff.

It gets to a point where it's just like you get what you get. You get what you get. All right, so let's say no Connor. Okay. Alex John, Ilya, Justin. Oh, that's you. People are, like, they're losing their minds. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You get John Jones, Alex Breyer and Elliott, DeLiott. Connor and anything else that counts too, right? people would just be like, it's a Connor McGregor fight. So it really hint, I mean, I guess it hinges on those two. I think if they do like an Ilya Justin, a featherweight,

some other title, maybe a third one, if Kayla can somehow, like, get back in there for this event, I think people will be pretty happy. At the end of the day, I think it's going to be a good card. Yeah. 300 was amazing.

300 was amazing. Like the full top to bottom card was fantastic. It was great. I think people were just a little bit let down by the main event. being Pereira and Hill. Dana kept saying

it's going to be the craziest thing you've ever seen. That was the problem. I think he sold the bill of goods. I think for this one, there's been some bluster. There's been some bloviating about it, but it hasn't been, you're never going to believe what this fight is.

It's like, hey, it could be John. I don't know. To his credit, Dana's been like, nah, like, I don't trust John. Not being like, it's going to be John, you know? It's not going to be the end of 2020. when he was like, well,

I got something playing you fuckers are never going to believe. Whatever happened with that? Nothing. He's never said anything, right? Yeah, nothing. We don't know what that was.

All right. I think the White House card will be, I think people will be very happy. Brett from Nebraska, shout out, legend, caller to the voicemail. By the way, leave us some voicemails for Thursday. 415, sup, BITB.

What's up, boys? G.C. What is your favorite bet to sweat? I have always had a soft spot for college basketball unders, but some of my more random favorites include. Over on combined field goal yardage for a game, this is degenerate shit. Me and my boys bet that on Sunday. Oh my God.

Sunday. This is fucking degenerate. Over on time of a match in tennis and of course heavyweight overs, thanks boys, shout out to James DeHuna. What are some of your favorite sweats? What are the ones you're like? So what you just said is, like, the more degeneration. the better is is how I go about it with with like the better to sweat also uh need to have

friends with me sweating a bet alone is not fun right sweating a bet alone with sweating a bet with friends is is the way to do it talk about college basketball unders that's like a sweaty miserable experience but when it hits like it's it's fantastic unders in general are just miserable why for sure but it's like but if you're sharing it with people like if it's a shared misery i i I don't mind it. Overs and, like, overs always feel hopeful. Yeah.

Always overs feel like we're rooting for excitement. Unders are just in general like, oh, except in MMA. But then in MMA, unders are fun to cheer for. Until they're not fun to cheer for. Until the,

until the brain clicks of like, this is going to a decision where fucked. One minute left to the middle of the fight and you're just like, I got the under one and a half, you motherfucker. Yeah, there's nothing worse than having an under two and a half and it's entering round three. And you're just like,

ah, God damn it. And like, Go, go, like, do something. There's nothing worse than, like, someone's on skates, and, like, they're just, like, not attacking. Love. Okay.

Which is worse? You have the under, and they're just, like, you're like, ah, fuck, this is going to decision. Like, somebody gets rocked in the first round, but then they recover, and you're like, God damn it. Happened this past weekend in the Donchenko Alex Morono fight. When Morano survived round one, I was just like, decision. Okay, which is worse?

That? or when you've got the over and somebody gets flash caoed in a minute and you're just like, well, tear this ticket up. I think the under that goes over is worse because, and I've been on those, I was on the over one and a half

finishing a parlay in Yawanna Young Jacek versus Zhang Wei Lee in 2022 UFC 275 when she's spinning back fisted her with, it lands the spinning back fist one second before the over, literally with 230. So it doesn't count.

cash, that is sort of just you're like, oh no, I fucking lost fuck. Whereas like, you have to just sit there and be miserable for like a round and a half and you're just like, and at some point it looks like they might get the finish. They like start hurting them. They start going to the body and it looks like they're getting beat up. Maybe get into a submission position and you're just like, I, you're just like fucking do something please. Like that, that's the worst. My favorite sport to bet and I got into it last year. There's no sweat like it is NASCAR. You get down to those last 10 laps and you're holding like a plus 700 and like the

guy's in like first or second or if he's in first and the guy behind him is starting to close down on laps, who gets the heart pounding. Or when they both, when they finish like just barely inside of each other, it's, it is. When that caution comes out, two laps to go and you're like, we got a two and a half second lead and then either your guy is in first and like the caution. saves your ass and you're like, we're alive, boys, we're alive. Or your guy is, or he wasn't in first when the caution comes out, you're alive. Or he is in first and the caution comes out and you're like, we're fucked. His tires are killed. He doesn't have the gas. I say all this to say,

Daytona 500 this weekend, can't wait. Already got my best. It's going to be incredible, super speedway. You're going to give out some winners on that one? It's like hard to do because like I end up taking like 10 guys. So like, it's like plus the thousands. Like I have one guy that's like plus 7,000. So like, when you add them all together, I get this group of drivers for like plus 115. And like people will be like, oh, it's not plus EV. It's like, I don't give a fuck.

I'm betting on NASCAR. Like, I'm just, I'm just doing it that fun. God, there's something so romantic about sports betting and so degenerate and horrible and bad. It's like, I always say this. I loved it more when it was illegal and it was just like me and my boys in my living

room and like we just weren't supposed to be doing it. Everyone was like, you sick of degenerates. Now you walk around here and people are just like, my same game parlay didn't hit. I'm like, I don't give a fuck. It's gotten to the same level as fantasy football. I'm just like, I don't care. And there's so many commercials for it now.

It was more fun. It's like when you were drinking before you were 21. I never did that. Shout out, shout out, shout out. What are you talking about? When you were drinking before you were 21, it was like a little bit more fun because you weren't supposed to be doing it.

It was a little bit, you know, illegal. Worst bets are like golf. It's like you're either end or you're out. Just because it's so slow pace and like, you're sitting on like a plus 1,400. or they just die movements. There's no big movements. It's no

like insane insane. Okay, okay. That makes sense actually. Also love a future that makes it all the way to the end. There's nothing like... Are those a sweat though? Or are you almost like, I'm not going to think about this shit until it's like striking.

Those are more fun because you kind of get to like monitor and cheer them on and like stuff like that. Shout to a good sweat though. Sweat is always better with the boys. It's always better with the boys. All right. Edge Lab Analytics says, what's up BITB and team? the upgrades to the meta apex have been highly touted by the UFC,

yet we saw this weekend it is still a dull environment with limited fans. My question is, what do you think the solution is? Eliminate the meta apex and do only road shows? Further upgrades to the meta apex to have some fans and create a true environment? I fear in its current state only VIP's Friends of Dana and Friends family will be in attendance, not exactly creating an exciting and rowdy environment that a typical roadshow is best. from EdgeLab

Analytics. Shout out to you, AJ. Appreciate the question. Yeah, I think you can go now for like 250 bucks. But like, so it's not as VIP as it once was, but it's just never going to be

a rowdy environment because it's just limited seating. This is where I once again buck the trend and continue to be the guy who's the apologist. Like, I don't find the apex that... We're about to have two guys

that fought on the apex this weekend. We need to ask both. Yeah, I just, what we should ask them is like, did they notice a difference, right? Was there some kind of difference? But I just don't mind the apex. Like, maybe I've been beaten into submission. Maybe, you know, I know everybody hates the apex. I get it.

I understand it. But it's just serving a purpose to get us to do to the fight nights and then to the, to the, to the numbered events that are in stadiums. Arenas, I don't care that much. Like, I'm okay. Like, if you're the somebody buying the ticket, I, I guess. get why you'd care. If you're going to the event, I totally understand why you'd want to be in a raucous crowd. For the TV experience, I really honestly just don't care that much. Like, I don't, at this point, I don't even notice it. I don't even realize like, okay, this one's Apex,

this one's not. Like, certainly, like, I'm not an idiot. I know where each fight night is happening, but, like, it's not that jarring to me. I'll tell you what, WWE, when they had the Royal Rumble, and there was no pops for the points that were supposed to be pops, that was very jarring to me. That was, like, very obvious. The apex, I'm just like, it's an apex fight. It's fine. I guess the only thing I'll say is that, like, they did at the Royal Rumble. They went to, like, wide shots of the crowd when the wrestlers would come out and there really wasn't a problem.

Well, there's also... You really just see the walk out. There's also scheduled pops, right? In WWE, it's like, the person comes out the Royal Rumble. They do their move set and everybody's supposed to be going crazy because they just came out. Whereas in UFC or MMA in general, you can't kind of schedule it. It just happens when it happens. But I'm not that.

anti-Apex. I think it's fine. Just get more fans in there. The man we're about to talk to fought on the apex this past weekend. We'll pause the questions. We'll get back to those. But we are now joined by Dustin Jacoby, the now 14th ranked light heavyweight in the world coming off a second round knockout win over Julius Walker. Dustin, thanks so much for joining us, man. We really appreciate the Don. Oh, thanks for having me, fellas. It feels good to be on the show. Yeah, we appreciate it, man. I just mentioned the now 14th ranked light heavyweight in the world, man. How does it feel to have a number next to your name again?

Yeah, it's great, man, to be back into the rankings. It means a lot. I think I've been as high as number 13. Yeah, just to be in there. But it does go to show you that it really doesn't hold too much weight. Of course, it feels great to be in there. But in my mind, I felt like I was a top 15 fighter this whole time. But now I got the number to my name to prove it.

So, yeah, man, it feels great. We were just having a conversation about the apex. What was it like to be in the revamped version of the apex? Was there any noticeable difference? Did you notice anything? There really wasn't, man. It wasn't that big of a difference. I'd much rather fight in front of a big crowd. You know, I was supposed to fight UFC 325 against Jimmy Crout and Sydney, which would have just been epic to fight an Aussie on his home turf.

I love the crowds, man. I feed off the crowd good and bad. I love being a road warrior, so I was really looking forward to going into his house and, you know, doing my best. but, you know, I've had great success at the apex. It's just not my favorite place to fight. I do like the smaller cage. I think that works to my advantage, but I don't care who you are, man.

I think all fighters would rather fight in front of a packed house. Okay, you mentioned that Australia fight. So you were supposed to fight Jimmy Crute. That one gets canceled. You take this one on short notice. But you still flew to Australia to Corner Cody Brundage. Is that correct? I did, man, because I didn't find out about Crew.

we were like in route to San Francisco and then we flew from San Francisco to Sydney. And I found out just before boarding that flight and I was really hoping that they would be able to find a replacement. And, you know, nonetheless, I'd be able to go over there with Cody. He's one of my main training partners. So I'd keep the flow going with him. I'd be in his corner and a couple days of being in Sydney, I got the call about Julius Walker. Julius said actually came to Factory X and trained with us for a little bit. So, and we have the same. management team. And I've been in touch with him ever since that little training session that we had for about a week, 10 days or so. So I actually hit him up. I was like, hey, man, Jason just told me your

opponent fell out. Obviously, I'm looking for a fight. I don't want to wait. I'm ready to go right now. I just don't want to be disrespectful. And he come back and said, hey, man, we're both competitors. We're both athletes. I'd love to share the octagon with you. And I said, enough said, man, we'll see where this goes. And the next thing you know is flying back to fight Julius Walker at the apex, which I kept telling myself it wasn't going to be a big deal. I blocked it out of my mind. But dude, during that fight, I certainly felt it. I was extremely exhausted, which is rare for me. I usually have really good cardio at 205. But I think the travel caught up to me a little bit. But, you know, at that stage, once that cage door locked, I knew all obstacles, all adversity,

all excuses were thrown out the window and I just had to lock in and be the best version of myself that night I was. Yeah, and you mentioned that a little bit in the post-fight, you know, talking about overcoming the obstacles to get there and take that fight. Was there any point where you thought maybe I shouldn't do this? Did you consider

not doing this because of how far you had to travel and what you had to do before the fight? You know, not really, man. I'm a veteran. You know, I've been through a lot in this game and when I got that opportunity, I was already in camp. I was going through camp. I was towards the end of camp. And, you know, I just had to say yes. I had to step up and,

and own that moment. And just another, add some more legacy to my career, just add some legacy to my name. You know, I'm a guy that steps up and answers the call every single time. I've never said no to a fight. So, and that's exactly why I stand where I stand. And I stand strong because, you know, the Hanuk, I say it time and time again, is forged in fire. And that's where I've made my name, man, is inside that octagon on the battlefield, inside the proving grounds. And, you know, it's just another opportunity that I took advantage of. You talk about how exhausted you were. What day did you actually land back in Vegas? Yeah, so I left Sydney on Monday at 12 p.m. And I landed in Denver on Monday at 12 p.m., which was kind of crazy after being on a plane for 16

hours. And then I was home long enough to do a little bit of laundry, see my dog, see my wife, which my wife did end up going to Sydney. So I had seen her, but just to sleep in my bed for one night. And then I was Tuesday morning, I was packed up and ready to go to Vegas. So I made the trip there. Tuesday is usually a travel day for me every time anyway during fight week. And then Wednesday, Thursday, I got a couple good workouts in and I really felt it then. But again, I just kept it blocked out of my mind. And, you know, when I just focused on on the fight at hand and I knew when that cage door closed, none of those excuses mattered.

I had to show up. And that's what I did. You talked about like being forged in the fire and your career and your journey. I want to go back a little bit to your first stint in the UFC, then fighting for, I believe, eight other promotions, fighting for a decent amount of time and glory kickboxing and your journey there. Like, talk us through the various stops along your career. and then the opportunity to get back into the UFC and what you've been able to do with it.

Like, take us back to the version of Dustin Jacoby that had the stint in the UFC and then is fighting for eight other promotions. Yeah, man, so I turned pro in November 2010, and my first UFC fight was October at 2011. And I actually had broke my bone in my leg. I took a kick from my buddy Brian Foster, like three weeks before my UFC debut,

ended up taking the fight anyway. I was young, 23 years old, was on top of the world, did not go my way. I was well prepared for that second fight with now another buddy of mine, a long-time training partner, Chris Komosie, just didn't get it done that night. I went 0-1-2 in the UFC, got done. I was really like, man, what the hell am I going to do now? I had people tell me you need to find a real job, but I was so young. I still wanted to chase this career and chase this dream.

And I ended up winning my first pro title right out of getting cut from the UFC. It was for CFFC against Tim Williams. Dan Mergliotti actually reffed that fight, which is kind of cool. And he reffed our fight this past week with Julius Walker. I end up winning that pro title. Tim Williams ended up going on and having a great career with the UFC. I want to say great, but a pretty solid career with the UFC. And then, yeah, man, I just fought.

I ended up getting a short notice call to fight in this glory kickboxing tournament. It was Wednesday night. I was trained to fight at Andrew Sanchez, another undefeated, up-and-coming prospect. And I got this call about a kickboxing tournament, three guys, one night, winner got 20K. And I was like, hell yeah, man, sign me up. Like the kickboxing, that's my thing. I never had a kickboxing fight, but I'm a stand-up fighter.

I was like, I'll go in there and knock out all three guys. And sure enough, we took off on a Wednesday. I drove, you know, through the night, ended up laying in, knocked out all three guys that won a contract with glory kickboxing, ended up having, you know, over 20 fights with glory kickboxing, really cut my teeth with them. man, I fought some of the best stand-up fighters in the world, guys that people in the U.S. don't really know, Marad Buzidi, Michael Dute, Daniel Lunga, just to name a few.

Of course, ended up fighting Alex Brer in glory as well. But Simon Marcus, one of the best pound-for-pound stand-up fighters in the world. I fought some absolute killers in glory. And it really cut my teeth and just let me, and that's where I just really grew. And really, when I say forged in fire, man, those were all moments I was forged. And then I got an opportunity to fight for Bellator. Of course, I went 0 and 2 with them. But again, I didn't lose to just anybody.

I lost to Muhammad Law, King Moe of a champion. I lost to John Salter, who became a champion after beating me. If you look at my MMA career, before I got to the USC the second time, I had never lost to anybody that was just a regular Joe. I'd always lost the top-level guys, David Branch, a two-time World Series of Fighting Champion 185 and 205. So I knew I was good enough to continue on. And then, you know, I broke my arm a couple times in glory.

And when I was 30 years old, this was around 2018, I almost quit fighting altogether. I was just kind of, you know, tired of the ups and downs. I wasn't really making a career. I mean, I had made a career, but I wasn't making a lot of money. I was putting my wife through hell. I was putting, you know, we were struggling to pay the bills. And I just went for broke, man. I was at a tipping point. I was at a point in my life where I was just so defeated, but I knew I had more to

give and I knew that, you know, it takes the guy that's been drunk through the mud that's been counted out, that's been down at the bottom to rise to the occasion and come out on top. And I just knew I had that in me. And it was hard finding a regional scene fight. Nobody wanted to fight me with the experience that I had. Ended up doing another King of Sparta tournament here in Colorado where it was three fights and one night again. The first night was kickboxing. The second, or the first fight was boxing. The second fight was kickboxing. The third fight was MMA. I took that fight at heavyweight. I weighed in at 210 pounds. All my opponents were over 250, including Cody East, who was a five-fight UFC vet, had some wins in the UFC, and I beat him in the MMA match. I won that night. I got an opportunity

to fight for the contender series, which I was pissed because I was like, man, I am better than these contender series guys i promise you that when i fought tie floors that night i you know that's one of my favorite fights i think that's what my brother's favorite fight a lot of my true fans guys my buddies that have been on my back since the beginning they absolutely love that fight i put a beating on that dude earned my contract at the ufc and then yeah man the rest of history just went on a tear and um yeah got got back on the in the in the zone winning some fights and it's all led me to where i am now man wow what an incredible journey i want to go back to the kickboxing part did you At that time that you were fighting for glory and you'd been offered that opportunity,

did you think that kickboxing was going to be your career? Did you always have MMA in the back of your head? Was it whatever opportunities I get that are the best one, I'll go that direction? Because I know you even trained in the Netherlands with like core hammers. You were really like doubling down and making a serious kickboxing push. Was MMA something you were still thinking about or was it full speed ahead on kickboxing? Well, I'll tell you what, when I first got started with kickboxing, I was like, man, this might be my future. This might be it because I love stand-up fighting.

I hate the ground game. Of course, we train it. You guys see in the fight, man. I'm well-equipped on the ground. I tap people all the time in the gym. My wrestling defense is really good. I'm not a strong wrestler, but my defense is good. And I thought that there was a chance I'd go back to MMA.

But at the time, I'm like, I love the kickboxing. I was rising through the ranks. I was like, you know what, coach? I was like, you know what, coach? Honestly, I don't ever see myself being a champion in MMA. But I see myself being a champion. in kickboxing. And so I went all in in kickboxing. I ended up fighting for the world title twice against Simon Marcus. Lost a really close split decision the first time and broke my arm the

second time, which was unfortunate. But once I broke my arm, it's like I was at, again, I told you a tipping point. Do I get out? Do I get in? I was kind of done with glory because I was like, man, it is brutal, just going toe to toe and just, you know, just smashing my arms. I was getting pretty beat up doing kickboxing. So I told coach, I was like, man, I think I'm going to give MMA a try. And I got back into MMA. And yeah, man, the rest is history. And now I'm not going to lie, man. I could see myself being a champion. I know I'm 37 years old. I know I'm towards the end of my career. But the stars are aligning. I don't know if, if you call it destiny, call it fate. I don't know. Call it whatever it is. I don't know if it's already wrote. I just got to

go do it. But the writing is on the wall, man. I could see myself climbing through these ranks getting another couple more KOs and putting myself in a spot to, you know, take advantage of any opportunities that come my way. So, you know, who knows what's in store, man, but I'm going to be prepared for it. The current champion at 205, your former opponent that you mentioned back in Glory Kickboxing, Alex Perey, he actually posted a video of him watching your fight and reacting to the knockout finish gives you a bunch of kudos in the caption as well. How special is that to see a guy who's gone on to have so much, you know, success in MMA and your opponent of 12 years ago now still showing you love.

Yeah, man, that meant the world to me to see that. I saw Muhammad Law King Moe before that fight, and I said, I went up to him and said, hey, man, I just want to let you know. Like, you know, I appreciate us fighting. And I take pieces of every opponent I've had. And every time I step into the octagon, I fight for not only myself and my family and my team, but I fight for all my former opponents. I want those guys that I beat to know they didn't just lose to anybody.

and I want the guys that beat me to know, you know, you didn't just beat some half-ass guy, man. If you beat me, you did something good, man. You accomplished a major feat. And I just want them to, I take that pride into every single fight, man. So when I fight, I think about guys like Alex Pereira. And to get a shout out from him, the champ of the world, one of the greatest, if not the greatest stand-up fighter of all time, man. That meant the world to me because that just shows that he respects it.

He respects me. and he's well aware of what I've done and where I'm at. And that was just so cool, man. Mad respect to him. And yeah, man, it was just awesome. Speaking of Alex Breyer, at the time that you guys fought, he was pretty young in his kickboxing career as well. Did you feel like you were witnessing like what would end up being an all-time great?

Did you, when you were in there with him, did you see this coming for him after your fight? I certainly didn't see this coming the way it did. I knew he was good. I think he was like 14 and 0 when I fought him. I mean, I think I was, I don't know, I can't remember my record, but I was still young in the game. And I knew the kid was good.

He had an insane power. The way he hit me was like, it was the first time I'd never been knocked out. And I mean, knocked out. And when he came into MMA, I was still a little skeptical. I wasn't quite sure. I thought there were some wrestlers, some good grapplers that would be able to take him down and defeat him that way. but man that guy has rose through the ranks and just set the world on fire he has done extremely well

and it's been so motivating and just so awesome to see him do that climb the ranks and i mean he's the king man it's badass i'm happy for him i know the ultimate goal is to get a title shot potentially against alex perera if he doesn't move on from the division or he continues to hold that belt but what are we thinking next right now sitting at 14 you said you wanted a few more before the title shot what are we thinking next yeah man i would love to get on to that uh the white house card and June. I'm thinking Nikito Krilov would be a great rocky themed fight for that card. You know, that's a great matchup, I think. And I think that would just sell, man. You got two big guys that are going to, you know, go in there and throw down and look to kill each other. And I'm a big

fan of Crylob, man. He reminds me of one of my favorite fighters, Brian Foster, a former teammate of of mine, a guy that was Donald Stroni before Donald Stroni. He got screwed over so many time in his career, man. He should be a, you know, a 30-fight UFC veteran. and doing exactly what Donald Saroni did. But Krilov reminds me of him, man. A prime Brian Foster at 25 years old was a bad, bad dude. And Krilyle was one of those guys. He's a bad dude.

I just think it would be awesome. And it's got a story. I mean, it's got a little rocky theme to us. So hopefully get on that White House card, man. I know everybody and their dogs going to want to get on that card. But that's three big knockouts in a row, man. I show that the American grit, the work ethic, the blue collar work ethic, the tenacity and the perseverance.

man, of anybody chasing the American dream. I just think I fit that story. And, you know, I'd be a good, I'd be a good fight for that card. That would be incredible, man. And the timelines sort of sync up with you having just fought. You want to be the champ in the Octagon, but you claim to be the champ on the greens.

You say this you're the best golfer in the UFC. Do you still hold true to this claim? From fairways to fight nights, man. You know, I am, I'm an exceptional golfer, man. Justin Gachey and I are both neck and neck, man. we've played so many different times. I don't know how many times that we've ended up tying the exact same score. It seems like every time we go to compete, we end up at the same score.

But yeah, it's definitely Justin Gates, your eye, hands down. I am a 5.6 handicap. He is a 6.5. So my handicaps a little better, but I think we're both right there at a 6. And of course, I'm going to take it. I'm going to say it's me. He's going to say it's him, rightfully so. but yeah man we are we are one and two hands down no doubt 5.6 is nothing to shake your head at

i i go out there if i break a hundred i'm happy with myself so i got a i got a long way to go you mentioned from fairways the fight nights i saw the shirt that you got made with uh pens and aces for this past uh weekend i love the the collaboration between golf and and fighting in there man it was sick yeah it's my favorite past time man pinson ais is a Denver based company i got linked up with those guys years ago we've i'm actually i'm getting ready to get a haircut and then i'm go cruise over there and pay those guys a visit. They've been so good to me. Their business is killing it, man.

And then that's another inspirational. It's so inspiring to me and motivational to show that they started with a Donald Trump head cover in 2016, started selling a few of those. And they built it into an empire what it is today. From Fairways to Fight Nights was my idea. They came up with the shirt and with the theme. And it just works out perfect, man. It's my favorite pastime.

It's a game that's just so incredibly. difficult to play, but such a simple, easy game. And it's so mental too, man. And it's just, it's a good way to spend that I like to spend my past time. I actually played a golf on Fight Week with my coach and my teammates. We got out there and swung them a little bit. I will say I played in flip-flops. I played with redid clubs and I played with no glove and I beat all of them. So that's still just, that's my claim to fame, the best golfer in the UFC, man. So hopefully to be able to get into the American Century Championship to play in the internet invitational and get some of these same opportunities that my boy Justin Gagy has been getting. And yeah, man, we live

close by, so we play a lot of golf together. And I definitely see a YouTube golf future in my career. You mentioned Justin Gachie, obviously, who you're close with. Who are some of the other, like, UFC, MMA combat sports golfers that we might not know about? Like, who's sneaky good? You know what, man? I don't think there really is anybody else. Daniel Cormier, starting to play. He's absolutely awful. Oh, no. He talks so much back. He is so bad. But I tell you what, though, he is an athlete, and he is, he's just like golf's like anything. The more you do it, the better you get. And he does hit some really good shots when he's not cheating, when he's not like moving his

ball and, you know, not telling you his wrong score, he'll get like a six and he'll tell you you got to par. So he's pretty sneaky on the golf course. You've got to watch him. But really, I don't know if anybody else that plays the way Justin and I play. I mean, we legit play. You know, we take our medicine. We keep our strokes. We're not out there, you know, sneaking golf balls around or, you know, lying about our scores.

So I don't see anybody else in the golf industry keeping up with us. You mentioned you're about to get a haircut. We're chilling on the back of your pickup truck right now? Yeah, yeah. I went to the gym this morning. I had to give some love to my team and sew it up to those guys. And then, yeah, I had to come get a haircut. my wife and I are going to Mexico. We take a red eye tonight to Mexico and going to go meet up

with a couple of couples with some of our friends from Illinois there. Going to play a couple rounds of golf. It's just going to relax and rest and recover on the beach and enjoy a few adult beverages and yeah, man, just enjoy life right now. Incredible, brother. Well learned. We really appreciate the time, man. Congratulations on the win. Congratulations on the ranking. Excited to see what happens from here, man. Thanks again, Dustin. Yeah, I sure do appreciate you guys, man. I'd Love being on the show and can't wait to do it again. Appreciate you, brother. Enjoy Mexico, man.

Yeah, appreciate your boys. Have a good day. You too. All right. The man. Kobe. The hand yak. Going for the title shot.

Talking mad shit on the golf course as well. D.C. got an answer for some of this. And I think you absolutely suck. Are you doing? Which one are you doing? Cheo, chow, chow, chow. Okay. But what about, have you ever seen the D.C. Ryan Bader?

I want the east. I want the worst fighter. I want the worst golfer in the UFC. I want Daniel Kormier. That's what Dustin just basically said. I have to say there's nothing worse than like if you actually are a decent golfer, like you're having a good round and like you're counting all your strokes and you get like, you know, a double bogey or whatever and you're with your boy who's just ass and he's like,

yeah, I part it. It's like no chance you part it, man. I saw you spray three into the woods. Yeah, I part it. That's what he's accusing B.C. of. Some accusations there. What a, what a, like, when I asked Dustin to go through that career, I didn't know he would go through it in such specific detail.

Of the top of the dome. I had the top of the dome. I had the tapology up right there. He was nailing everyone. He's like, yep, did this, did this, did that, did this. Like, nailed everything. He's had a very, very fascinating career because you really don't see guys do a lot of what he said. And when he was talking about the guys he was facing in kickboxing, he's not bullshitting.

Like, what he ended up doing in the middle of his career is very unique in the way that he went over to kickboxing and was facing absolute killers. Like top of their, top of their game guys from the Netherlands, Simon Marcus, a pound for pound king of kickboxing, to have fought young Alex Pereira. He did something that I'm not sure that most guys would be able to do. And I'm not surprised he's been able to have some success on the back end of it because he was like, you can go out there and he's facing guys on the regional scene in MMA who are not going to be nearly the level of the guys that he's facing in this kickboxing realm. especially if he can keep it standing. And if he can stand there with guys like Alex Perre, now granted, Alex knocked him out, but to be knocked out by Alex Pereira,

as we know now, maybe not then, but as we know now, is not like some indictment on your career. To be in a tough fight against a guy as good as Simon Marcus, to be in with a lung guy and all these like top level kickboxers

prepares you and proves you that when you're able to transition to MMA, there's nobody you can't strike with. There's nobody. And you hear that in the, confidence that he's talking about. He's like, look, I got a ground game too. But like, I use it to stay defensive and to keep myself up. If you're going to stand and strike with me, there's very few guys that like Dustin is not going to have an advantage of. We saw him in that super close fight with

Khalil Roundtree where people were, people were thinking it could have gone either way. Some scored it for Khalil, some scored it for Dustin. And that was actually, if he had won that he would have started his UFC, UFC Renaissance at 7 and 0 since returning. Which would have been nuts. And like, it's one of those things that he believed. he can be a champion at 37, I don't think it's like crazy. Now granted, like conquering the hail of Alex Pereira is one that

I think is very difficult. But if Alex is not in that division anymore, I think it opens up. And a guy like Dustin with the type of power he carries and the finishing ability he has, I don't think it's that crazy. Could he not hang in the striking with a guy like Carlos Holberg? Absolutely. Absolutely.

Carlos Oberg wouldn't be in the top five strikers that he faced in his career. That's the crazy part. insane. I also think a little bit of that glory rub gives him the fortitude to go to Australia, fly back, fight that same week. For sure. I'm exhausted, but once those cage doors lock, we're ready to roll. No, the kickboxing world is different. Like, those dudes are fighting every weekend. We see Israel-A-Sanya when it's like he's past 100 career fights and things like that. They don't, they don't do the like, yeah, I'm going to wait four months from a next opportunity and pick my opponent.

once you start getting into that kickboxing circuit, it's like, yeah, we're fighting two weeks from now. And he said he did multiple tournaments. Like he's doing one night tournaments. He wins the one to qualify, gets a glory contract. He's in tournaments against Alex Pereira. Like, he's a very, he's got one of the most unique careers I can recall in terms of, like, Alex Pereira, Israel to Sanya, cut their teeth on the kickboxing scene,

then transitioned to MMA. He was an MMA fighter who just took this departure. It'd be like going to, it'd be if Francis Inganu went to buy. boxing had this entire career and then came back to MMA. It's very unique, rooting for Dustin. Do you think there's any chance like a Dustin versus Nikita Krillov is making the six or seven cut on the White House card? I think just because of where he lies in the rankings and the finite amount of fights

on the card, it'll be a tough sell. That's what I'm thinking. It's like, I think the White House is going to be biggest possible names only. If you're not top five, you might be struggling to get an operational. The one argument he has is being American. 100%. They may need to get Americans on the card, but we'll see how it plays out. As we've seen in modern UFC, the excitement is often the selling point.

The reason Patty Pimblit and Justin Gage were fighting for the interim title is because you know that you're going to kick off the Paramount era with a fight between two guys who go to war. And Dustin Jacoby goes to war. So I don't think it's out of the question, but I do wonder if just because of the limited spots, something like that doesn't necessarily feel like a guarantee. goes to war and makes it a strikers delight. One thing that I didn't ask him that I suppose we should have, he talked about having a real relationship with Julius Walker

and then having to get in there. A lot of the time when we see guys, you know, maybe not best friends, but having relationships, they sort of turn into either staring contests or, you know, sparring matches. That obviously was not the case for Dustin Jacoby on Saturday night. No, and it looked like Julius kind of like was answering the questions early.

Once the first round ended and then it started transitioning to the second round, I was like, oh boy, like this is going to get a hit. because that's when Dustin's like starting to lay the punches on him. Yeah, man, he can strike with anybody in this division. Yeah, an incredible win for Dustin Jacoby. He has now won three straight, all three coming by way of knockout, 10, 4, and 1 since returning to the UFC. This is his second stent, started when he was 23 back in 2011,

and then, like we mentioned with him, went on a run of eight different promotions before coming back. He started and then was immediately, like, like in UFC fights. It's kind of a crazy road. Yeah, his UFC debut was the seventh fight of his career. It's crazy. So a wild road very akin to Andre Arlofski yesterday, sort of like ups and downs, was winning in boxing, was winning in kickboxing, you know, at one point had lost five of six in combat sports and then now finds himself in the rankings at light heavyweight. And you keep getting knockouts at light heavyweight. You'll fly up those rankings pretty quickly.

Yeah, shout out to Dustin. Shout out to Daniel Cormier, cheating on the golf course. Hopefully, he responds to the accusations. In just a few moments, we'll be joined by Mario Batista, who was the winner in the main event on Saturday night. Let's answer one or two questions while we wait. All right. Who's up? Let's go Carly, a big fan of the program.

Always a supporter shout to her. She says, hello, big fan of BITB, an even bigger fan of the woke front bench. Shout out to all the lady listeners calling in. Please hang out in the chat. We need more women in there. Speaking of ladies, this question is for Andy. Oh!

What's your relationship with combat sports? Do you follow it closely outside of work, or is it strictly a work thing for you? I appreciate the feminine energy you bring to the show. Also, shout out to Rick and his elite 7-Eleven and Tamaroo's knowledge. Camoras? Samaras, yeah.

Shout out to you, Carly. Hi. I was just saying that I hadn't seen her in the chat in a minute, but I'm not usually looking at the chat because I'm hitting buttons. Let's see. So it depends on the fight. if it's a fight that I'm actually into or like interested in the story

I'll go watch it honestly but most of the time I watch with these guys Andy doesn't love the blood and the violence covers her eyes a lot Thanks for mansplaining that Jordan So mansplaining is when a guy takes it upon themselves Oh classic Frank I've never heard you say that joke We'll do for Andy though and she's like I can't look

We'll start to give a description of what's going on Like oh my God he just pulled his arm off and he's hitting him with it. So I keep track of the timer and I'll literally, you guys never see me do this because you're in there, but I will do like, what was it? There was like an arm bar the other day that I was like, I can't watch this, I'll do this and just look at the clock. It's like a horror

movie. It's like a horror movies are fine. It's just, I'm breaking that. This is real. This is a movie. I cover my eyes when I watch horror movies the way that Andy covers your eyes watching fights. That's very similar to my mom. Anytime I'm home and like I have to watch some fights, my mom will walk out of the room. She's like, no, no.

I'm sorry. I just, I just can't do it. I just can't do it. I'm like, all right, I get it. Uh, shout out to Carly. I think in the chat now, she's no longer Carly because, like, YouTube made the change of the names, and it's burner cat lady or cat lady burner or something. I hate that they did that. They need to allow you to bring back the name instead of the URL handle for your YouTube channel. But shout out to Carly. Uh, slanging and banging says that the boys in the back were made the leaders of the UFC today, what changes would you enact other than pay? Also, what would be a reasonable show win for starting UFC fighters if it were to be comparable to pay in major league?

One million show, one million win or flat rate. Thank you guys. Thank you guys are tough. Love you, Frank. What major changes? It's tough. Definitely not. Definitely not one million win, one million show.

That's a little too high. I'm thinking maybe like 30K or 50K win in show. But that's obviously, you said not fight or pay. Start the pay reviews at eight. That would definitely be up there. What else? Is it a cop out and corny To say that the UFC is running it pretty well

I don't know how much I'd really want to Less cards go from like 43 to like 33 Boy, your broadcast partners are going to be upset I guess that's true We are the leaders of the UFC So we're partnered with Paramount And whoever else we deliver other fight content to All right, we'll go back to the questions

In just a little bit We are now joined by the main event winner From UFC Vegas 113, the 8th ranked Bantamweight Mario Batista, Mario, thanks so much for joining the show, man. We really appreciate it, brother. Mario, we got you, man? I can hear you guys. Thanks so much for joining us, man.

We really appreciate the time. Just wanted to start off. You get your first finish win since the Guido-Kennetti fight back in 2023. How did it feel to get that finish? Oh, it felt good, you know. I had a few, like, decisions or anything, so it felt good to get back on my winning ways and, you know, start finishing some people, start choking some people out. Yeah, and the finishing sequence is something that stood out to me.

As you're kind of flowing through those different submission attempts, what's going through your head? Are you thinking, I already have them? Are you looking for an opportunity? And then it presented itself? Like, talk me through the finishing sequence that I think kind of went viral online and a lot of people honed in on. Yeah. So for me, that's all jiu-jitsu. It starts off right there, like passing the guard.

But you have to be like so many steps ahead. you have to have your sequences, right? So as soon as I pass the guard, I pass, step over the hand, crucifix, he gives up an arm, I go to the Kimora, throw the seatbelt on, put it in a hook. There's just so many steps. But that's just the art of grappling in jiu-jitsu. You know, you just go through those sequences and it creates art. You know, it's all those little things are basic movements and anyone can learn. It's just a matter of how you put them together. And, you know, that was the outcome. So it looked pretty cool. honestly in my in my

MMA room and my gym that's like a everyday thing for us Paul Filder mentioned on the broadcast how in the fighter meetings during the week he he said how you mentioned that you saw a lot of holes in Venetius Solvara's game what were those holes that you saw?

Honestly I just think he's we all know he throws a lot of power he throws from the hip and everything but that can only get you so far with that with the level that you know that he's at So, yeah, I've seen everything. He's just super slow.

I think that weight, that weight cut that he was doing, backfired on him. And I just have better eyes. I have more experience. And I seen everything that he was doing. And it just made it for an easy fight. It was interesting regarding the way in. You asked him, like, I feel like you want to kiss me. And you felt like you were kind of in his head a little bit.

What was your takeaway after being face to face with him? Did you feel like you were in his head? when the fight came to be. Yeah, yeah, I just thought it was so funny, you know, that he was trying to get inside my head. But, like, I'm the type of person. Like, I've been through so much. I've been in a lot of face-offs,

the confrontations. You're not going to get on the head. You know what I mean? So he came up and, you know, said things about my teammate Kyler and this and that. And I just kind of, like, change the tone of it. And it seems like you want to kiss me. And he even laughed.

Sean Shelby even laughed. And so I think it was messing with him. that I wasn't biting on any of his little antics and stuff. And I think that's, you know, that's part of his game. It's that he gets these guys kind of like intimidated. But honestly, yeah, you can't, you can't really intimidate me. You know, in the aftermath of the fight, he's talked about having some kind of injuries in camp

and talking about his hand and the fractures and all this. The question I have for you is, one, was that something that you actually notice in the fight? Did you feel like he was compromised compared to, like, what you saw on tape? And two, what did it have? mattered anyway or was the Mario Batista that showed up on that night going to beat him no matter what? Yeah, no, I didn't notice.

I didn't notice during the fight or anything like that. I just thought maybe it was a little weird that he was on the ground for quite a bit, you know, me standing over him. But I just don't think he wanted to give up his back, you know. But that's on him. You know, if he had an injury, he felt like he wasn't going to be able to fight or win. And that's his choice. That's his decision to take the fight if he did have an injury. and I've been through it.

You know, I even showed this last time I have like this, this popped rib right here. That was like four weeks before the patchy fight. So I couldn't even wrestle. I couldn't throw hooks, nothing twisting. And I just told myself, I'm going to go out there and, you know, give it my best shot. If I lose, I'm not going to use that as an excuse. And I end up winning and beating up patchy. So it's excuses and that's all on him.

what what's the it's i find that very fascinating what's like the the the tipping point of that right how compromise can you be before you decide i'm going to pull out of a fight or i'm going to continue and give it my best is it is it opponent based right i think if i execute this game plan against this guy i could still step in here and for patchy you made the decision that even with this existing injury you could step in like what's the tipping point of i don't think i can perform on this night and i think i can be compromised and still compete yeah that that's all um to the individual, right? It's all how much you could take, how much you can handle. Um, you know, and I think that's just like a testament to myself, you know, and that's the difference between me and

Venetius, you know, he comes off as someone that's, you know, very tough and, you know, intimidating and this and whatnot. Um, but that's the difference between me and him, you know, I took a more professional route. And, uh, like I said, it's all up to the individual, what you're willing to go through. You know, you know the consequences if you don't make it, this and that, but at the end the day, you have to, you have to live with that, you know. We were talking about the meta apex and the revamps that we've seen more crowds there. We just had Dustin Jacoby on. He said there wasn't much of a difference. We heard you say, though, it's a little bit more fun. What, what differences did you notice in the apex? Yeah, I thought it was a lot more packed, you know, because I've been there from the

very beginning when it was used for during COVID. So there was no one in that arena when I first started the next fight there's a few more people and the last time i fought there i believe i fought rickie simone um there's a little bit of like i think it was like two bleachers on each side um so it's definitely packed up a little bit and when i went out there uh it was a good vibe it was a nice little crowd going on and you know felt like a you know a good fight night i'm curious to pick your brain you mentioned patchy mix and and you know that fight that you had with him are you surprised that patchy is not in the UFC anymore and that now he's competing with

Ryzen. Did you think that he was UFC caliber when you were competing with him? You know, what are your thoughts on the idea that patchy mix was released by the UFC? You know, I was going to give him the benefit of the doubt, you know, because he did kind of come in on a short notice. It's like a big event to come into a lot of hype behind him. He did have a second chance against

I forget the kid's name. He just fought on the card. A Vic Blas. Yeah. And, you know, he kind of fought a little bit better. But if that was his issue saying that, you know, he wanted to go to 145, maybe I would have gave him another chance just to see, you know, might as well use them. But yeah, I was a little surprised they let him go quick. But hey, that's the name of the game.

You know, that's the way the business is, you know, you got to win. Going back in your career, after that Aldo fight, there was a lot of negative sentiment towards you just because of the way your game plan played out and it's against you know everybody's hero in aldo now though you're getting finishes you're putting on exciting fights against umar despite it being a loss you still you know a great account for yourself do you feel like the tide is turning back with the fan base more in your favor yeah no i feel like i've always put on exciting fights you know you you go uh let's say four fights uh pre-oldo and then the three uh post like what's the outlier you know it's aldo and he's done that a few times he's done that with marab uh he's

he did that with Volcanowski, you know, this guy's a former world champion, you know, 10 years undefeated and he doesn't know how to get off the fence, you know. So, yeah, but the tightest turning. Everyone's starting to see, you know, that was kind of like a weird fluke. You know, I'm going to go out there every time give it the best shot and whatever that looks like, you know, whether you like it or not. I guess that's up to the fans, but I'm trying. Yeah, after the fight, you mentioned, Corey Sandhagen's name. Is that the fight that you want most?

And is that what you're hoping to get next? Yeah, I think that's the fight that makes the most sense for me right now. You know, he's up above me in the rankings. He just came off the loss against Marab. And I think it makes for a great story. You know, I just lost my debut to him. And I think it'd be cool if, you know, we fought and I was able to have that rematch. What would be different in the rematch?

Obviously, you've got a lot more experience now. Can you still hear us, Mario? Yeah, I can still hear you barely. Sorry, my headphones end up dying. No worries. We hear you loud and clear. What would be the difference in this rematch? Like, obviously, you've got a lot more experience now.

You've been able to get a lot more UFC fights under your belt. What would be the difference in the fight with Corey Sandhagan? I think there'd be a pretty big difference, you know? I'd have more time to prepare. Last time was on a week's notice. I have more time to prepare. The longer camp, I have more experience. I have bigger fights under my belt, you know.

I've been in big moments. I've had my main event. I prepared for a five-round fight. So I'd be interested to see how that one went. And it could go the exact same way. You know, I just need that redemption shot. You know, I don't think, it wouldn't sit right with me if I ended up passing him in the rankings and maybe like got a title shot.

by jumping over him and not getting that win back or not attempting to. So I would like to get that one back. You're on this incredible run, obviously, nine of your last 10, the one loss being to Umar and Magamatov, like you're killing it. You're a fighter's fighter. You always come game with exciting fights and everything like that. But man,

when I was researching, like going through your Instagram and everything like that, like you obviously live, eat, breathe, sleep, training. Beyond training, like, who is Mario Batista? What do you like to do? What are the hobbies, man? I've gone through many. hobbies, dude. I've gone, I think my most recent one was, I was building a truck, you know, I wanted

to, I liked taking things apart, putting them together. I was building an old, like 85 Silverado in my garage, but honestly, you can keep going and going with that. It ends up being a money pit, and it just takes time away from, from training and everything. So, but I think the next little trend thing I'm going to get on is, you know, I want to get a motorcycle. You know, I've been looking at some motorcycles like not Harley style. There's like an Indian, bobber one that I was looking at. So maybe I'll start getting into those things. But if I was out in the country, man, I'd be, I'd be having dirt bikes.

I'd live like the Cowboy Soroni style lifestyle. But at this moment, you know, I'm just kind of in the middle of the career. So hobbies are just kind of in the on the back burner for a little bit. Yeah, but it feels like it's in like the automotive vehicle lane. Are you, are you into the riding or is it only the building and the breaking apart and building back up? Or are you also like somebody who's an enthusiast about like going out on a long motorcycle ride? No, I like riding, especially new things, you know, and old stuff too.

But, you know, if it's cheap and it's not going to be expensive, I'll tear that thing apart, you know, and put it together. But no, I like the riding experience. I love like, you know, I just went to the Barrett Jackson a couple weeks ago here in Phoenix. I love looking at old vehicles. And I don't know where that comes from, to be honest. You weren't like a motor trend guy when you were a kid. You didn't have the magazines and all that. Not the magazines.

You know, I'd have, it just would always be like on the channel. You know, you'd watch the news and you'd just skip a few and then it'd just be on motor trend. And you see these guys like tarot park cars and go test drive them and, you know, bring them back to life. And it was just a cool thing. And my dad's had some old trucks and stuff. And even the first vehicle I had was like a 1980 firebird right out of high school. So it's pretty cool things for me. Yeah, that's sick, man.

You're watching Daytona 500 this weekend? NASCAR, no, it has to be like some rally car stuff, like trophy truck stuff. If they just go in a circle, like... Just turning left before. I guess that's cool, but I like a little bit more action. Awesome. Well, we really appreciate the time, Mario. Winner of nine of your last 10, congratulations on the win.

Beautiful master class performance on Saturday. We appreciate you joining us, man. Awesome, guys. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. Thank you, Mario. Much love, Mario. Thanks again, man. Not of his last turn, man. He does make a good point, man.

Look at the outlier. What's the one fight? It's the Joseo fight, and he makes a good point on, you know, I kind of like a little bit of trash dog. Just like, bro can't get off the fence. Yeah. Bro can't get off the fence. And, like, you live with your decisions, right?

He revealed here that, like, you know, heading into the patching makes fight that he was compromised. I'm always fascinated by that, and that's why I wanted to ask him that is, like, there has to be this point. right where you're a fighter and you've got this injury that you go this is too severe to go on or you know I'm going to gut it out I think I have a style matchup like you hear about Connor McGregor his knees blown excuse me in the Chad Mendez fight and it's like how how how can you be

this close to realizing your dreams and make that gamble but then it pays off and you make the gamble and you're successful in it and it's like if you hadn't if you pulled out you never know if you would have gotten that opportunity again. You never know if you would have been able to achieve the things you achieve. It's a crazy kind of thing. And, you know, how often do we hear the fighter saying like everybody goes in nicked up? Like there's nobody who's ever healthy. So I wonder if there's just this like baseline of like, I'm going to be hurt.

I'm going to be in it no matter what. Yeah. I mean, fascinating stuff. At the end of the day, I still think the lock dog going for it was was going to be a mistake. Yeah, he might have been too compromised. And combined with that bad weight cut. And then the triple combine, the triple parlay of adding in the step-up competition to a level of Mario Batista. Him versus Corey Sandhagen.

If Sanagan doesn't do Sean O'Malley, that would be a great fight. I like the redemption story of Mario Batista trying to avenge his debut loss. 100%. And I think he is every bit as good. Like, I thought Lock Dog was elite level, right? I guess it remains to be seen because of all the potential things that he was facing heading into it. I don't know if this was the best account of him. I'd be interested to see.

But he might be a featherweight moving forward anyway. So it's almost irrelevant whether he was a top phantom weight. I thought he could be. There's no doubt in my mind that Mario Batista is, right? I know. The proof isn't the pudding on Mario Batista. There is no mystery around this. The fight that he gave to Umar and Armaghamedov and the wins that he has over the rest of the field,

to me tells me, like this guy is championship level? Now, is he going to have a tough time with a guy like Umar? Is he going to have a tough time with a guy like Marab? might he even have a tough time against the guy like Piotr Yan? Maybe. But I would dare argue that they're going to have a very tough time against him as well as we saw in the Umar fight.

Like this was not some, you know, a showcase fight for Umar and Ramagamadav. He had to really dig and Mario Batista had his moments there. I believe he could be championship level. I don't know if he ends up being a champion just from the perspective that like it's hard to know in this division. There's so many good guys. You might be holding that belt for one fight before it goes,

it changes hands, right? Piotr Yan might rematch Sean O'Malley. He could lose it. He might rematch Maraup. He could lose it. Umar might get another opportunity. He might capture it. There's so many good guys at Bantanway.

It's very difficult to see who's going to be like a long reigning champion. But I think Mario Batista is somebody whose name belongs in that mix very much. Like I believe in his skills. Still just 32 years old, 1993 baby. Shout out. Yeah. We were actually born just 15 days apart. Kind of crazy.

But man, that line is long at Bantamway. you're not kidding. Piotr with the belt. Marab is due a rematch at some point. Umar obviously has the win over him. John O'Malley, Corey Sanding, and Songyodong, Amon Zahavi, and then Mario Batista. I feel like he should be above Figgi. Yeah.

Either way, he's on an incredible terror. 11 and 3 in the UFC 9 and 1 in his last 10. We really appreciate him joining the show. You're with us, the boys in the back, here on a Tuesday, because Ariel is still away at the Olympics. Today from him, no hot takes. But he does have a couple of very special announcements. So let's head out to Lavinio, Italy, for a very big newsbreaking from Ariel.

Take it away, man. Bonjourno, friends. Bonjourno. I miss you all so very much. Great show on Monday. Shout out to the boys for conducting that amazing interview with the ageless wonder, Andrei Arlowski. I still can get over the fact that we're talking about him is one of the biggest stories of 2026 so far,

considering everything he's. been through and you know the cancer stuff hardly knew any of that so shout out to you guys enjoying everything you're doing from afar I don't have too many hot takes today but I did want to come on and make two very exciting announcements all right one's a big time announcement so as you guys know and I'm talking to the boys in the back and the whole crew Andy Jordan Frank everyone but of course the audience as well we had a lot of goals when we launched uncrowned we wanted to have the studio shows, check. We wanted to have the audio pods, check.com, check, crushing it. Shout out to Shaheen and the whole team over there. Then we introduced uncrowned films.

More on that in a moment. Shout out to Casey doing his thing. And then the next item on the list was having other podcasts, not just the ones that we're doing, a whole podcast network, if you will, a family of podcasts. And so I am very excited to announce that today, Tuesday, February 10th, will be the launch of our brand new wrestling podcast. It is entitled The Uncrowned Wrestling Show. I can't wait for this. It drops every Tuesday night, beginning tonight, February 10th, audio-only pod. It drops on our feed, the Ariel Hawani Show feed, hosted by Jason Solomon. I have been waiting and looking around for about a year trying to find. find the right voice, the right person to host this show. If you're a wrestling fan, you may be

familiar with Jason's work. He goes by the Sala Monster. He's got a great YouTube channel. Go check it out. There's an amazing job of covering pro wrestling, in my opinion, and not doing it in a biased way. He's down the middle, talks about the good, bad, and ugly of all the different promotions. Great set of pipes, like an amazing set of pipes on this guy. And he's now a member of the team. He will be the host, the one and only host, of the uncrowned wrestling. show, which once again drops every Tuesday night beginning tonight. You'll get it on the same feed that you get this show, audio only. So podcast feed, please follow on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts,

and it will be a weekly pod about an hour or so for now looking at the biggest news, the biggest storylines, the biggest items from around the world of pro wrestling. Soon to come, can't announce it just yet, a boxing show, which won't be hosted by me, by other people will be added to the mix as well. So we'll have the wrestling show, we'll have my show, boys in the back, the crack, and soon to come a boxing show as well. We are growing, my friends, we are growing. So can't wait for that.

Please do check it out, follow, like, subscribe, and give a big hearty welcome to Jason Solomon, aka the Sala Monster, for joining the Uncrowned Family. So excited about that. One more item before I go. As you know, the cadence, the schedule is a little bit different since I'm here in Italy. Monday, boys in the back. Tuesday, boys in the back. Thursday, boys in the back. Friday, crack Wednesdays on Crown Films. So that means tomorrow we have a new uncrowned film for all of you.

My man Casey and Ben Folks went to a referee and judging seminar, which was not open to media or the public. We kind of went incognito undercover. It was back in January, headed up by Big John McCarthy and Sean Wheelock. And we got to see what the referees do. as far as dissecting, debating, talking about rules, regulations, controversial moments, really fascinating insight into the world of MMA officiating. We're calling it MMA confidential inside officiating. You'll heal a lot from Big John McCarthy. He's kind of the main character and all of this.

It's a great look and I think you'll get a greater appreciation for what these men and women do, referees and judges. Talk about some, you know, eye pokes and scoring and all of the things. that stuff. If you're into that sort of thing, and obviously it's been a hot topic as of late, I think you really dig this. So that is going to come out at 1 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday right here on the channel. We'll premiere it for all of you. Hope you'll check it out, either live or after the fact, and then we'll have another one for you next Wednesday as well. Speaking of that inside officiating doc, here is a look at it. Check it out.

But here we have a fight. You can see this is an evil son of a bitch. Just by the look on his face. We're going to just watch this, see what occurs, and talk about it. Everyone that says that Kanzat Shima have won this. 10-9, step over this way.

Everyone says he won it 10-8. Step over that way. Let's go. Don't sit there and stand in one place. I told you to go 10-9 or 10-8. You should know where you're at, right? Let's go. I got all my 10-8. 8's over here all my 10 9s over here tell me why it's a 10 9 he controlled

that whole round he had a hundred are you sure that he controlled that whole round okay but he did not diminish him in any way okay okay he pops up he walks back to his corner he looks like he did when he walked him all right guys that does it for me from here in beautiful livinio Italy, I hope you've been enjoying the games. It's been great. There's actually a big USA Canada women's hockey game today. So, you know, who's to check, who's to check? Hopefully the ladies in red do their thing. We've had a couple of medalists already for Canada. Actually, as of right this second, Canada and USA have the same amount of medals. How about that? I mean,

we're the size of California and we're on par with you guys. That's a little bit weird. I went skiing earlier today. I'm having a great time. I hear it's freezing over there. I miss you all very much. I'll be back in no time. I'll be back in no time. But in case you're wondering, I'm having the time of my life. And again, shout out to Cam and Aaron here, boots on the ground,

helping me shoot this way nicer than on my phone. That didn't look very good. All right, that does it for me. Buenos Aires from Italy. This time with the Canadian flag pulling up, obviously covering it for the CBC. We appreciate that aerial video looks great again. Two big announcements.

Yeah. On Crown Wrestling Show, shout out. Yeah. A solomonster. Shout out to Solomaster. Love the retro vibe, right? The logo. Love.

Retro. Frank and Ariel landed on some great retro music. And then Uncrown films coming tomorrow. Like, we've got a little slice of Big John holding court. Super interesting look at MMA officiating and the seminar run by Big John. Shout out to Casey for putting that one together. We got some good stuff for people. I mean, we're doing interviews today.

We got Uncrown films. We got the long. much of wrestling. Ariel teases a boxing show coming at some point in the near future. Don't let us get, don't let us get some motion, you know? The network is growing. The uncrown network is growing. An update on that hockey game that he mentioned, uh, women's USA leading Canada 2-0. Oh, do they go nil in hockey? No, no. The thing is just 2-0. Okay. Uh, but shout out to our stars and stripes. Unfortunately, uh, and shout out to our, our man Sammy in the chat. Unfortunately what?

supporters Sweden has taken gold in the mixed Oh I see why Sammy would have Sammy's hype US challenge

It is tough It's tough it's tough It's tough It's tough How about big John In that promo Is one evil Son of a bitch

Right here I mean to be fair When you look at Hamza In that in that Crouch stance When he does that face He just looks like You know

Something from hell Coming to get you And then he's like All All right, 109 over here, 108 over here. Move! I didn't tell you to sit around! He is a ref, man.

He's got that authoritative command of the room. Shout out to Big John. That looked like a lot of fun. Some nice little, like, fun moments in this. Well, obviously, I've had a chance to watch it and work on it. Casey got some great stuff. And Casey even getting involved at one point in the action, which is going to be exciting. I can't wait to see it.

I can't wait to see it. I can't wait to see it. Like, I watch bits and pieces during the editing. process, but at one point I was like, I just have to wait till this, till this comes out. Yeah, there's a lot of, like, there's a lot of back and forth, right? There's a lot of edits made. Then you kind of see the final product. I think it came out very well. I think it's going to be great. Casey always fantastic. And it's the newest iteration of the uncrown doc series. I mean, we got the show programming, the podcasts, the documentaries.

Don't forget about the editorial on crown.com. Crown.com. You're home for it all. I mean, boxing. wrestling, MMA, filmmaking. What'd you say? Filmmaking. Filmming.

Filmming. The documentaries. I was like I said. I wasn't sure for a second. It was the check. Shout out to Ben Folks who has some accompanying pieces from the refereeing seminar that go with.

You know, when we were at ESPN, they would have like the magazine. They'd do a podcast on the ESPN daily. They'd roll out a video and they'd have this like, comprehensive kind of like 360 version of the rollout

for the biggest stories, we've got to hear. Don't you worry. Don't sleep on Crown magazine up next. Get your subscriptions. That one's tough. Prince tough. Print's tough. Print's tough. I want to like the old school Spider-Man. We have a bunch of writers out there, photographers. It'll

be great. It'll be great. All right. We will answer some more questions in just a little bit. Shout out to Ariel for those announcements. But before that, we are now joined by the reigning WBO WBA Junior Middleweight Champion, Zander Zayaz, Zander, thanks so much for joining us, man. We really appreciate the time, brother.

What's up, guys? Thank you for having me. It's amazing being here, and I'm excited. Yeah, man, we're excited as well. We're not going to bury the lead, though. You were part of the most viewed Super Bowl halftime show ever on Sunday. How did that come to be, man? How did that happen? Man, I have a great relationship with Benito,

about Bunny and his team, and they made the, you know, they came to us a couple weeks before my fight and asked me if I wanted to be in the half-time show because you wanted to have fighters in it. And obviously we told them yes right away, but that the main focus was getting the win on January 31st. And right after we did that, we bought the plane tickets and boarded the plane for Super Bowl. What's the lead up to this like? What's the preparation for getting ready to have this big moment? Like what was the day? What was the day of like is probably the most interesting.

Man, the day of was a very, very big energy from not just me, but from from everybody in the cast, all the other dancers, all the models, all the actors, even Benito. You know, everybody was just so amped up when we got there and we're setting up when we're waiting for the music to start dropping. Everybody is just so anxious and so ready to go. all fired up. You could tell it was just an amazing, amazing atmosphere. And so what are you doing in the hours before? Like, are you guys rehearsing? Are you actually like prepping the punches? Or what is it like? No. So to be honest, we rehearsed throughout the whole week all the way to Thursday, I believe it was, Friday, Saturday off. And Sunday, it was, it was game time. And to be honest, we were just in the camp, it was just playing dominoes and just chilling, you know,

just trying to stay cool, calm, and collected, and he did that very well. It kind of reminded me of when I'm going into Fight Niger's in the locker room, just trying to stay as cool as possible. And the way he does it is by playing Domino's. He'd have fun with that, and that's what we did. Man, you mentioned the celebrities. We saw the pictures. You're with Lady Gaga.

I saw you with Jay Balvin. I'm a diehard Braves fan. I saw you with Ronald O'Cuna out there. The celebrities that were part of this, and you're getting to mingle with them, it's incredible. Yes. No, it's amazing. Obviously, you know, being a part of it and being able to go to a couple events,

I got to meet some great people. Obviously, Jay Balbam, like you mentioned, Ronald Acuna, Lady Gaga. I was actually surprised that most of this artists and big athletes knew who I was, knew my name. Obviously, Jay Balbin, when I come up to him, he's like, oh, you're the fighter, right? It was insane.

Ricky Martin did the same thing. Ricky Martin, when he met me, he was like, man, you're Xeners' eyes, man. amazing. It was insane. It was insane. Great experience. It was beautiful to be part of such a historic event and I can't wait for what the future holds. Man, let's go back just one week prior. You win the WBA belt against Abbas Baru in Puerto Rico. And then we're talking about an eight-day span here. You win the WBA belt and then go perform at the halftime show. How much of a whirlwind of a week for this of this for you? This has been the

the biggest two weeks of my life, the very, very two special weeks, obviously making history in my island, becoming the youngest unified world champion in the world right now, the first Puerto Rican to become unifying the island, the youngest Puerto Rican to do it. And then literally hours later doing that, not being able to have time with the family or to celebrate, jumping in a plane straight to San Francisco, making sure I was there on Monday for the first rehearsal. Man, it was incredible. It was crazy to think about.

It was insane to put into words and perspective. But we did it. We made it happen. And we made history yesterday one more time. Yeah. Or Sunday. Exactly. It's incredible the kind of path you've been on.

What's the story that we didn't see? Like, what's the craziest thing that happened behind the scenes? The most famous person that walked in. Like, what's the thing that blew even your mind? Because you're sitting here. There's Lady Gaga there. There's Ricky Martin there. What's the craziest thing that you saw or experience?

Being able to meet. Lady Gaga for the first time. I remember we were in the campers and she's in the camper next to me and I go out the camper and she's literally walking towards her camper and I literally stop like, wow, Lady Gaga just walked in front of me. And then like meeting Ricky Martin when I go up to him because obviously he's a legend in the music industry and in Puerto Rico. And when I went up to him and he knew who I was, that was incredible.

I was a very, very special moment because I didn't expect him to even knew. my name and then he knew who I was. He was very, very happy to see me. And that was a very special moment. What's, okay, following up on that, now, what's the craziest text you receive from one of your friends, from your family, from somebody you know when they saw you in the Super Bowl at the halftime? Like, what's the, what's been the craziest reaction?

So definitely, the only person that knew in my team was my dad because he was the one communicating with everybody. So I kind of told everybody, hey, I got to go do some business. I got to take care of some job, you know, like media and stuff, you know, just became the youngest unified. So everybody kind of understood. And then I kind of like mislead everybody. I was like, I post a story like I was in Tokyo, then Los Angeles.

So everybody was like, what is going on here? But so when it happened and they saw me, they were all like, man, Zander at this point is just doing site quest. That was funny. That was funny. You mentioned your relationship with Bad Bunny. You're obviously signed to his remus sports, and we've seen you at concerts before

and him propping up younger boxers along with you. What has it been like having support from a guy who's such a superstar? Man, he's a big fan of the sport. He's a really big fan of the sport. He was actually watching my fight in his house in Los Angeles, generally 31st. He couldn't attend to the fight

because obviously he had the Grammys the very next day, plus all the rehearsing. for Super Bowl, but he watched the fight. He was very, very happy. He's been really, really supportive of my career since, you know, he knew who I was. And I got a great relationship with not just him, but his team. His team is a big part of all the history he's been making, all the history he's been doing, and they have great relationship with me, and they're a big friend of the sports.

So it was pretty easy. A massive opportunity for a top-ranked boxer, and the weekend before, we saw a lot of top-ranked talent representing. What's the latest you can tell us about top rank, how your involvement, any potential, you know, things that you're hearing about when they might have a broadcast deal and your next fight and all those things? I think we're all on the same page right now. We're just waiting, being patient.

What I do know is that they already made a call to matchroom and team Josh Kelly because that's who I want to face next. That's what I told them that I wanted to do. I wanted to collect a third belt. So I know they did that. We're waiting on respond from Josh Kelly's team. And hopefully we can make something happen for the summer. Is the goal to be undisputed?

Is the goal to get all the belts? Hmm. That says it all. Yes, sir. Yes. Again, just little by little, step by step. The next step, hopefully, is Josh Kelly. That's what I want.

That's what he wants because he's also said, the same thing. So we're both in the same page. Now it's making sure that it gets done. And then after that, seeing what's next and hopefully, Sebastian from Dora right after I win that belt. You just got the fight in your home in front of a home crowd in Puerto Rico.

Do you have a preference on where that Josh Kelly fight takes place? Man, definitely, it must be in the United States. Neutral ground, kind of for both of us, me being Puerto Rican, him being from England. I don't think it'll take place either in England or in Puerto Rico. But here in the United States is something that we can make happen for sure. You're killing it in the ring, man, but I see you hooping as well. I saw you with a Puerto Rican jersey on.

I saw you had like a celeb game at the Miami Heat. Like, what do we think of maybe? Maybe Puerto Rican national team in 2028? Man, I can do it all. You guys have seen me play ball, obviously box. You guys have seen me act just at the Super Bowl. I can do a little bit of everything. I feel like, you know, wherever you put me, I'll shine.

But yeah, maybe I could try out for the national team and make it. A renaissance, man. Could you imagine? I also saw you got a mural at the Boys and Girls Club in Puerto Rico. You got to speak with those children, man. How special was that? Man, that's where I come from. That's where I come from.

That's my place. That's where I grew up at. And being able to have the honor of having a mural on my name or for me, man, it's amazing. because he shows me that all my hard work, on my dedication, all my work, I think is paying off. And good things happen to good people, good things happen to those who wait and work for it. And I've been doing that.

And I just want to show the same love and respect to those kids that I was shown and brought up with. I saw a video of you getting to meet Felix Dito Trinidad, obviously, a Puerto Rican legend, man. How special was that to see? Man, so that first moment, that was the first time I met him as an adult, I did have a picture with him as a kid, but I didn't really remember who Tito Trinidad was at that moment. So now as an adult and understanding what Tito Trinidad means to to boxing, to Puerto Rico, and to just the history of it. It was amazing.

So that was my first time meeting him. I got emotional because that's like meeting your superhero, you know? That's like meeting, that's like a kid meeting Spider-Man for the first time or something. He's like, man, that's my guy. So, yes, he was very, very emotional moment. very good moment special. And he got to go to my fight. So that was very, very nice.

It's incredible. Zander, thanks so much for the time, man. We really appreciate your killing it. You said last week was the best week of your life so far. I'm sure you got more in the future. Best of luck with the Josh Kelly fight. We really appreciate the time, man. I appreciate you guys.

Thank you very much. Thanks again, Zander. Man, a whirlwind. What a week of time? He said two weeks because obviously he's like preparing for the fight. He's got the fight week. But from January 31st to February 8th. Like, you can't do much better.

I think maybe the only person that did better was Bad Bunny who hosted the Super Bowl halftime show and then won the Grammy the Monday prior. But man, at just 23 years old, he is absolutely crushing it. And the fact that, you know, he's going up to legends like Ricky Martin. And Ricky Martin knows he's the young Puerto Rican boxer. Like, this guy's, the sky is the limit for a guy of this age to be this good. as he said, the youngest unified champion right now, one of the youngest champions in boxing history. Like, man, it is crazy what the expectations are for somebody who's been this successful for so young.

And every time the expectations ratchet up, he's kind of met the challenge. So, yeah, I mean, you know, undisputed gold seems like almost like an inevitability at this point. He wants the Josh Kelly fight. Fondora's another, like, he's the guy so far. I did like how he asked about top rank and he just said. No, I asked about unification. Oh, oh, yes, he's getting all the belts. And he just hit the smile.

He hit the smile. That was fantastic. Scott really is the limit for him. His family not knowing except for his dad? Crazy. The dad keeping that secret must have. Imagine all of them. It was the Leo meme.

Not even. I wonder if they even like clock it. Because like you're not like, you're not expecting to see your family member, friend, you know, person that you recognize. I wonder if in the moment they were even able to like, process it. Yeah. I have to say, first boxer we've had on

the boys in the back. He's the official boxer of the boxer in the back now. Oh, he's the boxer in the back. Zander Zaya's, representing Puerto Rico. We really appreciate it.

Got the look. He's got the smile. He's got the skills. He's got the swagger, bro. He can play ball. He can act, as he said. He can box. Man.

He's killing it, man. He's killing it. All right, let's answer a few more questions before we get out of here. On the nose with the boys. All right. Who's up?

I pulled out a few. It's been a minute since I got to read one. All right, go ahead, dude. Hey, boys in my crack. Oh, Jesus. I should really read these first. Hey, boys in my crack, rank these different types of nicotine tobacco products. Okay.

Oh, this is great. Nicotine pouches. Glad you did this one. How many are there? How many are there, Frank? There are six. Nicotine pouches four. Chewing tobacco.

Six. Vapes slash dispose. And it's nicotine? Yes. sir. Three, but I don't love it there. Nicotine patches. Does anyone do that?

That's a six, so I'll put five. Legendary Mexico Palmauls. Oh, shout out. Now, does that encompass our cigarettes, or? Yeah. Okay, then. Palmol is a brand of cigarette? No, I know that I'm saying.

Is he going to also be like a marble red later? Got you, got you, got you, got you. You don't know. Oh, you're still not answering. Okay, I'll go one for the Palmaul's. And lastly, cigar. Two, yeah, I don't mind that. I don't mind that. I don't mind that ranking. Take it away, Rick. You know, I have to say really quick. You know, we have a potential break coming up here. You know, some people taking some trips. I'm thinking about going to Europe, specifically Ireland. Shout out. Pizza on the horn.

That breaking news? Well, normally I got to hit a pizza on the blower. Normally I check in with him. I think he thinks that I want to stay with him. So he's like, you know, things just aren't great, man. I'm a thousand percent. getting a hotel, like no questions asked. I think he thinks I want to crash with him. So it's really just me being like, these are the days I'll be there. Anyway, wait, this conversation already happened and he kind of. Last year, last year. He told me, got it. For personal reasons, you know, don't come out. I think you thought I wanted to crash with him. Got I got it. I will be getting a hotel, a thousand percent. I'm at the age now where I prefer hotels over crashing. You also don't want to stay in the hood, as we know from Paul Hughes. Exactly, exactly. Crash with one of my boys last year, no shade, no

shade, got stuck in a bunk bed, in a house full of cats, I'm allergic to cats. And by like the last day, I was like, get me the fuck out of here. I'm only staying in hotels now, so that's my rule. Anyway, I say all this to say, I dream of a far off land at the beginning of spring where I'm in Ireland on a beautiful Irish morning, green glistening everywhere, sitting at a cafe, smoking a heater, sunglasses on. Is Petsy by your side? Pee T, hopefully by my side. He will be invited to everything that I do. Elaine, Reg. Come on.

No problem, man, yeah. I'll take Reg for the weekend. Someone, you know, we've been off work for five or six days. Someone calls me and they're like, gee see, it's like, haven't heard that name in years. Used to be. Yeah, I used to be. Oh, man, but I just imagining it.

Anyway, I think I'm going to Ireland. I want that for you very badly because during that same time, I'll be in my happy place and it'll just, it'll be great. Oh, it'll be great. A little reset. I've never been to Ireland, so I'm dying to go. I'm dying to go. Pizzi, clear the calendar.

I'm crashing. This is the way he finds out. $20 million for the kitchen scrap. I will get a hotel, but I will go to his place at one point. I want to see the little, the attic. I think you play it where you are vague, and he thinks you're going to crash again and see what his reaction is. Before you tell him you're booking the hotel, just like, Pizzi, I'm coming to town. Come in Ireland.

Yeah, and see how he plays it. Ah, we're really swamped. I got to work in the garden. Perfect. I do remember the garden talks last year. Perfect segue here. Irish lad asks. Hey guys, there have only been five featherweight champs in UFC history.

And the consensus opinion is that it is between Aldo and Volk for the best ever. But when you take into account the achievements, losses slash losses in other divisions, how would you rate the five champs all time pound for pound? Not just featherweight if all their careers ended today. So Aldo, Max, Connor, Volk, and Ilya. So what he's saying is we're counting Ilya getting a second belt, right? We're not just ranking featherweight achievements. Okay, okay, okay.

Connor were counting getting a second belt and all the things he did. It wins at 70 as well. Can we talk about like the greatest champion? Aldo, Bantamweight. Yeah. The greatest champion lineage. It is by far. Each of these five names is God tier.

Five. Yeah. There's only been five. Yeah. It's crazy. Yeah. It's like almost impossible to rank. They could go on an MMA Mount Rushmore and nobody'd be like, what the fuck is this?

And then you have like the the circular Elia has a win over Volk and Max Volk has a win over Aldo Connor has a win over Aldo Volk has three wins over Max as well Volk has three wins over Max like you're doing like all this MMA math

wow this is this is it's it's almost impossible to rank these do you go as crazy as it sounds do you go max 5 yes I think you go max 5 you do

I think you go Oh, wow. I think Max at five. Okay, let me ask you a question. Yeah, yeah, please. We're saying he's asking pound for pound, but it's also a career. Like, let's not do the best fighter. Let's do the career accomplishments.

And I will agree with you that I think Max is five. Because like how can you, how can you rank Volk above I guess because you're just going by career thing? It's all career. Like, Ilya has two belts. The career is still being written. So do it current day. Maybe he's, maybe he is behind Volk. But maybe.

in the future he can pass. And then like the argument of like what Connor did for the sport. Nah, no,

let's do fights. All right. But he was a two two division champion simultaneously. How do you put Aldo above Connor because Connor

sparked him? Max, Jose, Connor Volkilia. This is where I say the head to head is not always the best determining

back there when you're talking greatness. Wait, what was your list? I just said Max, Jose, Connor, Volkilia.

Volkilia. So Connor. over Aldo. It's just the 13 seconds stuck in my head. Two belts. But like across his career Jose had what, 10 title defenses? Nine title defenses?

I'm going. Yeah. No, Aldo has to be won. Aldo won? Because I think Volk is making a serious argument for Featherway Go. He might be getting close, but I still have Aldo.

Maybe he passed him. but Aldo also has a career at Bantamweight. Naili is undefeated, two belts. I know, but the undefeated is not a resume. I know. It has to be part of the resume, though. Okay. Which is more significant?

Yeah. Two belts or the long title reign of Aldo. Yeah. Which do you favor? I don't know. They're both incredible. They're both incredible achievements. This is, I think, I think giving a concrete,

top five on this is one of the hard. I'm going. Aldo, Volk, Connor, Ilya Max. Aldo Volk, Connor,

Ilya, Max. I don't rate the double champ as high as I would rate longevity in the sport and knocking off contenders.

Also, if you do the best wins, man, it's really hard to argue with Volks, like he has fought everybody and and the three wins over Max are insanely impressive. The only reason Aldo at the top is just, it's hard to argue with like, when Aldo was in his prime, everybody was food.

Everybody was just food. And I would have loved to see Prime Aldo versus some of these guys. Max is the one who I got, I think got him at the time where it was like, holy shit, Max Holloway beat Jose Aldo like pillar to post. Connor obviously flashed him. I know that's just the issue It's hard We're putting Jose

One above guys who But he has a loss to Connor I know 13 seconds Two losses We're just doing careers We lost the Volcanosk He's lost to everyone We're doing careers

O and four against the other ones How can we possibly put him one? Because it's not about the featherweight history It's about the entire career But that's in your careers Four losses to the other guys on the list I get it It's head to head is not the

I would hear the argument for As you said You could shuffle this deck however you want, you're going to prioritize, you know, certain things. I think there are many people who would say going up and getting double champ status puts them higher, right? I would, I would argue otherwise, but I think there's many people who would say, like, an Ilya and a Connor deserve to have preferential placement because of the fact that they were able to go up and do it at. Because it has to be the entire career, because if it isn't, then you can't really include

Connor and Ilya, because they had one defense between the team. It has to be the career. It can't just be a whole career. weight. We have to see Ilya is the one that's like We have to see Volk's career finish being written and we have to see Ilya.

Volk could get two more tighter defenses. And Max. And Max is still going. And Connor. Connor's still kicking. And fun almost five years. He's still that. This is a good question.

It's very tough. I like this better than like who's the best featherweight conversation because that I do think is Aldo and Vol. And at this point it's like it's neck and neck. This one's more interesting because of the significance

of what, Connor and Ilya were able to do outside of the division. But win for wit, man, win for win, it's very hard to match folks' resume. It's very, very hard. With the names that he's beaten and lost to, right? As I said when we were doing the tip for tat with Ariel, where he loves the tip for tat, losing to Islam Makachev ain't no anything to me. Like that is you're losing to the number one pound for pound fighter in the world,

one of the greatest of all time. losing getting knocked out by ilyadoporia there's two guys who i think are all-time greats on this list that's that that could that have that had happened to them it's uh it's an interesting round robin there yeah but i think the most important takeaway the featherweight champions of the ufc is you are a god you are a living legend if you can enter this category for sure it's almost like whoever gets in next has to live up to it you better be fucking amazing he like it has to live up to it I'm sorry of L'Oyev.

You better win 10 fucking fights after that. All right. Great question. Here we go. Mysterious Hank. Oh. Seems suspicious off top. Hey boys and an extra hello to the real king,

Mysterious Frank. Who me? I'm wondering why almost everyone on the show, particularly G.C. and Ariel, seem to dislike when Frank chimes in or adds a little bit of spice with his soundboard. It seems suspicious. Isn't that his job?

To me, he's bar none the funniest and most relatable person on the show even with how mysterious he is. It's a great point. Just talking about Frank and me reading makes me not be able to read. Anyways, stay true to yourself, Frank. These Normies don't got nothing on you.

Love the show. Love the boys. Love Frank's pound for pound lists. I hope the other boys just realize what they got in you, Frank, before it's too late. Is this a threat from your burner? Frank?

Is this your letter of resignation? from your burner. Oh, someone's talking about Frank, it must be Frank. I mean, it's just like a, just glowing praise of you. Isn't that his job? You've said that to me.

You were like, hey man, why do you always shit on me when I talk on the air? Isn't that my job? This feels mysterious Hank too. You could have gone at least like one notch further off. Wow, he's gone silent.

No, he doesn't want to say. Beating into submission. All right, Frank, you're up. Yeah. How do you follow that up? I got one. Tom Mathas, what's up boys in the back? What do you think about a Belal Muhammad

without the Sex Award for the Backies next year? I think we had that, no? Yeah, it was the best young prospect. The Balam Mohammed, yeah, best young prospect. It should be for the shittiest pre-thought line that they thought was going to go hard. This year's nominee already, Dean O'Dana, Dina, bumped up Mr. Clean

call out of the USC. David Goldenberry. Shout out. Dane Don, Dana, Daino? Pumped up, Mr. Clean.

Dana, why? All-timer. All-timer. Duopi says, Indica or Sativa. Rick sounds like he has a monster

living inside of his nasal cavity. I think those are separate, right? Like, Indica or Sativa? Yeah, yeah. What are you, Frankie? Indica or Sativa. Which ones, though, like, mellow?

Indica. In the couch. That's how you doing. And what's the other effect of the sativa? Like, what does that get you? Buzzy? More paranoid. Oh, I like the other way.

Shadow people come out. Shadow people come out. Let me get. A heart starts beating. You wonder why you said that thing? Who likes that? Why is that a one? Well, if you're, like, out at a party, you don't want to be in the couch.

I don't want to be high at a party. I'm not going to lie. But do you want to also be, like, paranoid? I mean, that's not all. Like, that's if you've had a little too much. But these days, too much is just looking at the shit. Yeah, me too, for sure. How about this?

Sander K. Guys, about the PLE pay-per-view numbered event drama. Why don't we just call them UFC any's short and sweet like PLE? Nets?

Numbered events. Okay. Nes. All right. I'm pretty sure I suggested that and Ariel said absolutely not. I've honestly,

I've still been calling on pay-per-views. Absolutely not on that. I don't know when, I don't know when I'm going to switch over to numbered event. Oh, here's a good one. Ready?

Matt from Salt Lake, City. G.C. Blind rank these five Winter Olympic events. Okay, I love it. Love Winter Olympics. Biathlon. Five. Hockey. One. Doubles luge.

Ooh, the luge is crazy. The Germans dominate. We'll go three. Snowboarding slope style. Yeah. Two. The people's main event. Curling. Four. I don't mind that. I don't mind that. By the way, hasn't started yet. my horse for the Summer Olympics in

24 was Denmark handball plus 175 easy this year it is Great Britain men's curling plus 110 I think that gets going tomorrow afternoon against China they're bringing back all their sweepers they're a complete team

yeah he also adds forgot to recommend this when Alex Honol climbed the skyscraper but highly suggest the alpineist documentary if you like Free Solo. Love to take over BITB. Keep it up, fellas.

Oh, I'd love to watch it. I'm down for any, any, like, Jimmy Chen-style mountaineering dock. It's incredible. The name that was escaping me, Bruce Moat, curling goat for Great Britain. Yeah. How about this one?

Shama Weewee's. Ariel slash, I'm guessing, maybe BITB? You guessed correctly, it's BITB. I left a voicemail last week after learning of my mom's cancer diagnosis. Trey from South Dakota. Shout out to you, Tray. Thank you for opening up with us like that and hope the family's doing well. All the kind words mean the world. To be laughing through tears during last week's BITB when New York Rick, King of Hot Takes says the 64 was the best console,

never change. Stand by it. 64 is the best console. Got to the 64. Tears also streamed down my face watching the pit bull, Andrea Arlowski, win the BKFC title after beating stage four cancer. At the same age, my mom currently is, wow, I didn't even think of that. I didn't even put that together. Incredible. Absolute legend, which leads me to my O'TN purpose. Please have Petey, if present, or the hot take king. Oh, shit, this one's for me.

All right, we're going to do it for you. Okay. Blind rank these post-USC career resurgence is 1 through 5. So after they left the UFC, rank the post career. There's one, two, three, four. There's five. Okay, this is going to be good. Smile and Sam Alvey.

Four. Latin Mike Perry. Oh. I'm going to leave one open, but. two. Like we're talking about a guy who was like 8 and 9 in the UFC. It's been great. And then became a fucking superstar at BKFC. That might be one. Meatball, Molly McCann.

Five. The pit bull, Andre Arlowski. I'm going to hope for someone big that I'm not thinking of. I'll go three for Andre Arloffsky. I think he might have pulled it off. Mighty Mouse Demetrius Johnson. Oh, Jesus, with the YouTube game, Demetrius Johnson won.

I nailed that ranking and the Winter Olympic Games to a T. That's what I would have. ranked them, not blind. Your strategy of leave one open is very interesting. I don't have that in me. You just got to know. Because I can't have number one being like some bullshit, but you

nailed both those. Nailed both those. Here we go. Mr. Mysterious balls. Hello, the BITB, and whoever is not on vacation on the woke front bench. What is the UFC's best path forward for the heavyweight division? Some suggestions. Merge with light heavyweight? Now you can't do that because

that eliminates the point of weight classes. Rule changes for heavyweight such as shorter fight time, five one minute rounds. I mean, that would be insane that like we're amending the rules because these guys are just fucking fat heifers who just gats out in 30 seconds. That's a commission thing that would never go. Cut them all and be done with it. As much as I'd like that, this is the glamour division. Come on.

Four, never make heavyweight fights until one or two nights in a year making a tournament with the eight or so best. Yeah, I like just like stack at a heavyweight card heavy And put it at elevation Oh, fuck No Hell no, please Actually put it at fucking C level Below C level, put it in the swamp every time

Shout out C level Cain, legend All right How do we feel? How many did we get to? 26, that's not bad Do we have any more G. GC You like taking steps, huh? How many steps you average in a week?

You step in 10K steps, seven days a week? Who said this? What's the name? This is Mitch from Perth Shout out to Perth. That'd be a great walking city. I average 15K steps a day for the last year and currently averaging 17K steps a day for this year. Just a little competitive motivation for you. God bless.

See you on the footpath. See you at the top. Love that. I'm just a 10K. I'm just a 10K guy. I go to the gym as well, but I just like to do the 10K because it forces me to get active. Sometimes if I just sit my fat ass on the couch

for the rest of the night, it makes me get up and walk around. Do I have to say, real sad. Real pathetic in the winter, especially here in New York. It is so frigid. It has been like 10, 11 degrees, feels like negative 15 out. On Saturday I left my house and I went to the grocery store and I was carrying the groceries back. And I legit, like, I thought I was starting to get frostbite. My hands were hurting so bad.

I got into the house and like my hands were like, they were killing me. They hurt so bad. So yeah, in the winter I pace back and forth in my apartment. It's great. Last night I had to knock out like 2,800 steps in my apartment, just pacing. back and forth from wall to wall. It is the definition of tough. I cannot wait for spring to spring.

It's tough. You'll be in Dublin. You'll be hanging out with Pizzi. I want to remember this right now, this moment, Tuesday, February 10th, when I post the picture on X and Instagram of me and Pizzi at a cafe smoking a heater in the Irish spring sunshine.

All right. You're on fire with the blind rankings. We've got another one. Okay, here we go. One more. Can I finish? Hoochie. Blind ranked.

these, yo, fellows in the rear, by the way, blind rank these bar watches one through five. Fellows in the rear is fantastic. Love a good bar watch. Here we go. Professional tag. Five. Professional cornhole.

What is this? Four. This is like very Ocho coded, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. What is this? This is your fucking ping pong. Ping pong can be great. Like, especially if it gets competitive, and especially if you're betting on it, shout out to the Chinese men's team back at the Olympics in 2024.

Shout out Marty Supreme. Shout out Marty Spring. I'll go two. Ping pong can get crazy. Strongman comp. Ooh. If you're at the bar and you're having some bruise, I'm down, but I'm still going to go three just in case that there's a good one. A UFC Apex card.

One. One. I don't mind those rankings once again. I'm having strong man on there. Okay. Pugianowski fucking throwing kegs over the wall. I'm with you. I'm with you.

That's great. Sometimes those aren't live. You can't get the wages down. Actually the best. It's all about the wagers. It's all about the wages. I mean, it was sports like this, fucking give me a break. I'm not sitting there watching Cornhole.

You ever bet on ping pong? Yeah, yeah, that's what I was saying. Shout out to the Chinese men's team Olympic 2020. Yeah, of course. They're nasty. The key with the bar watch for the apex is that you're watching it muted most likely. There's no way the bar is turning on the sound. So it doesn't matter that they're at the apex.

You're just watching the fights. That's crucial. One, easy. You killed that. By the way, I cannot believe that we did that first blind ranking. I just came across it again and thought of that. I thought Frank killed that one. Yeah, he definitely killed that one.

I also came across the one about the content creators, and I forgot to mention my good friend Oscar Willis. Shout up to Oscar Willis of the Mac Life. Love his content. Oh, shut out of him. He's been blowing up on IG lately. Listen, my man's grinding out there. Korean zombie.

Oh, no, sorry. I forgot this. This is Zerian Combi. Hello, gang. How many pairs of underwear do you guys have? like 10 or 12 Yeah that's like the right Solid dozen

Yeah I don't I don't typically run out It's really based on your laundry schedule Yeah You get enough to make it to laundry I just Hold on I just saw one weird one I don't know if we should read it or not I don't know if you guys have read it

Is it It could not be worse than one that included Alexis Texas at me of Malcova So whatever it is I actually think you can Fruitie loaf says hey Sorry for a bit of an odd one but can I come take a weird shit in your bathroom?

I work for a tiny firm on the second floor of your building and our toilet got caoed by our CEO after she was poisoned by a Costco shrimp platter at our very depressing Super Bowl party. I'm a huge fan and I've heard the bathrooms on the Yahoo floors of the building are so nice. They have trivia and facts in them. Anyway, would be doing me a major solid

if you let me do a solid on one of your majestic porcelain throng. Once you give confirmation on air I'll just run up, do my business, and we'll never speak of it again. P.S., for those wondering, how I know I'll still be in possession of the brown batter by the time this is red, I've been holding it in for days and I'm ready to go

on any cue. The answer was no, we shouldn't have read that one. For the record, the laugh was Frank's oh wow, congrats, arm and drop. That was fucking brilliant, Frank. That one was a great point. That one was tough. That one was tough. What are we at? 30? Do we make it to 30?

Do we make it to 30? Oh, perfect. 30's a clean number. Thank you so much for sending in the questions. We really appreciate it. We're going to do this again next week. So Ariel's going to put up a post. And the week after that. On the nose. Tuesday, probably. We'll let you know, but get those questions in next time. All right. I think we've done it, boys. I think we've done it. We covered the news

and the notes off the front end. We had Dustin Jacoby on the program. Shout out to him. Thanks so much for joining. We have Mario Batista on the program. Shout out. Thanks so much for joining. And Xander Zayez, the new boxer in the back, the official boxer of the program here, joining. Thank you so much to him joining as well. Remember, tomorrow, no live show. It will be the release of the ref, the officiating conference documentary. Yep. Crown films latest. Uncrowned films latest. Then we're back again on Thursday, our standard, typical show. We'll get you ready for the weekend with No Combat Sports. What are we going to do? You'll find out

crack on Friday and then we'll repeat it next week. Thanks so much for joining us. We're out of here.