The Ariel Helwani Show - MASSIVE UFC betting controversy, more referee blunders, Mike Perry, Steve Garcia, Misfits co-founder Mams Taylor, more

Episode Date: November 3, 2025

Ariel Helwani kicks off the show with commiserations for the Toronto Blue Jays and their valiant attempt in the World Series (01:41), before moving on to the controversy surrounding Isaac Dulgarian’s loss to Yadier del Valle and suspicious betting activity on the fight (15:29), and the bizarre ending of the fight between Waldo Cortes-Acosta and Ante Delija (44:45).Mike Perry joins to talk about his win over Jeremy Stephens at BKFC 82, recovering from the damage he took in the fight, Frankie Edgar’s removal from the card, the latest Dirty Boxing show and Gable Steveson’s victory, wanting to return to the UFC for the White House card, calling out Nate Diaz, and more (1:00:26).Misfits co-founder Mams Taylor is back to discuss the promotion’s deal with Andrew Tate, how they landed on Chase DeMoor as the opponent, KSI’s reaction to Tate being named CEO, a potential KSI vs. Tate fight down the line, Dillon Danis and Tony Ferguson’s next fights, and more (1:35:20).Steve Garcia joins on the heels of his UFC main event win against David Onama, breaking down the fight, then addressing his pre-fight comments about Alexander Volkanovski, his criticisms of Movsar Evloev’s fighting style, his desire to be BMF champ, and his friendship with Charlie Kirk (2:04:10).Yahoo Sports Senior Sports Betting Analyst Ben Fawkes joins Ariel in-studio to dive further into the UFC’s betting scandal, including how the sportsbooks handled the situation, comparisons to recent events in other sports, and more (2:35:49).Ariel closes the show with some other news and notes, including Bo Nickal’s placement on the UFC 322 card, Jake Paul vs. Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis being on shaky ground and potential new opponents for Paul, Jon Jones' latest plea to fight at the White House, Ronda Rousey’s disdain for the MMA community, and more (3:12:54).

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Eria, Hawaii Show. Back in your life on this Monday, November 3rd, 2000. And 25, hello again, everyone. I sure hope you're doing well. It is great to be here on a. lovely fall Monday in New York City and my friends. We have a lot to discuss on this Monday. You know, it has been said that this current stretch for the UFC is a little comsy, comsia. And even the great Dana White, even the wise Dana White himself, when asked about the depths of these cards, these back-to-back apex shows, even he said, you know what?

How could you judge a card before it happens? And you know what? Here I am saying that he is right. Because who would have thought that a random apex card on the 1st of November 2025 at the same time as one of the greatest baseball games ever played would produce so many newsworthy items? And who would have thought that the only real important fight on the card, Steve Garcia versus David Ornama, would be like item number. four or five as far as newsworthy items to come out of that card. And so on this Monday, we have a lot to discuss as it pertains to that card. But allow me to just get one little thing off my chest before we start. It has been a tough stretch for your boy since we said goodbye. So on Monday of last week, I went home and like my legs were feeling numb. I didn't mention

this to anyone in the back. I don't like to complain about these things. Monday, my legs were feeling numb. Not feeling great Tuesday. By Wednesday night, I was watching Trey is Savage secure game five for your Toronto Blue Jays in absolute agony. I mean, I couldn't sit. I couldn't lie down. My back was killing, killing. I mean, it was so bad that I even thought for a moment I need to go to the hospital. It was that bad. But Trey was giving me all kinds of joy. Thursday, got a tiny bit better. Friday, I was down for the count. And you know what I think really put me over the edge?

And I don't know, am I exposing myself if I say this? Let me first ask this question to the crew. How do you guys feel about flu shots? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get them every year. Got to do it. I've had the flu before, and never since I had the flu, I got flu shots. Pete, do you do flu shots over there? Yeah, yeah.

Flues are terrible. Bro. Fucked me up. You got the flu. I got the flu. Oh, man. And that's never happened to me. I haven't gotten my shot yet this year.

Yo, you're rolling around. Fmed me up. No, no, no, no, no. I ain't spreading nothing. I'm good now. Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, I was fine. But I was sweating on Friday. And it wasn't just because of the Blue Jays.

Sweating. And it was because of the shot. It was 100% because I was fine. My back was hurting. then my whole body was hurting. Oh, you're saying you were hurting because of the shot? No. I was in pain because of, I think it's my posture, if I'm being honest.

I need to get one of those, like, walking tables. No, but my leg, I'm talking about last Monday, I don't know if you were out when I was setting this all up. Last Monday, my legs were feeling numb. By Wednesday, can't move. Thursday, get the shot. Fucks me up. Thursday, Friday, Saturday, by Sunday morning, I'm fine again.

And so it was a rough stretch from a physical and mental standpoint. the way, on Friday, Halloween, don't go out with my kids. Everyone leaves me. And I'm sitting there watching the Blue Jays, praying that Canada's team, America's sweetheart, seals the deal. And then it's a lodged ball. And then it's a fucking double play to end the game. And then it's a guy named Yamamoto coming back to haunt my dreams forever. Game seven. When Bobeshed hit that three-run homer, I thought it was a done deal. And then it's three. one and then it's three two and then it's four two and I'm like oh there's a nice little you know cushion here tray comes in he gives up a home run and then it's bottom of the ninth and then there's two outs left

and there's four strikes left and Miguel fucking Rojas of all people hits a fucking ninth inning game tying home run of all people the nine hitter hasn't hit a home run in 10 years he ties the game but no no problem flatty leads off the bottom of the ninth did you guys see that shot straight away center field I thought it was over What a series for Vladdy Honestly What a playoffs for Vladdy He's a superstar

Straightaway center field Thought it was over Thought he was getting his Joe Carter moment And then Oh my God Base is loaded IKF out by a spike A spike

Did you see that And I thought for a moment You thought it came up Will Smith's slide came up By a spike No problem We're still in it The slide has been a

Much talked about thing that he needed a secondary lead but the problem is what happened on what happened on Friday Barger was too far off he got doubled up that's the exact same situation it's hard to have a secondary lead it's hard to listen

PT don't even mock right now okay this is this is man united champions league okay but pretend like you haven't witnessed it in your lifetime I know that's the fun thing for Europeans to do like who's baseball no this is fucking life for death okay a country is in mourning right now a country's in morning I'm in

morning. I have never had. Has any fan, I want to ask you guys, in the past 10 months, the Buffalo Bills losing the AFC championship game via heartbreak, heartbreak. The New York Knicks choke in game one of the Eastern Conference Finals. Choke, like a historical choke, lose game two at home, swim upstream, lose in the Eastern Conference Finals, and then this. Has there been a worse 10-month stretch? And I know you could tell me like, oh, yeah, it's better to love and lose than to never love at all. You could be a Jets fan and a Hornets fan and a Rockies fan. I get it.

But to be that close, to be a spike away. All right. To be a spike away. A little sad. Wait, wait. What about the Ernie Clement? Fly ball. Fly ball.

And you're like, oh, Hernandez isn't catching this. He's not catching this. And then the motherfucker who comes in, Pahez, who comes in in the previous play. Because of the hit batter. This does not happen if Jimenez doesn't get hit. He comes in and flies out of nowhere to catch that ball. Did you see that? The collision?

Yeah, watched it. Or were you guys watching fucking, uh... And by the way, I have... What is this like shaming us as if we weren't watching? We were all testing each other. We were all watching. You know we were watching. There's no shaming.

I'm upset. And the thing is, the thing is, I have no problem saying, I didn't watch the apex card. You think I'm watching Apex 4,000 over Game 7 of the World Series? I'm up to speed. Don't worry about me. This is a good one. I am up to speed. Don't worry about me.

And then some. But Jesus Christ, I can't believe that happened. Yes, it felt snake. Nick Benton, I will not deny. You asked like a fan bad stretches, I'm not taking anything away from you. I do, I feel your pain. Over a 365 day span, I had the 28 to 3 Super Bowl and Georgia blowing a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter of the national championship, which was terrible.

It was terrible. Look, I'm not trying to go tip or tap. I feel your pain. I got three terrible ones. Three. Well, these are gone for the finals, AFC championship. You know, these are epic. These are epic.

These are epic. These are epic. Epic. What do you want? A trophy? I'm telling you. I'm just saying. I'm feeling it right now. You've since been vindicated. You asked the question. I'm just telling you. Anyway, it is better to love and lose than to never love at all.

I'm glad you feel that way because I agree with you. I am proud of my boys. Yes, they gave a valiant effort. It was a great series. It was probably the best world series ever. It was unbelievable. You know, I'm happy for the game. I'm happy for the game of baseball because everyone's talking about it. They're going into this Netflix deal and all this stuff, NBC. So it's great for the game.

Jays will be back. But golly, I was depressed. I swear it felt like last January when I had to walk around the block just to let off steam after they lost to the Chiefs I didn't do it this time my wife went to a Halloween party on Saturday night

begged me to come I said there is no fucking way I'm going to this party talking to all these people like oh what do you think about the game tonight with all due respect and I hope none of them are watching this

no fucking way I love them all they're great people but I love them and then no disrespect no disrespect one of the dads

text me a lovely guy He texts me 12 outs away. I'm keeping Jacqueline updated. I'm like, why? Why did you? 12 outs away. Why did you say this?

Surprised you didn't say three outs away. Okay, I know sports doesn't work this way. I know it doesn't. But I'm going to ask anyway, is there not solace in the fact that the Blue Jays were good enough to be the World Series champion? You know why? They were every bit as good as the Dodgers who were the most loaded team in baseball by a million miles. They were there.

They were as good in the world. the final moments. Zero solace. Now Dodgers are plus $350 to win the World Series and Blue Jays are plus $2,000. There's a very good chance. Like they remind me of the D-backs from a few years ago. Remember the D-backs made the World Series? And like no one even remembers because they were the bridesmaid and then they don't get back.

They don't even get back into the playoffs. Like they can conceivably, I don't think this is going to happen. But you could go through that whole year and not even make the playoffs and now you're irrelevant all over again. I don't think that happens. But you're that damn close. You're up three-two going home. You're two outs away. You're four strikes away.

There are two friends of mine who are big Dodgers fans. and they were talking so much shit before this series like congrats on the honor of being swept so much shit and John Schneider the manager of Blue Jays said it best like David and Goliath fucked that this ain't no David and Goliath a Blue Jays announcer is getting killed

because he said the better team lost right the better team didn't win I'm not gonna say that they're both incredible but can't you feel that way I'm happy that they proved that they deserved it and I'm happy that they've earned people respects but it doesn't make me feel better you talked about the Diamondbacks

and being an afterthought in those things but I don't think the Blue Jays will be an afterthought. I think this World Series will be remembered forever. I think the story will always be that the Blue Jays went toe to toe with the Dodgers. I know, I know. I know. I know. I know it doesn't work that way, and I know that. But this, to me, is an example of two teams that prove. It's a beautiful story. It's such a beautiful story.

It's one of the most likable, if not the most likable team I've ever rooted for. Gladdy was the best player in the playoffs. I felt a kinship to them because right here on this show, we set the tone. We did the hype video. Could you have imagined if I would have done the hype video for the eventual World Series champion? that's how down bad they were they couldn't get anyone else but me now you've got Bieber and Drake

at the games they had to come to me and if you go to the comments you read in retrospect everyone's like this is who you got there weren't any better Canadians to do this shit come on

and they were coming off of a last place season they were an afterthought and also they lost the first game of the season 12 to the 2s of the Orioles and all the comments are like we suck I hate this team ridiculous this is why I feel like

the story of the season will not be that. The story will not be coming up short. I know, I know, I know. Also, like, you were up 3-2 going home like it, the pain is... Yeah, but what you're supposed to do? Yamamoto's like an unstoppable unstoppable. It'll never see it again. Anyway, I'm proud to be a fan. It was fun.

It was great. I never felt and then like Matt Prater hits the fucking pole and I'm witnessing Mahomes go down the field and I'm like, what is the point? What is the point of all this? Luckily the bills won. Yeah, they won. And this will be an afterthought Nick's one as well, right?

Yeah, whatever. What is it all matter? I mean, you know, it's the way you're looking at things. I need to mourn. I need to mourn. I'm with you, Pizzi. The old, uh, swearing thing went out the window. No.

Well, the first bit of the show. I mean, did snag a cheeky little draw there against, you know, the devils, the red devils. But, you know, lad can't cut his hair, at least for another five games. I think December 3rd or 5th or something. It looks great. Yeah. It looks great. Um, G.C. was once a proud for a supporter.

He has no idea what we're talking about. But it's okay. Man, you texted me. and I said I was watching, bro. Were you, though? Were you? No. That's not important.

I was at brunch. Yeah, you're like, oh, what a game. What a game. It was a quick, just nodding in forest on Google. Yeah, yeah. Oh, so they just scored back to back. Another mimosa, thank you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Anyway, it was great. I'm very proud, but I hurt. I hurt. Anyway, okay, enough of this. And you guys won't have to hear about baseball for at least a few more months. Ooh. I don't appreciate that, really.

I'll remember this when fucking Dublin's in the All-Ireland Schleider. I won't get as if it's a trophy for being disappointed in their teams. It's fucking you, man. Jesus Christ. Come on, just take it. Build of a trophy. Interesting. Okay.

I was going to say something about it. Come back to us. We have a lot to talk about. Back into the program, we're going to be joined by Ben Fox. Ben Fox, not folks, Fox, his alter ego. Going to be joining us in studio. So he's Yahoo's senior betting analyst, I do believe his title is. He knows everything about the world of sports gambling.

We are going to talk about this Isaac Delgarian story. I will talk about it. G.C. is going to talk about it. We're all going to talk about it at the top of the show. But he's going to come on at 3.30 to talk about it as well. Stay tuned for that. He works like, you know, 10 feet from us. So he's going to come in studio.

It's going to be great. Worked at ESPN in other places as well. At 3 o'clock, Steve Garcia, the aforementioned, who defeated David Onama this weekend. big win for him. He will come on to talk about that one. The Pride of the 505 Albuquerque in New Mexico. At 2.30, Mams Taylor, the founder, the co-founder of Misfits, is going to join us to talk about this Andrew Tate situation and KSI and what is going on. Work shoot, what's happening and all the other things pertaining to misfits. At 2 o'clock, Mike Perry is going to join us,

and we'll have him on to talk about dirty boxing. his next assignment, BKFC, all that and more. So we've got a lot to discuss, but let us get into the news of the weekend, and that is this apex card, which was very underwhelming on paper, but certainly produced a lot of big stories. And by my count, two of them were referee blunders. one was a big win for the aforementioned Steve Garcia and the fourth is a gambling story which I think is going to get a whole lot bigger in short order

and so let's talk about this as I just remembered that I forgot to I usually post like the lineup on Instagram and put a link to it and I didn't do that because I was all fired up about today's today's program. In any event, you guys have heard about this story? You familiar

with what's going on? Because I know a lot of you were like locked in on other things. Yeah, we're familiar. Is this for real right now? Come on. No, I don't know. I don't know. Okay, I was trying to see if I could squeeze it in, but I can't. All right. So there was a fight between a Cuban gentleman named Yadier del Valle against Isaac Delgurion. Yadier was 9 and 0 going into the fight.

Isaac Delgurion, who fights under Factory El. Mark Montoya, one of the best gyms in the sport, was seven and one going into the fight, three and one in the UFC, and the lone loss was a split decision loss to C-Rod, Christian Rodriguez. Well, this fight happened at approximately 805, 8.10 p.m. Eastern time, at approximately seven-ish eastern time, so around an hour before the fight, a whole bunch of activity started to come through on social media regarding questionable gambling activity surrounding this fight. What I want to do is quickly pass this off because when it comes to this stuff, this is not my

domain, but I'll tell you all about the aftermath. Have no fear. I want to pass this off to G.C., who will use the right terminology and explain this the right way as to what started to happen at around 7 p.m. Eastern time. Yeah, so you essentially just laid the foundation, everything. The fight was going to happen, all of that. So all week, Isaac Dolgarian, from Sunday evening of last week, all the way through Saturday at 5 o'clock, Isaac Dolgarian is sitting around,

depending on the book you're going to minus 250, minus 260, minus 270. A fairly heavy favorite. A lot of people are favoring him to get it done, use the ground game, everything like that. It was actually Rick's pick and the parley pals and everything like that. And around 7 o'clock, people started, noticing via websites like best fight odds.com, fight odds. I.O. that have tracking on the odds. We have a picture of it right here. They start noticing this incredibly steep increase.

You know, you can see around the 27th of October all the way through Saturday evening. He's sitting as a minus 250 or greater favorite. This is mean odds. So this is all of the sports books gathered together to make an average on the odds. And then right around 5 o'clock is when this insane increase happens. Now, this typically happens when there are big bets coming in on a certain side. They're going to adjust the odds to try to get equal playing on each side to guarantee profit for the sportsbook. But something like this happening, this close to the fight, this drastic of odds changes is going to alert a lot of people. And we can see by some tweets that we saw people in the MMA betting space. It's a lot of people on Twitter that kind of started

firing these off. You see minus 270 to minus 162. Uncle Weezy MMA. He was one of the first to note it. This one, he's actually looking specifically at Del Valle to win in round one, dropping from plus 850 down to plus 500. I think it ended up getting down as low

as plus 400. We can keep going. These are all happening before the fight even takes place. Shout at the DFS by the numbers. Brady, this is right when the fight was about the start. He tweeted Isaac Dolgarians now minus 145. FBI investigate this now. Val Duar, he notes it as well. All of these people, I think we have one more tweet from Val here, where he even notices on Fandul, all of the methods get locked for the fight as well. So like you can't put in rounds or methods or anything like that. This is all happening before the fight even takes place. This massive odd moments, you've got the sports books locking it up. It seems very fishy. Then they actually come out. The fight happens. Isaac Dolgarian gets finished in the first round in a fight that if you watch it back, that it seems.

seems suspicious in its own right. And now, ever since the fight ended, I mean, the second the fight ended, Twitter started blowing up with that fight was fixed. This was abnormal. You can tell by the way that DC was talking about it. You can tell by the way that the broadcast is talking about it. Michael Keyes is ripping on Dolgarian that it seems fishy. And ever since then, now we've got sports books coming out. Caesars is going to refund it. William Hill as well. They used to be owned by the same company now they're their separate entities they're putting out the same tweet about um how the delgarian fight the the people will be refunded um and it just it's opened up a whirlwind of of people calling for for action to be taken and now obviously the story that you broke last night

isaac delgarian has been cut by the ufc great breakdown thank you for that so here's what i know regarding this story and and and there's a there's a bigger story i play here obviously ufc was was aware of this they were they were made aware of it and and and and And my understanding is there were conversations with Dolgarian and his team about this activity and questioning him what is going on. And multiple times he said that, according to my sources, that, you know, he was good to go, that there was nothing of this sort happening and, you know, that there was nothing to worry about, essentially. Now, I have talked to multiple people who have known Isaac for a long time and who have trained with Isaac and who have heard about training sessions.

And I have been told that in the gym, he goes up against some of the best fighters in the world, some of the best fighters in the world, the Yusuf Salals of the world, the Corey Sanhagans of the world, like some of the top guys in that area, in the Denver area. And not only does he go toe to toe, but sometimes gets the better of them. and I've been told that he is an absolute stud and those same people had the same reaction that Daniel Cormier had had the same reaction that Michael Kesa had which was what the hell was going on? What was that?

Now to the best of my knowledge well actually I know this for a fact like the broadcast team wasn't aware but so all of that was very genuine like not following through on the takedown not fighting the hands just punching when, you know, that arm is sunken in under the chin. It was all very unlike him.

And as both D.C. and Keisa rightly said, it was like white belt stuff. And he's not a white belt. And he doesn't fight like a white belt. And I don't mean white belt in jujitsu only. I mean like white belt in MMA. So all of that led to more suspicion. After he was asked multiple times to continue, like there were people that, that we're wondering, like, this, you know, this still, this seems a little bit odd.

And obviously, the radar is up. There was the Derek Minter situation of a few years ago. There's all this other stuff going on in the world of basketball, the NBA, to be particular. And I believe that in this case, the UFC should have just pulled the fight. What's the point? Just pull the fight. There's nothing in the contract that's. states you can't pull the fight, pull the fight. Why lead yourself to this? To be clear,

I don't think the UFC had anything to do with any sort of nefarious activity. Nothing that has been said to me would suggest that in any way, shape, or form. But if there are clear signs of some weird stuff going on, some weird gambling activity going on, if he's not quite acting himself back there, pull the fight. Like, it's not worth it. It's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, It's a mid-tier fight on an apex card that could lead to so much more. And by the way, even if they did pull the fight, the fact that this stuff was already happening should lead to an investigation. If, in fact, he was in agreement to throw a fight, to work a fight, that should lead

to a release. But still, it's a stain on the company. It's a stain on the UFC. Can't just wash your hands of it. As we just said, the fight went through. he looked awful, he got submitted by a guy who should have never submitted him, especially not in the first round. That leads to more questions. That leads to more speculation. Following day, released, a guy who was never on the chopping block, so to speak, in the morning,

officially the release is attributed to the loss they can cut you after a loss but we all know what's going on there we all know what's going on there there's no doubt about it my understanding is this is on the FBI's radar

how deep of an investigation is unclear at this time this is all very new but yes it is accurate I believe there's a gentleman named Harry Mack on on on on social media who is having a nice little victory tour after all of this and I'm sure he's going to have another one I'm not familiar with his work but he did he did write that

yesterday and so that is my understanding and my understanding is that this is not an isolated incident and what I mean by that is I have talked to multiple people who have either experienced or know of others who experience situations where they have been approached about their willingness to do something like this. So I have been told by multiple people that they have been approached, they have been talked to, and said, are you interested in this? Are you interested in throwing a fight for X amount of dollars? Believe that's what happened with Derek Minner.

and all signs right now are pointing to something of that sort happening here. This is a massive issue for the UFC. And when you consider, now I haven't been told this part that I'm about to say, but when you consider the questionable refereeing as of late, you can't help. I said this last week. You can't help but let your mind go there as well because there's no other possible explanation for some of the wacky stuff that we have seen as of late. and it's very easy to do

it's extremely easy to do we've seen it we've now seen it in broad daylight multiple times and I think what is happening here adding one plus one plus one I believe what is happening here is

people are praying on lower level fighters who don't make a lot of money who are in tough spots who are fighting in the major leagues and they're offering them a quick fix they're not going to like the top dogs but they're offering a quick fix

to the lower level fighters how prevalent is this I can't tell you but I've now heard it multiple occasions in my conversations over the past 24 plus hours saying are you interested

and that's a huge problem and so how big of a story this becomes remains to be seen. But this is happening in gyms, in private. This is a big story. Of course, what has also been brought up is the fact that Isaac Delgarion used to be coached by James Krause. He was brought up by the glory team in Kansas City, which no longer really exists. James no longer in MMA and when he was signed to the UFC he had long since moved on from James

he now trains out of Factory X in Denver under a great coach that everyone speaks very highly of Mark Montoya my understanding is there's no other connection to this story and the Krauss story of three years ago

it's just that he was once trained by him so when you look at his picture and there's a glory logo there you're like oh wow that's weird but everyone that I spoke to said the connections end there now was there a you know was there a

a sort of environment fostered that remains to be seen but one in one doesn't equal two in this regard weird weird coincidence and we have to only leave it at that for now but right now Delgarian is out of a job he has been released from the UFC UFC to the best by knowledge has not commented on this and I believe there is a lot more smoke to this fire this is crazy

guys GC you're in this world you love this stuff are you surprised by any of this I mean we saw it happened three years ago with Derek Menor this is almost the exact same sequence of events of fights getting ready to start. It's on a lower level apex card. You mentioned it's a guy with not a ton of name recognition, not a ton of name value, and some things that are alarming happens before the fight, and you're like, well, if this doesn't go the way we expected to go, then I'll be surprised, and sure enough, Derek Minner finished in the first round, Isaac Dolgarian finished in the first round. The thing that I noticed watching it, the Derek Minner one looked like he was compromised going into that fight, and that's why

it ended in the first round, and people became privy to that. this one looked like he was just not fighting to his level. I mean, you mentioned it, like how impressed people are with him on the ground. Going into this fight, he had either finned, I believe it was he had either finished his opponent or ten-eighted them in the first round in his three prior UFC fights. He lost the C-Rod fight by split decision, but he 10-8ed him in the first round on all three judges' scorecards. To see him come out there like that, you know, just get the back taken and then get subbed. in this manner where you have guys at the level of Michael Keyes and Daniel Cormier calling it into question is it is as sketchy as it gets and now he's cut the very next step.

Yeah, and not the first time we've seen it either, right? Like even before that, there was the Kuntz and Bang fight, the Tehune Bang and Leo Kuntz fight that was flagged because of the suspicious line movement. It's not the first time we've seen a situation like that. It's not the last. Some of the details that you revealed, though do have me wondering. things, which is, namely for one, the fact that if the UFC was alerted to this, I don't understand why I go through with the fight. There's, there's really no reason to go through with the fight. As you said, like, this is a middle of the card type of fight. If you're asking

the person that is suspected of being involved in this situation, whether they're going to do the bad thing, of course they're going to say no. Like, of course they're going to deny it and then just, you know, move on with their day if you allow them to. There's no reason that that fight should have happened, in my opinion. If the UFC had wind of this, they should have just canceled that fight. It is not worth the risk because as you kind of started to lay out, and I believe very strongly, this cast a shadow on the sport of MMA, this cast a shadow on the UFC, if any of this is proven to be true, right? Right now, we're still in the in the phase of speculation where we're kind of putting puzzle pieces together and jumping to a

conclusion as opposed to having the facts of, you know, what was committed, or if anything, was committed on Saturday. But the picture is starting to look very murky and the picture is not looking good. And I think it casts a bad light on everybody involved, not just the people who are actually in the cage. And so I'm surprised that if the UFC had that information that they would continue because, as you said, it just does not end well. No matter how that goes, it does not end well. Petey, let me be clear. I'm not saying the UFC is the bad guy necessarily in this. I'm not saying that they were in on it. But there is a precedent. to doing this sort of thing. Back in 2024, Eddie Hearn was faced with a similar situation in

June of 2024. I'm just reading it off a talk sport report here, but I remember it vividly when it happened. Eddie Hearn canceled the fight between Ikeeb Fias versus Kane Baker because of alleged, quote, betting irregularities. Hours before the event, Eddie Hearn's matchroom boxing announced via official statement that the fight had been canceled due to unforeseen circumstances. Fiaz v. Baker 2 is now off. He told IFL TV later that night, I was made aware of some irregular betting activity surrounding that fight.

Myself and the team had to react to it. We spoke to the BBOC and decided to pull the fight pending an investigation that will take place. That information was provided to us. I spoke to several people regarding the matter and decided to pull the fight. So that can happen,

and every promoter is allowed to do this. They chose not to for whatever reason. Maybe they believe them. Maybe they didn't. Who the hell knows? to me, obviously, the biggest story of them all is how often is this happening? Who is it happening to? Who is saying yes? Who is saying no? Is it happening with referees? Is it happening with judges as well? Once, you know, the dam breaks a little bit, it could lead to a freaking, you know, an avalanche occurring. And so this, to me, is a huge problem. It has been noted that the head of the FBI, Cash Patel, who is very invested in the current NBA gambling, um, uh, investment. that is going on regarding the likes of Terry Rozier and Chauncey Billups, to name a couple, is a big MMA fan.

And so who knows about, you know, whether or not his relationship will be, you know, called into question here. I don't know anything about the guy. I do not know anything about the guy. But my understanding is that they are aware of this, that they are looking into it to what degree I do not know. And I haven't also been able to confirm whether or not the James Krause investigation of almost three years.

years ago now is closed or ongoing. And you'll recall in that in that press conference to announce the NBA investigation and the arrest that they said that they had been working on this for four to five years. So it's not like this is something that can wrap up in two, three, four, five, six months. This has only been like three or so years since this really became an issue in the world of UFC. So all these things worth noting, PT, what do you make of all of it? yeah and look i thought the same when rick brought that up there about the ufc saying it to the lgarian beforehand um it seems like a weird thing to do of course you're not going to admit it but like the fact that he he then goes through with it and has a performance that matches all this

lion movement you'd have to wonder like how many people are involved in this like what is the cost of him not going through with this at that stage um look you this is a great point you made and this has been in my head since you said it and i think you know, we're speculating here, as you said. Like about the officials and people like this, the fact that they could be corrupted. We're very close to the sport. We know the officials.

We know the fighters. We know all these people. And for the most part, we have very good relationships. We don't want to be the guys being like, oh, maybe it's him, maybe it's this guy, maybe it's that guy. We're kind of standing too close to the elephant in this regard. However, if you look through the history of any other major sport, this stuff has happened in every sport.

For us to just sit there and go, It wouldn't happen with our guys. You know, this sport is noble. We don't do that stuff. That's actually crazy. You know, we have to be open to all possibilities here. And this is for another day. I'm thinking way down the line here.

But, you know, you can't help but think. Like, we've been speaking about this for the last couple of weeks. The payment of referees and officials, the payment of fighters. If you're paying these guys more, you're leaving it. You're kind of closing that door for them to be corrupted. As you said, like these people are on hard times, a lot of times. we've spoken at length about when you get to the big dance

a lot of people think you're making mad money you're not you're not for a very long time is that something you could close the door to this kind of thing even close it a little bit more if you're paying them right so they don't have to go down

these murky corridors to make up their income and it's really it sorry go ahead I was just going to say I mean you mentioned this but think about what they're going through

with the NBA investigation right now like Terry Rozier is one of the main names in and he signed up four year $96 million deal It's just like, will the pay help it? But man, if you can get to a guy like Terry Rozier and get them to do these things, you can't get to an Isaac Dolgarian, you can't get to a referee, a judge, any of these people. It opens the door to people being able to put these things into question.

They now have the benefit of the doubt to say, you know, even if we don't have the crazy line movement where it makes it as obvious as it can get with the Isaac Dalgarian fight, but you have it when it's sketchy or a bad scorecard that people can question the integrity of the sport. And it's just not good for the sport overall. you restart a fight like the fight that we saw get restarted back in Vancouver like it just it doesn't make any sense there's not it can only lead to questions especially when there's no explanation given there's no statement there's no interview there's no nothing that's and this is the biggest problem with not being proactive right again the UFC had options here right if they stopped the fight the upside is you can eliminate the idea of this being executed on your broadcast the downside is you lose a fight you lose a fight you that may have been a good fight, but it's middle of the card and inconsequential.

If you let the fight continue, you now open yourself up to a lot of downside. And now there's speculation running rampant about all kinds of different fights within the UFC, and now it will probably extend to all of MMA, in my opinion, wondering kind of how widespread and prevalent this is.

It's a very dangerous thing that has now kind of been made much more real and put on people's radars. And I think G.C. made a great point, which is like, Terry Rozier can be accused of something like this making that type of money

if these guys are making 35 and 35 and referees and judges in MMA even less it's so easy to imagine a world where somebody's coming with a paper bag and just saying let's get this done. If the UFC was truly alerted to it beforehand and

nefarious betting activity this is a fight in the middle of an apex card that essentially it's only diehards watching this. This This isn't a pay-per-view card. This isn't a fight night. This is not a fight that we need to see happen. They should have come out and said the fights canceled due to nefarious actions.

We do not allow that in this sport. And so for that reason, the fight is not taking place. Yeah, I'm really curious to see where this all leads to because I think that, you know, in the past, Derek Minner released. No one really bats an eye. there's a Jeff Molina casualty James Kraus is essentially banned

from the sport and everyone just kind of goes along their merry way does the same thing happen here Isaac Delgarion not a top star not a top draw not a top rank fight

or anything like that does the sport just kind of move along or is there more to this I think they if there was something untoward going on here

they picked the worst time they picked an inopportune moment because of all the spotlight and attention that the FBI has on the other sports, namely the NBA, in regard to this, you couldn't have picked a better, a worse atmosphere, rather. You couldn't have picked the worst time to try to execute something like this if you actually did, because I don't think this can skate by, right? Last time, around the Minter thing, and G.C., you correct me if I'm wrong here. I remember there were certain jurisdictions, like I believe in Canada,

where they started pulling UFC lines off the books related to MMA betting because of this scenario. Then they went through with the investigations. They went through the process and those lines were reestablished. I'm wondering what will happen now around the culture of betting as it relates to UFC, as it relates to MMA, as it relates to NBA, you know, as well. I know there's been a lot of conversation around Adam Silver, the commissioner of the NBA, and wondering the usefulness of some of these individual player props and things like that. I think this is probably the wrong moment if you were trying to get this done to do it because I don't think this is going to go away as easily.

also kind of the perfect fight kind of fight to try you know you look for an apex card minar was as well under the radar no one's talking about it it just so i don't know if any of this really comes into play it happens to be game seven of the world series is the sports world paying attention to a fight like this i don't even know how like kudos to the guys online who who noticed this activity like you really have to be locked in for that and obviously they were on it from the jump but you know you're not going to try to do this when it's like you know ilia versus Patty, right? Well, also, those guys are harder to get to, right?

That's always the problem. For sure. Although Chatsy Bill is the head coach of the Portland Trail. No, for sure. You know what I mean? That's why I think it's like anybody can be gotten to. If these multimillionaires can be gotten to, anybody can be gotten to. To your point, though, Ariel, talking about like, you know, World Series going on,

all this stuff going on. It's an NFL Sunday the next day. All that's happening. I still haven't seen it break into the mainstream. I mean, if you Google it, it comes up, but it's all, you know, different MMA media. outlets. Like, you're not seeing it on, like, it's not leading sports center. It's not, you know, getting mentioned any of like that. You don't see a CNN

article about it. It's basically just, you know, the uncrowns, the MMA fightings, the MMAs of the world that are reporting on it, and then a lot of people on Twitter as well. Yeah, I mean, that is interesting. Maybe it's because of the names. I do see a Newsweek. I do see a Newsweek article. I don't know if Newsweek is what it once was, but that's something. But, I mean, yes. Daily Mail.

I guess it takes some time for these things to see a Yahoo article here, of course. On crowd. No, no, no. A Yahoo, like a Yahoo.com. Yeah, yeah. Bro, don't put that on crown. By the way, some of this stuff. Combat coverage.

Some of this stuff in those mainstream outlets was kind of reported around Rojier being investigated, Malik Beasley being investigated, and those other scenarios. But the biggest attention came when the. FBI launched the investigation and there was actual processing of it. We're not there yet, right? We're still in the, okay, something was flagged and now we're kind of trying to investigate that and figure out what's going on. If there ends up being an investigation and if there ends up being something proven

and something happening from it, that's when I think the mainstream attention will inevitably come and there will be no way to avoid that. What a thing. What a thing. What a story. What a time. I hate to throw this as an aside. But I am seeing some very notable sports and combat sports news.

Victor Conti Jr., who was a major player in the Balco scandal of the late 90s that affected the game of baseball, PDs and steroids, you guys know him from the Bay Area, and then became a major player in the world of combat sports and boxing in particular when he opened his scientific nutrition for advanced conditioning. You have all heard of Victor Conti, right? I've just seen that he has passed. away at the age of 75, worked with the likes of Andre Berto, Nonito Donaire, Andre Ward, Zab Judah, and others. So I just saw that and talking about baseball and how big of a player he was with the Barry Bond's Balco scandal, figured that that was worth a mention here. Definitely, what's the word that I should use? Just a somewhat polarizing figure, to be fair, in the world of

not only baseball, but then later combat sports as well has spard with some, you know, some promoters and fighters back in the day. So may he rest in peace and our condolences to his family. Is there anything anyone else wants to say about this? I do want to touch on the anti-Dalia situation. Anyone? No, I think we covered it pretty well. Yeah, we just got to see what happens now. Yeah, we're going to talk more about it with Ben Fox, but yes, PT, last word. I just think it was great that DC and Kay's it called it exactly how they saw it. Yeah, yeah.

I think it's a bad situation, but respect to them because straight away, they were like, this is bullshit what we're saying here. And I thought that deserves a bit of credit. Yeah, 100%. 100%. And, you know, honestly, I asked DC yesterday, and I asked him if he knew,

and that kind of gave him carte blanche to do it. He said he had no idea. He only found out after. And that's totally, I mean, he's locked in. He's doing the show. Why would he know? And why would a producer tell him that? so I think that that was very honest and genuine and good on him and then you know

Keisa later on he was very critical and you know if those guys are going to criticize you then then it's it's probably warranted now okay so that was item number one on this card then well I would say like later on in the card because this fight happened after but I'll I'll label it as like newsworthy item number two for completely different reasons you had the Waldo Cortez Acosta, I do believe one of G.C.'s favorite fighters, going up against Antidellia, who is a teammate of one Tom Aspinall, who ironically, you know, was asked about the Tom Aspinall iPok situation this week and, you know, was talking about it and made some comments which sort of came to light once again regarding eyepokes and all that stuff in the aftermath.

But what ended up happening was Antidellia in a moment where he was. you know on the offensive so a little bit different than the surreal gun situation where he's like actually on the offensive pokes Waldo Cortez Acosta in the eye the referee whose name is Mark Smith Mark Smith thank you for that did not notice it and then after several more punches where you know Waldo Cortez Acosta is is now like almost like shielding himself turning up not fighting back, the type of demeanor that you would have if you are done, the referee waves off the fight and calls it to a stop. Delia thinks he won the fight. He's celebrating, he's running around the cage, he's going like this, all this stuff. Immediately, Waldo is complaining of the

eye poke, he sits on the stool, and the broadcast goes from like, this guy just won, Anti-Via T-K-O, standing T-K-O, to now, oh, wait, something's going on here. And now you start to hear the conversations regarding the I-Poke and them checking on it, them checking the replay. Now, what I thought was going to happen was, all right, in the moment, heat of the moment, Mark Smith calls off the fight, T-K-O win for Ante. I thought that they were going to check, which I have no problem with, the replay, to see if, in fact, there was an I poke. if there wasn't an eye poke anti wins sorry man

maybe he was a knuckle who knows you lost the fight if there was an eye poke which there was but I'm just saying this is what I thought

they were looking at if there was an eye poke then the referee comes they go to the middle they announce winner via DQ due to a foul due to an illegal

shot an illegal eye poke to the eye is Waldo Cortez Acosta what I didn't think was going to happen was they would restart the fight for two reasons. Number one, very tough spot for Ante, who's not the victim in all of this, but it's a tough spot for Ante because it's a real thing. Your guard is down. You've let out all these, you know, the pressure, the emotion, all this stuff, your second fight to the UFC, whatever it is. It almost makes the

Kyle Nelson win over a match for Vola that much more impressive. The fact that he was able to continue and still win when thinking that he had just stopped the guy in the first round is actually supremely impressive. To me, in large part, it's like the Magni win, this win for Costa makes a lot more sense. When you have released all of that, it's very hard to get it back. It's very hard to get it back. And so then what happens? Literally, what was it, 10, 15 seconds later?

Five seconds. Yeah. Ante gets knocked out. Now, of course, the dummies will say, look, You could fight when you get poked in the eye. Go get poked in the eye. And then go get poked ten more times. And tell me if all pokes are created equal.

Obviously not. They hit different parts of the eye. There's different injuries. Not all pokes, not all cuts, not all breaks are the same. It's a stupid, stupid thing to say. So that's the first reason. But the more important reason as to why it shouldn't have been restarted is because it is in the rules.

Because in the unified rules of MMA, let me read them to you. Shall you? Shall we? I will read them to you right here and now. It states, as follows, instant replay may be used to review a, quote, fight ending sequence, which that was. So they were good there. And shall only be used after a fight has officially been stopped, which means they can't just pause it and say, hey, like, let me just make sure. And then you can continue.

fight has been stopped so they used it the right way once instant replay has been used this is in the unified rules to review a fight ending sequence the fight shall not be resumed shall not be resumed why did they resume the fight they fucked up so again this is consistent i saw some people say oh now you're going to try no no no no no anti loses that fight via dequeed They checked the replay. He poked him in the eye. Fight over Waldo wins via DQ. What should absolutely not happen by the rules, by the letter of the law, is restarting the fight.

And oh, by the way, it's a shitty situation to ask a guy who thinks he want to fight to get back in there and fight again three, four, five minutes later. You can't do that to the fighter. Now, you could rebook it down the line, but you can't restart the fight. It's in the rules. I was a bit confused because I heard them say at some point that there was. was a running clock, and I don't know what that was referring to. Were they saying that he was still in the five-minute period where they were evaluating? I'm not sure, but that was mentioned a few times in the thing.

They said, they said, we're on timeout. That's what they said. And then the broadcast said, the broadcast then said, oh, the clock is still going. I don't think that was an issue. But from the moment the fight was stopped to when it restarted was five minutes and six seconds. But here's the thing. Here's the thing. The timeout doesn't matter if the fight's over.

but is it not possible that the fight wasn't over that they're saying like we're giving him the time to recover he called the fight he waved it off yeah he waved it off they said he didn't win it yeah the broadcast team kept saying that he didn't wave it off but the fight was stopped did you guys watch it yeah I thought the fight was over I watched it in real time

and I had it on mute and I tweeted I was like oh oh de delia Waldo Cortez and gossip blah blah yeah I thought it was over and then I looked back and I was like oh shit they're restarting the fight so I didn't hear any of the broadcast live they were saying something about the clock That's all I remember. I mean, they also, they brought the stool in the cage, the teams came in and everything like that.

So like restarting it after that feels agreed. Oh, yeah. But they're watching the fight ending sequence to Ariel's point. Like, you know, they are going through the motions of a fight that has been stopped and now they're checking for a foul. Correct. I think, I think honestly, like if we look at this, like this whole thing that took place there is a reaction to what happened at USC 321.

Like, is what happened to aspirin. I think this whole thing goes off the way it does because it's a reaction to why. happened with Asplon, how dejected everyone seemed to feel about that. Even Waldo continuing. Waldo says at one point he's in the corner, they've stopped it. They're trying to review the situation. Waldo says, I can't see. What was the thing everybody said after Tomlost?

You can't say that. Brennan Fitzgerald on the broadcast says, oh, watch what you're saying. I hate that, by the way. I hate that, by the way. Like, you should be allowed to tell people how you feel. You're not supposed to lie or hide it. He said afterwards, I only can see 20%. Like, you shouldn't be fighting if you could have only 20%.

visionary right now. It's worked out for him. And it's worked out all reaction to Asimel, the way he's come across. His contendership is a reaction to the controversy. And he'll be put in a better spot now because of this. What's the first thing he says? Hey, Aspinel, look what I did. I kept going.

You know, this whole, his contendership has been birthed by UFC 321's controversy. And the only reason why that fight continued, as far as I'm concerned, is because of how badly the world reacted to what happened at UFC 321. Yep. Okay. Guys, guys, I mean, like, I'm re-watching it because you made me doubt myself.

Like, Mark Smith absolutely stops this fight. He jumps in there, he touches him. I mean, I, I, like. Oh, no, we're just saying what the broadcasts are. We're just saying that they were saying something about the clock. That's what they said. I mean, but they also mentioned the, I mean, he literally stops the fight. He couldn't have stopped it any more clear.

That fight was over right then and there. They go check the replay. The wrong guy won. you reverse it DQ loss sorry bud you poked him in the eye fight over

the replay just confirmed it the one thing you can absolutely not do is restart the fight yeah yeah you can't what we were saying is like the broadcast

the way they were they were kind of talking the world through this was like I didn't see him wave his hands as in like this is the signal for a stop point

yeah it said like the the hands didn't go above the head what? We agree with you we agree with you we agree with you we agree with you

what we're saying is they may not agree with you. They may have been operating under some different thing. What they're talking about with that. And I still disagree that I think that should be a no contest, not a DQ, but that's a different thing. Oh, don't say that shit again. Come on.

Starting it up, though, is absolutely ridiculous. With all the rules that were broken of the team coming in, the stool coming in, you know, I guess, you know, it barely went over the five minutes. And then obviously, Delia, thinking that he won the fight, you have the adrenaline dump. Like, it just should not have been

restarted. You either should have gone no contest or DQ. Also, forget the fact that he had the adrenaline dump and lost that I think Ariel made a great point. Like, we've seen this, like, Magni versus Jake Matthews went the exact same way, right? Like, he had an adrenaline dump. What if Waldo goes out there and it gets worse?

What if his eye gets punched, then it gets worse, and you just sent him out there to have more damage done to his eye? There's no good outcome in restarting that fight. That's an absolutely assinine thing for them to have done. I don't understand that. Nevada, no, not Nevada. California's Athletic Commission is going to be talking about this

tomorrow. They have a hearing about all of this stuff tomorrow. One thing that didn't happen last week was this replay nonsense. So they have to understand their rules. I would love to know why. And I'm going to reach out to them about that, not California, Nevada. But what about then you got earlier in the day, Chris Tonioni refereeing the Billy Elecana Kevin Christian fight and very I posted a clip of this so I wasn't a hundred this was before the baseball game so people saying that I wasn't tweeting about the fuck

the clip doesn't do it justice you guys know this one right he he Elacana has him in a rear naked choke he's flattened him on his stomach and it is very clear the broadcast gets this one they're mentioning that he's tapping the mat multiple times

like at least five six times Tonyoni like if they're lying this way He's on the other side. He's on the complete other side. His head is buried into the other guy's head on the other side. And so he completely misses it. He's looking to see if the choke is locked in, not realizing the choke's been locked in for 30 seconds

and the guy's been tapping. Yeah. Brutal. Absolutely brutal. Yeah, he was trapped and he's just getting choked and he's been tapping for a long time. And then he's just out. And then he's out.

Like motionless. Yeah. Bad, bad situation. Horrible. It's crazy. I mean, it's actually sometimes. crazy that like every event between the weight cutting and the referee blunders and the like the freaking head kicks and the guys like out like that we just kind of skirt by every

whew on to the next one you know yeah it's like every day every week it's almost like that was a real follow the traveling circus yeah yeah like how do you explain this to an outside whoa he tapped he wanted out of the fight but now he's unconscious because the referee who's supposed to be in there for the safety didn't see it yeah not he was on the other side. Gambling scandal, referee, you know,

crazy event. What was it, what was it that Dana White said to Nina Drama? What was it? You don't know what's a good for it until it's over.

Oh, no, no, let's hear from him. What do you say? Yeah. Hey! Dana's here,

so be nice in the chat. Why is tomorrow and next week's UFC so bad? Let me ask you a question. How's it bad when it hasn't even happened yet? Shut up. Fuck up.

Watch it tomorrow. And if it's bad, tell me it's bad. All right. Was he right? It was actually pretty good. I mean, it was interesting, that's for sure. There's a lot of newsworthy items. Some pay-per-views don't have these kinds of items.

The lip-licking. What is that? Nervous tick. Frank, hardly heard from you today. I just love how he's telling fans, just like, shit. That the fuck out. Yeah. And they will.

They'll say, okay. Thank you. And oh, by the way, Steve Garcia just absolutely annihilated David Donama. Yeah? Shot out of a cannon. This guy's on a 7-5 win streak. He's knocking out like almost every one of his opponents. Is he going to get a step up?

I mean, you have to give him top 10 now. He was 12. He beat number 13. Give him top 10. Let's see. Let's see. I mean, he's calling for Volk's ed. He's saying Volk's doing too much cooking.

Yeah, but then he like took a detour and went for Max. you got to stay consistent he wants the BMF title what about Rocky Store what about Pitball I like that fight down John Silva down wow that one could

that one could be crazy and I know John Silva just lost but like when a guy loses in a main event after a long winning streak these fights makes Yusuf Zalalal you know Zillowl

Arnold Allen He knocked it out of a pack mate Give him anyone in the top time Yeah yeah the silver one I think the silver one is the one I'm signing up for John Silva

Patricia Pipple or Zalal I don't know what's Ortega's sitting at number eight but I don't think Artiga's fighting at John Silva is the one that I want Wow So those were like the top four stories Coming out of this weekend's card

In addition to a whole bunch of other stuff Was there any other fights that got you guys excited Jeremiah Wells with the win over Thumbagorimbo I lost the bet to GC Because I had I had a bets after all this I mean, really?

Kettlin Vieira and he had Norma Dumont. On the wrong side of that one. Legend. Big win. Classic is a little. True or false? Norma Dumont will fight for the belt next.

No. Really? Yeah. Who else is there? Who else is there? I thought we were bringing back Nuneas. No, after. No, no, I mean like,

oh, you're saying normal one, yeah. Her next fight will be for the belt. Yeah, yeah. Uh, yeah, probably true. Shout out the big. Like, if those two fight in the first quarter, yeah.

Kayla Harrison, Norma Dumont at the White House book it split in her way to a UFC title Could you imagine if Norma Dumont wins the UFC belt at the White House? I mean, what a story? I mean, can I guess? Yeah, like it actually could happen.

Did the road to the belt start at Ladd-Dumont in 2021? Chuck has to be in the front row for that one. Feature will be in place. I think Chuck's going to get to rough that one. I mean, can't do much worse than what we got now. Unbelievable.

Oh, no, she lost one in between. So what? No, I just wanted the storyline It was all part of the journey The road to the title started at Laddumont October 16th, 2021 All right, jents Much more to get to

Ben Fox is going to join us Back into the program Not Ben Folks, Fox To talk more about this story Regarding Isaac Delgurion And everything else going on In the world of sports betting Steve Garcia is going to join us

Mams Taylor going to join us as well But let us talk to the man Who had a very busy Back into the week In fact, I asked him, when I saw him at BKFC, I said, hey, are you going to go to dirty boxing? I mean, it's your show. And he's like, yeah, you know, I've got Halloween. I've got trick or treating.

Well, I saw his Halloween. He was, I mean, he might have won Halloween. The Perry family might have won Halloween for the, I mean, the best family. I mean, look at this. Shout out to the Perry's. I mean, this is fantastic. One of the great movies, Coco, I do believe. So it seems like he had Halloween.

and he was front center at Dirty Boxing on Thursday in Nashville. Let us talk to the Platinum One. Mike Perry, who's kind enough to join us on this Monday afternoon. Hello, Mike. How are you? Good, sir. Thank you. I love the family shout out for our Halloween costumes.

We try to do it good every year. That was phenomenal, man. Holy crap. Was that your doing or was that your wife's doing? It's always team effort. That's right. That's right. You know, I didn't see your Halloween costumes.

I don't think. You know, I didn't do Halloween this year, but I did post one from 2005 when I really stole Halloween. Did you see that one? I was Ali G. Oh, okay. That was 20 years ago, so I can't really take much credit. I've gone to the age, Mike, where my kids are going out with their friends alone, so we're not really doing the family thing. It's tough.

It's tough around here. Wow. I totally get that. You got to, did you pass candy out and see other kids in costumes? Yes. And that gave me great joy. That did give me great joy. So I was happy to do that.

I was holding down the Ford at home. But you got to do it. So you were in Nashville and then you came home. Yeah, right away. And we were thinking about that development in our Halloween's in the future that we'll be sitting out front. We saw some families passing out the candy. They get to see all the costumes.

So that would be, you know, that's cool. We're thinking about a lot of development over here. You know, I'm making all this money. I've got to find the right ways to spend it. Oh, okay, okay. So let's get into it. Let's get into it. First off, first time I see you since New Jersey, which was about a month ago, you've healed up spectacularly well.

In fact, your wife told us that you heal like a Wolverine. How long, from those shots that we saw in Newark, like the shots of you, you know, after the fight, how long did it take for you to get back to this? Like three or four days maybe, but, you know, there's, yeah, I mean, the healing process wasn't too bad, but I mean, I mean, mean like my back got a little tight and it was really just like lay down and relax and enjoy the fruits of my labor per se and and now I'm like craving working out and getting back in shape and healthy like my wife's so great she loves a schedule and you know gets up in the morning gets my son to school and goes and does her Pilates and you know we've done a lot of morning workouts together, but I've only worked out like maybe once or twice since the fight.

Got to get on it. I saw someone ask you last week about the things Jeremy Stevens told me after the fight in those clips that went viral. And you didn't seem to feel too bad for him. You didn't shed much tears for him. It seemed like you were kind of... No, man. This got to give him a hard time.

You know, he... Shoot, I was over here when my back was tight. Like, you know, going through shit, I'm like, damn, I won. I've said it before since back in the day. You can be wheeled through the airport as a winner or a loser after these fights. It's not just one night. It's months and months of training. I mean, I had a 12-week camp.

I put my body through a lot, waking up and preparing every day, twice a day. If not more, you know, you got to do. I had to do ice baths and, like, over and over and over again. It's like you build your body up and up and up to the point little, little gaskets in the cracks start, you know, breaking and seeping or tearing. And then you got to do new things to take care of them. You know, you go to the store and buy a new joint cream and some Bengay or some icy hot. And you got to, there's other things you got to do. There's so many things to do.

I don't remember or, you know, how to like find all the emails with all the information on there. Sometimes you just forget things. And it's like I've tried to remember, but it just seems like there's always more. And by the way, did you watch that? Did you watch that doc that we put out? Did you enjoy it? Because you were great and made the whole thing in my opinion. Without you, wouldn't it have been half as good. Thank you. Yes, I am grateful. All the, you know, BKFC had a great story that night and I was happy to be the main event of it but that's even one half of the main event you know Jeremy's emotional tearing up after a good fight was a part of the story too that people like to watch because they can connect with that because they've been beat up and

crying before so they can totally understand his emotions there and I get that and then you know to be a little bit beat up and victorious. You know, you go through the pain. That's the other side of it. And, you know, no time to sit down and weep. There's too much to organize and too much to do. And shortly after, like you said, the other night, the night before Halloween, I was in Nashville, Tennessee, turned up at DBX,

having a good time watching these fighters put on a hell of a show, got to sit front row as an owner, like front row, front row. It's like more than just front. You can't buy that seat. I'm sitting on the commissioners table and dealing with partners and investors and things like that. And I just get to see these fighters put on a show, man, they come out the ring. I got to say, you know, great job. Thanks for performing for us for a couple of those fighters. It's had a great time. Got to put on a little Halloween costume before Halloween I looked good as a cowboy man so you know it was good time out there Brian Battle and the co-main event you know we I'm also my my team at Overdog's podcast

put it in my notes I had to ask Brian Battle how he felt about fighting me and you know he goes out there and performs and he's always been great in his talks and you know his microphone he had a great speech after yep and I'm like you know this is the type of dangerous I live for. I'm like, man, we got to make some noise so that they could pay me to step in there and face the very dangerous butcher of Brian Battle and the dirty boxing rule set. Sounds exciting. I'm going to ask you about all of that in a moment. Just one last thing on BKFC for now. Do you have any take on this Frankie Edgar story? It seemed like it wasn't exactly 100% kosher what happened there. Do you have any sort of take on that? I do a little bit. I mean, that's

the fight game. That's the way life goes sometimes. You know, you can't blame specifics or be a hater of how things go. We all wanted to see Frankie Edgar perform. We all know what he's capable of with boxing on the feet. And if he had trained and prepared so hard for the bare knuckle differences. And then it makes you wonder because he would have been facing Jimmy and Jimmy goes out and performs like a star that night in his town and it makes you think was he prepared to do that no matter who was standing across from him but you know from what I gathered many medical professionals had put their foot in and down on Frankie Edgar competing again especially in the brutal bare knuckle fighting.

there were letters sent to the owners and presidents of BKFC and they were told to not let Frankie fight or they would have legal action taken against them and and I think that's just you know it's tough for a lot of businesses but it's a it's a hard truth okay so what I had heard was that they thought that they were going to sell more tickets they didn't meet that number, they offered him X amount to just withdraw. He didn't like that amount. They offered him another amount. And then he just said, all right, I'll take it. And that's that. And he's unhappy with how they framed it since. You didn't hear any of that. Oh, I didn't hear that. But if he got paid, it just, no, he got, he got paid a fraction. He got paid a fraction. That makes me feel

terrible now. Yeah, he got to paid a fraction of what he was supposed to fight. It's supposed to get paid to fight three days later. Like this was fight week. You know, the crowd wasn't a great crowd. I think it was a mistake to go up against the UFC, to be honest, on the same. Is that the only thing? Or some people don't have the repulse for bare-knuckle fighting. I mean, it was a very ferocious, vicious fight. It was a great fight. All the fights. Yeah, it was a great card. But I thought it was, I saw the crowd when, when Jeremy fought Eddie. Eddie was a local draw. And it was jam-packed. And so I think that they were banking on him selling a lot of tickets as a jersey guy. They didn't sell, they didn't meet that number. I don't know if they could afford it,

to be honest. And so they pulled him. He was unhappy about that. And I think what pissed him off is that they framed it as medical when everyone that I spoke to said he was cleared and that hurts him down the road. If people are thinking that you're damaged goods, now you can't get other jobs, other assignments, other fights, whatever he wants to do. And so I was just wondering if if you had seen anything like that at BKFC where you felt like, hmm? I didn't, I didn't hear that. This is the first I hear that they didn't have, you know, the drop that they wanted. Because the arena looked pretty packed that night.

And I heard the other story about medicals writing letters to Feldman. But now, who knows? I mean, I wish that I was a bigger star as the main event and could. have sold the building out, you know, how to Connor do it? Connor sold out freaking, I mean, he was there promoting for us, and he, you know, it was great. He definitely had his parts that helped boost the show, but, you know, he sells out freaking face-off weigh-ins, and those aren't even being sold, but people just pull up and there's thousands of them.

No, I mean, and who knows, I think going up against the UFC was a tough one, but anyway, I just wanted your thoughts on that. Dirty Boxing is gaining some steam here. Now that you've had, I guess technically this was Dirty Boxing 3, but there was like, it's like there was that pilot, right? So is this like 3.5? No, it was DBX 4. 4. We've had 5. Right. Okay. So officially it's 4, but you had that sort of pilot. The look and feel of it is great. We'd love to check it out one of these days. How do you feel with 4 to 5 now under your belt? How do you feel about the state of the promotion? I remember when you announced it. the weekend you fought Jake and all that stuff, is it where you want it to be? Is there a lot more

to go? You want a TV deal, I would suppose. Give us like the state of the promotion type of address. Yeah, I think the show is one of a kind. I think it was very special. I thought we had a lot of people that showed their spark and their star, you know, and the fighters definitely do their part, in my opinion. That's the one reason we made the company was through a fighter's outlook and standpoint. And they performed. I thought the crowd was great. You know, we obviously we want to grow, keep getting better, sell out bigger shows.

Fun time for sure. Definitely always room for growth and to get better. I could be more professional, but I was out having fun. I think a lot of the professionalism of my job is to have fun. and cause entertainment around with the people that are in the area, you know, and I try to have fun with some folks in the crowd. So, you know, a lot of my partners and my team, they do their due diligence. If anyone wanting to get involved is not being talked to already, you know,

the world seeing these shows and these events real fight fans watch dirty boxing it it's uh it's growing rapidly so i'm happy for that i don't know what those numbers are that we'll need for you know to do more than we've done we just do it again and we do another great show and keep proving that you know we can put these great events on and give people a great time a nice show to come to in a poppin city. And we did it to not go up against other events on a Thursday. You know, it's just a hot Thursday early weekend, man. We made it happen.

And I like Thursday for you guys. I like Thursday for you guys. Or like for you not to compete with the other combat sports, like to try to own your own day. I don't know if Thursday is the best day. You know, you're going up against football during the season, but that's going to come to an end in a couple of months. but I do like you guys kind of owning a day and it felt like everyone was talking about it

Thursday night and Friday with all the great clips that came out. Do you think, I think, like, yeah, I was talking to Abe, your manager, if I was running a promotion, I would have signed Gable Stevenson yesterday, Gabriel Steven, excuse me, yesterday. Like if I'm PFL, this is the type of guy

that I'm trying to get to before the UFC because it seems inevitable that he would want to be in the UFC and be in a UFC title contendorship and all that stuff. Do you think he's ready for that, or do you think he would be best served taking a few more of your fights, some LFA fights, et cetera, et cetera? It was great to have Mick Maynard in the house. Oh, yes. UFC, you know, sitting at the table with Johnny Bones.

We are well connected. And, you know, we're all big fans of combat sports. We love a good fight night. I mean, we haven't lived without it probably in the last 15th. 15 years at least. We watch fights every weekend. That's what us and a lot of our fan base does. And, you know, so having big names in the house like McMaynard, our main event, Gable

Stevenson had, you know, talked to him in his post-fight speech, told him how he'd love a bigger challenge in the big show in the UFC. I was definitely throwing my name in the hat at Mick. And, you know. What does that mean? What does that mean? your name of my house to you want back in your boy back in man you want back i mean i've been saying i want on the white house car for sure i feel like you come to america uh everyone wants

on i feel like i'm very exciting fighter that would love to fight at the white house with the country flag representing dog you know but you got a i feel like you got a good thing you could bounce around here there you could do your own fun things why do you want to go back and is it are you just saying White House or are you actually interested in going back? I mean, I'm a tough fighter. I'm very interested in it. I mean, because it's always something I thought about as far as, you know, back in the day when I got into, when I knew that I wanted to go towards

the UFC from watching Pride and UFC guys go back and forth, you know, Rampage and Vandalay. I mean, I think about all these old school fights in my head of what made me get into fighting. And that was what they did back in the day. They went back and forth like that. And I bounced out. I beat Jeremy. He got to go back. You know, I don't know what these pay cuts might be looking like, but the White House just sounded fun. I heard some numbers. Somebody was talking about. I'm not asking for that. So I'd be a fun draw on the card representing USA. You're talking about the 30 million offered to John to fight Tom? No. That's not even what I'm talking about. I'm talking about CMA going for 100 mil. He said he'll do it

for 100 mil. Well, okay, buddy. I'll do it for less than half of that. I know. I hear you. By the way, What do you enjoy doing more? Bare knuckle fighting? I haven't gotten to do full fighting in a while. But what do you have more fun in? Bare knuckle or MMA? Now that you've done both. I mean, the last time I trained M.M.A.

was with Dylan Dennis. And, you know, I was just, I just focused on my punching and my boxing because that's what I do now. I just box. And whether it's bare knuckle or not, it's just throwing hands. and even DBX, you know, throwing hands with elbows. I kind of, I'm looking at DBX rules that I'm like, I'll hit somebody with some elbows again. UFC's got elbows. Let me get back on practicing while I'm out for the kicks, and I have, I had a good ground game at one time.

Sure. How does that work, by the way, with DBX? Because you're a co-owner, right? Uh-huh. So, like, who would make you the offer? right i make myself the offer yeah how would that work that attacks right off i don't know use that i'm sure it's a tax right would it be john who like who's calling you up and saying we want you to fight this guy i know i know the cower brothers are involved right yeah yeah and primo the cousin

we need some investors to get involved so that i can fight for us are you guys all doing this out of pocket right now is there no other entity involved from an investment standpoint i mean i mean Yes, there is, uh, there are some losses on the K1. So, uh, we're definitely investing in ourselves and the belief in the, the striking of this sport and, and, um, just, you know, that entertainment value of having its own lane as well, you know, small gloves, boxing with elbows, like it's, it's one of a kind. Oh, yeah. So when we spoke to you in the locker room right after the fight, it's, you know, it's, seemed like Nate Diaz was on your mind.

You kind of cut a prom on him. Where does that stand? That's still out there. I've really, I've heard that, you know, they're chasing me down after the fight, and I have, I ain't going to lie, I've been relaxing and chilling. Who's they, by the way? Who's chasing you down? That, you know, that side of me versus them is like, they're saying that they're, we're

talking about it. So, you know, we're trying to get the right time, but I needed some time to rest. I definitely needed some time to rest. I had some, you know, when your back was out, your back was out. So now I need to lift some weights. I need to find more time to get these things done because, like, I got to make lots of calls. I got lots of meetings. I got to take. Half of it is networking and talking to the right folks. So, you know, with all these conversations, and then I got to lay down for five minutes in between everything that I do. I got to go lay down and catch up through text or emails, things like that. It's just constantly something I could be working on as well as, you know, diving back into camp and preparing my body for another high level performance because you got me on 12 weeks. That was the last event in bare knuckle. And I would. only want to perform at my best given that anything can happen in fights and you want to be well prepared for it um i don't think this is a bare knuckle fight so would this be a misfits fight

you know that's a good question i don't know uh the promotion we're talking about i know we would like to i mean i would like to offer to nate diaz to fight me in DBX. I think that's a good spot for that fight. But if he would prefer it be boxing, I mean, he did a boxing match against Jorge Mosvedo. Mosvidal, he's always a great striker. I mean, Mosvidal is a legend. And M.M.A. has won a ton of great fights. And, you know, what was that under? What banner was that under? It was there getting sued or whatever? I don't know. Yeah, FanMeo. That was FanMeo. It was. a co-promotion. Yeah, it was a co-promotion also with the Real Fight Inc, his promotion as well,

but I think FanMeo were the ones that were putting, you know, putting up the money. We do have MAMS, by the way, MAMS Taylor of Misfits coming on right after you so we can ask him. Shout out to Mams, bro. I mean, if Misfits wants to get that fight in, I don't know if they're in talks with that matchup at all. I know that the Kawa's are speaking, with probably Real Fight Inc. And, you know, whatever their other option is. I'm just, you know, me and the Cowas are just waiting for the right time to say that it's time for me to prepare for that once we get, you know, obviously a venue and an idea of

time frame to prepare. So, you know, that's a good question that I guess I should hit up my boy and ask. After this, you know, how is it going to come together? If Mams wants to throw it, then he can't offer me that money that he's offering me to face Dary and Till. I'll tell you that now. That's why we tried to get Dary and Till to come on this side. He asked me to box Dary and Till, but he, you know, from what I remember, we weren't close. Would that be his next fight?

Like they have this big card in December. Are they trying to get you on that one? not that i've not that i've heard you talking about facing uh darren yeah yeah yeah i have not been offered that uh oh so you're saying in the past because when they offered me last time there what ma'am said was what i heard from my management was we're not close which was they didn't even say a number they didn't even say a number so you know, not coming at, not coming out with a number at all or a counteroffer to ours, then I'll just sit down and wait because I'm doing a type of brutal fighting that,

you know, David Feldman is working on really hard with BKFC. I mean, I ain't going to lie. The BKFC has totally changed my life and I have changed my life with the BKFC style of fighting. The bare-knuckle fighting is very brutal and it has its set core fans and I hope I'm growing new fans with it who you know when you want to watch a fight like mine are pretty crazy to watch I think it's an entertaining draw on itself especially when it's Mike Perry fighting on the headlining the BKFC so you know fighting is a weird business and and there's lots of other businesses out there um you know and but but this is my bread and butter fighting has always been my best business and it's only grown so just got to make the money work for me figure out how to put myself

in different positions and and you know after the fight at bkFC 82 i'm in a great position to talk about all these options uh so people know they got to come in me correct otherwise it's not worth my time. Man, I've been lucky enough to be at a lot of fights to sit cage side for you versus Jeremy and to see you like spitting out that blood, blowing it out, like you were like triple H out there with the water, but like it was like red and it was like it was it was one of the most like violent, gruesome, insane things that I've ever seen. I mean, it, the heart that both of you guys displayed.

the tenacity. Organized violent. Yeah, it was, it was something else. You were, but, but my takeaway was like, Mike Perry was built for this. He was born for this, this, not that other stuff. Like, to me, you are, you are the face of that company. You are the face of that sport. And it's almost like it's a shame. You are limiting yourself when you're, you're, you're fighting as a boxer or as an MMA fighter. Well, that's what rules are. That's what rules are, right? We limit these things, but it's like, don't call me last minute to limit my abilities. Let me train for 12 weeks, depending on what the rules are going to be. So let me know ahead of time, don't call me on three weeks and be like, can you do this?

I'm like, well, yeah, I ain't no bitch. I'll pull up and I'm going to fucking give it my all. But real talk, like, let me give the people the best version of myself. me commit to this training and know what it is that I'm going to be doing, whether there be wrestling involved or whether it be just boxing or, you know, a bare knuckle, I can hold your head and just shovel them in there. Like when you're trying to duck and hide and shit, I can fucking hold you and hit you, you know, and if I, damn, if I can throw an elbow too, shoot. No, I know. Listen, you versus Nate in boxing,

is fun. In MMA, it's great. In dirty boxing, it's almost perfect because I feel like it's like the middle of the two. My question is, my question is though, and this is not, I'm not trying to be rude. Can you guys afford Nate? Because you just said, like, you don't have investors just yet. You're at a loss. Like, he's a very expensive guy. So how would you afford Nate? Well, depending on what me and Nate were talking about with the boxing match, yes, if we wanted to make a bigger splash, is pay-per-view dead? I don't think so. I think if we had time or, you know, I don't think it's dead, but obviously people steal streams or whatever. So how could, I think that's a big thing that the fight leagues are going through right now is how do we afford this? Because, if pay-per-view is dying we need another platform he has been holla at your boys a dirty box and man we do it for a fraction no don't say that man don't say that don't say that well how big is the fraction i didn't say that's right that's right i didn't say a fraction of the

ufc's 1.1 billion whatever yeah yeah no i got you uh you know so i didn't say how big that fraction is we got to sit down at the table and talk about pie okay okay fair enough 3.14, dog. Can I ask, in a perfect world, when are you fighting next and against who, under what rules set? Lay it out for us, because there's so many options here. Most likely, best option, BKFC is going to come to the table with the best offer, to be honest. okay and uh you know i just prepare for that and uh option might be early next year and otherwise you know i'm trying to figure out you know because uncle sam hit me harder than

anybody ever hit me so that means you're doing well oh is that what that means i mean i guess that's what they tell me or made a mistake but you know once some mistakes can't be rectified you just have to it seems like

I'm getting put in this position aware I'm gonna be grinding until it's time for me to lay down for good like I'm gonna be grinding until I'm 80

if I keep this shit up so you know I got to figure out how to put things in order That's on me. You know, right now I feel I'm in a position. I don't necessarily have to do something, but I do like to go out and get more money while I'm in that position.

But also, it has to make sense. And everyone on my side has to be prepared for when it does happen. Everything's got to move accordingly in the right places so that it's not just a waste of my efforts. Because my efforts are fucking backbreaking. it's true i get it no i saw it firsthand by the way it's like uh the late great nipsy hustle once said all my life grinding on my life sacrifice yeah all my life okay i'm sorry i didn't say you know i knew it after you said it after that one but yeah grinding all my life dog but i ain't trying i you almost scared me you almost made me say something that uh you know i mean no offense

No, no, I got you. I got you. I got you. I got you. I got to stay grinding all my life. Yeah, well, I want my life to be long, too. That's true. So you said BKFC and who's the opponent? See that? I don't know who the opponent would be there. So, so if they have an idea, because Mr. Feldman said he's working on the biggest show ever, biggest possibility show ever. So whoever they want to offer me, their offer is going to be my best offer right now. Okay. You know, what, Jake Paul got two weeks left to his fight?

Less than, less than, yeah. Well, I'm not in the position to fucking, I know that he said he called Nadea, Francis Inganu, if the Dervante fight fought through, Ryan Garcia. So he's going all over the place with the weight classes called me three weeks last time. I got to train, man, I got to work out, lift some weights, so I can be ready. to face anyone apparently because the fight game, you never know what kind of matchup you're going to get. And depending on investors and opportunities, like I said, BKFC probably going to be our number one option right now. Dirty boxing and misfits, you know, like I needed an offer

from either side. I got partners. So my partners already know I don't have an offer yet because I'm expensive too. So me and Nate need to come together. make the right fight happen for the people and we can all grow exponentially Mike I appreciate it thank you very much congrats on a great event

always great to catch up thank you for the time and access a few weeks ago you were great I was happy to see that they upgraded your locker room don't mention it put in a word

no I had nothing to do with it I had nothing to do with it I promise but it was nice to see it was nice to see and yeah you were great my favorite line of the whole thing and I'll let you go after this is when I was like

something to the effect of how much rapping goes on back here and then you set a couple of bars and it took me a second it took me a second to understand what you were a just like me with nipsy hustle and you over there but then it hit it hit real nice it hit real nice it hit real hard man stay tough stay strong stay prepared to take those hits king of violence baby that's the way of life thank you mike all the best there he is the one and only mike perry what a guy a great week for him, great month for him with that BKFC show and then the dirty boxing event this past Thursday. Shout out to Brian Battle. He had a great post-fight interview. We'll play that for you back into the show. There's a lot of news and notes to get to. We focus primarily on the

four big ones from the apex event, massive ones, but we'll get to all the other stuff because there's a lot to get to as well. Another big piece of news that happened late last week as well is that misfits announced misfits mania. This is an event that has been sort of bandied about rumored for quite some time. It is going to be taking place in Dubai on the 20th of December, and they announced the fight that had been previously reported, and it involves a very controversial and polarizing figure, not only in the world of combat sports, but in the in the world period, Andrew Tate going up against Chase Amour. This is a fight that, as you can see right here, is going to be contested for the Misfits boxing heavyweight title on the 20th of December.

In addition to that announcement, Misfits announced that Andrew Tate is the new CEO of the company and that KSI is out. So here to explain what all of this is, is the president of Ms. Misfits boxing. The one and only Mams Taylor is back on the program. It has been a minute since we last spoke to him. There he is. Hello, Mams. How are you? Hi, Ariel. Thanks for having me. It's great to talk to you, as always. Thank you for joining us and for giving us some time. I was trying to get through all of that because there was a lot that happened late last week. So Misfitsmania. What does Misfitsmania mean? Why is this different than your other Misfits events? I think this is going to be, I guess, the prequel

this could be the prime card, you know? Yep. In terms of the urgency of it and the magnitude of it, it's going to be our biggest event today. Star-studded on the card, in the stands, watching, and just all around. I think the magnitude of it's going to be massive and it's going to be an annual thing. Okay, so is D'Amour versus Tate, Tate versus D'More, the main event? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you can't put Andrew Tate on a card without him being main event, especially now he's the CEO.

Okay, and how difficult was it? Because I know people have, you know, tried to get him to fight recently because of his background and kickboxing. He was a kickboxer and then became, you know, an influencer and all this stuff and then hasn't fought since. How difficult was it to do this deal with him? I'm going to tell you something really surprising, Ariel. Okay. I don't think I've ever worked with any fighter that's been easier. And when I tell you the guy, he's a businessman, he gets it, he gets the business, he's, he's, there was no red line on the contract. It was more like, he signed it within five minutes and I said, don't you want your lawyer to look at this? Or is there anything you feel? He's like, I glanced at it.

You and I have built trust. If you fuck me, we're done. And otherwise, we're going to make a lot of money and have a lot of success together. And I was, like, really taken aback by that. And aside from that, he's just been, I'm like, hey, do you think you could do a video of you on the pads or something? He'll send me 10, you know. So I'm not used to that because, you know, some fighters are nice and easy to get along with. But with Andrew Tate's such a mega superstar, you would expect it.

it to come with some difficulty, but I can't speak highly enough about how he's presented himself, how smart he is and how he works, basically. His work ethic is incredible. One fight deal? Well, you wouldn't be a CEO for a one fight deal, right? Well, I mean, two different positions. And we'll get to the CEO thing in a moment, but like, so he's in it for the long haul. He's in it for the long haul.

He's all in. He's very committed. And like I say, he's very, he's very, he's very. to work with, very creative. So I can't speak highly enough. Okay. And as far as Chase being his opponent, because I saw this get reported earlier on, Chase denied it.

I don't know if that was all just kind of part of the show, but why did you pick him for his opponent? Well, I think it was by proxy that he's the heavyweight champ. Okay. Andrew's like, look, I want to come in. I want to announce being the CEO and I want to be the world heavyweight champion. champa missed it. And I think that's

just what it had to be. Okay, because, you know, Darren was on, Darren Till was on not that long ago, and it seemed like he was really interested in this fight. I think Andrew also brought up that, you know, Darren Till is a possibility. And I said, let's wait for that and not rush it, because I think Chase,

A, Chase has been a company man, he deserves his flowers, and he is the heavyweight champ, and B, for Andrew, I think, as a businessman, being quite frank with you, it doesn't, I'm building Darren up, and I've been building, I mean, I know Darren's very established in the MMA world, but he's really become a superstar in the world of misfits as well. So we've been building that up, and he's a guy who's a potential massive pay-per-view seller with some of the cards that we've got on. So why, yes, I want to give the people the fights they want to see but timing is very important on that you know you're not

suggesting that darren would be an underdog against andrew uh i'm suggesting that one of them would have to lose and and that's that's all there is to it i think i think um and look this is the thing people are underestimating chaster more as well but he's improved a hell a heck of a lot since he started and he proudly wears that as a badge like if you watch his first fight where he's doing pirouettes in the ring um and everyone was making fun of him and he was viral for all the wrong reasons to where he's come now he's a force he's a tough guy he's a lot bigger than andrew um so you know Andrew as the top G why does he have to risk this in the first place and i'm i'm impressed that he's taking that fight and i think people shouldn't underestimate chase

um it's going to be a banger of a fight and it'll it'll show everyone kind of you know for Andrew, I think it's a test to see where he's at after many years not, you know, not in the ring. Will, sorry, sorry? No, no, I was just going to ask, will Darren be on this card? No, Darren will not be on this card. I've got plans for Darren on the card after, hopefully. Could you tell us about any of the other fights on the card?

Your favorite, favorite, Dylan, the Crow, Dennis, will be. on McCar, defending his belt. Okay, the crow. I haven't heard that nickname before. I'm hoping it'll stick. Okay. Quite like emo and he's, you know, he's like a dark superhero. Okay, so you're saying like he's like Sting Circa 1999? I don't, you know, I'm asking the commission if they'll allow him to fight with face

pain. Okay. And who would he be fighting? I can't say that yet. We're going to announce it this week, though, so something to look forward to. there's history there and it's like I think it's going to be a it's it's going to be a humdinger as they say and this is m m m m this is m this is m okay um i want to get back to the m ms stuff in a moment but now going back to tate so tate is announced as the CEO the new CEO and i've seen

kSI slash jj tweet about this and and voices displeasure and so now i ask you as a there it is kSI saying uh l o well writing l well to the tweet and whatnot and he had some others as well. And so I'll ask you, you know, as one sports entertainment fan to another, is this a work or is this a shoot, brother? What is going on here? It's interesting because it's, I guess you could say it's a work from my end because it's what needed to happen for the business.

Was KSI happy about it? Absolutely not. So, you know, it's, you know, when you're, you know, when you were. asked me that offline. I said it's complicated because it is, it's, it's real, but it's something I think when I've been speaking to Andrew, I was like, this is, this is the way that we can introduce this and make it work. And, and in that regard, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's as real as it can be. But what does that mean? Is KSI not involved in misfits anymore? KSI is, has, has, has, has, you know, his equity. He's an equity partner, but I don't

think he's suited for the CEO role right now as his focus is on a lot of other things like what is music prime prime music youtube got it main on britain's got talent i mean the list goes on and on side men and he does very well and you know for me i want him to have fun with what he's doing um and you know if and when he gets motivated to fight again um then then you know that's a different conversation, but I think, I think for Andrew, this is, uh, this is a perfect role. He's incredibly articulate. Um, and he's, you know, he's, he embodies kind of the misfit spirit. So I think, I think it's going to be a great time for all of us. And so you called him up and said, I'm going to replace you with Andrew Tate and you had full power to do this.

Well, we went to the board and we made our decision. We could, you know, some, some things without saying too much, KSI wasn't happy about it when he found out. Okay. And how is your relationship with KSI now? I mean, I think professionally we get, you know,

everything's in order. This is obviously going to be a bump in the road, but I believe it's for the greater good of the business. And it's essentially his business as well as mine. and you know I think he'll come around at some point but he's not happy so you still work with him you're his manager right yes okay so so he hasn't like severed ties with you or anything like that no no no no I think we do a phenomenal job together um professionally and um you know that

that's going to continue um as far as this goes it's it's a little bump on the road for sure he's not happy and um and we'll see where it plays out but normally sometimes i'll do things which is for the greater good that benefits him benefits his business benefits my business and i think everybody wins in the long run here's why the move surprises me a little bit maims i understand why you'd want to have and you fight for you but as far as like the face of the organization you go from a guy who like kids love who's wholesome who doesn't have many strikes against them in kSI right like he's selling drinks to kids on YouTube, et cetera, to a guy with, you know, let's be honest, a lot of baggage. The whole identity of your company changes in an instant. And so that's why I was

wondering, like, is this just a storyline? Are we just building to Andrew Tate versus KSI here? And he's going to, and the CEO job is going to be on the line? Like, with all due respect, I wouldn't put it past you to do something like that. I'm not saying that in a negative way, but it feels like that's where we're headed. So I just want to know if you could tell us what's what i mean i would i would love it if that's where we were headed i think that's a great storyline you know but this is the entertainment business and it's it's all about keeping people entertained and keeping everybody guessing what's going on and um you know as a wwee fan former w w f fan um i you you suspend your beliefs and you you kind of you just get into it

into the storyline and it's like watching a movie kind of the only the difference with misfits is obviously the fights. There's no predetermined outcomes. Everybody fights. You never know. Some things go the way that's best for business and some things go completely the opposite way. So you can't control the outcomes. But you just try to put the most entertaining product together to tell a story. And essentially, I've always been a storyteller, whether it's in music or even my involvement with Prime and anything we've done. It's always about storytelling. And I think that's got to come first if your goal is to make the business successful. Given Andrew's history, did you have any reservations about going to business with him? I spoke to him and we had a very honest conversation and genuine conversation about it. And I just think almost all the charges have been dismissed and nothing concrete has ever come out. So there's a point where you, you know, it's combat sports, first of all. You know, you had Mike Tyson on Netflix, you know, and I don't believe Mike did the things that he was accused of, but he was convicted.

You know, Andrew hasn't been convicted of anything. And it's, to me, there's so much stuff on social media, so many accusations, and so many, so much. much AI and so much whatever else. And I'm not, my, my job is to provide an entertainment platform with action, with, with real fights. And that's it. You know, I don't really, obviously I don't want to platform anyone I think is a truly evil person or anything like that. And I just don't think that any of those things are true about him. When's the last time you've talked to MVP about a potential Jake versus KSI fight? Uh, I'd say, I'd say, Nikisa and I are working on, um, a couple of little things here and there.

It's come up. Um, when JJ's ready and gets his hand surgery, I think, I think the timing of it is just, it's got to, it's got to align. And it's almost been such a struggle like, Ariel, have you ever had a crush on a girl who was in a relationship? And then she has a crush on you when you're in a relationship. And it's just, it never seems to align. That's what it, feels like the KSA and Jake. So has he not had the surgery? Because I remember seeing him at the time Square of it in May and he showed me his hand and it was definitely messed up. But that was six months ago.

Yes. And he's just, if you look at his diary, you won't believe how busy the guy is. And I think he's just at some point going to make it a priority and, you know, if he gets a taste back for boxing, then he'll do it. He's not a super money

driven guy, which is why he's made so much and why he's been so successful because it's always a secondary or tertiary goal you know for him it's about being involved in things that excite him things that he knows his fans will like and then and then the money comes third I guess I think there's I think him against Jake Paul whenever it does happen if it does happen is one of the biggest in terms of numbers and it would reignite the excitement the feud the rivalry but for now he has got his focus on other things. So, you know, it's, it's, it's the new era of misfits and

that's the focus. Is there a chance he never fights again, in your opinion? There is a chance, but there's a chance, there's a chance anyone you could name never fights again. Sure. Well, yeah, I mean, he's not active right now, so that's why. But yeah, let's see, let's see. Can I ask you, can I ask you the poster, the Miss Fitzmania poster, it has been brought up, doesn't have a DeZone logo on it. Will it not be on DeZone? No, DeZone are great partners. They've been great partners to us. This event will be outside of the DeZonex series universe.

And then, you know, we've got some events with DeZone to look forward to early next year as well. And we've got one coming up with Andre Oloff fighting this weekend, yeah, on Sunday. Misfits duel. But I'm going to ask you about that in a moment, but just where will this air on December 20th? Details will be forthcoming. Will it be pay-per-view? yes okay um misfits duel what is that andre alofsky's involved is this like is this like tag team fighting no they're not there's no tag team in this one oh i do i do i do want to have uh i've been

speaking to some former ufc legends about doing a survivor tag okay and i think we'll piss a lot of people off but it also entertain a lot more people so what is miss fitz duel misfits duel is a new series of duels you know they're just regular boxing matches and you might slip an MMA match on but it's it's like the I once it's definitely not like next gen I would say

it's like UFC fight night in comparison to a numbered UFC or something like that okay okay so it's still the same type of misfits event but it's more it's just like a fight night show not a pay-per-view yeah exactly Okay, okay. You mentioned Dylan earlier. There was obviously the interaction with him and Eddie Hall. Is that a possibility or no? That's a possibility. I'm speaking to Eddie tomorrow. I'm speaking to Dylan a lot about his future plans. I think he's going to be fighting in this upcoming event and then we go from there. But it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, one thing at a time thing, but I've got like a trajectory of plans for Dylan and I think

you know, I'm big on his future as well. I noticed Eddie post a poster of him versus Dennis, but I couldn't help but notice that he blurred out the Misfits logo at the top there. What was up with that? I don't know. I think he's, what does it say at the top over then? Well, it's like the Misfits logo. It says Misfits MMA, I think, but then it's blurred out. And then it says, I think he like blurt out the Misfits MMA logo. They just called it MMA Championship, the Crow versus Eddie Hall, date and venue TBC. I don't know if he was throwing shade, if he was mad, I don't know what was going on. No, no, I don't think that's what it is.

Eddie and I are on good terms, Dylan and I are on comes, and I think Misfits is the only home for that fight. Okay, yeah, I would agree. It would be a perfect fight for you guys. Will Tony Ferguson be on the December 20th card? I guess I could say, yeah, he will be. What do you mean, I guess I could say? You would be the guy. Well, you're, you know, I'm giving you an exclusive.

Oh, I understand. Okay. Yeah, we weren't going to announce that. I'm not going to announce his opponent, but Tony will be, and we'll be unifying that belt one way or another and, you know, it'd be great to have him back. Honestly, I've gotten to know Tony really well, and he's, again, such a humble, cool guy. And I'm excited that he's fighting. And his fan base initially hated us for putting him on again, Salt Pappy. And I've been seeing him train.

He's going to do fine. Don't worry about it. And he did. He did very well. And I think he'll continue to do very well. I remember around the time of that fight, you were talking about Misfits House of Combat and your MMA plans. Can you explain to the audience what Misfits House of Combat is

and what are your MMA plans come 2020? Is it possible that you'll be doing MMA-only shows, or will they be hybrid shows with the boxing? No, that totally will be doing our own shows, and I'm looking forward to that. There's some details I can't share, but what I can share is that I think that the space needs some more excitement. So we've got a slightly different rule set, slightly different, very different aesthetic, a mix, a blend of traditional with innovative and new and fresh. And ultimately, you're going to have some very, very exciting fighters on that. But it'll have its own show where it'll be uniquely just the MMA fights. Right now, we've just been, you know, we've had one MMA fight with Dylan Dennis, and it did very well.

So we wanted to test it out, sprinkle a couple of MMA fights here and there. But we're already convinced that it's going to do well, and we're all in on the MMA next year. So, like, are you saying, like, it may not be in a cage? like what we're used to. It could be in a... Oh, wow. Wow. It won't be in a cage

and it won't be in a ring. And will it have influencer types or will it be all sort of... No, no, no. We want to track the best of the best and make it a home for fighters that are exciting and have the right personalities

to entertain, but ultimately it's going to be top-level fighters for sure. Regular MMA rules? and gloves and all that, just a different surface or will that be different too? Regular gloves and mostly the same rules

with a few caveats, but one that I guess a lot of people will be excited about and a lot of people will hate is that there will be a time limit on remaining on the ground. So you're going to have to get up after a certain set time

and the referee will ensure that you stand. okay they'll stand but whether you're in if the time if the timer runs out and you're in a rear naked choke

you get stood up it doesn't matter it's all about the timer when could we expect the first one um next year Q1 Q1 okay that would be

the first four months of 2026 also wanted to ask you about Carl Frotch he's sort of teased something he was at the Till fight have you had any talks

with him yeah so speaking of big pay per views for Darren Till I think that's that's gonna be a big one for both of them and uh fraughts has been flirting with coming back i think you know he was keen on fighting jake at one point um but it doesn't look like that's going to happen so i think

i think um it makes a lot of sense you know darren and him have gone back and forth a bunch of times and till till is till's a beast man like he's very impressive he's got the gift of the gab if you can understand him and you know and over time you do he's very fun he's humble outside of the ring as well really fun to work with and Frotch as well I sat with with Carl after the Till fight and he's like

it seems like it's going to happen you know you really think he's going to fight again yes wow if I had to be funny on it I would say yes and do you think he jumps right in there and fights a Darren Till or do you think he takes a tune-up fight I think he fights Darren Till

I mean it's Carl Frotch you know as a boxer it's you know he's accomplished so much and I think he's top class world level guy who stayed fit and he's hungry and he's got that itch again so it makes a lot of sense you know um I don't know I'm not I'm not a fan of um necessarily

warm up fights anymore and that's people will laugh and say something about that to me I know but I think I've had bad experiences with that so I'd just rather get to the nitty gritty if we can you know that's the thing that's cool about UFC over traditional boxing is like you don't see many guys often having like a 20 and 0 record you know it doesn't happen often where they're just building their record

and I I've always really dug that about the UFC is like they give you the fights you want to see any chance that that could sell out Wembley in your opinion or be held in a soccer stadium like that you know spurs a soccer stadium i don't know but i think you could make it a very definitely sell that you'd sell out wembley arena very quickly yeah oh yeah wembley arena for sure oh two no you don't think you do oh two yeah yeah yeah we could do oh too yeah yeah but i mean uh carl fraughts told me that he once

well he didn't tell me he tells his youtube channel every day that he sold uh 80 000 tickets to fight george groves surely darren till's a bigger name than george groves right comeback fight Darren Till is today a bigger name, but, you know, back then that was a rivalry that's been cooking in the British public for a long time, you know? So is it possible? Yes, I'd have to take the temperature on that. I'm not going to be dishonest and say, oh yeah, 100% we'd sell out. I really want to sell out without having to be like, oh man, we're still 10,000 short, let's give these away, you know? So I think it would be a mega major fight, but at the same time, I'm also very aware of the current. an environment with people spending money on tickets and pay-per-view

and things like that as well. So I'd have to feel the temperature out on moving into a stadium. It'll be a ball's a move. But why not make it so that it sells out in two, three days and people have FOMO and want to make sure that they're there in the next fight? Okay, last one,

and this is for your very loyal fan base, your very loyal audience. Give us a fun influencer fight that's going to be on this Misfits Mania card. Give us one. Give us one with one of your litany of characters. What's the one that's going to blow their mind? Here we go. Frank, before he says it, before he says it, Frank, hit the Breaking News music

real quick. Here it is. It's all set up for you, ma'ams. The floor is yours. What do we got? What do we got? I'm going to be such a letdown, Ariel. Wow. Wow. I've literally, I've served it up on a silver platter for you. Here we go. And you're going to let us down. We always follow up the music with breaking news. This is the world we're in now. You release an album, the fans five minutes, like, when's your next album?

It's like, let me, you know. We want the whole thing. We want the whole pie. We don't want to slice. We want the whole thing. Yeah, but then we get fat and then we don't want it, you know, bad people. Take a slice at a time.

All right, all right. I tried to set you up there. I peer pressured you. I understand that. You're very good at that, but you're also very good at that, whilst remaining very nice I'll take that

I appreciate that thank you maims looking forward to this so we've got this what is that Sunday Sunday show why Sunday by the way

there was a couple of reasons it was a very last minute kind of addition and we wanted to we wanted to get a lot of the fighters that are contracted I really wanted to get them out

I didn't want to let anyone down and I pushed to make sure we have this show, and Sunday was the slot that it was available. So, yeah, it just worked out. And what's there to do on a Sunday? Go to church, you have your barbecue, and then you go watch some fights. Nothing better. Okay, so November 9th, it's the card, MF, Duel, at the municipal auditorium,

and that's the one featuring Mr. And Jarolofsky, the legend, the pit bull. And then December 20th, it's Misfits Mania, the fight before Christmas. That's a great line. That's a great title. There you have it. The one and only Chase Damore defending his title against Andrew Tate. That's in Dubai. Looking forward to seeing the announcement of where we can watch that. Thank you very much for the time, Mams. Pleasure as always. Congrats and good luck. Thanks for having me. Take care. Go bless. There he is. Mams Taylor, the president of misfits boxing. Kind enough to join us here on this Monday afternoon. All right. In a matter of moments, And still to come is the more on the Isaac Dalgarian story, we are going to have Mr. Ben Fox of Yahoo's sports, Yahoo's betting analyst who knows about this world more than anyone that I know from a journalistic perspective, tell us what he knows about it,

and all the stuff going on in the world of sports gambling. Steve Garcia entered Saturday Night's fight against David Onama, ranked 12th in the UFC's featherweight division. He was on a six-fight winning streak, an opportunity for him to fight in the main event and really cement himself as one of the top 10 best featherweights in the world, and he did that. He defeated David Onama via first round, K.O.,

first stoppage loss of Onama's 17-fight career. In doing so, Garcia won his fourth performance of the night bonus. first main event as well and so now he's on the fourth longest active winning streak in the featherweight division six in a row Ilya Tuporia 7

Moussar Evloev 8 Lorone Murphy 9 interestingly enough number 1 and 2 probably not fighting for the belt next we'll see how that plays out Ilya now of course

in the 155 pound division also by the way joint fifth for most knockouts in the UFC's featherweight history with five, four behind the current leader, Max Holloway, who probably isn't fighting anymore at 145 pounds so he can catch up. And he has certainly been doing the work and is showing no signs of slowing down. He is the mean machine, the pride of Albuquerque, New Mexico, Steve

Garcia, kind enough to join us right here now to talk about the big win over David Ornama. Hello, Steve. How are you? What's up, Barry? How are you? I'm doing great. Congrats on the win. Very impressive. and I think you really proved your point. You really proved that you are a top dog and proved what you set out to do. Biggest moment of your career so far, given the stakes, given the main event,

given the opponent. Yeah, man. It was a special night on Saturday. So I can't complain about that, man. Had my first main event. It was at the apex, but I don't care, you know what I mean? So I was able to go out there, put on a hell of a show for everybody.

I hope that was able to watch. And, you know, we got the KEO done. He was behind me, so I don't know how much that pushes me, but I want everybody to know that I'm the real deal. And I felt like I was able to kind of justify that on Saturday. So, yeah, great things happening, things are brewing. Love it. I had just mentioned Onama had never been stopped,

but you're on this great streak. You're looking so good. Were you feeling stoppage? Were you confident, or were you settling in for 25 minutes? What were you thinking? Where were you feeling? I prepared for a war. So, like, that was just, like, that was just a checkbox, you know, during camp.

I go hauling, and I was hauling, and I was like, dude, I was like, you fought so many of these five rounds? Because I have five rounders, but not at, like, the UFC caliber. And so I always liked to talk to them and pick their brains. And I was like, no, we're preparing for six. That's what we're doing. We're prepared for six. And I was like, okay, done. I was like, you the boss.

So we prepared for six. So I know that I was ready to go for six rounds if needed. but I was in the back and I was hitting pads and I was like man dude I was like I felt I felt powerful I was like I feel strong here uh this is just this is one of those moments you just couldn't take away I felt like I could beat anybody uh that night so um yeah man just felt really strong felt like I hit hard um yeah and and and to do it against Onama I get that first round you know he's he's tough as nails man you can't take anything away from that guy because that dude even when he gets hit he's almost even more dangerous he kind of reminds me of

me a little bit. That's why, like, in my interviews leading up to the fight, I was saying, I was like, I'm waiting to see if we're cut from the same cloth. And I don't know if we quite are, but, you know, he's very talented. I understand you collect fight posters, right? Yeah, I was just hanging up my new one just now, literally right before we got on. Oh, that's, and so this would be the first one where your face is on it. Very first one, man. Wow. I'm running out of room on my wall, but I made sure to make room for that one. How many do you have? So I have at 10, I have 10 of them.

One of them, one of them fell and broke, so I got to fix it, which is, you know, ironically, the one that I had lost. But it was, it's all good, you know. I use that as a reminder for me, you know, he's been humble. So are these only posters that you competed in the event, or do you look for other ones as well? No, just the ones that I fight. Okay. yeah what is it like for you to see one now with your face on an official UFC poster special man especially and I like I said I literally just I'm I'm not done hanging it up I have to

scoot them all over I have to create room for them but my wife like walked in while I was doing it and she's like Steve you're a dreamer here buddy she's like because she's the total opposite to me she's like everything has to make sense she's a black and white person she makes sure that like it makes sense right and like for me i'm like i don't i don't care if there might be this this this crazy idea that it may or may not happen but i'm going to go for it so i'm i'm the dreamer and she's the she's the one who's uh kind of keeping things in check around here but um she's like you you said it man you said you're going to do it and look at you you did it so it was a feather it was kind of feather my cap was like i told you you know what i mean so just listen you know

pay attention. You talked about, I mean, your post-fight interviews are always, they said it on the broadcast, like very heartfelt, you're a very easy guy to root for, and you always talk about where you're from, you know, what you had to overcome Albuquerque, the 505, all that stuff, and you talked about just like how much you've had to overcome just to be here. And it sounds like, I mean, it obviously sounds like a lot, and I just wonder if you felt like you were ever surrounded by people who didn't believe in you, who didn't believe that you could get here, and now you're on this, you know, this, this tour to prove everyone wrong.

Do you think like that? Do you have a chip on your shoulder? I absolutely have a chip on my shoulder. I've been surrounded by people that didn't believe with me. I was, I've had teammates who didn't believe me. I had coaches that didn't believe in me, but they were just around me because they, you know, that was a job. You know what I mean? I'm not trying to say that, like, I have the, I had the worst thing.

There's so many people out there that probably have way worse stories than I do. But what I do know is that the atmosphere, you know, here, the culture here. Everybody wants you to do good, but not better than them. And that's something that like I think, you know, I wish we could change here. And like I said, it can happen everywhere. I'm not trying to say that like I'm a special case or anything like that. But I've experienced a lot of that. You know what I mean? I've had people and coaches tell me, you know, I was like, yeah, it's probably not for you. I've had people tell me that, you know, without them, I won't be anything. I've had a lot of different things like that, you know, just to name a few.

I've had people coming in out of my life like that. So I just, I kind of like take those things and I kind of use it as fuel. And I just, I go out there and I'm like, no, man, I'm somebody. God made me somebody. So I'm not going to, I'm not going to shoe away from a challenge. You know what I mean? And in order to be great, you got to do great things. And I feel like when you're going to the UFC, you're fighting the best guys in the world.

And that's a form of greatness. And right now, man, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, honestly, freaking, you know, we're turning in bounties, man. Ariel, we're literally turning in bounties. I mean, these guys have prices on their head, and I'm just catching in, brother. I did see you say before the fight, when you were talking about the state of the featherweight division, you know, you felt like Volk is just kind of holding things up, doing cooking videos and whatnot.

Do you really think Volk is the one at fault here? Because he was the one calling for a fight in December, and now it sounds like they're pushing it to February because they're going to Australia. Respectfully, I don't think he's the problem here. Do you feel otherwise? No, I was kind of thinking out of context. Okay, okay. So tell us.

They want to chop it up. Yeah. Obviously, I mean, there's no way you can discredit Volkinovsky. This dude, he was like, I kind of felt like for him because, you know, I felt like people kind of saw him as the guy that wouldn't be a champion. And now that he's a champion, you know what I mean? Everybody has him that's such a high standard. I know I do too.

And I have a lot of respect for him. But it was just kind of one way because everybody's asking me like, well, why don't you call out these guys? Why don't you do it? I was like, because honestly, everybody's at a standstill right now. And it's not even so much Volk's fault. But the thing is that everybody wants to be available from like six down in case to get that call. So because there's no movement going on at the, you know, to make that title match up. I have an idea probably who's going to be.

But what I kind of feel is everybody's like, no, man, if they call, I'm going to be ready and I'm going to be available. Like I don't want to be matched up with somebody. and lose that opportunity. So I think from like six down, they're just kind of just holding out. So there's not, there's not, there's no motion going on in the division right now. And so that kind of limits everybody up, you know, kind of where I'm at. And we all have to fight each other, which is fine. It's kind of normal, right?

That's why when they gave me onama, I was like, dude, I'm just going to go out there and fight, man. This is how to provide for my family. This is what I do. That's my job. And I'm going to go out there and just make something on myself. And what was great is that they gave me the headliner spot, which was, something i wasn't going to just drop the ball on you know what i mean so um that's kind of what i was referring to when it comes to you know that situation going on with volk uh i just kind of doing the

the cooking thing just to kind of lie in the mood because everybody's kind of just like well what are you going to do next how's you know how do you how do you see on um stuff like that i was just trying to like spice it up a little bit but like i said i have a lot of respect for volk i think that he's a he's a phenomenal champion um i just well i just want him to i think if he came out he's like I want to fight this person on this day. I think they'll make it happen. That's my personal opinion. I don't know.

Because honestly, I'm kind of like vote too in that sense. I'm like, bro, I don't care. Just send him my way. But for him, if he decisively would be like, I want to fight this guy. I don't care what it is. Make it happen. Don't make it happen. You know what I mean?

He's a champ. He can do it. Of course, he doesn't have the final saying. But that's how I feel. Okay. In a perfect world for you. And by the way, isn't it weird? Isn't it weird?

Like, I was just going through the list of the top finishers in the division right now and the winning streaks and whatnot. And, you know, the guy with the most wins in a row right now, Lorone Murphy's second guy, Moser, it sounds like both of them aren't getting a title shot next. It sounds like it's going to be Diego Lopez. How does this sit with you? Because you're getting into that territory now. Yeah, it's interesting because, like, I'll fight any of those guys.

You know what I mean? it doesn't it doesn't necessarily have to be the fact that they're so far ahead but if they're available why wouldn't that make sense um but then again they don't want to fight backward just like i don't want to fight backwards so i get it leeron's winning you know he wants to go forward um who else is winning he's a law he's winning he wants to go forward um there's a lot of reasons what yeah mausvar i honestly it felt bad for the guy but the dude needs to figure it out like that's the truth He needs to figure it out. He needs to be like, he needs to turn into a submission artist or he needs to start

freaking ground and pounding better. He needs to go fight a different camp because the way he's winning is not doing him any favors. That's just the problem. But as a purist, he probably is the guy that deserves a shot, if we're being honest. I truly feel that way because he hasn't lost. He's boring. But I guess I don't know if that, I mean, it doesn't seem like it's working out very well for him. I really can't say that it's working out for him,

but he's up there. What is he number one, number two? I mean, you would think he's not next up, right? He's on deck. But I don't make the ball. I thought Lorone would be next because he has the same amount of wins in a row now and he got an incredible finish spinning back elbow. Does it make you nervous?

Because like you're not a boisterous guy. You don't like puff your chest out and talk trash. You're getting into that territory of, you know, almost double-digit wins in a row. row, are you nervous that you're going to, you know, this has happened time and time and again when, you know, you see a guy like you on a winning streak, doing all the right things. You are getting finishes, though, so that's a little bit different than some of these other guys, but they get passed over. Are you nervous about that?

I felt like I might be overlooked. I'm still overlooked. It's funny because everybody's like, who's this guy? You know what I mean? And they're slowly getting to know, you know, especially the people that were hating on me, they were open. And they were actually mad because the comment I made about Volk, you know what I mean? I'm just like, bro, like, I'm actually kind of a fan of him. So, like, you know, you can hate on me if you want. But what I will say is that I think it took Max Holloway nine, nine wins in a row to get to the top. So that means he had to become the champ before he was the champ, right?

So in my head, I kind of have I already accepted that fate if that happens. Because if I do that, then the only thing that I can think of is that I might benefit me more if they actually give me a shot at like Lee Ron Murphy or they give me a shot at like the top five because then I felt like I skipped a couple people for in my head I'm like I'm going to have to go fight one by one by one just to get even close to the top and so we'll see we'll see what I mean you know I feel like the next you know 12 to 24 months yeah 22 12 to 24 months are going to be really important for my career and I guess my

pursuit to the title. How quickly would you like to return? I like February. Forever sounds good. Okay. And I know you were talking about some top dogs and then you mentioned Max Holloway and then you mentioned some other names.

Like realistically, who do you think you get? I was talking about some names earlier, some names that I thought could be of interest. I'll tell you some of the names and you could tell me what you think of them. Like I mentioned John Silva, Patricia Pippel, Zalal, maybe even Arnold Allen, who is up there. What do you think of those, or do you have other ideas?

All those guys are on the table for me. I don't really care. The reason why I said Max is because people always ask me, what do you want? Because everybody asks me that, and I'm like, it doesn't matter what I want. They give me what they give me, right? But I finally said, I want to crack at the BMF title. I'm like, well, he's not even a 45. I was like, I understand that.

I'm not stupid. You know what I mean? I know he's a 55er. I get it. But he has that title. I love that title. Like, I know people think it's kind of the most, you know, quackiest title. I'm like, bro, like, to me, that resonates.

You know what I mean? If you go get an undisputed title, you're the badest dude, right? But you can win it by being a grappler, a jiu guy, you know, a really good striker. You can get it through many fashions. But from, but to be a BMF, in my personal opinion, dude, you got to be this gunslinger who doesn't back down from anybody. will fight to the very death. That's what that means to me.

So that's why I call that, you know. As far as like the actuality of the 145 realm, I think the law is going to get matched up already. I think Gene Silver's match up already. I think Arnold Allen's already matched up. A lot of these guys seem that, I don't know, these are just rumors that this is what's going to happen. So then I'm like, okay, who's left?

And so I think it was probably Emma or Gaiyar. and I think that year is going to probably hold out for somebody at the very, very top. So I'm like, all right, who's realistic and who's available right now? That makes sense. And I think a fight with Josh Emmett would have made more sense because he has a lot of name value. And on top of that, he's dangerous. Like, he just is. And who would I want to see me versus him?

I mean, maybe that's a question I'll ask you. I mean, would you want to see that or what would you prefer to see? Absolutely, yeah, yeah. I mean, all those names I'm interested in, I think every single, the one, if I had to pick one, I loved you versus John Silva. Yeah, and like I said, I'm good with that. Yeah. I would absolutely love that one.

I think, I know he's coming off a loss but he was just on a good streak. He just lost in the main event against the guy who probably is going to fight for the belt. I just think that you two would be magic together. So if I had to pick one, that's probably my vote. And you're close to each other in the rankings as well. Yeah, I think that's a fun

dance partner have. It would be 10. As of now, I mean, that could change tomorrow. but just for the record, he is 10, yes. Okay, yeah, he's in, he's within the realm, right? So, 100%. If they want to set it up, I'm in. You know, like I said, I think there's rumors of him potentially being matched up already.

But, like I said, I'm just, I'm at this point to where, like, I'm preparing my mind. Like, my mind is, like, you're going to have to be every single person. Like, be ready for anybody, you know, and I, like, I need to be back in the gym, you know, ASAP, as soon as my eye, you know, pretty much, you know, clears up, I'll be good. But, yeah, man, I'm not here. I'm not a joke. People, people have been, you know, catting me out for a long time. People think that I wouldn't be where I'm at right now.

I literally just knocked out everybody on the way up. Yeah, man, I got to go through everybody. That's how I feel. That's where my mind's at. By the way, in the post-fight interview, you also had a very nice message about a friend of yours who passed away and who obviously couldn't be here. And you said that he was gunned down due to his opinion. And I saw some people saying that you were referring to Charlie Kirk. Were you talking about Charlie Kirk or were you talking about someone else? Not Charlie Kirk. Okay, because you said the Charlie

family, so I wasn't sure. So you were friends with Charlie Kirk? Yeah, he'd come to New Mexico a lot. He comes to my church. And we hit it off two years ago. And he has no idea about our world, the MMA world, and he was just, just, it was crazy because I was there to see him and I was there to talk to him and he wanted, he had so many questions for me on like the process of weight cutting and, you know, how do the rankings work and like, how do you like, how do you even set up a fight? He's like, how do you just like call each other and you're like, you guys set up a file? I was like, no, man. I was like, we fight for organization and promotion and they, they're the ones that set out like, oh, okay, I just didn't know how it worked. And so I was like filling them in. He's like, man. He's like, man. He's like, man. He's like, man. He's like, man. He's like, man. He's like, man. He's like, man. He's like, man. Man, he said, you know, obviously everybody thinks we're crazy for what we do. And he says, you know what, man? He says, I do know Dana. Dana's a great dude. He says, I would love to watch one of your fights.

And that was like two years ago. Wow. And I was like, yeah, I was like, absolutely. Like, you know, I'd love for you to come over. And I didn't see him again until like he came to, I want to say he came back to Albuquerque, probably, like I said, three weeks before he got assassinated. And we had another, we had another talk. And he's like, hey, man, when did you know.

nice fight. And I was like, dude, I was like, I, this is, it was in the works. It was in the works. I was like, but it should be in November. And he says, when you get the date, let me know. He says, I want to be there. He says, I'll talk to, I'll talk to, I'll talk to Dana and maybe I can get a seed over there or or something like that. I was like, bro, say less. I was like, dude, I got you. And I was looking forward to that because like I said, this would have been a new experience for him to have someone like him, um, be there. You know, I thought that would have been super cool. And like I said, three weeks later, he ended up getting shot and killed. And it was a terrible tragedy, you know what I mean? And people can hate on me all if they want.

But, you know, he was becoming a good friend of mine. And we were able to have these conversations. You know, he was like, bro, like text me. Like, even after my last fight with Nelson, he reposted me on X. You know, he's like, he gave me a shout out. I don't remember exactly what it said, but he gave me a shout on an X. And, um, he, he gave me a shout on an X. And, um, he, he, he gave me a shout out. And yeah, man, we started to build this friendship. And it was such a sad thing for me because I, you know, I get to know him on a personal level. And so can you tell us about him? What was he like?

We know the guy, you know, in front of the cameras and what has been said, but you knew him as a friend, as you say, on a personal level. What was he like? Dude, I'll tell you what, man. He's probably one of the most respectful dude that you'll ever talk. He's super tall, like crazy tall, bro. Like pretty athletic. Like, you know, I didn't know he, you know, he could sling a football, bro. He could sling football for sure.

And every time we just, we hung out, man, he was just always more intrigued than me. You know what I mean? But, yeah, Ben, he would gloat about his family, you know, and obviously his belief in God and stuff. That's kind of where I met him was through church. So we were able to have these conversations and I'd even ask him, like, bro, like, how do you not punch him these guys in the face, bro? I was like, some of these guys are so rude, so disrespectful. And he's like, honestly, man, he says, Love God, man.

That's all I can say because I'm not saying I don't want to punch somebody in the face. He says, some people, they really know how to get into your nerves. But, man, he says, I just, you know, I just got trusting God that he'll just, you know, lead the way. And I can speak well. And he says, I have a whole prayer that I do before. And I was like, man, I was like, I was like, I was like, you got to rub off on me a little bit. Because, you know, for me, I'm like, they popping off at me. It's going to be a problem.

I was like, I'm a bottle turkey. It's a little bit different here, you know. But yeah, man, there were just moments that we just had lots of conversations. and, you know, in the time span that we were able to have conversations. And, you know, he got to meet my wife. He got to meet my dad. He got to meet my brother. You know, he's real close with, like I said, my pastors and stuff.

So, yeah, dude, it was just, it was a bummer, man. It was a bummer. Shocking, and especially for it to happen, you know, on video and the world has seen his family to have to endure that. Could I just ask, did you ever train with him? No, I did tell him to come to Jackson's, though. And he's like, he says, I don't know how to, I was like, I don't know if I know how to do all that. I was like, dude, of course you don't know how to do all that.

I was like, I'm going to show you. And he says, maybe one day. Like, he didn't commit to it. But he was, you know, I was trying to put it in his head. I'm like, bro, just come to Jackson's, bro. Because, you know, Jackson's has so many people that come through, no matter what you are, you be a politician, you'd be an actor, whatever case is. It's just an iconic place to have you sign a wall. It's, you know, it's just part of the, the theme over there at Jackson's.

And yeah, man, I wish we could have got him in there. I think that would have been a good time. Well, again, I'm really sorry about that. I didn't know that you guys were friends. And a very sad moment, I think, in our country's history, no one deserves that, as you said. And regardless of how you feel about him or his politics or what side of the fence he's on, no one deserves that. And I think your message was very much on point. Like, it's crazy that we are getting to these points.

And not to say that this hasn't happened over the course of America's history. history, but it should never happen. No one deserves that. No family deserves that. So, yeah, I think everybody should go home to their families, man. Like, I, like, if the person that, you know, may it pull the, you know, pull the trigger. I mean, what if we didn't agree with you? Does that not mean you get to go home? Like, oh, like, it's okay to have an opinion. It's okay to disagree, but we just, it's a conversation. You know what I mean? And that's kind of like the worst part of it all is that like he wasn't, he wasn't literally violent or, you know, physical people. He set up a tent and he gave someone a mic. You know what I mean? Like,

you know, I felt like everybody should should be allowed to have a conversation with anybody and, you know, we should still be able to like dab each other up, you know, after the conversation and be cool with everybody, but it's not like that anymore. That's one thing that I think I respected out of Charlie the most was that he was able to still have conversations with people that didn't like him. And, you know, I think we all need to probably learn to do that better. You know, I don't always have to agree with you, but we can still be cool afterwards. It's all right. We can still be friends. It's all right. Like, it's not a problem. You know what I mean? We might not be the best of friends, but nobody's getting hurt about over it, you know? By the way, switching topics,

and I couldn't agree more. Four out of your last five at the apex. We got to get you out of the apex, right? I mean, we need you. Dude, I'm the apex king. You want that? I have six knockouts. All right, all right. I want, I want, I want, I want, I want live audiences. That's, that's, because I think that would help put you over a little bit like the crowd goes crazy it just adds a lot of energy right dude there's nothing like even when i fought in Nashville with cater bro like the energy was electric and a lot of them were we're cheering cater on i think i won some of them over though because you know they were starting to cheer for me afterwards but dude it just there's something about being in front of you know a live audience is this gladi your likeness to um fighting right so uh i think i need

I think I need an audience. I mean, what do you think? Oh, 1,000 percent. I mean, if we want to get into it, I don't think any of the UFC fight should be happening at the apex anymore, but I think you guys deserve to be all fighting in front of thousands of people going crazy for you. You've earned that, but yes, of course, with the streak that you're on, and I can understand a, you know, if it ain't broke, don't try to fix it, but like people have to view you as

a star in order to get behind you fighting for the belt, you fighting in front of a T-Mobile crowd or Madison Square Garden or one of the things. these big arenas, I think does a lot for your star power, your brand, all that stuff. So I would love to see it happen. By the way, is it true that your dad said to you before the fight, like, go be violent or something like that? That's not usually something you hear from your dad. What exactly did he say to you?

And does he often say this before your fights? He's only told me twice, and so this is one of them. But he told me this, he told me to go be violent. I think it was, gosh, I've had so many. I might have been the Nelson one Okay I think it was the Nelson one But yeah man

Yeah he's something like Steve You go be violent And you go show them What you can do He says they can't match you They don't know your energy They don't He says you have a different presence

About you And so I just had to go out there and show it man My dad My dad knows me better Than anybody else You know He's been with me

From the very very start And you know He's been in almost Every single fight that I've had there's business life for you he hasn't been a part of but um yeah man when your dad tells you to do something like that like he gives you the okay you're like say less let's go yeah that's uh that's great words of wisdom from your dad and i loved on the post show that you gave a shout out to the great

Diego brandow who's enjoying a renaissance he's won three in a row i actually saw his tough enough fight live we were there in Vegas um and it was amazing to see you know brand out still doing it all these years later. Is he seriously trying to get back to the UFC? I think he needs one more shot, man. I do. I think he needs one more shot. I think that if something lines up,

you know, or someone maybe even falls out, I think that could potentially get him in. I'm not sure. But he's ready. Man, like I feel like the Diego Brandenow 2.0 is literally lurking. He's his waiting for his opportunity

because they keep giving him, give him these uh these contenders over here at the uh tough enough events and he's finished two of them and the third one um you know they i know they went to a decision but he was just messing around and i'm like bro like not right now not right now you know what i know you want to be a fan favorite and stuff like that but bro they just freaking put these guys away uh he's yeah i mean he's doing he's he's done like a 180 he's literally just changed his whole life around um he's found you know he's found a good rhythm of things and I really hope to see him back in the UFC

I do think that if he's going to finish anywhere it needs to be in the UFC he's still dangerous as can be his grappling I do I've never seen someone grapple like him I really haven't and then the way he integrates it with you know his mixed martial arts and stuff like that

I mean this dude's incredible just to watch and I'm in the UFC you know what I mean like I'm just I'm his fan you know and love love having him around By the way, if it's Volk versus Diego Lopez, who do you like in that fight in that rematch? Diego. Oh, you think Diego wins? I think Diego wins.

Wow, why? Because the first one was too competitive. But what I will say is Volk did, you know, he learned some things, you know, obviously with Max the second time around. But I felt like Max won the second fight. So, I don't know. Diego has aura. Diego goes into these fights and, man, he really, He really shows up, and he's just hard to get rid of.

I think you could see the changing of the guard kind of happening. And I think that last fight kind of showed it. You know, Diego was in there, and I feel like with some fine-tuning, you know, I think he, you know, fixes a couple things. I think he can walk away with that. I don't think he'll finish Volk, but I think he can get the decision. Wow, wow, wow. This time next year, has Steve Garcia fought for a UFC title?

not yet not yet I gotta go through too many but I'll be knocking on the door wow hey listen I appreciate the realistic view that you take on things

because I think a lot of people be like yes I'll be champion already but and that doesn't mean that I think that your confidence is wavering

in any way shape or form but I think you're a realist a lot more people have to bleed before they give me a title shot okay I have to finish

a lot more people Ariel and that's why I'm so zoned in I'm so locked in nobody's safe with me everybody's in danger. Like, even if you can be the best wrestler,

the best guy, I don't care. I really don't care. I'm one of the best fighters on this planet. And I believe that. Everybody's going to take some time to believe that, too. I love it. I love the confidence. Congratulations on the run, the win, incredible stuff,

and looking forward to seeing what you do in 2026, my man. All the best, congrats, and thanks, as always, for the time. Thanks, Sarah. I appreciate you, brother. There he is, Steve Garcia. you can feel the intensity. I love it. And I appreciate the candor

and the realistic approach to the game. I mean, there's Laronne out there, there's Mosa out there, the Diego take is a great one. So let's see how it all plays out, but interesting times at 145 pounds. We do have an update on a couple of things, actually. One, and we're going to get into this more

in a moment with our next. guest, our final guest of the day. One item that I wanted to bring up is from the UFC. This is courtesy of Aaron Bronstetter, who works for Roger Sportsnet up in Canada, official statement from the UFC on the irregular betting patterns prior to the Delgarian Del Valle bout, quote, like many professional sports organizations, UFC works with an independent betting integrity service to monitor wagering activity on our events. our betting integrity partner IC 360 monitors

wagering on every UFC event that is conducting a thorough view of the facts surrounding the Delgarian versus Del Valle bout on Saturday, November 1st. We take these allegations very seriously and along with the health and safety of our fighters, nothing is more important than the integrity of our sport. Love the fact that they came out with that statement.

That's the statement that has to come out no later than today. Guys, I haven't been really on line here. did they say anything about his release or anything like that, or that was it? Okay. Andy, could you tell me about that? No. Oh, thanks, Frank.

You're welcome. Is it a coffee break? No, man. I'm kidding. Sometimes I just assume that Pizzi's just always there. Yeah, I have that same fear. Hmm. There's a bunch of breaking news happening here.

No, no, no. Well, no. No. Would you say, all right, you know what, man. I'm just, I'm trying to get any type of, I guess they don't really announce these things. But we have more to get to regarding other topics. For now, though, I do want to bring in Yahoo Sports's senior betting analyst. Who better than the great Ben Fox, formerly of the athletic ESPN USA Today, Vizen, Sports Betting Network, Brooklyn's own to join us right here in studio to talk about this massive

story. There he is. Ben is here. Please. Please, Ben, welcome. This is fantastic. Who would have thought? Hello, Ben. How we doing? How are you? How are you? Please have a seat. Have a seat. What's so great about this is usually at the end of the show, and please don't mind my Toronto Blue Jays shrine here on the desk. You're all good. What's so great about this is usually at the end of the show, I'll walk to the other side of the office here to get a snack or two because the real ones know that the better snack room is. Of course. And you sit there and you're usually the only one left and we'll chit-chat about the Blue Jays or the Bills, and now here we are talking about this massive story.

Yeah, you've got to go where the executives have the snacks, right? That's where the top ones are going to be. Yeah, how are you doing with the Blue Jays too? If the Bills lost, I didn't know if you were going to show up today. Matt Prater hit that, you know, that the doink. And I was questioning everything. Yeah. It was a tough 24 hours.

I could, I mean, I lived through 13 seconds. Yep. You're here to tell about it. 22 seconds, no timeouts, and they needed a touchdown, not a field goal. So it was a little different. But yes, I was sweating it and I was questioning everything. Yeah, I could imagine. At that same time, at that same time, here's New York Rick coming back to crack the whip.

Is it about the microphone? I'm going to straight in the laptop, like, screen. Oh, because we could see his screen or what is it? Or he's covering the shot? Oh, there we go. They run a tight ship here. Is that good? Just walk in here, help him out.

Everyone knows you, Rick. You're not a stranger. You usually sit in this desk. If you want to get rid of the jersey if it's bothering you Is it bothering you? No, no. Okay.

Is that good for you, Rick? At the same time, the Knicks were losing to the Bulls in like game five of the regular season or six, so a lot of bad things were happening. But we're not here to talk about all of that. Although I did see, by the way, it said like the Js had like a 91% chance of winning

by the time the top of the ninth. Sounds right, yeah. We don't need a rehash. We don't need to rehash. Okay. Okay. You're Yahoo Sports's senior betting analyst. Did I get that title, right? So that's why I wanted to have you on because, you know, you can have people who are maybe like working for the books or stuff like that, but like you look at all of this from a journalistic perspective. Also, by the way, if you can tell the audience, how long have you been doing this, this particular role, looking at sports gambling and whatnot? Yes, I've been at Yahoo since March and then have been doing sports gambling in some capacity since 2010 for 10 years at ESPN. Wow.

Not long, huh? Yeah, yeah. So it was working with Chad Millman and editing his podcast, and then we launched ESPN Chalk, the first sports betting section on kind of a mainstream media site, and then was out in Vegas at Vison and now at Yahoo.

So a lot of sports betting over a lot of years pre-legalization and then now post-legalization as well. And I saw you get mentioned on McAfee's show, you were on Rome show. I mean, talk about going from the Penn House to the Outhouse here on the Ariel Hawanee show,

but we do appreciate it. Okay, so let's talk about this Delgarian Del Valle fight. Yep. No chance you were even paying attention to this. I mean, it's Game 7 of the World Series very much under the radar. But as we've chronicled throughout the day, about an hour before the fight, some interesting, maybe questionable stuff is starting to happen.

What do you know? What can you tell us from your perspective? Because I just want to hear you talk about it. What do you know about this story? Yeah. I mean, I'll give a very brief summary, right? So obviously legalization, May 2018, up until October, 2012. UFC fighters were allowed to bet on themselves, right?

So that's something very different than MLB and other sports, obviously. Who are never allowed. Right. Every sport's a little different in terms of whether you can bet on other sports, professional sports, things like that. But your sport, you can't do that. Fighting a little different, obviously also different because you're the one controlling the outcome. It's not a team sport, just one person. So that happens in October, in November, that November 5th fight in 2022, that is the Derek Minner,

and you'll have to help me with the opponent, Shilin. I want us to hear you try. Nerdin B.A.K. Not bad. Nerden Becky. There you go. Not bad. Not bad.

So that was another case, right, where we saw, and this was connected to the trainer, James Krause, where basically the odds moved a ton before the fight. And in this case, it was moving towards the favorite. And same thing. A lot of favorite to win in round one. And then that's exactly what happened. That fight. Again, there was an alert sent out.

There was investigating. which I believe still ongoing and that kind of was I guess one of the first ones right that was a big event something kind of was similar that we saw on Saturday so Saturday morning some sports books I spoke with took large bets basically on Del Valle to win who's the underdog yeah right so again nothing necessarily off about that people have some sort of opinion that's totally fine but there are also kind of some on new accounts right accounts that didn't have any other bets on them some that were on account right sports books keep track of everything so they know what accounts are doing well not doing well some sharp accounts they then had been dormant for a while all of a sudden

they were also betting when you say sharp sorry i love all these terms what does that mean what does sharp account mean so in other words an account that usually wins that's making money okay Sportsbooks know, right, this is your record on every sport because they track every single bet. So that sets off some red flags. A lot of bets as well going for just who's going to win in the first round and Del Valle winning in the first round. So that sets off some red flags. Some of those bets are reported to gaming and compliance. Basically, at around 3 p.m., an alert goes out from one of the Eastern, one of the integrity

monitoring services, right? So sportsbooks are partnered with these services. Basically, they're also checking out who's betting on what. And they're saying, wait a second, for this type of fight, that's a lot of action on one side, right? That's odd. And so that comes out. Some sports books close the fight then. That's it.

Some keep it open. And then as the ones that kept it open, you saw that massive line movement in the hours before, where I think it was around a minus 230 favorite goes to minus 1. 50. Is this consistent with what you've heard? Yes. I think that's from Best Fight Odds or Fight Odds.com. And so there's a couple things, right?

Can I just ask one thing about what you just said? You just said some will close it, some left it open. The ones who close it, do they refund? Do they say we want nothing to do with this fight? Or do they just say like all bets final now? I think it depends on the book. Okay. Good question.

So one book I talked to, right, they took a bet from again, a respected person. the person actually wanted more money than they let them bet on that. And that was Dave I, just to win, not in the first round. After that alert went out, they went back to the better. Because, again, there's someone they know, they respect. They said, listen, an alert came out about this bet. Like, you can keep it, but, you know, there could be ramifications down the road. That person checked in with some other of their associates.

They actually canceled the bet. They said, we don't want to be associated with it. They basically were saying we don't know that anything's going on. and obviously the bookmaker didn't press them where they got that information from, but that was one bet that was just canceled. I think the other bets are probably just held. They're not paid out, and those are put towards, you know, compliance and regulators, and they'll see what ends up happening and what they find for those specific bets.

But basically what's odd when you have that line movement is that there's always a point of resistance, right? So betters are betting because they have an edge, right? They say, you know, whatever, it's bills plus two and a half. They think the line should be plus three. There's value other way. But they think there's value on that specific line. But once you get to a point, there isn't value, right? They're going to stop betting it.

On this specific thing, betters are just betting the underdog, and they're continually betting the underdog. And that's why the line keeps moving, and they're still betting the underdog. And no one is coming in on the other side. And that's where the suspicions start to get raised. this has happened in college basketball games last year as well. Like when no one is betting the other side, that's a problem. An example would be like the NFL game, right?

The Panthers are plus 13 and a half against the Packers, big spread. If that line gets to 14, 14 and a half, 15, 17, at some point, Sharps are going to bet the Panthers. There's too much value unless there's something unknown in the market, right? And if that is that there's something going on with the fight and you can't lose so that it doesn't matter what price you have. If you bet plus 200, plus 180, plus 150, it's just a question of how much money you're winning. That's where...

And there's no activity coming in on Delgarian at this point. It's all one-sided for the dog. Now, I don't want to say 100%, but the very... It's like a tidal wave. And it's specific, right? It's first round submission. There was a lot of first round, and then there was a lot of just to win. Okay.

But both will win. Right, right. But there was that first round, I think, drive. drop from like plus 850 to plus 475, which is also a big of a guy who's never lost via first round, anything, has never been stopped. Right. By the way, why wouldn't these people like just sprinkle a little bit here to sort of try to offset it, you know, like the hedge a little bit, just not as much, but so that it doesn't seem

so obvious? You could, because people are greedy. And that's basically what it ultimately comes down to. And that's where a lot of the integrity comes in because there's just all that money on one side and then someone told their cousin and then someone told this family member and then they opened up that account, and all of a sudden they might have only told three people, and now there's 50.

This clearly went a lot of places. Information travels quickly in the gambling community. People knew something was up, and people either stayed away from the fight or said, hey, I think this is a free bingo square. A lot of people are betting $50, $100, right, doing what they call chasing steam. If the line's moving that quickly,

they figure somebody knows something, let me follow that. It's not like they would have bet the fight, before but they figure hey this line's moving somebody knows something okay i'm going to get in and some people like i'm just staying away right right right okay so then what happens this is like a round we're now at like three o'clock yeah so then basically some books close it yeah some books keep it open you get that betting pattern i talked about and then the fight goes on obviously it goes kind of the way of the betting right he wins in the first round uh i'm not a ufc expert but apparently you know The post-game commentary was like, well, this seems a little suspicious, right?

Just it didn't kind of pass the smell test. And I think what's interesting as well that I can't remember seeing is two books, Caesars and William Hill tweeted that they were refunding losing bets on the fight. Now, sportsbooks have started to do this with either bad beats or injuries. What's a bad beat? What does that mean? So bad beat, meaning let's say if the bill somehow had lost that. game. Like that, the bill should be the right side. They probably should have won, but they ended up

losing right at the end. They'll do it for that, even though it's fair and square. Correct. Really? Correct. So this has been a... Is this like a PR thing? Exactly. This is, this has gone all the way back. If you remember that New Orleans Saints Rams championship game where the Saints wide receiver got decked. The Rams end up going to the Super Bowl winning the Super Bowl. It was clearly past interference, didn't get called. Yes, yes, yes. I believe Fanatics started kind of that as a bad-beat insurance. Now a lot of sportsbooks do it. More often probably than it should. If I would have bet on the Blue Jays, would I got a bad beat refund? Possibly. It was just 4-3. But okay, I didn't even know that. Wow. Wow. So they'll do that, or now a lot of sports hooks will do for an injury,

right? Anthony Edwards goes out in the first quarter because he pulls his hamstring. Any props relating Anthony Edwards, you get refunded. Yep, yep. That type of thing. Okay. But I've never seen sports books do that. This was still a fight. It was a fight that went on. It was a fight where there was an outcome, and they were funding the losing bets, and they, you know, haven't responded to a statement as to why that is. There's obviously, as you can imagine, a lot of reaching out to a lot of sports books, a lot of no comments and, you know, keeping moving. Why wouldn't they comment just in your, added curiosity?

Because in your opinion, like, they want nothing to do with this. So I think Caesars and William Hill are handling it great, right? They're saying we're washing our hands of this situation. I've seen Draft King say we're not doing any. at this time. I don't know what Fandu has said, BetMGM, you may know. I think also haven't commented. I think some of it's just figuring out what to say first and then figuring it out. And also, you know, this happened on a Saturday night and probably what was good for them, right? What was on Sunday? The NFL. Also, Game 7 of the World Series.

And game seven was Saturday night. So this was definitely under the radar. And I think unless you're really a true year, this wasn't even a pay-per-view, right? So how much many people are watching. It was very under the radar. And care about that fight. Right. But the money always talks, and that's the same thing with the integrity monitors, everything else. They see, these are specific betting patterns. There's just, there's only so many things it can be. So then what happens? So now we're here and basically some of those sports books have refunded those wagers. The UFC gave a statement on Monday to ESPN, basically just saying that they work with an independent integrity service, which is IC 360. Do you know them? I've heard of them.

Okay. Does every league have this? Every league is partnered with one of them, if not all of them. Okay. So you can't, I can't necessarily say that every sportsbook got this alert at 3 p.m., but several of them did. The UFC definitely knew about, they received this alert. They're all partnered with all the monitoring services. is they're basically just saying, you know, we're doing a thorough review of the facts surrounding the fight. They take the allegation seriously, and nothing's more important than the integrity of the sport. So kind of a boilerplate comment, as you expect. And I think now it's kind of in the hands of, you know, gaming and compliance and regulators and local and state authorities is to see what kind of happens from here. Right. And we'll see. But it's just a wild story on the,

heels of obviously the NBA indictments and everything else. And Delgarian got cut yesterday. As you reported. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Was that, did he have any fights remaining on his contract? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. And the other thing is like he was a good prospect. Like everyone spoke very highly of him, only one lost, three and one going into that fight. Not your

typical guy. Like even if he loses that fight, he's still three and two. He's got above 500 record. And they don't usually cut like on a Sunday morning that quickly unless something controversial happens right um or they've just had enough of a guy but like he i don't think he would be your prototypical guys so i think they want to wash their hands of this situation yeah and i believe uh cash patel ringside as well he's a big fan he's a big fan yeah um and i don't know like he he was very out in the open you know regarding the NBA investigation at that press conference what do you think? Do you think they go hard in the paint here to steal a pun? Because, I mean, how do you not look into this? Oh, they definitely will be looking into it. And ultimately, I think

pretty much everything generally comes out, right? We saw that a little bit with the NBA, where the NBA basically was saying we can only do so much, whereas the FBI has a lot more powers and things that they can do. So depending on what level it gets to, obviously sports leagues and the UFC don't want to be talking about this you want to be talking about the actual sport and the cars and the fighters but things like this especially with the internet with legalization with integrity monitoring they don't go under the radar in the same way they might have 10 years ago where this is a local bookie or they heard from someone's friend that hey something was up like these things happen they look off potentially in this case

there also is a lot of money on that side and it was alerted and kind of all the the steps you would hope with legalization would happen and again the benefit right of having all that money above board but ultimately people are greedy and that's kind of a question of is it again bad actors something more this is the same thing with the NBA where what is what is the root cause I think we're hopeful it's just a couple of players and whether in debt something else but it's unfortunate to more of my job than I'd like it has been the last couple of weeks has been you know figuring these cases out reading indictments as opposed to figuring out you know what we're doing on the field or in the ring the fun stuff yeah um if you're if you're a company like

uh draft kings a book betmgm fandu etc is there enough now to say like because of all these people came in and and hammered the underdog so they're losing money right as a result is there enough now to be like, yo, we're voiding this and you're not getting your money? Like we're not paying this out? Or can they not do that now? I think it's a book by book, state by state. Is there any sort of precedent for that? I'm sure there is. I can't think of one off the top of it. Because I would imagine you'd have a lot of pissed off people. Like if you if you put down a thousand bucks because you were just some dude on Twitter who was following this and like, let me get in on this, right? You really had nothing to do. You're just like an innocent bystander, but you're seeing something

going on. And you were going to make, I don't know, what the line was, let's say it was like plus 400 or something like that at that point. Now you're making, you know, a pretty penny. Can they cancel that and take the money back? I think probably if it's deemed that it wasn't too soon now for that. Yeah, yeah. Okay, okay. But ultimately, yeah, if it was, let's just, you know, I don't want to speculate, right, but if it was a fighter and he told a couple people, and they're the only people who actually had inside information, there's a lot of people just riding the coattails who didn't know anything, then yeah, theoretically you could void everyone's bets. A lot of people don't know anything. They're just betting on that, or some people might

have just liked him to win. So it's not everyone together. That being said, you also can't parse through necessarily all of those different bets. So it probably will be a more sweeping thing at some point, but I think they're just figuring out what to do. And right now it's kind of take the wagers, report to compliance, and wait. I'm asking you very specific question. questions here that may be impossible to answer, and it's probably because I don't know enough about this world. But would anyone ever be able to know, like, how much money was bet on this particular prop bet, like first round submission? You could stitch it together by sportsbook. By sports book, right? So now again.

Do sports books even say that? Like, do they reveal that? Do they say like... Not publicly. Not publicly. Yeah, yeah. But they'll know. And again, that's part of what sets off red flags, right? And same thing with the NBA with the Terry Rozier, right, is you know for his under points, let's just say there's usually $50,000 nationwide bet on it, right, and making up a number. But all of a sudden, there's 300 grand and it's 280 grand on the under. That's going to set off a lot of red flags. And I would imagine that's the same with this fight, right? If normally it has, we'll call it $100,000 on the fight. And all of a sudden now there's $500,000 with the vast, vast majority on one fighter and that fighter to win in the first round, and that fighter

is an underdog, that's where, you know, I think there's those concerns come up. And unlike the other fight in 2022, when there was, I think, a potential injury, right? And that could be also a reason, should he have been fighting, et cetera. It doesn't seem like you would know better than I would. There's an injury. It just kind of seems like a random thing. Right. Something happened. Right. And that's also what we're dealing with the NBA case, right? Is it one player who's manipulating, like John Day Porter, their stats to go under versus, let's say, potentially a player like, or a former coach like Damon Jones telling somebody, hey, LeBron isn't playing tonight, they're giving inside information, right? But it's not a player manipulating it. Right, right, right. So there are, I guess,

levels to it as well. None of them are good, but there are somewhat levels, I guess. One thing that always gets brought up when these stories happen is, like, I remember when when ESPN was talking about the Billups-Rosger story when it broke and everyone's like, oh, look, there's an ESPN bet logo and then they like kind of slowly took it away. And there's this awkward dance that we're having to play now

because everything is so legal. UFC, they have the lines right up there on the screen, like when they lower third the fighter in the cage. They were the first, I do believe, of the major sports organizations to really, you know, they're Vegas based and all that. It all kind of made sense.

Do you think it's gone too far? do you think they're going to have to peel back the sports leagues with all the advertising and all the in the middle of the broadcast they're talking prop bets i mean like joe davis before the world series game is giving us like the parlay the fan duel parlay it's yeah it's surreal you know yeah do you think it's gone too far i think we have reached or will reach a tipping point and you've seen this overseas right like in in england they've had betting legalized far longer than we have what happens eventually you hit some tip tipping point and there's restrictions on advertising or how much you can bet or proof of income

or all these other things, we tend to go in the U.S. big, right? We go too quick probably and those things are probably going to happen. It's the same thing with the NBA. Do you need to be able to bet on the props for, let's say, 13 out of the 15 guys on the roster? Probably not. You could probably do the top eight, let's say, or eight to 10, but the issue is those are what's powering same game parley's. And that's how a lot of people are betting, and that's also their highest margin product. So sports books are going to be reticent to get rid of those because that's their best selling. It's like telling a restaurant, don't sell alcohol when you're making the most money off of it. So I think there will be some pushback a little bit, but ultimately it's

probably going to be leagues advising saying, hey, we'd love it, sports books, if you could do this. And then sports books still have the choice, right? They want to be good partners. But just because the UFC says, hey, we want you to do this. They don't have to do it. It's more an advisement as opposed to something that's, they have to do it. And when you say a tipping point, what do you think eventually happens? I think they'll just be less advertising. And for whatever reason, like sports betting. You don't think it'll become illegal again? No. Like the toothpaste is what like this? Yeah, yeah. There's too much money. And I do think these cases are, again, it's a little weird that I think people associate now sports betting's legal now we're seeing a lot

more of these cases which is true that's also because they're being caught that doesn't mean they weren't happening pre 2018 but yeah there's too much money I think we'll just see a little reduction in advertising a little reduction maybe in the betting menu there's there's a lot to bet on arguably too much stuff I'm as big a fan it's been my career that I kind of fell into but at a certain point we shouldn't be able to bet on the weather right and everything you do that under the world not not on sports books okay on other in other areas but like at certain point it's a lot it's too much right weather really you know elections there's at a certain point i think uh will be too far and so we'll we'll get there it'll sort itself out and ultimately i think it's a little bit like a kid in the candy store right

where at some point you're going to get that stomach cake because you had all the candy like right now it's amazing we're just we're eating from every single sour patch kick cat everything did you ever think we'd get to this point oh yeah you you knew all along because ultimately there are also businesses and businesses are going to make right try and incentivize to make money that's why they're pushing parlays and all this other stuff they're not going to be going if they started small and pushed more into responsible gaming that would be different but we haven't we are where we are seven years in and now we have to kind of deal with the point where we are. Right.

Are you surprised, like you mentioned it, I was told this as well. The UFC knew about this, and my understanding is they spoke to him beforehand, like, is everything cool here, cool, cool, why not just pull the fight? Like, why not just pull the plug on the fight so that you don't subject yourself as an organization? Nothing I've heard suggests that they were in on it in any way, shape, or form. But there's still now a black eye on the organization. It's a UFC fighter in the headline, all this stuff.

Are you surprised they didn't do that? It's a great question. It's one I asked, specifically a bookmaker because I wanted to know. And ultimately, with the, basically the integrity monitors put out that alert, right, goes to the league. Then it's up to the league. So it's up to their discretion. Now, you've also covered the UFC for a long time. I don't know if they've ever canceled a fight for a reason not, let's say that's an injury or something.

So you're also calling a lot of attention, like whatever it is would come out, right? Because the first question is, why was that fight canceled? So in a way... Isn't it better than to have a potential fixed fight on the card? Potentially, although you also... In fact, I think it makes them look better. They'd be like, hey, we saw this and we pulled the plug. Don't you ever try to do this under our umbrella, no?

I think you could make that case. You could also make the case that it just came to light. And the fact it did go exactly how the money showed and how it looked like all these bets were, Kind of, and especially like you said, I didn't, you know, I'm not, a UFC reporter, whether they talked to him beforehand and talked to both sides. Like, you have then no kind of benefit of the doubt if you were warned beforehand, let's say, and then there was all this money, and then it went exactly according to how that money thought it might go. Do you think this is happening, just in your opinion, more than we know?

Sort of like steroids back in the day, where everyone was like, you know what, there's a lot more people on steroids than you think. people were saying this in baseball and even in fighting. Do you think this type of stuff is happening and sometimes it just doesn't get noticed or caught? Yeah. And ultimately, these are some of the difficulties, right? Like there's David Partum's doing a great job at ESPN investigating a lot of college basketball, right? Because college basketball, there's so many teams, a lot of these sports books, they're not making odds on, you know, Loyola Marymount versus whomever.

They're just putting that out to a third-party service who's giving them odds. they don't necessarily know exactly what it should be. So it's a lot easier to manipulate those, and we've seen that obviously with college athletes. Now they are getting paid, but not every college athlete is getting paid. So there's a lot of room, especially in college, which I think is why it's good

that they have eliminated in some states' player props for college athletes, right? Like should a Duke forward, you'd be able to bet over under 15 and a half points in a November game, you probably don't really need that, you know. And so the handle that you're losing from not having that, it is much, much better to not have that handle

than have some sort of scandal because you offered that. There's actually, it's not the same. It's not apples to apples, but there's a correlation between the college athlete and the UFC athlete because people who may not be UFC fans will be like, UFC, like that's the NBA, the NFL. But a guy like, you know, Delgarian isn't making a ton of money. Right, and I can't pay a lot.

I understand he recently had a kid, he was living in a trailer, like he, you know, he's fighting in the major leagues, but he's not getting millions of dollars, even hundreds of thousands of dollars. So someone comes in and gives them an opportunity, just saying hypothetically, those are the types of people that would do this, you know? 100%. And also, that's the concerning part about the NBA ones, right? Is Tara Rozier made over $100 million in his career, like Chauncey Billups, made plenty of money, Hall of Fame player. So that's the hope is those are outliers versus, yes, Yes, generally you're worried about the Jonté Porter's, right? The minimum guys, guys making less who maybe this is one shot, no one will be hurt, et cetera, et cetera. And then we've seen how that happened, ended up for Jonte Porter. But I think, to your point, the athletes not getting paid as much, referees, that's where some of the concerns are. Yes, yes, there's been some questionable calls. Regarding the NBA, when do you think we'll get a resolution to this?

I mean, they still got the whole clippers. saga with Goli Leonard, right? Jesus. Oh, yeah. And is the FBI investigating that? That one, I'm not sure. Okay. But, but, but, like, this, this, like, because Billups is still technically the coach, right? He's, like, been suspended, or I guess,

he's on leave. On leave. Yeah. And I guess they can't fire him unless they know. Could this take years, though, and he's just going to be lingering on leave? I mean, I can't imagine it would be before the end of the season. Okay, okay. But it's, it's hard to know, ultimately. Yeah. And this is a huge crisis. for the leagues, right? Because their integrity is called into question.

Yeah, and Billups wasn't named, so he was named in the poker indictment. Right. He was charged. He was not named in the sports betting indictment, but there's a co-conspirator 8, which whose description basically matches up with Chauncey Billups. At the time, he was also a coach of the Trailblazers and basically told some, an associate that they were sitting all these players before a game and that associate bet against them and they got killed by the Bulls. So, whether or not that means he's looking to make a deal, and that's why he wasn't named. It's unknown, and again, all this is still alleged.

Why would they name him for the poker charge, but not, why is it, you know? I think maybe in case there's a deal to be made or something in that case. But, yeah, I'm learning more. What a world here. It's like, you know, I wasn't a lawyer, but I stayed at a Holiday and Express last night. That's why I feel like the last couple weeks. Yeah. It's like us when there's like a big steroid scandal.

all of a sudden I'm talking about like all this stuff, you know, that I know really nothing about. Right. But you're thrust into it. Yeah. Yeah. And again, far from an expert, but have these sports book sources, so at least try and figure out as best you can kind of what happened. And as well with sports betting now, it's in every state, right? And there's different books in different states.

And so all of a sudden, a puzzle that was just in Nevada is now in all these different places. And so that's also what makes some of these things easier in a way is that if you are attempting to do something like this, you now may have someone who's in Kentucky and Illinois and New York and New Jersey and all these other states. It's just very different than if it was illegal or only in Nevada. You can get down a lot more money potentially. Obviously, it's going to be flagged if you get down all of this. are they freaking about this or is this just another day in the in the world of sports gambling i think it's i don't know about freaking i think at a certain point some of this stuff like you said generally goes on i think some of it probably more of it

has happened before legalization than we would know of but a certain point when you talk about tipping one it's just public perception right yeah we just had show hey otani right a couple years ago. We had some MLB players now with the first pitch where they threw it outside the zone, way outside the zone. And then there were some odd betting about people betting the first pitch. Again, whether or not you should be able to bet on the first pitch of innings is different. Now we have the NBA indictment. Now there's UFC, right? We're hitting a lot of leagues and people just connect point A. We legalize sports betting to point B. Now it seems like there's scandals in every sport. And that's when you start to get, you know, I believe there was a Senate committee who

sent a letter to Adam Silver basically saying, hey, we'd want to kind of see what you did with this investigation. Because remember, the NBA investigation. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Nothing came of it. So I think we'll start to see probably a little more of that and just there are a lot of eyeballs on this because there's a lot of money involved. And ultimately, if you don't have integrity in the sports, you don't have anything and that is the number one thing with legalization that everyone says what all the sports leagues were against it is just we have to have integrity or else they were against it all of them even though it brought so much money right so they were again now you could say publicly versus privately but they were sewing new jersey so got it got it got publicly they were against it until it

was legal and then all of a sudden some deals were signed right right last thing for you and this has been amazing thank you really appreciate it what is the next step for this particular case. And you may not know the answer, but what can we expect as far as, not from the UFC perspective, but from like the sports books perspective. So basically the sports books kind of hand over,

essentially the evidence, right, that they have, which is, hey, at this time, we took this bet. Here's, you know, he or she's betting account. This is kind of what they usually have. It was at this time, this amount, and here's why we flagged it. And then they'd hand that over basically to the, I said, local officials, the integrity monitors, they have to work together and kind of piece

together all this what happened when, you know, then like you said, the alert went out, which sports books were open, and all the sports books, I think, are then also going through the integrity monitors and through the law enforcement. So there's a lot to sort out, and then at some point, you kind of, you know, they'll come to a conclusion, but it tends to be a lot of right now and then a long wait, right? Because it's not like this is going to be on Thursday. Right. We're going to have a resolution.

Obviously, the leagues want everyone to be talking about the leagues and the action as they should. Something will eventually come out of it. We'll have some resolution, but I don't think it's going to be any time particularly soon. Okay. Ben, fantastic stuff. Where can people see more of your work? Yeah, just at Yahoo! Yahoo Sports.

I've heard of it. Yeah, the new betting hub. There is a betting hub up there. Betting hub, yeah. Betting links. We're just trying to match your numbers. That's what we're doing. We've got a little ways to go.

By the way, are you guys covering this today? Or are you just leaning on us? Are we taking over the betting page too today? This will be, I think it'll be a video will be our coverage. Is this top story? Yeah. This is story number one on the betting page. We can put it up there.

I haven't written a newser yet on it. I think I'll probably have that. Look at you ESPN guy using the newser terminology. What can I say? I love it. Old habits die hard. I heard Shohei was maybe they're going to give the World Series or no, no, no. Yeah.

Retroactive. Yes, exactly. Yeah. Thank you so much. Really appreciate it. You can now walk like a hundred feet back to your desk. What a great thing. There he is, everyone. Ben Fox. Thanks, man. Not to be confused with the great Ben, folks.

I've always, one day we're going to get you two in the same room. Brothers from another mother. Yes. He's been all over this as well. Thank you so much, my friend. Great, great insight. So now we've covered this from many different angles. Got G.C.'s insight. Got Ben's insight.

My reporting as well. Great stuff. Who, me? Do you see you there? Stuff. Wow. Yeah, man, I'm here. Okay, okay.

I know, I went to you before and they said that you were out for a coffee or something. No, I mean, I sit here for just hours and hours on. And then every time. And every time you come to me, I'm not here. Why is that? I don't know. You did take a little jab at the beginning of the show, though I was sitting here.

I'm like, oh, I didn't know if you were here. Oh, that was because, I don't know. What did we talk about? your uh your flu shot uh snafu and then developing the actual flu right right right the numb legs the numb legs was weird i think i had sciatica but you remember when you said you got sick a few months ago that you also had the numb legs i'm starting to see a pattern here what does that mean what does that mean we used to call when frankie was getting sick back in the day in the vox days we used to call him frankie numb legs oh no yeah by the way i didn't complain i wasn't complain

I was just trying to tell you that it's been a very trying few days for me. I'm glad you're battling, man. We're glad you're battling, man. We're glad you're battling. We appreciate it. It's not quite flu game, all right? It's not MJ-esque. MJF? No, MJ-esque. What about Ben Fox, though?

Great insight. Legend. Some digging, some reporting. Love that. I wonder, anything else happened? Oh, the question that I asked earlier was if the UFC said that he was officially released, but, I mean. I think we did.

I think Aaron Brons said her. Oh, he said that too. Got a statement? No, you got a statement regarding like the investigation. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. All right.

Well, the story will continue to evolve. I want to talk about some other things that have occurred as of late as well. If you guys aren't stressed for time.

I was actually hoping to get out of here, man. Okay. Hey, last week, everyone was going crazy over the fact that they put Bo Nickel on the 322 main card? Well, guess what? He's no longer on the main card because this weekend they posted that he's now

off the main card. Now, they didn't make a big announcement about this, but they posted the main card graphic and there it is. Benil Darius versus BSD. Edwards, Prakhes, Brady, Morales, Zhang, Valentina, subject. That's less than two weeks away now, believe it or not. But there it is. So is everyone okay with this now? Everyone's at peace with this. Love it. Great five-pack. I hate it. You hate it. I wish Bo was back on the main card. Of course. Cards incredible. I cannot wait for it. Can't wait for that

whole week. The people that get upset about all this, I'll never. Yeah. Well, especially if like, again, if you're a fan of BSD, why are you mad that you don't have to pay for him? He's going to fight. No, I know, but like if you're, is it just a, You know, like I get it from a stature standpoint. But if you're truly mad, the only people who should be truly mad are like, oh, you know, my guy, you know, I wanted to watch him for free or I didn't want. You know, like, who cares? They think it's a, like, a badge of honor. That is, that is, it's an accolade at the point.

Also, anyone complaining about this is not, it's not paying for the fights. You always said. Yeah, that's true to you. That's a good point. They're not putting the paper. That's a good point. They're watching it no matter what. That's a great point.

You think so? Yes. Yeah. Really? The good news is we don't have to talk about any of this come 2026. Will we even have main cards when Paramount starts? Yeah, maybe it's just one stream. Or will it just be the card?

Hmm. No, I think they'll still break it down that way. Like, even now, it's on ESPN and it's still like main card prelims, you know? No, I feel. No, at least, ESPN Plus has transitioned to like you just click it. No, I know that, but there's still a sort of delineation. Yeah. There's still a delineation.

The other thing is it appears as though the Jake Plosses. versus Tank Davis fight is on thin ice, shaky ground. Again, I've been locked in here, but that was as of, well, you know, 1245. I'm pretty sure it has been reported by multiple outlets that they are, well, first of all, MVP put out a statement that they were doing their own investigation after the reports regarding the new Tank Davis allegations came out last week. And there is no conclusion to that investigation. But it seems like all signs are pointing to them going in a different direction. A civil lawsuit was filed in the Miami-Dade County region.

According to the lawsuit, Davis is being accused by an ex-girlfriend of battery, aggravated battery, false imprisonment, kidnapping, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Lawsuit comes two months after Davis's previous domestic violence case was dropped by a different ex-girlfriend and the mother of two of the boxers, three children. I just think MVP is in the business of being the home of women, right? At this point, like, that's a huge part of their identity. What is their identity? It's Jake Paul and women's boxing. That's their identity right now. And they've done a phenomenal job for the women.

And so how would these allegations lingering and now coming to light two weeks before, how can you go through with it? And it sounds like they feel the same way. It's an impossible spot to be. be in. The only part I'd say is, like, you kind of know who this guy is ahead of time. Like, it's not, this is not exactly a shocking revelation. Like, Tank Davis is, um, this is not the first rodeo. Um, but I do, I do think it's too close to the fight to really be, you know, messing around here. Like, you got to figure out a new solution. And so there's been multiple reports regarding

people that they've reached out to, names like Ryan Garcia have been brought up. Terence Crawford has been brought up, Francis Inganu has been brought up, and Francis Inganu spoke to TMZ today, and he did confirm that he was contacted, and the quote was, how can they go from Girvante Davis to Francis Inganu? It makes no sense. He was like, quote, we think about you to fight Jake. I'm like, what? Which Jake? Bro, come on. Don't disrespect me like that. What the fuck is that. That might have been the most timely what the F is that of all time.

What do you guys think about that stance from Francis? Because actually, there's a part of me that thinks take the fight, you knock him out, you'll be like 65 pounds bigger than him, and it's a nice little feather in your cap. I think that was a great backup solution. I think Francis versus Jake is a great fight. If it goes all according to playing,

And like he should theoretically get paid a bunch of money, knock out Jake Paul, and make off like a bandit. There is always the world where it goes awry. If he were to drop the fight to Jake Paul, I don't know. Right. But I mean, you can literally say that about any fight. Are you just saying that the risk is greater than the reward? I don't think so. In my eyes, losing to Jake Paul is worse than losing to Anthony Joshua.

Right. But what if the price tag was astronomical for that? That can't be that. I don't think Francis is a big risk to lose to Jake Paul, respectfully. Like, I think Francis probably is a decent-sized favorite in that fight. Has to be. He's so much bigger. How do you go from Tank Davis to Francis and Ghana?

Well, it's the other end of the spectrum, right? With Tank Davis, and I was on record saying, like, I thought he was going to dummy tank because of the size difference. Francis is a big boy, much bigger than Jake. And so, yeah, I don't know. That feels like a perfect fight for Francis Inganu. who, let's be honest, when you're looking around the landscape, doesn't have many great options right now. Like, there's not a no-brainer Francis Inganu fight

other than maybe the long-talked-about Deonti Wilder thing that seems to have life every so often. This would have been a great option for him. So I am a little surprised. Is there anyone in PFL? No. The winner of Nemcov Fajdas. I mean, especially if it's...

Do we want Faheda, too? No, no, no. I'm saying especially if it's... Jake Paul's more intriguing than those, no? Does he be low key? Credit to Jake Paul for being willing to fight. Hell yeah. Ten days.

I mean, you could say a lot of things about Jake Paul. Willing to fight is not the criticism of Jake Paul. Now, granted, there's going to be people who beats up old people, he beats this. But like, when you're going, I want Francis Inganu, it kind of falls on deaf ears for me. Like, Jake Paul wants to fight people. So who can he fight? I mean, I have no idea. So based on the reports.

it sounds like they're looking for a December date. So no one's going to want to fight on 12 days notice. That's more of like an MMA thing than a Boston thing. Yeah, for sure. But, I mean, that is in a month from now. And it could be in a month and a half. But, you know, we're in November. So a month, month and a half.

I don't know who the, like, of all the names mentioned, Francis to me was like, oh shit. Yeah. Because there's still some unknown regarding Francis. 100%. He's coming off a knockout loss. I know it was to Anthony Joshua. Francis is not a boxer by trade

So that makes a lot of sense It's a good fight Like everyone always said he would He would pick on the MMA guys Who are smaller than him Or that much older than him He kind of checks off both boxes In that he's not that much older

And oh by the way He's that much bigger And he fought Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua It's not like he's some snow off the street Like I think it makes a lot of sense It really makes a lot of sense I'm surprised Tommy Fury

No, please, God, no. Let's not do this again. Please, God. I mean, KSI would be great, but Mams just said, you need surgery. I wish you would have had the surgery already. So these things could be in play. It can't be Tommy, right? You can't do, well, the thing is, like, you can't do the KSI fight this fast.

Like, that needs a proper build-up. The Tommy one, you can. It's sort of like the Tyron Woodley thing in that, like, you can, there's a history there, there's commentary, there's footage. Like, you can whip that up. The problem with Tommy is, it's still unclear. or whether or not he can come into the country, and I don't think he has come into the country since he was told and, you know,

the family was told that they couldn't. So I don't think they're going over to the U.K. Who's interested in Tommy Ferry versus Trump? Are you interested in Ryan Garcia? Fuck yeah. Well, it sounds like that was something that. Do you disagree, G.C.? No, I am interested in that.

It was just Rick's answer, maybe not. So he's bigger than Ryan, excuse me, than Tank. You know, historically. Still small, but 47, 154, whatever. You know, but yes, bigger. Oscar Delahoya, from a very familiar setting, went to his social media and replied to the talk of a potential Ryan Garcia versus Jake Paul fight. Take a listen. What's up, guys? Happy Saturday. So I wake up to calls from reporters asking me about Jake Paul and Ryan Garcia. Let me just tell you why this fight is not going to happen. Ryan Garcia fights for the zone and Jake Paul fights on Netflix.

I mean, that's pretty much the bottom line. Golden Boy has a contract with the zone. Ryan Garcia has a contract with Golden Boy. And that's just the way it is. I mean, this is business. You know, Ryan Garcia is probably going to rant saying, oh, you're keeping me from making money and this and that and fighting. No, you have to go by the law, by the rules.

You have a contract with the zone. You have a contract with Golden Boy. It just doesn't happen that way. So anyway, until, So next time, we'll see you Saturday for Virgil Ortiz, but again, Ryan Garcia's next fight will be announced by me, who is fighting, and when he's fighting next. See you guys. We were there.

We were in that room. Rick and I, Casey. Great debut, by the way, from Casey on the boys in the back on Thursday. Great stuff. The people love Casey. So let's see how this all plays out. Do you guys think he fights in December? Yes, because I think Jake is the type to make a fight happen no matter what.

So yes, I do believe he will fight. The other thing that I think is at play here, they can't just come up with like some sort of, like, they want this card to be on Netflix. And there's a certain standard, right? So far, Netflix is Netflix. And the first three events were Blockbuster on Netflix. So Netflix isn't going to just, they won't accept just some random thing that nobody cares. 100%. Yeah.

Paul Borland, too, is not on... I don't know if you could sell that. Ryan Borland. Paul, Paul. Come on, Brian. Paul. Paul slash Ryan Borland, too. My bad.

On the poster. Yeah, yeah. Put it up. Well, the good news is if you were debating between going to both events, perhaps, you know, the decision has been made for you and you can go to 322. Speaking of 322, our friend Ovin,

who does such a great job for us on the creative slash YouTube slash design. side of things. He had a great tweet regarding UFC 322. Look at this. Of the 26 fighters on the card, 21 coming off wins, 14 on winning streaks, nine on four plus winning

streaks, four on, it should be four and one in their last five. Five are nine and one in their last ten. Three undefeated, six unbeaten. That's quality stuff. Reminds me of this week's apex card. Stopping.

What I want to know is allegation. What's the breakdown of the main card versus the prelims? Because, you know, we've got to get it right. Look, I'm a man that cares about the main card versus the prelims. Oh, fuck off. No, you don't. The card gets better as it goes along. You want Islam Makashev, J.D.M. Fight three of the night?

Yes. I'll be done by whatever time, 7 p.m. Then you have to stick around for GM3, Kyle Dawkes Postlim. By the way, by the way, just going back to Delgarian, I did want to mention this. He was on M.MA junkie radio with my friends Goz and Goris. George and this has this has been brought up recently his take on gambling and the the cut that fighters should receive wanted to play this and get your guys take on this hey I said don't bet on me unless you're paying me some percentage I'm doing all the work that's how I feel about it you know what I'm doing like I work

my ass off every day you know I'm trying to support a family with this and I didn't I think they should put a like some type of clause like three or five percent of what you make goes to the fighter you know so that's a that's how i think they should do it because we're the ones putting our lives on the line we're the ones um you know sacrificing everything training all day long uh losing a social life all that type of stuff so yeah if you've been on me i want some of it weird gc that feels damning yeah that feels like if your mind is going there the week of yeah feels like he could potentially have gotten a call and someone was like three five three to five percent eh uh how about you get this much

and you just throw the fight All right. Well, let's see. By the way, speaking of money, guys, speaking of money, speaking of basketball, spoke about basketball with our good friend Ben Fox, saw this statement from the NBA regarding Joel Embed to the Philadelphia 76ers. And I was like, oh, that's interesting. Philadelphia 76er Senator Joel Embed has been fined $50,000 for making a lewd gesture on the court. It was announced today by James Jones, executive vice president of head, oh, and head of basketball operations. Incident occurred with $7,000. 1808 remaining the first quarter of the 76ers 109-108 lost to the Boston Celtics. Interesting. I was like, okay, what is this lewd? Well, what is this disgusting thing that Joelle Embed has done to earn a or warrant a $50,000 fine? And then I saw the videotape, and what a gesture it was. Here he is.

And one, bang. Bairna-na-na-na-na-na-na-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-na-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-degener-na-degener-degener-degener-degener-degener-degener-degener-deg. Degenerate into something more I just got tired of doing what you told me to do He did the DX chop Old school bang Not quite X if you know what I'm saying But it is the

The original chop if you will Worth 50K Come on guys lighten up I was gonna say 50K for that is insane Lighten up It's a bro I did that to my English teacher All right 10th grade English teacher

All right I mean there could be an argument That maybe you shouldn't have done that As opposed to let's all do it But I agree with you It's a little bit more That was like a DV chop, no? Yeah, it's nothing, man.

I like Embed saying, like, the refs are doing the gesture. Why am I getting fine? Yeah. Come on. By the way, are they doing the... Oh, they're doing it like... The charge. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

By the way, by the way, have I told you guys the aftermath of the infamous 10th grade DX chop story? No. I don't think so. You actually DX chopped to your English teacher. Oh, I knew that. Noon news. Oh, I don't think I knew that.

10th grade, so 7th grade through 9th grade in Canada, in Montreal, to be specific. in Quebec. There is no middle school. So 7 through 11 is our high school. That's high school. And then we go to Sijep, which is junior college and three years of university. So seven to seven to nine, I was at one school. Now, this school had two branches. It was Hertzley of Snowden. Hurtzley is Sondon. Seven to nine I was at Hurtzia Snowden. All my best friends were there. Summer of nine to ten. What's the difference between the two quickly? Two different parts of the town of Montreal. So it's just geographic. It's not like a different thing.

No, pretty much the same. Okay. Nine to ten, in between nine and ten, some of them, I say I need a change. And I'm feeling weird. I need a change. Everyone's like, what? You're leaving? Like, it was shocking news. I mean, this is like, what's a shocking departure in sports?

A guy leaves a team. It's like, it's like Johnny Damon, you know? It was the decision. You sat with Jim Gray and you were like, I broke everyone's heart. I broke everyone's heart. talents. And I went to like the rival school because they're like same name. Oh, they're rivals, even though they're the same school. Branches,

but they hate each other. We play them in sports, like they're rivals. It's like Yankees and Mets. You know what I'm saying? I know, but they're in their own school. They have the same name. That's why they're the biggest rival. Wow. You always hate the crosstown rival. It's like Arsenal and Spurs. Different colors on the jerseys? Oh, everything. Different names, different everything. Different like logos, everything. Huskies and

wild cats. So, so I switch one week into 10th grade I say I've made a horrible mistake horrible mistake I want to go back and they oblige they take me back I'm back one week back at the new old school I say oh no I've made a another big mistake I want to go back oh some things something's never changed whoa what and so now I go back now I go back now I go back to now what was the new old new school. Do you understand what I'm saying? Did you make a big announcement at this time? Did you make a big announcement on this one? I mean, I was a confused kid. At what point were they not like, this is the final? I mean, in retrospect, I wish my parents would

have told me that, you know, two moves prior. No more flip flopping. But I was going through it. I was emotional kid. I was going through it. In any event, you know, we're starting to get into wrestling at this point, you know, attitude era. And there was some sort of like interaction with an English teacher and I combined two very hot phrases at the time and the door, like I opened the door, the door swung open and I said, and that's the bottom line and I did that. I never said suck it, but I did do this and I did say and that's the bottom line. So it's a little stone cold here and it's a little DX there, right? Shortly thereafter, I get called into the principal's office and the, and I was a really good kid. Like I never got in trouble. And the teacher is

sitting there and she tells the principal, Mr. Superstein, that she was fearful for her life due to my actions. It's tough. Yeah. By the way, I said it's tough earlier. I don't know if you caught that. So now I'm thinking like, oh God, this is not good. Like I've already made a fool myself this year with the switching.

This is not good. She leaves Superstein coolest guy, shoots me straight. He's like, yo man, I know you're not a bad kid. I know you're going through it. take a deep breath like we'll figure this out nothing's going to happen to you okay and then i kind of like got back on the straight narrow but i was very embarrassed i was embarrassed the whole entire year all that anyway why am i telling you this that's 1998 okay four weeks ago i'm in montreal actually pause that five years ago no six years ago i'm at one of my

best friends wedding okay in Montreal grew up with her getting married we're back

in Montreal I'm at the wedding and I see this teacher there at the wedding still alive

oh yeah and I Frank they were dead at the wedding I mean she said she felt

I go up to my friend and I say why is Mrs. so and so at your

wedding and she said that's my mother-in-law now oh yeah God, what a small world.

Oh, that's incredible. And I'm like mortified. So it's the husband's mom? Yeah. Wow. Yeah, DX chopped your mom back in the day. I had no idea. She felt threatened for her life.

Yes, I had no clue. Like, they dated for a few years. This never came up. And I was friends with them. This never came up. Oh, by the way. Last name different. Wow.

Parents got divorced. Okay. Do you think the mom ever told the, I'm getting there. I'm getting there. We're on the dance floor. I'm like, my wife knows all about this. She thinks it's hilarious. She knew me at the time, all that stuff. Yeah. Okay. This is like September 2025. No, no, no, no. This is September of 2019 that I see her at the wedding. Okay. Nothing happens at the wedding. Every time I see them, they don't live in the same city as me. They live in another state, but we see them like once a year. We're very good friends. It gets brought up. in some kind of joke. Oh, remember the time like Ariel DX'd your DX chopped your mom?

But nothing ever happens, right? Because I never see her. She's never there. Four weeks ago, we're in Montreal. We go to the park, Westbound Park, to see them and who's there with them? The mom.

So now I actually have to interact with her. And I'm like, oh, it's definitely coming up now. I'm like, oh, this is awful, this and that. Even my kids know about it now. It's like a whole thing. Doesn't come up. She's so nice. What?

I'm like, do you remember? Remember me? Of course I remember you. I had your brother, too. What a beautiful family. Wow, you've done so well for yourself, all this stuff. Doesn't come up, doesn't come up, doesn't come up. We're playing. We're walking. We're spending the like afternoon together. I go into Dairy Queen to get the kids ice cream. They stay outside. I come outside. Oh, no. No. And they're like, oh, Jacqueline was just telling me about, I'm like, you told her the story? No. Yes. I don't remember this. When did this happen? She didn't even remember it? She didn't remember and Jacqueline did this?

Well, threatened for her life, but they didn't have the foggiest. A, or B, did she just not want to make it awkward? I don't think she wanted to make it awkward. I think she understood that you were a 10th grader, it's okay. I think she remembered. Now, you're a school teacher. Like, how many kids are going through your life? You know what I mean?

A lot, yeah, yeah. I'd like to think I was pretty memorable for that incident alone. I think she didn't want to make it awkward she swore she had no recollection she says that doesn't even sound like look at you yours if therapy helped you but I couldn't believe I mean oh you got sold out you got sold out

my spouse just like we're in the clear at this point this has been multiple locations where it could have been mentioned we're in the clear like bus and then you know so now the problem is now that it's like a thing that we talk about like if I try to reprimand my kids about something at school.

Like, my son got, he got put in, like, in, like, a timeout in recess where he couldn't play basketball because he talked back to one of the teachers who were overseeing them. He's like, bro, you DX chopped your, your English teacher. You can't say. And I'm like, I say, no, I didn't. He's like, yeah, you did. Do as I say, not as I do. Isn't that crazy, by the way?

By the, yeah. So that's why this fine actually, like, sparks something in me. For sure. You and Joel Embed. did the son know about the crotch shop 100% he thought it was funny he's kind of like did the mom you think the mom ever talked to

this is where you get the real answer I'm gonna ask you have to ask him yeah if at the time she ever mentioned because as you said she might just be being nice she sounds like an I mean what an incredible woman it sounds like she's so nice so sweet never tried to like rub it I know Jacqueline on the other hand you know

tried to bury you under it they're not allowed to talk about That's treacherous, in my opinion. Yeah, but, you know, I mean, it's a DX chop. Like, it is just kind of funny. I thought it was funny. That's why it's kind of crazy that Embed got 50 grand fine for this. I swear it would have been one of the boys that was like, are you the woman that got DX crotch chopped by my dad? Like, I thought that was going to be it.

I know. No, they didn't have the balls of that. Any chance? Embed really was just doing the blocking and it was just closer to his groin. It's a very, no, but he's done a bunch of times before. And then Triple H has reposted it. Salking! Yeah. Anyway, that's my story on that.

Speaking of fun crossovers, what about Alex Perra and Diego Lopez hanging out with Zlatan over at San Ciro at an AC Milan match? Pretty cool. Look at these. Look at Plinio up there. I say, no love for Plinyo out there. I mean, Jacket in a lot for Nina drama. Sorry, what is happening here? Yeah. Zlatan looking spiffy, but Plinyo really stealing the show here. Slotan, tall as shit. Is he standing on something? No, no, he's a tall boy. Look at these guys. legit A.C. Milan fans? Oh, look,

no, I think they're just tour. Plino looks like the boss. Macapo Life, I think, is what he Instagrammed. Is that what you wrote? Good man. By the way, great moment. Saturday night's main event.

There was a lot going on. Did you go see a David O'Mama? No, it was over on Peacock, C.M. Punk, fighting for the World Heavyweight Championship. And what a great tribute to his former MMA coach, who, tragically passed away very recently. C.M. Punk walking out. Do we have this? I'm not

sure. Oh, okay. It was on the list. No problem, no problem. Well, anyway, you have 100% seen it. CM Punk walking out with a hoodie, with a zip-up, with Duke on it in honor and paying homage to the late-grade Duke Rufus, which I thought was an incredible gesture on his part. He ended up winning. He ended up winning the title but very cool on CM Punk's part I love that It was really really nice to see So shout out to him

We talked about Brian Battle And his win Did we probably did I was watching the You know I was focused on Perry But did we show because it's like Straight out of a mob movie I feel like Like okay here he's getting roughed up a little bit

By coring I was watching this live right I think they change the camera angle I don't know he did get rocked at one point I thought I was scared he was gonna get knocked out okay now he stands over him like stands over him like the villain in a movie

and he's like should I put you out of your misery yeah I should bang and just absolutely neat by the way their turnbuckles are so classy over there at DBX with the leather it's like I feel like they're Louis Vuitton or something

yeah yeah it's very nice the wide outer ring Oh yeah, it's a good look. Their production is good. Then he gets on the microphone with the legendary Jason Anick, the twin brother of John Anick, and delivers another all-time great post-flight promo. Excuse me, here you go. On that note, I would like to say something. I know I'm in a southern place. A lot of people here grew up in church. And one of the things I've learned growing up in church is God will never give you more than you can bear, all right? Now, that don't mean you're not going to. failed that doesn't mean you're not going to fall flat on your face in front of the entire planet all right but if you have the strength to get back up if you have the courage to keep on moving that burden doesn't get lighter your legs get stronger all right your back gets bigger your shoulders get more broad your resolve gets more grounded the burden doesn't get lighter you get

better. And I say it before you say a better man. He's good a better man. He's a great fan, baby. You think it's ever weird for a guy like battle. It is a great promo. Do you think it's ever weird for a guy like battle to be looking at Jason Anick and be thinking like John, like that's John? It's a different human being, man. Have you never talked to a twin before? The look is, no, it's not really, not real life.

You've never talked to a twin? Maybe, but like... I mean, I'm sure we've had twins on the show. Who? I don't know. Is there not a fighter who's a twin? I mean, John Anick is a twin. You're referencing the one that I'm talking about.

That's like saying, like, didn't go to school with any twins? No. Can I tell you one of my all-time great summers? Several twins in my school. One of my all-time great summers, the summer of 2000. Who's laughing back there? That's frightening. Camp to Connick in the Berkshires,

my best friend and I dated two twins. One of the all-time great summers. Oh, it was incredible. Identical. Identical twins. And now don't ask me any funky questions I was going to ask something.

But it was a great time to be alive. I mean, I was 17. So now you understand what I'm saying about the in the ring thing. No, because once you actually got to know them, they're very different. They look nothing alike, act nothing alike, speak nothing alike.

But on a quick glance, you're like, oh, wow, this is insane. saying but then you start noticing like different you know facial features idiosyncrasies things like that yeah also the hair is so different he looks more like a brother i feel like then like stop it they look exactly right except yes hair yeah it's a good point uh what about yeah look at that look at those it's literally john annick with hair it's wild it's john ennick with hair uh what about jason annick wait before we we still have the uh we have the cm pong yeah i was gonna come back to I was going to

but you might as well show it there it is so beautiful stuff from punk well done and congrats to him uh julele willis had an incredible uppercut knockout

at the uh dbx it was also straight of like it wasn't like DBX it was like DBZ you know what I mean oh wait where's the uppercut wow deep dive there

you see that look at this look at this look at this it was like Popeye Like an uppercut It was cartoonish, yes It was like from the depths of hell Yes, he brought that from deep

Poor guy Unbelievable What an upper cut though And Gable got the big knockout By the way My understanding PFL has not reached out Why?

I don't understand it Like This is the guy This is the exact guy That you should be wanting On your roster Also not for nothing Like you have Francis Inganu on the roster

You need a heavyweight You need other people to build toward I mean he might be a little young for Francis I know I know you're not saying next But like it might take him all But like this is the guy Even if he never ends up fighting Francis Look at this by the way

That was the most impressive part of the whole night Over the top rope And then he hunts it for it He's a freak He's a freak He's a freak This is a Brock Lesner-esque Even if he never fights Francis

You need momentum at heavyweight You need names You need people to start like popping up It can't just be barren wasteland. But, I mean, even if he, he might be the one that ends up being the super prospect, the guy that's the face of your franchise going forward or promotion going forward and all that stuff, I'm surprised. How could you not? How could you not call him? Every promotion should call him. John Jones did an interview at the event. And I think this is

weird. I think this is a little bit weird. I don't know. Call me a hater. But like he's openly begging to be on the White House card. You're John Freak and Joe's. You're the supposed greatest of all time. What? Come on now. There's an easier way to reach out to Dana White. And I don't know if he's just having fun and maybe I'm taking it too literally, but here's the video in question. Can't wait to see you compete the White House.

Can't wait to see it. I know. I really hope it happens. Dana, girl, please. Bro, please. I'm training. I feel great. I'm healthy.

And I'd be so honored to represent our country and do what I do best. Is that not weird? To me, it almost feels like a little bit of a kissing of the ring. I'm okay with it. All right. John he's giving in

I just don't think John's got to do whatever he can do to get on that card and I think I'm okay What's the line for John Jones fighting on this White House card What are we setting it at?

I think it's pretty likely I don't know I still don't know It's just how things shake out Is McGregor on it? If it's not Connor You have to call John He's the next call

I do agree with that I think if McGregor can't make it they're going to call John Hmm Who's the next in line after Connor There's no other name you could really Kayla She's going to be on it right

No I know I think ultimately it comes down to what the president wants Yeah As crazy as that's how If he says get us John They'll get John Yeah That's why I think it's pretty likely

Chris Eubank accused Eddie Hearnan matchroom Of blocking the ambulance As he was trying to leave Hotspur Stadium back in April and now 12 days before their showdown

back at Hotspur Stadium he posts a video question could you go sought full Can we play it one more time? So, I mean, hard to know what the context is? Hard to know how long, you know, he was waiting there for.

Obviously, you can hear someone saying, open the effend door. But let us see. Let us see what transpires here. We talked about Alex Perrin. Barrera at AC Milan, saw this video, a very heartwarming video of his kids back at school after the win over Magamad on Kalayev. I enjoyed this. POV, you go to school with Alex Pereira's son. Look at this guy. He's like, yo, Shama, Shama. Like, imagine just being in this kid's class and now you're just dancing like pops. This is beautiful. I love this. Like his old man in

Plinyo. I must feel like the coolest kid in the world. Like I think my kids feel like their dad is cool. Imagine what those kids feel like. You know what I mean? It definitely brings a new like level to the my dad could beat up your dad situation. Hell yeah. Because like their dad could beat up everybody's dad.

Armand Siru Kian posted another incredible eating video. Do we have softball on this? Do we have softball? It's a river street flowing. That, no, that's the point. It's peaceful. Are you not familiar with ASMR? He does do the ASMR. He does the...

Yes, of course you need Sotful on this. You can't fully enjoy it. It's ASRM. What is that, by the way? Is that fish? Oh man, was that that the spoon against the tooth there? tough it's tough I love that I love that so much

and you know what guys I've come to the conclusion as to why I love it so much there is a historical very popular old commercial that used to air when I was a kid in Canada this is like mid 80s to late 80s

it was for McCain's super fries, I do believe they were called. And, you know, we would, uh, we would quote this all the time. I mean, it was a legendary spot. And now I have come to the conclusion that the reason why I love the Armin video so much and I love listening to them is because it reminds me of this legendary, legendary, legendary commercial spot from back in the day in Canada. Take a look. Super fries from a cane for the strong silent type. So that was legendary. That kid eating the fries, dunking them into the ketchup, the chewing, while the kids

are playing outside and he's reading. It actually gives me chills watching that because I'm taking back to a different time. The kids are playing outside. That's Armin. Like that scene is exactly the Armin scene that we just saw and continue to see. So anyway, it strikes a chord. It strikes a chord. We were debating whether or not the, what's so funny?

I hope the next time you interview Armin, you're just like, have you ever seen the McCain commercial? No, there's no chance. That's why I started this. That's why I started this whole June. I'm just trying to tell you why it strikes a court with me. No, that's great. I'm trying to go through the news and notes. People like this.

Nostalgia. You guys think it's crazy. Ask any Canadian who grew up in the 80s about that commercial. They'll tell you, oh, you mean for the strong silent type? Yeah, of course. And then they did a video with that kid 20 years later, him doing the same thing. It's legendary. And it was Armin.

And it was weird. You won't believe what this guy looks like 20 years later. Where is he now? Like bait. And then it's Armin. He's Armin fucking Sarut kid. Headlining. UFC Qatar.

Guys. Alfie Davis, we were wondering whether or not this tattoo was real. Someone got a tattoo of Alfie and Don Davis, I should say. No word just yet from Dawn. But I saw a clip of Alfie reacting to the tat. There it is. And I guess it's a good friend of his, right? Is that the nicest thing a friend has ever done for another friend?

Gotta be. Yeah, yeah. I think they've been mates for a while. And by the way, it's on his calf. Yeah. Yeah, couldn't show him in person. Also a good friend of Don Davis? Yeah, I was going to say,

is it the nicest thing anybody's ever done for Don Davis? Yeah, you asked if we doubted it was real. I always thought it was real. I won't know it's real, though, until Don Davis. Don Davis did not call in on Thursday. I won't know it's real until Don Davis calls in on Thursday and talks about it. I think he's mad at us. No, not, not, not, not, not.

No? Not me, me and Don. Thick as Steve's. Did you get a tattoo of them? Maybe that's next. the antidellia situation I just wanted to read his take on it all he posted something on social media

which we took off of the TNT sports account I'm not sure if I hit him oh man this is going to be read this for me can someone read this for me it's too far I'm not sure if I hit him in the eye I think it's near the eye and of course I want a video where you can see that stab two the referee did not show time out

but stopped the fight and therefore declared me the winner that decision cannot be change later. Three, the opponent sat and relaxed while watching the footage. Four, replay used after the interruption, which rules do not allow. Five, after all, the fight continued irregularly. I asked for nothing more just honesty. I don't run from defeat. I respect every opponent and every outcome, but not when rules are broken and I am robbed. Not in this way. The sport hasn't seen this yet. Okay. So you know how earlier we talked about this situation? And thank you for that, about, you know, how the fight was called off and shouldn't have been restarted and whatnot. So I received a text message from someone who's very close to the situation. And they said in Nevada, Nevada rules take precedence over unified rules, which quite frankly I think is crazy in its own right, the fact that there aren't just unified rules that every state adheres to. But nevertheless, our rules, meaning in Nevada, do not say that a fight may not be restarted. okay

and so I've been interacting with this person throughout the show and what I what I asked them was

what if the fight has been waived off and the responses that I'm getting is the fight was not waved off

so this goes back to what you guys were saying from what they were saying on the broadcast right? Yeah

that's not true it was waved off. It was 100% waived off. He stepped in. He pushed Delia away. Like, it is clear as day to me, waved off. Now, is he physically waving it like this

five inches over his head? Or is he calling a stop? Like, they don't always stop fights the same way. Sometimes they, they freaking tackle guys to get them off the other ones. You know what I mean? And so, I'm just trying to make sense of all this. But how else would you stop the fight for the eye poke part?

Like, he has to stop the fight for the eye. stopped that fight because he thought it was a TKO win for Antidellia. He was then informed that there was an iPok. They then looked at it and it went over the five minutes. I think the time that someone said, I don't know if he said, like, 506 or something to that effect. They then looked at it. They determined, oh yeah, it was an I poke. And then they determined that he was fit to continue and then you saw what happened.

My take is, based on the unified rules of MMA, you can't restart a fight after. after you've gone to replay. Now, what they're telling me in Nevada is, and it's definitely worth noting, that you can restart it. Like, meaning if, if Tom Aspinall versus Cyrilgan happened in Nevada, they could go to replay mid-fight.

That wasn't a fight-ending sequence. They could go to the replay and determine what it was, right? And then if he was able to continue like Waldo was, they can resume the fight. The unified rules say that you can't do that if you go to the replay machine. Nevada supersedes that. What I asked multiple times was, what if the fight was waived off? Right? And what they're telling me is

the only guideline says that review must be completed before the decision is announced. There's a rule that says a fight may not be restarted if it's paused for more than five minutes. And I believe PT said it was. There's also a rule that says a fighter may have up to five minutes to recover from a foul. And so then I ask, if the fight is waved off, if it is called to a stop, like there's a clear stoppage, a TKO win for one guy, you can restart that and I can't get an answer. And I've been searching in between you guys cutting. I've been trying to search for the answer to that, and it's not clear. Now, again, it's very clear in the unified rules. I don't know why it's not clear in Nevada. And I also think it's

crazy that Nevada has different rules than the unified rules. So anyway, I wanted to get that out there to clarify and make note of the fact that in Nevada you can restart, but what's unclear to me right now is can you restart if a fight is waved off, not a fight is paused. And I believe that Mark Smith called a stop to that bout. And then I guess we could go back and play the tape of Merglietta not stopping Kyle Nelson versus Matt Travola. Like, this is getting crazy. If we're saying that that is not a stoppage, then everything I've watched over the past 20 years is completely false. Like, I don't even know what to make of it all. Come on. Do you guys think that that was inconclusive or not a stop?

I haven't seen it again, but I don't know how else you would stop it for the eye poke. Like, you have to stop the action that's in some way. Unless he goes like this, I could see them justifying it as not a stoppage. I don't know if he did that. I have not rewatched it. He didn't do the hands of the head thing But he does jump in dramatically And shove Delia away And then not be like Hold on, hold on man

He kind of just lets him go off and celebrate Everything about that to me Screamed stoppage That's the way I'm trying to read some of this year He also like isn't allowed to bring the He isn't allowed to sit down and have the team In the corner in there and everything

That's indicative of the stoppage Yeah that's a great point Because if it was a stoppage for only the eye poke, you can't be on a stool with a corner. Right. Like you... Oh, yeah. The other thing says that you can't interact with anyone. Yeah.

I did read that. Yeah. So that kind of... That's even the best point by GC there. Like, if you're on a stool, your corner's there, everybody's there. Like, that is not just for an eye poke. So the whole thing is called into question. Whether Mark Smith was trying to stop the fight or pause the fight for an eye poke,

the sequence afterward was as a... if the fight was stopped. Yeah. All right. Well, let's see. Maybe they ran it back. Maybe they don't. Maybe Waldo fights Tom Aspinall for the belt. Anyway, one last thing, and then we'll get to Super Chats, and I've been sitting on this one for a long time. I saw our old friend Ronda Rousey was on the Burt Kreischer podcast. And I'm not quite sure why she's popping up so much as the blade. Is she promoting something?

Is there a reason why she's doing so much media, or is it just she feels like doing media? Does anyone know? I don't think there's anything in particular. Maybe she's... I know she had a comic book recently, some sort of like... I don't know if it's because of that. But anyway, I saw...

I think she was on the... Was she on Charlemagne or the Breakfast Club? Or is that the same thing? Yeah, yeah. Okay. This particular section had a lot of people talking and I wanted to weigh in on it as well.

So take a listen and then we'll respond. MMA fans and media are the most... What have you done? done for us lately crowd of any sport. Like, you look at WWE, and they have such a reference for their legends. Could we pause for a second? Is that a black eye? Yeah, definitely looks like it.

Okay, interesting. I mean, like I've said, there's something there. There's definitely something there. Things are happening, and I would not be shocked if we see her fight again. 1,000%. And also, it could fall through, but things are happening. Okay, so can we start from the beginning? All of a sudden, I was like, wait a second, is that a black guy?

Let's see, let's see. MMA fans and media are the most, what have you done for us lately crowd of any sport. Like, you look at WWE and they have such a reverence for their legends. And at MMA, it's like the second that you're not on top, you're not shit and you never wear shit. Chuck Liddell, when he's on top, oh, my God, he's the best, he's the best, he's the second that he loses, oh, Chuck Liddle ain't shit,

he never was shit. Rampage Jackson, oh, my God, he's the next. he's the next Mike Tyson he's so great second he loses oh rampaging shit he never was shit yeah

GSP oh he loses he's not shit he never was shit and I think the only reason that why MMA fans have their lips so firmly planted at the base of Khabib's cock

is because he retired before he reached his limit and if he ever if he kept fighting until he reached his limit everybody would be like oh Khabi being shit he never was shit and they're like that

with everybody like name some name one person Brock Brawagging shit, you never wish it. Name one past champion that has that the kind of respect that the current champions do. It's really sad because I think it encourages people to try and get out while they're peaking and taking all of that equity with them instead of passing it on to whoever's next to take up the mantle. I wanted to retire undefeated because I was so afraid of like, oh, everything

that I accomplished is going to be nothing if I ever lose. So I have to retire and defeat it. it's such a misinformed, ill-advised take, in my opinion, and it's one of many, but this one really annoyed me for multiple reasons. The main one being, she's not talking about UFC fans or MMA fans. She's talking about the UFC. She's talking about the UFC. And so whatever feeling she has towards the company, towards the executives, she's misdirecting those feelings towards the fans. The fans did nothing to Ronda Rousey. And when she talks about the you ain't shit, you never were shit, or when she talks about comparing the treatment of WWE legends, UFC legends, she's talking about the way the UFC treats its legends compared to how

WWE treats its legends. WWE has legends deals. WWE has their Hall of Fame and they bring everyone out and they bring them to events and stuff like that. When you see these people that she was talking about at events, how often do you see the legends of yesterday year at events? Eh, you may see them with, like, come on, let's be honest. Where's the UFC legends deal and all that stuff? Ask the top dogs, the legends, many of those names that she talked about, how they feel about the UFC, whether they feel welcome, whether they feel loved, whether they feel like they've been treated well post-fighting. She's talking about the organization, but she can't say it for whatever reason, so she'll blame it on the fans. The fans did nothing to you, Ronda Rousey,

other than idolize you, other than adore you, other than treat you like a mega superstar that you deserve to be treated like, I was at every single one of her fights, every single one in the UFC. I was in Brazil. She was, I remember saying this is like the Beatles. In Brazil, she's fighting one of their own, Bechko Hea. They treated her like a superstar. like a god like John Lennon was there they couldn't have treated her any better I was in Melbourne, Florida, excuse me not Florida, Australia, I was

there. Melbourne, Florida, former spring training home of the monkey trail, I suppose that's why I say that. I was there too. I was there, I was there, I saw it. She was the star, she was the face of the UFC. As Connor is coming up, she's still the face. This is 2015

and she lost. And I remember the narrative after the fight. It wasn't she ain't shit, she never was shit. The narrative was, you know what, we should have seen this coming. After all, Holly Holme home was a Hall of Fame boxer and a pretty damn good kickboxer as well. We probably should have given her a lot more respect. But Rhonda was on this trajectory.

She was flying high and, you know, she's being compared to Floyd Mayweather and on Ring magazine covers and all this stuff. And people are like, yeah, like she's got tremendous hands. she should be able to beat anyone in boxing. And here's this former boxing champion, legend, Hall of Famer, who comes in and annihilates her. And then the next time we see her, she's getting off a plane covering her face because she felt embarrassed because she was such a gamer,

such a competitive person, that it crushed her. And that's okay. But guess what? UFC fans, whether she wants to believe it or not, and I didn't live it, but I can say this with the utmost certainty. They wanted to love her. They wanted to coddle her and appreciate her. She did not allow that.

When she returned, she didn't do a single interview. She didn't attend media day. When we were sitting there waiting for the morning weigh-ins, the official way-ins, she snuck in, snuck out, and looked at all of us would discuss. She blamed all of us for it, the media, the fans, just because she lost, the crime of losing. She turned it into such a big thing that she was a shell of herself. she wasn't even present at that fight

against Amanda Nunes and then she scurried off and went to WWE and she alienated those fans too UFC fans are a you know

you ain't shit never were shit bunch are you kidding me everyone always talks about how the fact that like boxing fans and boxing or boxers

and the boxing community wishes that you know the fans and boxing treated the stars of today like MMA fans do. Some of the greatest MMA fighters of all time

have, and most beloved and popular fighters of all time, have double-digit losses on their resumes. BJ Penn. When he was, you know, active and stuff towards the end of his career,

had a lot of losses. Nate Diaz, Randy Couture, Chuck Ladell, the Max Holloways of the world. These guys aren't undefeated, but beloved

and appreciated. Rampage. He was always loved. What are you talking about? Yeah, do people talk shit about you when you lose? Yeah, that's just the times. Everyone gets it. Connor lost to Nate Diaz.

People liked him more after the loss. The way he stood there and met with the media and took his lumps and came back stronger. She could not be more wrong about this. And she continues to go on this media tour talking shit about the MMA fans and the MMA community, when in reality her issue is with the way the UFC treats its legends, the way the UFC treats their own, comparing that to the WB, which is a very valid point, by the way, but you're comparing two different things, the wrong things, it's organization to organization, not fan base to fan base.

You couldn't be more wrong. MMA fans have the shortest term memory. That's what everyone loves about them. Dustin. Dustin comes back tomorrow. everyone goes Gaga If Nate comes back tomorrow Everyone goes Gaga

What do you talk Look at Charles Oliva For God's sakes Issa Machachev Got knocked out in the UFC Ain't shit, wasn't shit And the Habib thing Is just kind of like a crass thing

To say Habib was beloved He went on on top His last few fights were legendary there was a tragedy that happened in his family he honored his father and his mother that's why he's beloved yeah sure

there's like a Habib fan say like he's the greatest of all time because he's undefeated all that but like if you think that the only reason why this guy's beloved is just because he retired and defeated it's like the fourth thing that people mention champion the Porier submission the Conner fight you know the whole thing with Iaquinta

like, come on. And sure, it got cut short. And I don't have him as my greatest of all time just because he didn't do enough at the top. He didn't defend the belt enough, all this stuff and more. It's such a bad, like, MMA fans still love John Jones

despite all the shit. Despite all the shit. It couldn't be a more misinformed and misguided take. And like she sits there and just like talking to a guy who, you know, it's just like, uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh. and you know trashes Joe Rogan all this stuff

why are you so mad that's what I would love to know I would love to ask Rhonda why are you so mad why are you so mad at the world you have seemingly a lot of great things going for you what are you so mad about and why are you holding on to this anger it's not healthy after all these years couldn't believe that when I heard that she's literally talking about the organization

she's talking about the UFC she's not talking about the UFC fans what she is, but she is wrong with where she is directing her hatred and the accusation is not apt. MMA fans are the most loving. They want to build you back up.

I know you're going to say like, oh, they shat on Sage and they shat on page and this and that. No, no, no. I'm talking about the legends of the game. The actual legends are adored, beloved, revered. Yeah, do they talk shit when you lose a bad fight? And then you come back and you win and they adore you. And don't confuse the fucking Twitter trolls for the real fans. Don't get caught up in that nonsense.

And she's still caught up in it 10 years later. It's unbelievable. I can assure you this. As she's out there, you know, saying how much the WWE fans are better, riddle me this, Miss Ronda Rousey. You show up to a WWE event tonight. What's the reception going to be like? Show up to a UFC event this weekend.

Show up to MSG. What's the reception going to be like? Don't even bother. I'll tell you what the reception will be like. Show up to the UFC event, you will get a standing ovation. You will be hounded and beloved. Show up to the W.E event? I think you're booed.

I think you're straight-up booed. So what does that tell you? Come on now. You couldn't be more wrong. Could not be more wrong, and it's very annoying that we have to continue to listen to this. And I just would love to know, find love in your heart, find peace in your heart, move on. No one cares about the Holly home fight. No one cares about the Amanda Nunes fight.

Come back, do your thing. If you're going to fight Gina, great. If you're going to fight someone else, great. Because I hear some spicy names are being discussed. Come back, do your thing, enjoy life, be happy, and stop blaming everyone for those losses. people lose it happens you lost in the olympics you didn't win a gold whose fault was that no one you lost stop blaming everyone else no one mistreated you no one treated you any different than any other legend out there and no one would ever accuse mma fans for mistreating legends hoist gracie walks into a room he is

adored Connor after all the shit that he's done as well still adored yeah i know there's people online that don't like it but trust me he walks into a room people go gaga it's just just the way it is. They're different. So, anyway, I was holding on to that one. Do we have any super chats, Frank? I think we have one or two here.

Here's a little queso to go with all that salts a GC. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha halle. Hashtag salsa nation. Hashtack Acosta militia. What are we talking about? What is this? What is this? Is this some college football stuff? What do you mean? It's Walo Cortez Acosta. Oh, right, right. Right. That's his nickname.

Hashtag Acosta Militia is insane. Enjoy your dub. Enjoy your dub. I mean, I mean, your opinion to me, it doesn't matter. If that's who it's year and for,

enjoy. Enjoy. Congratulations. Enjoy this. Yeah. Yeah. How does he keep getting away with this? It is crazy.

What else, Frankie? Hello? Wanted to get your guys' thoughts on boxing commentators giving their scoring between rounds and do you think it affects the aftermath of the fight referring to Parker versus Blots? I don't mind it. I don't mind.

By the way, no, wait, do I think it affects the aftermath? I think from the perspective of boxing. I wish the USC would do that. Boxing is a lot more up front about who the commentators think is winning and what the score cards are and all this stuff whereas with MMA people tend to be a little like John Attic nods at what they think or somebody or D.C. might say it

but they're not as like here's a graphic with what our ringside scoring you know person is is thinking that the score is and things like that. John Nick will he'll lean to it when it's very obvious like at the end of the fight he gives like that I think he just got it but I have noticed like DC will DC will mention like that they think someone's up

two oh or it's one one going into the third or however they may be scoring it but I feel like boxing does it because there's so many rounds so it's kind of a way to guide the fans of like where the fight is at potentially I do think in both sports it affects the reactions though

I do think it has an effect in terms of people starting to feel like oh that guy's clearly winning even if that's actually not the scenario lock the judge is in a silent room no commentary TV great views great angles they can't be around any of the other judges

and that's how you turn in your scorecard. One of my favorite characters in all of combat sports television history was the great Harold Letterman on HBO boxing. Every three rounds, Lampley would throw to him. Let's send it over to our unofficial, what do you say, ring judge,

Harold Letterman. Harold, how do you have it scored? Okay, Jim, 29, 28, Arturo Thunder Gotti. You know something, Jim? Something tells me that Arturagati's going to pour it on in the next few rounds. And it would just be like the best. We would imitate him. It was great.

UFC did that with Eddie Bravo for a long time. I remember that. You may recall. One of the great highlights of my life was in 2007. I got to be in the truck for a Kenny Florian Dean Thomas car. And I got to sit next to Eddie Bravo and see the way in which he interacted with the broadcasters. And he would actually talk to them on the head site and sort of guide them through the jiu-jitsu. Not on air, but just be like, okay, what he's doing is he's working.

And then they would relay that. which I thought was really interesting. But they drop that. And now Dean sometimes pops up, but he doesn't really pop up as a scorer. Yeah, he's just doing analysts. I kind of like it. The difference is the fights are shorter.

So maybe you just do it for title fights. You know, I don't know, maybe after the second and fourth. But is it setting? I almost would rather not. I'd almost rather them stay out of it. Because I do think, like, we hear it already. Like, you got to watch the fights on mute

because the commentary team is doing this, that, the other. I do think it influences how you're kind of viewing these things, so I don't know. You know, like a Ratner ringside would be interesting. But anyway, anyway, what else, Frankie? What else? 86 years for the Red Sox, Ariel, relax. I mean, what does that even mean? Coming from a Celtics fan or a Boston fan who's literally seen every team in that town win in the last 20 years. Here's the thing. I had a friend of mine.

Very good friend of mine. I love him. He's probably going to be listening to this right now and be annoyed that I brought this up. Or maybe not. He was like, oh, you know, I get him. You know, my Seahawks are down bad right now. I'm like, I'm sorry. Your team is won in the 21st century. I do not feel sorry for you. Don't even compare. You can't. You can't compare. If your team is one of the 21st century, I do not feel sorry for any down bad. If you want in 2012, 2013, 2014, you have no room to complain about anything. If you want in 2001, if you wanted 2000, it's 21st century. 99, I still don't really feel that bad. If you won in your lifetime won, don't say anything. That's my take.

So, yeah, 86 years, but have you seen them win? Multiple times. 2000's a little crazy. What do you mean? 25 years ago at this point. Yeah, I know, but like, if you're, if you're 55, how old were you? You were 30 when they won. It's the problem. Yeah, now you're 55. Okay, man, I'm 43 and I haven't seen one. Can I see one? Stop. I think you relish in a little bit. There's a little bit of where you're just like... You really think that? Yeah. That's...

I could not think that less. That's the fucking... Like, of all the stupid shit I've heard on this show, especially regarding my fandom, number one is Pacer's Nix and that stupidity... No, stop. That's the stupidest fucking shit I've ever heard. It's actually, like, offensive that you think that. I can tell you're offended.

Yeah, it's fucking crazy because it actually depresses me to the point of, like, extreme depression where I have to go outside and I'm in a horrible moon, I don't want to talk to anyone. If you think for a second that this is performative and that I, I feel. fake any of this, like straight up GFY. No joke. Like, it pains me. Okay. This pains me. Okay. No, no, no. You can't throw out that accusation and do the okay. Like, you have to say like, okay, my bad, I misread it. What was you? What was you want me to say? I misread that and I apologize. No. Okay. All right. Uh, then don't. Okay, I misread it. I apologize.

All right. Thank you. I'm sorry for your loss on Friday. Saturday. What else, Frank? Expo's doc on Netflix is great Samson is a snake I don't know about that If you walked away from that Thinking that Samson was like the only bad guy in all this Then

I don't think that's fair to him Samson Loria are they somewhat at fault Obviously There are players in all this But there were a lot of other people It is a very good doc It's very regional though

There's a lot of French There's a lot of French So if you're like thrown off by subtitles. I don't think you should be, but it's a good story. I think actually Pizzi watched it, and he said he found it very interesting. So I know he doesn't know much about baseball or really care about baseball, but he said he was into it. It's really a story about like a local community kind of screwing it all up, to be honest. And there's a lot of screwing up that happened. What else, Frank? What else? As an elated Dodger dude, this Monday morning, mark my words, the Blue Jays will

take it all next year. This team is a force. I think L.A. got lucky. I mean, it's the second year in a row where I think they batted like 200, like two or three, two or four and still won. Obviously, this series was a lot more competitive than the Yankee series last year. And I know that that's the nice thing to say, but like you really don't know. Like when the Jays won in 93, they didn't make the playoffs for 22 straight years. Like, not even the World Series, the playoffs. Expos were the best team in baseball 94, never made the playoffs ever again and then moved. So, you know, you're always one injury away.

Oh, by the way, they happen to play in maybe the toughest division in baseball, the ALEs. And like Yankees are always there, Red Sox are always there, Rays are always there. Orioles are still a force and probably just had a really bad season. So you make it all the way to game seven at home. You make it all the way to game six up three, two, and you just took. two of three in L.A and almost won the 18 inning game if not for maybe taking

a fourth ball from Clayton Kershaw there Nathan Luke's like everything changes so The Blue Jays are plus 2,000 yeah and what they were 60 to 1 this year like the Braves have better odds than them

yeah I'm not surprised the Braves were god awful they really had no business kind of making it that far to be honest I mean they were the last place team last year. So just how they were the last place team and then went to first, it could be the complete opposite. The Brewers plus 2000 also. That is surprising. Who's number one? The die. Of course. Freaking guys. My friends trying to tell me like, oh yeah, we have more homegrown players than you guys. Like, are you kidding me? Yeah, okay, maybe like, you know,

your freaking catcher and backup catcher are homegrown, but your actual difference makers, none of them are homegrown. Freeman, Betts, Otani. Oh, this was a Dodgers fan. Yeah, yeah, he was trying to tell him like... I was saying, like, yeah, it must be nice to have like a billion dollar payroll. And then he's like, we actually have more homegrown guys than you guys. You imported the two best players, two of the best players in baseball from Japan. Like, it's not like they're like...

Yeah, and well, and one of them you took from your crosstown rival. Yeah, from the Angels, yeah. Freeman going down as a Dodgers third. Yeah, that's crazy. He was our hometown guy. This would be like, like, say the Blue Jays won Vladie. goes to the Dodgers and then people are like, yeah, Vladimir Mayor Guerrero, the Dodger. Well, it hurt me when Senior went in as an angel because I thought he had a much better

career as an expo, but he won an MVP and made the playoffs with them and all this stuff. That was a controversial one. I think what gets Freeman in as a Dodger as opposed to a brave now is now he's won multiple with the Dodgers. So that probably, yeah, but it's weird because he was massive moments. Yeah, no, 100%. So synonymous with that organization. what else frankie what else people forget man if it wasn't for random drug testing we would have never

gotten john jones hiding from usada under the octagon at jackson link yeah i mean i don't even allegedly also but like what is this in reference to yeah who forgets and why what like what are we even talking what is that even about what we didn't even talk about drug testing today who knows people forget that though yeah i guess got to remember uh what else frankie uh this guy's a d1 glazer bro Oh, maims. Oh, you know what? I appreciate him putting in the name. Glazer, about who?

Who's he glazing? You got to be more, like, we can't read them in real time. Yeah, you have to know the show, right? We're going to read this hours later. Yeah. You got to help. What else, Frankie? What else? Man, that Zach Parker robbery in the Blotsey fight is one of the worst robberies I've seen in my five short years of watching combat sports.

How does this keep happening? Also, what are your thoughts on the tragically hip? What a random transition there. That is weird. Boatsi making his Queensberry debut. I'll be a thousand percent honest about this. Between Game 7 and then UFC and then the football yesterday and all that. I saw people, but I don't want to weigh in on it and pretend like I was watching the whole thing because I did not watch it.

But yeah, it seemed like people were upset about it. tragically hip classic Canadian band I feel like Frank you'd be a fan of theirs my wife huge tragically hip fan me not as much but I highly respect what they've done for music in general

yeah no legendary legendary Canadian band and I I enjoy all the Canadian bands like Skinny Puppy I'm not familiar with them Neil Young

Neil Young Legend and I hope Neil Young young will remember I know that has not I do with him I mean it's not a song I get the point

Anyway what else Frank Shout out to the whole crew Something's in the air again Eat your garlic Tumric Oh yeah Ginger lemons oranges greens

Not after dinner though P S add me on Uno Frank What is that Uno is like a Like a card game Oh wait They have an app for it now

It's been around For a while now Like officially licensed Yeah Probably from like iPhone 3G Oh wow Yeah And it's like a social

yeah now no one has sent me any requests yeah wait a second how they even know you were on it though the game that we play with our kids like with the yeah but on the phone that's fun yeah I'm surprised it's not a bigger deal

anyway how does this guy know that you're on it so I think that's the bit they just like oh yeah no let me break it down so there are some people who watch the show right yeah yeah yeah and some of those people want me to add them on these like arbitrary I know okay wait but are you actually on it

I'm sure Shot in the dark and get it right. There's a chance. Dude, I haven't logged in since. By the way, I was going to say this earlier, how many when you were telling your whole, like, flu story. Yeah. I also got pretty sick.

This weekend? Around, no, around the time of my flu shot, but what it turned out to be, which felt like flu? COVID. Walking pneumonia. Jesus. What?

This year? Yeah, yeah. And you just didn't tell anyone? Listen, you know, I don't... Bro, what are you walking around with pneumonia? Eh, you know, it's... Lightwork You think you're doing us a service

by like toughing through it And you're like, I don't have to tell anyone Like it's all good I'm more concerned about getting walking pneumonia myself Good thing you never got it By the way, how did you find out? The children may have had it as well And given it to me

And how did you come to work? On the train Didn't mention it He was eating de quills The problem with my thing is that it was self-inflicted It was 100% self-inflicted Which annoyed me He got us all sick.

Nobody else got sick. What did you get to the bottom of the legs? Who, me? Yeah. Oh, he thinks he got the flu, but I don't think so. From the shot, from the shot. No, not from the shot. The shot has flu in it, so it makes sense that he would actually get flu from the shot.

My wife actually told me not to get it. Damn, I haven't gotten mine yet, but my mom texts is going to go get it. Does she tell you why not to get it? She's like, eh, you're going to get sick. First it's the microwave, then it's the flu. She's got some weird takes. I mean, she throws me with us. Put it in the compost, sweetheart.

I'm just trying to get back to you for her... I don't endorse any of this. Well, what else, Frank? What else? Why hasn't DJ been seen since he left the UFC? Enough said. This was when you were reading or talking about Rhonda. I mean, oh, yeah, sure. But that's, I think he's trying to prove my point, right, the way they treat their legends?

Yes. DJ's not even in the freaking Hall of Fame. Oh, ask Anderson how they treat their legends. Like, Anderson is persona non grata. for the longest time so it was GSP slowly but surely he's worked his way

back in how do they feel about Randy Couture Chuck Cadell and Matt Hughes had jobs there no more um

you think they could afford those jobs I mean how many how often do you see like legends legends hanging around and then if you talk to them you kind of understand why

what else Frankie and then lastly Joe Rogan Joe Rogan was her biggest booster. He literally cried in the ring for her. Rhonda is a massive narcissist and can never recognize her own flaws. This is a longer story for a much different day. But, I mean, some people know, like, the stuff that she tried to pull on me was shitty in Australia.

So, yeah, I'm fine with it. I mean, I'm not going to hold a grudge for 10 years. That's absurd. But it seems like she's the type two. What did Joe Rogan ever do to her anyway? I think that's their point, right? Like, Joe Rogan was a huge fan. Like, he was one of the biggest, you know, people carrying the flag for him.

I actually can't imagine any UFC superstar, like, having beef with Joe Rogan in that. I feel like his general stance is to just kind of prop them all up. You know what I mean? It's a fantastic point. He is the Mr. positivity when it comes to all this. He's in awe of, you know what? She has a point to the extent that, like, look, he's not a fighter. He hasn't stepped in there and fought.

but hit that's one that's not his role and two nobody is more respectful of that idea than joe rogan joe rogan's entire demeanor is these men and women are superheroes are the greatest thing we have going i am in awe of them i i revere them and props them up that way so yeah it is it is a bit of a random shot at joe like he he is the biggest uh cheering cheering section for all these men and women. 100%. And also, let's just be honest, he probably does because there's a couple of international shows like 11, 12 shows max at this point out of the 43. The shows that he does do, a pretty accomplished athlete named Daniel Cormier is sitting right by his side. And I don't think

the MMA fan that she is talking about looks at Joe Rogan. as like the voice of the UFC in terms of analysts, right? I think that they appreciate him, like him, understand that he's an OG, that he's a genuine fan, that he'll have the fighters on their podcast and it means something and it's a platform, X, Y, and Z. Some like his politics, some don't, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But I think when they think of like the top tier analysts,

they'll talk about D.C., they'll talk about, you know, Felder, Cruz, Bisping, and then the dude's on the desk, Kiyasa is doing a great job, the Anthony Smiths of the world, the Alan Joe Bands of the world, the Laura Sanko's of the world, et cetera, et cetera. I don't think that he, like, he's just kind of their grandfathered in, figurehead. I don't think he hurts the broadcast. I think he shows up 11 times a year, 12 times max, makes it feel a little bit bigger. He's a staple. He's been there for literally 25 plus years, more than 25 at this point, maybe even 28 off the top of my head. Like, it's just, again, misguided.

Weird, in my opinion. All right, friends, tomorrow on the program, OTN is going to be on Wednesday this week. Just that's the way the cookie crumbled. Norma Dumont is going to be on the program to talk about her win and whether or not she is next after the eventual Kayla Harrison versus Amanda Nunes fight happens. Mark Montoya, Factory X, is going to be on the show, and I appreciate him coming on very much to talk about this Isaac Delgarian story. Al Jermaine Sterling is going to join us to talk about all the things going on in his world.

He recently got married. I also want to talk to him about the Tom Aspinall situation and very excited to say that the brand new face of the PFL, I believe his title is CEO, the one and only John Martin is going to join us to talk about the new direction of the company, how he got this job, all that and more. He's going to join us in studio. So it's a jam-pack day tomorrow, November 4th Election Day. did you guys vote haven't yet I did but I will early voting

I think it's actually done now the early voting was it yesterday I don't know but anyway we'll be with you maybe we'll do like a big board

and say like it's been called in should we just we do the predictions as well yeah let's do it what else is up for grabs

the governors governors and mayors yeah I know I know about the mayor race yeah that's the big one uh Senate or I may be wrong about that.

Frank usually knows. Wait, didn't you say you voted? I'm exposing my... Who's on the ballot? I didn't say I voted. No, Connor. Oh, yeah. I voted Mayor O'Rle and then phoned everything else in.

What does that mean? Do you have to actually vote or can you leave it empty? You don't have to vote. You can leave it empty. So you just went mayor and that's it? Yeah. And what was that? I couldn't name another candidate.

What? From the mayor? No. From other things. But New York Governor, who's, Who's running for a New York governor? I don't know. It's crazy how we hear more about New York mayor,

not governor of the whole freaking state. Isn't that right? It's come to the point where my kids can actually recite verbatim the ads because they all play before the YouTube videos now. So they're like, oh, we know this one. The U.S. Premium, I'm YouTube Premium, eh?

No. No, no, I have it, but I want them to sit through the ads. Seriously, absolutely. You're joking. One thousand percent. Those ads are fucked. What? To deter them from watching?

Oh, that's smart. A, and B, we as children had to sit through ads. At the very least, everything for them is on demand. At the very least, they could sit through ads. By the way, they don't even know about YouTube premium being an option. They don't ever go on. I think that's crazy than making them sit through it. You want them to suffer through ads?

Kids, get at me. I'll get you to premium. There's a few lessons that need to be learned. Wow. I mean, just look at iPad. Those ads are not healthy. They weren't healthy when we were growing up. They're not healthy now.

What do you mean healthy? It's not about the ad It's about you can't always get what you want The McCain ad makes all the sense of the world Let me just say something It is about the ad though Because like there's some wild stuff that's in these ads Sometimes that they're seeing and being exposed to

That you'd almost rather they get to whatever video They wanted to get to My kids are getting exposed to some things in those ads That are not going on the same boat as me I don't even have YouTube premium myself I do not feel safe in this control room anymore I don't watch YouTube I've talked about this a million times.

I don't go to YouTube to watch stuff. Me and Frank read a party on Friday. To all of our YouTube watchers right now, we appreciate you. You guys went to a Halloween party? It was like a, we went to a concert together, and it was like a pregame, and the person was playing music off of YouTube, and it was not YouTube premium. Oh, it went to add after ad after ad. I don't have a Spotify premium.

Wait, they were playing it like on the speaker? On the TV. Jeez, that's bad. Look, man. People do what they can. I'm more okay with playing the music off of the TV. even as an audio guy, then I am having the ads from YouTube premium. That makes no sense. All right, so your vote is for...

James Toon. That was good. Nailed it. The fact that it's so dark behind me is utterly depressing. Has been dark for an hour and a half. You were talking with Ben and the sun was setting. Utterly depressing, but... Great interviews, though. Yeah, no, Ben was great. Everyone was great today. Appreciate everyone very, very much. And we'll be right back here tomorrow to do the whole damn thing all over. again. I'm actually like

I don't know if I'm more sad about the Jay's losing the way in which they did or the fact that I just can't watch it because it has become such a part of my routine. Like come home, watch, and then on and on and on it goes. It was a great world series. It was unbelievable. Nothing to be ashamed of.

Fantastic series. Jays were fantastic. No, they were great. They were great. But you know, you just kind of get into the routine. Like you're sad. You're sad that you don't have the group chat anymore. You're sad that you can't talk about it with your friends. Also because it was so epic, right?

It's like, if this was just ho-hum, it'd be like, all right, I'm glad it's over. Like, it was amazing. It was amazing. I saw this incredible quote from the late great Bartlett Giamatti, former commissioner. And he said, it breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer. Filling the afternoons and evenings.

And then as soon as the chill rain comes, It stops and leaves you to face the fall alone. You can count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive. And just then, when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops. A Sunday of rain and broken branches and leaf clog drains, slick streets, it stopped and summer was gone. Talking about the sadness that comes at the end of the season.

And so we feel that on this Monday But hope it does spring eternal We'll get there soon Pitchers and Catchers report in 100 days, baby Thank you so much to everyone Who joined us today Appreciate you all very much Mike Perry, Mams Taylor

Steve Garcia, Ben Fox Thanks to you, thanks to them, peace I'm out here